Zendo, play by forum

Dullstar · June 05, 2016, 03:59:12 PM

Hint:

Spoiler

Only three letters in the koan determine whether it is white or black. The rest don't matter as long as 1) the total number of letters is odd and 2) the koan is a minimum of five letters.

Here is an abridged koan list removing the black koans which meet neither of the criteria given in the hint. The extremely long black koan has also been removed for readability.

White Koans
AAAAXAAAA AOXAO GREAT PEACH
AAACA AOXOA HACEP PECAH
AAACH AXAAXAAXA HCAEP PINEAPPEE
AAAXAAA AXAXAXA IEACH PINEAPPLE
AACAH BACEIBBDE KEBAB PINEEPPLE
AAPAA BACEIDFGO KILLERAPPLE PINEOPPLE
AAXAA BEACH LEACH PONEAPPLE
AAXAXAAXA CHEAP LEMON POSTMODERNISM
AAXAXAXAA CODES NINEAPPLE PPLEAPINE
ADENINE ELPPAENIP OOXOO REACH
AEACH FORUM PANEAPPLE TAERG
AECAH GEART PCEAH XAXAX
ANTHROPOGENICALLY GREAG PEACE

Black Koans
A ATEGR IIIII POMEGRANATE
AAAAA AXXXA LEMMING PPAPP
AAAAAAAAA BBBBBBBBB LEMMINGOLOGICAL PPEPP
AAAAH BCDFG LOOPING PPPPP
AAAXXXAAA CCCAC LPPNP PPPPPAAAA
ABCDE CCCCA MANGO QQQQQ
ACCOMMODATIONISTS CHIPS MMMMM QUEUING
ACEHP COMPUTERS NANNA TANGO
AEAAH EEEEE ONMLE TRIBE
AEIOU ELPPA OOOOO XAAAX
AEIOUXXXXYYYY EPCAH PINEBPPLE XXAXX
AEIOUXXXXYYYYZZZZ EPCHA PINEXPPLE XXXXX
APE GGGAA PINEYPPLE
APPLE GGGAE PIZZA
APPLEPINE HHHHH PNPPL

grams88 · June 05, 2016, 09:24:01 PM

Here's a few more koans.

Lem
Pop
Pea
Jab
Paa
mum
sim
lap
kop

oops I may of misread the hint sorry Dullstar.

Here's my koans.

Pearl
Lemmm
Strug
Maaat
Poutt
Caana
Polic
Kapuu

Dullstar · June 05, 2016, 10:31:14 PM

White Koans
AAAAXAAAA AOXOA HACEP PEARL
AAACA AXAAXAAXA HCAEP PECAH
AAACH AXAXAXA IEACH PINEAPPEE
AAAXAAA BACEIBBDE KAPUU PINEAPPLE
AACAH BACEIDFGO KEBAB PINEEPPLE
AAPAA BEACH KILLERAPPLE PINEOPPLE
AAXAA CAANA LEACH POLIC
AAXAXAAXA CHEAP LEMON PONEAPPLE
AAXAXAXAA CODES NINEAPPLE POSTMODERNISM
ADENINE ELPPAENIP OOXOO POUTT
AEACH FORUM PANEAPPLE PPLEAPINE
AECAH GEART PCEAH REACH
ANTHROPOGENICALLY GREAG PEACE TAERG
AOXAO GREAT PEACH XAXAX

Black Koans
A ATEGR IIIII PIZZA
AAAAA AXXXA LEMMING PNPPL
AAAAAAAAA BBBBBBBBB LEMMINGOLOGICAL POMEGRANATE
AAAAH BCDFG LEMMM PPAPP
AAAXXXAAA CCCAC LOOPING PPEPP
ABCDE CCCCA LPPNP PPPPP
ACCOMMODATIONISTS CHIPS MAAAT PPPPPAAAA
ACEHP COMPUTERS MANGO QQQQQ
AEAAH EEEEE MMMMM QUEUING
AEIOU ELPPA NANNA STRUG
AEIOUXXXXYYYY EPCAH ONMLE TANGO
AEIOUXXXXYYYYZZZZ EPCHA OOOOO TRIBE
APE GGGAA PINEBPPLE XAAAX
APPLE GGGAE PINEXPPLE XXAXX
APPLEPINE HHHHH PINEYPPLE XXXXX

