Help Information

Last revised: January 20, 1993

Send comments or corrections (only for the HTML version of this file) to Doug Massey ([email protected]).


You can receive a copy of this file via E-mail by sending your local Judge a message with "get info" in the body.


To communicate with the Diplomacy Adjudicator you should send it a mail message in the following format:

SIGNON pxxxx password
commands

Where p is the identifier of the power you have been assigned and xxxx is the name of the game you are participating in. The power identifier is usually the first letter of the power unless there are conflicts in which case it might be the second letter. For example in the Youngstown variant, India's identifier is "N" since Italy uses "I".

To enter a game that is forming, use:

SIGNON ? password To enter the next available game
or
SIGNON ?xxxx password [variant] Specifying the name of the game you want
or
CREATE ?xxxx password [variant] To create a new game and sign on
or
SIGNON %xxxx password To sign on as an alternate standby
or
OBSERVE xxxx password To just get the reports for a game

your password will be set to the password you specify. Note that if you use the third form above, other players wishing to enter that game will have to use the second form. Before you can sign on to a game, you must register with the adjudicator. See the information about the REGISTER command near the end of this text.

Immediately after the initial signon you should specify your preference of what powers you would like to be assigned with the command:

SET PREFERENCE list

where the list is a sequence of the power identifier letters. To give a set of powers equal weighting, enclose them in parenthesis or square brackets. Thus: set preference f[ergti]a would indicate that you really want France and really don't want Austria, but you don't care about which of the others you are assigned if you can't have France.


To take over a power that has become abandoned, you merely sign on with:

SIGNON pxxxx password [variant]

where p is the identifier of the power you are attempting to take over.


Other commands that you can put after the SIGNON command are:

SET PASSWORD new_password To change your password
SET ADDRESS [reply_address] To change where your reports go
SET ACCESS same,any-site To change what users can sign on
SET LEVEL novice,advanced To restrict to a particular class
SET VARIANT variant To change the variant before starting
SET phase parameters To change the deadline calculation
PHASE season year phase To specify future orders
CLEAR To clear pending orders
RESIGN To withdraw from the game
SIGNOFF To indicate the end of useful text
LIST To get a status of the game
BROADCAST [options] To send rest of mail as press message.
PRESS [options] Ditto. Use "get press" for options.
TERMINATE To declare the game over
RESUME To restart a completed or terminated game
WHOIS user To list information about a player
or diplomacy orders.


The following commands can be sent to the adjudicator with or without a signon command:

VERSION [level] To see the current version and enhancements since level.
REGISTER ... END To register yourself (see below).
IAMALSO address To register a new email address (see below).
LIST [game] To get the status of the specified game or all games.
HELP To get this text (no other commands will be processed).
MAP game To get a postscript map of the game status.
GET file To get a particular file. The available files are:

info: This text.
index: An alphabetical summary of all commands.
% syntax: Syntax for submitting orders.
% deadline: Policies on deadline computations and how to set them.
% rules: House rules for the standard variant of Diplomacy.
% press: Information on sending broadcast/press messages.
info.xxx: Additional information for nonstandard variant xxx.
map: The province abbreviations and connections (cryptic).
map.xxx: The same for nonstandard variant xxx.
master: Information for people who are games masters/moderators.
flist: A list of all files available with sizes.

The files marked with % above are "must" reading before you can really get started (the percent is a marker refering you to this footnote, don't include it in the GET command). In addition to the standard variant, supported nonstandard variants are:

Youngstown: A fairly common variant including Asia.
Loeb9: Danny Loeb's 9 player variant including Spain and Norway.
Pure: Each power starts with one army on a map of seven provinces.
Chaos: A 34 player variant in which each player gets one center.
Britain: England starts with six armies.
1898: Each player starts with only one of his home centers.
Crowded: Eleven players occupy all 35 centers at game start.
Machiavelli: Uses money to support units and/or bribe others' units.
Fleet_Rome: Italy starts with a fleet rather than an army in Rome.
Gunboat: The identities of the other players are kept secret.

Be sure to read the info file for these variants before signing on. The Machiavelli variant is more complex than standard Diplomacy and has its own rules file "rules.machiavelli" which you must read before playing as well. There are PostScript maps available for some of the variants:

map.ps: The standard variant and many others.
youngstown.ps: Youngstown variant.
loeb9.ps: Loeb9 variant.
machiavelli.ps Machiavelli variant.

These files are fairly large. They are also available via anonymous ftp to ftp.u.washington.edu under the names 'public/misc/xxxx.ps'. It is preferred that you get them via anonymous ftp if you can.

To sign on to a nonstandard variant before it starts or to take over a power in a nonstandard variant you must specify the variant name on the signon command. This is to ensure that you know what you're getting yourself into. If anyone would like to see the judge support other variants, please send your suggestions to the judge-request address as listed below.


When involved in a game of Diplomacy it is best if all the players in the game are unique. Puppet powers tend to spoil the game for the other players. Some games are designated as "all players from different sites" or "all players from the same site" to keep the balance from becoming too badly tipped if contact between two players is too easy or too hard. It is important for the judge to know who you are in order to determine if you are right for a particular game. Please fill out the following registration form by replacing the example text after the colons with proper information and return it to the judge. Name, phone and site are required. You should also list at least one email address that won't change.

Cut here


REGISTER
Name: Aretha Holly
Phone: (505) 555-5555
Site: University of Hodunk
Address: 1515 St. Claws Lane, Kris Mass
Country: USA
Timezone: Eastern
Email: [email protected], [email protected], host2!host1!user
Level: Novice, Amateur, Intermediate, Advanced or Expert
Birthdate: Dec 25, 1907
Sex: Female
Package: Yes
END

You can query the database of people by sending a WHOIS user request to the judge or you can get the entire database with get whois. You may update this information at any time by sending in a new registration form. Note that you can use the information returned by the whois command as a template by throwing a REGISTER line in front, an END line on the end, changing the other information and sending it back to the judge. Please try to spell your site name the same way other players may have spelled it. Feel free to add additional information by making up your own keywords, but keep it under half a page.

The judge recognizes you by the return address in electronic mail that you send in. If you use multiple accounts, you can tell the judge that another return address should be considered the same person by sending an IAMALSO address command from the new account, where address is one of the electronic mail addresses that you listed on your Email line when you last registered.


Signing onto another player's power without his permission is a serious offense. Punishable by being staked out in the hot sun with red ants placed in your ears and nostrils. Although Diplomacy is based on treachery and lying, this falls under the category of "spoofing the games master" which is not allowed. If another player accidently sends you his password, you are required by honor to report this to the player and not take advantage of it. By signing onto the other player's power, the judge will send you a copy of his submitted orders, but the other player will get a copy of this message and an alarm message will also be sent to the judge's administrator.

Thank you for your cooperation.


Orders and other commands for the automated server should be sent to [email protected]. Question, comments and suggestions intended for a human should be sent to [email protected].


* Diplomacy is a trademark of Hasbro, Inc. all rights reserved. Used with permission.