Rune Log

Rune Log is a narrative puzzle game in which you read runic scriptures for people dealing with a death, disappearance or secret. You decipher what the runes say, then give each person your own answer in your own words.

Read the scriptures

Each scripture is a substitution cipher, with runic symbols standing for letters. You solve it using techniques such as letter frequency, repeated symbols, short anchor words like THE and AND, and the context of the person asking. The puzzles are designed to be challenging but not so difficult that you get stuck. Their decoded phrases are often poetic and unusual, and you enter a free-text conclusion rather than choosing from multiple-choice answers.

The people you meet

The answers you give can bring gut-punches or quiet relief. How clearly and proficiently you interpret the scriptures affects whether people trust you, find you clouded or consider you unwelcome.

Story Mode takes you through five places: a fishing village, a market town, a plague-struck fen, a highland of standing stones, and finally your own home, where the last scriptures concern your family. The people who bring their grief to your table include a widow, a cheated merchant and a frightened child.

Game modes and tools

Most cases take only a few minutes, though you can play for longer. Endless Mode generates cases involving fates, frauds, imposters, animal culprits, debts and hauntings. A Runic Scripture tool lets you make and export your own Rune Logs.