I first played Diplomacy in 1965 with students from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown as well as some actual State Dept. employees. Later I used the game in my high school history classes. I also played while teaching university abroad. A few suggestions: it's easy to alienate novice players who don't notice obscure borders, convoy rules, etc. It helps to point the finer points out after every turn. Conference maps--colored pins are a must, and just tape the conference map onto a piece of cardboard box so the pins stick in. Not enough maps? Why not photocopy them? Having also been a fan of Survivor since the beginning, I can say that there are two types of people in the world: 1) people who realize they are playing a GAME and that normal rules of polite behavior are suspended for the duration of the game and 2) people who can't tell the difference between reality and a game and who think a lie is a lie, in the game or not. Hard to deal with those type 2 people, and best not to play with them. A really good game will last all day, or all night. Bring beer and food! Finally, it's the best game I have seen for learning geography as well as why countries behave as they do. *****Get more detail about Diplomacy.
