Is the PlayFair Cipher used in The Great US Treasure Hunt

[Jenny]

It's been mentioned, by Username Ilovelucy here, that maybe the PlayFair Cipher might be used:

She said/suggested:
First page of Chapter Two..."Well done, indeed," Neil Hawthorne offered, "You earned it FAIR and SQUARE." Caps are my enunciation. Perhaps the Playfair Cipher??
in this thread:
mysteriouswritings.proboards.com/thread/5251/chapter-2-great-treasure-hunt

So what is the PlayFair Cipher.....

Read on MW: mysteriouswritings.com/mw-codes-ciphers-and-puzzle-series-playfair-cipher/

[jewelie]

Also, if you are using this, which letter are you omitting or doubling up, and why?

[Jenny]

This has been answered by David Steele:

If a method is used, it HAS to be described in the chapter….. and so since the Caesar shift is described, that is within in realm of possibility…. The Playfair is not, so ABSOLUTELY not used….

(around 2:56) in this video....)

youtu.be/P9FOfWqZ80A

[davem]

Nov 25, 2020 8:12:52 GMT -5 Jenny said:

This has been answered by David Steele:

If a method is used, it HAS to be described in the chapter….. and so since the Caesar shift is described, that is within in realm of possibility…. The Playfair is not, so ABSOLUTELY not used….

(around 2:56) in this video....)

youtu.be/P9FOfWqZ80A

Thank so much for posting this, Jenny.  Maybe I'm missing something but,..... there's nothing about the cipher stuff at 2:56 (minutes??) in that video and I couldn't find that exact quote anywhere in the video either (although I didn't listen to everything after Amy started getting a little tippsie because it was the same thing over and over.  lol.   Steele does, however, mention later in the video that you don't need to use "any outside references including the Internet - at all!).  And that is really helpful if he's telling the truth.  However, the track record doesn't dictate that he is.....

I find this really hard to believe considering A:) He claims that he doesn't know the methods - only the author Theco does, and B:) That he is NOT Theco.  It's quite the reach that there really is someone else called Theco that wrote the entire thing, didn't include any of the methodology in meetings with Steele and now Steele is dictating rules about those methodologies.  Much more likely (thank you Friar Ockham) is that Steele really is Theco DeMaster and he knows literally everything about the methodology of the Four (really Ten) chapters' puzzles and he has invented this story, along with its pen name, in order to try to avoid outside pressure.