Welcome To Diplomacy
The game of European intrigue
The game of European intrigue

Ever wanted to take control of a European country during the greatest struggle of the continent's history? To make and break alliances in an attempt to outsmart your adversaries and take over their land? To spend nights agonizing over whether you can believe Germany when it tells you that Britain is planning on stabbing you and moving into the channel next turn? Then look no further, Diplomacy is the game for you! Lead one of England, France, Germany, Italy, Austria-Hungary, Russia or the Ottoman Empire to glory or defeat by the power of your carefully written messages. Sway the minds of other players and analyze them to know who to trust, and who trusts you. And in the end, achieve victory or annihilation. There is no middle ground! (Except in a draw. Those happen too)
The Game Rules
I)Basic Version
I've always felt like the webDiplomacy intro was the most clearly written and easy to understand version of basic diplomacy rules. It doesn't cover everything, and you'll probably have to pick some things up as you go, but if you've never heard of diplomacy before and want to get playing in less than 10 minutes, this version is for you.
II)Full rule book
In case you'd like to dig a bit deeper, or have a question about what would happen in a specific situation, this probably has it covered. There are multiple editions of the rule books but as far as I know few differences between them. In case of conflict this is the one I will be following.
The Forum Rules
The Sign Up
You sign up by posting in this thread. Please at least specify which country you'd like to play, and whether you'd rather be a senior or junior diplomat(more on that down below).
Ideally, you would rank the 7 countries in order from your favorite to least favorite to play. Thus assignments will not be strictly on a first-come first-served basis, I will try to choose a distribution that pleases the greatest amount of people.
The Deadline and Turn Phases
The deadline for all phases will fall at 21:00 GMT of the appropriate day.
The game will advance at a pace of 1 year-per-week.
The game will start at 21:00 GMT this Sunday(December 24). The first Spring phase will be resolved by Tuesday. 24 hours will then be allowed for disbands/retreats. The fall orders are due Friday. An extra 24 hours will then be given for fall retreats/disbands, ending on Saturday. Finally the first build phase will be over on 21:00 GMT Sunday December 31. Rinse and repeat. In case a retreat/winter phase isn't necessary on a certain year, its deadline will simply be ignored, and you will have one extra day for the next phase's deadline.
Extra Rules
Diplomacy is all about forging and breaking alliances, be they public or secret. Nothing a player says is binding, and you are allowed and encouraged to do everything in your power to win, so long as it is not illegal or against forum rules.
Opening conversations with other countries is essential. Lying about what other countries told you and forging PMs from them is expected, every now and then. You can even forge private messages from the GM.
You can also make anonymous announcements by PMing the GM any message and asking them to post it without specifying a source.
Diplomacy has no ghost rules. Dead players and non-players/observers are allowed to post anything they want in the thread, talk privately with players, provide assisstance and advice or simply interesting analysis and commentary, and even make anonymous announcements too should they need to for some reason. Observers in Diplomacy keep the game interesting for the other players and are always very welcome
Preliminary orders
This is by no means a rule, but it'd be preferable for players to send preliminary orders right after reading the latest update. This would not take much time, and it serves to prevent a civil disorder. You can subsequently send me a better set of orders in the next day(s), but your nation won't be destroyed by a civil disorder in case you forget/don't have the time.
Writing invalid orders
I will NOT be letting players know about invalidly written orders beforehand. This is to ensure that "whoops, I wrote that by mistake" is still a valid strategy. You can't exactly do that if everyone knows the GM would have told you to correct it before the deadline was up. Junior diplomats are, however, very welcome to point out to their seniors if they think an order has been mis-written.
On the other hand, I will send reminders to players if the deadline is only hours away and I haven't actually received any orders from them yet.
Junior Diplomats
It is encouraged to have multiple diplomats per country. Junior partners can share intrigues, spread rumors, discuss strategies, conduct diplomacy and send orders. Basically do anything a senior can do, which is everything that is legal and within forum rules. Latest set of orders apply. However, senior diplomats reserve the right of asking me to make their orders override those of their junior(s), for one turn or all subsequent turns. The juniors will replace the senior should the latter quit the game in some way. The GM will decide which junior replaces the senior.
If you have any questions about the rules, please feel free to shoot me a private message any time and I'd be more than happy to answer you as fast as possible.
IF YOU HAVE ANY SUGGESTED RULE CHANGES, PLEASE POST THEM IN THE THREAD.
And of course, have fun