This FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) will be posted to rec.games.diplomacy and news.answers once every week. The latest version is also available on the web, at http://www.diplom.org/DipPouch/Online/FAQ.
Many FAQs are available on the archive site rtfm.mit.edu in the directory /pub/usenet/news.answers. The name under which a FAQ is archived appears in the Archive-name line at the top of the article. This FAQ will be archived as rec.games.diplomacy/rec.games.diplomacy.FAQ.
There's a mail server on that machine. You send an E-mail to [email protected], with the word 'help' in the body of the message.
The FAQ will also be available via FTP from several other ftp servers and Web-sites. Look at the Online resources section for addresses to the most commonly used ftp servers for Diplomacy resources.
A lot of people contributed towards the creation of this FAQ. Too many for a poor FAQ maintainer to list them all here, or even remember them all. Even though they all deserve both to be listed, and to be remembered.
This version of the FAQ was created by a committee of people from r.g.d. A complete list of committee members will appear here soon. Thanks should also go to Pitt Crandlemire and Bjoern Tore Sund, who did the initial work on this version of the FAQ, and to Sean Starkey, who wrote the original r.g.d. FAQ.
If you have any comments, updates, error reports et al on the current version of the FAQ, please send them to David Norman, [email protected]. Please note however that this is still a Beta Version of the FAQ, and so there is no need to report the really obvious problems - missing answers, notes of work to be done, etc.
Basically, to play Diplomacy by email, you need to have (1) Diplomacy and (2) Email.
What this means is that, at the very least, you need to have (or know) the rules and have a copy of the map. One easy way to get all of this in a convenient package is to actually buy the game of Diplomacy, but if you do not want to take that route, everything except the rules are available online. See info on getting the rules, elsewhere in this FAQ.
As for email, it sounds obvious, but what you will need is consistent access to the internet. If you have that, then you are ready to go.
If you have world-wide web access, you can learn the technical details of how to play by email by heading to Andy Schwarz's "Newbies' Guide to Internet Diplomacy" which is located at http://haas.berkeley.edu/~schwarz/main.html. The guide is designed to be easy enough for first time users to work their way through the system without too much trouble. If you do not have web access, send Andy an email at [email protected] and he will email you a text copy.
No, they are not. The rules are copyright Avalon Hill, and can therefore not be distributed by anyone else, electronically or otherwise. The rules for Diplomacy can not be found online. Avalon Hill has absolutely forbidden this and they have given a large number of concessions to the Diplomacy community online, so the consensus is to respect this copyright.
This depends on the kind of game you want to play and their availability. There are three approaches, each of which is outlined below.
Using the Judge Openings List
The Judge Openings List provides a listing of all open positions on public judges. This listing contains games which are forming, and games which have already started but have openings because a player abandoned the position.
The list is available on the Web at http://www.diplom.org/DipPouch/openings/. The list is also available by mail. Send a message to [email protected] to get the list. The subject 'openings longform' gives you a verbose list sorted per judge. The subject 'openings list' will get you a consise version sorted per game type.
Once you see a game you like, make sure you check the detailed listing. On the Web you can click on the game name, or you can send email to the judge the game is played on, and put 'list gamename' in the body of the message. Please *do* make sure you read the game listing. It often contains important information on the game that may influence your decision to join. For instance, a game may be played in a particular language, or it may be part of a tournement, which means you will need to commit for a number of games.
You can get the same information on which the Openings List bases its overview by mailing to a judge directly. Send 'list' in the body of a message to a judge to get its listing of openings and forming games.
Using the Diplomatic Pouch game queues
The Game Queues run by the Diplomatic Pouch provide another way to get into a game. Just have a look at http://www.diplom.org/DP-cgi/setqueue, and follow the instructions there. Basically, you will be placed on a waiting list for a particular type of game. Once enough people are on the waiting list, a volunteer game master is contacted, who will create the game, and invite you to play.
If all this doesn't get you in the kind of game you want...
