Saturnalian greetings! Final final PDF on DriveThruRPG. Print-ready version uploaded.
4 months ago
– Thu, Dec 25, 2025 at 02:57:50 PM
Saturnalian greetings dear backers!
I hope you were able to turn your face towards the cold light of the dying sun to celebrate the solstice, before withdrawing indoors to the warmth of your Yule log, a cup of hot spiced wine and the comforting terror of a Christmas ghost story.
Final final PDF on DriveThruRPG
As promised, the final final version of the PDF was uploaded to DriveThruRPG on 14 December. There are no substantial changes to the previous version, just a few minor layout tweaks and a few more pieces of spot "filler" art (p.21, 71, 76, 124, 125, 127 and 137).
Everyone should already have received a download link. If you didn't receive it or have misplaced it, don't hesitate to send me a private message and I'll send you a new one.
Baleful Bed-linen
The new spot art includes the only piece of artwork in the book drawn by my own hand: the Baleful Bed-linen. I couldn't find a suitable stock image so decided to draw my own. I took inspiration from Alan Hunter's drawing of the Sheet Phantom in the AD&D 1st edition Fiend Folio (1981):
Alan was a science fiction and fantasy artist (1923-2012) working primarily in black and white for small-press and fan publications. His RPG credits include the cover of White Dwarf 3, the recurring header for the Fiend Factory column and other WD spot illustrations. He drew the illustrations for a number of weird and obscure monsters in the Fiend Folio, including the Sheet Phantom.
My take on the cliché of a ghost made from a bedsheet is on p.76:
Print-ready version uploaded to DriveThruRPG
I spent the last week and a half on the purely technical work needed to prepare the PDF for printing. This included:
- Laying out the cover art on the Print-on-Demand (POD) template using the CMYK colourmap suitable for digital printing. On the POD version, Jeff's artwork wraps around the back cover, spine and front cover.
- Replaced all interior artwork with high-resolution, flattened images using a grey colourmap.
- Added bleed (⅛" margin along outside edges).
- Tweaked the PDF format to comply with PDF/X-3:2002 standard suitable for printing.
This is now complete and the files have been uploaded to DriveThruRPG:
The softback version will be available in a couple of weeks, as soon as I receive the proof copy.
There are a couple of very minor changes compared to the PDF version. The spot art at the bottom of p.25 represents the pictograms on the side of the obelisk:
I thought these might be better if they looked like they were engraved on stone. I achieved that with Gimp's Bump Map filter:
The other change is one additional page at the back of the book. DriveThruRPG uses 4-page signatures, meaning that the total number of pages has to be divisible by 4. The book had 142 pages of content, so two additional pages had to be added to bring it up to 144.
I used the extra space by adding one page of links to related products (Priesthood of Pelagia supplement, poster maps, cover art). The very last page is reserved for DTRPG's barcode.
I will fold these changes back into the PDF version and upload a Final final final version in due course.
Next update as soon as I receive the proof copy of the softback. In the meantime I will proceed with the layout for the hardback and the Judge's screen.
— Michael
Final(-ish) version uploaded to DriveThruRPG! Verb accords. Spot Art.
5 months ago
– Thu, Dec 04, 2025 at 02:00:43 PM
Yuletide greetings, dear backers!
I have just uploaded the "FINAL" version of Return of the Ripper to DriveThruRPG.
Source: https://phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=1531
What's new in this version
No substantive changes, the updates this time are mostly editorial and layout tweaks:
- Includes additional appendix material mentioned in the last update: Appendix A: Murder Map (investigation flowchart) and Handout E (Map of the Undercity). Thanks to Jeremy for the latter:
- Bonus! Appendix G: Glossary of Architectural Terms. I had it in mind to include this a while ago, evoking the Construction section of the original AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide (1979). When I found myself with a blank page to fill, I whipped this out of my back pocket to fill the gap. If you have no idea what a Dromos is, turn to page 126.
- All of Pat's valuable editoral comments have been addressed (more on that below).
- Final check of the text found 109 typos and spelling errors which have now been fixed. 100 errors in 100,000 words doesn't seem too bad, but I hope the number of errors is asymptotically approaching zero.
- Adds about a dozen pieces of spot art to fill awkward blank spaces on some pages.
- Adds Table of Contents and List of Tables on the back page.
What is the correct verb accord for "the party"?
It's always good to have a second pair of eyes on your work. I'd like to give a shout-out to Pat for his painstaking thoroughness in checking the Ripper manuscript. One of the things he pulled me up on was my verb accords for the collective noun, "the party".
