In this article I am going to talk about what kind of writing styles you can adopt in your press. I'm assuming you're using the DPJudge or some other Play by E-mail system, and that you don't know the people that you're playing with. The idea here is that the presentation of your ideas is equally important as the ideas themselves.

When I started to play Diplomacy on the Judge, when I wrote my press I always tried to come across as an intelligent even-minded individual who was capable of stringing lots of words together in a line. Why did I do this? I can only assume it was because I felt people wouldn't want to work with or to trust someone who came across as volatile or just plain stupid. Despite this being the style of press I see most often in my games, I'm not convinced that it's the best way to communicate in the game — in fact, I believe it has some marked disadvantages.

• Marked disadvantage number one: People see you as a threat. Yes, a threat! I didn't realise this myself until I'd been playing for quite a while and I found that, at the start of a new game when press is flying left, right and centre, I began mentally labelling the most silver-tounged frequent pressers as "potential problems". Indeed, when planning your european domination from turn one, anyone who doesn't come across as a complete newbie to the game is a threat, but those who come over as the most experienced, greasy diplomats are the ones you want to keep an eye on. On the other hand, the players who just send one or two reasonably short presses, proposing a DMZ here or an alliance here, without writing a missive trying to convince you why such an agreement would be in your interest, seemed to worry me less.
  
  
• Marked disadvantage number two: It's very easy to get into a formula for writing messages, which means that other players can recognise you from different games. I used to have a "formula" for writing my press. I would start with Dear Countryname, and at the end I would put Regards, myCountryname. The problem with this was that I was quickly recognised by one or two players from game to game, which is something you definitely do not want to happen. Grudges from previous games are carried over, knowledge of your playstyle, your trustability and your aims in a game are carried over. This was especially bad in my case as my playstyle is somewhat that of "chronic stabber who goes for the solo every time". And once you have a reputation like that and someone recognises you, your game is over before it's begun!

So, what options are available to the cunning player who wants to manipulate other players without writing long persuasive messages in Queen's English? I believe the problem is as follows: When you start the game, you want others to move as you'd like them to. To do this, you try to persuade them using the diplomatic style with long convincing presses. The problem is that all good Diplomacy players are used to this, and quite often even resent it. So you're better off not even trying to persuade people in this way. The subtelty is to get others to agree to your moves without them even realising they've been convinced. If I could do that, I'd be a master. Anyway, I'll talk about a couple of techniques that I've seen or used that are designed to avoid either or both of the above disadvantages, which are enough to kill your game regardless of what power or what plans you make.

• Technique number one: The foreigner. This is a favourite of mine, and I've used it a few times, to varying levels of success. You write your messages such that they contain numerous (how many is up to you) grammatical errors, and that they are never particularly long. You keep sentences short. My favourite thing to do is to butcher prepositions, which is easy if you happen to speak another language yourself. If in your language, you talk to someone *of* something rather than *about*, then slip into your press that you've heard from Germany, who kept talking of an attack towards England. Since prepositions are a nightmare to language students everywhere, but an error will certainly not go unnoticed by a native, this is sufficient to give the impression that you're "not from around here". "So what?" I hear you cry! "Surely Diplomacy players aren't racist enough to think that someone who's not from the USA or UK makes a worse player?" Surely not indeed. The fact remains however that a player who manages to get all his ideas across clearly but who doesn't write beautiful persuasive English somehow seems less like he's putting up a beautiful façade to cover his evil intentions. The player who states some moves in a press and then says: "Which are your thoughts about these?" is more likely to elicit a positive response from me than someone who tells me what is best for me. And makes me read a page of press at that.
  
  
• Technique number two: The character. I've not quite used this one myself, but I lose track of the times where I see someone role playing in Diplomacy. The message starts with something about them being King (or Queen) of the high seas and ends with "My kindest greetings to you and your people, from the throne room of Great High King (or Queen) Olaf the Second". The benefit? Two-fold. Firstly, the benefit is to you, the role player. Because you put on a mental 'hat' before writing your press, you're less likely to say something you don't really mean or say something without thinking it through properly, because everything you say has to be translated into what your character would say. Secondly, no one else on the board knows quite what to make of you. Is he a nutter? Maybe? The only real risk with this is that you are recognised simply because you are "the guy who always role plays". This depends on the circles you play in, I guess.
  
  
• Technique number three: The emotional guy (the madman). I quite like this one. It's amazing what it can do sometimes. Basically, you act as if you have principles, by which I mean that you refuse to deal with someone who stabs you. If you offer someone a deal and they say no, instead of coming up with another offer or a reworked version, you say "Well then I am sorry you're not interested. Maybe we will have business another time.". The player will quite often come back to you with their own version of the deal. In a game full of slimy persuasive types, sometimes it can be quite fun to just pretend to lose control. Preferably in a broadcast. You send out a press in which you rage at player X who stabbed you last turn. You spell out exactly what he said to you, all his promises (include excerpts from his press to you if you like). You make clear that your only remaining goal in this game is to bring his many crimes against your proud nation to justice. What can this do? It suddenly paints you as a player with principles. Someone who isn't going to stop waging his war for a cheap centre but infact has a drive to see player X eliminated. This makes it much easier to find reliable allies against poor old player X because everyone knows (thinks) that you are committed to the fight. This technique can also dissuade any one else who was planning to nick a cheap SC and hoping to get away with it. And finally, it can make your allies trust you more, because they also feel like you're committed to fighting someone else.

Aside from these three techniques though, there are other much easier ways to stop yourself coming over as an old hand. Don't tell the other players what to do, but instead ask them questions. Put forward an idea and ask them what they think about it. It makes them feel like they are running the relationship between you. If another player mentions a Lepanto or ELS or a Juggernaut in their press, feel free to ask them what it is. I think you will find that in Diplomacy there is a much greater chance that people will try to take advantage of, rather than gang up on, the player who seems like he's newer to the game. And it's far better to be in a position where your ally thinks he has you sussed and will deal with you when he's got time than one who's thinking 'This guy knows what he's doing, as soon as I can spare a unit I'll have to turn on him just to save my ass'.

In short, in Diplomacy it can pay high dividends to appear like a newbie who's not really sure what he's doing. Counterintuitive, eh? There are a hundred and one ways to do this, and probably far better than what I've described, but I hope I've given you some ideas.

Sam Jones (thewelshone@gmail.com)

If you wish to e-mail feedback on this article to the author, and clicking on the envelope above does not work for you, feel free to use the "Dear DP..." mail interface.