Designer: Jose D. Flores

Artist:  Joaquín Rodríguez

Publisher:  TCG Factory

2 – 5 players (says 2-5 on the box, but has personal cards for six players) 

Time: 10 minutes

by Jonathan F.

Played three times at different player counts with a copy from TCG Factory

Sherlock in Time is a nifty entry-level deduction game that has nothing to do with Sherlock Holmes or time travel.

We have gone back in time to the Japan of ninjas and samurai . . . because.

The core of the game is a deck of cards with three features, a room, an item, and a person.

For the basic version, you have three possible locations (theater, bedroom, and outside), four possible people (ninja, samurai, geisha, and advisor), and three possible items (mask, sword, and jade dragon).

There is one card with theater, ninja, and mask. Another with theater, geisha, and sword.  You get the idea. 36 (3 x 3 x 4) cards in total.  There is an optional fourth item, a shield, which expands the deck to 48 cards.

The fun feature of this game is how easy it is to play.  You have a hand of seven cards, six facing towards you and one facing away from you. Each player is trying to guess the contents of their outward-facing card by playing one of their other cards. After three rounds, you score and the high score is the winner.

For example, if my outward card is outdoors, geisha, and mask.  I might play theater, geisha, and sword.  Everyone would tell me 1 because the two cards have one item in common. I would then place the card next to the 1 in front of me. The answer will always be 0, 1, or 2, It cannot be 3 because there are no duplicates in the deck.

Since you know there are no duplicates in the deck, that means you can use the outward-facing cards of the other players plus their question cards to eliminate possibilities of what your outward-facing card is.  If you know you are outdoors and sword but don’t know which person. If someone else has played outdoors, ninja, sword, you know you don’t have the ninja, which can then help you deduce the meaning of the cards in front of you.

The flow of the turn is to play a card, get the answer of 0, 1, or 2, then optionally guess what your outward-facing card is. You only have one guess to get it right. Points are scored based on whether you solved it first, second, or third. The game plays up to six and turn order is important, as everyone seems to get it around the same time. There are likely easy changes one could make if one does not like the scoring system, as the point of the game is deduction.

The game offers the option of a ‘dishonorable shortcut’, which you can use on a 50/50. You name a single location, person, or item, and the others tell you if that is part of your card. Dishonorable shortcuts hurt you in tiebreakers but also might be a way to level the game between kids and adults.

There is an expansion in the box which gives each player a special power. These include play an extra clue card once, skip the player to your left, and other fairly typical old-school asymmetries.

The game mentions social deduction on the rulebook, but not on the box. It is not a social deduction game.

Sherlock in Time is a nice-looking deck of cards with clear symbology in the upper left corner as well as art on the rest of the card. We had a bit of trouble telling the people apart, but not enough to cause wrong information to be passed. I would not be surprised to learn that the first version had Professor Plum, Colonel Mustard, Ms. Scarlett, and Mr. White with the rope, candlestick, pipe, and dagger in the conservatory, library, and ballroom.

Although some would have liked pencil and paper for deducing the information is all in front of you, so many will be comfortable playing without notation.

In short, this is a fine introductory deduction game that is portable and easy to explain. It would work ok in a family context because it has three distinct variables, rather than having them merged as in a SET deck or a deck of cards.

If asked to teach or play, I would happily do so.

Thoughts from other Opinionated Gamers

Ratings from the Opinionated Gamers

• I love it!
• I like it. Jonathan F.
• Neutral.
• Not for me…