Game: Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective

Thread: Re: Box or Binder Version--Which is "Nicer"?

Sunray11 — 2008-10-31T06:02:16+00:00

I have both, and other than the binder itself, and the looseleaf clue book, I didn't notice any difference.

Thread: Re: is it possible to beat holmes?

E Decker — 2008-10-30T22:27:34+00:00

I played this with a friend many years ago (great times), and we did succeed in beating Holmes once. This was immediately filed in the list of legendary gaming experiences, and will still get mentioned once or twice a year in nostalgia-tinged conversations.

Needless to say, the sharp-featured one got his revenge shortly thereafter...

Thread: Re: Box or Binder Version--Which is "Nicer"?

E Decker — 2008-10-30T22:20:24+00:00

I'm a binder man myself...

(Both versions are fine, though. Lovely game.)

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boneroller — 2008-10-24T11:34:11+00:00

Holme's London Map Scanned from Printer's Film

Thread: Re: Put on a Pot of Tea, It’s Sleuthing Time!

jouslare — 2008-10-10T02:04:33+00:00

Sphere wrote:
Excellent review of a truly fine game. I can recommend two others if you're interested, one simpler and one even more involved.
Thank you for your kind comments and the recommendations – I will definitely look into these!

jens_hoppe wrote:
Many cases break down because certain encounters (ie. location texts) progress the story further. Problem is, other encounters have no way of knowing whether you're been to that other encounter, so either assume you have or haven't. If the assumption made in the text is wrong, the story breaks down....
...the original game cases were less prone to end in an inconsistent state. I also think sloppiness, or perhaps a wish by the case designers to achieve a more dynamic story than supported by the game system is to blame for these inconsistencies....
Interesting. I have not run into this yet – which is part of why I have raved so much about the writing – but I can see that this could easily happen with a momentary lack of attention to detail… I think the detail-orientation of the writers and designers is what makes this game so successful, but perhaps they cut corners in the later expansions…

JohnnyDollar wrote:
put me in the mood for a nice hot cup of Earl Grey
Try the Lapsang! Seriously!

Thread: Re: Put on a Pot of Tea, It’s Sleuthing Time!

JohnnyDollar — 2008-10-10T01:02:55+00:00

Thanks for bringing my attention to this older game! I love reading Sherlock Holmes and am a huge fan of the Jeremy Brett Holmes series. I hope to eventually score a copy of this game and try it out myself. Great review. It also put me in the mood for a nice hot cup of Earl Grey.

Thread: Re: Put on a Pot of Tea, It’s Sleuthing Time!

Peter The Rat — 2008-10-09T14:36:47+00:00

Great review for a game I liked for a very long time!
Have played again this game some days ago!
It was a really enjoyable "time-travel" to London in this period!
Well done!

Thread: Re: Put on a Pot of Tea, It’s Sleuthing Time!

jens_hoppe — 2008-10-09T08:00:11+00:00

Man, I have played SH:CD (including the expansions) a lot over the years, and it has always been a unique and very enjoyable experience.

I do think the system has a major weakness, though. This is from a geeklist comment I wrote a couple of years back:

A great game but the 'statelessness' of the game is its great weakness: Many cases break down because certain encounters (ie. location texts) progress the story further. Problem is, other encounters have no way of knowing whether you're been to that other encounter, so either assume you have or haven't. If the assumption made in the text is wrong, the story breaks down.

Still, a fine and tremendously thematic game. But why oh why didn't they make an Agatha Christie inspired version too?

and

I agree, the original game cases were less prone to end in an inconsistent state. I also think sloppiness, or perhaps a wish by the case designers to achieve a more dynamic story than supported by the game system is to blame for these inconsistencies.

The multi-day expansion, The Queen's Park Affair had this in droves. Each new day assumed you had achieved a certain minimum amount of new discoveries the day before (guess whether I had ), and if you hadn't the story broke down.

