Diplomacy Zine -- Chapter Four EP #139 From: Eric_S_Klien@cup.portal.com Date: Tue, 06 Feb 1990 20:48:41 +0000 Issue #139 of ELECTRONIC PROTOCOL: Chapter One contains: NAVARONE, BLITZKRIEG, OPERATION OVERLORD, GETTYSBURG, and HMS HOOD And is published by daybell@aludra.usc.edu/Donald Daybell Chapter Two contains: DRAGONSLAYER, BISMARK, COLD WAR, JACAL, MANHATTAN, and VERSAILLES And is published by tedward@cs.cornell.edu/Ted Fischer Chapter Three contains: TANNENBURG, ENTENTE, MULHOUSE, and DAWN PATROL And is published by xcbe12a@ucrmath.ucr.edu/Wayne Wallace ------------- Chapter Four ------------- Spring '05 of the game RATATOSK (BNC number 1989IJ) (GM is jall@diku.dk/Mogens Jallberg) Hi everybody. There has been a lot of problems getting the orders in. Actually I only recieved half of the intended moves, and the sinners managed to produce reasonable excusions. Thus, I hereby extend the deadline to Thursday February 8'th @ 20.00 GMT. Mogens Spring '05 of the game BUSHIDO (BNC number 1989IN) (GM is ronin@cory.berkeley.edu/Sam Parazette) GM just came back from Hawaii, results should be published soon. Winter '04 of the game HUGO (BNC number 1989IO) (GM is willis@trwind.ind.trw.com/Willis Marti) Due Jan 31 Fall '03 of the game JUGGERNAUGHT (BNC number 1989IR) (GM is rdesper@eagle.wesleyan.edu/Rick Desper) Problems with the Italian player, should be solved within 48 hours. (The player has been contacted.) Fall '03 of the game TOKUGAWA (BNC number 1989IS) (GM is rc0o@andrew.cmu.edu/Bob Cochran) Results will be published ASAP. Note new GM! Fall '03 of the game PETAIN (BNC number 1989IT) (GM is ssmith@ms.uky.edu/Scott Smith) Due Jan 27 Fall '03 of the game DUNKIRK (BNC number 1989KN) (GM is sjzwange@phoenix.princeton.edu/Steven Jacob Zwanger) Due Jan 31 Summer '04 of the gunboat game VERDUN (MNC number 1989AZrb32) (GM is eric_s_klien@cup.portal.com/Eric Klien) Italy retreats F AEG-EME. Originally the player could retreat to BUL as BUL had been reported as moving to GRE. I discovered the bug while speaking to the Italian player in my effort to speed up the game. Winter '01 of the game BERLIN (BNC number 1989KQ) (GM is cwekx@htikub5.bitnet/Constantijn Wekx) Due Jan 31 Spring '01 of the game BIG WILLIE (MNC number not known) (Blind game, GM is okamoto@hp-ses.hp.com/Jeff Okamoto) Due Jan 19 Spring '01 of the game FIRE WHEN READY (BNC number 1990B) (GM is rlg@ai.mit.edu/Bob Givan) Due Feb 9 Winter '01 of the game DREADNOUGHT (BNC number not known) (GM is rbk@aiai.edinburgh.ac.uk/Richard Kirby) Due Feb 1 Publisher comments: I will be getting a computer for home e-mailing in the very near future. Probably this week. (I am looking for a good deal as we speak.) This should help me stay up to date in answering my mail and publishing this zine. If anyone knows of any good deals on IBM compatibles let me know. I need a hard disk drive and 2400 modem in the setup. I would be interested in new as well as used computers. Here is even more of the latest Zine Register: Ohio Acres: (#31 November) Robert Greier, 35171 Gromley Rd., Salem, OH 44460 $7.50/10 issues, digest, xerox, 16 pages, 5 weeks, circ. 30, est. Jan. 1987. Runs: Diplomacy (6). Openings: None at present. Ladies and gentlemen, upon reading some of the "quirks" associated with writers, I have worked on establishing a quirk of my own. Steven King gets you to pull the covers up close to your chin; Hemingway gets a yawn; and Ohio Acres puts you to sleep! Ohio Acres is an attempt at fun. We seldom talk politics ((What was that stuff on gun control then, eh, BB? - ed. )), often talk sports, could care lesss if Jim Wright ever gets a job flippin' Big Macs, and on every possible occaision call for the destruction of Shea Stadium. Samples are free, although with a kind word about Howard Johnson I will charge you five dollars. RWG A solid Midwestern sort of a zine! No game