Diplomacy Zine -- EP #167 Chapter Five From: Eric_S_Klien@cup.portal.com Date: Fri, 18 May 1990 03:13:38 +0000 Issue #167 of ELECTRONIC PROTOCOL: ************************************************************************** "Where's Alice?" Heineman grumbled. "Alice who?" Ram Kikura asked. "Just Alice," Heineman said. "I can't help feeling we're in Wonderland." "Are we missing someone?" the mayor asked, turning his head and appearing concerned. ************************************************************************** Chapter One contains: BLITZKRIEG, GETTYSBURG, BUSHIDO, RED STORM RISING, and COMRADES IN ARMS And is published by daybell@aludra.usc.edu/Donald Daybell Chapter Two contains: DRAGONSLAYER, BISMARK, COLD WAR, JACAL, MANHATTAN, VERSAILLES, and DRESDEN And is published by tedward@cs.cornell.edu/Ted Fischer Chapter Three contains: MULHOUSE, DAWN PATROL, SNIKKEL-2, BERLIN, SNIKKEL-1, EL ALAMEIN, SQUALANE, UNGAWE, CAPTAIN CAVEMAN And is published by cwekx@htikub5.bitnet/Constantijn Wekx Chapter Four contains: FIRE WHEN READY, DREADNOUGHT, JUGGERNAUGHT, BIG WILLIE, NICKEL, and OZARK And is published by lord_zar@ucrmath.ucr.edu/Wayne Wallace ------------- Chapter Five ------------- Nothing has happened since the last issue was published since I just published it 15 minutes ago. New results will start again in issue #170. I needed to catch up in publishing the chapters. Publisher comments: Quote from From p. 364 of Eon by Greg Bear. I need some standbys and some scribes. If anyone wants to type in some new articles, I would love to send them to you! The following is a reprint from PROTOCOL #3 (my postal zine) Taken from Diplomacy Digest #90: ((Notes like this)) is from Mark Berch, editor of DD. (((Notes like this))) are from me. THE FORGED LETTER by Konrad Baumeister As has been discussed ad infinitum in several Diplomacy zines for decades, the question of ethics plays a major role in the game and in the style of the players. Opinions and standards range from the George Washington ("I cannot tell a lie") approach to the Machiavellian (i.e. do anything if it means a profit later on; the end justifies the means) approach, while most players hover somewhere in between. (I prefer the Machiavellian myself, but that's another article.) Those players on the George Washington end of the spectrum have absolutely no methods of deception open to them for use in the game, and this is, of course, a direct result of their refusal to lie in a game specifically designed for lying. On the other hand, players that DO fib a bit when the situation favors said untruth have an almost infinite number of devices open to them for use towards their assumed and natural goal -- winning the game. One of these little tricks is the forged letter. At this point any players that find that this practice is anathema can overlook this article ... On the other hand, those that want to win the game and are not afraid to use another angle can go on. Good. Glad to have you with me, mom. First of all, I should say that many players view a forged letter as underhanded play --- even some that view a stab as perfectly acceptable. Actually, these things have to be handled with the utmost care and discretion. I know of a player whose reputation has been completely ruined because of his indiscreet handling of the decision to forge a letter... ((Who? Who?? Who???)) Second, one shouldn't go around faking letters every season or two. Forging a letter is a pretty serious and drastic move, and should only be done once in a game (if it's needed at all), and then only if the situation is such that no ther method of repairing the problem will do. (Now, that's MY opinion ---- others say every season or two is OK!) Third, consider the other players reactions to finding out what a conniving guy you really are. Although usually these things can be kept secret, occasionally, the word leaks out, and you may wind up having egg on your face, with a lot of explaining to do. The chances are, in my case, fairly large that your country will need some help after enraging much of the board (should you get found out, you dirty forger!) Fourth, luck plays a part; some people's letters are easy to fake, and some aren't. Typing the letter normally works as long as the typewriters match... Also, people that PRINT are setting themselves up, since it's easy to copy print; on the other hand, someone with handwriting such as mine are relatively safe. All these things should be taken into account before making such a weighty and important decision. ((You should also consider how much you have to gain by such a forgery. Even a small risk of getting caught may not be worth taking if the expected gain is small. On the other hand, the forgery that could net you a game-winning puppet (rather than a draw or second place finish) may be a good proposition even if the situation is not favorable for a successful forgery. As with any form of deception, you must fix one eye on the gain, another on the risk.)) SO, THE WHOLE STORY: As we all know, passing letters is a common element of the game. (((I consider passing letters extremely bad taste and would not recommend it.))) Germany xeroxes a letter received from Austria suggesting hostile moves against Russia, and Germany sends it to Russia, hoping to embroil the Balkans in bitter conflict while he moves to control Scandinavia and the North. (Some people even frown on this Ghod, tell me what's wrong with it!) Obviously, the passing of someone else's letter can be greatly beneficial to the passer's cause, and nobody is at a distinct disadvantage, since it is fairly safe to say that everybody (except Dave Crockett) that communicates in the game does so primarily by mail. And so nobody is "safe" from having his communiques fall into the wrong hands. (Of course, should this practice get out of hand, one who does this won't be receiving too many letters anyway....) Sometimes, however, two or three powers are closely allied, more than likely against you. From your point of view, this