Diplomacy Explained
Intro to the Game
Diplomacy is sometimes called the Game of International Intrigue. This classic boardgame has been thrilling players since its release in 1959. Starting as one of the seven Great Powers on a map of Europe in Spring 1901, the goal of the game is to capture 18 of the 34 objective spaces, called supply centers. Moves are planned and revealed simultaneously, after periods of negotiation between players – where the real charm of the game is found. To learn more about the game, follow the links below.
Rulebook:
DiplomacyRGS_Rulebook_v6_LR.pdf
Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diplomacy_(game)
Introductory Videos:
Variants
Variants are Diplomacy games in which the rules, the map, or both are changed to give players a new challenge and unique experience. Some have been commercially published, such as Machiavelli or Colonial Diplomacy. Many others can be found on Diplomacy websites such as http://www.vdiplomacy.com.
Strategy, Tactics, and Tournaments
Diplomacy is fairly simple to learn, but can take a while to master. While there is no substitute for just playing a lot of games to gain experience, there are plenty of online resources you can use to improve your performance. Many of the Diplomacy Media listed on the Media page as well as the game platforms on the Play page have excellent S&T content. In addition, here are some other sources of advice.
Gamer’s Guide to Diplomacy:
http://petermc.net/diplomacy/gg2ed.pdf
Videos from 2016 WDC:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbwng27eI0e3O9rIFcXp_Bvr97TNgAsQw
DiplomacyCast was our hobby’s first podcast series. Though the podcast is now inactive, many of the episodes focus on strategy and tactics and thus provide timeless advice to improving players.
Scoring Systems
Draw Sized Scoring (DSS) is used in some online games as well as at the Dixiecon tournament. Players achieve a higher score by reducing the number of players sharing in a drawn result. In the original version, called Draws Include All Survivors (DIAS), each survivor in a draw receives the same number of points, with some variations also added points per center as a tiebreaker. In more modern versions, survivors are able to vote themselves out of the draw (non-DIAS) but still receive lesser points for survival. The Dixiecon Scoring System is a non-DIAS version of DSS.
Place-Based Scoring is another popular type of system, in which the goal of the game, short of taking 18 centers, is to have more centers than other players when the game is called. While the number of centers is obviously key, it usually matters very little in such systems how many more centers a player has versus the next place in the end-of-game pecking order. A popular example of Place-Based is Carnage Scoring.
Lead-Based Scoring encourages the board leader to widen the gap between that score and rival players, by increasing the benefit of that lead with each additional center. An early version of this type was Sum of Squares, which rewards a large spread between the topper and all the other powers. A more recent version, which combines this effect with additional play incentives for the non-topping players is called Tribute.
There are other systems as well. Though you may end up preferring one over another, you should try to learn how to succeed regardless of which system is used.
Hobby History
DipCon is the North American Diplomacy Championships, held under the auspices of the NADF. When first started in 1967, Dipcon was more of an informal house game. Since the early 1970s, however, Dipcon has been held in a formal tournament setting throughout North America with its location rotating between regional Diplomacy events. The most recent DipCon was the 2024 Cascadia Open held in Vancouver and Katie Gray is North America’s reigning Diplomacy champion.
World DipCon was started in 1988 to recreate the success of DipCon as a championship event but this time on the world stage. WDC was held that year in conjunction with Manorcon, in the United Kingdom. Two years later, Chapel Hill, North Carolina hosted the second WDC, while Canberra, Australia was the site for the 1992 event. Now an annual event, the tournament moves yearly between host sites in the three major regions, North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. The most recent World DipCon Champion is Canadian Nicolas Sahuguet with his victory in Milan. With the establishment of the Virtual Diplomacy Championship in 2021 as the annual tournament to crown the World Champion of virtual FTF play, VDC became a coequal World title alongside World DipCon as the World Championship for Face to Face Diplomacy and the Online Diplomacy Championship as the World Championship for online extended deadline play.
The World Diplomacy Database contains tournament and league results from events held all over the globe and going back several decades. Though it does not include every tournament ever played, it does provide a sense of hobby history as well as allow you to look up the record of prospective opponents.
http://www.world-diplomacy-database.com/php/commun/index.php
Prior to the internet, the Diplomacy Hobby was run primarily in fan magazines, called zines for short. In addition to game results, strategy articles, and tournament news, zines often included a lot of non-Dip content such as pop culture discussion and political debates. There were even zines ABOUT other zines, reviewing and ranking the hobby’s zines on an annual basis. After games began to be run through email and then using web-based platforms, most zines ceased publication. A few still exist online, as referenced on the Connections page, and many older zines have been archived on the web as well. Try these links:
http://www.whiningkentpigs.com/DW/kent/diplomacyzinearchive.htm
https://archive.org/details/Encyclopedia_of_Postal_Diplomacy_Zines-1992-07/mode/2up