# Useful Resources Here's a few resources to help understand ARGs. If you are new to ARGs or puzzle-solving in general, please consult the Game Detectives Academy here for some basic puzzle-solving tools. Good luck. ## glossary * **acrostic** - a form of steganography where a message is spelled by the first letter of each line, word, or other segment * **ASCII** - the American Standard Computer Information Interchange; a common method of encoding characters into numeric representations. Numbers are encoded at points 48-57 (0x30-0x39), uppercase from 65-90 (0x41-0x5A), and lowercase from 97-122 (0x61-0x7A) * **ARG** - an "alternate reality game"; a game where events play out in the "real world". * **anagram** - a word or phrase formed by rearranging the letters of another, such as cinema from iceman * **binary** - a number system consisting of only zeroes and ones; used as the basis for modern computing * **base64** - a number system consisting of normal digits, uppercase letters, lowercase letters, "+", "/", and "=". An "=" can only appear at the end. Base64 can be used to encode text through a system like ASCII or other media (images, etc.) as a binary stream. * **Caesar cipher** - a cipher where each letter is shifted over by a set offset. * **ROT13** - The most common version of a Caesar Cipher, rotating all letters by 13. * **cipher** - a method of modifying data to hide it from other people who don't know how to decipher it. * **hexadecimal** - a number system with 16 digits (0-9, A-F); used in computing as each character can represent four binary digits. Usually prefixed with 0x. * **Morse code** - an alphabet or code traditionally used by radio operators where characters are represented by dashes and dots (or long and short signals) * **trailhead** - the initial clue or event that starts an ARG. For example, one can type "!trailhead" into #bot-spam to get access to the rest of the ARG channels. * **pigpen cipher** - also known as a tic tac toe cipher, a simple substitution cipher in which letters are fragments of a grid * **rabbit hole** - an endless descent into the unknown, commonly referring to a combined stretch in logic * **red herring** - a "clue" with no purpose, meant to mislead the players of an ARG. * **spectrogram** - often abbreviated "spectro"; a graph of frequencies used in audio with respect to time * **steganography** - the act of concealing messages within another medium. Should not be confused with encryption or ciphertext. * **substitution cipher** - a family of ciphers involving monoalphabetic codes, where letters of the original ciphertext correspond to different letters or symbols. * **Vigenère cipher -** a Caesar-like cipher where the offset varies based on a keyword. ## resources * [**dcode**](https://www.dcode.fr/tools-list) - a site with decoders for a whole lot of common ciphers * [**GameDetectives Academy**](https://gamedetectives.net/academy) - a bunch of tutorials on finding clues for ARGs * [**Pangram Translator**](https://kiki40367.itch.io/gt-arg-pangram-translator) - a theorist made site to decode the symbol alphabet used in the ARG --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://game-theorists.gitbook.io/master-tracker/useful-resources.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.