co-operation is the key ...
heads!
When Vanished Planet first arrived at the WBC in 2003,
one question often heard was, "What is Vanished Planet?"
More than 36 individuals decided to enter the tournament to answer
that question.
The
GMs of Vanished Planet were presented with an unusual
difficulty. How do you choose a single winner for a game in which
everyone at the board wins or loses? A point system was developed
to determine how successfully each team defeated the Creature.
Each team received one point for each Homeworld that remained
at the end of the game, one point for each space between the
Creature and the Homeworlds, one point for each upgrade owned
by a player whose Homeworld was not consumed and one point for
each Goal point above the necessary total. Then the team was
asked to choose a Most Valuable Player to play again in the event
of a tie.
One challenge that faced many of the space captains when they
sat down at the table, was the fact that Vanished Planet is
entirely cooperative. In fact, several players found their planets
in jeopardy when they attempted to win without the help of their
teammates. Even the closest of teams discovered that one planet
might have to sacrifice itself for the good of all.
One example of this selfless act was made by Angela Collinson
when, after contributing one point toward the goal of 15, she
found herself unable to fly her ships out of her own sextant.
This left her without access to Goals, so she spent the remainder
of her resources building technologies her companions needed.
Even
so, the good of the galaxy eventually came to rest upon a terrible
choice, to save her own Homeworld and stave off the Creature
for one more day, or sacrifice her planet in the hope that her
fellow teammates might use her last gift to ultimately Translocate
the Creature back to its home dimension. Angela's contributions
and sacrifice won her the title of that team's MVP. The GMs at
Vanished Planet ran four heats. Two tables managed to
match scores of 10 points, leaving their MVPs Jed Shambeda and
David Weinstein to battle it out in a final contest.
Both Jed and David stayed late into Sunday pursuing the winner's
title for their teams. Each of them sat through a one-player
game, using the same Homeworld, the exact same decks of Event
and Goal cards and they again tied scores. Ultimately, the winner's
title came down to a coin toss which David won.
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