DipSoc saves the hobby single-handed!
        
        I wonder... to be strictly grammatically correct, should that be
"saves the world single-handedly"? No matter. Just to boast and brag about
the success of the Oxford University Diplomacy Society thus far this year.
A good Manorcon for us; an Intimate Dip win on the trophy front (thanks,
Dan! Not to put any pressure on you to do the treble at MidCon or anything)
and as a team we beat both our main rivals (Team OMR and Cambridge University,
the latter by default, making it multiply crushing). And the signs for the
future are extremely promising with prominent members aplenty rolling off
the end of the conveyor belt and into the hobby. Dire Straits looks like
being a fun game if any of them do, with Messrs Bates, Barratt and Lester in.
        More to the point, to show how great we are, we are extending our
previously highly successful Diplomacy Tournament to a full-blown one-day
Convention. This change is at least in part to get people who don't like FTF
Dip along. A flyer may well be inclosed; its reliability may be dubious.
Here are the details as best I know them (and I'm organising the damn thing).
        The room and time and date are not completely confirmed. A request
for them is in (and it stands a good chance of getting through because by
sheer chance the Junior Dean, one of the luminaries responsible, one played
Dip) but not yet confirmed. I'm not sure how long the relevant authorities
will take to get the information back - it's been over a week now, which is
apparently not unusual. In a worst case scenario they might only let us know
the day before, which would be very bad indeed. The real sticking point is
where to eat and drink. We're getting rooms with nice new carpets, and if
they get stained, we die. Plus as a recreational booking, should an academic
booking be made for the same time as little as one day in advance, the
academic booking takes precedence and we get shafted. However we have
applied for 3 adjacent rooms (total capacity maybe 100 including games) we
should get _a_ room all day and many rooms most of the time.
        The date we've applied for is Saturday 1st February (with a reserve
of 25th January, the week before) 1997. Events will include the Dip qualifier,
games put on by the RPG Society (over 90% sure of this) and the War Games
Society (over 80% sure of this), probably a meeting of players in a football
PBM 'zine (It's In The Net) whose GM lives close, and many players do too,
and, most interestingly, the first National One-day Siedler Von Catan Masters
tournament. This is, I believe, the first convention one-day Siedler contest
so I'm at a liberty to decide how one should be organised. These are
provisional tournament rules, but comments and suggestions are fully invited
and will be read carefully with a view to adoption.
 1. To win the tournament, a player must win the Final. To earn the right
    to play in the Final, a player must win a Qualifying Round.
 2. Qualifying rounds will be held throughout the day from 11am. No
    qualifying round should start after 3pm. Qualifying rounds should be
    over by 5pm. Qualifying rounds shall consist of 4-player games of Der
    Siedler Von Catan. The final will start as soon as possible after 5pm
    and will be a 4, 5 or 6 player game (5 or 6 player games to use the
    extension set, the 2 cities per player limit and building after each
    player's turn). Should too few Qualifying Rounds have been completed
    by 5pm, or six Qualifying Rounds have been completed before 5pm, the
    Tournament Director will advise players as to what will happen.
 3. Games will not be recognised as Qualifying Rounds except by specific
    approval by the Tournament Director. Largely, Qualifying Rounds will
    be games containing no players who have not played the game before, no
    players who have yet played in a Qualifying Round and not more than
    one Seed, where a Seed is defined to be a player finishing in the top 12
    positions in the Manorcon Siedler tournament. Players should attempt to
    form games fitting these criteria for Qualifying Rounds, but the
    Tournament Director may declare games to be Qualifying Rounds or not to
    be Qualifying Rounds at his discretion. Roughly players will only get
    one chance to qualify and should not attempt to avoid playing perceived
    good players in Qualifying Rounds, though this is not binding.
 4. Players should not attempt to play tournament games and any other games
    simultaneously. However players eliminated or sufficiently (in the
    opinion of that Tournament's Director) nearly eliminated from the Dip
    may take part in a Qualifying Round.
 5. Players should attempt to solve rule queries by unanimous verdict of
    all players in that game. However the Tournament Director will be pleased
    to provide solutions to rules disputes that occur, and players should
    feel free to call for the TD at any point.
 6. The decisions of the Tournament Director will be binding, and won't be
    stupid as the Director wants people to regard the tourney seriously. :-)