Both the Openings List and the Queues are restricted in the type of games you can find there. The Queues are only available for a few frequently requested variants. The Openings List may show the variant you are interested in, but less popular variants are unlikely to show up often. If you want to play a variant which doesn't show up often, you can always gauge interest by posting in rec.games.diplomacy. Make sure you mention the variant you would like to play in your subject.
Finally
Please be sure, no matter how you find your way to a game, to commit yourself to finishing the game before you sign on. An individual game may not be all that time consuming, but it could easily last for more than six months. Signing on is an implicit agreement to stay with it for the duration, even if your position is poor or your relations with your neighbors are strained. Quitting because you are losing is extremely poor form. On the other hand, signing on to too many games can often lead to overload, so be sure to try out one for a while to get a sense of the time commitment involved. Remember that six other people are entering the game assuming the players will not quit in the middle. Please be considerate of others and commit to playing the game to the end. They will accord you the same courtesy, and the game will be much more enjoyable for all.
As always, using the WWW is pretty easy. All Judge help files are kept at http://www.diplom.org/DipPouch/Email/JudgeFiles.html.
For those who prefer email, you can use the GET command. Send an email to the judge of your choice with the word "get" followed by the file you want. if you want the syntax file, send
GET SYNTAX
The judge will reply with the file you want in a matter of minutes.
There is also a file you can get via some judges called "flist," which list the files available. Say GET FLIST to see this file.
You should look in the Diplomacy Subject Index.
An HTML version of this file is located at ftp://ftp.ugcs.caltech.edu/pub/diplomacy/WWW/dip/dip_index.html.
A text version of this file can be found at ftp://ftp.ugcs.caltech.edu/pub/diplomacy/WWW/dip/dip_index.txt
The top of the judge listing of a game gives the details of the parameters for the game. This includes information about when the deadlines will fall, what variant is being played, what press is allowed, etc. A full explanation of the game listing can be found at http://www.diplom.org/DipPouch/Email/list-exp.html.
Yes, though due to the nature of the judges (volunteer judge keepers, occasional outages, etc.), this list tends to wane and wax with time. The Openings List keep a list of all working, public judges at http://www.diplom.org/DipPouch/openings/openings.html
Via ftp, you can also see the full list of judges, past and present, public and private (with the addresses of the private judges kept private!) ftp://ftp.sentex.net/usr/nick/judge.codes
Finally, Martin Protzen ([email protected]) posts his DIPLOMACY STATISTICS article in the rec.games.diplomacy newsgroup around the 15th of every other month. This article contains extensive statistics on all of the public judges, and also contains the full list of judges mentioned above.
The judges currently support over twenty variants and the exact number changes as new ones are added. In addition, not all judges run the same variants. the FLIST file (retrievable from any judge with GET FLIST) will give you an idea of the variants available, but the best way to find out what variants are available on a particular judge is to send a fake game creation message to the judge with an intentionally false variant name. For example:
create ?gamename password fake_var
will not create a game but instead you will be told the variant called fake_var does not exist. The judge will then tell you what variants are available. This is not the smoothest way to get the information, but it ensures you that the information is true for the judge in question.
First of all, please don't just disappear. It's fine if you no longer want to play but please do your fellow players the courtesy of helping to find a replacement player. Here's what you need to do.
One, notify the GM. He'll seek replacements from among the observers in the game and, possibly, from players in other games he's GMing. It's more proper for him to do this part since the other players in the game might alter their plans regarding your power if they knew you were leaving.
Two, post a message to rec.games.diplomacy announcing that you are seeking a replacement for a position you are playing. You should not identify the game or the judge it is on. You can, however, let them know what the power is, the type of game, the status of the position, and the approximate stage of the game. Ask potential replacements to email you for additional information. When they do, inform them of the name of the game and the judge. They will probably want to LIST the game before signing on. Once they do, if they are still interested in taking over the position, coordinate a date and time when you will RESIGN the position and they will take it over, or give the GM permission to resign you when the replacement is ready.
