Goofy


Robert Rehbold

I. Board, Unit, Moving, Rules

All standard rules of Diplomacy (including board layout, unit types, moving) apply except for the winning conditions.

II. Winning Conditions

To win you don't have to get 18 SC, but have more points after the builds of 1910 (hardwired end) than anybody else or be declared the winner by unanimous vote of all powers (including eliminated ones!!). If anybody makes it up to 18 SC or more before 1910, the game continues until one of the above conditions is met!

III. Points

To win in this variant you must acquire points (called goofiness points).

  1. Getting points by voting from active players After each spring season (i.e. when fall moves are due) and winter season (i.e. if spring moves are due) all active players vote about each others goofiness. For this, they must spend (exactly) 7 goofiness points for the other players (not for themselves, of course :-). Voting is done by splitting up the 7 points among those powers that were still able to move since the last vote except ones own up to a maximum of 3 points for one power (should there remain 4 powers, the max. is raised to 5 points, with 3 powers, it's 6 points, and with 2 powers, seven points). The GM will also assign 7 points in the same fashion. Voting on goofiness points is due before the next seasons moves are evaluated. Players can vote secret or in the public, and of course both in which case the latest private message to the GM before the voting deadline is considered.
  2. Getting points by voting from eliminated players Eliminated players may still vote on goofiness, however they only have 3 goofiness points to spend in the years after their elimination. If a eliminated player chooses not to vote in a season, s/he will not be allowed to vote in any following season and will suffer a non-voting penalty of 5 points per season. You are considered 'eliminated' if you do not own an SC according to the judge output.
  3. Getting points for SC controlled After the winter adjustments have been evaluated, players get two points for each SC they own at the end of a year.
  4. Missing the voting deadline The next season will not be evaluated until all votes from the active players are in.
  5. Goofiness score board The goofiness point results of the last year as well as the accumulated score for each power are published at the end of each year, and unless a winner is agreed upon before, the person with the most accumulated goofiness points at the end of 1910 is declared the winner ("Goofy of the Year" :-).

IV. What is Goofiness?

  1. Definition of Goofiness Goofiness is hard (or impossible) to define. Yet most players seem to know what kind of play is goofy and what is not. Goofiness ranking is completely up to the player assigning the points and can not be questioned by anybody else (of course it can be commented upon! :-)
  2. Things that should be avoided The following things may seem goofy to people but are not intended in this variant and should not be rewarded with goofiness points:
    (a) Cross-gaming or Out-of-Game activities: Goofiness should remain within this game and not be transferred outside. Cross-gaming for example is *not* considered positively goofy in this variant!
    (b) Breaking the deadlines: Becoming late or going CD is just unfriendly to the other players.
  3. A contradiction in terms? A possible problem in a game in which goofiness is encouraged can be that what is goofy in a normal game may not be considered goofy in a goofy game. Maybe normal play is goofy if the goal is to be goofy! (Now that's something to chew on, you logicians out there!)

    Again, goofiness is in the eye of the beholder. :-)

Addendum from the variant inventor:

During the playing of a game of the goofy variant, players agreed that two points per SC per year are too much if the goal is that the goofiest person should win. One point or 1.5 points per owned SC per year should be just right. In the game we chose 1.5 points. Yet the player with the most goofiness points did not win because he had only 1/3 of the SC points of the winner (who would have won regardless of whether 1, 1.5 or 2 points were assigned).