David Artman wrote:
I think I am confused a bit by this paragraph. I will try to answer what I can, and perhaps you could re-ask what I do not address?I see now that the confusion was on my side. I thought that if the Master adjusted both koans, it would always be in order to turn them *both* into counter-examples to the guess. I forgot that sometimes the Master will have to adjust one side simply to get the necessary pieces to turn the other side into a counter-example. If I now understand the rules correctly, I imagine that a player might make a guess, the Master might adjust both koans, and then only one of the two resulting koans actually disproves the guess.
Second, I sort of assumed the Master must setup a true and a false koan--that's the fundamental starting condition in Zendo, right?Right. I was talking about disproving guesses. It's sometimes impossible to set up both a white koan and a black koan that would disprove some particular guess.
ANyway, could you try to re-explain your concerns, if they still exist knowing that one can "legally" adjust one or both koans, now?My concern is mild, and hardly applies at all to the turnless variant. It's simply that there's a wide variation in the amount of information that the Master can provide when disproving guesses. It's wider than it is in Zendo, because in Ikkozendo you're sometimes forced to provide a "free" extra koan to go along with the counter-example.
It clearly doesn't break the game, and I think the rules you've settled on are best. If I were Mastering a competitive, turn-based game of Ikkozendo, I personally would try to be as "tight-lipped" as possible. I'd always adjust only one koan if I could, and if I had to adjust both, I'd make sure only one of the resulting koans provided a counter-example. And I'd try to make the other koan not give away new information.
Anyway, it's a minor point, and it probably doesn't matter at all in a turnless game. Especially if there's beer involved. :)
-- Kory