[Icehouse] Zendo, another way to play

[David Artman]

> From: Carl Worth <cworth at cworth.org>
> Anyway, I think that the ability to force the master to reveal new,
> critical information is what really makes the game great.

I am inclined to agree. Furthermore, as a Master (in demos a LOT) I tend
to start to present very low attribute count¹ disproofs, the more I see
my Student's becoming frustrated. Removing the disproof mechanic means
Students can get stuck in an overly complex mode of thought (I find) and
thereby keep the potential attribute count very high, when they really
ought to be ratcheting it down.

What's more, the more attributes in the koans that the Students make,
the more likely they'll get false positives². And, again, there's not
"check" against that, via Master disproofs.

But, hey, if it's fun, play it. Ikkozendo strips out a ton of the moving
parts in Zendo (but NOT the Master's manipulation of koans throughout
the game!) and it's still fun.

--David
¹ Attribute count is the number of possible ways that the pieces in a
koan can relate to each other or convey qualities (color, size,
orientation, etc).
² A false positive in Zendo is a koan which, usually due to a high
attribute count, misleads the Student(s) into thinking their imagined
rule is correct when, in fact, it's wrong.