Danivon’s House Rules

version 2.1, last amended 24 June 2009

The following rules are based on the excellent article by David Cohen in DipPouch which can be found at http://www.diplom.org//Zine/S2001M/Cohen/HouseRules.html HOUSE RULES I. GM Discretion, Rulebook: (I) GM Discretion: The GM shall have the discretion to disregard specific provisions of these House Rules in order to reach a result in keeping with the spirit and character of the game of Diplomacy, but will do so only after concluding that less drastic alternatives would be unsatisfactory. (2) Rulebook: 1989 rules, published by Gibsons Games will be used, although Realpolitik will be used for adjudication. In the event of incompleteness, ambiguity, or conflict in the rules, if the matter is not covered in these House Rules, the Redscape House Rules  will be followed http://www.redscape.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=37209 (this may not be available to non-members of Redscape). II. Order Writing, Generally: (1) Interpretation of Orders: Order sets and individual orders will be read with a presumption being made that each player wishes to submit a complete set of valid orders. (2) Abbreviations and Typographical Errors: Spelling out province names and other words used in orders is preferred, but any abbreviations that are not ambiguous, in the sole opinion of the GM, are acceptable. A typographical error that is nonetheless unambiguously understandable by the GM shall not serve to invalidate an otherwise valid order. (3) Status of Orders: Submission of preliminary orders is strongly encouraged, but not required. All orders will be considered final unless marked “Preliminary”. (4) Identification of Order Sets: All order sets submitted must contain the following information and/or adhere to the following format in the Subject line of the e-mail: Game Name; Turn Year, season, phase; Country name The GM may, but is not required to accept order sets that do not meet these requirements, nor shall the GM be required to search for nonconforming order sets. (5) Orders Submitted by Proxy: Orders submitted by proxy will not be permitted. (6) Contingent Retreat or Adjustment Orders: Retreat or adjustment turns shall be separate from movement turns. Contingent retreat orders are not required, and negotiations are allowed prior to a retreat or adjustment turn. Players are strongly encouraged, however, to submit contingent retreat, build or disband orders, when the situation of the game permits, as this will help speed the pace of the game and reduce the likelihood of NMRs occurring. (7) Multiple sets of orders: The last set of orders received by the GM before the adjudication takes place will be used, unless a specified sequence has been used to differentiate order sets (eg: v1.0, v2.0, v2.1). In the event a partial set of revised orders are submitted, previous order sets will be disregarded when the GM receives a revised order set. The GM shall not look to an earlier order set to fill in missing orders in a revised order set. III. Interpretation of Specific Orders: (1) Movement Orders: Any unit adjudged by the GM to have been ordered illegally will be presumed to have been ordered to hold, and may receive support to hold. A unit will not be adjudged to have been ordered illegally, if, before the turn was adjudicated, such movement would have been possible with the aid of other units on the board, irrespective of nationality of such other units. If an order set has been submitted, an unordered unit or units will be considered to have been ordered to hold, and may receive support to hold. (2) Multiple Orders for Units: In the event that a unit is ordered more than once within the same set of orders, the last order reading from top to bottom of the order set will be used. (3) Omitted Designations: An omitted designation of the type of a unit (A or F) will: invalidate the order. (4) Inaccurate Designations: An inaccurate designation of the type of a unit (A or F) will invalidate the order. (5) Omitted Nationality of Units: An omitted designation of the nationality of a supported or convoyed foreign unit will not invalidate the order. (6) Inaccurate Nationality of Units: An inaccurate designation of the nationality of a supported or convoyed foreign unit will not invalidate the order. (7) Omitted Specification of Coast in Movement or Holding Orders: An omitted specification of the coast of a province having two coasts in an order for movement or holding of a fleet will not invalidate the order if legal movement to/from only one coast of the province is possible for the fleet. (8) Omitted Specification of Coast in Support Orders: An order for support of a fleet to, from or in a province having two coasts, in which there is no specification of the coast of the province will not invalidate the order if legal movement to, from or in only one coast of the province is possible for the fleet being supported. (9) Non-Corresponding Specification of Coast in Support Orders: An order for support of a fleet to, from or in a province having two coasts, in which the coastal specification does not correspond to the