What to do when all 3 diplomacy tokens are in use and you need a 4th?

Question

The Cities expansion comes with 3 diplomacy tokens.

In each game there could be 4 (5 with Manneken Pis) ways to get a token:

• age I city Residence
• age II city Consulate
• age III city Embassy
• wonder Petra
  • side A: 1 token
  • side B: 2 tokens
• (wonder Manneken Pis)

What happens when all three tokens are in use and now another token is needed?

Example scenario:

• 4 players:
  • Bob has wonder Petra (B)
  • Alice has wonder Halicarnassus
  • Susan (any wonder)
  • Dave (any wonder)
• In age III:
  • Bob builds both wonder stages → 2 tokens (1 left)
  • Alice builds a wonder stage and builds Residence from the discard pile → 1 token (0 left)
  • Susan builds Embassy from her hand → 1 token needed

Does Susan get a virtual diplomacy token or not?

Answer 1

I think it's pretty safe to say that there are only 3 Diplomacy tokens provided because the scenarios in which 4 or 5 Diplomacy tokens are required at once are so vanishingly rare.

As I discovered from previous discussions of the finer points of the rules terminology (and I went so far as to double-check with the game designer Antoine Bauza via Twitter!), 7 Wonders is not a game where you need to obsess about the minutiae. In unusual corner cases, things probably work in a commonsense sort of way, no need to over think then.

There is no obvious reason why a player should be deprived of a Diplomacy token because 3 have already been taken already; and certainly no available justification for taking somebody else's Diplomacy token that has already been given out! In the unusual event that more than 3 Diplomacy tokens are required at once, I believe the sensible course of action is just to use something else as a stand-in Diplomacy token for the turn.