The guys interview Baron von Powell, legendary Diplomacy variant developer of 1900, Ambition and Empire and the College of Cardinals. Plus an Around the Grounds and more. Enjoy!
Intro
The guys are still at Felon’s Brewery in a back-to-back session. Kaner talks beer yoga (0 mins 30 secs)
Amby switches to a Felon’s IPA while Kaner sticks to the Treehouse cider (1 min 30 secs)
They move onto introducing the interview with Baron von Powell (2 mins 50 secs)
Interview with Baron von Powell
Amby explores the nature of Baron von Powell’s name (3 mins 30 secs)
Baron shares how often he has played Diplomacy (4 mins 55 secs)
Baron talks about postal Diplomacy (7 mins)
Amby reflects on Baron’s views about Slack after his experience during the Tournament of Time at PlayDip (8 mins 10 secs)
Baron discusses his fascination with the game going back to the 80’s (10 mins)
He goes onto talk about responding to an article in 1998 in Diplomacy World about improving Classic. He goes onto discussing how this became the 1900 variant, with now over 500 games played - you can play 1900 at PlayDiplomacy (premium account needed) and vDiplomacy (14 mins)
Kaner discusses his first exposure to 1900 and the concept of Siberian reserve army. Baron talks about his role and where he drew inspiration. He goes onto discussing how he tried improving the Classic map to better reflect the “powerhouse” nature of Germany. He talks about not radicalizing the game, but better reflecting the historical nature of the map for when the game starts at 1900 (16 mins 15 secs)
Amby agrees with Baron’s historical thinking (19 mins 20 secs)
Amby goes onto ask with the 500 games that have occurred, to what extent the balance is improved (21 mins 40 secs)
Baron talks about the rule changes of 1900 (24 mins 15 secs)
Kaner asks whether territories in 1900 that are impassable in Classic (eg Iceland, Ireland) are used (28 mins 15 secs)
Baron mentions how stalemate lines are rarely used effectively in 1900 (30 mins 30 secs)
Kaner asks Baron about his other well known variant: Ambition & Empire. Baron talks about partnering with Jeff Kase on developing his variant and how its different to 1900 (31 mins)
Baron discusses the creation of the Diplomacy point and how they work (34 mins 20 secs)
They touch on the Tournament of Time and the nature of how the games worked out based on team strategy (37 mins)
They discuss the Dissolution variant and why Baron loves it so much (39 mins 45 secs)
Kaner asks about Baron’s latest project: College of Cardinals (10.3 mb PDF download), a variant he’s been developing for 9 years with Timothy Hayward. He begins by talking about some of the early difficulties designing the game (41 mins 20 secs)
He discusses the nature of the role of the Pope and the process of electing the Pope. He talks about the difference in complexity between a Classic game and highly detailed variants like College of Cardinals (44 mins 30 secs)
Kaner discusses his experience in previous Crusade variants and how difficult it is to get armies to the Holy Land. Baron talks about how the College of Cardinals tries to address this with the option of a Crusade being called and how it works (47 mins)
Amby asks about how Excommunication impacts on gameplay (48 mins 45 secs)
Baron talks about Crusade objectives and how convoys work: including effectively “land” convoys. He then discusses how Diplomacy points come into play (50 mins 45 secs)
They discuss the Islamic powers in the game. There are 7 Catholic players, 2 Orthodox players and 3 Islamic powers (53 mins 45 secs)
Baron says listeners can read the rules and view the map when he sends them through to Kaner & Amby (56 mins 20 secs)
Baron discusses Papal Bulls (57 mins 15 secs)
Amby asks about the process for electing the Pope (58 mins 50 secs)
Baron reflects how the variant evolved how the nature of the Pope changed over time (1 hr 0 mins)
Baron flags the variant is in hiatus currently, but says he’d love to see enough
