R

Race to Victory alliance: An agreement between two players to not attack each other, perhaps to support each other, but to race to see who can win the game.

Raegun Alliance: An alliance featuring England, Austria and Russia. Named by combining the initial letters of each power: R, A, E.

Ragtime Alliance: An alliance featuring Germany, Austria and Russia. Named by combining the initial letters of each power: R, A, G.

Raider (unit): Alternative name for ROGUE UNIT.

Ranked (game): A game that involves some kind of scoring.

Ranking: Often on a website, scored games award points and these will be part of a ratings system that places players in order, forming the site’s rankings.

Ranking system: The system used to score points and form the rankings. Very similar to a RATINGS SYSTEM.

Ratings system: A way of scoring Diplomacy games over a longer, perhaps on-going, series of games. Ratings systems may use DRAW-SIZE SCORING (DSS) systems which award points based on the number of players involved in the draw at the end of the game, which is more in line with the design of Diplomacy. This works for this kind of system because of the number of games involved.

r/diplomacy: A sub-Reddit for the game of Diplomacy. Originally created to support the backstabbr Dip site, it is now much more commonly seen as the sub-Reddit for the Hobby. https://www.reddit.com/r/diplomacy/

Readjudication: When the GM makes an error they will hold the game to issue the correct position.

Real life: That obnoxious existence we have outside of Diplomacy that so often buggers-up our enjoyment of the game.

Real Time Play: Any game of Diplomacy that has all the players playing the game at the same time and communicating live, also known as IN-PERSON PLAY.

rec.games.diplomacy: Originally a Usenet which brought PBEM Diplomacy to the fore. Now owned by Google it can be found in a much less useful way here: https://groups.google.com/g/rec.games.diplomacy Not really used any more.

Refusals: Before the Rules for Diplomacy were updated in 2000 to make it specifically allowable to use ‘via convoy’ in orders, some GMs would allow players to use the term in orders so effectively preventing unwanted convoys.

Rehbolds: Robert Rehbold categorised mistakes into Dumb Mistake, Tactical Mistake, Short-term Strategic Mistake, and Long-term Strategic Mistake.

Reinhardt Gambit: A way of foiling a self-bounce by supporting one of the units. Imagine Germany trying to protect Munich by ordering A Ruh-Mun, A Ber-Mun – a bounce. Now, imagine France having an army in Burgundy and ordering A Bur S Ruh-Mun. Not much use on its own, however also imagine France having an army in Belgium and ordering A Bel-Ruh, which would now succeed. If you really want to stretch your imagination, have an English army in Belgium that you’ve persuaded you want to cut support from A(Ruh) for A Ber-Mun, and you – as France – having an army in Picardy and you order A Pic-Bel. You’ve forced A Ruh-Mun to succeed, allowed A Bel-Ruh to succeed and have moved into Belgium as a result, picking up the SC. Incredibly useful, all of a sudden. You’ve probably lost two possible allies but, if you can imagine that much, you should be OK.

Reliability rating: Many sites will judge players on how reliable they are: how many NMRs they have. Some games may be restricted to players with a high rating.

Remailing: Originally, sending a letter you’ve received from one player to a second player, so divulging the entire contents. Now forwarding, or copy and pasting, an email or message. Risky business. The recipient should be wondering if you’ve doctored the electronic or digital version, and they should also be considering whether you’re doing the same to their press. A quick way to isolate yourself.

Remote Play: Any game of Diplomacy that players playing from different geographical places and communicating (primarily) using written messages.

Replacement: A player who will take over your position in a game, or arena event, permanently.

Restricted Entry game: Any game which prevents anyone from joining. It might be that it is reserved for those with higher reliability, for novices, for local areas, etc.

Retreat: An order given to a unit that has been dislodged, whereby the unit is ordered to move to a neighbouring space.

Retreat from Moscow: An alternative rule for retreating units stating that, if they are forced to retreat and no orders are received, it will retreat to the last space if was in before moving to the current space, if possible. Meant to prevent NMRs only, and based on the idea that a defeated army just wants to turn around and go home.

Retreating: The movement of a unit ordered to Retreat.

Retreating Unit: A unit ordered to Retreat.

Retreats Phase: The stage in a game where dislodged units can be ordered to Retreat or be disbanded (also known as an Off-the-Board Retreat).

Rogue (unit): A unit that has been separated from its national units and is behind enemy lines. Can cause all sorts of problems for the enemy and is often difficult to get rid of.

Rumple’s Dot: A strategy whereby players consider which SC will be their 18th SC and focus on securing it as early as possible, and then secure the others.

Rusty Bolt award: Among the piles of different Diplomacy awards comes the only interesting one: the Rusty Bolt. There have been different categories each time it has been awarded, none of them particularly complimentary. Some examples: The Chris Tringham Nearly Famous Award for Upstart of the Year, The Forden’s Epitaph Award for the Least Regretted Fold or for the Most Eagerly Awaited Fold, The R.J. Walkerdine Award for the Most Boring Topic of Correspondence. Defunct now but, well… time to bring it back?