Slobbovia
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Slobbovia was a game, a postal Diplomacy variant played among science fiction fans in North America and Europe from 1972 to 1986.
The game first started in Manitoba in 1969, among Venture Scouts as a live "role-playing" game, set in a mythical land named Slobbovia (after Al Capp's perpetually frozen country that appeared occasionally in the daily comic strip, L'il Abner). The various regions of Slobbovia that appeared on the map were originally named after features around a local lake: Cabinia was named after a cabin, Rabbitania after a clearing where rabbits frolicked. After a few years, the game was adapted as a variant to the boardgame, Diplomacy, which had reached its peak of popularity and had a convention known as "press" (press releases from the countries in play for propaganda purposes, or just plain fun) that fit in perfectly with Slobbovia. The game itself was simply a framework to write stories about the characters, institutions, and countries of Slobbovia. Contrasting starkly with Diplomacy, there was no way to "win" Slobbovia, and indeed, over-reliance on force ("Strumph") was looked down upon by the players. Players were free to name the countries they ruled, but importantly played as a specific character, and not the country. This character was usually (but not always) the focus of that player's "press" (stories).
The rules of the game were altered to require the appointment of "subrulers" of the provinces of any country that got too big, who were then free to revolt, and win the allegiances of armies and fleets in those rebellious provinces. This kept the game fluid and prevented stagnation. In addition, a player could construct railroads to allow the movement of armies across continents. These rules themselves, however, were subordinate to the real power in Slobbovia: "strakh", the ability of a player to tell a convincing story.
The Slobopolit Zhurnal was published usually every other month, and consisted of two parts: the strakh (stories) and the strumph (military and political moves that followed the rules of the game). A player who was from a weaker power, but who was consistently funny or a good storyteller, gained "strakh" (a combination of chutzpah, moxie, and style), which was intangible but often led to tangible gains on the board (by being granted commands of fleets, armies, or provinces that could then rebel). Besides press releases, there were poems, songs, illustrations (including complete comic books), and even "advertisements" ("I would never kick my peasant without my Furfenhager boots," for example). Slobbovia lasted for many years as new players would cycle in to replace those that had fallen away. Eventually the core players finally gave out and collapsed under the sheer weight and complexity of the game and storylines as they moved further away from their college days. 110 issues of the Zhurnal were issued.
The game preceeded Dungeons & Dragons as a role-playing game, though it had little impact in the general gaming world in comparison to D&D. It also was an example of the "shared world" format before it became popular amongst writers in science fiction and fantasy. The unwritten but usually respected rule was that you could borrow other player's characters, but never kill them. Putting the other player's character in a situation that was inconsistent with the nature of that character was considered suspect, but the clever writer would not only go with the flow, but turn it to his advantage. This was at the very core of being "strakhful", and always earned the player great respect if he could pull it off.
Many traditions developed over the years, the greatest of which was the Slobbovian Empire. Whereas most countries were the creations of a single writer, the Slobbovian Empire consisted of a long list of Czars. The current Czar would usually name a successor, or run an election and turn over the holdings of the empire to the new character (sometimes under the same player's control, sometimes under another), plus the odd revolt. When the Czar fell under the control of a new player, it was usually an acknowledgement of the creativity and entertainment value of the player. Further, the more entertaining, the longer the reign. The Slobbovian Empire was aided by independent "prinzipalities" that were pledged to its defense, the two greatest being the Prinzipality of Venturia, ruled by the Vurklemeyer family; and the Jamulian Hegemoney, ruled by the Zhukovski family.
The other great tradition was the Holy Sativan Church - something of an "Opium is the religion of the masses". Characters (and maybe some of the players) communed with the primary diety of Slobbovia, Sativa, via smoking "holy communing sticks". The sub-pantheon of Sativa was in the form of five saints (Waldo the Weird, Herman the Hashite, Frieda the Friendly, St. Blooper and St. Ethyl). The role of the enemy god was the standard evil diety, known as Satin (not unlike Satan). The church was controled by Da Grund Patriarch. He had several forces under his control, such as the Two-Tonic Knights, and the Highly Unctuous Narcs of Holiness (the Holy HUNH).
Great Families were families that contributed at least two Czars and a Grund Patriarch, and it was a mark of honor for a player to have his "family" (related characters bearing the family surname) achieve that status.
Warfare was written along the lines of interest of the individual writer. Dreadnaught-era warships for naval battles was the usual for the written era of Slobbovia. The original live play was conducted in canoes, with traditional Slobbovian weapons called "pluglunks" (double-bladed paddles) deciding the battle rather than 10 inch guns. A notable defeat was inflicted on the iron warships by a fleet of viking-style longships. The longship crews boarded with pluglunks during a heavy fog, and carried the day. This is an example of the Slobbovian dictate that older, simpler weapons were superior to newer, more complex, but less advanced weapon. Less advanced by Slobbovian mentality, at least. For example: a Boleski four-shot revolver was notoriously undependable, but a spear was extremely reliable. There was the case of the Corish 66-shot automatic which had several magazines; it was easier to throw it away rather than reload it.
Land combat was much more varied - rarely did it extend beyond Napoleonic organization and tactics, though chariots, knights, kataphracts, phalanxes, and housecarls ("housechurls", the household guards of the Zhukoski family, known for the churlish behavior) and other medieval/ancient sources made appearances (reflecting gaming cross-over by several players who also indulged in 25mm miniatures battles).
Technology in Slobbovia varied from the aforementioned spears to the aforementioned ironclads. Many players believed the simpler things were, the better, but there was a certain joy in perverse complexity, such as Novaria's national telephone system, which consisted of networks of tin cans and strings. (The Gremlin, the home of Slobbovia's Czars, had the telephone number of 1.)
The most popular sport in Slobbovia was mongeef, which was a lacrosse-style game played by 11-player teams on a court the size of a basketball court. There were three periods, each called "halves."
The cultural impact of the game of Slobbovia was the development of several S.F. writers and game designers, including Greg Costikiyan, Bruce Schlickbernd, and the meme of "crottled greeps", which was picked up by writers such as Larry Niven. Among other memes was the cronks, a small and sub-intelligent beast with a vocabulary of one word: "Birdie!", meaning "food": rooks, people, other cronks, the cronk's foot, etc.
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