fees, Bob alluded to his "well known" stand on that in a post card, but I don't know what he's talking about. Primary focus on the games, with what looks to be a strong cast of players and a goodly amount of press. Bob chats a fair deal about his life, music, gun control, and other issues that grab him as he sits at the typewriter. Occiasional stories, letters, etc. also appear. Seems to have lost Derwood Bowen's subzine along the way, however. Nothing flashy, and ugly to boot, but looks like a great place to play a game of Dip. TEN The Browns will win the Super Bowl!!!!!!!! RG Not likely at this point in time!!!!!!! TEN Ouinipique: (#31 May) Pierre Touchette, 1 rue Georges, Masson (Quebec), J0X 2H0, CANADA .95/ issue ($1.15 outside North America), digest, xerox, 12-18 pages, 10/yr., circ. 50, est. 1986. Runs: Diplomacy, Gunboat. Openings: Diplomacy ($2). Ouinipique est le seul zine Francophones de Diplomatie en Amerique du Nord. Une liste d'attente demeure toujours ouverte pour les joueurs, qulils soient d'Amerique ou d'Europe, qui veulent participee a une partie. PT I KNOW I got at least one more Ouinipique after the one listed, but I appear to have sent it out in a Zine Bank sample. I have fun trying to recollect my high school French and follow the zine when it arrives, but Bruce McIntyre goes one better and is attempting to play a game, in French, despite his problems with the nuances of the language. TEN Passchendaele: (#94 September) Francois Cuerrier, 2303 Eglinton Ave. E. #305, Scarborough, Ont., M1K 2N6, CANADA $7/10 issues, open page, xerox, 18 pages, 2 weeks/monthly, circ. 25, est. Sept. 1978 (restarted after several year break). Runs: Diplomacy (2). Openings: None. Good luck in getting a description from me. FC Zat Francois, ee ees such naughty, naughty garcon. Always ee say zee most orrendous theengs. Ee mus needs be espanked. Ow ee get so veery, veery naughty? I do not know thees theeng, but ze theengs he say! Eet ees almos as eef he WANT to be ze baddest of ze bad boys. As eef ee want to be espanked and ave eeveryone tink ee ees so very naughty garcon. Oh, ze theengs ee say! Ee ees so very naughty, ee mus needs be espanked veery hard right now! Maybe ee will learn... There are certainly a few issues since the one listed above, but I let my sub lapse and have been slow re- upping, but finally did so last week. TEN Penguin Dip: (#30 December) Stephen Dorneman, 94 Eastern Ave. #1, Malden, MA 02148 $15/10 issues ($20 outside of U.S.), open page, xerox, 18-20 pages, 5 weeks, circ. 85, est. Feb. 1987. Runs: Diplomacy (5). Openings: Diplomacy ($6). PD isn't really a Dipzine. It's a classical SF fanzine, with articles, fan art (lots of penguin oriented stuff, of course), SF con reviews, snippets of letters, Lawrence Watts-Evans' ongoing column on writing (Fantasy of course) for a living, ongoing reader participation stuff like "top 10 rock songs lists," and "top 10 SF books list." Oh, and yeah, there at the end are a bunch of Dip game reports. Steve apparently aspires to be a bridge, encouraging his two sets of readers (the Dipsters and the SF fans) to explore the others' culture and zines, so he writes a lot of reviews of zines of both genres, and discusses general "cultural" issues from both worlds. One of the best current efforts in the hobby. Unless you don't like penguins, of course. TEN Perelandra: (#69 October) Pete Gaughan, 3105 E Park Row #132, Arlington, TX 76010 $1.50/issue, open page, xerox, 24 pages, monthly, circ. 75, est. June 1982. Runs: Diplomacy (5), Gunboat Titan, Gunboat Dip, Deviant Dip, Downfall of the Lord of the Rings, British Rails, Snowball Fighting. Openings: Diplomacy ($5), Quick Dip (two week deadlines), Snowball Fighting (free), Axis and Allies (free). ((Some talk of Woolworth also - Ed.)) Let me put it this way - if you can tolerate a wimpy, opinionated, hard-working, sometimes