Throughout the text, I had used plural verbs. When Pat corrected the verbs to singular, I had to think about it. The use of the collective noun "the party" to mean "a group of adventurers" goes back a long way in fantasy fiction. The earliest reference I could think of was in "The Hobbit" (1937):
Here the pronoun is "they", implying (to me at least) that the verb should be plural.
However, the preference to accord as singular or plural has changed over time. In the 19th century, plural verb accords were more popular, giving way to singular in the 20th century:
Maybe I have just been reading too much Victorian literature?
I did some further research and finally @[email protected] kindly pointed me to an authoritative answer:
When all the members of a collective noun are performing an action as a unit (and that’s usually the case), use a singular verb.
When the members of a collective noun are performing an action as individuals, use a plural verb. In this case, all or some members of the group are doing something independently of the other members; the group is not acting together as a unit.
(Source: https://www.touro.edu/departments/writing-center/tutorials/verb-agreement-with-collective-singular-nouns/)
So, it depends. But I had to concede that Pat was right. I reviewed all 202 places in the book where I had used the phrase "the party" and (in most cases) corrected the verb accords to singular. In 15 cases, I changed "the party" to something else. And I left it plural in a couple of places where it seemed correct.
So thanks to Pat, I got a grammar lesson and you get a book that reads much better!
Spot Art
The final task was filling awkward blank spaces on some pages with spot art. As my budget for paying artists was burned long ago, this is using stock art (licensed for a couple of dollars per image).
I started with stock images like this one:
Then did a bit of editing work in Inkscape to make it fit with the murderous themes of Ripper. In this case, I followed this tutorial to add speed lines:
In a couple of cases, I wanted the text to wrap around the contour of the image. This is not supported by default in LaTeX, but with the addition of the cutwin module and a bit of jiggery-pokery I was able to get the effect I wanted:
Last chance to find errors and typos!
Please download the latest revision from DriveThruRPG and let me know within the next week if you find any errors or typos that I may have missed. If you need me to resend the download link please send me a private message and I will do so.
I plan to upload the final final version of the PDF to DriveThruRPG by 14 December at the latest.
I will then immediately order a print-on-demand proof copy of the softback. All being well, the softback will be available in January 2026.
In parallel, I will re-typeset the book to Trade size (6"×9") in preparation for printing the hardback. I'll also prepare the Judge's Screen, which will be artwork on the player side and a selection of the most useful tables on the Judge's side.
As always, thank you all for your support and encouragement. I hope you enjoy reading the book as much as I have enjoyed creating it.
With the nights getting longer, the evil is stronger,
Michael
Appendix N Complete! Found on the cutting-room floor. Next steps.
5 months ago
– Mon, Nov 17, 2025 at 01:10:15 PM
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
What to do if there's a witch at your door. Appendix D: Disease. What else is new? What's still to do? P.S. Peg Powler.
6 months ago
– Sun, Oct 26, 2025 at 12:22:15 PM
Hallowe'en greetings dear backers,
A new and almost-final version of the Return of the Ripper PDF has been uploaded. Details below!
What to do if there's a witch at your door
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Step One: Invite them in
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Step Two: Make tea
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Step Three: Plot against the Puritans
This meme made be laugh. I think it captures the the relationship between the priestesses of Pelagia and the Guild of Master Builders in Return of the Ripper.
Appendix D: Disease
The main addition since the last update is Appendix D: Disease:
Part of the action in the adventure is beneath the plague pits of old Punjar, where the party can encounter the minions of Narrimûnath, Lord of Disease. Throughout the adventure there are many creatures and other hazards (for example, sewage) that can cause infection. From the beginning, I wanted to have a table of diseases to give that some colour, and now it's done.
I researched the actual names given to diseases in 16th-19th century London and abstracted a list of 30 conditions that can plague your players.
The main sources I used to get the disease names and descriptions were:
Once I had the list, I looked up how 17th-century medical practitioners described those diseases at the time (causes and pathology). That became the Diagnosis column in the table. I used their descriptions to invent game mechanics for each disease, which became the Symptoms column.
I also included some notes on the types of treatment offered by the various medical practitioner in Spittle-Fields: herbalists, alchemists, barber-surgeons and plague doctors.
I think it's good for a bit of body horror. I hope you have as much fun infecting your players as I did making all this up.
What else is new?
This update also finishes off and tidies up a few sections that were outstanding:
- Timeline Encounters (p.21)
- Fright, Nausea, Disease, Drunkenness and Death (p.22)
- Continuing the Adventure (p.117)
- Appendix F: Fright and Nausea (p.123)
- Appendix H: Handouts (p.127)
What's still to do?
