If you ignored the previous SPOILER WARNING, I'm issuing another one. This is your fault now.
Virtue's Last Reward Diplomacy adapts the mechanics of The Nonary Game: Ambidex Edition to the Diplomacy format. At the beginning of each round (year), players are randomly assigned a color and a solo/pair designation and are then forced to vote on which grouping of players they would prefer. These groupings determine which Chromatic Barriers (colored borders) players are allowed to pass through. At the end of each round (year), the grouped players vote against each other in the Ambidex Game, a variant on the Prisoners' Dilemma. Favorable outcomes will grant BP and unfavorable outcomes will remove BP. Every 3 BP a player has grants them 1 additional build, and every -3 BP a player has removes 1 build. As usual, open this image in a new tab for the full-size image.
This variant also has coring (the ability to appropriate centers that were not orinally yours as home centers).
My foresight on this variant was very, very poor. I didn't predict that most players being unable to go through most of the Chromatic Barriers most of the time combined with even more builds than usual would turn the game into an extreme war of attrition where nothing happens in most rounds aside of BP changes. I ended up abdicating my GM spot after Round 20 (!) and the game didn't end until Round 29 (!!). If I were to run this again, I would have to make significant changes to it.
This variant has, so far, only been played once. The complete game, as well as a full list of rules and some flavored orders logs, is available in this Discord server.
As a little bonus, here's a server icon with a vertical sword that I ended up not using.
