Episode 22: The Game’s Afoot: A Master Class in Reasoning with ”221B Baker Street”

What game do you play when you've exhausted the possibilities of mystery games like "Clue"? The answer, dear listeners, is elementary. This week, Chris and Laura wrap up their Month of Mystery with "221 B Baker Street", a Sherlock Holmes inspired investigation game which expands on the deductive reasoning genre of games. What adaptations did we do to make it accessible to our younger children? What kind of advanced skills in deduction and inference can be gained? Why is the replayability so high? Join us in the fog of Victorian London and find out!

 

Games Mentioned:

 

221B Baker Street - Today's featured game. Link goes to the Deluxe Edition, which offers the most replayability. 

Mastermind - A codecracking game that exercises skills of logic and deduction.

Mystery of the Abbey - This whodunnit game set in a medieval monastery blends elements of Clue with card driven events that limit play time and increase strategic challenge. The game page at the Days of Wonder site includes PDFs of the Suspect Sheets and Rules Pages.  

Outfoxed - A fun, cooperative game that can be played with nearly everyone. Here's a good playthrough video, though there is a small difference in how the Thief Card is presented. It looks like the earlier game used red and green dots, rather than green dots or blank spaces. This is probably an alteration to make the game less confusing for those with red-green color blindness. If you buy a used copy, that may be an issue. 

 Clue - This is the current version of the game. Mostly similar to the original, but a magnifying glass option allows players to gain hints. 

 

Books and Movies Mentioned: 

 

Sherlock Holmes - There are many, many Sherlock Holmes stories. Follow the link for a complete collection. I also recommend checking to see if your local library has the Annotated Sherlock Holmes. It's a treasure trove of Easter Eggs and delightful bits of minutia. 

Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Granada Television Series - Others may have their favorites, but Jeremy Brett's turn as the Great Detective is still my favorite, and the series is well produced. 

 

Can't see the links? Podcatcher turning my painstaking labor into plaintext? Come visit the podcast page at  https://played.podbean.com/ and get the full experience, complete with all the links in perfect functioning order. 

 

Intro and Outro Music:

"Crunk Knight" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Other Music:

Music from https://filmmusic.io
"One-eyed Maestro" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)