Rich recently asked me to put together a piece about my recent appointment as
both the E-Mail Miller Number Custodian (MNC) and Internet Boardman Number
Custodian (BNC), as I still haven't put together an article, I decided to do
the next best thing.  Clone!  One of advantages of being the only person left,
with a copy of the EP archives, on ones computer, is the ability to pull old
articles out of a hat!  

The first article discussed Boardman Numbers (BN's), is taken from Issue 176,
of Eric Klien's Electronic Protocol, Chapter 6, July 1990.  Eric took it from
another zine, which I think is now defunct.  From the article itself, it
appears it was originally written 22 years ago, in 1972!

Taken from Liasons Dangerouses:

A SHORT HISTORY OF THE BOARDMAN NUMBERS         by Rod Walker

The first postal diplomacy game began in 1963 under John Boardman, the editor
of GRAUSTARK.  Even in those early days, Gamesmaster Boardman set standards
for the reporting of his game which would put some American Gamesmasters to
shame now, nine years later.  This first game was for a short time the only
postal game in the world, so there was no need to differentiate it from any
others.  In GRAUSTARK #11, however, John announced that a second game was
under way, being run by Dave McDaniel in RURITANIA.  In so doing, John took
a step for which, as we will see, there was no need, and yet, as we will also
see, was extraordinarily foresighted.

John declared that he would number postal games on the same basis as new
comets are numbered: the year of sighting plus an alphabetical designator. In
this case, he would use the year of beginning.  Thus the GRAUSTARK game was
1963A, and the RURITANIA game was 1963B.  It is that declaration, on 23
October 1963, which laid the basis for the Boardman Numbers, still in use more
than 8 years later.

Why do I say that there was no need for this system?  The early concept of
postal Diplomacy was one of quite limited numbers of people being involved.
Boardman had in fact not been able to obtain 7 players for his own game and
had begun a 5-man game under the then-current rules.  For some time, GRAUSTARK
could publish complete address lists for all postal players and rather
complete reviews of completed games, since there were only a few dozen of the
former and a handful of the latter. Therefore, anyone who was interested could
subscribe to all of the very few postal 'zines then published and follow the
games directly without any strain.  Furthermore, the earliest concept of a
postal 'zine was that it would carry only one game.  For instance, when
Boardman opened a game while a game was still active in GRAUSTARK he also
started a new 'zine for it, FREDONIA.  It was thus possible to speak of "the
GRAUSTARK game", "the WITDIP game", "the TRANTOR game" and so on, with perfect
clarity. Everybody would know what you meant.

Neither of these two situations remained true for very long. Within a few
years, postal Diplomacy underwent a rapid expansion.  Very few games began in
1963 or 1964, but in 1965 the Boardman numbers reached 1965W, and in 1966 they
reached 1966BP (starting from "A" each year, of course), and in 1968 we
reached 1968CX.  This was the record until 1971, which reached 1971EK. (1971EN
because of games discovered in early 1972 as having begun in 1971. LWL)  As
the games increased, so did the number of people playing them, so that it was
no longer an easy matter to keep track of games or players, as it had been in
1963 or 1964 or even 1965.

Furthermore, the single-game 'zine died almost as soon as it was born. Game
1963A ended after 6 game-years, and Boardman organized a new 7-man game. It
began exactly when 1963A ended.  (Note: It began in 1963, but is 1964A, since
Boardman assigned numbers on the basis of Spring 1901 deadline date. This
policy was later changed, so that the date of the game's announcement is now
used as the criterion as to what year the game begins).  But John did not
start a new 'zine. The new game ran in GRAUSTARK, so that there were now *two*
"GRAUSTARK games," the old one and the new one.  Then in the fall of 1964,
Charles G. Brannan of Los Angeles *really* upset the applecart by bringing out
WILD 'N WOOLY. WNW would have not one game, or a series of games one after the
other, but several games at once!  It would not be possible to speak of "the
WILD 'N WOOLY game" with any precision.  The need for the Boardman Numbers
quickly then became manifest.

