Table of Contents
Simon versus Jack the Ripper
It'll do until I can think of a better title. I like steampunk, and I like the concept of almost magical technological devices as a toolkit to solve problems. And let's face it - virtually all Interactive Fiction is puzzle solving. If all goes well, I'll do a series of semi-comedic adventures with Simon the Technomage. Because he's basically the first original character I thought of (although he's based on someone else's IP setting) — Peter Cobcroft 13/03/2006 14:36
Plot
- Introduction of character
- Introduction of setting
- Example puzzle (fixing the engine)
- Cut To: Jack's first crime (Shadow offer)
- Simon's arrival (crash in gardens)
- Side quest #1 that leads to public social event
- Cut To: Jack's second crime
- Discovery of body by Simon and subsequent incarceration/mistaken identity
- Plot A: Simon escapes before the next body turns up
Plot B: Simon stays in jail until the next body turns up. - A: Fugitive Simon must track clues by himself
B: Innocent Simon must gather evidence for the constabulary - A: Confrontation with Jack
B: Entrapment and escape (Vorlon) - B: Confrontation with Jack (similar to A: above) (Vorlon)
- Finish
Set pieces
Simon
Technomagic Toolkit
- Microphone and small loudhailer for Voice of Authority ™
- Smokebomb for mysterious disappearances (shortly followed by mysterious coughing and hacking, and mysterious hiding around corners or running really fast)
- Wizard's staff for hitting things with (sometimes this is intentional) and zapping things (requires recharginge each time)
- Illusion powers
- A robe of keeping sharp hurty things from being sharp and hurty
- A black spaceship. Called Kewl. Capable of time travel, occasionally does so while Simon is in it.
- Crystal ball. For looking at locations where a probe is hidden.
- Probe. Microscopic camera/microphone.
Other Characters
- Jack the Ripper - antagonist (circa 1888 - non fictional) Sebastion (fictional)
- Police Constable Larry McSweeney
- Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Charles Warren GCMG KCB FRS (7 February 1840–21 January 1927) (non fictional)
- Lord Talbot Farnsworth and his wife, Lady Penelope
- Vincent and Pansy a lovestruck, but unlucky, couple.
Locations
- Whitechapel (majority of adventure)
- Buck's Row a back street in Whitechapel two hundred yards from the London Hospital. First victim (Mary Ann Nichols discovered at about 3:40 in the early morning of Friday, August 31, 1888)
- Back yard of 29 Hanbury Street, Whitechapel. Second victim (Annie Chapman discovered 6:00 on the morning of Saturday, September 8, 1888)
- Dutfield's Yard, off Berner Street (since renamed Henriques Street) in Whitechapel (Elizabeth Stride discovered close to 1:00 in the early morning of Sunday, September 30,)
- Dark corner of Mitre Square (Catherine Eddowes discovered at 1:44 in the early morning of Sunday, September 30, 1888)
- Sewers
- Kewl (start and finish)
- Pilot's cabin
- Quarters
- Access corridor
- Storage room
- Airlock
- Engine room
- Ball (Entrance quest and Side quest #1)
- Entrance foyer
- Dance hall
- Buffet
- Terrace
- Bushes
- NW Grounds
- NE Grounds
- SW Grounds
- SE Grounds
- Fountain
- Jail (after the Ball)
- Office
- Corridor
- Cell
- Graveyard (for the shootout/confrontation with Jack)
- Behind gravestone
- Behind crypt
- Pathway
Puzzles
-
- Object/logic puzzle
- (5) Landing Kewl
- Maths puzzle
-
- Conversation puzzle
- (
non-puzzle, gathering clues from body- Investigation
- (9) Escape from jail
- Timing/object puzzle
- (10a) Getting in to the scene of the crime without being arrested
(10b) Getting past obnoxious Londoners to gather clues- Timing/object puzzle
-
- Placement/movement puzzle
-
- Placement/movement puzzle
-
- Maths/logic puzzle
Objects
Should be an object-light game as Technomages come with their own toolkits 
The tricky part is to creatively come up with negatives to most of the toolkit in situations it isn't meant to be used.
Code
simonvjack.t - the code so far (only just started)