Diplomacy zine -- Chapter Three From: Eric_S_Klien@cup.portal.com Date: Tue, 31 Oct 1989 02:44:53 +0000 Issue #110 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, DOUGHBOY, BISMARK, COLD WAR, JACAL, and TRENCHFOOT And is published by Tedward@cs.cornell.edu/Ted Fischer ------------- Chapter Three ------------- Autumn and Winter '03 of the game TANNENBURG (BNC number 1989HZ) (GM is ebrosius@lucy.wellesley.edu/Eric Brosius) TANNENBURG (1989HZ) -- Autumn and Winter, 1903 Autumn 1903 Retreats: Austrian A Ser retreats to Tri. Winter, 1903: AUS (Ledoux) Remove A Ven, A Tyo. GER (Krywolt) Build A Ber. TUR (Shook) Build F Smy. Units Available for Spring, 1904: A (4) F Apu, A Vie, A Bud, A Tri. E (4) A Swe, F Ska, F Nwy, F Lon. F (6) A Pie, A Mar, F Lyo, F Tys, F Pic, A Bel. G (6) F Edi, F Nth, F Den, A Mun, A Kie, A Ber. I (3) F Nap, A Rom, F Tun. R (6) F Con, F Stp(sc), A Mos, A Rum, A Gal, A Fin. T (5) A Ser, A Bul, F Gre, F Aeg, F Smy. GAME NOTES: The deadline for Spring, 1904 moves is ***Sunday, November 5 at 10PM EDT*** (It's too late to set the deadline for this Sunday) PRESS Anonymous: My, isn't Germany getting powerful? After their build, they'll be up to 7 units. Pretty clearly time to gang up on them, eh? Send mail to your neighbors and make plans to attack. Circus World Times : The Austrian Minister of Culture has announced that the revival of the Greater European Circus is emminent. I for one will welcome it's return, this modern world could use some of that old time religion. Of course, the best part of the old Circus was it's excellent clowns, both excellent and varied in expression. Oddly enough that is the main reason for delay in the revival, the modern crop of Clowns is just too numerous, it has been difficult deciding which of the applicants are the biggest clowns. END OF PRESS Spring '02 of the gunboat game VERDUN (MNC number 1989AZrb32) (GM is sccs6069@iruccibm.bitnet/Michael O'Regan) His connection is down for 10 days, I can't contact him. Fall '15 of the 1914 variant ENTENTE (MNC number 1989IJrv17) (GM is matt@oddjob.uchicago.edu/Matt Crawford) Due this Wednesday. Fall '02 of the Blind variant MULHOUSE (MNC number not known) (GM is barry@vax1.acs.udel.edu/Barry T. Fausnaugh) Results received. Can't publish them in a blind game! Fall '01 of the game DAWN PATROL (BNC number 1989II) (GM is sinhaa@mcmaster.ca/Anand Sinha) Hello All! Well thanks to all of your patience we have finally started again. So here are the Fall 1901 results. ============================================================================= Austria England A GAL - holds A EDI - Hol ** A SER - holds F NTS convoys A EDI-Hol ** F Alb - GRE F Nwg - NWY France Germany A SPA H A RUH - Bel ** F Mao - POR A KIE - Hol ** A BUR - Bel ** F DEN - Swe ** Italy Russia A Apu-TUN F SEV - Bla ** F ION Convoys A Apu - TUN F GOB - Swe ** A Ven - TRI A Sil - WAR A UKR - Rum ** Turkey A BUL - Rum ** A ARM - Sev ** F ANK - Bla ** =======================<Final Unit Positions>============================= Austria: GRE, SER, GAL England: NWY, NTS, EDI France : SPA, POR, BUR Germany: DEN, RUH, KIE Italy : TUN, ION, TRI Russia : SEV, GOB, WAR, UKR Turkey : BUL, ARM, ANK ======================================================================= Supply Centre Count: Austria : VIE, BUD, GRE, SER England : LIV, LON, EDI, NWY France : BRE, PAR, MAR, POR, SPA Germany : KIE, BER, DEN, MUN Italy : VEN, ROM, NAP, TUN, TRI Russia : WAR, SEV, MOS, STP Turkey : CON, SMY, ANK, BUL ========================================================================= |00 |01 | ======================================= Aus | 3 | 4 | Eng | 3 | 4 | Fra | 3 | 5 | Ger | 3 | 4 | Ita | 3 | 5 | Rus | 4 | 4 | Tur | 3 | 4 | ========================================================================= The builds: Austria +1 England +1 France +2 Germany +1 Italy +2 Russia 0 Turkey +1 ============================<GM NOTES>====================================== The BitNet node at Cork Ireland is down for an unspecified number of days. Thus John O'Regan will not be able to respond until this node is back up. It could be 10 days or less. So I suggest we sit tight and I shall send out a new deadline when he is back online. Sorry for this new delay, but it should be short. Anand Sinha Spring '03 of the game RATATOSK (BNC number 1989IJ) (GM is jall@diku.dk/Mogens Jallberg) Not Received. Fall '01 of the game HUGO (BNC number 1989IO) (GM is willis@trwind.ind.trw.com/Willis Marti) Not Received. Spring '01 of the gunboat game VERSAILLES (MNC number not known) (GM is sccs6016@iruccibm.bitnet/Gearoid Casey) His connection is down for 10 days, I can't contact him. GM comments: If anyone would like to be a guest publisher of a chapter or a chapter checker let me know. These very important positions need more people! A few more GMs wouldn't hurt either, particularly for my postal games. Also if ANYONE is having problems with their games, contact me. I will do everything possible and even not possible to keep a game moving. Here is some more of the lastest issue of