Return of the Ripper : an urban horror adventure for DCC RPG

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.
8 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

• Step One: Invite them in
• Step Two: Make tea
• 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:

• Ailments, Complaints, and Diseases in the 1700 and 1800s
• Glossary of Medical Terms used in the 18th and 19th centuries

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.
9 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