Zendo (game)

History

The rules were published in 2001 after more than a year of playtests and changes. In 2004, the Zendo boxed set won Best Abstract Board Game of 2003 at the Origins Awards. In 2005, the set won the Mensa Select Game Award. Zendo is also published in Looney Labs' Playing with Pyramids, a book of rules and strategies for a dozen popular games playable with Icehouse pieces.

In December 2017, the company reissued Zendo game separate from the Looney pyramids line for the first time. The Icehouse pyramids were replaced by blocks, single size pyramids and wedges. Buddhist terminology were also removed from the instructions.

Gameplay

Within Zendo, most players are known as Students, who will build structures of pieces known as koans. Before play, one player (known as the Master) will invent a secret Rule, such as "a koan has the Buddha-nature if and only if it contains one or more green pieces". The Master then builds two koans - one which follows the rule and one which does not. These are marked with a white and black stone respectively.

Students then take turns to build koans. After building a koan, a student may call either "Master" or "Mondo":

• Master: The Master determines whether that Student's koan follows or breaks the Rule (also stylized as: "possesses or lacks the Buddha-nature", in fitting with the game's philosophical theme) and marks it with a white or black stone accordingly.
• Mondo: Each Student guesses whether the koan follows or breaks the rule, by holding a black or white stone in their hand. The Master marks whether the koan follows the rule, and stones are revealed simultaneously: Students who guessed correctly are awarded a Guessing Stone.

At the end of their turn, a Student may spend Guessing Stones to guess the Master's Rule. If the guess is wrong, the Master may build and mark a new koan (which either fits the Master's Rule but not the Student's guess, or vice versa) to prove this. The first student to correctly state the rule wins that round and becomes the new Master.

Philosophy of play

Zendo encourages inductive reasoning and scientific thinking due to the nature of the guessing process. Players are encouraged to think critically while playing the game.

Although it is possible to 'win' Zendo by correctly stating a rule, there are no losers. Every player benefits from observing and following play. Furthermore, Masters may 'win' as well, by choosing a challenging, yet simple Rule.

Koan attributes

Pieces tend to be objects with multiple discrete distinguishing attributes; for example, Icehouse pieces, folded paper pyramids or Lego blocks. Using these, it is possible to create many different parts inside a koan. A partial list of koan attributes is below.

1. Size of pieces
2. Shape of pieces
3. Color of pieces
4. Number of pieces
5. Relative orientation ("pointing at another piece/parallel to another piece") of pieces
6. Groundedness (pieces supported entirely by other pieces are not "grounded") of pieces

Awards

• Zendo won the 2003 Origins Award for "Abstract Board Game".
• Zendo was named one of the 2005 Mensa Select games by American Mensa.

Reviews

• Family Games: The 100 Best

References

References

1. Heath, Kory. (8 September 2004). "Zendo—Design History".
2. (June 28, 2004). "Origins Award Winners for 2003". ICv2.
3. (November 1, 2017). "'Zendo' Returns". ICv2.
4. "Out Of Print (OOP) Pyramid Products". Looney Labs.
5. (June 14, 2018). "'Star Trek Fluxx' Gets Foil Expansion That Breaks The Timeline". ICv2.
6. "Zendo | Kory Heath".
7. (16 Nov 2005). "Game Review: Zendo".
8. Petty, Mike. (3 Jul 2015). "The Fun and Beauty of Game Design: An Interview with Kory Heath.".
9. (2 August 2017). "First Sample Zendo Pieces | Wunderland".
10. (2010). "Family games : The 100 best". Green Ronin.