"Revelation" variant idea

I've been itching to start up a slightly off-the-wall game lately.  If
anyone has some free time, I'd like some comments and suggestions on a
(somewhat kludged-together) variant that I've been thinking about for
a the last week or so, described below.

My first thought was to randomly certain rules every year (partially
inspired by Manus' new check-box interface), but I prefer any
"randomness" in Diplomacy to be, as much as possible, the fault of the
players.  I considered choosing the rules randomly ahead of time and
publishing the rule schedule, but that sounded less interesting the
more I thought about it--the possibility of someone planning a
strategy that involves the turn they can COSTAL_CONVOY two years from
now seemed unlikely.

I started to concentrate on sight (MYOPIC, BLIND, VENETIAN, standard)
and press rules.  The idea of removing the abilities to send press
over time and see opposing units was intriguing, but I thought it
would favor long-term alliances (and people with lots and lots of time
to lay out contigency plans) more than I wanted.  It also had a
greater than normal benefit for "cheaters"--if any two players started
communicating outside the standard press system, they could have a
significant advantage by the time the game was NO_PRESS and MYOPIC.

That last bit reversed my thinking--I decided to try a game that
started out MYOPIC and NO_PRESS, then gradually remove both
restrictions.  I came up with the somewhat pedantic name "Revelation",
and the list of rules for each year below.

1901-1902
NO_PRESS
MYOPIC
NO_MINOR_WAIT

1902-1903
NO_PRESS
BLIND
NO_MINOR_WAIT

1904-1905
NO_PRESS
VENETIAN
NO_MINOR_WAIT

1906-1907
PUBLIC_PRESS
YELLOW_PRESS
VENETIAN

1908-1909
PUBLIC_PRESS
YELLOW_PRESS

1910-1911
GREY_PRESS

1912-
WHITE_GREY
LIST_UNORDERED
LIST_WAITERS

Possible technical issues:
* Changing some of these rules mid-game could potentially cause
(understandable) DPJudge "bugs" to crop up.
* Changing the BLIND settings might temporarily reveal current map on
the turn of the rule change, or...
* Change the game history such that people now know what happened in the past.

Potential gameplay issues:
* When the game converts from BLIND to VENETIAN, players lose
information about home centers that they no longer control.  For
people who still have their home centers, the rule fits the theme, but
it could potentially reduce the information a losing player gets. 
Maybe it would be worthwhile to just convert VENETIAN to BLIND in what
is currently 1906-1907 and shift 1904-1905 out of the order?
* Two years may not be enough time for MYOPIC to have any significant
impact over a basic BLIND start--I don't have enough experience with
blind games in general to know.
* The two year overlap between blind and allowing (anonymous public)
press also feels like it might be too short.  I've thought of the
obvious alternatives (just extending that period or allowing private
press while still blind) but I don't particularly like them.

Other thoughts:
* I considered alternating the loosening of sight and press
restrictions, i.e. MYOPIC->BLIND, NO_PRESS->YELLOW_PRESS,
BLIND->VENETIAN, YELLOW_PRESS->GREY_PRESS, VENETIAN->Normal,
GREY_PRESS->WHITE_GREY (or loosening press then sight).  My gut
instinct says this would be less interesting, but I'm curious what
other people think.
* It would be interesting if touch press could be worked into the
game, but I can't see a satisfying way to do it.  If you go
yellow->grey->touch->white, the grey->touch move removes your ability
to contact neighbors.  The other likely alternative--yellow->grey
touch->grey->white--makes the grey press period a bit abnormal, as the
new contacts allowed at that point would not be able to send very
convincing fake press.

I know that the Diplomacy world has been around for longer than I
have, so I would imagine that there must be an existing variant
similar to this, but a cursory search didn't find anything.  If anyone
has tried anything like this in the past, I'd like to hear about it. 
Also, if there are any other comments or suggestions, they would be
greatly appreciated.  Finally, the most important question: would
anyone play this variant (or something close to it)?  For that, I'd
appreciate a personal response, to keep potential players anonymous.

-Nick


------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> 
Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. Make Yahoo! your home page
http://us.click.yahoo.com/dpRU5A/wUILAA/yQLSAA/xTHqlB/TM
--------------------------------------------------------------------~-> 

 
Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dpj-games/

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
    [email protected]

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
    http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/