On-Sets: A Vintage Set Theory Game | Hacker News Reader

On-Sets: A Vintage Set Theory Game

tandfonline.com

I have never heard of this game, but it reminds me of the logic dice game WFF 'N PROOF ... more info here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WFF_%27N_PROOF

I did play WFF N' PROOF, and it was instructive.

Same here.

I had WFF N' PROOF, along with one or two of thier other games as a kid, and was fascinated by them but I couldn't find anyone to pkay them with. We were into 1st edition D&D and wargames, but no one else was into logic or puzzle games. It's one of those odd regrets that I didn't play more.

I got a few friends into Penté, though. So that was kind of a win.

There's a game this made me think of, which I now cannot remember or work out the name of. You had a collection of objects (think coloured plastic triangles, cubes etc.) and one player arranges a few of them into groups, which should all match a secret rule that they have come up with ("more red than blue objects" or "all triangles are stacked on top of cubes"). The other players then have to try and work out the rule, but the rule setter only communicates by giving counter examples if they haven't got the rule right. It was something like that anyway, can anyone remember the name?

The original edition was kind of cheap and plastic feeling, but it's the sort of thing that could be done nowadays with really high quality components.

You might be thinking of Zendo [1]. "Zendo is a game of inductive logic in which one player, the Master, creates a rule that the rest of the players, as Students, try to figure out by building and studying configurations of the game pieces. The first student to correctly guess the rule wins."

[1] https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/6830/zendo

Yes, that's the one, thanks!

This is incredible. I copied and pasted your description into ChatGPT:

he game you're describing sounds like "Zendo," which is a game of inductive logic designed by Kory Heath. In Zendo, players use colored plastic pieces called "Icehouse pyramids" that come in different sizes and colors. The moderator, or "Master," creates a secret rule and builds two structures, one that follows the rule (marked with a white stone) and one that doesn't (marked with a black stone). The players, or "Students," then take turns building new structures and asking the Master if they follow the rule or not. The goal is for the Students to correctly guess the secret rule by observing the examples and counterexamples provided by the Master.

Yes this is good, but can it explain why my father never returned afer going to buy some milk.

Calling this a "set theory game" is a bit of a stretch. It's really about set arithmetic. I was disappointed.

They make several interesting looking games https://gamesforthinkers.org/all/

Including products on CD, which we can conveniently pop into those optical drives we all have!

This is fantastic game! I played it in competition as child, and as a programmer I use the skills I learned from it every day. I highly recommend anyone with children to buy a copy and play it with them. It's easy to learn and an absolute joy to play.

Also, see if your school district participates in the National Academic Games tournaments. https://www.agloa.org/

slightly related, TIL about the upSet plot (notation kinda) to visualize set overlaps

https://thenode.biologists.com/venn-euler-upset-visualize-ov...

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