221B Baker Street (board game)

221B Baker Street: The Master Detective Game is a board game based on Arthur Conan Doyle's fictional detective Sherlock Holmes and developed by Gibsons Games in 1975 and sold by the John H. Hansen Co. in the US since 1977. The players have to solve cases using the clues provided by visiting locations on the board such as 221B Baker Street, Scotland Yard, Apothecary and Pawn Broker. The original game has twenty cases, but there are eight expansion packs that provide twenty additional cases each. The second version has 40 cases, but is no longer available. A travel version, published by Gibsons Games, came out in the late 1990s, and is no longer available.

A sequel game, 221B Baker Street: Sherlock Holmes and the Time Machine came out around 1996, but is no longer published.

Gameplay

Before the game starts, a case is selected, and one player reads the case file. This fills in the players on the background of the case as well as listing the location of each clue in the case booklet. A place may provide no clue, or only a part of one. Clues may also be entirely irrelevant, or throw a player off entirely. Clues often are in the form of a riddle, especially multi-part clues.

Play begins with each player at 221B Baker Street, from which the players visit each of the 14 locations on the board. Movement is decided by the throw of a single die.

Upon entering a location the player may read the back of the card containing the case. This consists of a list of locations and a number assigned to each one. The player may then secretly read the relevant paragraph in the back of the rulebook which is the clue. (The numbers are mixed up so two adjacent numbers in the book are unlikely to be from the same case.)

Each paragraph may or may not contain evidence of note and the clue may be cryptic. A time limit to read the clue is recommended after which the book must be closed and play passed to the next player. If a person wishes more time (or needs to check again) then he must stay for an extra move (or return to the location if previously vacated) to get another attempt.

If the player believes that they know the solution to the case, they may return to the starting point. Upon returning to the starting point the player must announce (publicly) The culprit, the weapon used and the motive. Having read aloud their solution, they inspect the rulebook and look up the entry given for the correct solution. If correct they must read it aloud to confirm. If not they stay silent except to announce their failure and are excluded from the game.

Three additional 'twists' (or tactics) are available. The Carriage Depot (one of the locations) can also be used to move immediately to any point on the board, in which case they cannot view the clue although they may view the clue, then wait for their next turn before taking a carriage. Also, each player begins the game with two markers, one is a key and the other a warrant. Upon leaving a location the player may use their warrant to bar access to all other players who must expend their own key card to remove it. Only one of each card may be held by a player at one time, although replacements may be gained by visiting Scotland Yard or the Locksmith's (both Locations with clues). 221B, Scotland Yard and the Locksmith's may not themselves be sealed with a warrant. A warrant can be used to obstruct other players to locations with helpful clues or placed in locations with useless clues to convince other players such a location is useful.

Expansion Sets

8 expansion sets with additional cases were published, numbered 2 thru 9.

External links

• 221B Baker Street at BoardGameGeek