Playing on isotropic is a dominion variant
I have to disagree; other than the
technicality of the missing face-up discard pile, everything else is exactly the same in terms of gameplay. Looking at the official rules, I find this:
"The player places any cards that are in his play area... and any cards remaining in his hand onto his Discard pile."
There's actually no mention of placing the cards in hand on top of the cards in play. Perhaps it was clarified in a later rulebook, or DXV has clarified elsewhere? I'm uncertain. If this isn't technically a rule, then the order of discards wouldn't matter, and you can see in the log what cards were played last turn, which would be legal for your opponent to put on top of the discard.
Starting hands identical is a variant
Indeed. It's common in online tournaments, but seems extremely unlikely in face-to-face tournament play.
Veto mode is a variant
As you've already noted, this is wrong, but I thought I'd provide the quote from the official rules for context:
"In later games, players can choose the 10 Kingdom cards using any method they agree on."
Iso tracker is a variant
Dr. Held's Point Tracker is a variant.
Without a doubt.
Rotating starting position is also a variant from the official rules.
Yes, though it's really easy to argue that, in a tournament setting, whether online or face-to-face, it should be at the least a necessary variant. In a setting where players don't play a series of games against one another--instead playing games with multiple groups, which will be common in face-to-face tournaments--having the tournament director determine seating order at each table isn't a variant.
----
Personally, I think it's up to the tournament director to make the rules and set them in stone at the start of the tournament. If I don't like the rules, I don't have to participate.
As a TD, I intend in the future to use the following, and for the following reasons:
(1) In one series, the players may change individual game rules in any way they all agree to. If players cannot agree on a particular point, default rules below automatically
---- It would be truly unenforceable not to do so if all players agree, because who's going to complain? These discussions need to happen at time of play, however, so that if there is a disagreement and a player refuses to abide by the default, screenshots can be taken and someone can be disqualified.
(2) Rules are default Dominion rules unless otherwise specified below. This means neither the isotropic nor the drheld point counter is to be used, and starting hands are not identical, except as in Rule 1.
---- This is as close as one can get on Isotropic to the official rules. I'll make this the default despite previous arguments from me that identical starting hands
ought to be a standard variant in tournament play.
(3) Seats will rotate in a manner determined by the TD, in such a manner as to provide maximum fairness for a competitive series.
---- This is necessary as a tournament variant, and the Dominion rules
do not specify any tournament rules. The official seat-change rules are quite obviously intended for casual play. Granted, since I'll never run anything other than a 2P tournament online, this shouldn't matter too much here, as that order is semi-trivial. I've discussed a tennis-like method in another thread, and in my next tournament I will see how the participants feel about such a method, but other wise the official rules can be followed with only the most minor of detriments.
(4) Other point and card counting methods or memory aids are explicitly prohibited, other than your brain and your mouth.
---- Yes, it's unenforceable. That doesn't make it an unreasonable rule. Yes, it expects goodwill from all players. Personal ethics ought to trump desire to win a tournament. If it doesn't for you, well, frankly, in the end, cheaters never prosper. That's on your conscience if you can't follow a simple rule. Quite obviously thinking is important, and in an online tournament, speaking aloud only to oneself is not different.
But, of course, this is just for my tournaments. Other TDs should certainly be welcome to use different settings, and players should be welcome to participate or not as they desire.