My last experience with SH:CD was a year or two ago, playing the first case from the West End Adventures box. The case broke down too: One encounter found the hitherto prime suspect murdered (a doctor in an asylum, IIRC), and after this point no locations concerning this person made any sense. Visit his home address? Gee, he isn't home - I wonder why!

So, in short, any attempt of making the story more dynamic - allowing for changes in its state - breaks the "visit a location" system which is completely static.

Thread: Re: Put on a Pot of Tea, It’s Sleuthing Time!

Sphere — 2008-10-09T06:14:23+00:00

Excellent review of a truly fine game. I can recommend two others if you're interested, one simpler and one even more involved.

Gumshoe, also by Sleuth Publications, does for Sam Spade what Consulting Detective does for Sherlock Holmes. It puts you in the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1930's, and gives you one major and several minor storylines all together. Far too big to finish in one evening, it is truly an epic game.

Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine Game is a bit simpler than Consulting Detective, but still in the same vein. It differs in some interesting ways, and has several detectives available, each with strengths and weaknesses. 5 cases are provided, four set in New York City and one in Bromley Station, a small college town.

Thread: Put on a Pot of Tea, It’s Sleuthing Time!

jouslare — 2008-10-09T01:16:19+00:00

The weather was starting to turn colder and neither my wife nor I felt 100% healthy on a recent Sunday afternoon, so we put on a pot of tea and pulled out an old favourite: Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective, the classic, interactive, mystery novel-in-a-game where players are challenged to solve mysteries using Holmes-style logic.

This game won the Spiel des Jahres in 1985 and has retained its status as a classic game for all these years. It is really unlike any game I have ever seen though. Aside from a rule book and a map, it is not played with anything else that has come to be associated as a “game component.” No dice, no cards, no tokens, no miniatures, just a lot of information to read.

COMPONENTS
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The game includes a Rule Book, a Case Book, a Clue Book, an archive of ersatz Newspaper articles from the late 19th century, a London “Telephone Directory,” a reference map of “Holmes’ London” circa that time period and a Quiz Book that is used to determine the game winner.

The Case Book sets out 10 distinct mysteries to be solved – I think of them as puzzles -- each of which can take from 1 to 3 hours (and sometimes longer) depending on how the players have agreed to play the game. It is playable with any number of players and can be played cooperatively, competitively, with a team dynamic or solo. It is so dependent on reading, however, that it can bog down as each player takes his turn reading the case, scouring the newspaper archives, looking up suspects and witnesses in the telephone directory etc. We have made photocopies of some of these key resources, just to get around this bottleneck and to facilitate more than one player reading them at a time.

The typeface and font used in the booklets leaves something to be desired. I am not sure if the printing is fading in the copy I have or if the production standards were just never that good in the first place, but some of the text can be hard to read sometimes. Of course, it might just be my aging eyes…

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The map is really quite a treasure. It appears to be hand-rendered and helps give the game atmosphere by “grounding” it to a particular place and time. It can also be useful to try to get a handle on travel time (for example to determine whether your prime suspect could have actually gone from the last location where he was sighted to the scene of the crime in a timely fashion). Thus it can act as a reality check for a player’s assumptions.

GAME PLAY
The game play is really about reading the cases, trying to find relevant information from the recent newspaper issues, identifying suspects and witnesses to interview and trying to piece together the riddles of the mysteries using logic, deduction and the clever Holmesian “leaps of faith” that come from astute observation.

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A good system of note-taking is really advantageous as there can be quite a lot of information to digest at once.

The Clue Book is really the key to the game as the mysteries themselves that are set out in the Case Book really only act as a teaser to what the players, as detectives, need to find out. Sometimes the Case Book even leads directly to red herrings – it is only through determining which clue points to investigate that the information begins to get clarified.

Interviewing suspects and witnesses is referred to as “visiting a clue point” and the clues are written as if you were in conversation with that person. To find them you must locate their “address” (from the telephone directory, the newspaper etc.) and read the entry for that address from the Clue Book. The objective of the game is to solve the mystery in the fewest number of clue points visited.

