Finals are boring. Pt. 3: Rules for the finals

Most finals in VTES are boring. Nothing happens, every one sits on his ass and waits, that some other player makes a mistake. Mostly finals end with time-out. I have seen three finals at the EC 2012, all boring as hell. That is not the fault of the players, they tried their best to win. But it is a problem.

We have the best card game in the world and it has the worst finals, you can think about. In the finals VTES should show its potential and not its negative side. Think about it: Even if the whole world would be playing VTES, nobody would watch it at TV. We need finals at least as thrilling as poker.

I will offer three possible solutions to the problem in different threads and hope you will discuss them with me.

Problem 3: The rules of the finals
The tournament rules give the first play to the player who is first-seat, if the game times out. That makes it interesting for that player, to play slowly and defensively (and boring). It is in his interest to slow the game down.

Solution 3: Changed rules
We should really discuss some rules, to force the players in the finals to play aggressive and for the game win. Here are some suggestions. (I know they sound strange, but maybe thinking about them, you get some better ideas, what could be changed for a better game.)

- After one and a halve hour a Antediluvian Awakening is put into the game, ten minutes later it is raised to two pool loss, every ten minutes one more. That happens until only one player is left. (I don’t think these rule would help bloat deck, what seems obvious, because the rule would force a different and aggressive play.)

- If there is no GW in the finals, the 1st place goes to the sixth player. (He is innocent, that the final was boring. You would immediately see, that the first five player start playing agressive.)

A couple possible rules changes:

1) If at end of time, all players are tied at 0.5 VPs, the game continues until one methuselah is ousted. That methuselah's predator is the victor. This is kind of similar to how the game is played now, but it becomes sudden death after time is called.

2) If at end of time, all players are tied at 0.5 VPs, the winner is the player whose prey has the least amount of pool (not the first seeded player). This means that the only advantage enjoyed by the top seed is seating. Each player is then racing against all others, not just against the top seed.

Jeff Kuta wrote: A couple possible rules changes:

1) If at end of time, all players are tied at 0.5 VPs, the game continues until one methuselah is ousted. That methuselah's predator is the victor. This is kind of similar to how the game is played now, but it becomes sudden death after time is called.

2) If at end of time, all players are tied at 0.5 VPs, the winner is the player whose prey has the least amount of pool (not the first seeded player). This means that the only advantage enjoyed by the top seed is seating. Each player is then racing against all others, not just against the top seed.

These are really good ideas.

I really like #1 because of the extra excitement it could create in the final, although it could be difficult on some tournament schedules. It might be interesting to add that if no one is ousted by the end of two-and-a-half hours, no one wins the tournament.

I think I'll suggest to my casual group that we try it when we can.

I guess with #2, when more than one player is tied for lowest pool, you would use the seed of the appropriate predators to decide the winner.

Jeff Kuta wrote: A couple possible rules changes:

2) If at end of time, all players are tied at 0.5 VPs, the winner is the player whose prey has the least amount of pool (not the first seeded player). This means that the only advantage enjoyed by the top seed is seating. Each player is then racing against all others, not just against the top seed.

I do not like this idea, because this leads/might lead to players gathering pool instead of ousting their preys ... You would be a fool then to "dance on the edge" with only 1 to 5 pool while eagerly trying to go for a VP ...