BTDT: The Ubiquitous Mark Nelson: "Thanks for BTDT #8, an excellent read which I thoroughly enjoyed. A few years ago American zines were really DULL, nowadays they seem to be becoming more readable and more FUN!! ((Garrett... see, there's a slam of the Old Guard, right? Please forgive me!)) "I take it you received The Yorkshire Gallant Vol 5, #9/10 in return for ZR. Did you get my earlier letter? ((Yes. You are on the ZR trade list. I enjoyed TYG too. But I mustn't be too nice to you or Mickey and Garrett will get on my case... well maybe not Garrett, you could pass for a British Brat Packer of sorts, along with Sullivan. BTW -your versions of Downfall of the Lord of the Rings... what the HELL do "CoolBop" and "HardBop" mean?)) "Railway Rivals is one of my favorite games. It's quick postally, finished in a year ((Paul Gardner's speed games, in which he adjudicates and mails in a separate flyer as soon as he gets all orders, go in closer to 6 months)), it's quite tactically ((?)) yet the rules are very simple and if you pin all your maps onto the wall it's cheaper than wallpaper. One aspect of which many novices neglect is joint runs. A JR missed is points thrown away. Offer them whenever possible and write to the other player so he/she knows! I have also started a C & O map, although I got Melinda Holley into my game, I don't quite think the map can take six. I favor five, and I think it needs some serious revision in the south (I played two FtF games at ManorCon and there is a definite best track to build). ((Hmmm... Melinda on the C & O map got me thinking... some day I'll organize a C & O game where all the players have to start in their real home town... Melinda in Huntington, me in Baltimore, Peel in Washington (I know Ken, but Silver Spring is close enough), John Crosby in Richmond, Micheal Gonslaves in Hagerstown, Lilleleht in Charlottesville. It would be fun, but Millie'd have the whole west to herself and win in a romp.)) "I am not yet convinced that the new 52 town maps are better than the old 36 town maps. Certainly they are more realistic, since runs can now occur between any areas of the map Whoever under the old system when to some extent a player knew which runs would turn up, there was more skill involved in maximizing one's own track. I'm willing to run these new maps, but I'm sticking to the old ones for playing in! By the way, have you played the India map? ((no, but I'm signed up to in Paul's Not New York.)) I didn't care for it at first (it's rather large) but have rapidly changed my mind and it is now one of my favorite games. ((My only experience with a really big map is the new China map, again in Paul's zine. Ugh. We're in round 11, and I'm in dead last of a field of 8, well over 100 points behind the leader.)) "If I may be allowed to plug my own Hobby Service? The Diplomacy Article Archive Service offers reprints of all the diplomacy articles I can get my hands on. The current catalogue ($1.50) lists almost 600 of them and I'm still cataloguing. Perhaps Mickey Preston would be interested in ordering a copy through the ISE? ((Available, as is The Yorkshire Gallant, a large zine with tons of games, including some international ones run too longer deadlines, lots of reprints, and a lettercol, from Mark Nelson, 112 Huntley Avenue, Spondon, Derby, England DE2 7DU.)) "Is there any point transferring a game which hasn't reached S'01? It's probably a waste of time as I doubt all 7 players will wish to continue. Better to give it up as a bad game and join a new waiting list. ((Don't agree with you there. In the case Stven discussed last issue it sounded like he'd been in touch with all the players and there was general interest in continuing... in that case why not transfer before the disinterested GM starts botching adjudications?)) "A reliable pubber will generally return sub credit, but I agree with the Mark Lew attitude on returning subs. Zines undercharge as it is, and editors make losses. Few players realize how much work goes into a zine. But still, editors should return sub credit unless they have a public policy of not doing so. ((Right. The justification that we lose money anyway is worthless. That's our problem for not charging what we should. Imagine being a home builder, being paid up front, doing half the work, then disappearing with no refund. At the trial you can bet there'd be one, you claim... gee, I had a lot of real life crises. I was burned out on building. Besides, I charged way too little, the buyer easily got their money's worth on the half I built. Ha! The scale of a zine is smaller, the amounts involved trivial, but the principal is the same. It amazes me that pubbers who get SO worked up over "publishing ethics" involved in what to print, and how, etc, sometimes treat this, which is fraud, as an irrelevant nit- picking detail.)) "Machiavelli is a Diplomacy variant and so gets Miller Numbers, anyone setting up a special Machiavelli Number Custodian is wasting his time. Still, it makes a good postal game although it can last