Here are my draft regulations for the annual Birthday Tournament. I intend, Without 3 Objections, to enact the following — modified from previous Birthday regulations and a variety of rulesets for Diplomacy, primarily those of EPCC [0] and the official rules [1] — as the regulations for this year's Birthday Tournament.
0. P.S.S. CANNOT win this Tournament or become a Contestant. P.S.S. is the Gamemaster and Judge of this game. 1. Until July 7 or 7 days after the promulgation of these rules, whichever is later, any person CAN enter the contest (becoming a Contestant) by announcement, on eir own behalf, as long as no more than six other persons have already done so. 2. The Gamemaster CAN cause any person to cease to be a Contestant by announcement. The Gamemaster CAN cause any consenting person to become a Contestant by announcement. The Gamemaster CAN, by announcement, amend the gamestate by substituting one Contestant into all instances of another Contestant. If fewer than seven persons have become Contestants, the Gamemaster CAN replace the text of these regulations with appropriate regulations for a Nomic-inspired game, such as FRC, an experimental Nomic, or a sub-Nomic. The Gamemaster CAN amend the text of these regulations arbitrarily in order to prevent breaches of Agoran custom or rules. The Gamemaster SHOULD NOT take any actions permitted by this section unless it is in the best interests of the game. 3. When all contestants except one have been eliminated from the contest, the victor is (1) the last contestant remaining. The judge SHALL then, with 2 days notice, announce them as winners, whereupon they win the tournament and the tournament is concluded. If the judge believes that more than one person is deserving of the win, e CAN announce them all as winners. The judge SHOULD award a badge to all participants in the Tournament, broadly construed, after the conclusion of the Tournament unless it has not been completed in a satisfactory manner. 4. The judge is the final arbitor on matters of this tournament, and eir decisions can overturned if and only if a CFJ finds eir decisions were made with arbitrary or capricious disregard for the terms of these regulations. The judge shall adjudicate these regulations in an equitable manner, with emphasis placed on the intent of the clauses and the fair treatment of all parties. 5. Sections numbered 0 through 5 CANNOT be amended except according to the procedures established by Section 2 or the rules of Agora. 6. The game SHALL be conducted on a map mechanically indistinguishable from that appearing at [2]. The Gamemaster SHALL assign Great Powers to Contestants according to an equitable and random method. 7. Contestants may seek the assistance of non-Contestants. If any do so, they SHALL notify the Judge and publicly announce the identities of any such non-Contestants and what assistance they will provide. This could include negotiating on eir behalf, providing feedback on orders, or drafting proposals on eir behalf. 8. At any time, any Contestant CAN submit a Proposal to change the rules by announcement. Any Contestant CAN withdraw any Proposal e has submitted by announcement. When a Proposal has been submitted but not withdrawn, any Contestant other than the Proposer CAN privately send a vote to the Judge. When a Proposal has received at least three non-withdrawn votes in favor, the Judge SHALL, in a timely fashion, and CAN enact the proposal by publishing the new text of the regulations and the number of votes in favor and against. The Judge SHALL NOT reveal the votes of specific Contestants. 9. If in the past three game-years, no province has changed ownership, the Gamemaster CAN declare the game a draw, with 2 days notice, concluding the Tournament and announcing all remaining Contestants as winners. 10. Contestants SHALL NOT offer favors outside of this Tournament in order to influence the outcome of it. Contestants CAN and SHOULD lie and engage in deceit for personal gain. 11. There are two types of units: Armies and Fleets. 12. All units have the same strength. 13. There can only be one unit in a province at a time. 14. At the start of the game, each Great Power controls three supply centers, with the exception of Russia, which controls four. These are allocated according to the table shown in the official rules. 15. At the beginning of each turn, there is a period, lasting from 0 UTC until 24 UTC on the same calendar day, in which negotiations should occur. Following this, there is a period until 12 UTC on the following day, during which orders CAN be submitted privately to the Gamemaster. The next turn will begin at 24 UTC on that day, by which time the Gamemaster SHALL have resolved the orders, according to the rules as they were at the end of the ordering period and announced the new state of the game. Orders CAN be submitted during the negotiations period and can be changed at any time when orders could be submitted. Each set of orders should specify what eir units will do and how they will retreat and disband if necessary. When appropriate, orders should also contain conditionals for the creation and destruction of units. Orders should specify unit type, one or more provinces, and an action. 