Highlight Letters

Hide a message in a note by highlighting letters that spell out a secret code. The basic contents of the note itself just give some information about the plot. But some of the letters in the note are clearly highlighted and spell out a secret message or code.

Consider the following ominous note that players find.

Note the bold highlighting of some of the letters. If we write these out, we get “ten four nine”. This could be the combination for one of the locks in the room: 1049.

The highlighting can be anything that distinguishes letters from others. In this example the letters for the code are darker than those around them. Other cues, such as color or background could be used. What is important is that the highlighted letters are easily distinguished from the other letters.

Because the highlighting is meant to be clear, this type of puzzle is usually easy to solve. This is a good introductory puzzle for novice players. See the other forms of hidden messages for more subtle ways of hiding codes.