Tabletop Tuesday - Letters From Whitechapel

Welcome to another spooky edition of Tabletop Tuesday - Your weekly exploration into games of dice, cards, luck, and more of the Tabletop world.

This week's grim game...the game of wretched pawns and escapes by dawn that is Letters from Whitechapel.

Players: 2-6*
Time: 90-120 minutes
Genre: Asymmetric Cooperative / Strategy



Letters from Whitechapel is a unique cat vs mouse game where one player takes the role of the notorious Jack the Ripper, while the rest team up as the London police.  The police must work together to gather clues and corner down Jack as he commits his series of murders and escapes to his hideout across four dreary nights.  The catch is Jack's movements and location are recorded in secret, making his whereabouts invisible to the opposing team (sort of like an interesting twist on Battleship, but on a much larger, more complicated scale).  What more, his potential victims are spread across the city to which the police can only guess as to where he will strike.  The same goes for Jack though, as the police will try to trick Jack with fake police tokens.

The tokens of the Wretched Pawns (left) and notorious Jack (right).

Once Jack strikes though, the hunt begins as the Jack's and the police's starting positions are revealed for that night.  As Jack moves in secret, he must move one numbered circle at a time, though he has a few tricks up his sleeves.  He comes equipped with a limited number of items depending on the night, in which he can carriage quickly across two numbered circles (even through police), or slink through the alleyways through an enclosed section of the city.  Meanwhile, on the police's turns, they move two squares at a time and can ask if Jack has visited any circle during that night.  With this information, they can slowly piece together the trail and identify Jack's path and potential location.  If feeling confident, they can also try to make an arrest at a specific circle.  But if they should fail, no new information will be gleaned.  Alternatively, if they can prevent Jack from reaching his hideout before the night is up, Jack would also lose.  Should Jack manage to escape all four nights killing five victims (one night has a double-murder to shake things up), then Jack shall claim a vicious victory.

The large and labyrinthine map that is Whitechapel.  You'll want to zoom in and peer closely to not miss any subtle path or cranny Jack may have run off to.

Thanks to this asymmetrical pairing of players, it's a delightful think tank of collective minds working against one player who thinks they can outsmart them all.  The pressure is on for Jack though as his resources lessen with each night, and the police will slowly begin to identify the likely whereabouts of his hideout.  Every time I've played this game among friends, the police have always come out on top.  There are additional rules in which you can give Jack or the police additional abilities if needed to even the odds.  However, the challenge of pulling off this sinister escape as Jack proves too alluring to accept any of these handicaps as of yet.  There are always new strategies and ploys being formed with each subsequent play-through.  As you may have noticed by the asterisk for number of players, this game is advertised as for 2-6 players.  However, as it is more or less a 1 vs group setup, any number of players can be enjoyed for this game in truth.  I recommend this game for those who enjoy slow, methodical reasoning and can think outside the box.  I also recommend for any newcomers, have someone who has played before or is most familiar with the rules start as Jack.

If you have any questions about Letters from Whitechapel, let me know in the comments.  Otherwise, look forward to more wicked games in future installments of Tabletop Tuesday.