However, quitting a game should been seen as a drastic measure caused by (a) forces outside your control (losing email access for a long-period of time, spouse threatening divorce, boss is ready to fire you if you don't quit) or (b) a true lack of interest in Diplomacy. It should NOT be used to extricate yourself from a crummy start or to thwart someone who just stabbed you mercilessly. You should never quit a game just to start a new one. When fortune deals you a bad hand, play it out. The rest of the game will thank you for your perseverance, and you'll hope for the same from others when you are doing well.
Avalon Hill once put out a very unsophisticated computer version of Diplomacy. It is no longer available. There are some very nice mapping aids available, however, which help you keep track of your email games. A current list can be found at http://www.diplom.org/DipPouch/Online/maps.html#software.
Highlights include:
The map command is pretty much defunct. None of the judges currently running support the feature. Because the map command used a tremendous amount of resources to create PostScript maps, it was responsible for a significant drain of judge resources, so most judges no longer provide this feature. The Mapit program (which is available for most platforms) performs the same role on your own computer without overtaxing the judge.
If all you want is an empty map of the board for the variant you are playing, send:
GET variant_name.ps
to the judge, where variant_name is the name of the variant you are playing. (For the standard Diplomacy game, use 'map.ps' to get a standard map of the game.)
Yes. Several judges now support real-time games. However, because real-time games require players with lots of time to spend in short bursts and judges with fast response time, both the player pool and the judge-of-choice tend to change fairly rapidly.
In December 1995, USIN ([email protected]) became the hot spot for rtdip games, but recently FROG ([email protected]), USTR ([email protected]), and USCA ([email protected]) have tended to be used, mainly because since speed of response is so critical - judges with smaller game loads are likely to produce fast responses more consistently. Typically, these games are held on weekends (US time) and holidays, although midweek games are becoming more popular. To play, figure on at least four hours of time (often longer) and some prior diplomacy and judge knowledge.
If you are interested in RT dip in general you should signon to the
discussion lists "rtdip" and "rtnow". The first list, RTDIP, is used to discuss
RT concerns and plans and should not be used to attempt the organization of a
game. It is very important not to clutter this list with the "I'm here, does anyone
want to play a game?" messages. This list is
The second list, RTNOW, is used to organize games and can generate LOTS
of mail when a game is trying to be organized. This list is [email protected].
You can subscribe to this list by sending text of "subscribe rtnow" to the
majordomo list server, [email protected]. Once you've subscribed to
this list, send mail to the list indicating your interest in getting into a game.
Indicate your availability and your preference of game parameters, etc. You should be
prepared to commit at least 4-6 hours to a regular game of Diplomacy.
As well as RTNOW, forming RT games are also advertised through broadcasts in
the game called RTCHAT on USPA ([email protected]). This game never has
moves process, it is ONLY for communication about forming RT games. Signon as
an observer. RTCHAT is used as a backup to RTNOW, in case the mail server at
3sheep.com ever goes down.
RT games have almost exclusively been NoPress affairs. With deadlines of
6 minutes per phase there is no time for negotiations, and with 6 minute deadlines
you only get 2 full game years per hour...if deadlines are much longer the games
tend to take too long to have any hope of completing in one session. With the
advent of ICQ (available from www.miribalis.com) and other similar programs,
players have been quick to see the potential for RT play with press. There is a
group that has formed recently called the ICQ Diplomacy Guild. It has a web page
at http://www.bigfoot.com/~icqdip
where game starts and reports are posted.
Efforts are currently afoot to intergrate Judge NoPress play with ICQ play to have
RT games where the judge processes the moves, and players communicate amongst
themselves using ICQ. The head of the ICQ Diplomacy Guild can be contacted on ICQ
UIN # 2307373.
An excellent source for the most up-to-date real-time information is the RTDIP website at
http://kleiman.indianapolis.in.us/rtdip/rtcontent.htm
Stephane Derdi [email protected]
is the list owner for the
European RT mailing list which is used to set up games for RT players in
Europe who are often asleep when the games set up for North Americans
and players from down under are played. If you want to join the European
RT mailing list, check out
http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Battlefield/2682/frames73.htm
First of all, make sure you are fluent both in the general
rules of the game, and in the usage of the judge. You should
own, and have read, the Diplomacy rules, and you should have
played to completion, at least a few games on the judges.
