The Original Sherlock Holmes and His Baker Street Irregulars Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Evidence Card Terminology
• Learning the Game
• Setup
• Gameplay
• Investigate Phase
• Arrest Phase
• Tail Phase
• End of Round
• BSI Bonus
• Cleanup
• End Game Scoring
• Best of Baker Street
• Solo-Variant
  • Solo Setup
  • 1 Cycle
  • End Game Scoring (Solo)
• Plot Twist Cards
• Holmes in Disguise

Components

• 100 Evidence Cards
• 40 Villain/Case Cards
• 10 Inspector Cards
• 5 Arresting Order Badges
• Arresting Order & Holmes Track
• 3 Character Boards
• 6 Additional Holmes Boards
• 12 Plot Twist Cards
• Directional Coin
• 65 BSI Tokens
• 1 Shilling Token
• 2 Round Trackers
• 1 Metal Sherlock Holmes Trophy
• Double-sided Playmat

Evidence Card Terminology

1. Type: The icon in the top left will be one of 3 symbols.
   • Artifact: magnifying glass icon
   • Location: house icon
   • Witness: silhouette of a man in a hat with a pen icon
2. Color: The rope bookmark will be one of 5 colors: red, blue, gold/yellow, silver/white, and black.
3. Cost: The value in the bottom left denotes how many BSI tokens a player must spend to acquire the card.
4. Story Abbreviation: The 4 letters in the bottom left corner are the official abbreviation of the story from Conan Doyle's canon to which the Evidence card belongs.
5. Plot Icons: There will be one or two icons located on the rope bookmark that are indicative of that adventure. These represent the icons needed to arrest the Villains. There are 9 possible symbols:
   • Revenge/Love (heart)
   • Death (skull)
   • Greed/Theft/Money (coins)
   • Codes/Paper (scroll/paper)
   • Disguise (top hat and mask)
   • Song/Secret (silhouette of a figure in a hat)
   • Gangs/Groups (group of figures)
   • Forensic/Prints (fingerprint)
   • Wound/Blood (drop with a cross)

Learning the Game

Want to learn the game in under 5 minutes?! Check out the quick "How to Play" (including setup) YouTube video, available at www.baskervilleproductions.com/shbsi or by scanning the QR code printed in the rulebook.

Setup

1. Separate the Evidence cards into 5 separate decks (based on the Roman numeral on the back of each card). Shuffle each deck and place on mat. (see below)
2. Shuffle the Villain cards, and place on mat. Then reveal the top 5 cards. (see below)
3. Shuffle the Plot Twist cards and place on mat. (see below)
4. Each player chooses a color and takes the 13 BSI tokens and the wooden badge of that color and is also dealt one random Inspector card.
5. Take the badges from all players, shuffle them thoroughly. One at a time, randomly select a badge and place it on the Arresting Order board, starting with the 1. (see below)
6. To create the Evidence deck for the first round, draw a number of cards from each deck equal to the number of players. (For example: for a 3-player game, draw 3 cards from all 5 decks)
7. Shuffle the cards and then deal 5 cards to each player. Set the Round Marker token to show "1," denoting the first round, on the first deck (with roman numeral "I").

Gameplay

The printed banner for this section reads "GAMPELAY"; the heading has been corrected to "Gameplay".

The Game consists of 4 Rounds. Each Round consists of 4 Cycles. Each Cycle consists of 3 Phases.

At the start of each Round:

• Deal the new hand of cards to each player.
• Reveal the top Plot Twist card. (see Plot Twist Cards)

At the start of each Cycle:

• Investigate Phase: Use BSI tokens to acquire Evidence cards. (see Investigate Phase)
• Arrest Phase: Use Evidence cards to Arrest Villains. (see Arrest Phase)
• Tail Phase: Use a BSI token to Tail a Villain. (see Tail Phase)

Repeat this process 4 times.

At the end of each Round: (see End of Round)

• BSI Bonus - Select from unchosen Evidence cards and Holmes, Watson & Wiggins boards.
• Cleanup - Take back spent BSI from that Round.

At the end of the 4th Round: (see End of Game)

• BSI Bonus (without Holmes, Watson or Wiggins).
• Final Arrest Phase.
• Total Sherlock Status Points: Villains and Inspector Personal Objective.

Investigate Phase

1. Players look at their hand of Evidence cards.
2. Each player chooses one Evidence card to acquire. To acquire an Evidence card, the player must spend the number of BSI tokens equal to the card's Cost (value in the bottom left corner).
3. Each player places their chosen card face down in front of them and places the remaining cards to their side (for the next player to pick up and choose from during the next Investigate Phase).
   • During Rounds 1 and 3: pass to player on left (clockwise).
   • During Rounds 2 and 4: pass to player on right (counterclockwise).
   • * The directional coin included in the game can be used to remind players.
4. Once all players make their choices, each player flips over their chosen card and discards the appropriate number of BSI tokens onto their Inspector board. BSI tokens on the Inspector board are referred to as "spent." Any BSI remaining are still "available" for future Investigate Phases that Round.

