Having re-read my original post, and based on replies, I am going to re-send a revised set of Single-Stash Zendo rules. First, I change the name to Anzendo: "An" is Chinese for "small Buddist temple" "Zendo" is Chinese for "the way of Zen" (as best I can determine) Now, to the clarifications: --On December 19, 2006 David Artman <david at davidartman.com> wrote: > Title: Anzendo > > This variant is best played with a limited number of people who all > present at the game start. This is because it is a one-stash variant and, > as such, you will not have enough pieces to build koans to seek the rule > or disprove a guess. Because you will not be making more than two koans, the players' memory of previous configurations of the koans is critical to finishing the game. Thus, if players come and go as is allowed in Zendo, the game can end up going through "cycles," as the same configurations are reused over and over again to disprove already-attempted guesses. > Starting: > Begin as normal, with the Master thinking up a rule and making two koans, > one marked as having and one marked as not having the Budda Nature. > Determine who goes first any way that's legal in your area--or don't, and > let folks shout out as they see fit (but be sure to restrain someone who > is machine-gunning rule guesses). > > Playing: > Students do not build koans and do not ask Mondo or Master and do not > aquire guessing stones. Instead, on a Student's turn (or whenever a > Student shouts out a rule), the Student makes a guess at the rule or > passes. If the Student guesses and is incorrect, the Master must adjust > one of the two koans to disprove the guess. The Master may add or remove > pyramids to make this disproof ...while ensuring that, after any and all adjustments, both koans retain their relationships to the rule (i.e. the true koan remains true and the false koan remains false). > Then, it is immediately the next > Student's turn--don't let folks double-up and dominate the win! > > Winning: > If the Student's guess matches the Master's rule, that Student has won: > shake his or her hand as everyone laughs (or groans). That Student is the > next Master (or go in sequence or let the loudest whiner be next). > ---------- Thus, to redirect the comments made by Laurie Rich, no, I do not think it would be fun if players "jump in an out" as is possible in Fluxx and Zendo. But, oh yeah, you could try to play this on the bus, though the shakey environment might make it hard to keep the koans from sliding around and accidentally changing their truthness. But that gives me another idea--one that might not be favored by LL, so forgive me now: If you are trying to play Anzendo (or even Zendo) in an unstable environment, you could probably do so with Legos because, even though your rules will be limited by the fact that you use the Legos ability to stick together, you could still have several unique relationships: "Number of a certain color of visible pips" "One color on top of another color" "Colors (size) touching" And if you have a Lego baseplate, you have a playing surface that holds onto the pieces on it (assuming they are flat). But again, forgive me if I have committed an Icefaux Pas, by pointing out this application of Legos--but, then again, given how smart Icehouse players tend to be, I am sure I haven't told the folks here anything they don't already realize. And I doubt that the loyalty to LL of anyone here is in any way shaken by this realization/revelation/repetiton. Just DON'T mention Legos up during demoes or in the FLGS! :) > Thoughts? > David Artman