isn't always the best way of conquering the board, so you try to get them to seperate and fight each other, leaving you with the balance of power. All attempts to convince them fail, and your only available option is to have them get mad at each other, or about possible future plans concerning their ally, and how his centers would look better under their column in the winter.. Alas as it happens, there are occasions when you can find nothing which even resembles a balck mark on their records, as you peruse the past game correspondence. It is now left up to you to put one there. Assuming that faking the typing or writing is no real problem, you now get to decide exactly what to say. Generally, insulting one or other player outright is much too obvious to be effective. In fact, as an over-the-thumb rule, emotion should be kept to a minimum -- unless, of course, the person you are claiming the letter origins came from is deemed by you to be a very emotional person. It would be best to use simple logic; something like, "Ever since Spring 1901 I've wanted to attack Turkey, cuz he's a dirty, pigheaded fool!" will not do. Rather, something the likes of "If I let Turkey grow too much longer, he may present a great threat to my back door, more so than you do now. If we were to both attack him now, we can eliminate this mutual threat while safely staying out of each other's hair." is more likely to succeed. Try to assume the aura that the person you are trying to imitate usually had in his letters to you. ((And don't get carried away.)) After the letter is written/typed, xerox off a couple of copies, and make sure that you keep a copy of the letter yourself -- you may need it later to refer back to. Send the letter to the person verbably attacked in the fake, and other appropriate persons; NEVER, NEVER, NEVER to the person from who it was supposed to have come from in the first place ((the more copies of the fake you send out, the more chances there are that someone will mention the letter to him anyhow)). What happens after the letter is out of the house? Sometimes, nothing, sometimes too much, and every so often, you get the desired result. If the countries fighting you fall out amoungst themselves, and you can pick up the pieces, great. However, there is a fair chance that the person you send the fake to will eventually send it on to the person that allegedly wrote it in the first place, thus earning you first place on the latters death list, permanently. The problem is then to try to persuade the target that the letter is "real" while living down your new found reputation and the enraged accusations of the person being framed. So, while there are several distinct advantages to trying a forged letter in the correct situation, there are also risks ... and these must be taken into account. If you feel that you can chance it, go ahead and try it sometimes ((and don't forget, if your situation is desperate, you have very little to lose)). Lastly, I'd like to show just one instance where I, humble Konrad, forged a ltter in an unnamed game, and it backfired. Names are ommitted to protect ME -- there were no innocents. Countries are the same. (On the other hand, let's change the countries too. Who knows who'll read this article, anyway? So here goes.) I was Germany in a game, and I was being attacked by Russia, England, and France, and even Austria was looking for a new victim to follow Turkey. (Don't laugh, I'm serious!) Anyway, I believed that the situation was pretty critical. Russia was the only country of those named that showed any sign of wavering, and that was because he was justifiably worried by Austria's quick growth. I figured that Russia was thus weaker than the others, and he would be the first to receive the fake letter. I would try to persuade Russia to move against England with me, and take some of the pressure off my rear. So, what did I do? I took out all of the letters England had written me and looked for as many words in them as I needed to use in my fake letter. In other places, I used individual letters (He printed, the fool). Then I traced them, and then copied that onto a piece of regular typing paper, the kind he used all the time. Then I xeroxed that and sent it off to Russia. In my cover letter I told Russia that I hadn't gotten back the letters from England which I had sent him previously, and in the meanwhile, here was England's latest letter. Now, in reality, I had never sent Russia any of England's letter, and he wrote back saying, they must have gotten lost in the mails; but this way, I tried to give the impression that I had sent actual letters, and this would lessen the suspicion of the xerox. (Sometimes, the poor performance of the USP"S" really does have a silver lining.) Frankly, I don't know if Russia bought the story, but for a while, he did help me against England. As it turned out, Russia was allied with France all along, and attacking England was the perfect plan for him, and I later fell prey to much stronger French and Russian players than I wanted to. Late in the game, Russia mentioned the letter to an already eliminated English player, who went through the roof. And now the Englander insists on telling everyone in the game we're currently in about this dirty trick. While I deserve it and don't really care now that I'm not playing as much, it didn't make me a new friend in that case. Beware..... (((I think a much better idea than a forged letter is to simply write a letter to a person thanking them for agreeing to attack a country and then "mistakingly" mail it to that country. Or you could include this letter plus a letter to that country in the same envelope and send it to that country. At least this way you don't have to worry about being a good forger. My favorite devious technique is to simply lie like crazy after someone has double crossed me. They are going to have a hard time getting mad at you since they lied first.))) I am enjoying publishing this zine. Keep that mail coming! Eric Klien m. Up