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====== The DipCon Story The Early Years ======

**By Edi Birsan and Friends**


{{:history:north_america.png?400|}}


For over 33 years there has been a single Diplomacy Convention
that has had universal hobby recognition as the DipCon.  The
place in the history of gamming conventions as a whole as well as
the stories of its development and experiments have often been
forgotten, this essay is an attempt to recall some of those times
before they fade away.

In the Beginning:
In 1967 the postal Diplomacy hobby was only three years old and
it supported some three dozen active magazines or 'zines.  The
centers of the hobby were Southern California, New York, Ohio and
Chicago.  John Koning of Youngstown, Ohio was one of the more
popular publisher/GM's, and in 1967 called for an open house game
in his backyard and announced it throughout the magazines.  It
was the first attempt at a hobby wide gathering.  It netted Derek
Nelson down from Canada, Rod Walker traveling from Illinois, John
Smythe coming from Nebraska plus Stan Wrobel and John Koning for
a grand total of 5 players.  Five player variants, as well as
board games were played with everyone claiming to win something,
but no one recording anything in detail by tacit agreement.  A
great time was had by all and it was duly noted in various
articles in the zines.  The critical elements of the DipCon story
were all there:

  * 1. players gathering from far and wide.  
        This would be critical to convention organizers as
Diplomacy players, as the travelers, would provide future support
for the commitments to hotels and the like as the DipCon grew.
  * 2. advertisement from the postal hobby. Prior to the postal
hobby conventioneers had no real way to reach out to gamers.
  * 3. an emphasis on the social gathering of the postal hobby
so as to put a real person behind the print.

Two summers later, in 1969 John would repeat the offering.   This
time the hobby was larger and once again a great time was had by
all.  One of the purposes of the '69 gathering was to get Rod
Walker (from the mid west at that time) and Charlie Reinsel
(Pennsylvania) together in the same room.  The hobby was riddled
with feuds and the Vietnam war was not helping one bit. This time
the gathering netted 10, including Jeff Key and myself traveling
from New York, Derek Nelson again from Canada (the Canadians have
always provided special support for the DipCon and have made the
North American experience richer by their perspectives), Chuck
Liebenaur and Tony Pandin from Cleveland and a few other locals
including Stan Wrobel and John Smythe, who had moved to the
Youngstown area.  The day started with a standard 7 man Diplomacy
game but as more people arrived the game was stopped and a
Youngstown variant game was played, which once again everyone
claimed to have won or at least to not have lost.  The night and
the next day also saw multiplayer games including an hysterical
game of Blitzkrieg in which the forces were divided up including
within the main countries so there was an Air Force commander and
an infantry etc.  Diplomacy players once again showed their
inclination towards chaos when the game was 'won' by a
combination of Walker's Red Air Force and Birsan's Blue Armor and
artillery units combining to stab their respective allies.

For the record, the feud settling goal had a mixed result, for
the duration of the DipCon the feuders got along quite well even
allying with one another. A general agreement not to discuss
Vietnam helped tremendously, however, as soon as the convention
was history and players were back in print their feud faces were
back on.

Several critical hobby wide decisions were made here.  First it
was decided that this was THE DipCon and that 1967 was the first
one, therefore this was to be DipCon II.  Second, it was also
decided that there should be a hobby wide gathering every year
somewhere.  Jeff Key, who was moving to Oklahoma City volunteered
to host the next one.  Thus, it became hobby tradition that the
selection of the next DipCon was made at a general meeting at the
current one.

DipCon III in Oklahoma City, OK, 1970 was a major step up in the
development of the DipCon.  We moved from the back yard to a
college campus.  The numbers jumped dramatically with over 100
people showing up over three days.  The DipCon also featured
other games, including introductions to new games.  At this
particular DipCon, Duke Siegfried introduced Fletcher Pratt naval
games with 1:1200 models and it became quite a rage in the hobby.
Once again in typical hobby fashion when the hobby stars divided
up for a Jutland Battle Cruiser actions, some of the German rear
end commanders cut a deal with the British Front commanders to
concentrate their fire on the player with the Derflinger who was
committing some team offense.  The ship was vaporized by all
sides and then the battle was declared won by all and stopped.

