Pricetag
INFORMATION HAS A PRICE
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Pricetag keeps a tiny shop at the edge of the Moss village. On every shelf sits something small with a paper tag tied to it, and every tag is blank. "The price," Pricetag likes to say, "depends on what you get for it."
In a twenty-piece game, Pricetag sat with Red's army and frowned at the board. Across the ponds, Blue had a piece that had marched forward three times and sent two of Red's pieces home. Nobody knew what it was. It could be a 10. It could be a 9. Whatever it was, it was eating the middle of the board.
"Send the 8 at it," said a Red piece. "The 8 is strong."
Pricetag shook his head. "If it's the 10, we lose the 8, and we still don't know much. If it's the 9, same. That's an expensive way to find out."
He picked up a different piece: a 2, a little runner. "This is worth far less. If it goes home, we lose almost nothing. But whatever happens, both pieces turn over. We'll see exactly what that thing is."
Sending a piece to certain defeat felt wrong. Pricetag's paws hesitated over the board. Nobody likes losing a piece. But he noticed the feeling was about the piece, not about the game.
He sent the 2. Bump. Both turned over.
The 2 went home. The Blue piece was a 10: Ursa.
"Now we know," said Pricetag quietly. "And we know something better than that. If Ursa is here, she isn't guarding their back row. And Puck, our small one, is two squares away."
Two turns later, Puck reached Ursa first. The strongest piece on the board went home, and the game swung.
Pricetag wrote nothing on his tag. He didn't need to. The price had been one small runner. What it bought was the most important fact on the board.
That's Pricetag's rule. Every hidden piece is a question. You can answer it by spending something. Spend the smallest thing that still gets you the answer, and decide whether the answer is worth it before you pay.
Hear it as an audio drama
A short play starring Pricetag, from BluffForge. Different voices, same idea. Listen any time after you read.
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- Narrator: From Spark and Anvil and BluffForge — this is Pricetag, in chapter 1 of the BluffForge cast.
- Narrator: This drama uses an AI-generated voice. Voiced via Gemini 2.5.
- Narrator: Forty pieces stand in a Red army. This is the story of one of them: a little runner, a 2.
- Runner: I'm the fastest piece on the board. I can run as far as I like in a straight line. I'm also one of the weakest.
- Narrator: That evening, a Blue piece had sent two of Red's pieces home, and nobody knew what it was.
- Red Piece: Send the 8! The 8 is strong!
- Pricetag: It beat a 6 and a 7. So it's at least an 8. Our 8 would lose to their 9 or their 10, and we'd only learn the answer.
- Pricetag: There's a cheaper way to learn it.
- Runner: He looked at me.
- Pricetag: We have eight runners. If you go, we lose very little. And whatever happens, we'll see exactly what that piece is.
- Runner: I knew I'd probably lose. But I also knew what I was for.
- Narrator: The runner raced across the board and met the Blue piece. Both turned over.
- Runner: It was Ursa! The 10! I went straight home.
- Pricetag: Now we know. And Puck is two squares away from her.
- Narrator: Two turns later, tiny Puck reached Ursa first, and the strongest piece on the board went home.
- Runner: I didn't win my meeting. But I bought the most useful fact in the game.
- Narrator: Pay with the cheapest piece that still buys the answer. That's the runner's story.
- Narrator: You've been listening to a Spark and Anvil chapter, written by the Spark and Anvil writing team for ages 9 to 14.
- Narrator: Apps stay free forever.
- Narrator: Curriculum aligned to Common Core and Next Generation Science Standards.
- Narrator: Released under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 for educational reuse. Visit Spark and Anvil for the full transcript.
The BluffForge ensemble
Pricetag is one of the friends in BluffForge. Each friend shows you one idea by how they act; meet them all and you have the whole subject.
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Decoy
Sits still and guarded like a Moonstone and is not one - mischief inside the rules
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Bluster
Walks a small piece as if it were big - a bluff both players agreed is part of the game
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Matchley
Knows equal numbers both go home
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Fairwell
Stops endless chasing - three trips back and forth between two squares, then no more
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Quillby
Keeps the Belief Ledger honest - a guess only sticks with a reason you actually saw
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Draftsy
Runs the Blueprint studio - varies every setup so no habit can be learned