The clues and the newspaper archives are very well done, so that you feel like you are reading newspapers from the time period and speaking directly to Victorian-era Londoners.

The Clue Book also contains the text of a “lecture” given by Holmes in 1886 which sets out addresses and particular areas of expertise of a dozen or so “Baker Street Regulars” plus a few “Irregulars”. These characters include H.R. Murray, head of Scotland Yard’s Criminology Laboratory, Disraeli O’Brien at the Office of Records, Sherlock’s brother Mycroft Holmes, Quintin Hogg, crime reporter for the Police Gazette, etc.

Visiting one or two of these regular characters first in a new mystery is often a good idea. I must admit that I have also visited some of them in desperation after running out of any other witnesses to interview. Holmes’ lecture which lists the regulars is another critical document that we have photocopied to allow more players to refer to.

We will typically play the game competitively for the first dozen or so clues and if somebody really feels that they are onto the solution will continue to investigate separately until they have solved it or they declare that they are at an impasse. More often than not, the impasse will be called and then we pool our resources just to try to solve the mystery rather than play to win. It has also happened that we have read all of the clues and have still not been able to solve the mystery; the writing is that clever.

The game does help to train your mind to think logically and to use a systematic process of elimination to try to solve the mysteries, but with all the reading, note-taking and thinking, it can also begin to feel a bit like “work” sometimes. There are frequent injections of humour that do help to keep it light, however. (For example, more than once I have been “greeted at the door” by a suspect wearing a pink tutu or sporting a red clown nose – a sure signal that I am on the wrong track!)

One thing that I constantly marvel at is how well written this game is. There is just so much to read and the clue points are so well integrated into the stories that it must have taken an immense amount of work to write in the first place, let alone capturing the subtleties in translations to different languages.

SCORING
Once a player (or players) has agreed that it is time to verify their hypothesis, the game is over. The Quiz Book is consulted and players write down their answers to a series of questions about the solution to the mystery. The Quiz Book also contains answers with weighted scores for the quiz -- questions which generally consist of basic “who-dunnit” questions -- players are awarded points for getting a little bit deeper and perhaps learning things from witnesses that you would have missed had you solved the mystery in the most efficient manner and there are bonus points for correctly answering trivia from the Holmes series of novels that only the most devoted Holmes reader would know.

The full answer is then revealed in a few paragraphs and players can compare the number of clue points they had to visit to the number that “Holmes” solved it in. It is an opportunity to compare your path of logic to his.

Of course the scoring becomes a moot point if you are playing in a cooperative - or solo - fashion.

RE-PLAYABILITY
Lack of re-playability would be the biggest drawback of this game. We have played 7 of the 10 puzzles in the base game and I would not say that the game is re-playable once all the puzzles have been solved. Like a good book, you will always recall some details from a previous reading that would give an unfair advantage.

Fortunately there are 4 expansions to the game (some requiring pieces of Consulting Detective to play, others are standalones). The expansions are: Mansion Murders, Queen's Park Affair, Adventures by Gaslight, West End Adventures. All are currently out of print.

After much searching, we have recently added the final expansion to our now complete set, so we should have Sherlock Holmes mysteries to solve for several years in the future (assuming our eyesight holds out)…

CONCLUSION
Despite some concerns about the quality of the printing, this game (and its expansions) is a real classic that I hope to play for years to come. Taking a totally different approach to any other game in my collection, this is one that I will pull off the shelf when I am in the mood to read, think, and “play a good book!”

Goes well with Earl Grey but is at its best with Lapsang Souchong!

This game gets a strong 7.5 / 10 from me. I suspect the score for the series might grow to 8 over time.

(* credit: duchamp for the map photo. Other images are mine)

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bobe303 — 2008-09-21T20:14:52+00:00

Swedish edition

Thread: Re: How I toured every back alleyway in London

Randy Cox — 2008-07-10T18:54:44+00:00

Both this report and Friendless' response sum up our experience. I knew the culprit pretty early on, catching the clue about[o]ivory cigarette holder[/o]so we probably should have stopped there, less than 20 clues in. But we soldiered on, eventually making the Embassy tour and finding the mistake in the directory (Stevenson should not have the same address as a retailer and I suspect that in one of the future cases the other address will be important). Anyway, we end up visiting 31 locations, I believe. And on top of that, we went to 7 locations that didn't even have clues (I didn't count them in the 31).