Arrest Phase

Players take turns deciding if they want to Arrest a Villain. The player order is determined by the position of the players' badges on the Arresting Order board (one time through).

To Arrest a Villain, a player must own Evidence cards that contain all the Plot Icons present on the Villain card, unless they are Tailing a Villain. (see Tail Phase) If an Evidence card has multiple Plot Icons required for a Villain, it satisfies both.

When a player Arrests a Villain:

1. The Evidence cards used to Arrest the Villain are flipped upside down (and considered "used"); however, the player is still in possession of the cards - for end game scoring.
2. Their badge on the Arresting Order board is moved to the last available slot, and all other badges are moved forward one.
3. Any player that was Tailing the arrested Villain receives their BSI back.
4. A new Villain card is drawn from the deck to replace the Arrested Villain.

Example: To Arrest Col. Sebastian Moran, a player must use cards that contain the Plot Icons Heart (Revenge/Love), Disguise (hat), Gangs/Groups, and Wound/Blood. In the example, the Blue player arrested on their turn, thus the Blue badge is moved down to the 5th spot and the Red and Yellow badges are each moved up one spot.

Tail Phase

Players take turns determining if they each want to Tail a Villain. The player order is determined by the position of the players' cubes on the Arresting Order board.

To Tail a Villain, a player places one of their BSI tokens onto a Villain card.

• If a player has no available BSI tokens, they cannot Tail a Villain.
• A player cannot Tail more than one Villain at a time, and a player cannot switch which Villain they are Tailing. The player's BSI is only returned once the Villain is arrested (by any player).

While Tailing a Villain, the player needs one less Plot Icon on their Evidence cards to arrest the Villain.

• When Tailing most Villains: a player needs Evidence cards with 3 out of 4 Plot Icons to Arrest.
• When Tailing Moriarty: a player needs Evidence cards with 8 of the 9 Plot Icons to Arrest.

More than one player can be Tailing the same Villain.

Example: Here the Red player is Tailing Col. Sebastian Moran. Thus, they could Arrest him using these two Evidence cards, as they satisfy 3 of the 4 symbols on his card: Heart (Revenge/Love), Gangs/Groups, and Wound/Blood.

End of Round

The 4th Cycle of the Round (when each player is choosing between only two Evidence cards) is the final Cycle for the Round. During this Cycle's Investigate Phase, each player will choose one card for themself and place the unchosen card, face down, in the middle of the table.

Once players have concluded the final Arrest and Tail Phases: turn face up the unchosen cards from the last Investigate Phase of the Round and place the Sherlock, Watson and Wiggins boards in the middle of the table as well. It is now time to resolve the BSI Bonus.

BSI Bonus

Each player counts their remaining (unused) BSI tokens. Players go in order from most BSI tokens remaining to fewest remaining (using position on the Arresting Order to break ties).

In order, each player chooses to do one of the following:

• Acquire one of the available Evidence cards.
• Acquire one of the Sherlock, Watson or Wiggins boards.
  • Each board has an ability that can be activated once in the following Round.
  • Once used (during the next Round), the board is placed back in the middle of the table.

Sherlock (Holmes board): can be used to either:

• Jump to the front of the Arresting Order (can be used during the Arrest Phase)
• OR - Ignore one Plot Icon when Arresting (can be combined with Tailing bonus)

Watson: can be used to move up one spot in the Arresting Order (can be used during the Arrest Phase).

Wiggins: can be used to change the Villain the player is Tailing (can be used during the Arrest Phase).

IMPORTANT: The BSI Bonus of the 4th Round does not include the character boards and is immediately followed by one final Arrest Phase.

Cleanup

• Any remaining Evidence cards are discarded.
• Each player receives back all their "spent" BSI tokens (not one Tailing a Villain).
• Change the Round Marker token to signify the next Round.
• A new deck is made from the Evidence decks to begin the first Investigate Phase of the next Round.

End Game Scoring

Players receive Sherlock Status Points from the following:

• Villains: Each player adds up the Sherlock Status Points located in the Sherlock silhouette on each of their Villain cards.
• Inspector Objective: Each player chooses one of the three objectives on the back side of their Inspector card to score additional Sherlock Status Points based on the Evidence cards they have accumulated throughout the game.

Example: A player with these Villain cards has 43 Sherlock Status Points in Villain Cards.

Example: The Gregson Inspector card offers these three objectives (Choose 1 of the 3 objectives to score additional Victory Points at the end of the game): 1 Sherlock Status Point (silhouette) for each Location card (house icon); 2 for each card with the rope-bookmark icon; 5 for each pair of cards from the same story. In this example, the Gregson Inspector would have these options: 5 from the 5 Location cards; 10 from the 5 rope-bookmark cards; or 5 from the 2 cards of the 3GAR story (the 3GAR story abbreviation).

The player with the most Sherlock Status Points is the winner.