Send the following to a judge:
These are also available at
http://www.diplom.org/DipPouch/Email/JudgeFiles.html.
Read all of these files! Once you are confident that you
understand how the Judge works, create a game and become the GM.
Various articles have been written describing some of the tricks of
GM.
Dean Gordon has written what he calls "The Penultimate Guide to being
a GM" and it is available at
http://www.diplom.org/DipPouch/Zine/S1997R/Gordon/GMguide.html.
See also
http://www.diplom.org/DipPouch/Email/judge/master.html
If you feel up to running a Newbie game, read Jamie Dreier's article at
http://www.diplom.org/DipPouch/Zine/S1995M/Dreier/Newbie.html. Keep
in mind that GMing a Newbie game is probably tougher than a regular
game, as the Newbies expect their GM to be familiar with the works.
It would probably be unwise to have a Newbie game with a Newbie GM.
get how2gm
get ep.house.rules
get deadline
get draws
get master
get press
get rules
get index
get syntax
get help
If you send a message to the judge and do not get a reply, then the judge is probably down. If that is not good enough for you, then check the openings list on the web or by email. It contains a list of judges that have responded to the lastest openings request. If a judge does not appear on that list, then it is probably down. If you suspect that a judge is down, JUST WAIT. Don't send messages to r.g.d., as it doesn't accomplish anything. Also, don't keep sending more messages to a judge, as that just adds to its backlog and makes it take longer to get caught up once it's up again. Just sit tight, and it will come back up when it's fixed.
Once you do get a message back from the judge, it means the judge is up again. Before diving in and sending off a whole lot of messages to the judge, WAIT SOME MORE. The judge still has to churn through all the queued mail that piled up while it was down. Sometimes everyone jumping in once they know the judge is back up causes a surge of messages which is enough to topple the judge again...remember it went down for a reason. Also, sometimes the judge comes back up, and falls over again almost straight away as the original problem might not have nbeen fixed completely. If this is the case, your mail will just add to the backlog. Generally if you give the judge a couple of hours after it comes back up it helps.
Each player is assigned a site ID number upon registering with a judge. These idea numbers are based on area code within the U.S. and Canada, and country/city code outside the US. For example a player from Boston who listed a phone number in the (617) area code might initially be assigned the site 61700. The last two digits are used by the JK to subdivide within regions, especially for players outside the U.S.
If a game is listed as "Different-Site", the judge does not allow multiple players with the same site ID number. This is to prevent, for example, four players in the same college dorm from playing in the same Gunboat game. The "Same-Site" requires all the players to be from the same site. This is useful when players wish to use the Judge to adjudicate a local game. Occassionally, GMs will set games to "Any-site", to allow players from all sites to join. New players should be warned that Gunboat, Any-site games, especially when not moderated, are very vulnerable to cheaters.
In assigning site ID numbers, the judge uses not only phone information, but also whatever is listed in the Site: field of the registration form. If you list "home" or "work" or some other generic place description, you may be assigned an undesirable site ID number, perhaps first assigned to a player on the opposite side of the world who also listed "home" as his site. If this happens to you, re-register with a more descriptive place description, such as the name of your university, place of work, or neighborhood.
Some games are set up so that you must have a set number of dedication points to be eligible to play in them. The game you have tried to sign on to apparently has this threshold set above your current dedication rating on that judge. Click here to find out what a dedication rating is, and how to find out what your current dedication rating is.
If you send LIST [GAMENAME] (where GAMENAME is the name of the game concerned) to the judge it will return, amongst other things, a listing of the settings for the game GAMENAME. On the fourth line there should be something similar to:
Access: Any-site, Level: Any, Moderated, Dedication: -10.
The 'Dedication: -10' indicates the dedication threshold for that game. (In this case -10). It is because your dedication level is lower than the threshold in the game you tried to signon to that you got the message you did.
