Diplomacy Royale - 7/7

[EpicDim]

{This post was originally written by MichaelG; authorship has been altered with his permission too enable EpicDim to edit the title} Pedros

Brief overview: http://www.diplom.org/Zine/S1997M/Pitre/Royale.html

In-depth rules: http://www.variantbank.org/results/rules/r/royale.htm

This was a variant by John Pitre based on the game Blood Royale. A variation for that game that could easily be applied to the Diplomacy variant: http://boardgamegeek.com/file/download/ ... f_Rome.pdf

Basically adding the concept of a royal family, marriages between royal families to seal an alliance, etc. Binding agreements as part of marriage contracts... that could unexpectedly come to an end if one of the couple dies early... but if they live long, the agreement you make one year could hurt you a lot down the road...

The big downside is that it's *complicated*. It would be pretty time-consuming for the GM... checking all marriage contracts for contradictory agreements, keeping track of all the royal families (could be done in Excel)... It would also be complicated for the players, but not horribly so...

GM's nightmare: combine this with one of the 30+ player whole world variants... yeah, I'll be shocked if anyone ever does that.

It sounds fascinating... but time-consuming. Has anyone ever played this?

[Bluewolf]

good luck

[okriegel]

I would love to play this. I read the introduction... incredible.

[Pedros]

I'm going to have to spend a lot of time getting to grips with this one, but one thing immediately I see missing from the rules - royal families regularly murdered members of the family (sometimes extremely nastily - Edward II and the red-hot poker comes to mind), and not only other families - their own children, brothers, etc. No idea how you'd fit this in, but if you want this level of complexity then....

[Pedros]

I've had a fairly good look at the rules, and whether you'll ever find anybody capable of GMing it I don't know! I could almost be tempted, but it looks to me as though the big bits of the game are the dynastic ones rather than the moves.

And for the same reason, if it does ever come off, I think it would be an Other Forum Game - it's too whacky to be a Dip variant!

[okriegel]

There are some things omitted from the rules. Like what happens when a Title changes dynasties.

Say the Lord of Serbia, a member of the Austrian dynasty, bites the dust. He had two armies under his control. His German heir gains the Title Lord of Serbia and controls the two armies the previous Lord left. Does Germany gain control of Serbia? Do the two armies need to be supported by German supply centers? Wasn't there something in the rules about two nobles claiming Titles on the same territory?

[Pedros]

If this is ever going to be played the more doubtful points in the rules, like this one from okriegel, can be identified the better. From bitter experience in London Nights (where the rules were riddled with ambiguities) the more you can sort out beforehand the better - preferably well-beforehand; trying as we did at the last minute before the start just doesn't work!

[EpicDim]

I have played this variant PBEM before (albeit a long time ago). I have also GM'd many PBEM and long in person games. I'm more than willing (even a little excited) to GM this variant with a group. The ambiguity brought up is fixed in the second link which is the full rules. The first link is merely an article describing the variant and was not a fleshed out set of rules. The only open issue (that I saw) is the starting families and I've been playing with those to try and get some variety and a good depth so everyone isn't starting the same.

Let me know if there is still interest.

[EpicDim]

Since I can't GM here, if you're interested in playing this by email, PM me and I would love to set up a game.

[EpicDim]

We have the first player for a PBEM game. We need 6 more.