Thread: Re: Designers?

lokides — 2008-06-25T05:36:05+00:00

Thank you David - I too, shall sleep soundly tonight

Thread: Re: Designers?

ion765 — 2008-06-25T04:56:44+00:00

I have a copy of this game. It was originally published by Sleuth Publications. Published in 1981 (and again in 1984), the game books identify Grady, Goldberg, and Edwards as the authors/creators. The Spiel des Jahres winner was called Sherlock Holmes Criminal Cabinet. It was published in 1984 and is essentially the same game, only written in German. From what I can speculate, via some research, Anthony Urburu received author/creator credit because he wrote/translated the German edition, which is the edition that won the award. Since Anthony Urburu is also a minor character in one of the mysteries, it is possible that the three original authors used the names of friends/associates when creating the game...one of whom would later translate the game into German.

Again, some speculation on my part...but I am satisfied enough with the soundness of my conclusion that I will be able to let it go and get some sleep.

Thread: Re: Designers?

heli — 2008-06-01T21:08:18+00:00

Uruburu is a legit surname. Check out this article in today's NY Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/01/books/review/Calhoun-t.htm...

Here's an excerpt:

Beauty and the Beasts

By ADA CALHOUN
Published: June 1, 2008

Insofar as the Gilded Age model Evelyn Nesbit — arguably the most famous face of the early 20th century — is remembered today, it’s as a tease and a gold digger. She has long been held vicariously responsible for the 1906 murder of the architect Stanford White, who was shot by Nesbit’s jealous husband during a performance at what was then Madison Square Garden.

In “American Eve,” Paula Uruburu, making magnificent use of Nesbit’s memoirs, letters and photographs (which introduce many of the chapters), places the notorious murder in a new context. Nesbit comes across as a naïve young girl manipulated by both the great architect and his millionaire assailant, both of whom happened to be sexual predators. The Gilded Age “It” girl, in other words, was far less Salome than Pauline (as in “The Perils of”).

Thread: Re: Designers?

jrbentley — 2008-05-25T05:58:46+00:00

Did anyone notice that "Uruburu" is a palindrome? It's the same forwards and backwards. Hmmmmm...the mystery deepens?

Thread: Re: Designers?

dirubin — 2008-05-25T05:54:18+00:00

My game lists the three from the English Wikipedia article as the designers. Anthony Uruburu appears as a character in SHCD. Uruburu? Get serious.

Thread: Re: Designers?

lokides — 2008-05-25T03:32:46+00:00

Ok, the plot thickens!

The German Wikipedia on SdJ lists the designer as Anthony Uruburu.

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiel_des_Jahres

While the English version of the same page says it was Raymond Edwards, Suzanne Goldberg and Gary Grady.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiel_des_Jahres

Meanwhile, user Spotlight on Games lists the designers as all four in this geeklist of SdJ winners:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/629

I'm sure there's a simple explanation

Thread: Re: Designers?

lokides — 2008-05-25T03:22:11+00:00

Can't say I have, but then I never realised it was an SdJ winner, so my interest is at least piqued

Thread: Re: Designers?

jrbentley — 2008-05-25T03:16:20+00:00

lokides wrote:
But you're here - making my question out into the Internet void seem more real just by your presence

Good one.

BTW, have you played SH Consulting Detective? I bought it (the version that comes in the cool binder) MANY years ago in the '80's and some friends would come over and play. We had a blast back then, but I must say I haven't actually got it back out and played it again. Too bad, because I'm really a BIG Sherlock Holmes fan. This makes me want to play it again.

Anyway, great game.

