The View Retrospective

Though the View is no longer produced in a print format, there are still numerous gems contained within the paper pages of the many years of past editions. However, unless one has, or knows someone who has, a collection of past issues, it can be difficult  for many players to gain access to this content - let alone sift through each booklet to find it. To that end, the staff of The View from Valehaven would like to take this opportunity to announce the launch of a new Feature series.  Called "The View Retrospective," the goal of this series is to draw out articles, stories, and guides that are as pertinent today as they were when they were first written. By re-publishing these pieces in our current online format, it is our hope that these pieces can not only continue to serve as a source of knowledge, entertainment, and inspiration to the community as a whole, but will also find a more easily accessible home on The View from Valehaven blog. Additionally, re-publishing of past content through the "Retrospective" series will  serve not only to highlight some excellent  submissions from players that may not be as active in the game anymore, but also showcase their dedication to our Realms community through their writing.- Jennifer DeNardis Rosa

Deciphering Runes

Part 1

By Angela Earle Gray (Phoenix)

Originally published in The View from Valehaven, February 2005

Many quest events have times that Runes come into play. Mages pull out little books. Non-coms who often stay in the background become the center of attention. Scrolls are tucked away for more research off-site. A new challenge is added to game, that many specialists are prepared to overcome. Suppose though, that you are in a dungeon quest. You enter with a small team, and no one makes it to the end but you. The door back to the Realms, to salvation is sealed, and can only be opened by solving the message written on it in runes. It is very important that you, on the spot, can read that set of runes. Could you?

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