I want to preface this post by saying that I love the match-play scoring system used in Gokodom. What follows is not a critique of this system, but an alternative scoring system that might be fun to try in a small (or large) match-play tournament.
Total Victory Points Scoring. This system has the following features:
- Each match consists of an even number of regulation games of Dominion.
- Each player has the opportunity to sit as first player the same number of times. Alternating first seat is an option, but you could use the Gokodom seating chart, too.
- The score for the match will be determined by the player who obtains the largest number of VP across the games in the match. The player with the most VP wins the match.
- In the event of a tie in the number of VP, the player who took the fewest turns across all games wins the match.
- If, in addition to having the same number of VP, both players took the same number of turns, the player who won the most regulation games of Dominion wins the match.
- If the number of points, number of turns, and number of regulation Dominion wins is equal for both players, the players rejoice in their shared victory.
- In the event of an outright win, two points are awarded to the victor. In the event of a shared victory, both players earn one point. Non-winners get zero points.
- To make sure everyone gets to have fun, you could run some number (to be determined) of Swiss rounds where playing better means you play better opponents. At the end of the Swiss rounds, the best players could match up against one another in a bracket-style tourney.
Basically, I got the idea by watching a re-run of a Jeopardy Teen Tournament Final. This scoring system is to Dominion as pooling winnings across multiple days is to Jeopardy. And, if it is good enough for Jeopardy, it is good enough for me.
Moreover, I think it would be fun to play a Tournament that is governed by these rules. If I had the ambition and/or time, I would organize a tournament to be played through Goko's lovely interface that adheres to these rules, but I don't have time (yet... right now... we'll see). I think this tweak in the scoring would lead to some interesting changes to how people play. To cite two examples: (1) the scoring system would tamp down risky endgame strategies that rely on praying for the perfect storm -- i.e., it will usually be optimal to end a game while behind so as not to lose by too much; and (2) the scoring system would facilitate running up the score when you could easily end the game. Obviously, the latter scenario is an issue in fun. A modified system could mitigate this by capping the margin of victory in any particular game, but I'd rather not modify the system that way.
Some questions for discussion:
- Would you play in a Tournament governed by a refined version of these rules (keeping the spirit of Total VP Scoring)?
- Are there natural extensions to 3P or 4P matches? Multiplayer games can be fun, too, and I find that my only excuse to play multiplayer is if there's a multiplayer tournament (OK, not really... looking at you Polk5440 and Bella Cullen).
- Are there any fun hybrids of Total VP and Gokodom style matches? One thought: You play 6 games, and each match has a Total VP point and a match point up for grabs.
- How often do runaway boards happen where one player wins by an insurmountable margin in one game, making the rest of the match moot? If this probability is low enough, maybe the system is as broken as the KC-Discard-Masq pin. If it is likely, what changes would fix it?
- Any other thoughts?