Thread: Re: Designers?

lokides — 2008-05-25T03:12:21+00:00

But you're here - making my question out into the Internet void seem more real just by your presence

Thread: Re: Designers?

jrbentley — 2008-05-25T03:10:22+00:00

It's elementary, my dear Stewart.

But that's ALL I know, that it's elementary. Can't answer your question, because I don't know.

Thread: Designers?

lokides — 2008-05-25T02:30:32+00:00

Hi all,

The SdJ site lists Anthony Uruburu as the designer of this game, whilst BGG seems to list 3 (non-german sounding) designers.

http://spieldesjahres.kiratec.eu/cms/front_content.php?idcat...

Does anyone know why this might be?

cheers
Stew

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asurinach — 2008-04-16T09:19:39+00:00

French Edition by jeux descartes

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jouslare — 2008-01-27T05:37:14+00:00

Game in play - it is all in the notes!

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jouslare — 2008-01-27T04:42:02+00:00

Everything in the box. No dice.... no cards.... no minatures...

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duchamp — 2007-09-26T12:31:41+00:00

(German edition) London map - much higher resolution

Thread: Re: Box or Binder Version--Which is "Nicer"?

slyde — 2007-09-13T17:45:53+00:00

i have the binder version.. i agree with the above poster who said it was fine and functional...

Thread: Re: Box or Binder Version--Which is "Nicer"?

dr glaze et al — 2007-09-13T15:47:16+00:00

I used to own both the binder and box versions of the Consulting Detective game.

I sold off the binder because it didn't look as nice next to the expansions. The boxes have those 70's colors to tie them together on the game shelf: pale blue, mint green, etc.

The binder is slightly more compact and has something of a novelty factor, but I don't think it is better in any sense.

Thread: Re: Box or Binder Version--Which is "Nicer"?

maxac — 2007-09-13T14:56:03+00:00

I've got the binder version, but have never used the box version. The binder version is very functional, in that you can just pull it off the shelf and start playing. I'm not super fond of the vinyl cover, since those tend to deteriorate over time. I have not had a problem with the pages sticking to it yet.

I've got the box version of the Mansion Mysteries, and the box is totally destroyed since the contents are too thin for the box, so the box got crushed.

Thread: Box or Binder Version--Which is "Nicer"?

donkst — 2007-09-13T14:48:29+00:00

Hello,

I was recently listening to Jim Van Verth's excellent Podcast # 26 at the Vintage Gamer http://essentialmath.com/vintagegamer/index.php?paged=2 about this game, and at exactly 10 minutes into the discussion, he notes that the binder version is considered "nicer" than the box set.

Does anyone who has seen (or used) both of them have an opinon about this issue? As Jim mentions, the binder version seems to have some problems with typewritten/photocopied pages transfering onto the vinyl notebook. At first glance, the binder style also seems to be less "attractive" than the box version because it reminds me of something someone would use in a college course, rather than being a "board" game. Was the binder version supposed to hold up to wear and tear more, and if so, how much damage could the game really suffer if it only has a supposed replay value of 10 times (there are only 10 cases to solve in this version)?

Thanks, in advance, for any comments.

Thread: Re: How I toured every back alleyway in London

Friendless — 2007-07-16T06:45:02+00:00

Our team of 6 took 15 clues to get a score of 65 - 120 points on the quiz.

[o]I was interested in the Countess von Schulenberg angle, suspecting she was a spy who was trying to get secrets from Allen. However Ragland was suspicious and the information learned at Spaniards' Inn cracked it open for us. The first location we visited was the scene of the crime and I wasn't listening and missed the clues about the location of the suitcase. We would have done substantially better if we'd realised how valuable the BH clue was.[/o]

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nybba — 2007-07-10T16:58:38+00:00

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hejhenrik — 2007-05-11T19:43:46+00:00

Swedish edition

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hejhenrik — 2007-05-11T19:43:19+00:00

Swedish edition

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hejhenrik — 2007-05-11T19:42:46+00:00

Swedish edition

Thread: Re: Typical game length & number of clues?

rod3556lhs — 2007-03-25T06:07:52+00:00

15-20 clues and maybe 3 hours or so (much time just scouring the newspaper for clues. We always play it as a team trying to beat Holmes, so have a great amount of discussion and hypothesizing(sp?) of theories of the crime as we decide where to go next.