for awhile." ((Look, George Mann is a big time professional wrestling fan, fer cryin' out loud! Anything he does aside from watching bulky, sweaty men strut 'n grunt constitutes a move away from wasting his time! I really don't give a hoot who gives numbers for what, but calling Machiavelli a Diplomacy variant,while it certainly is in design, avoids the fact that it is very different from other variants which are usually given numbers. All the other 900 plus variants which are catalogued and numbered by members of the variant hobby are amateurly designed and produced, and generally are made available to play for the cost of reproduction. Machiavelli is a commercial game distributed by TAHGC, and available for a hefty price. I don't know, nor do I really care, if that does, or should make a difference, but it does make it unique to the world of variants as we generally understand and discuss them.)) Ed Wrobel: "Dear Thomas Nash (mode of address is a satiric allusion to a famous dipster - can you name him?) ((no.)), May I point out a minor inaccuracy in DIck Martin's article on 1830? Dick stated he played several times before reading the rules but hadn't missed anything. This is untrue. In one of his early games Dick, in fact, sold the B & O private company, a practice specifically prohibited by the rulebook. Dick's error is documented in Politesse. "You can look it up," as someone once said. ((How... Dick. I bet he had read the rulebook and was banking on nobody else having done so!)) "Forgive me, but I couldn't hold back a snicker when I read Dick's advice to "first and foremost do what is best for your companies and the companies you hold." Coming from a man who makes Ivan Boesky look like Mother Theresa is well, let's just ask a few of those partners and engineers whose employing companies were driven into the yellow zone of insolvency to feed Mr. Martin's insatiable appetite for money and power. But perhaps that is just one of the many strategies Dick has tried and transcended. Now he is a nice robber baron! "I didn't recognize BTDT #8 as little ol' BTDT digest when it first arrived. Have you renounced "digesting" permanently? ((No, and this issue, as I type this, is planned to go digest again.)) Thanks for the list of what's hot and what's not and for the exercise in poll compression. I really feel that I'm beginning to understand, that I'm moving slowly, inexorably towards some kind of mental and spiritual unity with all DipDom. For example, I know (and I mean really know) how Dick Martin, Melinda Holley, Kathy Caruso, and PBEM can be either hot or not relative to other individuals or concepts. I see for the first time that Doug Acheson and Bob Acheson are not Doug and Bob McKensie ((they're not? That's news to me!)). I can conceptualize the difference between Lee Kendter Jr. and Lee Kendter Sr. I feel so sublime. ((Good my son, now don't forget the minor question of the "Love Offering" and the lifetime partnership allowing you three nights per year sleeping on the couch in the basement.)) "You seem to imply that Feudesse was a mistake. Harumph! Feudesse had some brilliant satire. Did you see the "FENSA" piece? (Feline Eggheads Naturally Superior to All). ((No, I've never seen Feudesse. But I just found out I had the winning bid on some back issues through the PDO Auction.)) I would resurrect Feudesse if I had the time. No, my mistakes lie elsewhere. My initiation into DipDom was ((editor's stream of consciousness while typing --- do I cut this, or go ahead? Do I want to be the next Praxis? Not really. If I had listened to Cal and been a Feud Free Zone... well, what the hell, jump on in and see what next month's mail brings... at least Mickey will be happy.)) through the aegis of the Dark Side. I was seduced by the pretty pictures and the pretense of strategy and tactics. Yes, I can admit now that I bought back issues of Diplomacy Digest. I played variants in Bushwacker. I am one of Bruce Linsey's many former friends. At the same time Mark Berch, Rod Walker, and Fred Davis were deciding how to "handle" the DipCon Society meeting, I was writing about scoring systems in Berch's Farrago. Yes, I was once a naive little novice. But today, I am amused, not bemused. ((Ed, Ed, Ed. That Dark Side stuff is just so... silly. And dangerous, since it takes the heat off the faction that is truly a danger to DipDom. I speak, of course, of the Supply Side. Under the control of "Enemy of the Hobby Number 1," David Hood, these vicious free market Randians are trying to control the hearts and minds of the hobby, abolishing houserules in favor of "Market Ethics" and deregulation, creating numerous Number Custodians of all types and flavors to "let the market decide," and allowing subbers to undertake "leveraged buyouts" of the zines they read. This is the threat to the hobby. And any left over old news feuding over who said what in a letter to whom 8 years ago allows these fiends to go undetected, unchecked, and unregulated! It is up to liberals like us, Comrade Ed, to fight