Diplomacy: The Map That Ruined a Thousand Friendships

"It's only a game" rarely manages to cool a heated situation, and never is that motherly telling-off less effective than during a session of Diplomacy. Several times, in the confrontational moments of this classic European strategy board game, I've seen the tokens swept from the board, not by the frustrated parties but for them. I have literally seen spit fly. What else can you expect, bringing World War I into your living room?

This is in no small part due to the volatile types with whom I play Diplomacy, but the game has a universal reputation for sowing seeds of discord. How telling, as a member of my childhood Diplomacy gang pointed out, that its creator Allan Calhamer, who died last month at 81, was apparently "too kindly to succeed at his own game."