coastal specification of the order for the unit being supported will not invalidate the order if legal movement to, from or in only one coast of the province is possible for the fleet being supported. (10) Excess Builds or Disbands: If a player attempts to build or disband more units than the position would allow, the builds or disbands will be followed in order, from top to bottom of the order set until the correct number of builds or disbands are reached, unless the order set includes conditional orders. (11) Multiple Builds in a Center: If a player attempts to build more than one unit in a single turn in the same supply center, the first build order, reading from top to bottom of the order set will be followed. IV. Deadlines and Length of Turns (1) Order Submission: It is the responsibility of each player to make sure that a set of orders is submitted as required before the deadline for each turn. Time of submission of orders shall be considered to be when the GM receives the orders, not when the orders were sent, however, the GM shall have the discretion to accept late orders if it is proven to the satisfaction of the GM that the orders were sent prior to the deadline. Individual and/or broadcast reminders may be given, but the lack of a reminder will not serve to excuse failure to submit orders. The GM will usually send a confirmation of receipt of orders, and will always endevour to reply to the set being used for adjudication. However, a lack of confirmation will not mean that the order set has not been received and will not be used for adjudication. (2) Timing of Adjudication: Adjudication of a turn will never take place before the deadline. (3) Orders After Deadline Orders will be accepted until the start of adjudication. (4) Length of Turns At least 3 days will normally be allowed for each movement turn. At least 1 day will normally be allowed for each retreat or adjustment turn, if there are separate retreat and adjustment turns. The GM may speed up or slow down the timing depending on the perceived complexity, to the GM, of the game situation, but will adhere to the original schedule if a faster pace is a hardship to any player. The guide will be that each Turn takes a week to progress. (5) Delays: Requests for delay received before the deadline will generally be granted. The GM reserves the right, after a warning is given, not to grant further delay requests if the play, in the sole opinion of the GM, is being unduly or excessively disrupted. The GM may replace any player whose extended absence, or repeated absences, in the sole opinion of the GM, would unduly or excessively disrupt the flow of the game. V. NMRs and Replacement of Players: (1) NMRs: The GM will adjudicate with orders missing from one or more powers. Players failing to submit orders must contact the GM within 24 hours of the publication of the adjudication, or the player will be deemed to have abandoned the position. When a player has NMRed, their moves will be set to ‘All Units Hold’ (2) Abandonment: The GM will normally attempt to contact the NMRing player publicly and privately before setting a player to ‘abandoned’ but the GM, at the sole discretion of the GM, reserves the right to immediately replace an NMRing player after one or more NMRs. If a player NMRs two Turns in a row, the GM not be under any obligation to allow the NMRing player to continue in the game. (3) Replacements or Civil Disorder: In the first Game Year, a replacement for an abandoned position will always be sought, and in the meantime the game will be suspended. This to to avoid massive imbalance in the game. Following that, the GM will determine which is the best course of action from the following options: i) A replacement will be sought and the game held up until one is found ii) A replacement will be sought for two game years, during which the position will be set to Civil Disorder. If no replacement is found in this time, then Civil Disorder will be permanent. iii) The position will be set to Civil Disorder permanently The GM will usually set out the reasons for choosing a particular option – to keep the game moving, to avoid an imbalance, or if it is likely that no replacement can be found, as examples. (4) NRRs If a player fails to submit a retreat order (NRR), then each unit will be taken in alphabetical order of the current province, and be ordered to retreat to a free province as determined be taking the first possible option of those below: i) Into an SC in the player’s home country ii) Into a non-SC space in the player’s home country iii) Into an SC iv) into a non-SC space If more than one province could be selected, the first one alphabetically will be chosen. If no free provinces are available, the unit will be disbanded. An NRR is not considered to be an NMR, and the player will not be penalised. (5) NBRs and NDRs If a player fails to submit Adjustment orders (NBR for no builds, NDR for no disbands), then the adjustments will be ordered as follows: Builds – If all of the player’s SCs are coastal, then fleets will be built, otherwise armies will be built. The province(s) to build in will be selected be