Who can start a variant?

[danblackdiplomacy]

Can any user start a variant game, and if so how do you do this? My friends and I are keen players of the standard map but want to play colonial. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

D

[Blackfish]

You have to apply to become a GM, by PMing {Morg}. You have to have a proven record with Forum Games, though. It's a fair process but necessary, as the site has seen its fair share of unreliable GMs.

Colonial is a huge variant and will need to be GMed by an experienced GM, not to mention involving many, many players. There was some discussion about running Colonial in future, though the general consensus was that not enough interest was expressed for it to be run anytime soon.

[sinnybee]

You have to apply to become a GM, by PMing Pedros. You have to have a proven record with Forum Games, though. It's a fair process but necessary, as the site has seen its fair share of unreliable GMs.

Colonial is a huge variant and will need to be GMed by an experienced GM, not to mention involving many, many players. There was some discussion about running Colonial in future, though the general consensus was that not enough interest was expressed for it to be run anytime soon.

Are you talking about the 7 player Colonial?
Surely that's only "involving many, many players" when run as a tournament with multiple Colonial games as Palin did.
I admit that it's a fairly large map for 7 players though.

I forget whether or not there has been recent discussion on Colonial, but there may certainly be enough interest now, if a GM can be found.

[Morg]

You have to apply to become a GM, by PMing Pedros. You have to have a proven record with Forum Games, though. It's a fair process but necessary, as the site has seen its fair share of unreliable GMs.

Colonial is a huge variant and will need to be GMed by an experienced GM, not to mention involving many, many players. There was some discussion about running Colonial in future, though the general consensus was that not enough interest was expressed for it to be run anytime soon.

Are you talking about the 7 player Colonial?
Surely that's only "involving many, many players" when run as a tournament with multiple Colonial games as Palin did.
I admit that it's a fairly large map for 7 players though.

I forget whether or not there has been recent discussion on Colonial, but there may certainly be enough interest now, if a GM can be found.

I believe the concern was more that given the size of the map, Colonial is huge and will likely take a very long time to GM. Because of the time concern, we wanted to make sure that anyone who attempted to start Colonial had experience enough to know how long it would last and would be more likely to stick it out to the end.

[sinnybee]

You have to apply to become a GM, by PMing Pedros. You have to have a proven record with Forum Games, though. It's a fair process but necessary, as the site has seen its fair share of unreliable GMs.

Colonial is a huge variant and will need to be GMed by an experienced GM, not to mention involving many, many players. There was some discussion about running Colonial in future, though the general consensus was that not enough interest was expressed for it to be run anytime soon.

Are you talking about the 7 player Colonial?
Surely that's only "involving many, many players" when run as a tournament with multiple Colonial games as Palin did.
I admit that it's a fairly large map for 7 players though.

I forget whether or not there has been recent discussion on Colonial, but there may certainly be enough interest now, if a GM can be found.

I believe the concern was more that given the size of the map, Colonial is huge and will likely take a very long time to GM. Because of the time concern, we wanted to make sure that anyone who attempted to start Colonial had experience enough to know how long it would last and would be more likely to stick it out to the end.

Exactly. A GM issue and a length of game issue, not really a having enough players issue.

[Blackfish]

My bad, I meant to raise concern over the size of the map, not amount of players. That's what happens when you are browsing forums at almost 3:30 in the morning. You still get what I mean, though, right? It's hard to GM and when we dicussed large map variants a few weeks ago, it was decided that Colonial may be held off for a while, as there is already a big map variant being run or something rather.

[sinnybee]

No need to apologize. I was just a little confused. No harm done.

[Pedros]

OK danblackdiplomacy - the definitive answer!

1. These days we only allow experienced players here on DVFG to run variant games here, and only then after they've been vetted for knowledge of the rules, reliability, approach to running games, and commitment. This is because of a lot of very bad experience with the previous open house approach. See Start here

2. Some of the replies to your question (Morg's in particular) have assumed you were talking about introducing Colonial as a variant available amongst the main PlayDip games. I don't think that's what you were talking about so I'm not dealing with that here (except to say that when three's time available to include a new variant there will be full discussion open to all premium players (but don't hold your breath!)

3. If no other GM has offered Colonial before the autumn (and one or two have toyed with the idea) then there's a good chance I will do so. But it wouldn't start before November because my summer lifestyle doesn't allow the time it would take!

4. Finally, if it's a game amongst your friends you have in mind why not run it by e-mail? That often works best.

[sinnybee]

2. Some of the replies to your question (Morg's in particular) have assumed you were talking about introducing Colonial as a variant available amongst the main PlayDip games. I don't think that's what you were talking about so I'm not dealing with that here (except to say that when three's time available to include a new variant there will be full discussion open to all premium players (but don't hold your breath!)

Actually, it would appear that there is some time available and that dipsy may be waiting on you to get a voting process (and full discussion) up.
Subject: Shift Right to the Main Site?

But I am hopeful we are making progress on a map-making replacement so don't give up on new variants! Of course, we need the 'new variant voter' process to run again that Pedros runs so I know which one is next.

[Antigonos]

I am interested in playing a Versailles game but I read in the rules that " It is STRONGLY advised that anyone wanting to play Versailles should have the 'Show territory / unit ownership details on hover' option checked in their Account Profiles; with 14 countries, some of the colours are very close, and the hover facility is invaluable to avoid accidents!".

I went to my account profile but do not see where this 'Show territory / unit ownership details on hover' is located to be activated.

I do not know if this is the right place to ask this question but here it is.