On Fri, Jun 16, 2006 at 07:23:44PM -0400, Subhan Tindall wrote: > 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. Not at all. The rule "Contains a pieces in the favorite color of one of these four people." is exactly the same as "Contains a red piece or a green piece." (in the example given), and will always be of the form "Contains a <color> piece [or a <color> piece [or a <color> piece...]]", which are all vaild rules. It's just inspired in an unusual way and the "official" way of phrasing it is unusual.
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