We covered a few tips, tricks, and tools for solving ciphers in Getting Started with Code-Breaking. Today we’re taking a deeper dive into some offline tools and shortcuts to make the logistics of solving ciphers easier, many designed by Tabletop Detective based on our years of playing puzzle-based mysteries. With these tools, you can focus your energy on finding clues and unraveling the actual puzzles!
Grab one of these offline tools and keep everyone in your mystery game night focused on playing together at the tabletop, not the internet.
Cipher wheels
If often find yourself facing off against adversaries who have you chasing solutions to a shift cipher, investing in a cipher wheel can save you the hassle of manually writing out your shifted alphabet every time. Just line up your offset alphabet, reference each letter, and write down the solution.
- Metal cipher wheel (Amazon)
- Cardboard cipher wheel (Hunt a Killer store)
- Enamel pin cipher wheel (Etsy)
Pre-lettered cipher notepad
If you’re one of those people who uses the tactile process of writing to help your brain work through a puzzle (I know I certainly am), you might appreciate a smaller head start solving your shift cipher. We used to use steno-sized notebooks, where we found ourselves writing the alphabet down the side of each page repeatedly throughout games. Enter the cipher-solver scratchpad. You’re still writing in your own solutions, but the starting framework is there for you, along with an easy reference for numeric shift offsets. (ex. +1/-25, +7/-19, etc)
This one also comes with a handy reference manual for ciphers that benefit from hand-written solutions.
- Cipher-solver scratchpad (Tabletop Detective on the Game Crafter store)
Alphabetic code references
Many puzzle games present ciphers that use common alphabetic codes. They’ll often obscure the type of code somehow, leaving only subtle clues to guide detectives, like hiding dots in an image to indicate braille letters or morse code, or using clocks to hint at semaphore. For times like these, having an easy reference for these common codes can help remind you of your options.
After years of heading to the internet every time we encountered one of these common alphabetic ciphers, we decided to create some tools to help keep players offline. And if you opt for the cards, you get a handy reference booklet describing each code.
- Cipher-solver alphabetic codes poster (Tabletop Detective store)
- Cipher-solver alphabetic code reference cards (Tabletop Detective on the Game Crafter store)
Pick up one of these offline tools for your own mystery game nights, or grab as the perfect gift for your favorite mystery afficionado or escape room lover.
