Zendo, play by forum

[Simon]

Let's play Zendo via forum!

Look near the end of this thread for the game in progress.

Rules of Forum Zendo

Guess the secret rule about which koans have the buddha nature.

A koan is a nonempty finite string of letters A-Z. At the start of the game, the master thinks of a secret rule, then posts a white koan (that has the buddha nature) and a black koan (that doesn't have the buddha nature).

To play, post some more koans, and/or guess what the rule is. The master will mark everybody's koans white or black in public. This gives everybody new information on what the secret rule might be. To answer your rule guesses, the master will post a counterexample koan, i.e., a koan that is marked differently according to your rule guess and the master's actual rule.

There are no turns. Play as often as you like. Don't wait for the master to post, you can post immediately after other players, or even after yourself. You can join running games on the fly!

To win, guess the rule correctly.

Finer details of rules

The secret rule defines a subset of the koanspace. The koanspace is the set of nonempty finite strings over the alphabet A-Z. so it cannot depend on post number, poster name, etc. It may depend on certain outside knowledge, such as level names, as long as an equivalent rule could be defined without outside knowledge: "AKHTBN iff it is one of the following finite list: JUSTDIG, ONLYFLOATERSMAYSURVIVETHIS, [...,] RENDEZVOUSATTHEMOUNTAIN."

The null koan, i.e., the empty string, is customarily disallowed. The reason comes from the offline game: The empty koan would look like a stray marking stone on the table.

To win, your guessed rule must be functionally equivalent to the master's secret rule. Rules are functionally equivalent iff for each koan, both rules mark it the same, i.e., the master cannot show you a counterexample. Your guess doesn't have to match the master's exact wording of the rule.

See Also

• List of secret rules already played
  
• zendofmt, Simon's koan formatter
  
• Here, add namida's koan formatter that is not tied to a specific secret rule?
  

Forum Zendo is inspired by the tabletop game Zendo:

• The designer's homepage
  
• Tips for the master by the designer: If you think your rule is too easy, then it's just right.
  

-- Simon

[Simon]

New game of Zendo

Initial white koan: LEMMINGS (this follows the secret rule)
Initial black koan: CHEAPO (this doesn't follow the rule)

Post more koans or guesses about the rule.

-- Simon

[chaos_defrost]

Guesses based on likely not quite right logic:

DIGGER (guessing white)
LIX (guessing black)
PSYGNOSIS (...?)

[Simon]

DIGGER white! (guessing white, correct intuition)
LIX black! (guessing black, even more so)
PSYGNOSIS white!

-- Simon

[chaos_defrost]

Rule get (confirmed on IRC):

The string has the Buddha nature iff it has two or more of the same character.

Next round:

The string INSANE gets a white token (follows the rule)
The string STEVE gets a black token (does not follow the rule)

[Simon]

ZSTEVE
ZZSTEVE
INSANZ
INSAZZ

-- Simon

[chaos_defrost]

ZSTEVE
ZZSTEVE
INSANZ
INSAZZ

-- Simon

All receive black tokens (do not follow the rule).

[Simon]

A
INSANEINSANE
ZINSANEZ
YISTHEREATREE

-- Simon

[chaos_defrost]

A
INSANEINSANE
ZINSANEZ
YISTHEREATREE

-- Simon

A and INSANEINSANE get a white token, as they follow the rule. ZINSANEZ and YISTHEREATREE get black tokens and do not follow this rule.

I suspect you probably know what the rule could be from your guesses.  http://www.lemmingsforums.com/Smileys/lemmings/thumbsup.gif" alt=":thumbsup:" title="Thumbs Up" class="smiley" />

[Simon]

A koan has the buddha nature iff the first letter is a vowel (AEIOU) and the last letter is a vovel.

-- Simon

[chaos_defrost]

A koan has the buddha nature iff the first letter is a vowel (AEIOU) and the last letter is a vovel.

-- Simon

This is not a correct guess. INEXPLICABLE follows this rule but gets a black marker, as it doesn't have the Buddha nature.

[Simon]

Here's some more koans, wild shots into the blue, maybe enticing others to join!

AEI
AEIOU
IMEMBLICABLE
ASIMPLEONE
IVERYLONGVERYLONGE
TESTTESTAEI
TESTTESTAEIO
TESTTESTAEIOU

-- Simon

[chaos_defrost]

AEI and AEIOU have the Buddha nature and get a white token.
IMEMBLICABLE, ASIMPLEONE, and IVERYLONGVERYLONGE do not and get a black token.

EDIT: TESTTESTAEI does not have the Buddha nature (black/wrong) but TESTTESTAEIO and TESTTESTAEIOU do (white/right).

[Simon]

AKHTBN iff it consists of 50 % vowels (AEIOU) or more.

This was confirmed in IRC by Steve, so I offer anyone to master now. :-)

YISTHEREATREE was posted only with the start-vowel-end-vowel rule in mind, testing whether Y would be a vowel for that, and then it worked just as well towards the new rule without intention.

-- Simon

[geoo]

New game of Zendo

Initial white koan: SIMON (this follows the secret rule)
Initial black koan: GEOO (this doesn't follow the rule)