A Western Detective's Guide to Diciphering and Dueling

The year is 1898. You’re a detective in small Western town who has just intercepted a mysterious book mailed by the elusive outlaw you’ve been chasing down. Little do they know that you just broke their cipher…. To play this TTRPG bookmark, you'll need one six-sided die (physical or virtual ), any book, and a way of keeping track of a few changing numbers (e.g., a sticky note or a notes app). The bookmark's wording assumes that you're playing solo, but you can play with two players (one as the detective and one as the outlaw) without any rule modifications! Made for 2025's TTRPG Bookmark Jam . Physical Copies Some free physical versions, printed on premium matte art paper with a holographic laminate finish, will be dropped off at Arts at the Armory's "take a zine" box in Somerville, MA. Digital Copies You can download and read the full digital copy for free! Public domain oil painting snippet is from Charles Schreyvogel's "My Bunkie," on display at The Met. Inspirations for this TTRPG bookmark include Skeleton Code Machine's "Make your own TTRPG bookmark" Substack blog post and Red Dead Redemption 2.