- Create the investigation flowchart mentioned on p.5
- Finish Appendix N: Inspirational Sources
- Final editing: Pat's comments on chapter 8 and the new material above
- Final layout: add some filler stock art
- Add Jeff's cover art to the PDF
I hope to have all the writing complete by 31 October. The final editing/layout tweaks will be done by early November.
This means I will close the PDF-only tier of the Kickstarter at the end of October.
Once the PDF is finished, it will take at least a few weeks to finalise the softback, as I have to order and approve a proof copy from DriveThruRPG.
The collector's edition hardback will come after that. The main work to do there is to lay the book out again for the smaller page size.
I also need to do the Judge's screen, which will have artwork from the book on the player side and the most frequently-used reference tables on the GM side.
Wow, it's been a long journey but it seems the end is in sight. As always, thank you for your support and encouragement, without which this project could not have happened.
Next update soon!
Michael
P.S. Peg Powler
I had a go at Inktober this year for the first time. I'm not a very accomplished artist but it was fun. The prompt for Day 4 was Murky which made me think of sewers and the spiteful river spirit Peg Powler. I based my drawing on the illustration of Peg Powler in the book Faeries by Brian Froud and Alan Lee (1978), but transposed into a sewer.
September update. Desert demiplane complete! Updated schedule.
7 months ago
– Tue, Sep 30, 2025 at 02:14:38 PM
I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.
— Douglas Adams, The Salmon of Doubt
Hello faithful backers,
I'm sorry it's been a few weeks since the last update. Important family celebrations and work commitments conspired together to drag me away from my keyboard. Despite these obstacles, the Desert Demiplane is complete!
Desert Demiplane complete
Like I said in the previous update, I envisage the Desert Demiplane as a mythic journey towards the pyramid-tomb at the climax of the adventure. If you have played Runequest, you may be familiar with the idea of a Hero Quest, where the adventurers cross from the mundane to the mythical world and re-enact the stories of the great heroes of legend. That's the kind of feeling I am going for.
The god of the White Chappel — Ormazd, or Ahura Mazda — is borrowed from ancient Persian and Zoroastrian myth. The cosmology of Zoroastrianism is dualistic. The desert was seen as the domain of druj (falsehood, disorder and corruption) because it is waterless and lifeless. Sandstorms and mirages embody Chaos and illusion. Druj is the opposite of asha (Order). In Persian legends, a traveller wandering into the desert faces druj not only as physical dangers like heat, thirst and sandstorms, but as moral trials — resisting temptation and despair. I have tried to embody some of these ideas in the Desert Demiplane.
While I was in London this month, I visited the British Museum's ancient Persian gallery in search of inspiration. I was delighted to discover a few pages of the Shahnameh, the epic Persian Book of Kings. One of the pages is Rustam's battle with the White Div, from the Haft Khan-e-Rustam, the Seven Tasks of the Persian hero Rustam.
You will not be surprised to learn that you can now encounter the White Div in the desert pocket dimension (Area X).
Further back in time, the museum holds plaster casts of some of the imagery from the ancient cult site of Persepolis. Here the king battles with the Mard-khar or Manticore.
The Persians were big on hybrid monsters. In this depiction, the Manticore has the head and front paws of a lion, the rear claws and wings of an eagle and the tail of a scorpion. You can meet the Manticore in the buried remains of the Royal Treasury (Area W).
I'll not spoil the rest, but of the 26 encounter areas in the desert pocket dimension, nine are directly inspired by the architecture, fantastic beasts and mythology of ancient Persia. I hope it provides a fitting and epic finale to the quest to defeat the plans and schemes of the Master Builders.
Updated schedule
I have a little editing to finish off on Chapter 8 (Tomb of the Sea Queen). I plan to send you an updated PDF after the weekend. This will be the complete text of the adventure with all maps, artwork and encounter areas.
What remains to be done?
- Pass chapter 8 over to Pat for checking and revision
- Draw the investigation flowchart (p.5)
- Finish Timeline Encounters (p.21) and Continuing the Adventure (p.125)
- Flesh out my notes for Appendix D (Disease) and Appendix N (Inspirational Reading)
- Final editing for layout, add small filler artwork in a few places
My goal is to put the finished PDF in your hands before Hallowe'en — in case you want to send your players to Spittle-Fields for some holiday horror.
The softback book will follow hard on the heels of the PDF. It will take a couple of weeks to order and approve the proof.
After that, I will re-do the layout for the Trade-size pages of the Collector's Limited Edition hardback. More on that as soon as the PDF and softback are out the door.
As ever, thank you for your wonderful support and patience. I'll be back with the next update soon.
— Michael
