4 Penny Coffins Lets You Play Jack the Ripper, Then Investigate Your Own Murders

4 Penny Coffins gives its playable murderer considerably more to work with than a knife and an increasingly desperate collection of lies. The Ripper can bribe witnesses, plant evidence, conceal incriminating objects and manipulate the investigation while pretending to help solve it. That's a surprisingly elaborate criminal strategy system hiding inside multiplayer social deduction. Whether it survives contact with seven suspicious humans remains unproven, but the mechanics suggest something considerably more interesting than another evening of people accusing Kevin because he sounds nervous.

Most social-deduction games eventually become an argument between several people who have absolutely no idea what happened but are prepared to stake their children's inheritance on it. 4 Penny Coffins has attempted to introduce something rather dangerous into that arrangement. Actual evidence.

Want another multiplayer game where the villain controls the suffering? See how SAW: Genesis lets you become the Judge, manipulating traps and turning three unfortunate players into unwilling participants in the world's worst rehabilitation programme.

Congratulations, you're the murderer and the detective

Ripper Mode accommodates six to eight players. One secretly becomes the murderer, who must complete two killings across two nights while everybody else investigates. The interesting part is that the Ripper can work as a News Hawk, Police officer or Doctor, using the same profession-specific tools as innocent players. The person responsible for the murders can actively help investigate them, gather evidence and appear to be a perfectly respectable member of society. Imagine Scotland Yard enthusiastically congratulating its finest detective, handing him a commendation and inviting him to give a presentation on crime prevention, while the bastard is quietly wondering where to bury the next body.

There's something genuinely clever about this arrangement. A murderer doesn't necessarily have to pretend they're doing something useful. They can actually be useful, carefully deciding which information helps maintain their innocence and which might accidentally get them hanged. Cooperate too little and you might attract suspicion. Cooperate too enthusiastically and you risk becoming the most competent investigator of your own crimes. Getting caught because you're too good at your day job would be a magnificent humiliation.

Bribery is lovely until somebody finds the paperwork

News Hawks can photograph players and question NPC witnesses about their whereabouts. Investigators can therefore reconstruct movements rather than relying entirely on somebody claiming they were visiting their sick grandmother. The Ripper can bribe those witnesses into lying. Wonderful. Victorian corruption has finally received the interactive entertainment treatment it deserves. Unfortunately, bribery can leave records that investigators might discover, revealing that a witness has been compromised.

So instead of solving your problem, you've potentially created another one. First you committed murder. Then you bribed somebody to cover it up. Now you've left evidence proving that you bribed somebody to cover up the murder. At this point, you're barely a serial killer anymore. You're a small criminal organisation with an administrative backlog. And there's an actual strategic decision underneath that ridiculous situation. A false statement might redirect suspicion toward an innocent player, but getting somebody to lie introduces another possible route back to you. Sometimes leaving the witness alone might be the smarter criminal decision.

If framing innocent people sounds too subtle, Gone Feral lets you plan murders like a slasher villain with an organisational problem. Stalking, disguises and improvised weapons. Apparently even homicidal maniacs need a strategy meeting.

Murder is easy. It's the forensic housekeeping that'll kill you.

Witnesses aren't the only problem. Police investigators can compare fingerprints collected from players against prints found on objects and weapons. Doctors examine blood-spatter patterns, while footprints offer another potential trail through Whitechapel. The Ripper can interfere with evidence, including concealing incriminating material. Carrying undisclosed fingerprint evidence can itself attract suspicion during investigation and conviction.

Which introduces a delightful possibility: you've successfully murdered somebody, nobody saw you do it, and your biggest problem is now where to put the evidence. Imagine committing the perfect murder, only to wander into the equivalent of a police interview carrying a bloodstained knife and a pocketful of incriminating objects. You might as well arrive wearing a sandwich board saying PLEASE INVESTIGATE ME.

But if investigators can compare several independent sources, planting one suspicious clue shouldn't necessarily be enough to frame somebody. A false witness statement might contradict fingerprints. An apparently convincing alibi might collapse when physical evidence suggests otherwise. Suddenly, framing somebody becomes a problem of constructing a believable version of events rather than simply pointing at an innocent man and hoping everybody develops collective stupidity. That's proper villain territory.

The real enemy might be seven idiots with microphones

There's one enormous complication with this otherwise fascinating design. Humans. 4 Penny Coffins uses a structured Hunt, Investigate and Conviction cycle, giving gathered evidence a formal purpose. But mechanics cannot force people to behave intelligently. You could theoretically spend an entire round carefully manipulating witnesses, concealing fingerprints and constructing an elaborate false narrative, only for somebody to announce that you're obviously the murderer because you hesitated before answering a question. And everybody votes for you. Congratulations. Your meticulously planned criminal conspiracy has been defeated by a man whose investigative technique consists entirely of interrupting people.

Whether matches actually descend into that sort of nonsense remains uncertain. Developer Other Ocean reported more than 10,000 demo participants before the October 27 launch, but independent accounts of sustained Ripper Mode multiplayer remain too scarce to establish how these systems perform against experienced groups. The strategic foundation is there, with several ways to interfere with an investigation and consequences that make those decisions worth considering. What remains unproven is whether players will reward careful criminal thinking or simply accuse whoever sounds guilty first.

Because 4 Penny Coffins has constructed a rather wonderful predicament: the Ripper might have to become exceptionally good at investigating murders to avoid being convicted of committing them.

Had enough of investigating your own murders? Explore CRIMENET's Villain hub for more games that let you become the killer, monster or criminal mastermind. Saving the world is terribly noble, but somebody has to give the heroes something to complain about.

4 Penny Coffins FAQ

Can you play as Jack the Ripper in 4 Penny Coffins?

Yes. In Ripper Mode, one player secretly becomes the murderer and must complete two killings across two nights while avoiding detection by the other players.

Can the Ripper frame innocent players?

Yes. The Ripper can plant evidence, bribe witnesses into giving false testimony and conceal incriminating objects to manipulate the investigation. However, these actions can create additional evidence that exposes the deception.

Is 4 Penny Coffins playable solo?

Yes, through Magistrate Mode, which features an AI-controlled murderer. Ripper Mode requires 6-8 players and is designed around multiplayer deception.

Is playing the Ripper actually strategic?

The mechanics support strategic play through evidence manipulation, witness bribery and investigative deception. However, there's not enough independent multiplayer testing yet to determine how consistently these systems influence actual matches.

When was 4 Penny Coffins released?

4 Penny Coffins launched on Steam on October 27, 2026.