them in Chapel Hill, in Springfield, and in Baltimore! PS - how's that for "using sarcasm to keep myself out of feuds?")) "To David Orne: No, I do not work in the military welfare bureaucracy. I work in the social welfare bureaucracy, in a glass tower 26 stories high. I have to give Ken Peel equal credit for "WARTHOG." He and I put our heads together and it came bouncing out, a veritable Venus on the half shell. But I do have a remarkable talent for acronyms, headlines, and quoting rock songs. Zappa may not be as commercial as the World's Greatest R&R Band, but compare Joe's Garage, et al, and his "rap" type songs to the good old days of Uncle Meat, Absolutely Free, and Burnt Weeny Sandwich. "Tom Swider or somebody told me that Kremlin is an unskilled game and postal Kremlin is awful. ((Uh, I believe Tom said Kremlin was heavily luck-based, a "beer and pretzel" game, and postal Kremlin wasn't worth running. What's the point, he asked, you might as well run postal poker. But I'm a reborn Brat Packer, unwilling to listen to the so-called wisdom of burnt out old variant hobby farts like Swider! The game is on, and you are in it!)). Andy Lischett: "Whoa! I'm no expert on what's "hot" (as proven by the use if the word whoa), but I do know that nobody - including you, can be hot if he has or wants to have toadies, or even someone else aspires to be his toady. Toadies are super un hot. "PS - The term hot is no longer hot. Don't take your cues from car commercials ((I don't I take them from geeky computer reviews and articles - "The 80486: Intel's New HOT HOT HOT Super Chip!")) "PPS - I don't save zines, but I seem to remember that you like sailing. Is that correct?" ((I have enjoyed sailing the few times I have been able to participate, but it is not something I have done a lot of nor know much about. You don't learn sailing growing up in NYC. But one of the things I aspire to if I can achieve my cherished goal of retirement by age 40, is to take sailing lessons and buy a small sail boat. Dream on, eh?)) Kathy Caruso: "Listen Nash - here it is ((KK)) so stop bugging me! I'll pay for the ZR, but I find BTDT interesting and will trade KK for that. Let me know if that is OK! ((It is)). And stop begging for free issues of this trash - me & Stickman got better things to do than entertain a hog with warts!" ((Uh... well... OK then. There you go. Do I get a nickname now? Oops, Garrett'll think that's fawning over a hobby old fart, how's this: you senile old bag lady, bug off! The Mets stink, and so do you! I'm from Manhattan, and we use people from Queens as cannon fodder, so just send me KK and shut up! And tell Jack to shut up too!)) David Hood: "Hope you got the info I sent you on DipCon '90 ((yep)). As I said there, I see your role first as bringing in the CompuServe PBEM people. But, to answer Susan Welter's comment about Bob Odear, there are lots and lots of PBEMers out there on different networks who are completely unaware of the hobby at large. That's why I have Bob doing publicity - he is heavily involved in Dip gaming on the BitNet system, where he is both a GM and a player. Klien will be helping out with the Portal people. I don't want to step on anybody's toes - but TAD is not the only PBEM game ((? unreadable word here)) out there. ((Absolutely true David. We of TAD like to think of ourselves as the flagship as it were of the PBEM hobby because we've been around since 1982, were the first "officially recognized" i.e. Boardman Numbered, PBEM network, have been the only PBEM "zine" or BBS to get even minimally involved in the mainstream hobby (listed every year in Runestone, those BNs, etc), and have had the most "crossover" back and forth. McKee and I have made the leap to pubbing PBM zines, bringing lots of the TAD crowd with us, and the likes of Martin, Peel, Swider, Doug Kent, Blau, von Metzke, Beyerlein, etc, have made the crossing in the other direction at one time or another. BUT ... you are right. We are as guilty of the same narrow mindedness we accuse the PBM hobby of. We are not the only game in town by a long shot... Klien has started something like 40-50 Dip games on the Portal network in the last year and a half, all BNed, and with literally tons of brand new players. There are Dip BBSes all over the place; I've played on two. The defensiveness Susan, Jeff, Ken Hill and I sometimes display has a long historical origin... partly due to Larry's passing Ken over as DW PBEM editor in favor of a guy who had next to zero experience with PBEM, he set up a Dip BBS and then promptly dumped it on a friend to run. That was it. I welcome someone who has the energy to go out and try to round up all the disparate PBEM groups. People talk about the number of times PBM Dip has been re-invented by a group of gamers with no contact with the PBM world. I suspect it's happened even more frequently with PBEM, because the medium is so perfectly tailored to the game.)) "Unlike the old farts (Peery) and the generally confused types (BNC Williams), most of us hobbyists know exactly what you PBEMers are up to! You're trying to control the rest of us! We're on to y'all now. ((Hah! See above comment to Wrobel. I KNOW it is you and your pathetic clique of Tar Heel Randians who are attempting a leverage buy out of our precious hobby. It is the PBEMers who stand alone to stop the madness! So no to the Supply Side!)) "A thought about DipCon... Choo-Choo games are in these days. What kind of tourney do we have at DipCon to accommodate that? Which game to use, and what kind of scoring system? Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to answer these questions to my satisfaction. This note will self-destruct in 15 seconds. Good luck, Tom." ((I agree that there should be choo choo games. I have two immediate thoughts. Since Railway Rivals is played in British Dipzines at least as frequently as Dip, there should be some sort of RR tourney to help make the Brits (and Aussies) at home (as well as induce Connie, Paul Gardner, and the rest of the burnt out dip players who only play RR these days, to come). Perhaps the Tourney GM role should be filled by a Brit, as they have lots of experience running it as a tourney event FtF at Cons. Peter Sullivan, Iain Bowen, Mark N., and Wol Nicholl: thoughts? The other idea is that 1830 and an EB system game should be the other offerings. Steve Courtemanche was involved in designing Mayfair Games new EB system game, EuroRails. It was supposed to be out this summer, I believe, but I haven't heard a word of it. Perhaps, if it is out, we can induce Steve to GM a tourney of it at DipCon. Even if it still isn't officially released, or perhaps especially if it isn't, it may be a fun thing to playtest. As for scoring systems, I don't have the vaguest idea. Hey ChooChoo people... gimme some thoughts on this, OK?)) Stven Carlberg: "I have a few comments on the B-52's. I love the B-52's and spent a few hours early this morning getting tickets for their Oct 31 performance at Atlanta's fabulous Fox Theatre. Cosmic Thing is a great album, although it took a few listenings for me before I started to really like it. Apparently the word of mouth on the album has been good, weeks after its release - it's still creeping charts. I'll add my voice and say that if you've ever liked the B-52's, you'll like this one. I'm very excited about seeing them live on Halloween night. ((Dick Martin sent me an Email note raving about an appearance of theirs in the D.C. area, and is going back for more when they return. I'd print it, but I seem to have erased it from my hard disk. Pity. It's also the same one, I believe where he committed the apostasy of stating that he was not at all impressed by Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica. Hmmm... well, yes, great ART is rarely appreciated by the masses... takes too much active work to be truly understood and appreciated... but I digress. All this talk about concerts, reading Burgess's concert reviews in Abyssinian Prince, etc makes me flat out jealous. I used to go see live music of all varieties a LOT. Then I had kids. Sigh. I would have LOVED to see the 52s, the Stones (yes), Throwing Muses opening for R.E.M., the Jefferson Airplane, and quite a few more shows in the area this summer. The last things I saw live were Laurie Anderson, and Richard Thompson opening for Suzanne Vega (I went to see Richard), both when my wife was pregnant with the first one. When I was 15 through 18, I saw live music, mostly rock at the old Fillmore East, but some jazz, folk, blues, etc, 3 out of 4 weekends. Some day...)) "By the way, discounting their first album and their new one, my favorite B-52's album is Whammy!. Oh yeah, my favorite song from Cosmic Thing is "Deadbeat Club." BTW there is no apostrophe in the title Finnegans Wake. There is one in the name of the group the B-52's. "That asinine rock reviewer "Jay Cocks" in Time magazine has been a pet peeve of mine for years. I cancelled my sub to Time and told them to let me know if they ever fired the self-important jerk. If a few hundred more would add their complaints, we might get some action, and some decent pop culture reviews from Time. "We also recommend Buenos Noches From a Lonely Room - Dwight Yoakum, The Very Thought of You - Nat King Cole, and the new Bob Dylan album, Oh Mercy. I don't like the new Sugercubes album much, but I'm hoping it'll grow on me - their first one was such a treat!" ((I have Dwight Yoakum's last album, what was it... Hillbilly Deluxe, and like it a lot. I'm shy about Dylan. Although I think he put out more consecutive outstanding albums than just about anyone in history.... from his debut through Blonde on Blonde and the motorcycle crash everything he touched was magic, he is, in my mind, tied with the Stones for most rotten, disappointing albums of the 80s. I've found it easy to avoid everything he, or they have put out. But you're the second person to speak well of the new Dylan, and I must admit, I really am starting to like Steel Wheels, the first Stones album I've bought in lord knows how long, and