The most major development for the hobby at DipCon III was the
first official Diplomacy Tournament. A multi-round affair in
which the Winner (John Smythe) was judged by overall performance. 
There was no rating 'system' per se just a general consensus that
he had done better than everyone else.  And there was no argument
about it.  There was also awards (plaques) for other gaming
events, including Avalon Hill games won for the accomplishment of
defeating the French at Waterloo as the Prussians and then
turning on the British to beat them.  Again typical for Diplomacy
players to turn a two sided game into a multiplayer game.

From the Gaming hobby as a whole, the melding of board games,
miniatures, naval gaming and Diplomacy became the standard for
the development of game conventions to this day.

DipCon IV was in San Diego, CA 1971 organized by Larry Peery and
was another campus affair. While there were multiple rounds of gaming
there was no tournament structure of any kind.

DipCon V was in Chicago, IL 1972 and was another major paradigm
shift in the Hobby and gaming.  Len Lakofka took the DipCon and
made it part of a general gaming convention and placed it inside
a major hotel.  With Diplomacy players as the core of the
travelers, and with the zines as advertisements support Lakofka
put forward an excellent venue for gaming.  It would also be at
this convention that Gary Gygax (a long time Diplomacy player)
introduced that other game system: Dungeon and Dragons that would
sweep the country.

DipCon V also provided the first structured tournament with a
first round of 49 players with the best of each table going to a
final round of a single game.

The winner of the tournament was a local face to face player that
no one in the postal hobby had heard of(Richard Ackerley).  This
triggered the first of many endless discussions on whether there
should be seeding or separation of postal players from others so
as to keep the focus of the DipCon on postal players.  While
kicked around for many different times and ways, the results have
always been that the DipCon is an open convention to all comers
and is not reserved for one branch of the Diplomacy hobby.

The shift to the hotel setting also triggered another long debate
that cannot be resolved and that is the 'feel' for a convention
being focused on Diplomacy only and general large scale gaming
conventions.  Over the course of decades the Diplomacy hobby
shifts back and forth between big venue game conventions such as
Origins or BPA and the smaller scale greater focus on Diplomacy
such as is common in DixieCon.  The advantages of the large scale
venue always remains the access to more players, more games,
while the smaller scale advantages is 'closeness, comradery and
more of a feel' and recognition of the winner within the hobby as
a whole.

Chicago became a major focus for the DipCon starting in 1973 and
almost became the permanent home until the local convention was
taken over by an organization run by Gordon Anderson, who
subsequently went into financial difficulties, including
defaulting on prizes to the DipCon winners.  This combined with a
political fight over the copyright of the name DipCon caused the
hobby to go back to an older idea, sponsored by Larry Peery, that
the convention should rotate around North America.

The Tournament in 1974 in Chicago had another unique outcome: the
first meeting and the subsequent marriage of Doug and Marie
Beyerlein who remain married through the time of this writing
(2000).

The 1976 Tournament at Origins II in Baltimore was a high mark in
the history of the DipCons with 29 boards registered in the first
round and about 230 players over all playing in the largest
tournament ever held in North America.  The system also saw the
introduction of the new concepts of Best Country awards
introduced by the tournament directors: Edi Birsan and Mike
Rocamora as an incentive for players who did poorly in their
first round to play extra hard in their second round game so as
to get a trophy.  The scoring system also had a variation on the
concept of top board in that the games in the second round were
seeded based on the first round with extra points awarded to
those that played in the 'tougher' board in the second round.

The DipCon Society, basically those who showed up for a Sunday
hobby meeting at each DipCon, formed a charter after about 6
years of back and forth hobby politics in the mid 70's.  The
charter can be amended by the vote of two sequential DipCon
meetings and established a formal rotation of the DipCon around
North America which has seen remained divided into the West,
Central and East sections containing America and Canada.

The selection process of the DipCon has remained a matter of a
simple vote of majority at the hobby meeting scheduled at each
DipCon.  Twice in the last 33 years for various reasons there was
no bid for the next DipCon and thus there was no decision on the
selection of the DipCon (1980 and 1981).  In both cases a three
player panel was chosen to make a selection for the hobby as a
whole, a system that worked quite well to the surprise of
everyone including the members of the panel.

The DipCon, which at one point was called the DiploCon, has
provided over the years the best backdrop to the gathering of
the Hobby elite and new comers.  It has seen the experimentation
of all sorts of different scoring systems, administration styles,
as well a forum for a face to face discussion of hobby issues and
views.  Now with the development of the World DipCon (WDC)
rotating around the world, the North American DipCon still
remains as the place where it all started. Going strong after 33
years, it has a special place in the hobby and our hearts.