As a side note, Dan Brannan himself had a scheme for numbering games. He
proposed the same scheme idea as Boardman's, but having a unique alphabetical
designator for the 'zine involved, followed by a designator for the game given
in order the game begins in the 'zine.  Aside from the obvious clumsiness of
this, it presupposes there will be no more than 26 'zines, and there are more
than twice that number now.

As the number of games rose, GRAUSTARK HAD A PROBLEM.  If the 'zine went over
an ounce, it would become too expensive to maintain.  Even though it appeared
every two weeks, the 'zine still did not have enough room to contain the new
listings, changes, and the completed game resumes which would ultimately
arise.  Eventually John felt it necessary to ask someone else to take over the
obligations of the Boardman Numbers.

In September 1967, Charles Wells became the second custodian of the Boardman
Numbers, publishing the relevant data in his excellent (but unfortunately now
defunct) gamezine LONELY MOUNTAIN.  It was under Charles that the Numbers
achieved very nearly their present format. Charles instituted two important
improvements.  First, he no longer listed games which obviously were not
regular games.  Team games (where several countries were in permanent
alliance--usually two teams of 3, with or without the 7th power played
independently) were the rage in 1965-66, and received Boardman Numbers.  With
the institution of Miller Numbers for variant games, there was no further need
for this.  Secondly, Charles instituted the use of a prefix (#) to denote
games which, while more or less regular in appearance, were in fact not quite
so. Thus, my #1970E, for instance, is a 5-man game instead of a 7-man game,
#1970BQ was a "local" or "telephone" game (in this case, with deadlines 7 days
or less apart), and so on.

In March 1968, Charles transferred the Numbers to John Koning of sTab. John
published them, much as Charles had, for a little more than a year, until July
1969.  Scheduling difficulties then caused a lapse in John's publishing.

In October 1969, when sTab had not appeared for three months, I called John
and asked him if he would like me to take up the job of the Numbers.  He said
that he did, and I have assigned them for a little more than 2 years.

The Numbers appeared (and still appear) in NUMENOR.  That was intended to be
a gamezine as well, but soon got so huge as to be unmanageable. It was broken
up, and the NUMENOR segment now contains the Numbers and related data, plus
other statistical things as there is room.

Thus, from a little idea involving only 2 games, the Boardman Numbers have
grown to a project requiring the facilities of an entire magazine. In the
process of administering the numbers, I have noted the following policies
carried over from previous custodians, and which I continue to follow:

1.  The Boardman Numbers are not connected with any organization; they are an
independent entity.

2.  Boardman Numbers are assigned to all postal Diplomacy games which use the
GRI (Games Research, which owned Diplomacy, before Avalon Hill. Nick) board
and rules and which are not manifestly and obviously variant games.

3.  There is no connection between the Numbers and the criteria established
for any rating system.  (In the specific context, my own.  Numbers are
assigned to a great many games which I won't include in my ratings.)

4.  The Boardman Numbers are the sole responsibility of the custodian, acting
on behalf of postal Diplomacy generally.  If he is unable to discharge that
responsibility, he must make suitable arrangements for the transfer of the
Numbers to a new custodian.

And that's it.  See what happens when you ask for a "short note"?

Notes from Nick.

Incidentally, Graustark is still going, according to the Winter 1994 Diplomacy
World, subscriptions are available from John Boardman, 234 East 19th, Brooklyn
NY, USA, 11226. 10 $/9 issues.

The present BNC, is Vince Lutterbie, 1021 Stonehaven, Marshall MO, USA, 65340. 
Vince publishes details of all this games, in the 'zine EVERYTHING, which is
now passed on from one BNC to the next.  He dishes out Boardman Number's, for
all postal games in North America, and also hands out blocks of BN's to
foreign BNC's.  So the BNC's in North America, Europe and Australia, all use
unique numbers.  

