In the Crowded variant the standard map is used with the exception of having a supply center in Ruhr. Each of the 35 supply centers starts out as a home center for one of the eleven players. The original seven players start out with their normal units and positions and are joined by the four new players:

1. Balkan: F Greece, F Rumania, A Serbia, A Bulgaria
2. Lowland: F Belgium, A Holland, A Ruhr
3. Norway: F Norway, F Denmark, A Sweden
4. Spain: F Portugal, A Spain, F Tunis

1. GreyPress:
   Anonymous "grey" messages can be sent to a country or global. First click on the "Grey" tab at the top of the dialogue area. To send a grey message to a country just type the country name followed by a colon and your message. This will then be sent to just that country. To send a grey message to everyone just type global followed by a colon and your message. Anything other than this will not go anywhere and result in an error message printed in the chat window.
   For PublicPress only games you need to type grey followed by a colon in the global chat to send your message anonymous.

The Colonial Diplomacy variant of diplomacy follows the most of the rules as standard diplomacy with a modified map, and with 3 additional rules. The game is the first commercially published true simple Diplomacy variant.

Rules:

1. Except as noted below, the standard rules of play for Diplomacy apply.
2. Cebu looks like a body of water with islands inside of it, which is accurate. It is analogous to Kiel, Constantinople or Denmark in the standard diplomacy.
3. The Caspian Sea, Lake Baykal and any other unnamed space is not passable.
4. This version of Colonial is based on the Moulmein Convention, so land bridges have been added between Otaru and Akita, and Sakalin and Otaru.
5. Hong Kong is a British home supply center. It counts as a supply center for any country except China. If China is in possession of Hong Kong, it counts as a non-supply neutral territory.
6. The Suez-Canal rule is not implemented. Egypt is analogous to Kiel, Constantinople or Denmark in the standard diplomacy.
7. This map does not use the Trans-Siberian Railway rule.
8. There are neutral SC's on the starting map on colored territories. These SC's are marked with a neutral colored box () drawn around them. Once occupied they count as any other SC.

1. South Atlantic Ocean, Red Sea and the Persian Gulf are all connected to each other to represent fleets sailing around Africa and make for greater diplomacy between Spain, Britain and Turkey.
2. Yugoslavia is a neutral, unplayable country. It has a neutral army in Serbia that will not move or support and will disband when dislodged.
3. There are two "landbridges" that allow armies and fleets to move across oceans without moving into the ocean or require convoying. These are between Sicily and Naples, and between Northern Ireland and Liverpool.
4. Kiel, Caucasus and Cairo all act as canals. This allows fleets to travel through them to the seas the other side, much like Kiel in the Classic map.

Background

Modern Diplomacy is intended to be diplomacy with an updated map, circa 1994, taking place in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. Any country with more than 30 million inhabitants was made a power. Those with more than 60 million inhabitants were given 4 home centers, while Russia (with 200 million plus) was given 5. Iran would have qualified as a 4 supply center power, but this would have made it necessary to extend the map into Asia, so it was not done.

Other than this, borders and neutral supply centers were distributed to even out the game. Monaco was made a neutral SC (it has lots of money) even though it's size does not warrant it, and Gibraltar was made a British starting SC, both to give Britain a port in the Mediterranean, and to give Spain more than one neighbour).

Notes on Geography

1. Cairo, Hamburg and Istanbul behave as Kiel and Constantinople did in the original game: they have no coasts but fleets can pass through them to bodies of water of both sides.
2. There are no home SCs. In the Adjustments Phase, a unit may be built at any owned and open SC.
3. There is another canal linking Rostov and Volga, thus permitting access to the Caspian Sea to ships. Rostov is situated along the Don River which empties into the Black Sea, while the Volga empties into the Caspian Sea. In the real world there is a canal at Volgograd linking the two rivers, somewhere in the southern Volga region on the map. This is the only way to get ships into and out of the Caspian Sea.

1. Home SC's:
   Units may be built on any vacant supply center that you have held for a fall. (i.e. all SCs controlled by players are considered their "home supply centers" for the purpose of building units.)
2. Neutral forces:
   In addition to the 8 players of this variant, there are neutral territories, represented by Black supply centers on the map. Each neutral territory is occupied by a neutral army that never does anything but hold. These armies may be supported by other players. They are disbanded immediately if dislodged.
3. Only winner takes all:
   Victory is declared when one Daimyo has control of 25 SCs, or all other players concede defeat. There are no draws or shared victories allowed. There can only be one Shogun. Have fun and welcome to 16th Century Japan!

1. Map Notes:
   • Hedeby is a channel province, just like Kiel in standard.
   • Oerne(and Kalmar) is a channel too, and armies can move to Kalmar, Jylland and Hedeby without convoy.
   • Fleets in the waterways labelled "Volga route" and "Dnepr route" may convoy armies. The armies can only be convoyed along the waterway, not across the river (e.g. a fleet in Gardarike may convoy an army from Kjonugard to Holmgard, but not from Smolensk to Mordvin).
2. Armed Neutrals:
   There are 5 armies defending the neutral SC's at Buda, Pest, London, Jorsal and Alexandria.
   They order:
   
   • London => Hold
   • Buda => Suport Hold Pest
   • Pest => Suport Hold Buda
   • Jorsal => Suport Hold Alexandria
   • Alexandria => Suport Hold Jorsal
   If dislodged, they retreat off the board.
   They will only do the support if they unit they support is a holding neutral as well.

• OPEC,SE Asia and Mexico are passable to both fleets and armies and have no coasts.
• Play begins with a build phase