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Jon
United States
Redmond
Washington
Plaatsvervangende Schaamte
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Overview
Zendo is an inductive logic game for 3 or more players. The original Zendo set is out of print, but the raw materials of Looney Pyramids are still widely available. Full rules have also been published in Playing With Pyramids and the designer's web page http://www.koryheath.com/games/zendo.
In Zendo one player (the Master) picks a rule like "A koan has the Buddha nature if and only if it has an opaque piece pointing at a larger transparent piece" or "A koan has the Buddha nature unless a red piece is touching the table."
Students compete to determine the Master's rule. They glean information from the Master by building structures (called 'koans') from Looney Pyramids. After building a structure, the student may either ask the Master if the koan has the Buddha nature or call "Mondo." In Mondo, each student simultaneously guesses if the new koan has the Buddha nature. All correct guesses are rewarded with a 'guessing stone.' After the Master marks the new koan as true or false, the student may spend guessing stones to attempt to guess the rule. If the Master deems the guess to be incorrect, a new koan must be built that the student's rule predicts differently than the Master's. If no such koan can be built, the rules must be equivalent and the student has achieve enlightenment and won the game. Students may make as many guesses as the wish as long as they have stones - a strategy called a 'guess barrage.'
Making a game of it
Sounds like Multiplayer Mastermind - who wants to play that? Ah, but Mastermind is a game of deductive logic - like Battleship or Guess Who. Deduction is the process of elimination - in a 6 color 4 space Mastermind game, there are 1296 possible rules and it is up to the player to figure out which it is as quickly as possible.
Zendo is a game of inductive logic. Inductive logic can be described as the process of make observations (in this game, the koans) and inferring from them conclusions.
There is no limit to the complexity of a rule and there is no limit to the complexity of koans to build for squeezing information from an intractable Master. Until you make a guess, you cannot be sure that your guess which predicts all of the koans on the table is but the first clause in a chain of "this or that or the other" statements.
Sounds like a really complicated Mastermind. Keeping it a fun game for players falls mostly on the Master.
Challenges for the Master
 Propose a 'good' rule - A rule should be interesting enough rule so all students feel they have participated but not complicated to the point where students lose hope on finding the solution and giving up. Acceptable rule complexity for experienced Zendo players wanting a severe challenge will be very different than a casual party game's rules for new players.
 Control pace through koans - Depending on the number of varied feature of the initial koans can make an 'easy' rule quite difficult. If students are struggling and becoming frustrated building a koan meant to reveal instead of obfuscate the rule can help move things along.
 Be aware of the students' aptitude for the game - If they are very skilled, more complicated rules or deceptive koans will be in order. For newer students, even "obvious" rules can be hard to crack if they are all building similar koans.
Challenges for the Students
In the beginning build variations - Vary the features of the Master's initial koans until you are able to discount a pyramid feature - color, orientation, whither something is or isn't touching the play surface, etc. The initial koans provide a lot of coded information on the rule. Focus on this until you have a workable theory.
Change gears - don't feel the need to build a koan that will 'only help you' if it is early in the game or no one has been consistently winning Mondos. If you feel someone is close, start building deceptive koans and call Mondo to probe fellow students for information as well as the Master. Don't know if the koan will be true or false? Don't Mondo and only build it if an unexpected answer won't confuse you.
Components
Looney Pyramids are fun plastic pieces to manipulate and provide a rich space of koans to explore.
Access to Looney Pyramids is not necessary to play Zendo. Any collection of objects can be used or just pen and paper. Here on the 'geek there is a Play By Forum Emoticon Zendo arena and a Geek Image Zendo Geeklist is around.
Theme
Ostensibly, the players are Zen-Buddhists attempting to find enlightenment. Feels painted on to me. A science theme like Eleusis would not change how the game works at all.
Notable Variants
For the game to function, at least two Students and a Master are needed.
Dharma Duel is a variant for two players where each has a rule their opponent is trying to guess first. Players take turns building koans that must be graded against both rules.
Zendo-Tao (http://icehousegames.org/wiki/index.php?title=Zendo-Tao) is a Masterless variant for two or more players. Players take turns declaring what the rule is not and building koans ambiguous in the set of negated rules. The winner is the last player able to propose a negated rule and create a new ambiguous koan. Good because it eliminates the special Master player. Quite challenging.
Personal Thoughts
I really enjoy Zendo. I like playing with the Pyramids and exercising the logic muscle built up in college.
Depending on the group, it can be a light filler or a deep battle of wits. Not often that a game can be found to satisfy both ends of that spectrum.
While being the Master, it is fun to watch the wheels turn. Finding appropriate rules and koans keeps the game engaging.
While being the Student creative koan building is rewarding as are leaps of logic.
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Jeff Wolfe
United States
Columbus
Ohio
Zendo fan, Columbus Blue Jackets fan, Dominion Fan. These are 'permanent microbadges' to free up space on my microbadge row
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JonPrud wrote:
You can also get a printable copy of the rules from looneypyramids.com. See http://www.looneylabs.com/rules/zendo for a link to the PDF.
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Douglas Glisson
Canada
Alberta
www.scottsigler.com/gfl
I'm gonna keep signing my posts so just let it go already.
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I know, I know. But I REALLY want a Zendo boxed set for some reason.
Kraken Fan #69
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Jon
United States
Redmond
Washington
Plaatsvervangende Schaamte
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krakenfan69 wrote: I know, I know. But I REALLY want a Zendo boxed set for some reason.
I wouldn't turn my nose up at one...
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Matt Loscutoff
United States
Sacramento
California
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Zendo-Tao sounds a bit or 2 bits like LEMMA.
rules in rules spiraling inward to the light.
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Jon
United States
Redmond
Washington
Plaatsvervangende Schaamte
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mplatov1812 wrote: Zendo-Tao sounds a bit or 2 bits like LEMMA.
rules in rules spiraling inward to the light.
Hmm. I'll have to check Lemma out...
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Posted Mon Oct 31, 2011 10:16 pm
