How to make a Simple Runes Puzzle

HOW TO MAKE A SIMPLE RUNES PUZZLE:

“Something handmade is so much more meaningful.”

You don’t need to break your piggy bank to create a handmade and engaging adventure. Many of the usual puzzles – cyphers, jigsaws, puzzle boxes, safe boxes… can be crafted with what you have within reach.

In this blog post, I will show you how you can make a simple runes puzzle from scratch.

Our players will have to find several runes along the way in this game. They are little pebbles with carved symbols (the runes). Some of them also have a few marks on the edges that line up when they are placed in the correct order, spelling a word or phrase. The players will also have to find the rune’s alphabet to decode the message.

For our pebbles, we are going to use flexible clay. It is light, air-dried, and very moldable. We start with a ball of clay and shape it like a pebble. Let it set a bit and, with the use of a knife or a pointy tool, carve a runic symbol in each stone, forming the word or phrase that you’d like to encode. Form the word with the runes and make marks on the edges of the adjoining ones so that they match two by two. Let them dry completely.

In my example, the word is SMILE. The marks on the right edge of the S match those on the left edge of the M, and so on. Once they have the word lined up correctly, they just have to check the cypher to decode it. To embellish the runes, paint them entirely with black acrylic paint. Let them dry and then, with a metallic color and a thin brush, paint the carved symbols. For the final finish, apply a gold patina with your finger.

Print the runes alphabet and age it with coffee and a coat of transparent embossing powders. Roll it up or put it in an envelope and wax seal it for a final touch. Now hide everything and have fun!