Migrating a game from F2F to playdiplomacy

[johnnymcnugget]

Just want to double check before we do this so no accounts get banned.

We're having a F2F game this weekend which will likely take us to 1905-1908. All our orders will be kept on paper. At the end of that game, we want to migrate to a Friends Only (password) game on playdiplomacy, so that we can continue where we left off on the site. Everyone already has usernames, but to speed things up, we were going to let the GM log in as each of us to complete orders from our past turns, then we would pick up using our own accounts.

Will that be a problem, can we request permission on the specific game ID before we do this? Don't want anyone's account getting into trouble - just trying to keep the game going.

[Mortiferus Rosa]

Shouldnt be a problem, but I would PM a bunch of the mods to let them know what is going on.

[sinnybee]

Just want to double check before we do this so no accounts get banned.

We're having a F2F game this weekend which will likely take us to 1905-1908. All our orders will be kept on paper. At the end of that game, we want to migrate to a Friends Only (password) game on playdiplomacy, so that we can continue where we left off on the site. Everyone already has usernames, but to speed things up, we were going to let the GM log in as each of us to complete orders from our past turns, then we would pick up using our own accounts.

Will that be a problem, can we request permission on the specific game ID before we do this? Don't want anyone's account getting into trouble - just trying to keep the game going.

Red flags will be raised when the one IP address is logging into multiple accounts, but I'll PM rick.leeds for you right now; he's the most important person to be aware of this situation (and he can let the other cheater hunters know what's going on if necessary).
Having someone log in to everyone (make sure to finalize everyone) is a great idea. It also would probably be a good idea to have everyone change their password to the same password while you do this (for convenience and for security reasons), then to have everyone change their password back to what it was (or something else) after you're caught up to the current turn.
Naturally, make sure everyone agrees on the deadline schedule and other settings of the game before it's created.

[super_dipsy]

Just a suggestion to save time - had you thought of having a laptop with the game on when you play the F2F portion? If you enter your orders on the laptop each turn, then the computer game will follow your board game and when you are done it will already be up to date with no need for the GM to log in and do everyone's orders up to that point.

[johnnymcnugget]

Just a suggestion to save time - had you thought of having a laptop with the game on when you play the F2F portion? If you enter your orders on the laptop each turn, then the computer game will follow your board game and when you are done it will already be up to date with no need for the GM to log in and do everyone's orders up to that point.

We had talked about that, but we wanted to get through as many rounds in person as possible, and the GM would be resolving moves on the board, and we didn't want to have to delay the next phase of negotiations by entering orders. (the GM is also a player)

Definitely changing passwords is a good idea. I'll set up the game this weekend and then PM a mod. Should it be Rick.Leeds?

Thanks a lot!

[sinnybee]

Just a suggestion to save time - had you thought of having a laptop with the game on when you play the F2F portion? If you enter your orders on the laptop each turn, then the computer game will follow your board game and when you are done it will already be up to date with no need for the GM to log in and do everyone's orders up to that point.

We had talked about that, but we wanted to get through as many rounds in person as possible, and the GM would be resolving moves on the board, and we didn't want to have to delay the next phase of negotiations by entering orders. (the GM is also a player)

Definitely changing passwords is a good idea. I'll set up the game this weekend and then PM a mod. Should it be Rick.Leeds?

Thanks a lot!

I already PMed Rick for you (as I said I would), and I included you, so you should have a copy of the message (just a copy of my post with a link to this thread).

[Petunia]

Just a suggestion to save time - had you thought of having a laptop with the game on when you play the F2F portion? If you enter your orders on the laptop each turn, then the computer game will follow your board game and when you are done it will already be up to date with no need for the GM to log in and do everyone's orders up to that point.

I was thinking that too, but that would require logging out and back in to enter orders for each of the 7 players for each turn. Now, if you're willing to run the game LAN-party-style and have everyone bring a lappy and enter their orders in their own turn, that'd work great. Actually might be kind of fun - here's the 15-minute negotiation window, when the bell chimes everybody sits down and enters their orders on their own machine - would allow for some pretty great stab reveals (I'm picturing an 8th box with the simple 'view game' URL getting refreshed after each turn and shown on a bigscreen or projector). As long as everyone remembers to finalize, the game would pretty much run in real time even if set up with 2-3 day deadlines for the post-FtF period. And there'd be no real need for a GM as Playdip's in-house adjudicator would be doing all the work. All you'd need is 7-8 computers.

[rick.leeds]

Whichever way you do this, what you MUST make sure you do, if you go down the route you originally suggested, is make sure that your passwords are changed, which can be done in the MY ACCOUNT section. I would suggest all players change their password to the same word (maybe the game password?) before the game. That way, the GM doesn't need to know each player's password. When the orders have been put in, everyone can then re-set their passwords to the original. If you choose not to do this, then when each player will need to change her/his password after the GM has "caught up" the game with the FTF game. I'm sure you are all trustworthy souls but having someone else's password knowledge is a very tempting thing for future games

[gareth66]

Have to say, I like the spirit of this question. Start a game F2F and then finish it on here. Great idea. And hats off to the site admin for entertaining the idea.