slow, baseball-loving, overeducated, leftist enviornmentalist editor, then your reward is a zine which believes fine lierature is as important and as much fun as postal games. You get excerpts and discussion on fantasy, sf, writing and more - and you can pit yourself against your felloe readers in Literary Quiz. Perelandra readers keep coming back; and now Pere has nailed down its position as the pre-eminent non-mainstream zine by finishing #2 (we would try if we thought it would matter) in the Runestone Poll. PJGIV Before Pete got promoted last Spring, this was my all around favorite gaming zine. The variety of games, the generally excellent GMing, the regularity, the press, the graphical attractiveness of the layout for easy reading of game reports, etc., all worked together to create a great place to play. In addition, it was a good reading zine too. Then he went and got promoted on his job. Sigh. Another Dipster with his priorities all wrong. All of the above still holds except for the regularity. P has become chronically late since then. And not just a little late. To the extent that I fear for it's future... this has the smell of potential, impending fold about it. I for one hope very much that turns out not to be the case. TEN Perestroika (#3 December) Larry Cronin, 5855 N. Kolb #6207, Tucson, AZ 85715 Price unknown, digest, xerox, 12 pp, frequency unkown. Circ. 12. Runs: Perestroika Dip. Openings: Perestroika Dip, Gunboat Perestroika Dip. George Rifle just sent me this one. If I'd have been on time, it wouldn't have made it! Anyway, Larry devised his own economic variant, called, you guessed it, Perestroika Dip. This zine apppears to be a place to play it (another game is being run electronically on CompuServe). Basically, it has the game, a short editorial, th emailing list, and 4-5 pages of political cartoons. Nice cover. TEN Pilot Light: (#14 December) Kevin Brown, Rt 4, Box 63, Florence SC, 29501 $8/12 issues (FREE to United players), open page, xerox, 10 pages, monthly, circ. 20, est. Oct. 1988. Runs: United Soccer League Openings: none (league may expand later this year). Pilot Light, is, in simplest terms, all things to all people. Ok, that's a bit of an overstatement. PL is everyone's favorite kind of zine; one with lots of press and amazingly quick turnaround. The only thing PL lacks is Diplomacy, but you can get that anywhere. Besides, where else can you get Bruce Geryk to skullfuck you just for winning? KB Not in PL anymore, either! Although United leagues were the last resort of the Bad Boys in the PBM hobby, they've flamed out of PL too, at last. But there's still a lot of press, and if I'm not mistaken, still an expansion franchise to be had in the new year's league if you act quickly. TEN Pirate: (#1, December) Chuck Lietz, P.O. Box 221, Stevenson, WA 98648 $6/12 issues, open page, xerox, monthly, 4 pp. Circ. 12, est. 1989. Runs: Gunslinger, Kremlin. Openings: Magic Realm, Brittania, War & Peace, Diplomacy, En Garde, Machiavelli. Yes, folks, I've finally decide to take the big plunge and start my own zine. It will start off as a modest effort but we plan to have some regular features as well as play non-Diplomacy games, but this is not cut in stone. CL A brand new zine with a very unusual and interesting line up of games. Looks like a nice place for a change of pace kind of game when the thought of one more preference list makes your eyes roll up in your head. TEN The Prince: (#84 December) Jim Meinel, 2801 Pelican Dr., Anchorage, AK 99515-1364 .50/issue, open page, xerox, 4 pages, monthly. Circ. 15, est. Sept. 1982. Runs: Diplomacy (3). Openings: None. The Prince is a small warehouse-type zine devoted to running reliable games and including a bit about Alaska along the way. The games are Draws Include All Survivors (DIAS), which is how God meant them to be. JM A pleasant