Truth or Bluff

Oct 18

Written By Danu

What Is Truth or Bluff?

It’s a duel of stories and instincts. One player tells a short narrative woven with conviction and detail—but hidden inside that tale is a single, deliberate falsehood. The other player listens, questions, and must decide: Which part was the bluff?

This is not a game of wild lies or poker faces—it’s a game of subtlety, of believable fiction dressed in truth’s voice. The better the bluff, the more convincing the truth must become.

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Objective

Each round, one player becomes the Teller, crafting a short story built around three “truths.”

But only two of them are real. One is a bluff.

The other player—the Seeker—must identify the bluff through careful listening, probing, and intuition. The goal? Expose the lie before it wears the mask of reality.

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Game Setup

1. Choose a Prompt

To begin, choose a topic, theme, or phrase to spark the story.

Examples:

• “The closest I’ve ever come to death…”

• “A moment I still regret…”

• “Something I’ve never told anyone…”

• One-word prompts: Mirrors, Rain, Hunger, Stage, Silence

Prompts may be player-generated, randomly selected, or pulled from a deck.

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2. Assign Roles

• The Teller will create and perform the story.

• The Seeker will listen, question, and identify the bluff.

Alternate roles each round, or play tournament-style with rotating pairs.

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Rules of Engagement

For the Teller:

• Tell a story in 1 to 3 minutes.

• Include three core “facts” woven naturally into the narrative. One of these must be completely false.

• Deliver all three with equal detail, tone, and emotional weight. Your goal is to make the bluff feel indistinguishable from the truths.

• You may elaborate or improvise beyond the facts, but only the designated “three” count for identification.

For the Seeker:

• Listen closely.

• After the story, you may ask up to 5 follow-up questions—about the story, the facts, or the details surrounding them.

• Your questions should seek inconsistency, emotional leakage, or overcompensation.

• At any time, you may lock in your guess: identify which of the three was the bluff.

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Victory Conditions

• If the Seeker correctly identifies the bluff: 1 point to the Seeker.

• If the Teller successfully hides the bluff: 1 point to the Teller.

Play to a fixed number of points (e.g., 3 or 5), or simply enjoy each round as a performance.

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Example Round

Prompt: “The strangest compliment I ever received”

Teller’s Story:

“One time, a street magician told me I had the wrists of a pickpocket. I once had a nun pat my head and call me ‘God’s least embarrassing mistake.’ But the one I remember most is a date who told me I have ‘the kind of laugh that would get you killed in a war movie.’”

Seeker’s Follow-Up:

• “Did the magician say anything else?”

• “What did the nun do after?”

• “How did the date respond when you laughed again?”

→ Seeker guesses the nun story is the bluff.

Teller reveals:

→ The pickpocket wrist story was the bluff. The nun was real.

Point: Teller.

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Optional Variants

Double Bluff

Tell a story with four “facts”—and two are bluffs. Higher difficulty, higher stakes.

Reverse Round

The Seeker provides three facts about themselves—two true, one false—and the Teller must craft a story using them, trying to make the bluff invisible.

Persona Play

The story must be told in the voice of a fictional character: a time traveler, a pirate, a disgraced king, etc. Bluffing becomes theater.

Speed Bluff

All stories must be told in under 60 seconds. No time to overthink—just enough time to slip in something suspicious.

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Strategy & Style

• A good bluff is simple, specific, and unremarkable—something no one would question.

• A great bluff plays into the story’s emotion but doesn’t try too hard to stand out or hide.

• A strong Seeker listens for overcorrection, misplaced emotion, or one detail too polished.

Tone, delivery, and micro-behavior matter. This isn’t just storytelling—it’s forensic narrative.

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Final Word

In Truth or Bluff, every word is evidence, and every pause is a tell. The game rewards the poised speaker, the careful listener, and the artful manipulator.

Can you lie without blinking? Can you spot the one thread that doesn’t belong?

Step up.

Speak well.

Bluff better.

Invented by:

Keaffa Moon & Danu Marche