grams88 · June 08, 2016, 07:18:42 PM

Pearn
pontt
kapii
palic
lemming

Dullstar · June 10, 2016, 02:59:05 PM

White Koans
AAAAXAAAA AXAAXAAXA IEACH PEARN
AAACA AXAXAXA KAPII PECAH
AAACH BACEIBBDE KAPUU PINEAPPEE
AAAXAAA BACEIDFGO KEBAB PINEAPPLE
AACAH BEACH KILLERAPPLE PINEEPPLE
AAPAA CAANA LEACH PINEOPPLE
AAXAA CHEAP LEMON POLIC
AAXAXAAXA CODES NINEAPPLE PONEAPPLE
AAXAXAXAA ELPPAENIP OOXOO POSTMODERNISM
ADENINE FORUM PALIC POUTT
AEACH GEART PANEAPPLE PPLEAPINE
AECAH GREAG PCEAH REACH
ANTHROPOGENICALLY GREAT PEACE TAERG
AOXAO HACEP PEACH XAXAX
AOXOA HCAEP PEARL

Black Koans
A AXXXA LEMMINGOLOGICAL PONTT
AAAAA BBBBBBBBB LEMMM PPAPP
AAAAAAAAA BCDFG LOOPING PPEPP
AAAAH CCCAC LPPNP PPPPP
AAAXXXAAA CCCCA MAAAT PPPPPAAAA
ABCDE CHIPS MANGO QQQQQ
ACCOMMODATIONISTS COMPUTERS MMMMM QUEUING
ACEHP EEEEE NANNA STRUG
AEAAH ELPPA ONMLE TANGO
AEIOU EPCAH OOOOO TRIBE
AEIOUXXXXYYYY EPCHA PINEBPPLE XAAAX
AEIOUXXXXYYYYZZZZ GGGAA PINEXPPLE XXAXX
APE GGGAE PINEYPPLE XXXXX
APPLE HHHHH PIZZA
APPLEPINE IIIII PNPPL
ATEGR LEMMING POMEGRANATE

Spoiler

More on "only three letters determine whether a koan is white or black"

Pretend the letters that matter are the first, third, and fifth letters of a koan (this isn't true of the rule, but we'll use it for the sake of example).
Also pretend that the koan AxBxC is white (it wouldn't be, but again, for the sake of example...), where "x" represents any letter. The koans AxCxB, BxAxC, BxCxA, CxAxB, and CxBxA would also be white.

Generally speaking, the three important letters must be in a specific location in the koan, but may be in any order within those positions.

The positions may be either relative to the koan length (e.g. last three letters) or fixed (e.g. 1st, 2nd, and 4th letters).
There may be more than one letter that works in the slots. In the above example, perhaps ExBxC would also work as a white koan despite not containing the letter A.

---

Why might it be impossible to have an even length white koan?

Proxima · June 10, 2016, 11:17:09 PM

Ugh. It's very inconvenient that LOOPING is black, as I could explain everything else except that... but that presumably can't be marked incorrectly, as it was the original black koan given for this round.

Well, let's probe a bit more.

LOPIG
OOPIN
LAAPING
LOOMING
LOPOING

Dullstar · June 11, 2016, 03:41:56 AM

Oh, dear. My bad. I actually simplified the rule slightly veeeeery early on (there had been maaaaybe one or two koan posts at the time I did it?), thinking that no koans were out that would have been affected by the change, buuuut somehow I missed LOOPING, which is, indeed, under the changes, white, and, embarrassingly, was the original black koan I gave.

More details (I've marked with a spoiler but I don't believe this should give any new relevant information that wasn't divulged in earlier hints)
In some of the earlier hints

Spoiler

you may recall this example:

QuotePretend the letters that matter are the first, third, and fifth letters of a koan (this isn't true of the rule, but we'll use it for the sake of example).
Also pretend that the koan AxBxC is white (it wouldn't be, but again, for the sake of example...), where "x" represents any letter. The koans AxCxB, BxAxC, BxCxA, CxAxB, and CxBxA would also be white.

