This is an experimental variant using all of the rules of vanilla Diplomacy, but in an unfamiliar environment.

The good kingdoms of Sonne, Proy, Neyant, Arinth, and Trilspa have been at peace for many years as they battle the dragons that continually assail their towns, although the kingdoms' forts are too strong to be penetrated by the mighty beasts. But an advanced form of magick was recently discovered that allows the dragons to be charmed and tamed, bending to the will of the caster. This knowledge spread quickly and led to an outbreak of fighting amongst the kingdoms as each became consumed with greed, desiring to use their new minions to take the land and loot of the others! The dragons can cross land and fly over mountains with ease, although they cannot attack the great forts. In fact, the dragons are so fearful of the kindgoms' forts that wizards cannot even charm them there; the magick is only effective when performed in a town. Of course, a group of knights can be assembled at either a town or a fort, although they cannot climb mountains.

Rules: Knights can travel across land only, while dragons can travel across land and mountains. This is accomplished within the vanilla ruleset by marking all land as 'coast' (i.e. traversable by fleets and armies) and all mountains as 'sea' (i.e. only traversable by fleets). There is one more type of terrain: forts, marked by special supply center dots. Forts can be traversed, attacked, and held by knights, but not dragons. This is because forts are marked as 'land' (i.e. only traversable by armies). Due to these rules, towns (regular SC dots) can build both knights and dragons, but forts can only build knights. Beyond this, standard rules and win conditions apply.