Do you believe in monsters? Well you better, because they’re out there and they mean business! The Cabal of Evil formed under the leadership of the monstrous Jack the Ripper has the Victorian world on its knees, and it’s up to you to fight back.
You are the Rippers; once Jack was your ally, now he is your mortal enemy. And he’s not alone!
Rippers is a complete setting for Savage Worlds featuring a full plot point campaign that pits the heroes against the fearsome creatures of the evil Cabal. Inside this setting you will also find rules on creating Rippers, the brave monster hunters who face the growing evil, new Edges and Hindrances, a huge bestiary of hellish adversaries, and details of the Rippers’ most controversial weapon—Rippertech!
This tabletop RPG provides examples of:
- All Myths Are True: All Victorian science-fiction/occult mysteries are true.
- Anti-Human Alliance: While the Cabal of Evil was formed specifically to counter the Rippers, they're also an alliance of various monsters through Dr. Jack to prey on humanity.
- Automatic Crossbow: The repeating crossbow is another invention by the Rippers, this is the gas-powered rotary weapon based on the one from Van Helsing rather than the usual Chu-ko-nu types that tabletop games usually go for.
- Big Bad: Doctor Jack who turns on his old monster hunter organization and it was his teaching of Rippertech to Mad Scientist types before this that led to many of the problems facing the Rippers.
- Big Good: Jack the Ripper's ex-student Dr. Van Helsing had created the Rippers alongside Dr. Jack. Later when Doctor Jack becomes sane again and takes up the identity of Johann, he resumes leadership of the Rippers after Van Helsing dies.
- Body Horror: Rippertech consists of grafting monster body parts to your form.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu??: The plot-point campaign allows you to kill virtually every famous monster in literature.
- You also get to be the person who figures out how to FINALLY kill Dracula for good.
- Did We Just Have Tea with Cthulhu??: While some monsters are more of the slobbering, rampaging type, plenty are able to conduct themselves in proper society as well. While the Cabal and Rippers are openly hostile, it's entirely possible for the the Rippers to end up having a relatively polite chat with a monster at some point.
- Face–Heel Turn: Jack the Ripper used to be a monster-hunter.
- Heel–Face Turn: After his old student Dr. Abraham Van Helsing finds Atlantean magic that can fix Dr. Jack's mind, Dr. Jack becomes Johann and once again resumes leadership of the Rippers after Van Helsing's death.
- Interservice Rivalry: There is plenty of friction between various factions within the Rippers, who all agree that the monsters must be fought, but can't agree on how.
- Legion of Doom: As a counter to the Rippers, Jack the Ripper makes a global alliance with the monsters to create the Cabal. Depending on the time frame, they're either a major threat to the world at large, or on their last legs and fading into obscurity after the Rippers took out a few key leaders.
- Magic Versus Science: Both sides represented in one guy! John Dee is the famous court astrologer and Rosicrucian magician. He later becomes Doctor Jack as he moves away from his old wizard days. Later when he becomes Johann, he goes back to using magic and moving away from mad science. No wonder the Rippers are so schizoid as an organization.
- One-Word Title
- Public Domain Character: Virtually the whole of Victorian fictions monsters and heroes are present.
- Rippertech Eats Your Soul: It turns out implanting monster parts into your body can have some last impact, lowering your sanity/reason with each implant. The lack of way to combat this is a somewhat common complaint, as grafting cool monster parts onto your character is often one of the draws of the setting.
- Sanity Slippage: A danger for Rippers.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: More or less the result of Status.
- Steampunk: A mild case.
- Wolverine Claws: Johann and the Rippers realize they're at a significant melee disadvantage against monsters with fangs and claws. So they invent the Ripper Claw which is a leather bracer with metal blades, sometimes pictured as being retractable (although onto the forearm, not into it), sometimes not. There's also a Rippertech Modification to attach the claws of a monster onto your arms, although those are never retractable.
