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One of the few perks of being an Interim Editor is you can say what you think. After all, what can they do — fire you? What I have to say may not be pleasant to some people to read and it is never easy being the bearer of bad news. I learned that 30 years when I led the charge to save Diplomacy World when it was having problems. The kick in the pants I gave it then must have worked because it’s still going and doing better than ever under Doug Kent’s stewardship. ‘nuff on that. And now I am dealing with TDP which I believe is one of the hobby’s fundamental pillars. It is important. It is needed. And it is a mess. Manus has led it for nearly 20 years and done a good job, often in the face of great challenges. Chris has likewise done a good job, dealing with his own challenges. And recently, as I have learned, it has been Charles who has held it together and kept it going. For that I thank all of them. When I agreed (Why did I open my big mouth and volunteer or was I drafted?) to take over as Interim Editor for two issues I didn’t know how bad a shape TDP was in. That was my fault because I hadn’t asked, but I soon learned that Manus was tired, Chris was tired, Charles was steering a boat with no captain, half the crew had disappeared, and the supplies were down to one meal. Manus had kept TDP going by begging, but he was tired of it. Chris had kept TDP going by begging and saying thank you, and he was tired of it. And Charles, I suspect, was just tired. The half of the crew that bailed I can’t blame. The half of the crew that has stayed the course I can only thank for your help with this issue. It was much appreciated. And that leaves you, the regular readers, the occasional readers, and the hobby at large. Where are you going? Manus and Chris have always, and rightly so, used TDP as a vehicle for their interests in the hobby: Judge, computerized Dip, etc. Nothing wrong with that but it reflected such a small part of the hobby that the ‘zine lost its critical mass as the hobby grew and changed. I, on the other hand, have always thought of TDP as DW’s little brother or alternative read. I looked for things in TDP that I wouldn’t find in DW and I found them.
Unfortunately this issue, as you can see, has much too much Peeriblah in it and not enough contributions from others. When I asked Charles what we had to work with he said, “I think we have one story in the in box but I don’t remember.” Immediately my thoughts went back to the 1980s when I ran into the same problem with DW. I had asked and begged and pleaded with hobbyists to contribute something for the ‘zine. Nada. And so I issued an ultimatum, “If you don’t produce you’re going to have an issue of nothing but Peeriblah.” And so it came to be. After that things got better. Fortunately, given the short time lines (This all began 2.5 weeks ago) the stable of TDP contributors has produced, as have other colleagues and friends in the hobby to the point where we have a viable and sizeable issue of TDP — albeit, as I would be the first to admit, one with WAY TOO MUCH PEERIBLAH. 36 pages on A Smyra – Syria may seem absurd to you but to me it was a tribute to Peter Paul Koch’s fine article, one of the best I’ve ever read in any hobby publication. All I did was fatten it up a bit. 256:2 odds may not rank with Thermopylae, but it’s still pretty good. Mario Huys and Graeme Ackland impressed me with their enthusiasm for Sherlock Holmes and things I couldn’t even understand. And so many others helped and encouraged me. After an initial assessment I realized I wasn’t the only one that wanted TDP to survive, to heal and to prosper. To change directions toward that end is what I hope to do in the next two issues. It’s not much time. It’s a large task. But I believe we can do it together if we want. This is not a manifesto or such, because the decision is not mine to make. First, it must be made by Manus and Chris, and then the remaining staff and finally the readers. All I can do is give you my thoughts on where our little boat needs to go. First, we need to bring TDP into the hobby mainstream; and that means enthusiastically embracing MeetUp and the social internet as the way to growth in the hobby. Read our articles on that in this issue and you’ll see the wave of the future. Embrace it if you will and as I have. If not, go over to the hotel bar and drown your sorrows when your DipCon flounders. Second, we need to bring TDP into the hobby mainstream’s tributaries. That’s more difficult than it sounds because the hobby, like these times, is changing and changing rapidly. Judge and all that is important, but I believe the future, 20 years down the road, is going to be what I call robotic Diplomacy. That’s why I mentioned in this issue and I plan to devote a good part of the next issue to it. One of these days you, or your kids, are going to sit down to play Dip face to face, interacting with six robots. Mark my works. None of this is going to happen because I say it or wish it so. Whether it happens or not doesn’t depend on what I do. It depends on what you do, just as what happens to TDP depends on what you and your hobby friends do. What impressed me most about prepping this issue wasn’t the fact how old TDP was or how enfeebled it was, but how much new life in it there is; new ideas about how to bring new people into the hobby and how to organize our meetings, new ideas about how to use numbers to give meaning to what we do, new ideas about how to face with glee the future of the hobby, and most of all how to enjoy what we enjoy doing. After fifty years I see a great future ahead for the hobby and game and I expect TDP to be a part of it. No, in fact, I expect TDP to be leading the way. After all, no one ever said the flagship had to be the biggest boat in the fleet!
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