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

1. Introduction of character
2. Introduction of setting
3. Example puzzle (fixing the engine)
4. Cut To: Jack's first crime (Shadow offer)
5. Simon's arrival (crash in gardens)
6. Side quest #1 that leads to public social event
7. Cut To: Jack's second crime
8. Discovery of body by Simon and subsequent incarceration/mistaken identity
9. Plot A: Simon escapes before the next body turns up
   Plot B: Simon stays in jail until the next body turns up.
10. A: Fugitive Simon must track clues by himself
    B: Innocent Simon must gather evidence for the constabulary
11. A: Confrontation with Jack
    B: Entrapment and escape (Vorlon)
12. B: Confrontation with Jack (similar to A: above) (Vorlon)
13. Finish

• Bad puns and situations

All about 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.

• 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.

• 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

• (3) Operating time device and/or repairing same
  • Object/logic puzzle
• (5) Landing Kewl
  • Maths puzzle
• (6) Socialising and getting people to talk to Simon
  • Conversation puzzle
• (8) 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
• (11a) Attacks and defences, possibly maze-like
  (11b) Arrangements of police to trap Jack
  • Placement/movement puzzle
• (12b) Attacks and defences, possibly maze-like
  • Placement/movement puzzle
• (13) Getting back into Kewl and taking off
  • Maths/logic puzzle

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.

simonvjack.t - the code so far (only just started)