'Seems to me that Basingstoke indicates a temporary mitigation of the
situation, not a permanent cessation;'
Wonderful. Supposed to be chess variants and here we are sitting around
discussing the deeper meaning of Basingstoke.
All praise to Meander, the god of Usenet thread drift, but the great thing
is that Basingstoke is totally on-topic for this CV!
Using Basingstoke as the official verbiage for a draw offer avoids
introducing any new rules that affect the play of the game; and it is only
a temporary thing because it is assumed that one might start another game.