Here's my set up. I have a big open living room/kitchen area with a 32" flat screen at one far end, hooked up to my wii. On a side table is my laptop. On our kitchen table sits a big 24x36 board that i made myself. I enter orders into realpolitik and let that do the adjudication. Then I screencap the resulting image, rename it to a particular filename, and drag it onto my ftp space open in another window. the wii's browser is already pointed at that image, so i hit refresh on the wii, and the game is displayed on the tv screen! then i go update the main table with the results from realpolitik's adjudication. This way, everyone has a couple places where they can look at the map and speak with someone. you can talk at the board, you can talk at the TV. you can pull up the link the realpolitik gameboard screencap on your smart phone and talk somewhere else entirely.

There is also plenty of alcohol.

Last time, we spent about 3 hours and got through 1902, after explaining rules and such. Some of the folks, this'll be their first time, but some have played once already. I don't plan on playing at all. Instead I am usually there to explain rules and offer input, and also to process the moves. This time, I plan to enforce stricter negotiation times, and make sure they are writing their orders down properly, so later, i can segue out of gamemaster mode and start playing, myself.

Any suggestions for running a live game? I am truly making this up as i go along, and I'd like the group's experience on running a diplomacy game.