Send an email to the judge you are playing on in the following format: (note that after the signon commands there is no need for anything else.)
SIGNON PGAMENAME PASSWORD
SIGNOFF
Where P is the abbreviation of your power, GAMENAME is the name of your game, and PASSWORD is your password. For example, if you were Austria in the game dog and your password was taxicab you would send the following to your judge.
The signoff bit is important for those of you with a signature file in your email set-up. It avoids the judge trying to interpret your signature, as everthing after SIGNOFF is ignored.
SIGNON ADOG TAXICAB
SIGNOFF
This will generate a response from the judge that will show you the orders you currently have submitted to the judge. If you do not have any orders submitted your units will show on the reply as NO ORDER PROCESSED.
If you lose a broadcast or a set of results, you can use the HISTORY command to get another copy yourself. For details on the HISTORY command send a message to the judge with GET INDEX as the body of the message.
If it was a message one of the other players sent you, you can send a message to that player and ask them to resend it. If it was addressed to more than one recipient you could also ask one of the other recipients to forward you a copy. However you have no guarantee the message will be the same as the original from either of these courses of action. (Some players save every message they receive so they have a complete record of their negotiations).
If the master has sent the command "set all press" to the judge, then they automatically get a copy of all press that is sent in the game. Quite often the Master is reading all the press, and so can send you anything you have lost from any player. A polite note outlining what it is you've misplaced should do the trick.
Occasionally you might find your master unresponsive, in which case you can try the other measures outlined above. If the Master is seriously unresponsive, politely report it to the JK before it becomes a serious problem.
End each message to the judge with the SIGNOFF command. The judge ignores all input after encountering the SIGNOFF.
Many people choose to edit their .sig file so that the first line of it contains the SIGNOFF command, and nothing else. This fail-safe is particularly recommended if your mailer automatically appends your .sig file to any message you send.
Such things do happen. Normally there are four reasons
Signon exactly as if you were joining for the very first time, i.e..:
SIGNON ?gamename password variant
PRESS to M (or O or BROADCAST)
Note that only press to M or O or broadcast work since power designations
have not yet been made. A GM cannot rediscover your password (if you
forget) until you are assigned a power.
Also note that the variant is required for all but STANDARD games.
Example 1: if your password were "mypass," to send a broadcast to the players in a standard gunboat game called "mydip", you would send the following email to the judge:
SIGNON ?mydip mypass Gunboat
BROADCAST
Hi, all! I'm glad we're going to play mydip together!
ENDBROADCAST
SIGNOFF
Example 2: if your password were "mypass," to send a broadcast to the players in a Youngstown game called "youngdip", you would send the following email to the judge:
SIGNON ?youngdip mypass Youngstown
BROADCAST
Hi, all! I'm glad we're going to play youngdip together!
END BROADCAST
SIGNOFF
The quick answer is "Yes." Orders may be changed at any time before the phase processes. However, this leads to the question, "When does the judge process all moves?"
Thre different things will stop the Judge from processing moves: (1) if a player has yet to submit orders, or has orders in with an 'Error' flag (2) the WAIT flag, (3) the Judge 'delay'.
The first condition is fairly clear: the Judge requires a complete set of orders to process. (Exception: if the game is NMR, the Judge will process orders without waiting, but only after the deadline and grace period have passed.)
The second condition refers to the WAIT flag. Each player and the GM may use the command "set wait" to prevent orders from processing before the deadline. This flag is used by players who submit preliminary orders, which may change based upon anticipated negotiations. Note that it is considered unacceptable to use the WAIT flag solely with the purpose of delaying the game.
The third condition is the 'delay' parameter used by the judge after all orders have been submitted. Typically, the judge waits a half-hour after the last set of orders has been submitted, to let the last player submitting orders verify that the orders have been correctly submitted. If a player then changes orders, or signs on for any reason, the 'delay' clock will be set back to zero, as the Judge assumes that players are changing orders, and need more time to verify that orders have been submitted correctly.
Often players will look at a listing and see that all orders have been submitted, but that the phase has not processed. They will broadcast messages saying "What's wrong with the judge? Why are the orders not going through?" Each such message sets the delay clock back to zero.
