Deciphering Runes
Part 1
By Angela Earle Gray (Phoenix)
Originally published in The View from Valehaven, February 2005
Although there are some characters that, for role-playing reasons, will never be able to read runes, it is a nice skill for a player to have a basic understanding of.
The sheets of runes we generally find in Realms are cryptograms, or where the recognized symbol for a letter or number is replaced with another. There are many websites that can help you learn to solve these, one of my favorites is http://www.geocities.com/cryptogramcorner/, which has a cryptogram of the day, and links to many other sites (Editor's Note: This site is no longer active but you can find many similar ones via Google).
Some of the basic tips that can help getting started include the following:
Solving the puzzle is much easier if you know what the orientation of the page is, and where spaces are. If it isn't obvious where the spaces are at first glance, look for a frequently reoccurring character that could indicate a break.
Most people start off making logical guesses with small words, single letters are most likely “A"'s or “I"'s. Common two letter words are "in" and “of.” Three letter words may be, "and," "the," "you," or "one." Most material on solving cryptograms will not say "one" is a common three letter word, but it seems to be in things I've seen in Realms.
Note double letters as well. If you have a sense of what some of the letters in these words are, it often become easier to make an educated guess.
If you have time and a longer message counting letter frequency can help. The most frequently occurring letters in English are E, T, A, O, I, N, S, H, R, D, L, and U.
With those tips in mind, here is a fully in character rumor to test your skills with:
Wtr cbku qab zysn tc jtuurgqyts.
Kdekwi eauw tc vkdksjb. Iokuq
bstrna bxbs qt vrsrmdb rg ys Yjw
jtdm. Bxbs jagdmubs zste cbku tc
qab vbkiq aymysn ys mkuz Iakmte.
Qetrm vb eyibu qatrna qt cbku
Mbkqa. Y ko jtoysn.
Originally published in The View from Valehaven, February 2005