Necromancer

A Diplomacy variant set in Tolkien's Middle-Earth
by Richard Egan

Last updated 24th January 2002

This is the home page for the Diplomacy variant Necromancer. Here you will find: Rules, Maps, The Powers, Articles, Games, and an Email Group.

Rules

Version 0.5 of the variant is now available (as of 7th March 2000); the rules have been completely rewritten, but should be the same in practice as for v0.4.*, except for a couple of minor differences. (Some files are still under construction!)

• The Full Rules (or without frames) are the definitive guide to how to play Necromancer.
• There's a list of examples which clarify and illustrate the Full Rules, as well as containing Tolkien notes on the rules.
• For those new to Necromancer, you might find the Rules Summary a better place to start. It contains an overview of the variant, omitting most of the complex details.
• Finally, here's the province list.

Also, here are the version 0.4.5 rules for those who really want them.

Maps

Colour GIF, mono GIF, or PostScript.

(PostScript can be viewed if you have a suitable application such as GhostScript, or downloaded and printed on any PostScript printer. If you have neither, it won't be much use to you!)

Alternative colour maps can be found at Morry Veer's Necromancer page.

There's now also a new colour JPEG (approx 144Kb), which looks wonderful, for those who find the above maps too plain — courtesy of Daniel Halstead.

The Powers

	Dwarves		Harad
	Easterlings		Rohan
	Elves		Saruman
	Gondor		Sauron

Articles

Here's an article about Tolkien variant design, written by the author of Necromancer shortly before the variant was created: "In Search Of Sauron".

And here's a short description of the Necromancer variant I wrote for a UK snailmail zine.

Some game analysis can be found here, courtesy of Mikko Saari (msaari AT iki.fi).

Games

Morry Veer is currently running a snail-mail game in the American zine Diplodocus. The game is called Saurornitholestes, and it has a Web page.

Mikko Saari (msaari AT iki.fi) is actively running PBeM games - in Finnish! See his (English language) page - the Finnish version is linked from it.

Email Group

Mikko Saari (msaari AT iki.fi) has also created an eGroups Email Group for Necromancer; click here to subscribe.

This page is maintained by Gary Duke (gary AT garyduke.me.uk).
Back to Gary's Diplomacy Home Page.