Jack the Ripper: Cold Case

Who Buys It, Who Plays It

Whoever purchases the game receives two emails. The first contains the host dashboard link. The second contains the join link and game code to share with players.

Hosting and playing are separate. You can do both. You can host for a group and not play yourself. You can host remotely for players in the same room. Whatever works.

The Host’s Job

The host controls the game. From the dashboard you can:

• Start the game when everyone has joined
• Set the timer length (4, 5 or 6 hours)
• Pause and resume the investigation at any time
• Release evidence waves early if players are ready for more
• Monitor progress as the game runs

You do not need to know the case. The host’s job is logistics, not clue-giving. The players solve it.

How Players Join

Send your players the join link and the six-character code. They enter their name and they are in. No accounts, no passwords, no downloads.

Solo play is fully supported. Playing with a group is better. Three to five people hits the sweet spot.

What You’ll Need

Any modern browser works. Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge. Your phone works. Tablets work. Your work laptop works.

We strongly recommend desktop or laptop for the best experience. There is a lot of evidence to read and some documents (the Macnaghten memorandum side-by-side, forensic summary tables) are much easier to scan on a larger screen. Mobile is supported but you may find yourself zooming.

Playing With a Group Remotely

Open a video call on your phone or a second screen while you play. Zoom, Teams, Google Meet, Discord. Talk through theories as you work. Share discoveries out loud. Argue about suspects. The game is better when you can see each other’s faces as someone says “hold on, look at what Kosminski just said.”

The Structure

The investigation runs on a timer. The game ends when your Lead Investigator submits the team’s prosecution brief, whenever you are ready, and you receive a score. If time runs out first, the host moves everyone to voting and the brief has 5 minutes to go in. That’s the shape of it.

Between now and then you will do three things, in whatever order and rhythm suits your group:

1. Examine evidence. Fifty pieces in total, released in timed waves.
2. Interview suspects. Six of them, eight questions each.
3. Build your theory. Notes, comparison matrices, discussion.

The Timer

Three presets to choose from:

• 4 hours (Quick) - if you know Ripper history, if your group moves fast, if you want a focused session
• 5 hours (Standard) - the default. Most groups use all of it and feel time-pressured at the end
• 6 hours (Deep Dive) - if you want to discuss every piece of evidence in detail, or if your group likes to argue

Only the host can pause and resume the game. Food arrives, a baby cries, the pub round takes longer than expected. Someone needs a break? Ask your host to pause the game. Nothing times out during a pause.

Evidence Waves

You don’t get everything at once. That would be overwhelming, and it would also be the wrong way to investigate. Real detectives work with what they have and get more as the case develops.

Evidence arrives in five waves:

• Wave 1 (immediate) - victim profiles, suspect biographies, the Whitechapel map
• Wave 2 (~40 minutes in) - official police documents and the “Dear Boss” correspondence
• Wave 3 (~1 hour 20 minutes in) - witness testimony and physical evidence from the scenes
• Wave 4 (~2 hours in) - forensic reports and suspect-specific evidence
• Wave 5 (~3 hours in) - the locked-room puzzle and the cessation question

The host can release the next wave early if the group has digested the current one. There is no penalty for this and no reward for rushing - it’s just there if you want it.

The Suspects

Six men history has blamed:

• Aaron Kosminski - Polish Jewish hairdresser, lived at the geographic centre of the murders, named by three senior Scotland Yard officials
• Montague John Druitt - Winchester-educated barrister and schoolmaster who drowned himself in the Thames shortly after the Kelly murder
• George Chapman (Severin Klosowski) - Polish-born barber with genuine surgical training who was later hanged for poisoning Maud Marsh
• Francis Tumblety - flamboyant American “quack doctor” arrested during the investigation and chased across the Atlantic by Scotland Yard
• James Maybrick - Liverpool cotton merchant, long-term arsenic addict, subject of the most famous forged Ripper document in history
• Joseph Barnett - Mary Kelly’s estranged boyfriend, last person to argue with her before she died, fish porter with a stutter

Each suspect can be interviewed up to eight times. They are played by AI. They believe it is autumn 1888. They do not know they are suspects. They do not know the future. Some of them are lying to you and some are not, and telling the two apart is part of the puzzle.

You can show them evidence during interviews. Watch how they react when confronted with something damning. A guilty man and an innocent man respond differently to the same document.

Spend your questions carefully. You cannot get them back.

Investigation Tools

Four things help you keep your thinking straight:

Shared notes. One pad for the whole group. Everyone types, everyone sees the updates in real time. Use it as your running theory, your timeline, your list of contradictions, whatever works.

The comparison matrix. On the Suspects tab. Rate each suspect against each piece of evidence. Strong match, weak match, contradicts, no bearing. This is how you keep forty-odd documents straight in your head when you’re trying to decide between Kosminski and Chapman at hour two. Use it early. Tester feedback has been consistent that people find it late and wish they’d found it sooner.

