Holmes Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Victory
• Case Tokens
• The Deck
• The Board
• Setup
• Deduction Notes
• Turn Sequence
  • Investigate Phase
  • Action Phase
  • Sleuth Phase
  • Deduction Phase
  • Retire Phase
• Card List Notation
• Elementary Deck Card List

Victory

Be the first player to accumulate 5 Case Tokens.

Case Tokens

Players share a common set of Case Tokens.

The Deck

Players share a common deck.

The Board

The Board has 7 spots for cards, one spot for each suite. These are called the "Suite Spots".

Setup

Create 7 mini-decks, one for each suite.

For each suite, randomly select one card; keep its identity hidden from all players, and place it in its corresponding Suite Spot on the board.

Shuffle the remaining cards of the mini-decks together to form the common deck.

Each player is dealt 5 cards.

The player with the highest IQ goes first.

Deduction Notes

Players will want to have paper and pencil on hand to keep track of which cards of what Rank they have seen for each suite, to deduce the remaining cards in the Suite Spots.

Turn Sequence

Players take turns. Each turn has 5 Phases:

1. Investigate Phase
2. Action Phase
3. Sleuth Phase
4. Deduction Phase
5. Retire Phase

Investigate Phase

Draw 2 cards from the deck and put them in your hand. If the deck runs out, shuffle the discard and draw from it. If you have 4 or less cards in your hand (before drawing) draw 1 extra card.

Action Phase

You may play (discard) one card from your hand to activate its special Ability.

Special Ability Table

Card Type	Ability
Mystery	Draw 2 cards
Sherlock	Look at the next 5 cards in the deck
Help	Draw 1 card and target opponent discards 1 random card
Action	Opponent discards 2 cards from his hand of his choice
Method	Look at target opponent's hand
Clue	Steal 1 random card from opponents hand
Locale	Draw 3 cards. Keep 1 and discard the other 2

Sleuth Phase

You may solve a Case. To do this, you must play, all at once, seven cards, one of each of the seven card types. No two cards in the Case may have the same Rank number. If you solve a case Gain a Case Token, and discard the Case Cards.

Deduction Phase

You may guess the rank of a specific card on the Board (one of the 7 Suites). Look at the card secretly. If you are wrong, discard your hand and you may not at a later time attempt to "guess" that card. If you are right, show the card to all players and then put it in the discard. Gain 1 Case point for guessing correctly. (Now there is one less Suite card for players to guess).

You may choose not to guess, if so, draw 1 card and discard any 1 card from your hand, OR you may, for 15 seconds look at the cards in the discard.

Retire Phase

Max hand is 9 cards. Discard excess cards.

Important Note: The discard (and deck) is kept face down.

Card List Notation

• X = Mystery
• S = Sherlock
• H = Help
• A = Action
• M = Method
• C = Clue
• L = Locale

Elementary Deck Card List

Card Name	Type	Rank
Adventure of the Empty House	X	1
The Hound of the Baskervilles	X	2
A Study in Scarlet	X	3
The Sign of the Four	X	4
The Blanched Soldier	X	5
The Man with the Twisted Lip	X	6
Adventure of the Copper Beeches	X	7
A Scandal in Bohemia	X	8
The Lions Mane