Diplomacy World #103 - Fall 2008 Issue

[This game begins with a lengthy discussion of the
“science” involved, then the rules. At the end are some
design comments, such as I can make about 25 years
after I designed the game.]
This game depicts warfare in a not-too-distant future.
Humanity has colonized several stellar systems. Internal
disorders have led to the destruction of all useful worlds
in the Solar System, and to the partial de-civilization of
the colony worlds. Where sufficient natural resources are
obtainable within a system, not yet exhausted by
intensive use, faster-than-light (FTL) travel has been reestablished
on a practical basis. (The knowledge was
never lost, but the technology for FTL ships was
temporarily beyond the production capabilities of any
system.) In other systems, where resources are not
available, industrial installations still exist but no
government remains with the coherence necessary to
resist interstellar invasion. In several relatively recently
colonized systems industry is still limited but resources
are ample. The governments of the older systems,
lacking sufficient resources at home to operate all the
available industry, and foreseeing the exhaustion of the
remaining resources in the near future, plan to gain
control of other systems which possess raw materials in
abundance. Each player controls one of these
expanding nation-systems.
FTL travel can be accomplished only by massive
objects, traveling from a planet in one system to a planet
in another. The only way to enter or come out of FTL
drive is with the aid of a planetary mass. A huge mass
such as a star severely interferes with the drive. As a
result, fleets typically consist of large spaceships (10+
miles in diameter) which never descend to a world’s
surface. Only the outer planets of a system may be
reached by FTL travel, owing to the sun’s interference
closer in.
These ships travel within a system using an anti-gravity
device which also requires large (planet-size) masses to
react against. Thus ships may only travel between
planets, not directly deep in interplanetary space.
In combat, ships project fields (related to the gravity/antigravity
propulsion units), an entire fleet projecting a
single integrated field. The size of a fleet is naturally
determined by the number of ships which can orbit a
world while projecting a field, without forcing some ships
so far away that they are unable to use the normal space
drive. Fleets on nearby worlds may reinforce the field
projection of a fleet. Ships are seldom destroyed; instead
they are forced to go into drive to retreat to a nearby
planet. If other fleets occupy all planets within range, the
fleet is forced into interplanetary space, where it
Fighting SUNS
Copyright, 2008 Lewis Pulsipher
Diplomacy World #103 - Page 30
becomes a drifting target for heavy missiles and is
destroyed. Of course, the technology permitting such
huge ships to move without a tie to planets exists, but it
is so expensive that the necessary units are not in
production, nor would it be efficient in the long run to put
such propulsive units on the great ships.
The only defense against space fleets is the very large
and expensive planetary defense installation, including
orbital and planet-based components. Because
propulsion units need not be included, these are cheaper
than space fleets. Planets are otherwise defenseless
against space fleets and therefore routinely surrender to
them without resistance. The human race, having seen
the Solar System destroyed, has adopted a form of
limited warfare similar to that known in Europe c. 1650-
1750. Fleets are capable of “burning off” planets; while
no fleet is likely to do such a thing, planets nevertheless
surrender when faced with an orbiting enemy.
Teleportation between worlds and systems is known, but
only raw materials can be teleported without harm.
Humans die; electronic components (disassembled
spaceships, for example) are irreparably damaged.
The Rules.
The rules of Diplomacy apply except as follows.
1. Definitions.
A) Stellar system: a group of planets surrounding a star,
separated from other systems on the hex sheet by a
heavy black line. Planets are identified by the first letter
of the system name and the number beside the planet
(A5, B2, etc.). There are eleven stellar systems in the
game.
B) Fleet: the space fleet, which acts as a normal army in
Diplomacy except as stated below.
C) In-system: the area one or two hexes from the sun of
a stellar system. In-system planets are separated from
out-system worlds by black lines, and are identified by
one-figure numbers.
D) Out-system: the area more than two hexes distant
from the sun of a stellar system; out-system worlds are
separated from the inner system by black lines, and are
identified by two-figure numbers.
E) Hyperjump: movement between one stellar system
and another “connected” to it (within range), permitted
only between outsystem planets of different systems.