clearly their best since Some Girls, maybe, all the way back to the truly great Exile on Main Street. What I know of the Sugercubes I wasn't that impressed with. They struck as just another performance art junkie band...)) Tim Moore: "How's it going? Survive the remnants of Hugo? I don't envy those people in Charleston. I heard there had been some flooding up in Baltimore, but didn't know how much. ((I don't envy the people in Charleston either. We were there just this time last year, and found it to be a lovely, delightful city. Now virtually destroyed. No flooding problems here. I do have my Hugo story though. I was down in Salisbury Maryland for a day of teaching a course. It's a 3 hour drive, and for one day, seems not worth it. So my co-teacher and I decided to fly a prop driven commuter down THursday night and back Friday. Friday was the day we got the remains of Hugo. Turns out my travelling companion is desperately phobic of flying. Now to do it through high winds! In a prop job at that. After debating all day, we finally decided not to rent a car to drive home, but rather to fly. It was fine, once we got up over the storm. But going up and coming down were rough! She just about had a psychotic break, and squeezed my hand so hard it hurt for a week.)) "The locals and I are flipping over 1830 right now. It's the best game that I've played since Dip. Dick Martin's right, there are so many different strategies you can use, and not one of them is fool proof! Think that you would GM a game? ((Considering I've never played, no.)) "And regarding DipCon... you only have to go as far as Ron Cameron to find the culprit in your ascension to the DipCon committee. You should have seen the glint in his eyes as candidates were asked for. He calmly stood up and offered your name like a sacrificial lamb, and the chorus of yeahs and all rights from Susan's group was almost deafening. Did you start a fan club without telling anyone? ((A church, actually, but that's a long story...)) If there was anything that Ron was happy about at DipCon it was gloating over Equalizer ((A game Mr. Cameron has unmercifully beat up on me in -Ed.)) and "putting you in your place" on the committee. Blame it all on him." ((I can see this is going to be like the movie "Rashomon," in that everyone who was there and tells me about it, saw and heard something totally different. According to you, "Susan's crowd" yeahed and all righted. According to McKee, Susan's crowd was all asleep or out eating. Hm.... I believe Ronster was the culprit. HIs playing philosophy is "don't beat 'em, humiliate 'em." It's not enough to lie to me 17 times in one game and eliminate me... now he has to stick this on me to make my humiliation complete. But I got him.... when you want to taunt Ron, just sidle up to him and whisper "Mike Devereaux for Mike Morgan.")) Ron Cameron: "Yes you're on the DipCon committee. David Hood told me he'd be calling you soon. Let's hope he does a better job than Peery on the scoring system. Don't blame me for election to the committee. I nominated you, but the other 65 or 70 almost unanimously voted for you. HAHAHA. ((See what I mean? Yet another version of that elusive thing called the Truth)). "Congrats on the Runestone. "How is fatherhood coming with baby Sam? Has Sam driven you crazy yet? Short drive, eh Tom?" ((Yes, Sam has truly driven me crazy. But I adore him just the same. If one child thoroughly turns your life upside down, two does not double the effect, but rather, squares it! If anyone truly knew the reality of parenthood, I am convinced, particularly the reality of late 80s, two working parents, no relatives in town, parenthood, zero population growth would no longer be a dream or a goal. But geez, he is a cute little bugger, ya know? And bright. Let me tell you....)) David Orne: "I received BTDT #8 yesterday and thought I'd get the jump on my response while it's fresh in my mind. "I never expected so much of my letter to find it's way into print. Did you have a slow month, or what? ((And here I was worried you'd be offended that I cut all your rhapsodizing to Mickey about the good ol' days of Kentucky basketball, in that Mickey's been a Kentuckian, for, I believe, less than a year. Actually, how many pages of letters do I run last time? Probably about 15. No, by no means was it a slow month. The thing I wanted to do when I started a (sub)zine was have a good, dynamic lettercol. Now, how does one do that? One can, like the Buck Henry parody of a late night, call in, talk show host on a very old Saturday Night Live, announce very controversial topics then beg, plead, dare, and goad your audience to respond. I've seen zine pubbers do it.... virtually beg their readership to help get a lettercol going. It comes off rather pathetic. The other method, the one I have chosen, is run virtually everything I get. I cut some stuff, but not a lot. This does two things: 1) It gives people a sense that they have a voice or a forum, and encourages further submission. 