Diplomacy Shorthand

[DarthPorg36]

Greetings esteemed members of the Diplomacy Forum

I recently came to the conclusion that many players often use shorthand for places, but this shorthand can be easily confused. Not sure why I didn't notice much before.

Namely, there is great confusion between Norway, North Sea, and Norwegian Sea; as well as Tyrrhenian Sea and Tyrolia.

I often shorthand the first into Nor, NOR, NORW, respectively, and the second to Tyr and TYR. In general, seas are all caps and land are not, and I default to three letters, with some exceptions, like NORW, Smyr, BOTH (although sometimes I do just use BOT). This can be confusing while talking to players in diplomacy, especially England - Russia shorthand.

What do you all use as shorthand for these places? Is there an easier way to distinguish between them?

[cdngooner]

Norwegian Sea = NWS
Norway = Nwy
North Sea = NTH
Tyrrhenian Sea = TYS
Tyrolia = Tyl

Like you, I use all caps for seas. Always 3 letters. For clarity I try to avoid letters that can refer to two places.

[Esquire Bertissimmo]

You could write out orders in the rulebook format. By specifying A or F in your order, it makes it impossible mix up land and sea areas with similar names.

Where you suspect there's a potential for a misunderstanding, you can just be extra clear by either clarifying where you're moving from, using a longer-form abbreviation, or writing out the entire name of the region.

You might not want to get rid of the potential for confusion entirely, since "accidental" mishaps with region abbreviations can be weaponized as a press strategy (e.g., someone tells you not to go to TYR, you go to TYR anyhow and claim "oh sorry, I thought you meant TYR Sea").

[DougJoe]

I tend towards Tyo for Tyrolia instead of Tyl. I've seen both EAS/WES and EMS/WMS for the Eastern and Western Med and tend towards the latter.

[CaptainFritz28]

I use the rulebook names for things.
NWG
NTH
Nwy
TYS
Tyr
And you know what each one is.

Also, my press style involves switching back and forth between the actual name of a place and its shorthand.