Baker Street Roleplaying in the World of Sherlock Holmes

Baker Street: Roleplaying in the World of Sherlock Holmes is a table top RPG that premiered at Origins Game Fair in 2014. It was created by Bryce Whitacre and Fearlight Games. The game centers around a group of investigators taking cases in Baker Street while Sherlock Holmes is presumed dead during the Great Hiatus (1891 to 1894). The game was originally printed by backing from Kickstarter. It was a finalist for Best New RPG on Boardgamegeek and it won the D-Infinity Independent Game Award for best new RPG.

Mechanics

Baker Street uses a D6 dice mechanic where results of 4,5, and 6 are successful. Each dice roll features one special die called an Icon Die (by Fearlight Games) but most often referred to as the Sherlock Die. This special die is a six sided die that features 1,2,3, making any 1s, 2s, or 3s, in your roll successful. One side has "Dr. Watson" that gives you a free success, "Professor Morarity, that makes you subtract a success for every failure you rolled, and "Sherlock" which allows the player to declare their choice of 1s, 2s, or 3s, in the roll as successes.

Baker Street features an investigation mechanic that goes beyond a simple investigation skill roll in most RPGS. Crime scenes feature false clues, items, and leads which have to be processed through a series of dice rolling and yes or no questions of the Game Master. By getting answers to yes or no questions players are lead to leads that will keep them on the right track. Without discovering these leads the investigators waste precious time either following false clues or leads, or spending too much time on a crime scene. As time is wasted the Threat Meter of the case increases. Each increase can either affect the Sherlock Die in negative ways or cause the plot of the story to turn against the players. When interviewing witnesses the group is allowed a set number of questions before the threat meter is increased, meaning, that as a group, they must come up with the best questions possible or suffer threat increases.

In Baker Street: Roleplaying in the World of Sherlock Holmes, players take on characters with an assortment of Victorian Age professions before moving into 221 B. Baker Street. These professional skills allow a player to re-roll 6s for additional successes when rolling that particular skill.

Reception

Baker Street enjoys a huge following of players at the Origins Game Fair and Gen Con. It's available in game stores as well as the Icon Dice that accompany the game.

Hood: Swashbuckling Adventures in Sherwood is the second game by Fearlight Games to feature the Icon Die. This time it's Robin Hood, Maid Marian, and the Sheriff of Nottingham on the Icon Die. The game retains the special die but features an entirely new dice rolling mechanic and system.

References

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