when i 1st saw it i thought he was just looking over the shoulder to discern what thw written orders were
its a lot funnier when i saw the money
I actually thought that as well, when I first saw it and decided to post it. While I don't recall the exact date, this game was actually about 10 years ago as I post this (sometime in 98 or 99). It was only when I was getting ready to scan it for posting that I noticed the money...
Details are hazy - I believe these two were playing France and Germany (or one could have been England), though I'm not sure which was which. Russia was the eventual winner of this game and you can see the right arm of the Russian player on the right edge of this photo.
The story behind it is actually a little sad (as well as funny, strangely) as the friend who's house we regularly played at died last year and we were recently given a number of photographs that his family found while clearing out the house (this is one of those photos). For a while we had regularly (two or three times a year) played Diplomacy at his place, both original and Colonial - we have played since then, and will again, but it's quite a bit different now.
This photo, that I had uploaded previously was played at the same house (though much more recently; this was the last game we played there, with him):
The fellow in the red-shirt is the one who died. I am sitting opposite him, with the U2 shirt.
My thinking is that the dollar bill is just a distraction. He really is just looking at the orders, and hoping that the bill stops the guy writing his orders from noticing.
Hmmm... I have never played Diplomacy, but I am starting to understand why I have some friends who have banned the game from their house, saying that it "destroys friendships."
Still, this is a remarkably... uh... pragmatic negotiation strategy!
And perhaps that one dollar bill is wrapped around a roll of twenties......
