Quillby

BELIEFS NEED EVIDENCE

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01 Opening
Quillby beat 1 of 5

Quillby is a careful porcupine in a pale-blue shirt and a green vest. He carries a feather quill and a small tan notebook everywhere he goes. The notebook is the Belief Ledger, and in it Quillby writes down what Red believes each hidden Blue piece might be.

Quillby has only one rule for the ledger, and he says it often. "No reason, no entry."

02 Quillby
Quillby beat 2 of 5

In the middle of a twenty-piece game, a Red piece pointed across the board at a Blue piece that hadn't done much yet. "That one's their 10," it said. "I can feel it."

Quillby's quill didn't move. "What did you see?"

The Red piece thought about it. "Nothing exactly. It just looks like a 10."

03 Quillby
Quillby beat 3 of 5

"Then it stays a question," said Quillby, and he drew a small, neat question mark next to that square. Not a 10. Not anything. Just a question, honestly labelled.

A few turns later, that same piece shot four squares forward in a single straight line. Quillby wrote immediately: Runner. Reason: moved more than one square in one turn. In BluffForge only the runners, the 2s, can travel more than one square at a time, so a long move is about the best evidence there is.

"So it wasn't the 10," said the Red piece, a little embarrassed.

04 Quillby
Quillby beat 4 of 5

"Most hunches aren't wrong because you're foolish," said Quillby kindly. "They're wrong because there wasn't anything to go on yet. A hunch is fine to have. It just isn't allowed in the ledger until it earns a reason."

He flipped back through the pages so everyone could see. Every entry had its reason written beside it:

- Never moved, guarded by two pieces. Maybe the Moonstone, maybe a decoy. - Struck our 7 and won. So at least an 8. - Retreated from our 5 twice. Probably weaker than a 5.

Some entries were certain, like the runner. Some were only maybes, like the still piece in the corner. But each one said how sure it was, and why. And whenever something new happened on the board, Quillby crossed out the old line and wrote the new one, without fuss.

05 Closing
Quillby beat 5 of 5

Late in the game, Red had to choose between two still pieces in Blue's back row: one in the left corner, one in the right. Red's hunches said left; it just felt like the place a Moonstone would be. Quillby's ledger said something else. Every time a Red piece had come near the right corner, a Blue piece had moved to guard it. Twice, a Red piece had wandered near the left one, and Blue had left it alone.

Guarding is a cost. Nobody spends turns protecting a piece that doesn't matter. Red went right. It was the Moonstone.

Quillby closed the notebook with a quiet snap. He felt calm, the particular calm of knowing exactly why you believe something.

That is Quillby's rule. A guess about a hidden piece goes in the ledger only with a reason you actually saw: a long run, a strike, a piece that never moves, a piece someone keeps guarding. Write down how sure you are, change the entry the moment the evidence changes, and let the game reward what you saw, not what you felt.

Hear it as an audio drama

A short play starring Quillby, from BluffForge. Different voices, same idea. Listen any time after you read.

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Read the drama script
  1. Narrator: From Spark and Anvil and BluffForge — this is Quillby, in chapter 1 of the BluffForge cast.
  2. Narrator: This drama uses an AI-generated voice. Voiced via Gemini 2.5.
  3. Narrator: This is the story of a Blue runner, and of the moment it told Red exactly what it was, without meaning to.
  4. Blue Runner: For most of the game I just sat there. Red couldn't tell what I was.
  5. Red Piece: That one's their 10. I can feel it.
  6. Quillby: What did you see?
  7. Red Piece: Nothing exactly. It just looks like a 10.
  8. Quillby: Then it stays a question mark. No reason, no entry.
  9. Blue Runner: Then I saw a gap, and I couldn't resist. I shot four squares forward, all at once!
  10. Quillby: Runner. Reason: it moved more than one square in a turn. Only a 2 can do that.
  11. Blue Runner: Oh. I forgot. Running far is the one thing only a runner can do.
  12. Red Piece: So it wasn't the 10.
  13. Quillby: Hunches aren't silly. They just haven't earned a reason yet.
  14. Narrator: Quillby crossed out the question mark and wrote the new line, without any fuss.
  15. Blue Runner: My speed is my gift. It's also my fingerprint.
  16. Quillby: Write down only what you saw, and change it when the evidence changes.
  17. Narrator: How a piece moves is evidence. That's the runner's story.
  18. Narrator: You've been listening to a Spark and Anvil chapter, written by the Spark and Anvil writing team for ages 9 to 14.
  19. Narrator: Apps stay free forever.
  20. Narrator: Curriculum aligned to Common Core and Next Generation Science Standards.
  21. Narrator: Released under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 for educational reuse. Visit Spark and Anvil for the full transcript.

The BluffForge ensemble

Quillby 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.