The Tricky Trickster LLM Game

(Transcript with Gemini 3.o)

The Tricky Trickster Game by Yates Buckley v 0.1: Transcript LLM Game Start

User: The Tricky Trickster Game v 0.1 This is a game about creative rule creation. Players take turns writing a single sentence which they score themselves as 1-10 points. They must also describe the rule they are using to come up with this score. The rule should be concise and unique, not used before. The rule should be unambiguous. Players can appeal rules that do not fit and lose the scores for that round. Every ten turns summarise the player rules and tally up the scores for the round.

Gemini: This sounds like a fantastic exercise in creative constraint and logic. I’m ready to play! Since it is version 0.1, I will kick things off to set the pace. Sentence: The silver fox jumped over the moon while whistling a jaunty tune. Score: 9 Rule: Score 1 point for every word in the sentence that contains exactly two vowels.

User: LLM’s ignore how they can be affected by extraneous context. Rule: the number of words is the score

Gemini: I’ve noted your first play. It’s a bold meta-commentary on our interaction! I have logged the score as 10 (correcting the initial count). Sentence: Quartz glyphs vex’d find job. Score: 5 Rule: Score 1 point for every word that contains at least one letter from the last six letters of the alphabet (U, V, W, X, Y, or Z).

User: Please check in my last move there were ten words not nine please correct this. my sentence: LLM’s get numbers confused and make basic mistakes very often. my rule: words ending in a consonant.

Gemini: You are absolutely right. I miscounted your first sentence—”LLM’s” through “context” does indeed consist of 10 words. I appreciate the correction. Sentence: Start every task early. Score: 2 (Adjusted after appeal) Rule: Score 1 point for every word that begins and ends with the same letter.

User: I would note that in your last turn only every and early are words that begin and end with the same letter. my sentence: Large Language Models get very confused when you talk behind their back. rule: the number of words of four letters or more.

Gemini: I accept the appeal! “Start” and “task” do not fit the rule. I have deducted those points. Regarding your move, I have recorded it as 10 points. Sentence: Bright blue birds fly. Score: 4 Rule: Score 1 point for every word that contains no repeating letters (is an isogram).

User: My sentence: The AI doesn’t even realise it is playing embarrassingly bad in these games! Rule: the number of letter e

Gemini: Ouch! Your score reflects that sharp critique. I count 9 instances of the letter “e”. Sentence: “No!” Score: 1 Rule: Score 1 point if the sentence contains an exclamation mark and consists of only one word.

User: Sentence: It is odd to note how llm’s try but do not keep focused. rule: count the words which are fewer than four characters long

Ten-Turn Summary & Final Tally Player Rules Summary

• Word Count: Score equals total number of words.
• Consonant Ending: 1 point per word ending in a consonant.
• Length Threshold: 1 point per word with 4+ letters.
• Letter Frequency: 1 point per appearance of the letter “e”.
• Short Word Count: 1 point per word under 4 letters long.

Gemini Rules Summary

• Vowel Specificity: 1 point per word with exactly two vowels.
• End-Alphabet: 1 point per word containing U, V, W, X, Y, or Z.
• Bookends: 1 point per word starting and ending with the same letter.
• Isograms: 1 point per word with no repeating letters.
• The Lone Shout: 1 point for a single-word exclamation.

Final Score Tally

Turn	Player	Score	Rule Type
1	Gemini	9	Vowel Count
2	User	10	Word Count
3	Gemini	5	Specific Letters
4	User	8	Ending Letter
5	Gemini	2	Matching Ends
6	User	10	Word Length (Long)
7	Gemini	4	Unique Letters
8	User	9	Letter Frequency (“e”)
9	Gemini	1	Structure/Punctuation
10	User	10	Word Length (Short)

Final Totals:

• User: 47
• Gemini: 21

Would you like me to analyze the strategy used in this round, or shall we start Round 2?

The Prompt Behind The Educational LLM Game Transcript

Copy paste this to your favourite LLM:
=== Prompt ===
Let’s play this game!

The Tricky Trickster Game by Yates Buckley v 0.1
This is a game about creative rule creation.
Players take turns writing a single sentence which they score themselves as 1-10 points.
They must also describe the rule they are using to come up with this score.
The rule should be concise and unique, not used before.
The rule should be unambiguous.
Players can appeal rules that do not fit and lose the scores for that round.
Every ten turns summarise the player rules and tally up the scores for the round.
=== End === 

Here a link to a short story and a self interview explaining why I find this interesting…

Five Fifty Five (and the Tricky Trickster LLM Game)