little personal zine obviously run for no other reason but that Jim enjoys doing it. He had a rare game opening this summer and it filled immediately, with some heavy hitters signing on, so his GMing must be quite well thought of. His multi-issue report on the family vacation to Germany was a treat. TEN Politesse (#67 October) Editor: Ed Wrobel, 6204 Bardu Avenue, Springfield VA, 22152 Publisher: Dick Martin, 17601 Lisa Drive, Rockville, MD 20855. .30/issue. Open page (and damned proud, eh, Ed?), xerox, 12 pp, monthly, of sorts. Runs: Not a thing. Openings: Pshaw! Journal of the Washington Area Retinue of (Tacitly) Highly Organized Gamesters (WARTHOG). It's apparent that Dicko the Pubber is going to insist on this silly, leftbrained, anal retentive enumeration of issues. He says it helps him keep track of the subscriptions. Pshaw. Well, back in the Golden Egg of Politesse, back when subs were fully adjustable, we didn't have any such problems. Of course, back then, our mortgage payment was under a thousand dollars and neither the electric bill nor the grocery bill topped a hundred at a time. OK, Dick, enumerate away! EW Has the Eggman (or is that eggman?) taken his antienumeration crusade too far, or can his impulses towards oneness with the universe be contained? Stay tuned! DM Has it occured to you, oh my fellow shoats, that Politesse has degenerated into nothing but the Journal of Dick Martin's Triumphs at 1830? I would suggest a name change to "1830esse" were it not for the anti-satirical dictates of democratic centralism bludgeoned into my brain during "Chairman Egg's 30 Minute Video on Dialectics." The truth is simple... a palace coup. Student-led demonstrators enraged over the Eggman's clumsy, heavy handed attempted ouster of BAT Byrnes, burned him in effigy in Bardu Square and demanded democratic reform of WARTHOG (and cheap Civ expansion sets to boot). The First Shoat did what any other ageing, out-of-touch leader would do: he called in the old guard to bolster his position and crush the uprising. Martin and Peel were quickly summoned to Bardu Palace for a conference. Now my sources say Martin played hardball while Peel is said to have dozed off muttering "Julie has my vote...." The deal struck was the following: Martin used his still considerable clout among the WARTHOG students to quiet the uprising, Bysnes stayed in office as BAT, and Wrobel managed to hang on to the First Citizen title in return for guaranteeing that Politesse would from here on print nothing but articles on Martin's 1830 victories. How long this slipshod compromise last however, is the question. Look for new blood taking over WARTHOG and Politesse by the time Rumania's Central Committe resigns. Hell, we can always give back to Nicewarner. TEN The Prodigal Zine (#??, December) Bob Hazelwood, 3901 Settlement Road, Weatherfor TX, 76087, Prodigy ID # PXTM85B. Price: cost of using Prodigy. Posted electronically. Weekly. Circ. 25+, est. November, 1989. Runs: Dip (3). Openings: Dip. Steve Dorneman mentioned in Penguin Dip that he'd run into some Dip happening in the IBM/Sears information "service" Prodigy. After the regulars in TAD got done trashing Prodigy, Ken Peel used his free introductory account to check it out, and discovered some veterean PBMers and a cadre of active novices. And so was born TPZ, with Ken whipping out a set of houserules, and things getting organized. AS Ken states in his HRs, "The PBEM sector of the Postal Diplomacy hobby, founded by Russel Sipe in 1981, is currently the fastedt growing part of the PBM Diplomacy community." I still wouldn't touch Prodigy with a 10 foot pole though... TEN Protocol (#14 December) Eric Klien, 1 Sinai Circle B10, Chelmsford, MA 01824 75 cents/issue, laser printed, 4 week move issues, 2 week adjustment issues. Circ. 40, est. Feb. 1989. Runs: Diplomacy (3) and Variants (1) Openings: Diplomacy and Variants. This is the sister postal zine to ELECTRONIC PROTOCOL. Like EP, no NMRs are allowed. Isn't it nice to play in games where you don't have to worry about the Postal Disservice doing you in? EK Lots of reprints from old zines, which Eric seems to enjoy taking off enyone's hands who's ready to accede to the wishes of a spouse and is ready to toss. Rather plain vanilla unimaginative layout. Appears quite regular despite the anti-NMR rules. TEN Protozoan: (#62 September) Scott Cameron, 4 Meadow Ln., Hicksville, NY 11801 .25/issue, open page (legal sized), xerox, 4 pages, 3 weeks, circ. 20, est. Aug. 1984. Runs: Pax Britannica (3), Kingmaker, Kremlin, Revolution (Kremlin variant), and Merchant of Venus. Openings: Kremlin & Revolution ($2 for both), Railway Rivals ($3), more Pax Britannica in late 1990. Protozoan doesn't carry Diplomacy games, doesn't have a letter column, and doesn't get involved in hobby feuds. Instead it runs non-Diplomacy games on quick deadlines and occasionally publishes a book, movie, or game review or humorous article. My openings are not limited to those listed above. I am open to suggestions and will run any game I own in which I can get sufficient interest. PROTO has been begun carrying a subzine, "Tennessee Rails," by James Goode, which will carry Railway Rivals games. Future games include Magic Realm, Belter, and Civilization. SC Tennessee Rails, eh? Has a familiar sort of a ring to it... TEN Rebel: (#51 November) Melinda Holley, P.O. Box 2793, Huntington, WV 25727 .75/issue, digest, xerox, 65-75 pages, 6 weeks. Circ. 185-200, est. Nov. 1984. Runs: Diplomacy (34), Gunboat (6). Openings: None Also includes subzine - High Inertia. MH Not for long. TEN If you like games, you'll love Rebel because that's all I have. Press encouraged. Deadlines are very strict so I can have a fairly quick turnaround. MH Rebel may just be the most pervasive zine out there - I have begun to use it to update my listing of names/addresses of hobby members. The big thing in this zine is GAMES, GAMES, GAMES. It is truly unbelievable. DH Rebel has become an institution. The ultimate warehouse zine. Unfortunately, HI, the chatty subzine, is folding. That may leave Rebel a bit bland, as HI provided the non-game spice. Time to pick up another subzinny, Milly. Why not try to get someone like Cameron to do it? He thinks he knows everything anyway. And oh yes, the maps may go too. Facing the pubber's dilemma of raising production costs, she's leaving it to the subbers to decide whether to pay a higher hike in sub fee to keep 'em. I vote no, they're too small to read anyway! TEN Retaliation: (#130 November) Dick Martin, 17601 Lisa Dr., Rockville, MD 20855 $1/issue, open page, xerox, 36 pages, 6-8 weeks (irregular), circ. 101, est. June 1979. Runs: Diplomacy (17), Gunboat (2), Anarchy, Civilization. Openings: 1830. Locked in a death struggle with The Canadian Diplomat for title of slowest zine to actually come out regularly. Retal is big, slow, and a lot of fun. Good press, lots of games, meaningless meanderings, ask Dr. Dicko, ask Nurse Phil, press judges, etc. The feud content is long gone, mostly, and the emphasis is totally on games and fun. Dick is a little overboard on his 1830 craze right now, but he'll survive, and Retal will chug along for awhile more. TEN A Sharp Mind and a Straight Knife (#98 December) Don Del Grande, 142 Eliseo Dr., Greenbrae, CA 94904-1339. .50/issue, digest, xerox, 16 pages, 5 weeks, circ. 45, est. June 1980. Runs: Railway Rivals, Diplomacy, Kingmaker, 1830, Kremlin, and Talisman. Openings: AREA-rated Diplomacy, Railway Rivals, 1829. Well, the asteroid just did miss us, so you can go ahead and get the latest information on International Diplomacy Tournament Ratings (for face-to-face tournaments), plus the DIP WARZ and DIPRISONER serials, and the usual hobby