This is a game that I'd like to try out here. It's sort of a hybrid of Twenty Questions and Zendo. The rules are as follows; feel free to suggest improvements to them as we play:

• Normally, one player is selected to start as the Master while the rest are the Students. To keep things more interesting in this online version of the game, all of us will play as Masters and Students simultaneously. (This is similar to how we play Balderdash here.) For simplicity I will describe the rules as if we were having only one Master at a time.
• The Master comes up with a secret rule that some things obey and others do not. The ones which obey the rule are said to "have the Buddha nature." The Master should make sure that his/her rule is clear and unambiguous; he or she should be able to clearly say that any one thing has or does not have the Buddha nature. As a simple example, the Master might come up with a rule saying that living things have the Buddha nature.
• The Master makes a post giving one thing which has the Buddha nature according to his/her rule and another which does not. For ease of reading, the subjects of the koans should be written in bold. Following the previous example, the Master could post, "A fox has the Buddha nature. A stone does not." An example item given by the Master and the declaration of whether it has the Buddha nature is called a koan.
• The Students' objective is to learn the Master's rule. They can converse with the Master in one of three ways:
  1. A Student can ask the Master whether a particular thing has the Buddha nature. ("Master, does a bear have the Buddha nature?") The Master responds with a koan according to the rule. ("Yes, grasshopper, a bear does have the Buddha nature.")
  2. A Student may propose a koan which they believe follows the rule. ("Master, I believe that water has the Buddha nature.") The Master responds to a correct koan by giving them a stone or some other token of the Master's choice. If the koan is wrong, or if the subject's nature was previously established, the Master takes one token away from the Student if they have any.
  3. A Student may give a token to the Master and declare what they believe the rule to be. Write this declaration in all bold. ("Master, I believe that a thing has the Buddha nature if it has fur.") If a Student is the first to correctly identify the rule, the Master praises them for their enlightened answer and awards them a point. Otherwise, the Master reminds the Student of a previously-mentioned koan which contradicts the proposed rule, or gives a new contradicting koan if no previous one will serve. ("But fish have the Buddha nature, yet have no fur.") A Student may not attempt to guess the rule if they have none of the Master's tokens.
• Once a rule has been discovered, the Master may come up with a new rule and give two new koans for it (one positive and one negative, as before). All previous koans given by the Master are now void, and the Students return the Master's tokens. (When playing in real life, the Student who correctly guesses the rule becomes the new Master.)
• Whoever has the most points when we reach page 10 wins.
• Rules which seem easy to the Master may not seem so easy to the Students. It is best to start simple and increase difficulty only if the last rule was guessed quickly.
• To keep things simple on our first outing, do not make rules that refer to the words themselves as opposed to their meanings. (No rules such as "A thing has the Buddha nature if it is spelled with five letters.")

Let me know if any part of the rules is unclear. Below are my first two koans:



A serpent has the Buddha nature. A tree does not.

I'm going to propose a rule change to reduce confusion --since there will be multiple games going on at once, why don't we refer to our own rule as having --for instance -- "kitoba nature" or "AlternateTorg" nature.

With that in mind, AT, does an eel have AlternateTorg nature?

Yes, Kitoba, an eel does have the AlternateTorg nature.


OOG: I agree with the rule change proposal. Don't forget to come up with a rule of your own and post a couple of koans for it.

Does a worm have AT nature?

A worm does not have the AT nature.


OOG: Keep in mind that in order to be able to guess the rule, you have to earn a guessing token, so it might benefit you to say something along the lines of "Master, I believe X has the AT nature" rather than "Does X have the AT nature?" There is no risk when you have no guessing tokens to lose.

I believe that a lizard has the AlternateTorg nature.

A crow has the CCC nature. A tree does not have the CCC nature.

AlternateTorg smiles and gives CCC a tiny bottle filled with sand. "Yes, my son, a lizard does have the AT nature."

---

"Does a cow have the CCC nature?"

I believe that a thing has the AlternateTorg nature if it has scales.

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No, a cow does not have the CCC nature.

I believe an orang-utan has the CCC nature.

I believe a frog has the AT nature. OOG-useless if CCC is right.

Band aids have the Steave nature. Duct tape does not.

Accepting the bottle given back to him by CCC, Master AlternateTorg shakes his head. "A fox has the AT nature, yet it has no scales."

To Steve the Master replies, "No, a frog does not have the AT nature."

Summary
Has: serpent, eel, lizard, fox
Has not: tree, worm, frog



I believe that a manta ray has the CCC nature. I believe a Ritz cracker has the Steave nature.

Your training is incomplete child. A Ritz cracker does not have the Steave nature.

Neither an orang-utan nor a manta ray has the CCC nature.

I believe that Tyrannosaurus Rex has the AlternateTorg nature.
I believe that rabbits have the Steave nature.

The Master smiles and returns the small bottle back to CCC. "Yes, grasshopper, Tyrannosaurus Rex does have the AT nature."

Summary
Has: serpent, eel, lizard, fox, T. rex
Has not: tree, worm, frog


I believe a vulture has the CCC nature.

I believe that glass does not have the Steave nature.

CCC hands the bottle of sand back to AlternateTorg. "I believe that something has the AlternateTorg nature if it eats meat."

--------------

CCC smiles and hands a memory card to AlternateTorg. "Yes, a vulture has the CCC nature."

If AT doesn't mind, I think I'll restrict myself to being a Master. I don't particularly want to win this, but I still want to play. Anyway...


Snow has the Kajin nature. An Alligator does not.