A tyrant of a game. A demon of a game. A ruthless bastard that demands blood. You must slit your wrist and give it what it wants. Demanding sacrifice every time you open the box.
Diplomacy is a game you should never play with your friends. It requires a level of mistrust most people are uncomfortable with, calling for degrees of betrayal any sane person would find reprehensible.
A game every serious gamer should play at least once. At least. Because this is where grown-ups play.
There is a curse on the game. I’m serious about this. No hyperbole, no exaggeration. No metaphor to illustrate my point. I mean, there is a real curse on the game. It destroys friendships. Wrecks marriages. Disrupts offices who decide to play it “on the side.”
You cannot play Diplomacy “on the side.” It consumes your every waking moment. Pushes you beyond your ethical and moral limits.
You must win.
You must win.
YOU MUST WIN!!!
Because of all this, I refuse to play Diplomacy with my friends. I love my friends and despite what I would like to believe, I know The Curse is stronger than any friendship. Stronger than any manmade bond. It laughs at my hubris and shows me, with ruthless precision, how wrong I am.
I will not play Diplomacy with my friends.
Now… as to how all this relates to Houses of the Blooded…
I think games like Vampire, L5R, and Houses fall under the shadow of the Curse. Because the games require a level of mistrust, most gamers just aren’t comfortable with that. Gamers already have an inbred quality of insecurity (no matter how small), and games like these pick at that. They find it like a chigger find the soft part of your skin and it just starts digging. And it won’t stop until it finds blood.
So, as a player, I must warn you. Houses is a game that feeds on your insecurity and mistrust. You may not be comfortable with that. You may not have the Courage to face it.
You have been warned.