There is one more condition which can delay a game. If a judge has been down, and comes back up with a backlog of mail, the delay clock will stay at zero until the Judge processes the entire backlog. This feature allows the GMs to queue deadline extensions with the judge to prevent problems when it is down for a long period of time.
First, conditional orders are only used for phase orders. Phase orders are used by a player to specify possible moves for a future phase, based upon the future board position.
Conditional orders are NOT used to specify a powers orders, conditioned upon the other players' current orders! Not only would this violate the rules, this could also create paradoxical situations.
For an example of a valid conditional order, suppose the English player is going on vacation and does not wish to delay the game for a retreat he knows is forthcoming. He could write the order
phase f1902r
if (German F Nth) then (F Nth -> Lon)
In this case, the condition triggering the move is (German F Nth), which means that a German fleet has moved to the North Sea. The conditions can be rather elaborate, involving ANDs, ORs, NOTs, and the clauses can involve ELSE clauses.
For a more detailed description of phase orders and conditional orders, consult the Judge help file titled Syntax, available from the judge via "get Syntax" or from http://www.diplom.org/DipPouch/Email/judge/syntax.html.
There are three ways this can be done.
There are always ways to communicate... However, the most common method of communicating in no-press judge games is to use an artifact of the way in which the judge checks pending orders for validity (or doesn't, as the case may be). Specifically, the judge doesn't check convoy orders to see if they are possible and it doesn't check support orders to see if the unit being supported is actually adjacent to the province it is being supported into.
Thus, you can order any of your fleets to convoy any army on the board to any land space on board. So, for example, F Con C A Mun -Swe, while a completely invalid order, will still be accepted and processed, even though it can never succeed. Additionally, an army can be ordered to convoy through bodies of water which do not even contain fleets, i.e. A Nor -Nth -Eng -Bre, when there are no fleets in Nth or Eng will still be accepted and processed (you'll get a warning message telling you to check the convoy but the judge will still accept the order.)
Finally, you can order any unit to support any other unit on the board into a neighboring province which your unit could move to. So, for example, A Par S F Aeg - Bur, yet another invalid order, will be accepted and processed, without any chance of success, as well.
While none of these orders are valid, they do serve the purpose of communicating intentions and plans to other powers, even in no-press games.
Yes. The GM and the judgekeeper can see all press if they choose. Also, if you send partial press to an observer (PRESS TO O), it goes out to all observers Further, a little known quirk of the judge is that all broadcast and Observer press becomes part of the history of the game. Thus, any player issuing a HISTORY command would be able to see any press you sent to the observers.
Your password is not secure. Your password is used to ensure that another player doesn't SIGNON as you but the password can be obtained by the GM or the judge keeper, thus, you should not use the same password that you are using to guard any real-world sensitive accounts or files.
Send email to the GM of the game (his address can be found by telling the judge to send you a listing of the game). He can find out what your password is.
Note: If you are an observer who forgot your password, you don't need to do this. Observers don't have passwords: the Judge differentiates them solely by e-mail address. This is true even if you signed as an Observer and specified a password, since the judge just ignores the password.
There are three currently active systems for rating players of e-mail Diplomacy.
The first system is the Hall of Fame (HoF) maintained by Nick Fitzpatrick ([email protected]). Almost all judge games are included in this Hall of Fame. Points are awarded for solo wins and draws.
The Hall of Fame was last updated in 1996, although Nick Fitzpatrick has plans to bring it up to date sometime in 1998. This revision would eventually include all games finished by the end of 1997. More information, including which games are eligible for the Hall of Fame, can be found at http://www.sentex.ca/~nfitz/HOF/
The second system is the Diplomatic Pouch PBEM player ratings. This system uses a modified YARS rating system. This means that losing players each lose one point, and the total number of points generated is split evenly among the number of winners. Thus a solo is worth 6 points, a two way draw is worth 5/2 points, etc.