• If there is a tie, the player with the most BSI remaining after the final round is the winner.
• If there is still a tie, the player higher on the Arresting Order board is the winner.

Best of Baker Street

Upon besting your fellow Inspectors, we invite you to join the elite cadre of champions online:

• Take a picture of yourself showing off the Sherlock Trophy you have earned from your victory.
• Share your Sherlock Status Points total from your game.
• Post your picture to Facebook, Twitter and/or Instagram using #BestOfBakerStreet.
• On our website, we will have dedicated links to all 3 social media platforms featuring those who have shared their victories for all to see.

WIN the GAME - SHARE the FAME!

Solo-Variant

In this solo-variant, you will be competing against the Master Detective, Holmes. He will always have the upper-hand; can you keep up?

Solo Setup

1. Setup the Evidence decks and the Villains row the same as steps 1 & 2 of multiplayer setup.
2. Place the Holmes Track (reverse side of Arresting Order) on the table with a cube in the top left corner.
3. Draw 2 cards from each of the Evidence decks and shuffle them together, then deal 5 to yourself and 5 to Holmes (across the table).
4. Take one set of 13 BSI tokens for yourself and a set of 13 for Holmes (across the table).
5. Randomly select one Inspector card for yourself (for end-game scoring objectives).

The solo-variant consists of a total of 19 Cycles. Each Cycle consists of the following Phases: Investigate, Arrest, Tail, Cleanup.

1 Cycle

1. Investigate Phase:
   • You: Draft a card as normal - select a card from hand and spend appropriate number of BSI tokens.
   • Holmes: Shuffle his hand and draw one card at random for his selection, spend the BSI tokens needed. (It doesn't matter if he has enough or not. Holmes can draft a card with cost of 4 even if he only has 3 BSI.)
   • Check Holmes Track: If the cube is on a space with a roman numeral, draw the top card from that deck and place it with Holmes's active Evidence cards. He does not spend BSI to acquire this card.
   • Check the remaining BSI in your supply and Holmes's supply:
     • If Holmes has 1 or 2 BSI remaining, resupply both your supply and Holmes's back to 13 BSI each.
     • If you have 1 or 2 BSI remaining (and Holmes has 3 or more), draw an Evidence card from deck III, and place the card with Holmes's available Evidence cards (the cards he has chosen but hasn't used for an arrest yet). Then resupply both your supply and Holmes's supply back to 13 BSI each.
   • When the BSI reset, in either scenario, you may choose to leave your Tailing BSI in place and reset to 12 instead.
2. Arrest Phase:
   • Holmes: Holmes always arrests first. He arrests as if he is tailing all Villains. He will default to Arresting the Villain worth the most Sherlock Status Points possible. You play his Evidence cards as efficiently as possible (meaning if two Villains are worth the same Sherlock Status Points, but one can be arrested using 2 Evidence cards and one requires 3, Holmes will always arrest the Villain requiring the fewest total Evidence cards). Turn over cards that Holmes uses to Arrest a Villain. Place his Arrested Villains in a pile across the table.

End Game Scoring (Solo)

After 19 Cycles are complete:

1. Inspect all Evidence cards you have collected during the game.
2. Consult your Inspector card to determine which goal provides the most additional Sherlock Status Points.
3. Add those points to the total number of Sherlock Status Points from your Arrested Villains.
4. Compare that total to the total Sherlock Status Points on Holmes's arrested Villains.

Were you able to one-up Holmes?

Plot Twist Cards

Below are some clarifications on some of the more involved Plot Twist Cards.

• "...the Inspector(s) with the most/fewest Sherlock Status Points": this refers to the Status Points on Inspectors' arrested Villain cards (no Inspector scoring objectives are considered here). In a tie, all tied players are affected - except for MAZA, in which case, use the Arresting Order Board (the Inspector highest on the Arresting Order Board receives the shilling token - shown above).
• BLAN: This refers to Evidence cards the Inspectors have acquired but not used in an arrest. Flipping the card over signifies the symbols on the card cannot be used for an Arrest for that Round, but it can be flipped face up after the Round ends.
• CARD: Rather than the BSI Bonus going in order from the Inspector with the most BSI remaining to the least, the order of choosing follows the Arresting Order board, starting with position 1.
• DANC: If multiple Inspectors have the fewest Sherlock Status Points, their order will be maintained when their badges are moved to the top of the Arresting Order Board.
• SECO: This means, rather than the BSI Bonus at the end of the Round, unchosen Evidence cards are immediately discarded, and the Holmes, Watson, and Wiggins Boards are not chosen (if an Inspector still has a board from the previous Round, it is lost as well).
• SIXN: Any BSI tokens being used to Tail from a previous Round remain, but no Tailing may be done during this Round.

Holmes in Disguise

For some added variety, players may choose to start the game with an alternate to the Holmes Character Board. There are six alternates of Holmes in Disguise, which can be used to swap out the Holmes Board. They provide various perks that can change up the way in which Inspectors can seek assistance from the Master Detective.