Thread: Re: Complete list of contents??

rod3556lhs — 2007-03-25T06:03:09+00:00

Colin, in his post, said "It's about time I played it again, I think I must have forgotten the solutions by now."

I agree! The great thing about getting old (I'll be 60 very soon)is that I can't remember anything . . .so . . .the cases will be new to me again! To prove my point, I hadn't played the game in over 10 years and just recently sat down with my wife and our 25 year old daughter to do a case that I swore to my daughter that we had never done before. About half way through the case, my wife said "this sounds so familiar." I agreed, but neither of us could remember who the guilty people were or the solution in general. We lost to Holmes as usual. A few days later my wife, while digging through somee old files, came up with our score on the same case from when we played it in 1983. We actually score 10 points higher back then from this most recent time. I told my wife that we could probably go at again next Christmas!

Thread: Re: Sleuth Times - what was in it?

rod3556lhs — 2007-03-25T05:44:35+00:00

I actually subscribed to Sleuth Times and have all of my old copies. As others have said, it was full of Victorian London atmosphere as well as varoius comments and ads for Holmesian articles and ads for unique detective games. I saw the Jack the Ripper advertisement in the Sleuth Times, and purchased the game.

Thread: Re: is it possible to beat holmes?

rod3556lhs — 2007-03-25T05:37:20+00:00

I am afraid not Mike. This is tremendous game though and I, along with my family and friends, have had a great time trying to best Holmes. I could look at just the clues that Holmes went to and still not solve the case in it's entirety because I would probably miss something from the newspapers!

Thread: is it possible to beat holmes?

Redhawke — 2007-02-19T20:10:30+00:00

I mean, it seems like in all the cases he takes the shortest possible route and you couldn't do any better, short of a lucky guess.

Thread: How I toured every back alleyway in London

loquitur — 2007-02-04T21:39:35+00:00

*** Minor SPOILERS ahead, though I don’t reveal too much, and frankly you would do better to ignore everything I did ***

Case of the murdered munitions magnate

or

How I toured every back alleyway in London

or

Why I was fired after interviewing everyone in the London phone directory

or

How not to conduct an investigation

or

How to have your PhD revoked

or

What happens when you exhaust every clue in the clue book

I was recently given one of the highest degrees a university can bestow on a student. Nevertheless, 20 turns into my first Sherlock mystery and I'm wondering if my old thesis committee made a colossal mistake. I mean, according to the solution, Sherlock solved the whole thing in way less turns (I can count them on one hand, without including my thumb). I, on the other hand, went about NOT solving this mystery (I got it wrong in the end) via this approach:

I read the case history, which involved the murder of one Courtney Allen. Then I read the newspaper of March 20, 1888 from front to back. I think I did it one and a half times, because I nodded off at one point and so had to start over. Armed with all sorts of questionable knowledge from The Times, such as the fact that someone lost a black collie with tan eyebrows and a wound on its right cheek, I marched out onto Baker street and made my way to interrogate Captain Egan, of the Admiralty, because he had a meeting penciled in to Allen’s schedule. He wasn’t at his residence (of course, it was the middle of the day, as I should have realized). The game doesn’t model weather, but I’m pretty sure it was raining as I stood there. Then I took a carriage down past Hyde Park and over to the Admiralty (which is where most people would have began).

A quick conversation, and … not to weigh this down in too much detail … but I set off to have a pointless discussion with Allen’s wife, Beatrice, back close to where I started from. Then back south to see Lord Ragland’s man, Bunting. Then east to speak with employees of the Grant Arms Company, and a stop over to interrogate some cabbies. A clue led me to Bishop’s Inn, and then another to R & T Jeweller. I have a brisk walk over to Benson & Hedges, to speak with von Schulenberg about an earring. And finally (for this paragraph), to Spaniards Inn.

