Four Dice, One Tablet ยท the instruction sheet

The Scribe's Instructions

How to write a page with the kit, in plain steps. Keep this sheet beside the leaves.

Lay out

Open the six leaves of tables so that all eleven sides can be seen, the two pages of fronts and the twelve squares of backs furthest away. Set the wax tablet by your writing hand, the leaf of the hand you are writing (A or B) uppermost. Lay the ruler under the line above the one you are about to write. Have the four dice, red, white, black and green, in a cup.

Reading a throw

Every throw is all four dice. A square is read at the white die's line and the black die's column. A third-square reads the white die halved: 1 or 2 the top line, 3 or 4 the middle, 5 or 6 the bottom. A strip is read at the black die. A page of six squares reads the red die for the square first. If the cell you land on does not fit, move on to the next cell, and from the end of the square round to its start, until one fits; do not throw again.

Before the first page of a hand

Fill the tablet: for each of its six columns build three words as in step 3 (with the column's class in place of the word before), and write them on the wax. If the beginning throw shows white 6 and black 5 or 6, give the word a tail from the join tails.

Every word

  1. Throw. Find the route square for your hand and your place on the line: first word of a paragraph, first word of a line, last word of a line, or inside. Read the letter at white and black. B: build (step 3). BJ: build and add a tail (step 4). S: read the tablet (step 5). S*: read the tablet and change the word (step 6). C: copy a word in sight and change it (step 7); if nothing is in sight, build instead. N: a new short word; NL: a new long word (step 8).
  2. Note the class of the word before: it ends in y, in n, in r, in l, in s, d or o, or in something else. That class picks the beginnings square and the tablet column. At the first word of a line there is no word before: use the general square of beginnings, and for the tablet let the red die name the column.
  3. Build. Throw. If the red die is odd, throw once more and read a length from your hand's length square. Read the beginning from the class's square at white and black. Throw; read the body from the third-square of that beginning (white halved, black); if you drew a length, walk on to the first body that gives it. The word is beginning and body.
  4. A tail. Throw; read a tail from your hand's join-tail third-square and add it after the word's beginning and middle.
  5. The tablet. Read the word in the column of the class, in the cell the red die halved names: 1 or 2 the top, 3 or 4 the middle, 5 or 6 the bottom.
  6. Change a word. Throw; read the change square. R: throw, read the rule square at white and black, walk on to the first rule that fits the word, apply it where the red die says, and check the result: its beginning must be on the beginnings squares, its ending on the ending strips, and every pair of glyphs in it on your hand's pair list; if it fails, walk on to the next rule that fits, three results at most, then swap a part instead. J: add a tail as in step 4. C: keep the beginning and the first half of the middle and add an ending from the strip of the kept part's last glyph at the black die. B, M or E: throw and read a new beginning, middle or ending from its square or strip, walking on until it differs; a 2 after the letter means do it twice, the second part by the red die (1 or 2 the beginning, 3 or 4 the middle, 5 or 6 the ending). If the word you end with is already on the page, change it once more.
  7. Copy. Throw. If there are words both above and before you, the red die 1 means take from above, anything else from this line. From above: the five words in reach of the ruler above your place; red 1 on this throw moves the ruler two lines up, red 2 three lines up; white 1 to 5 names the word, 6 the middle one. From this line: white odd, the word you just wrote; even, the one before it. Black 6 with green 5 or 6: write the word unchanged. Otherwise change it (step 6).
  8. A new word. Throw; read your hand's square of new-word lengths, walking on to a length of six or less for N, seven or more for NL. For N with the red die even: build a word to that length (step 3, walking the body to the length) and exchange one glyph: throw, red 1 or 2 the first glyph, 3 the last, otherwise one inside by the green die; read the exchange square at white and black and walk on to a pair whose first glyph is the one at that place. Otherwise: throw; read a front from the front pages (green odd or even the page, red the square, white and black the cell), walking on to a front shorter than the length; throw; read a back of exactly the remaining length from its two squares (red odd or even the square); the word is front and back.
  9. The pen. At the first word of a line, look at the strip for the word's first glyphs (the paragraph strips on a paragraph's top line, the line strips elsewhere); the green die of your first throw names a cell; write its letter in front of the word if there is one. As you write, put a loop on a k or t when the green dice say so: on a top line, always before an h, and for k when the green die shows 1 or 2, for t when it shows 1 before h or 6 with black 1 to 3 elsewhere; off the top line only when the green die shows 1 (k before h) or 6 with the black die low. At the last word of a line, finish an r or l after a or o as m when the green die shows 1 or 2, and a y, r or l after e, l, o, a or d as g when it shows 6 with black 1 to 3. Write the word.

After the page

Renew the tablet. For each column throw once: the red die halved names a cell; strike it and build a new word for it (step 3). If the next page begins a new gathering, strike all but that cell instead. When the hand changes, turn the tablet over.

The full account, the timing and the ledger of five pages written this way are on the main page.