Occult Roleplaying in Jack the Ripper's London
From the introduction:
In the autumn of 1888, horror convulsed London. A series of brutal murders committed by an unknown maniac terrified and fascinated people from all walks of life. An enterprising journalist, or perhaps a random prankster, bestowed on this killer an extraordinary and enduring sobriquet: Jack the Ripper.
Despite numerous close calls, and thousands of possible clues, Jack was never caught.
Ironically, Saucy Jack’s reign of terror, which left at least five women dead, turned out to be one of the best things that ever happened to the poverty-stricken East End. Newspaper readers clamored for further developments on the case; in their absence, journalists began to report on “local color,” bringing nationwide attention to one of the worst slums in Europe. Victorian society, which had gloried in the wealthiest and most important city in the world, came to realize that in constructing their beloved capitol, they had allowed the most abject poverty, hunger, and disease to blight a vast populace.
Theories about the Ripper abound — and continue to be produced at a phenomenal rate. Was he a syphilitic bent on revenge against the prostitutes who infected him? Was he the result of a plot concocted by Freemasons? Was he a black magician seeking power through blood sacrifice? Was he merely an opportunistic and lucky serial murderer who stopped killing when he got tired of the game? All these theories, and many more, have been proposed. In this game, you will explore the possibilities.
But this is a fantasy game, not history. You will explore an alternate London, one in which the various occultists, cranks, theorists, and visionaries are all possibly correct — perhaps even simultaneously so. You will explore both the hypocrisy and the successes of Victorian society, wending your way among the saintly and the wicked, the gentle and the vicious, the poor and the rich, the nobility and the whores. And you will create this world in the image of your desires and fantasies, bending it to your will.
Welcome to Shadows in the Fog.