news and comment. ASM&ASK is the zine that DARES to ask the question: "why does it take me twice as long as Kathy's Kornor to fill a Dip game?" (For that matter, why does it take me tewice as long as anybody to fill any game?) DDG One of the benefits of being a bit late with this issue.... get the up to date, last minute news flashes, like DDG has, with issue #97, changed the name of his zine from Life of Monty to ASM&ASK. In addition, he's changed the name of his IDTRS subzine from Meeting of the Minds, to Top Knife. Otherwise, everything remains the same. Besides Dip, Don runs such things postally as Kremlin, AREA rated Dip, 1830, Kingmaker, and claims to be the first US pubber to run Railway Rivals. The Dip Warz serial, while a good idea, doesn't seem to gel very often. I find myself skipping it completely most of the time now. IDTR has evolved to the point where Don declares a Tournament Dip World Champ every year now. If you care enough to know who the current champ is, sub. Me, I like his game selection. TEN So I Lied: (#17 November) Marc Peters, 370 North Street, Sun Prairie WI 53590 No sub fee - free to players and standbyes, open page, xerox, 8 pages, monthly, circulation 50+. Runs: Diplomacy (3), Gunboat, Final Conflict III. Openings: Diplomacy, Gunboat, Colonia VI, World War IIIb. Gamefee is a "semi-refundable" $6, refundable upon completion of position, minus $2/NMR. SIL is a warehouse zine - period. Games feature loose houserules and black press. Seeking only subbers aho are willing to play or standby. MP Volume Two of the Dane County based zine. Games is the name of the game here. Play or go. Peters is a treacherous Dip player who stabs me every chance he gets and won the Hobby Award for best player this year. But anyone who lives in Madison or environs, site of 8 of the best years of my profligate youth, can't be all bad. Or can he? Depends on what he does next in 88CR! TEN Starwood: (#25 June) Melinda Holley, P.O. Box 2793, Huntington, WV 25727-2793. Cost included in $15 gamefee, open page, xerox, 10-12 pages, 3-4 weeks. Circ. 13-15, est Oct. 1987. Runs: 7x7 Round Robin Gunboat Dip tournament (4). Openings: 2 tournaments open ((?? Not sure if this still true - ed.)) Starwood runs only Round Robin Gunboat tournaments in which the same seven players play each country in seven games under gunboat rules. There are no maps or press. MH Son of Flip: (#12 December) George Mann, 1701 NW 81st Way, Plantation, FL 33322 Eric Shaffer (co-pubber), 37 Brook St., Montgomery, PA 17752 75"/issue, open page, xerox, 10 pages, 4 weeks, circ. 21, est. Sept. 1988. Runs: IWAG Wrestling, Diplomacy, Gunboat, Machiavelli. Openings: IWAG Wrestling. Currently we have two goals: 1) To convince Ron Cameron that rasslin' is a real sport, and 2) make Mark Lilleleht feel guilty for not being on anyone's standbye list. If you like pro wrestling, then sub to this zine that covers wrestling on a national basis. We give you the match results, who's wrestling where, and inside information. There probably won't be any Diplomacy or Machiavelli starts for awhile, so unless you like pro wrestling, you won't want to sub. We might even have a subzine soon. Oh yeah, Hulomania sucks! GM Why do I like this zine when I hate pro wrestling? Probably because the fellas have so much apparent fun putting it together. Their enthusiasm and enjoyment is infectous. And, to be perfectly frank, I like watching George make a fool of himself. Great fun. By next issue of the ZR I'll be able to report if George is a competent Machiavelli GM, or I've had to say: "I know MIchael Hopcroft, I've played under Michael Hopcroft, and you, Goerge are no Michael Hopcroft." TEN The Swiss Observer: (Vol. 2, #9, October) John Armstrong, 711 West Main Street, Louisville, KY 40202 .75/issue, open page, xerox, 4 pages, 5-5-2 weeks (Spring, Fall, and Winter