16. Each turn represents six months of time. The first turn is called a Spring turn and the next a Fall turn. After each Fall turn, each Great Power must reconcile the number of units it controls with the number of supply centers it controls. At this time some units are removed and new ones are built. After a Fall turn, if one Great Power controls 18 or more supply centers, all other Contestants cease to be Contestants. 17. There are four possible orders: Hold, Move, Support, and Convoy. Not giving a unit an order is interpreted as ordering it to hold. A Hold order orders a unit to stay where it is. A Move order orders a unit to move to a different province. Armies can only move onto adjacent inland or coastal provinces. Fleets can only move to adjacent water or coastal provinces. A Move order making use of a Convoy must specify what Convoy paths it will use or conditionals to determine such. Support orders help another unit's action, whether or not it is a unit of the same Great Power. An Army or Fleet can provide support to another Army or Fleet. Support can be offensive or defensive. A Convoy order orders a fleet in a water province to move an army from an adjacent coastal province to another adjacent coastal province. 18. Bulgaria, Spain, and St. Petersburg have separately identified coasts, between which fleets cannot move. If Fleets occupy adjacent water provinces, an Army can be convoyed through all these water provinces on one turn, landing in a coastal province adjacent to the final Fleet in the chain. 19. If two units of equal strength or which are equally supported are trying to occupy the same province, all remain where they began. If two or more units are ordered to the same province, none of them can move. If two units are each ordered to the province that the other occupies, neither can move. If an attack is successful, the attacking unit moves into the province to which it was ordered. If the unit that was attacked had no orders of its own to move elsewhere, it’s defeated and dislodged from the province. The dislodged unit must retreat or be disbanded. 20. A unit moves with its own strength combined with all of its valid supports. Support is cut if the unit giving support is attacked from any province except the one where support is being given or if the unit giving support is dislodged. 21. A country can’t dislodge or support the dislodgment of one of its own units, even if that dislodgment is unexpected. An attack by a country on one of its own units doesn’t cut support. A convoyed Army doesn’t cut the support of a unit supporting an attack against one of the Fleets necessary for the Army to convoy. 22. A dislodged unit must retreat to an adjacent province. Retreats can’t be convoyed or supported. If two or more units are ordered to retreat to the same province, they all must be disbanded. If a player fails to order a retreat when necessary, the unit is disbanded. 23. A country controls a supply center when one of its units occupies that supply-center province after a Fall turn has been played and completed. Once a country gains control of a supply center, it can leave the center vacant and still keep control of it, as long as that center isn’t occupied by another country at the close of a Fall turn. As part of eir Fall orders, each player adjusts the number of units it had to match the number of supply centers it controls. If a country has fewer supply centers than units, it must disband the excess number of units. If a country has more supply centers than units, it can place new units in each unoccupied supply center of its home country that it still controls. All provinces can build armies, but only coastal provinces can build fleets. 24. If a player leaves the game or otherwise fail to submit orders on a given Spring or Fall turn, the Gamemaster SHALL attempt to replace em with a new Contestant, but if this fails, it's assumed that eir government has collapsed. Eir units all hold in position, but don’t support each other. If they’re dislodged, they’re disbanded. No new units are raised for the country. If a country in civil disorder has to remove units, the units farthest from the country are removed first. If units are equally distant, then remove Fleets before Armies and then in alphabetical order by the provinces in which they’re located. 25. Where these rules are silent, the Gamemaster CAN make use of the official rules or eir own common sense to ensure smooth play. [0]http://uk.diplom.org/pouch/Email/ep.house.rules.txt [1]https://media.wizards.com/2015/downloads/ah/diplomacy_rules.pdf [2]https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a3/Diplomacy.svg -- ---- Publius Scribonius Scholasticus, Herald, Referee, Tailor, Pirate Champion, Badge of the Great Agoran Revival, Badge of the Salted Earth
