On 07/29/2011 04:16 PM, Brian McCue wrote:
The Zendo rules forbid external references, other than to the surface on which the pieces rest: BNs can't refer to, e.g., "a flat pyramid pointing North," or "the pyramid nearest the Master," or even "the pyramid nearest the edge of the table." Last night, a player wanted to know if the BN could be something like "the shadow of a large pyramid falls upon a small pyramid." I said no, on the grounds that it was a forbidden external reference, but then somebody asked what was external about it, and I had a hard time saying. Was I right anyway?
You were. The shadow predicated a light source, which is something external two the pieces and their relationship to one another and the surface. That the light and shadow are very close to the pieces are irrelevant; they're not the pieces, they're not the surface, and they're not the relationship between them.