Diplomacy Boardgame Trivia

By Simon Szykman

As part of building a collection of Diplomacy games, I've been doing a fair amount of research into the various editions of the Diplomacy boardgame over the past few months. The culmination of this research will appear in the next issue of the zine. In the meantime, I've extracted from this pile of information a bunch of trivia questions which range from simple ones to ones that I don't expect many people (if any) to answer. Although difficult questions are included, I tried to limit them to ones that were not too esoteric so that even people who don't know an answer would learn a bit of information they found interesting when they learned the answer.


    The Editions

  1. Who designed the boardgame Diplomacy? (Yeah, that's an easy one but some of these may be pretty hard for most people so I thought I'd include a giveaway question to make up for it.)

  2. In what year was Diplomacy first commerially sold?
    (a) 1954
    (b) 1958
    (c) 1959
    (d) 1961

  3. Which of the following has never been used as a material for fleet and army pieces in a commercially-sold (i.e. not homemade) Diplomacy game?
    (a) Wood
    (b) Plastic
    (c) Metal
    (d) Cardboard
    (e) None of the above

  4. In what year was the Avalon Hill bookcase edition with plastic pieces first sold?

  5. Which company sold the edition of Diplomacy shown in the image below?


    The Companies

  6. Name as many countries as you can in which local editions of Diplomacy have been sold. The use of the word "local" is meant to exclude countries where Avalon Hill editions were imported and sold with a translated rulebook.

  7. In the U.K., two different kinds of pieces have been used for fleets: flat elongated 5-sided polygons, and pieces shaped like little ships. One company sold sets with both kinds of pieces (at different points in time, not both types in one box). Name that company.

  8. Name the first company to license rights to produce and sell the game Diplomacy outside of the United States.

  9. Name the second company to license rights to produce and sell the game Diplomacy outside of the United States.

  10. Which company published editions of Diplomacy in two different languages, neither of which was English?

  11. Which company released a bootleged version of Diplomacy (i.e., a version of Diplomacy which was sold without having licensed the rights to the game).


    Diplomacy Around the World

  12. In what year was Diplomacy first sold outside of the United States?

  13. In which country was Diplomacy published with a bilingual rulebook?

  14. Name two countries in which three different companies from outside the United States at one time or another sold local-language editions of Diplomacy. (Note that "companies from outside the United States" is intended to exclude things like Avalon Hill editions that were exported to other countries and sold with translated rulebooks.)


    The Variants

    Note: In this context, "variants" refers to commercially published and sold games (other than Diplomacy) that are designed around the same core mechanics of Diplomacy. In other words, this includes variants whose rules are identical to those of Diplomacy, as well as those games which may have many substantially new concepts but whose underlying mechanics are built upon those of Diplomacy.

  15. Name as many commercial Diplomacy variants as you can.

  16. Which commercial variants were eventually re-published with gameboards having a revised map which differed from the original one?

  17. Which variants were eventually re-published in a box that differed from the original one?


    Teaser

  18. How many different local editions of Diplomacy have been published throughout the world? (Note: Just coming close on this question is good enough. I assume that my own information is not exhaustive, and that there are very likely editions of the game that I don't know about, so I wouldn't presume to say that I know what the correct answer is.)

    In the context of this question, two editions are considered to be different if anything relating directly to the game is at all different (even subtly) in one edition than in the other. Things that do relate directly to the game include the box design, gameboard, pieces, rulebook, rule summary sheets, play-by-mail Diplomacy information sheets, etc. Things that do not relate directly to the game are things that are not specific to Diplomacy which might be found in boxes for other games, such as marketing materials, flyers advertising gaming conventions or organizations, catalogs of games from the company selling the game, information on ordering replacement parts, etc. And as with an earlier question, the term "local" is meant to exclude Avalon Hill editions that were imported to other countries and sold with translated rulebooks.

    Why is the above question called a teaser? Because I'm not going to give you the answer to that one. You'll have to wait until the next issue.

Answers to the other questions can be found here.

Simon Szykman
(simon@diplom.org)

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