deadlines), circ. 11+, est. Dec 1, 1988. Runs: Global Diplomacy I. Openings: American Diplomacy (no game fee), Global Diplomacy II. "The Swiss Observer" is a psuedo-newspaper based in the neutral and impassable country of Switzerland. It currently runs a variant of my own called "Global Diplomacy," but I hope to expand it to cover other games as well. There is a basic format to the zine: on the first page are a series of headlines followed by press from the players. Afterwords I give the results and current status of all powers. Finally I inform all players about Swiss Observer house rules, comment on the game, or give out info about Diplomacy. Vol I was my first attempt, which failed. JA Well, that pretty well covers it, doesn't it? AS far as I am aware, this and Diplomacy Today are the only zines out there using the "fake newspaper" approach to running an ongoing PBM game. It seems like such a natural approach... TEN Ter-ran: (#163 December) Steve Heinowski, 860 Colorado Ave. #2A, Lorain, OH 44052 Gamefee $7. Sub free to players. Open page, ditto, 8 pages, 4 weeks, circ. 45, est. April 1976. Runs: Diplomacy (8). Openings: Diplomacy. Blue and white, with one staple in the upper left hand corner, maybe two... SH And the obligatory slams of the Carusos every issue... Steady, reliable, on time, appears well GMed, and sometimes totally unreadable due to mimeo quality (or lack thereof). Squint real hard and you can barely make out: "So it seems when Kathy turned 40, John...." then eye strain sets in. Iain Bowed'd love it! TEN Thorazeen: (#7 May '88) Dick Martin, 17601 Lisa Dr., Rockville, MD 20855 Runs: 7x7 Round Robin Gunboat Dip tournament (2). Openings: none. This is just like Melinda Holley's Starwood, but without openings expected. KP Status, Dicko? Has it disappeared in the fenzy for just one more game of 1830? TEN Two Costaguanas in F Flat (#2, October) Conrad von Metzke, 4374 Donald Ave, San Diego This is NOT a zine. No sir. Uh uh. Absolutely not. And it presages nothing about yet another return to publishing by Connie. This ain't Costa. In fact, as I already said, it's not even a zine. Even though it carries games, is a digest sized center stapled thing... it's not a zine. What is it? Who knows, but Connie swears it's not a zine. It's just a.... well, golly, a thing. A non-zine. Perhaps a figment of my imagination. Perhaps I never really saw it. Maybe I'm not playing RR in it. Be that as it may, it carries the Dip and Gunboat games from Costa's fold (though he now says he will transfer them to another... uh, thing, non-zine, whatever, to keep them from being slowed by the RR delays that keep cropping up) and the RR games from Costa and Two Bars in.... In addition, lots of new RR game starts keep turning up. I have no idea how to get it, whether it's available by sub, or taking new players, or anything. How would I know that, I mean it's not even a zine or anything, right? Right. TEN Tyromania: (#9 November) Cal White, 1 Turnberry Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M6N 1P6 Cost: postage. (.44 US; .38 Canadian) Runs: Diplomacy (1) Openings: Diplomacy ($3, novices only). Tyromania is a magazine of Postal Diplomacy specifically for novice players. Tyro is (spiritually) sponsored by the Canadian Diplomacy Organization ("spiritually" means that I've sytopped pestering Doug for money...). Games are always open for people with little or no experience with the game as played through the post. CW While I am by no means convinced that a zine that runs novice only games is a necessity or even desirable (being from the let 'em take their licks in a "normal" game and learn from it, school), Cal does his usual proficient job here. Besides the game, and openings for more, there are questions and answers on rules, postal procedures, etc., articles on strategy, a CDO service listing, and, perhaps the nicest