2) Since I never seem to have the vaguest idea what's going to spark a flurry of responses (and believe me the last topic I ever thought would bring even a single response was the Fugs, for crying out loud, I mean they were obscure in their heyday!), it provides the broadest possible range of input for people to read, react to, and respond to. I'll tell ya though, I'm getting a bit weary typing these things!)) " This year will not be remembered as the "summer of remembering." Don't you remember 4-5 years ago the resurgence of early 60s songs? "Twist and Shout" by the Beatles was on the soundtrack of 3 different movies, most notably "Ferris Buehler's Day Off." IN the late 70s, music of the fifties made a comeback, and "Happy Days" was on the tube. So 1989 isn't special, just part of a 20 year time lag for nostalgia ((the same point, well taken, was made in the latest issue of Dorneman's Penguin Dip)). My theory is that as a generation nears 40, they realize that they're probably not going to make a great change in the world, that they're probably not going to realize their dreams, and that they're a lot more like their parents than they ever wanted to be. Frightened by that realization, they turn to the music that brought them comfort through their adolescence and early adulthood. A perfect example would be The Big Chill. "The fact that that generation has enormous buying power doesn't hurt either ((Ah, now you're hit on it!)). It fuels the financing for movies and TV shows like "China Beach," and "The Wonder Years." "So I don't think 20 years from now will bring a look back on the look back to twenty years ago... what]s probably going to happen in the year 2009 is a bunch of oldies radio stations playing Milli Vanilli and Paula Abdul. And that isn't even the scary part... the mid 90s are just a few years away and if my theory holds up, disco will rear its ugly head once more! Wait a minute! Haven't I recently heard the Bee Gees and Donna Summer on VH-1? Oh my God, its starting already! "All that from a guy who hasn't even turned 30 yet. I've been accused of being behind the times before though... Abbey Road is still my favorite album, and "Whiter Shade of Pale" is still the best song ever written. I was in my own Wonder Years when it came out, not in High School yet. Most of my tapes are from the 70s: Pink Floyd ((all down hill after Syd Barrett's crack up)), Chicago ((Gag!)), Jimmy Buffet ((so mellow he's attracted fruit flies)), Alan Parsons ((don't know him)), and of course, Steely Dan ((NOW you're talking!!)). They've been rumored to be working on an album for about 3 years now. Their reunion would top off nicely the get togethers of the last few years, I agree. C,S,& N ((ugh!)), Pink Floyd ((say, here's an idea, Pink Floyd in the Plaza San Marco in Venice, I Mean how much damage could it do?)), Jefferson Airplane ((Must interject... a lot of the music chat started with my ode a few issues back to the Airplane of old, and saying I'd probably buy their reunion album though I didn't expect much from it. Well I just got it, and have only listened to it 1 1/2 times. And well... its so-so. So far. A few good songs. A few mediocre ones. And perhaps the single most embarrassing piece of garbage in history, Marty Balin's humiliatingly stupid, trite, and just plain godawful "Summer of Love." Paul Kantner has started sounding exactly like Harry Chapin, and to make myself perfectly clear, in my book, that is not a good thing at all. But Gracie's voice is strong, and the boys, Jack and Jorma, still got it. I'm looking forward to listening more and hoping it grows on me more as I listen.)), the Doobie Brothers ((Pee Ewe! Talk about trite and godawful!)), Poco ((now there's a neglected band that did some nice things....)), The Who ((Pete Townsend is god, but I prefer his solo stuff to anything the Who's done since, well maybe anything the Who's done)), Rolling Stones ((I've already said how much I am liking Steel Wheels much to my surprise. Geez, I would have liked to see them again... caught them in '69, and '72. Ed Wrobel had an extra ticket, it has come to my attention, and didn't even ask me! He took a Martin instead, or so rumor has it!)) etc. ((don't know them....)) have been successful in their comebacks not because of a nostalgia craze, but because the thirtysomething generation can't stand the dance music and heavy metal that's dominating the charts today (for that matter even Aerosmith and Alice Cooper are back up there. Hmmm... ). ((Yes, and no. Part of the irony to me is that a lot of the bands that came out in the late 60s represented a revolution in creativity in pop music. They were NOT commercially successful to any great degree. You didn't hear them on the top 40. It took some work to find and hear their music, but it was new, fresh, and original. And the fans liked it for that very reason. Now it seems to me that if you were listening to and seeing live, and buying music by the Jefferson Airplane, CSN&Y, Steely Dan, Frank Zappa, the Who, Pink Floyd, the Grateful Dead, etc. in