Official Journal (AOU)
The official gazette published by the Darmstadt “Office for Public Disorder” was one of the longest-running German-language Postspiel-Zines . The first edition of the Official Journal was published in June 1980. The publisher from the beginning and thus probably one of the forefathers of the Postspiel in Germany was the computer scientist Michael Blumöhr, today chairman of "Darmstadtspiele".
The Official Gazette was a non-commercial postal game magazine. Participation in the games offered was usually free of charge (the fees charged were only used to cover costs). A subscription was recommended to participate in the game .
The official gazette initially appeared weekly (every 14 days during the semester break), later only every four weeks.
history
In December 1979 there was a group of computer science and mathematics students from Darmstadt who passed the time with a cozy glass of beer and also fooled around. In this round the “Office for Public Disorder”, AOU for short, was created.
A little later, on June 3, 1980, the first “Official Journal” appeared. It was used to record the results of a game of diplomacy that began face-to-face at the later editor's birthday party but was not completed so that it could be continued later. But even after the next game night, there was still no end to the game in sight. It was then decided to continue playing the game with weekly additions and to continue to publish the results in the official gazette (AB), which was copied as a flyer and distributed in the university canteen of the Technical University of Darmstadt . Soon afterwards, other players were won for further games in the Official Journal.
Originally started as a pure Darmstadt zine, the gazette soon developed into a postal game magazine with “subscribers” (because nobody knows how to spell “subscribers” correctly) in several European countries. Although the evaluations of all running games are now also published on the AOU website and trains for the games are now rarely received by the game master by "slow mail", the official gazette was published as a printed version until it was discontinued, since issue 'UP' (October 2007) also as a PDF document.
The last issue 'XT' (= issue 594) was published on May 1st, 2014 with a review of the previous 34 years and the announcement of the official discontinuation of this magazine. The three 'eternal' games still running at this point in time will be continued on the homepage of their game director Michael Schröpl (with the evaluations being sent to all participants as a PDF document by email ).
numbering
In contrast to many other publications, the Official Journal is not numbered consecutively . The outputs are marked with a letter combination, whereby the letter 'J' is skipped in each case. Thus the alphabet used for each series consists of 25 letters.
The zeroth series had only one letter and included the issues 'A' - 'Z' (25 issues).
Two letters have been used since the first series, the first denoting the current series and the second the current issue.
Since each series comprises 25 issues, the current issue number can easily be determined from the letter combination.
In August 2006 the 500th Official Gazette was published with the TZ edition.
mascot
The bird Egon has been a mascot in the official gazette since the beginning . The imaginary land of Egonesia has developed around him , in which the currency Kujambel can be used. This currency is used for all games in the Official Journal.
In January 1981 “Das Kleine Egon-Spiel” was published (as an in-house development of the Office for Public Disorder), an economic and tower building game with high media coverage about Egon and his universe.
The members of the AOU say: “So one can say with a clear conscience that we have a bird. We are even proud of it. "
AOU-Con
The AOU-Con has also emerged from the official journal activities - a players ' meeting at which up to 120 game enthusiasts come together once a year for a long weekend to play together. The AOU-Con usually takes place on the 3rd weekend in January and is organized by the publisher of the Official Journal.
All kinds of board and card games are played on the Con , as well as tabletop , Melody-Klick (a music guessing game) and much more. In addition, a games auction has been held on Saturday evening for several years, at which new games as well as rarities can be bought.
Special games in the Official Journal
"The Little Egon Game"
The rules for the little Egon game appeared for the first time as a supplement to the official gazette 'R' on January 12, 1981. At that time it was really a 'little' game, as it has developed quite a bit in the meantime.
It all started with the idea of developing a postal game with random effects. The condition was that all random events could be controlled by the players - this is how the lottery numbers came into play.
The press is also an essential part of the game - each player has to write at least four articles within a game, which usually makes the game worth reading even for non-players.
Gilgamesh
Gilgamesh is a fantasy variant of Diplomacy and with 170 pages of rules it is probably the most complex of all. Literally located between Tolkien and Donaldson , Farmer and the classic fairy tale world, the game offers space for any (even bizarre) ideas and in the years since the 'invention', not two games have been played according to exactly the same scenario.
Heiner-Dibby
On a special Darmstadt game board, 7 “nations” try to gain control of Darmstadt. The basic rules of the game correspond to the standard diplomacy , but otherwise many special features from Darmstadt and the “Office for Public Disorder” have been incorporated into the game. The game begins with the founding of the AOU in autumn 1979 (starting structures). Since every rhythm in Darmstadt is based on the TH semesters , the game phases here are called winter semester , summer semester and matriculation . In addition to the "normal" movements, there are additional types of movement taking trams and cycling.
The 7 "nations" are:
- The AOU (Office for Public Disorder or The Players)
- The officials and bureaucrats (management Darmstadt)
- The Datterich (Darmstadt original and drinking expert)
- The commuters (working population, living outside)
- The students (a really typical Darmstadt plague)
- The American allies (plain German: Amis)
- The club owners (allotment gardeners, small animal breeders, etc.)
each with a special ability that is typical for them.
Capitalist Diplomacy
Capitalist Diplomacy (invented by the British Dave Tant, translated into German by Bernhard Kopp in 1982), often referred to as 'KapDip' for short, is a mixture of Diplomacy and Diplomacy-Börse. More players than nations can take part in the game. A nation is commanded by the player who owns most of that country's currency units. The game ends with a single military victory or after 21 moves at the latest. In the latter case, the player who achieved the most victory points on the exchange wins.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Darmstadt plays - imprint. In: Association website. Spielekreis Darmstadt eV Association for parlor games, 2017, accessed on August 3, 2017 .
- ↑ Michael Schröpl: The future of the Official Gazette lies in the Internet. In: OFFICIAL SHEET 'PZ'. Michael Schröpl, May 27, 1998, accessed August 4, 2017 .
- ↑ Michael Schröpl: ASCENT evaluation season 29 round 11. In: AMTSBLATT 'TX'. Michael Blumöhr, April 9, 2014, accessed August 3, 2017 .
- ↑ Michael Blumöhr, Wolf Miess, Volker Obermeit, Arturo Pollozek: Rules of the game: The little Egon game. In: Private Homepage. Matthias Sachs, January 6, 1992, accessed August 3, 2017 .
- ↑ Michael Blumöhr: Games played at AOU-Con 2013 Höchst / Odw. In: www.boardgamegeek.com. BoardGameGeek, LLC, January 3, 2014, accessed August 3, 2017 .
- ^ Reimund Sand: 35th board game "AOU-Con 2016" in Höchst in the Odenwald. In: European News Agency. Reichstein Research Group Inc., January 12, 2016, accessed August 3, 2017 .
- ↑ Lukas Kautzsch: The games - The little Egon game. In: www.oberfoul.de. Lukas Kautzsch, accessed on August 3, 2017 .
- ↑ Roland Röllig: Description of the game: Gilgamesch. In: Private Homepage. Michael Schröpl, August 26, 2004, accessed on August 3, 2017 .
- ^ Dave Tant: Capitalist Diplomacy. In: The Variant Bank. Stephen Agar, accessed August 3, 2017 .
- ↑ Dave Tant: Rules of the Game Capitalists Diplomacy. In: Ludomaniac. Dirk Hammann, March 2007, accessed on August 3, 2017 .