Recently, as an experiment, Vince allowed me to start giving out BN's to
Internet games.  He gave me blocks of BNs, from KA-LZ, PA-QZ and TA-UZ.  156
numbers.  Initially, I hoped this would last us all of 1994, but near the end
of Feb, we have already gotten up to 1994LF, 1/5 of our numbers, with only 1/6
of the year gone.  At this rate I will have to get 52 number from Vince to
finish the year!  I will also be assigning numbers for 1988-1993 games, from
data in the Hall of Fame.  The 1988, 1989 and half of the 1990 games that were
part of EP, were given BN's at the time, directly from the BNC.

The second article is a little more recent, and discussed Miller Numbers.  It
is taken (most recently) from Issue 72 of Electronic Protocol (no chapter
numbers back then), in June 1989.  Of course, Eric took it from somone else
too, so it's probably a little older.  Incidentally, the present MNC, is Lee
Kendter, Jr.  I believe that Lee Kendter, Sr, was a former MNC, and may have
been the MNC when this article was first written.

Taken from Bruce Linsey's ONCE UPON A DEADLINE.

THE MILLER NUMBER CUSTODIAN AND THOSE FUNNY-LOOKING NUMBERS           
By Lee A. Kendter

The Miller Number Custodian (or MNC) assigns numbers to variant games of
postal Diplomacy such like the BNC assigns numbers to regular games of postal
Diplomacy.  The Miller Numbers themselves are different as they do more than
just annually alphabetize the games.  The most often asked question I get is,
"What does that funny-looking number mean?".  Let's look at a typical MN,
1985Zrb32.  The first part, 1985Z is the same as a BN in that it tells you
that this is the 26th (Z) game assigned a number for 1985.  The rb32 also
tells you that this is a game of "Gunboat" or no-negotiation Diplomacy.  Where
does that come from and what does it mean?  This "designator" was developed
by the North American Variant Bank (NAVB) and adopted by the MNC in 1981.  The
former system for classifying variants had become stale and unworkable.  The
rb means that is uses the Regular Board and the 32 indicates that it is the
32nd such variant on file.

All variants are classified under their own specific type in the NAVB catalog. 
The rb category is just one of many types of variants on file.  The simpler
ones may involve just a few rules changes or the addition of a few new spaces
and/or centers to the regular board.  Others involve extensions to the board,
more or fewer players, entire new boards, many pages of rules changes, and
time periods farther in the past or even in the future.

The MNC also keeps a permanent record of all variant games that have been
assigned numbers and records of games that have concluded.  These are
published periodically in the MNC zine, ALPHA & OMEGA (A&O).

The MNC works closely with the BNC as the BNC sometimes gets a request for a
game that deviates from the norm.  When these cases occur the BNC sometimes
has to consult with the MNC and together they decide whether the game is
different enough to receive a MN instead of a BN.

Some players think that variants are more interesting than the regular game
and play them almost exclusively.  Others play a variant on occasion just for
the different strategy involved.

So when you're ready for your first variant game remember where the
funny-looking number came from.

Notes from Nick.
From what I understand, Miller Numbers, are named after the late Don Miller,
and also date back to the 1960's.  A lot more information about Miller
Numbers, and Don Miller, can be found in Mark Nelson's excellent interview
with Fred Davis Jr., which is available by FTP from nda.com in the
pub/diplomacy/Documents directory.  

The current MNC, Lee Kendter Jr, appointed me E-mail MNC late last year, and
gave us a block of numbers, from AAA to AZZ.  Last year, so far (MARK!  I need
your game details!), I gave out up to AGW.  I will also be going back to 1990-
1992 games.  Part of the deal with Lee, is that I will be publishing the game
details, (including postally, you know, ink, paper and sealing wax), however
at this point, I haven't gotten around to it.  Hopefully soon I will have a
crack at throwing something together.  Unlike the BNC, I also can give out
MN's to non-Internet games, like AOL, Compu$erve, Genie, etc, however to date,
no-one has contacted me, and my attempts at contact have not gotten too far.

Nick