the late 60s and very early 70s, logically, you'd be the kind of music listener who'd have kept up with what is new, fresh, and original. And today, you wouldn't listen to those old farts redoing the same old tired trash, much, but rather be listening to and appreciating R.E.M., Throwing Muses, New Order, Sinnead O'Connor, Indigo Girls, Adrian Belew, Juluka, Fine Young Cannibals, the Beat Farmers, etc. There isn't exactly a dearth of good new music. There's a lot of it out there. Which is why I hate "Classic Rock" radio. How the hell many goddamn times can you listen to "Free Bird" by Lynard Skynard before you want very much to blow your brains out?)) --------------------------------------------- McKee Raves #2 A Subzine of Quantity "Who is this McKee anyway?" You may choose from the following list, whichever you feel will give you the best picture. > Tom Nash's tactical advisor, boot licker and caddy > The Melinda Ann Holley of Gunboat > Jim Bakker's bookie and cellmate > A '70s singer-stand-in-stunt man for KC and the Sunshine Band > John Cleese > Bringer-to-all of Hot Beer and Cold Women > Jessica Hahn's underwear > King Fahd's racquetball partner > The Devil > Nobody in particular Now you can answer my questions: * Who is Ron Brown? * Where is Bob Olsen? * Why is Robert Sacks? * Been Where, Done What? * What do I have to do to get a sample of _Kathy's Korner?_ * What will appear in OPERABLE if everyone drops the feud? * Why is it that when you tell a man there are 100 billion stars in the universe, he'll believe you, but when you tell him a bench has wet paint on it, he'll have to touch to be sure? * What do you do when the publisher of a zine you don't like asks you to plug it? Il Nasholi and I have been taking a break from each others' presence. Tom has been off procreating while I've been working on advancing my lung cancer. Meanwhile, Tom has been complaining that he isn't getting as many mentions in _The MetaDiplomat_ as he used to. Well, the fact is, Nash is a sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot, which are all wonderful qualities to have when you play Diplomacy. I thought of having Dr. Joyce Brothers write a special column about Nash's psychological makeup, but she was unavailable. Nash has been picking on me for three years now, so what better place to get back at him than IN HIS OWN ZINE? OK, here goes. "Beat me," said the masochist. "No," said the sadist. Sorry, but you have seen the last NashBashing that will come out of this mouth. Tom is the best Diplomacy player I have ever known, a marvelous human being (as evidenced by his perfect son, Smarmy, er, Sammy) and I would *never* say anything bad about him, especially when he wanted me to say it. The fact is, Tom would probably prefer that I rave about something related to Diplomacy. So, here I go. Maybe it's just me, but what has happened to the quality of the game? As a novice I read about all these wonderful negotiational strategies, plans, devious plots, and total unadulterated treachery that Diplomacy is all about. Then I started getting involved, and what did I find? NMR's. Lots of them. People who don't write. People who do write that just as well shouldn't write. The same names on the standby list in just about every zine. The "Brat Pack." The "Bad Boys." Beef and bologna. Fortunately, I had Tom, who could go out in the world and find out about all these people for me, so when I premiered in his zine and someone asked "Who is this McKee," I understood. I bring up a new acronym (the hobby needs more), I'll call it PDHS. PDHS stands for "Postal Diplomacy High School." We've got everything, from the school board (who pay attention to their "issues" but not to what is really going on), DipiJocks (who play together so much it's no small wonder that they usually wind up the largest powers in their games), whiners, crybabies, teachers, quiet kids, dropouts, truants, class clowns. Most prominent in PDHS is the "before classes" period, where everyone gets together and has a good time, blowing all their energy so that they don't learn anything in class. Let me expand the PDHS concept a little further. I'm appointing myself the principal. Here are the rules. > No playing in more games than you can play well. > No writing less than 1 letter per player per season per game. > No giving up when your position is losing. > No playing any less than to the best of your ability. Violators are sent to "In-School Suspension" where they can only play games with each other until they can follow the rules. When students play well for three years, then they are considered to have graduated, and can then play Gunboat, provided they still follow the rules for their regular games. If you're playing Gunboat in your regular games, shame on you! ((A response shall appear as my column, "Nash Rants" in Jeff's zine The Metadiplomat.)) --------------------------------------------- ************************************************************************ 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