taking the first available SC in alphabetical order. Disbands – units will be disbanded in the following order: i) Those in non-SC spaces, starting with those furthest from the home country, except for those inside the home country ii) Those in SC spaces, starting with those furthest from the home country, except for those inside the home country iii) Those in non-SC spaces in the home country iv) Those in home SC spaces Where there are less units to disband than candidates in each section, they will be removed in alphabetical order of the current province. An NBR/NDR is not considered to be an NMR, and the player will not be penalised. VI. Adjudication Correction, Review: (1) Players discovering errors in adjudication can bring them to the attention of the GM, who shall correct any errors. However, if another adjudication is published, without correction of an error, the error shall stand. (2) Review of GM Decisions: If a player feels that an adjudication error has not been corrected after having made a request for correction, the GM, in the sole discretion of the GM, may publicly or privately request advice from one or more persons of the GM’s choice, who are not involved with the game, or by posting a question on Redscape forums, but the GM shall not be bound by the opinions of the persons giving advice. VII. Press: (1) Acceptable Press: The GM, in the sole discretion of the GM, reserves the right to refuse to publish a piece or pieces of press for any reason. In general,  press correctly identifying the author (white press) will be accepted. Press to be published anonymously (gray press), press attributed to any person unofficially (dark gray press), or officially (black press) will not be accepted. As players will have access to the Redscape forums and email, the use of Press is not usually required VIII. Votes, Draws and Concessions: (1) Wins: Wins may be conceded only to a single player. All players remaining in the game must agree upon a concession unanimously. A single negative vote will defeat the proposal. All games are presumed to continue until a player wins by reaching eighteen supply centers, so an abstention or an uncast vote counts as a negative vote and defeats the proposal, however, a player for whom a conceded win is proposed shall be held to have voted for the proposal. (2) Draws: Draws may or may not include all survivors, but must be agreed to unanimously by all players remaining in the game. A draw that does not include all survivors presumes the elimination of the players not included in the draw. All games are presumed to continue until a player wins by reaching eighteen supply centers, so an abstention or an uncast vote counts as a negative vote and defeats the proposal. If, after a period of 2 game years, no supply centers have changed ownership, the GM reserves the right, after a warning is given, to declare a draw including all survivors, but will only do so if no prospects exist for a player to win either by reaching eighteen supply centers or by concession of the other players. (3) Changes to House Rules: Alternative B: Proposals may be made to change any specific house rule or rules. All players remaining in the game must agree to any rule change unanimously. All house rules are presumed to remain unchanged, so an abstention or an uncast vote counts as a negative vote and defeats the proposal. (4) Confidentiality and Limitation of Proposals: Votes will be due simultaneously with the next due date for orders. All votes will be secret and the result will be published instead of the relevant adjudication if the proposal is approved, or together with the adjudication, if the proposal fails. All votes may be submitted confidentially, players may submit revised votes, and the GM shall not reveal any information regarding the specific votes of an individual power, or the total of votes for or against any proposal. The GM, in the sole discretion of the GM, may refuse to conduct votes on repetitive or humorous proposals. Each Player may only submit one proposal to end the game each game Turm. Players may vote for or against proposals that they submit. IX. Ownership of Communications, Integrity of Identity and E-mail Systems (1) Forwarding of E-Mails: E-mails and other communications are the intellectual property of their author, but the GM and players, by virtue of agreeing to GM or play in the game, freely give permission for the use of those e-mails and communications by other participants as part of the play of the particular game for which the e-mails or other communications were sent, subject to the restrictions of this Section. Forwarding of e-mails will not be restricted by the GM. (2) Impersonation of Players or GM, Subversion of E-Mail Systems: Impersonation of one player by another will not be restricted by the GM, as long as this occurs between the players without the involvement of the GM, and does not involve subversion of the e-mail systems of others. Any attempt to deceive or impersonate the GM, or to subvert the integrity of the e-mail system of the GM, another player, or a third party will be grounds for immediate replacement.