Hi guys,
 
I'm grateful Dirk has made the transition from a
1936 player to a 1936 GM! Not only does this advance playtesting, but it also
allows me to have a first go at playing one of my own variants! Though I dare
say I'll once again prove that game designers usually aren't particularly good
at playing their own games...
 
Until about a year ago, I took something like a
five-year holiday from all things Diplomacy. Before that, I played quite a bit
since first getting a game together in High School, though obviously had to
take a break during my military service. American friends of ours gave my
father a copy of Avalon Hill at some point, no doubt because he's a diplomat
himself. As kids, we used the board to play our Risk-style games on what we
thought was a better map than Risk's original one. At some point though I got
curious about the game's actual rules, read them and that got the ball
rolling...
 
Round 2000/2001, I came across Baron Powell's
excellent 1900 variant and became an immediate convert what I believe happens to
be a scenario superior to Standard Diplomacy. Brilliant stuff! As Baron and I
began a long-running correspondence about variant design, the Ambition &
Empire variant soon came to my attention and I was immediately intrigued by the
well-modeled historical scenario and the ever so fascinating DP mechanism Baron
and Jeff had come up with. The bulk of my pbem Diplomacy playing 2001-04 was
limited to Baron's variants as I felt that Standard and other variants simply
couldn't match Baron's and Jeff's work.
 
Being such a fan of the DP mechanism, I started to
wonder what other historical settings might mesh well with Baron's and Jeff's
innovation. I soon homed in on the mid-17th century and the interwar period,
then setting about to designing my own DP variants: 1648 and
1926/36.
 
After my five-year Diplomacy "sabbatical", what
drew me back into the hobby was that a fresh look at the 1648 variant gave me
the idea how to fix a number of issues I hadn't solved to my satisfaction in the
past. Following those tweaks, I felt like running a playtest and that got me
back into the hobby.
 
So, over the past year I've GMed one 1648 (DC264),
one 1926 (DC283) and one 1900 game (on DPJudge) to conclusion, while I'm
currently running the second 1648 (DC279) and the first 1936 contest
(DC319).
 
As a player, I've played Germany in a Standard game
(DC266) and Denmark-Norway in an Ambition & Empire game. As you already
know, Wladimir played Russia in (DC266 - not DC270!) and Robert championed
Britain in that Ambition & Empire game. Currently I'm involved in a 1900
game, though none of you guys are involved in that one.
 
So that's the extent of my hobby involvement over
the past year. I don't believe I encountered anyone else in our group in earlier
years. Of course, none of this matters since I trust we all approach a new game
with a clean slate as regards to players we've previously
encountered.
 
As for my power preferences, I put Germany on top
of my list because:
 
- I'm particularly fond of playing centrally
located players.
- Germany didn't do well in the previous 1926
contest.
- Some of the newly implemented changes worsen
Germany's odds and I'd like to see whether I'm up to those additional
challenges.
- I myself am German and championing your own
country always has a special draw.
 
That being said, my preferences was only a slight
one as I'm also eager to try my hand at the others as well. But a slight
preference is still a preference, so I spent the max bidding points on
Germany.
 
As a designer, I obviously am interested in what
positions players particularly want to play. In the 1936 contest I am running
myself, France, the Soviet Union, Britain and Italy proved the more popular
powers. My guess is that was in part on account of players wanting to have a
stake in Spanish affairs. But much as in this game, preferences were quite
reasonably spread out, so these stats aren't that meaningful. And I certainly
don't take them as an indication of which powers players consider stronger than
others. After all, players pick their preferences for all sorts of
reasons.
 
Okay, I've gone on quite enough. I hope this gaming
experience shall be a blast for everyone involved!
 
Cheers,
 
Charles