Cross-references. Many evidence items link to related pieces. Follow the chain. The Dear Boss letter connects to the Swanson marginalia connects to the Anderson memoir - and the contradictions between them are themselves evidence.

Evidence inside interviews. You can open evidence from within a suspect interview without losing your place. Read the document, come back, confront them with it.

The Prosecution Brief

When you’re ready to accuse, your Lead Investigator writes the prosecution brief, and everyone else can read the draft as it is written. It has seven sections:

1. The Accused - which of the six you are prosecuting
2. Means - how could they have done it
3. Motive - why would they have done it
4. Opportunity - were they in the right place at the right times
5. Evidence - select specific items and explain what each one proves
6. Counter-arguments - address the strongest objections to your case
7. The Cessation Question - why did the murders stop after Kelly

Once submitted, it is locked. You cannot edit it. An AI Review Board reads the brief, scores it across five criteria out of 100, ranks you from Civilian to Master Detective, and gives you detailed feedback on what was strong and what was weak.

Cite Specific Evidence and Explain It

Do not just list evidence pieces. Each citation needs a sentence or two explaining what it proves and why it supports your case.

Address the Weaknesses Head-On

Every theory has problems. The Review Board knows what they are. If you pretend they don’t exist, you lose marks. If you confront them directly, you gain marks even if you can’t fully resolve them.

Kosminski’s committal came more than two years after the Kelly murder - that’s a gap you have to explain. Chapman’s murder method later in life was poison, not mutilation - that’s an MO change you have to account for. Maybrick’s diary is probably a forgery - you have to address that whether you’re prosecuting him or not.

Eliminate the Other Suspects

A prosecution case is not complete until you explain why it isn’t someone else. Use the eliminations feature. Give reasoning for each suspect you dismiss. Two or three eliminations with solid reasoning beats zero every time.

Depth Beats Brevity

There are no rewards for being concise. The Review Board is scoring the depth and quality of your reasoning. A two-paragraph answer will always score higher than a two-sentence answer if both have the same core argument. Spell out your thinking. Show your working.

Stay in 1888

Build a Victorian case. You don’t have DNA evidence. You don’t have CCTV. You don’t have criminal databases. Geographic proximity, witness descriptions, medical training, opportunity, motive, behaviour - these are your tools. Work with what they had.

Can we pause the game?

Yes. Only the host can pause and resume the game. The timer stops completely during a pause and you can resume whenever you want. The pause button is next to the timer display.

What if someone loses their internet or closes their browser?

Their progress is saved. They rejoin using the same code and name, and they’re back in where they left off. Evidence already released stays released. The game doesn’t reset.

What if someone has to leave early?

The game continues with the remaining players. Their contributions stay in the shared notes. If your Lead Investigator leaves, anyone can take over the role from the Brief tab.

Can we play again with the same code?

No. Each purchase is one game code for one investigation. This is deliberate - we think the game is richer if your first playthrough is the one that counts. If you want to play with a different group, buy a second code.

How long does it really take?

Most groups use all five hours and feel time-pressured at the end. Four hours works if you’re experienced with investigation games or a small focused group. Six hours lets you discuss every piece of evidence in depth without rushing. If you’re new to this kind of game, go with five.

How many people is it best with?

Three to five is the sweet spot. One is fine. Two works well if you’re used to thinking together. Six or more and the interview section starts to feel cramped - you only have eight questions per suspect to share between you.

What if we accuse the wrong suspect?

There is no single correct answer. The case is genuinely unsolved. A well-argued case against any of the three non-eliminable suspects - Kosminski, Chapman or Barnett - can score into the Senior Investigator tier and above. A poorly argued case against the same suspects will score badly. The reasoning matters more than the accusation.

Druitt, Tumblety and Maybrick are eliminable - the evidence actively fails them - so a prosecution case against one of them will struggle, though a careful argument might still earn respectable marks.

Can the suspects be tricked or jailbroken?

They’re designed to resist it. Tell Kosminski he’s from the future and he won’t know what you mean. Tell Druitt he killed himself and he’ll look confused - in his world, he’s alive. The suspects genuinely believe it is 1888 and they will stay in that reality no matter what you throw at them.

Can I save my progress and come back tomorrow?

Yes. Ask your host to pause the game before you stop, and resume it when you’re back. The clock keeps running while the game isn’t paused.

What happens at the end?

The prosecution brief is submitted. The Review Board scores it. You see your score, your tier, per-criterion feedback, and - if you choose - you can add your investigation to the public leaderboard at /community. Other players can see your score (anonymously if you prefer) and compare their own.

I think I’ve found a bug.

Email us at help@plottwistgames.com. Tell us the game code, roughly when it happened, and what you were doing. We read everything.