When DPR and her geeky friends hit puberty, most of them started getting distracted by members of the opposite sex instead of spending their time finishing projects, which DPR found quite annoying. When she found out that what was distracting them the most was that they /weren't/ getting any... she got an idea. Any time one of them finished a project she approved of, or solved a difficult technical problem, she'd have sex with them, a reward ranging from a quickie blowjob to a one-hour sexslave to, well, finding out what each others' limits actually were, depending on the scale of the problem solved. (With, of course, various precautions in case to ensure privacy and avoid STDs.) And, fast-forwarding to the present... every single member of the group is now a scientist, engineer, or in the electronics business. There were about a dozen people in the group in total - and here's most of them.
They call themselves the 'Bayesian Nakama', which roughly translates to 'Probability Group', and even more roughly to 'Dice Gang'.
Foo
Pony, male
Recently almost became a victim of an assassination attempt on Zot involving a customized sex-bot.
Uses anonymized crowdsourcing to help make game decisions.
Bar
Donkey, male
Programming an AI whose advice he hopes will improve his play.
Baz
Sheep, male
Enjoys building sensors to read other players' biometrics and eavesdrop on their conversations.
Quux
Goat, female (originally male)
Involved in the Venusian terraforming project.
Not quite neurotypical; enjoys being part of the activities but doesn't have any concern about winning, and so usually ends up 'playing Switzerland' and acting as judge.
Zot
Anteater, female
Recently became a 'Councilor by Lot', a member of New Attica's legislator supposedly chosen by random drawing.
Enjoys playing the inscrutible Buddhist/Zen/Taoist. During games, tends not to say anything at all, let alone make promises, merely listens to whatever proposals the other players make to her, and smiles, and then writes her move-orders.
Eek (aka Dee)
Rat, female
Eek (aka Dee) follows a version of the Bayesian philosophy which holds that deliberately deceiving someone is roughly equivalent to slashing their tires. According to the other members of the nakama, she has never been caught at lying during a game of Diplomacy, or voluntarily breaking a promise. While this certainly limits the ways she's been able to backstab and betray the other players, she's still been able to maneuver and manipulate her way to an average number of wins.
Fum
Lion, male
Fum is only marginally interested in actually playing the game, let alone winning it. His main tactic is to use disproportionate amounts of revenge against anyone who backstabs him, including throwing the game to another player rather than letting them win. More commonly, he's willing to make just about any deal which includes a provision letting him have sex with one of the ladies - which the other players cheerfully make use of, including timing things so that he's busy and unable to give his in-game orders by a turn's deadline.
Bletch
Fox, male
Uses a 'thinking cap', applying EM brain stimulation to enter 'flow' state, and to increase brain activity in areas related to useful skills.
Bongo
Wolf, male
Day job involves intelligence analysis, affecting how he plays multiple-level bluffs.
(Further members exist, but aren't currently described.)