Generally speaking, the three important letters must be in a specific location in the koan, but may be in any order within those positions.

Originally I had it so the letters had to be in the same order as they appeared in PINEAPPLE, which is probably why I chose LOOPING as the first black koan - everything the rule asked for is in it, but it's not in the right order. Upon further thought, though, I thought it was going to be too difficult, so I decided that it would be fine as long as it was there... and didn't double check the lists for affected koans, because there were only like no more then 10 koans at that time.

Sorry about that.

I checked for other erroneously marked koans and didn't find any, but due to sheer numbers, it wouldn't surprise me if there's at least one hiding around here.
I DID find two black koans that should have been left off of the abridged list, but I'll fix that next time I post a koan list instead of editing this one.
Next time I host, I'm definitely going with an easier rule.

White Koans
AAAAXAAAA BACEIBBDE KILLERAPPLE PEARN
AAACA BACEIDFGO LAAPING PECAH
AAACH BEACH LEACH PINEAPPEE
AAAXAAA CAANA LEMON PINEAPPLE
AACAH CHEAP LOOMING PINEEPPLE
AAPAA CODES LOOPING PINEOPPLE
AAXAA ELPPAENIP LOPIG POLIC
AAXAXAAXA FORUM LOPOING PONEAPPLE
AAXAXAXAA GEART NINEAPPLE POSTMODERNISM
ADENINE GREAG OOPIN POUTT
AEACH GREAT OOXOO PPLEAPINE
AECAH HACEP PALIC REACH
ANTHROPOGENICALLY HCAEP PANEAPPLE TAERG
AOXAO IEACH PCEAH XAXAX
AOXOA KAPII PEACE
AXAAXAAXA KAPUU PEACH
AXAXAXA KEBAB PEARL

Black Koans
A AXXXA LEMMINGOLOGICAL PONTT
AAAAA BBBBBBBBB LEMMM PPAPP
AAAAAAAAA BCDFG ~~LOOPING~~ PPEPP
AAAAH CCCAC LPPNP PPPPP
AAAXXXAAA CCCCA MAAAT PPPPPAAAA
ABCDE CHIPS MANGO QQQQQ
ACCOMMODATIONISTS COMPUTERS MMMMM QUEUING
ACEHP EEEEE NANNA STRUG
AEAAH ELPPA ONMLE TANGO
AEIOU EPCAH OOOOO TRIBE
AEIOUXXXXYYYY EPCHA PINEBPPLE XAAAX
AEIOUXXXXYYYYZZZZ GGGAA PINEXPPLE XXAXX
APE GGGAE PINEYPPLE XXXXX
APPLE HHHHH PIZZA
APPLEPINE IIIII PNPPL
ATEGR LEMMING POMEGRANATE

Proxima · June 11, 2016, 10:52:14 AM

Then I guess that, of the middle three letters, exactly two must be vowels.

Dullstar · June 11, 2016, 07:54:32 PM

That is indeed correct.

grams88 · June 11, 2016, 09:56:13 PM

Welldone Proxima,

that was a hard rule to get but a good one by Dullstar.

Proxima · June 12, 2016, 08:58:52 PM

Okay, let's do a new round!

White Koans
THOUSAND

Black Koans
MILLION

Simon · June 12, 2016, 09:03:46 PM

THOU
MILON
THION
HUNDRED

-- Simon

Proxima · June 12, 2016, 09:05:42 PM

White Koans
HUNDRED
THION
THOUSAND

Black Koans
MILLION
MILON
THOU

Simon · June 12, 2016, 09:26:22 PM

HUND
THI
HI
DRED
ED
D

-- Simon

Proxima · June 12, 2016, 09:27:34 PM

White Koans
D
DRED
ED
HI
HUND
HUNDRED
THI
THION
THOUSAND

Black Koans
MILLION
MILON
THOU