On 6/16/06, Andrew Plotkin <erkyrath@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Fri, 16 Jun 2006, Christopher Hickman wrote: >> "Contains at least one vertical piece in your favorite color" is OK >> if everyone is OK with player-specific metarules, and the favorite >> colors of all players are well-known. > > No. Spock doesn't know players' favorite colors. You can only base rules > on objectively observable characteristics of koans. That's not a clear diagnosis. The actual problem is that "*your*" favorite color is illegal; Spock doesn't know who is the guesser at any given moment! A rule has to come out the same for everybody. If the favorite colors of the four players are red, green, green, and chartreuse -- and the Master knows this -- it would be valid for him to formulate a rule as "Contains a piece in the favorite color of one of these four people." Of course the players will wind up guessing "Contains a red piece or green piece", which is equivalent (lacking chartreuse pyramids). And it would be illegal for the Master to add "blue" to the valid list, if I happened to sit down at the table in mid-game.
This would only be a valid rule if ALL the players knew each other's favorite colors.
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