At this point I realized (as you probably realized about 10 clues ago) that I was doing the equivalent of guessing. Now, for reasons that make little sense to me any more, I began my random walk of embassies: the Russian embassy, the German embassy, and then the Spanish embassy.

I knew I was really stretching it at this point. But I still had no insight into the crime.

I made a stop over at the clerk, O’Brian. Useless. Then I went to a mistaken address which is actually covered in the clue book as a mistaken address (oh great, the designers anticipated some bumpkin would make a simple address error). Another stop (which supplies me with refreshments but zippo as to clues), and then a few more stops for what amounts to nothing of note.

I decided to call it quits at this time, because I believed I might know the solution to this crime (how I could possibly believe that is beyond me). I was, of course, wrong on most accounts.

That comes to 20 of my clues to Holmes’ 4. I answered only 70 points worth of questions (in the quiz book), but given my lacklustre performance, I ended up with a resounding score of negative 10.

Sure, Canada was settled by the British, but it doesn’t mean we can hold a candle to their best sleuths. The best we got is Mountie Benton Fraser and his dog, Diefenbaker. And he isn’t any Sherlock. Nor, it appears, am I.

Thread: Re: Sleuth Times - what was in it?

mtlawson — 2007-01-30T16:45:05+00:00

tool wrote:
I just discovered that there used to be a newsletter for this game called Sleuth Times. Does anyone know what kind of material was in it?

I think I had a couple of issues. The most interesting parts of the issues were the descriptions of life in Victorian Times, and if your salary was X, what you could afford for your family.

I always wondered what happened to Sleuth Times, since it used to be that you'd get something like one free issue every six issues that were printed.

Thread: Re: Sleuth Times - what was in it?

tool — 2007-01-30T16:11:44+00:00

Thanks!

Thread: Re: Sleuth Times - what was in it?

gashlycrumb — 2007-01-29T18:33:23+00:00

I think I still have a copy of it somewhere, in fact I am pretty sure I have it, it's just a matter of where.

It was more of a Sherlockiana newspaper, although I recall that my issue had an article about Jack the Ripper as well because of their 'Jack the Ripper' game. There were ads for other games by the same publisher as well, but the articles all had to do something with Holmes, or at least that era in general. There were some ads for companies that made Sherlock items as well. None of the articles had anything to do with playing the game or added scenarios are anything, at least not in my issue.

Thread: Sleuth Times - what was in it?

tool — 2007-01-29T16:17:56+00:00

I just discovered that there used to be a newsletter for this game called Sleuth Times. Does anyone know what kind of material was in it?

Thread: Sherlock Holmes microbadge available

bill_andel — 2007-01-24T02:58:58+00:00

A microbadge for Sherlock Holmes fans is now available. To purchase please click the link:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/browse/microbadge/1279

Thread: Re: Complete list of contents??

Sonja — 2007-01-09T20:02:00+00:00

Wow thanks everybody!

Thread: Re: Complete list of contents??

EndersGame — 2007-01-09T05:03:58+00:00

Sonja wrote:
How can I make sure my game is complete?

Can somebody please post a list of all contents so I can double-check if my game is complete?
This image has the official list of all six game components:
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You should have:

1. London Map - a 24" by 28" map of Victorian London, divided in zones, buildings identified with code numbers
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2. Case Book - 46 pages, divided in two parts: case descriptions, and case solutions
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3. Clue Book - 124 pages, ten sections (one for each case), with numbered paragraphs giving clues
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4. Newspaper Archive - 32 pages, a collection of fictional issues of The Times, with hints and case information
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5. London Directory - 20 pages, a listing of private apartments, shops, and places of interest
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6. Quiz Book - 8 pages, ten quizzes, one for each case
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The base game comes with the following ten cases:
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Thread: Re: Complete list of contents??

calgacus — 2007-01-08T23:26:07+00:00

Image id 15210 shows everything, the white sheet pasted into the folder the case book is a bit of info that came in the box (the sort of stuff you normally get on the back) and isn't part of the game.

