Jamie McQuinn
Fifteen years ago, when I was in college, I played Dungeons & Dragons for a while. At the time, I recall hearing laments from the Board Gamers that they were being edged out by the Role Players. Today, to my amazement, I saw everyone being nudged to the side by the Card Gamers. By cards, of course, I don't mean Bridge or Euchre. "Magic" was clearly the game of choice at this con. Everywhere I went, it looked as if at least half of the attendees were playing Magic, or one of its imitators.
Personally, I find the whole Trading Card Games phenomenon insidious and evil. It doesn't matter how good you are at playing the game; you can't really be good, and win lots of games, if you don't buy more and more cards. Damn! I wish I thought of it first. (More on that later.) Anyway, I eventually wound my way through the hoards of card players, ran the gauntlet of the LARPs (Live Action Role Players), and found my way to the Madison room, where I found the sane and friendly Diplomacy players.
My first (and only other DipCon) was at Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in 1994. Both there and here in Columbus, I most enjoyed actually meeting face-to-face some of the people that I met through both the postal and email Diplomacy Hobbies. Among the "old-timers" I met this time the names that stood out were Larry Peery, Buz Eddy and Edi Birsan. I have seen their names floating around the Hobby for years. Larry and Edi both have significant contributions to the Hoosier Archives. Of the "newcomers" to the Hobby, I was delighted to finally meet Manus Hand, and his associates from The Diplomatic Pouch, Simon Szykman and Pitt Crandlemire. Of course, CTR subbers, Paul Milewski and Bruce Reiff were there too. Bruce was the Con Chair for DipCon, and Larry Peery was the Chair of the World DipCon. Among the interesting characters I met that weekend, three stand out. They were the three college freshmen from St. Louis who drove out together in a van, and didn't take a room in the hotel. They simply crashed for a couple of hours on the floor of the gaming room. I don't think I ever had that kind of gaming energy when I was their age.
Friday night got off to a great start. (For additional details see Larry Peery's E-GRAM in the hobby news section.) I was France, and I allied with Germany (Greg?) right from the start. We had England thinking 3-way, but in actuality, our plan was to take him out quickly, and we did. Several times I feared that Germany would turn on me, and a couple of times, through my own misjudgement gave him reason, but he stayed true. In the end, we pushed across the board to a concession by the other powers. This F/G two-way win is my best result ever in tournament play. However, I could not have done it without Greg, who was a master strategist. He would often see things that were not obvious to me.
Saturday morning I found myself in Austria. I allied with Italy (Ted) and again, he stayed true to the end with me. Unfortunately, Turkey and Russia were too relentless. At one point, early on, when things were going well, I actually got a fleet into Portugal, eventually however, I was down to one unit in Ukraine, with Portugal as my only center! I don't recall the outcome. A vote finally settled on E/T or E/I/T.
Saturday night, I had hoped to get a game of Colonial Diplomacy going, but could not find enough takers. Instead, I volunteered to GM one of the tables for the Gunboat Tournament. In the end Ted and Simon Szykman shared a two-way after a hard fought battle that saw players leave through attrition. It just got too late.
Sunday, after the Hobby Meeting, I played Russia, and never did very well, right from he start. I survived at the end with three centers, after being stabbed by both England (Roland from Sweden) and Turkey (Jim Yerky). In what he claims was his last tournament game (Jim has won many tournaments, and now runs the Dip tournament at AvalonCon), Jim was able to manipulate me from beginning to end. Both times he stabbed me, he was still able to convince me that continuing to work with him was my only hope. And it was true. If I didn't stick with Turkey, I was sure to get swallowed by England and/or Germany. In the end, I think they settled for a two-way E/T.
The Hobby Meeting was VERY poorly attended. Maybe 15 people were there. But it was decided that DipCon would be held in Seattle next year, and that WDC would go to Sweden. WDC for 1998 will return to Chapel Hill, so you can pretty much count on DipCon ending up there as well. Larry's proposal that we chuck the whole sight selection process, and start over was ignored. A committee was formed to attempt, yet again, to find a WDC Charter that all (or most) can agree to. One sticking point seems to be the notion that there should be a single method of running a tournament at all WDC's. The other problem, of course, is setting up the "rotation" schedule for sight selection.
Overall, I had a great weekend. I had fun on the Dip board, I met some great people, and gave away lots of sample issues to my zine. My preference is to have a "Dip" only event, as opposed to being a small part of a larger gaming convention, but Origins turned out to be not so awful. Even though they won't be hosting DipCon, they will likely have a Diplomacy event, so I might even go back next year as they will be in Columbus again. Otherwise, maybe Avaloncon next year. Probably not Seattle or Sweden, but I'm definitely going to plan for Chapel Hill in 1998.
Hope to see you there.
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Jamie McQuinn (jmcquinn@delphi.com) |
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