Pricetag, Decoy, Bluster, Matchley, Fairwell, Quillby, and Draftsy
REASONING UNDER HIDDEN INFORMATION
A story read by Pricetag, Decoy, Bluster, Matchley, Fairwell, Quillby, and Draftsy
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On rainy evenings, the BluffForge studio crowds around one big table. On it sits a forty-piece board, the hardest game of all, and a stack of blank blueprints.
"Tonight," said Draftsy, "we play one game together, and everyone gets one job."
Draftsy went first. She laid out a setup nobody had seen before: Moonstone in the middle of the back row, brambles to one side, a decoy corner to the other. "New every time," she said.
Decoy took the decoy corner. He placed a 4 there and two brambles beside it, then sat back looking terribly important.
The game began. A Blue piece stormed forward and sent two of Red's pieces home.
"It's the 10," said someone.
Quillby's pen stayed still. "Reason?"
"It's winning everything."
"It's beaten a 5 and a 6," said Quillby. "So it's at least a 7. That's all we know." He wrote: at least 7.
Pricetag picked up a 2. "Then let's buy the answer cheaply." He sent the runner. Both pieces turned over. The Blue piece was a 9.
Quillby wrote it down. "Reason: we saw it."
Bluster marched one of Red's 6s forward like it was the strongest piece on the board. Blue stepped back from it twice, buying Red time on the left.
Then two 8s met in the centre. "Even trade," said Matchley. "But look behind them. Ours has a 9 waiting. Theirs has nothing." Both 8s went home, and Red's 9 took the middle.
Near the end, a Blue piece shuttled between two squares, again and again.
"Three times," said Fairwell, raising a hoof. "Then it must go somewhere new." It did, straight into Red's waiting 9.
Finally Red faced two still pieces in Blue's back row. Quillby read from the ledger. "The left one gets guarded every time we come near. The right one never does."
Red went left. It was the Moonstone.
Nobody cheered loudest. Everyone had done one small, careful thing.
That's the Blueprint table. You can't see a hidden army, but you can reason about it. Plan differently, set fair decoys, test cheaply, look behind every trade, and keep only the beliefs you have a reason for.
Hear it as an audio drama
A short play starring Pricetag, Decoy, Bluster, Matchley, Fairwell, Quillby, and Draftsy, from BluffForge. Different voices, same idea. Listen any time after you read.
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Read the drama script
- Narrator: From Spark and Anvil and BluffForge — this is Pricetag, Decoy, Bluster, Matchley, Fairwell, Quillby, and Draftsy, in chapter 1 of the BluffForge cast.
- Narrator: This drama uses an AI-generated voice. Voiced via Gemini 2.5.
- Narrator: There is only one 9 in each army. This is the story of Blue's 9, in a forty-piece game around the Blueprint table.
- Blue Nine: I started the game by sending two Red pieces home. A 5, then a 6.
- Red Piece: It's their 10! It has to be!
- Quillby: Reason?
- Red Piece: It's winning everything.
- Quillby: It beat a 5 and a 6. So it's at least a 7. That's all we know. At least 7.
- Blue Nine: They didn't know what I was. I liked that.
- Pricetag: Then let's buy the answer cheaply.
- Narrator: A Red runner raced across and met the Blue 9. Both turned over. The runner went home.
- Blue Nine: And now they knew. A 9. Not the 10.
- Quillby: Reason: we saw it.
- Narrator: From then on, Red planned around the 9. They traded their 8s, kept their own 9 safe, and found Blue's Moonstone by reading which corner Blue kept guarding.
- Blue Nine: I was strong. But once everyone knew what I was, I was just a fact on the board.
- Narrator: A hidden piece is powerful because it is a question. Answer the questions cheaply, and the game opens up. That's the nine'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, Decoy, Bluster, Matchley, Fairwell, Quillby, and Draftsy 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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Pricetag
Spends a small piece on purpose to learn what a big one is - information has a price
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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