Thread: Re: Complete list of contents??

calgacus — 2007-01-08T23:15:10+00:00

The box contains the following:

Map of London
Newspaper Archive (booklet)
Case Book
Clue Book
London Directory
Quiz Book
Rules

It's about time I played it again, I think I must have forgotten the solutions by now.

Thread: Complete list of contents??

Sonja — 2007-01-08T22:29:11+00:00

How can I make sure my game is complete?

Can somebody please post a list of all contents so I can double-check if my game is complete?

Thread: Re: Is this public domain yet?

dr glaze et al — 2006-11-18T19:25:50+00:00

http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-53200-19255-0/1?type=4&cam...

Thread: Re: Is this public domain yet?

dr glaze et al — 2006-11-18T19:08:14+00:00

Brewtal_Legend wrote:
Does any company still make money off this? I doubt it. I know there are quite a few gamebooks that are available for free pdf download like the lone wolf games and a few others you can find on home of the underdogs. I was wondering because it would be great if someone could scan or reproduce sherlock holmes consulting detective and the expansions so they can be downloaded and printed. You have to pay up the nose quite often for any of the expansions and they are hard to find too. Especially west end adventures and adventures by gaslight. Does anyone have these scanned? I would love to get my hands on those expansions but the few times they show up on ebay, they are way too much for my budget. Please let me know.

Where on earth did you get the idea these are rare or expensive? They are not! Are you looking at the unsold copies here on BGG Marketplace?? Of course people will ask $50 for a game... but they'll never GET that much!!

These go for a song! Not long ago I bought the first three for about $10 each. On ebay someone paid $25 for both the first and second game together, not a week ago! And eBay sellers never konw much about games... look for ones that say "game has 9 or 10 books". Those have at least one expansion in them, often two. I've sold dupes because of this.

Or look here for someone on BGG trading and work out a deal. Or set up notification via eBay. No, they don't come up for auction frequently, but by no means are these rare! And they are certainly not 'sought-after' enough for anyone to bother making .pdf's or getting sued for copyright violation! Get real!

Thread: Re: Is this public domain yet?

icheyne — 2006-11-18T08:08:27+00:00

I bought mine a couple of years ago direct from Chessex.

Thread: Re: Is this public domain yet?

tool — 2006-11-18T01:09:41+00:00

They certainly are not public domain, unless the copyright holders have put them there. I can never remember exactly how long copyright lasts where these days, but it's at least 75 years in the US.

Thread: Is this public domain yet?

Brewtal_Legend — 2006-11-18T00:36:50+00:00

Does any company still make money off this? I doubt it. I know there are quite a few gamebooks that are available for free pdf download like the lone wolf games and a few others you can find on home of the underdogs. I was wondering because it would be great if someone could scan or reproduce sherlock holmes consulting detective and the expansions so they can be downloaded and printed. You have to pay up the nose quite often for any of the expansions and they are hard to find too. Especially west end adventures and adventures by gaslight. Does anyone have these scanned? I would love to get my hands on those expansions but the few times they show up on ebay, they are way too much for my budget. Please let me know.

Thread: Re: Game Description should be updated...

nyhotep — 2006-11-11T08:07:02+00:00

There is also "Adventures by gaslight" and "West-end adventures".
Search game publishers for "Sleuth publications"

Thread: Re: Game Description should be updated...

Sphere — 2006-11-11T05:23:44+00:00

The two expansions I have are The Mansion Murders and The Queen's Park Affair. I think there was a third, but I don't remember what it was.

Thread: Re: Game Description should be updated...

MontyCircus — 2006-11-11T03:46:49+00:00

If you go over to Tikal's page, it has a line saying:

"Tikal is the first game of the Mask Trilogy"

And that links to a boardgamegeek wiki page about Tikal, Java & Mexica. Likewise, Carcassonne's entry has links to its expansions and the Carcassonne series as a whole.

That's the kind of thing I'm looking for