In my mind there were a couple of problems in this game that were unforeseeable that I want to address while its on my mind. Has nothing to do with the ass end of the raping that I have been on. Nope.
First off, I think we could really use that extra player so we could have a dedicated GM or two so if anyone not playing has been following along, please join in if and when next time rolls around. Also, a stricter schedule would be significantly more convenient, it would really help me out if I could just look at a calendar and know where we are at. In addition, changing the way diplomacy works would be great because I'd love to have a better idea if I am intentionally or unintentionally being ignored. Having something like 2 half hour diplomatic sessions on IRC would be great (though hard to coordinate). We could also go completely opposite of that and consider the telegraph lines cut and have a turn delay on communications to increase fog of war, that could be interesting.
I'm pretty sure there was one more thing I meant to mention but I had a couple drinks and now I don't remember and I'm like 20 minutes into an 8 sentence post >_>
Master of efficiency right here. :p
Yes, I really wanted to be a dedicated GM this time, but player count made that infeasible. There are a few things in particular that I think of when I think of the benefits of a non-player GM; primarily rules help and adjudication help before the phase actually processes (IE "What happens if I do X and they do Y").
Setting up a schedule a la Modern Powers' should be possible; Monday-Tuesday for Spring negotiation (Tue orders are due), Wednesday for retreats/ extra Fall negotiation day, Thursday-Friday fall negotiation (Fri orders are due), Saturday Retreats/builds, Sunday Builds/Spring negotiation phase.
That would be great. I've played a live game before (online live, where phases were 15 minutes; builds and retreats were 5), and it was actually quite intense. I believe I drew with some number of players that game, and I had a lot of fun with it. This game, I've been fortunate to have chats with @Jidlaph, @PMYA, and @Boukert here and there on the IRC, although those were incidental meetings more than anything else. Had I see you or @Skyrock on there, I naturally would've chatted you guys up as well.
This is another area where the F2F and Postal/online game can differ. You can't sneakily ignore someone in the F2F game; even if you make excuses for why you never have time to talk, after two or three times of this, it becomes pretty obvious. The postal game, players could never know if their letters got there or not, or if they were on time or not. I'm sure many moves have been done with a letter following up immediately after with the excuse "Your letter did not get here in time! Damn the postman!" This is an aspect you have to worry about when it comes to writing letters - for at least one player this game, I'm mostly certain I was unintentionally ignored; but I only have my own assessment to judge that.
Arranging the time really is the super-tricky bit. If you can figure out something better, power to you, but getting people arranged in F2F for a night of tabletop RPGs is already hard. Add in internet, time zones, and God knows what else, and you're sure to have complications more times than not - unless you just find that perfect group where everything falls into place.