Sport and Games Atlas

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Zendo (game)

Deduction and Guessing Games

Zendo is a game of inductive logic designed by Kory Heath. One player, the Master, secretly invents a rule that structures called koans either follow or break, and the other players, the Students, try to discover that rule by building koans and studying how the Master marks them. Before play the Master builds two example koans, one that follows the rule and one that does not, marked with a white and a black stone. On a turn a Student builds a koan and calls either Master, where the Master rules on it, or Mondo, where every Student guesses the answer and those who guess correctly earn a Guessing Stone. Stones can be spent to guess the rule, and the first Student to state it correctly wins the round and becomes the next Master. The rules were published in 2001, the boxed set won Best Abstract Board Game of 2003 at the Origins Awards and the Mensa Select Game Award in 2005, and any set of colorful pieces can be used to play.

Facts
Classification
Player Count
Two-Player 1
Player Count
Small Group (3-6 Players) 1
Sport
Game Type (category)
Tabletop Game 2
Origin Year
2001 2
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Source Looney Labs (Wikipedia)Lead
Quote, Lead
Looney Labs, Inc. is a small game company based in College Park, Maryland, United States
Sources
1. Looney Labs: Zendo
Looney LabsPlayers
Quote, Players
2-6
View the Source
2. Zendo (game) (Wikipedia)
  • Lead
    Zendo is a game of inductive logic designed by Kory Heath
  • History
    The rules were published in 2001 after more than a year of playtests and changes.
View the Source

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