touch, the "expert commentary" on the game he is running provided by Randolph Smythe, one season behind so as not to unduly affect the progress of the game. TEN Upstart: (#24 December) Garret Schenck, 40 Third Pl., Basement Apt, Brooklyn, NY 11231 $7.50/12 issues, digest, xerox, 8 pages, 4 weeks. Runs: Gunboat. Openings: Diplomacy, Gunboat, Secret-Spy Diplomacy. Simply the most gorgeous zine in the North American hobby. Graphically head and shoulders ahead of everyone else. However, that's just the start. Games appear well run to the casual observer, and a nice lettercol with a political focus (and Garret appears to have the "correct" ZR approved (now that it's been liberated from the former incorrect regime which stole it from the prior, before that, correct Billennessian regime) political bent). A keeper, a comer, on the charts with a bullet! TEN Vertigo: (#97 November) Brad Wilson, P.O. Box 126, Wayne, PA 19087 $4/10 issues, open page, xerox, 20 pages, games flier every 5 weeks, zine 6-7 (ideally 5, but...). Circ. 60, est. Aug. 1982. Runs: Diplomacy (6), Everybody Plays Dip, Gunboat. Openings: Diplomacy, Balkan Wars V, Everybody Plays Dip, Philadelphia ((??? - ed.)) Perhaps the hobby's premier zine for LaSalle basketball fans, Vertigo continues to offer a forum for casual diplomacy, hoop talk, music, politics, plenty of hobby commentary, and the hobby's reigning mixologist, Ted "swizzle" Stick. As V hits #100 (soon), we'd like to have you aboard! BW Where else do you get half-legible hand-scrawed notes from FlapJack McHugh adorning your zine? The penultimate issue was V-E-R-Y late, followed almost immediately by a huge "biggest ever" issue. Vertigo can be by turns extremely amusing, infuriating, quite interesting, infuriating, and fun, which is all to say I guess I like the ugly thing! David Perlmutter's "Salute to Fred Davis" was the funniest thing written in the hobby this year, beating out his "Jack McHugh's Petition For Naturalization." I only hope this recent delay was an aberration. TEN Victims Wanted: (#13 September) Shawn Erikson, 6313 22nd Ave. NW, Seattle, WA 98107 $9/12 issues, no gamefees, open page, xerox, 14 pages, monthly, circ. 28. Runs: Diplomacy (4), Gunboat (2), Stellar Conquest, Fury of Dracula, Blind ASL, Civilization. Openings: Final Conflict, Colonial Dip II, Hitler's War, Starship Troopers, ASL II, Origins of WWII, and Wooden Ships and Iron Men, Illuminati, and Dip in the subzine. I've seen two issues... one of the first, and the most recent. Shawn appears to be attempting to bridge the PBM Dip and hexgamer hobbies. Where else can you play Dip and ASL in the same zine? Me, I see hex-based war games, and my brain goes numb. It's worse than shopping for a suit! He's got some players one sees nowhere else in the hobby, so he's bringing them in from somewhere. TEN When The Lights Went Out: (#7, December) Jesse Severe, Box 548, Sheffield, IA 50475 $5/10 issues. Digest, xerox, 12 pp. and growing. Monthly. Circ. 10+, est. July 1, 1989. Runs: Nothing as yet. Openings: Diplomacy ($6), Axis and Allies ($5), Shogun (free). Go ahead, Tomster, make my review! JS Jesse "Jester" Severe and his pal "Horse" run a zine that can only be described as "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure in Dipdom." Like, bodacious, man. Truly excellent, dude! Jesse steals my ideas, so it can't be all bad. Have either of these guys - excuse me.... dudes, ever seen a movie from before last summer? Please sign up for a game so these guys - excuse me... dudes, can find meaningful activity within the dip hobby. TEN ************************************************************************ I need more scribes! I need more scribes! I need more scribes! I need ************************************************************************ I am enjoying moderating this zine, keep that mail coming! Eric Klien Up