This record only includes standard judge games completed on or after April 28, 1998. However, there are plans to eventually include games completed before this date and variants. It can be found at: http://www.diplom.org/DipPouch/Email/Ratings.
The third system is the Diplomacy Skill Index (DSI), which uses the same raw data as the Hall of Fame, but uses it to produce an average skill rating of a player per game. This system does not give a rating to replacement players. Powers that go abandoned receive a 0.00 rating. More information can be found at:
http://www.diplom.org/DipPouch/Zine/W1995A/Minshall/dsi.html.
Dedication points are an indication of how well you get your orders in on time. They are intended to encourage you to submit orders in a timely fashion and to penalize you if you don't, or, Calhammer forbid!, you go abandoned or CD. Many games require a minimum number of dedication points to sign on (See above). Dedication points are specific to a particular judge and do not carry over from one judge to another.
Judges handle dedication checks in one of two ways. Some judges support the command GET DEDICATION. Send the command 'GET DEDICATION' to the judge. If the judge supports GET DEDICATION it will reply with an message stating your current dedication points on that judge. If it doesn't support GET DEDICATION it will reply telling you so.
In this case there are two additional ways to find out what your dedication is:
First of all, if you didn't go abandoned or CD and you still have more than 10 dedication points, don't worry about it. You're not going to get blocked out of any games so it's not worth the effort to fix your lost dedication points.
Otherwise, when the judge comes back up send a WHOIS your_username message to the judge. Send a copy of the reply along with an explanation of how many dedication points you lost and why to the GM of the game where you lost them. He'll forward this to the JK, who will adjust your dedication points.
The Judges keep all important information about a game in a Summary File. This file can be accessed for any game with the command SUMMARY GAMENAME, or by signing onto a game and issuing the command SUMMARY. The Summary File that the Judge sends you will include relevant information including identities of the opponents, Supply Center counts by year, who owned what Supply Center by year and so on.
The summary file is updated as the game progresses, however in gunboat games, the identities of the players are not revealed until after the game has been completed. One caveat to the revealing of power idenities is controlled by the REVEAL and NOREVEAL commands which can be issued by the GM. By setting NOREVEAL the power identities are kept secret even after the game has finished. This would most likely be used in a gunboat tournament, when revealing of identities would be kept secret until all tournament games were finished.
First, notify the judge of your new address by sending, from your new E-mail account, an IAmAlso command, i.e.
iamalso [email protected]
This notifies the judge that your new address, and your old address, belongs to the same person. If this is not done, you lose all your dedication points when entering new games with your new account.
After issuing the IAMALSO command, simply fill out a new registration form, based on your old one, and send it in. That goes as an update to the registration form you sent in for your old account.
The third, and final, step, is to notify the entries in all your current games that your address has changed. SIGNON to each game, and SET ADDRESS, i.e.
SIGNON Pralph kramden
SET ADDRESS [email protected]
So long as one of your addresses is registered with the judge and you use the proper SIGNON and password, you can send mail from any other address. It is, however, recommended that from all addresses you will be using regularly, you send in an IAMALSO command:
iamalso [email protected]
The address given must be the one you registered on the judge with. If IAMALSO isn't performed, though your commands will be executed, an error message will be generated, which is copied to both the GM and the Judge Keeper, and they may both decided to investigate if someone is using somebody else's password - we don't really want to bother them with that.
Whether you have sent in an IAMALSO or not, messages will be copied both to the address you are sending from, and to the address you signed on to the game with. If you want to change it so that all press and announcements go to your alternate address, sign on to each game you are in and SET ADDRESS alternate_address. This will make the alternate address your new primary address. If by chance, you would like to get copied at BOTH address, you can sign on to each game and SET ADDRESS primary_address,alternate_address.
It is important that you don't include a space either before or after the comma between the addresses. That would produce an error message, and your attempted command would not be processed.
All press to you will go to each address. However, there is an annoying side effect. When you send press, the judge will send a confirmation to (1) the address from which you are sending, (2) the primary address, and (3) the alternate address. Since (1) is usually the same as (2) or (3), you'll get 3 copies in total.