Glyphs
Created by Lee Trent
Table of Contents
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Acknowledgments
This game is inspired by Zendo by Looney Labs. This game has no affiliation with Zendo, Looney Labs, or any other entities involved with Zendo and Looney Labs. I do encourage you to find a copy of Zendo or try other games from Looney Labs if you enjoy this game.
This game is also inspired by hanab.live based on the game Hanabi and setwithfriends.com based on the game Set. Hanabi, Set, and Zendo are my favorite math/logic games to play with friends, and I wanted a way to play Zendo online with friends just like Hanabi and Set. If you enjoy this game, you may also enjoy Hanabi or Set, and I encourage you to try them, either by acquiring the physical games to play with friends in person, or playing on the aforementioned sites.
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Acknowledgments (Cont.)
Many thanks to Josh Holden for helping me design the 2-player variant (originally with Zendo), John Golden for game design assistance, and Jakob Lovern for coding assistance. Thanks also to Paul Kline and his BNF Playground, which I use for generating glyph decrees.
I additionally thank the following playtesters, offered the option to be identified by name, initials, a website username, or fully unnamed:
John Golden, tarilaran, Jeff Bye. Anonymous: 0.
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Overview
You and your game companions play as a mage and the mage’s apprentices. A good apprentice needs to become familiar with glyphs to become a mage. The mage will set a decree, a rule that glyphs must obey, and the apprentices’ goal is to correctly guess the decree. The apprentices and mage will create glyphs, and the mage will mark them according to whether they follow the decree. This information is used by the apprentices to guess the decree. The first apprentice to correctly guess the mage’s decree wins!
In the two player variant, both players play as mages and try to guess each others’ decrees. The first mage to guess all of the others’ decrees wins!
You’re going to need to make your own copy of the game board slides as my public version is not editable. If you’re playing online, you’ll want to give your companions editing permission on your copy so they can move pieces too.
Information about glyph decrees and how to generate them is in another document. The game boards are also in another document. They’re linked on the table of contents page. I recommend you finish reading the rules in this document first, then go read to the glyph decree details, and then go get your game boards!
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Pieces
Shapes:
Approval and Rejection Tokens:
Coins:
Decree Tokens (Two Player Only):
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C
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Game Setup (More than Two Players)
Select a mage and player order. The mage selects a glyph decree. (See the glyph decree details.) The mage makes two glyphs on the game board, one which obeys the decree and one which doesn’t. The mage marks them with an approval token and a rejection token accordingly. Apprentices take turns in order, beginning with player 1.
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Gameplay (More than Two Players)
On your turn:
All glyphs created remain on the board throughout the game for all apprentices to reference.
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Game Setup (Two Player Variant)
Use the two player variant board. Mages begin with two coins each. No additional coins are introduced during gameplay. Agree on how many glyph decrees you want to play through and at what difficulty level. Change the decree tokens at the bottom of the game board so that they show how many decrees you’re going to play through, that is, if you’re going to play through three decrees, you should have tokens labeled 1, 2, and 3 under each player. Each mage selects a list of glyph decrees. (See the glyph decree details.) Each mage makes two glyphs on their opponent’s side of the game board, one which obeys their first decree and one which doesn’t. They mark them with approval and rejection tokens according to whether they obey the decree. Mages take turns.
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Gameplay (Two Player Variant)
On your turn:
Step 2 may be repeated as many times as you have coins. When you’re out of coins or no longer wish to spend them, it is the other mage’s turn.
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About Glyphs
Glyphs must contain at least one shape. Glyphs should not contain more than six shapes. In most cases, you won’t need to make glyphs that large.
Glyphs should be connected. For example, the three shapes on the left make a valid glyph, while the three shapes on the right do not.
You should not change the size of shapes when creating a glyph. You can rotate them.
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About Glyphs (Cont.)
Don’t intentionally make it difficult to tell what shapes are in a glyph- the goal of the game is to determine what the glyphs that follow the decree have in common, not to determine what shapes are in a glyph. For example, one of these glyphs contains a long rectangle, while the other contains three squares:
The version with three squares is ambiguous and not in the spirit of the game. Similarly, don’t hide any shapes entirely behind other shapes. If any player has any question at any time about what shapes are in a glyph, the person who made the glyph should answer honestly. If no one can remember, you should move the shapes in the glyph to figure it out, then put them back in their original configuration.
If an aspect of a shape is hidden, it is still part of the glyph. For example, the following glyphs both contain seven angles and seven line segments.
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About Guessing
If there’s any ambiguity in the apprentice’s guess (most commonly the distinction between “exactly” and “at least,” although there are other examples), the mage should ask them questions to clarify until the apprentice has an unambiguous guess.
If there are any glyphs on the board which are a counterexample to the apprentice’s guess, it is not a valid guess. An invalid guess does not cost a coin, and the mage should not provide another counterexample. The mage should check that the guess is valid before building a counterexample.
Some rules can be stated in multiple ways, but are equivalent. For example, “a glyph must include at most 0 angles,” “a glyph cannot include angles,” and “a glyph must include exclusively ovals” are equivalent. If the mage has a hard time disproving an apprentice’s guess, the mage should consider whether the guess and the decree are actually equivalent, in which case the apprentice wins.
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Game Tips
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Logistics Tips
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Useful Keyboard Shortcuts
Right click on an object and open format options to see and edit size/position information.
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