Puzzles and cyphers for tabletop RPGs with handouts

This is a collection of different puzzles and cyphers that you can use in your tabletop RPG or anything else that might fit (for example homemade escape rooms). This collection is in development. New puzzles/cyphers will be added.

Character replacement cypher wheel

Character replacement cypher wheels are pretty basic cyphers but its a fun handout when you don't want to spend an entire sitting decrypting something. You just choose which symbol corresponds to which letter. then you give some kind of clue for your players so they can solve the cypher. In the Zip file I have made a collection of different wheels with symbols on the outer ring. You just cut the wheels out and cut a hole out in the middle for something to be the center of rotation.

Example of a coded message

With the wheel above this coded message will be "Hello"

The original SVG files and templates will also be available here. Feel free to modify anything if you want. If you do, I would love if you sent it to me so I can post it here (with credits of course).

Fonts used:
Autorealm hieroglyphics. Autorealm cuniform. Hieratic Numerals by David Kerkhoff. https://fonts2u.com/hieratic-numerals.font
Rongorongo by zanatlija. https://www.dafont.com/rongorongo.font
Irish Uncialfabeta by Manfred Klein. https://www.dafont.com/irishuncialfabeta.font
Iokharic by Pixel Sagas. https://www.dafont.com/iokharic.font

One time pad cypher (OTP)

The one time pad is a cypher where the encryption is based on a key that is shared before the encrypted text. The key is then used to decrypt the text. after one key is used that key is no longer active and is destroyed. The one time pad was first described by Frank Miller in 1882 and has been used ever since. It is pretty much impossible to decrypt but the fact that you have to give the recipient a key there is a risk that the key itself could be intercepted.

This cypher is perfect for any kind of investigatory game for example Call of Cthulhu as well as homemade escape rooms.

The easiest way to decrypt is to use a cheat sheet grid (can be downloaded here).  A collection of keys are available as a PDF in the download section. Just print out one of the pages and get encrypting.

Basics; how to use the cheat sheet.

• Write a message
  
  • Go to the column of the character you want to send.
    
  • Go to the row of the character on your one time pad.
  • The intersecting character is what you should write in your encrypted message.
• Read the message
  • Go to the row of the character on your cheat sheet.
    
  • On that row, find the character in the encrypted message.
  • go up the column to the top to find the decrypted character.
• Discard the key
  
  • this is as simple as it sounds. Just discard the key and use the next key for the next message. In the premade pseudorandom keys you just use the key marked as "Message 1" for the first message, "Message 2" for the second message and so on.

If you want a better explanation: See sources below.

Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-time_pad
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGAY8vMyTAA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-npJ55Oa6Y

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