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Comment by iainmerrick | Hacker News Reader

Zendo is terrific: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zendo_(game) One player thinks of a secret rule, and the others have to guess the rule by building little sculptures.

It's best played with a set of Icehouse pieces, which pack pretty small and can be used for a whole bunch of other games too. You don't need Icehouse pieces, though, you can also play Zendo with coins, matchsticks, etc.

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I think Zendo is better with a set of basic lego blocks (1x1, 2x1, 2x2) in 3 colours. It's easier to construct and build things.

But fundamentally it is an incredible game in whatever form you play.

Wow, Lego blocks! That's a great idea, I'll have to try it.

They key thing when using Lego is not to go crazy with variety you need a large number of a small variety of blocks.

Makes sense. The one meta-rule I always emphasize when introducing people to Zendo is "make the rule really simple, it'll be much harder to guess than you expect."

Do you require your Lego structures to be fully connected? Seems like that limits the possibilities a bit, but it would mean you can safely pick them up and move them around, which is always fiddly in normal Zendo.

We don't require it but inevitably people build fully connected structures due to the ease of pickup and move around.

This is one of my favorite games. I love how while it has a "spiritual" theme, the mechanics feel like pure deduction/scientific method.

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