[Board/Tactical Game]: Zendo, reviewed by Gary McBride (4/5)

http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/9/9509.phtml

Gary McBride's Summary:

Another solid offering from Looney Labs.

Go to the full review for more information.

Post originally by Ralph Mazza at 2003-07-17 13:16:26
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Sounds like a less structured Master Mind variant. Would that be accurate?

Post originally by Gary McBride at 2003-07-17 18:04:33
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Free form mastermind with plastic pyramids and Buddhist trappings is actually a pretty good short description of "Zendo".

Gary

Post originally by vputz at 2003-07-18 10:13:10
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Err..

SORT of. But mastermind is meant to find a solution, and this game is designed to find a RULE, by inductive reasoning.

Actually, it is far more reminiscent of a freeform card game called "Eleusis", in which one player, "god", creates a rule based on a sequence of cards dealed out (for example, "only hearts" for an obvious rule, or "every third card must be an even number" for something more subtle). Players take turns playing cards from their hands and "god" tells them if they are right or wrong. If you think you know what the rule is, you declare yourself a "prophet" and take over the right/wrong calls... points are made based on cards played (and if you finish a round as a True Prophet, ie you have been correct since you declared yourself prophet) then you get quite a bonus.

It's a cheap introduction to induction games; may want to give it a try (uses two decks of playing cards) before going for Zendo to see if you like the genre. Can be a ton of fun, but does best with multiple people.

-->VPutz