On Wed, Aug 3, 2011 at 10:35 PM, Nick Lamicela <nupanick@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> I love running the prime rule. Once I ran it for some friends in high
> school, and they finally gave up after going at it for an hour. When I told
> them the answer, they pointed to the koan with only one pyramid and
> complained that "the number 1 is only divisible by itself, so it should
> count as prime." I think I must have been the only person in my circle of
> friends who enjoyed math more than any other class.
I like the prime rule, too. Are we talking about "prime number of
'mids" or "prime number of pips"? But I think it's too hard for
brand-new students.
One thing I do when teaching new players, in part to show them how
tricky even a supposedly simple rule is, is to show the game mechanics
with an "open" game: I tell them the rule I'm using ("akhtbni it
contains at least one blue pyramid"), and talk through each step of
the mechanics. Then I play a real game, using "akhtbni it contains at
least one red pyramid", and marvel at how long it takes, even when the
rough idea was just shown to them.