Sherlock Express
Sherlock Express Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 27 suspect cards
- 36 alibi cards
Goal
Study all the suspects carefully, examine the alibis and, using deduction, work out who is guilty.
Setup
- Shuffle the alibi cards and deal them out to the players equally. Players place their cards in a face-down pile in front of them.
- Then place the pile of suspect cards face down in the center of the table.
- Turn 6 suspect cards face up and place them around the pile.
- The player who most recently watched a detective film starts the game, and then play passes clockwise.
Gameplay
On your turn, flip the top alibi card of your pile and place it face up in front of you so that the other players can see it. Players place the alibi cards they reveal next to the cards already revealed, so that all of them are visible to everyone.
Alibi cards show a place, an animal or an object. Each revealed alibi card proves the innocence of one or more suspects, giving them an alibi.
When flipping a card from their pile, players announce the alibi, which proves the innocence of one of the suspects. Then all players must look at the cards already revealed to work out who committed the crime.
Important: If a player reveals the same alibi card that has been revealed before, nothing happens and the game continues: play passes to the next player, who reveals another alibi card.
Example
Players have flipped the following 3 alibi cards, one after another: tiger, library and top hat. This means the culprit is not the tiger, is not in the library and is not wearing a top hat. The circle of suspects narrows.
Making an Accusation
To make an accusation, a player must be the first to place a hand on a suspect card. If several players together accuse the same suspect, the point goes to the one who placed their hand on the card first.
IMPORTANT! There can be only one culprit! If the alibi cards prove the innocence of all six suspects on the table, the players must catch Moriarty himself by placing a hand on the pile of suspect cards in the center of the table.
Players check whether the accusation is correct by checking the alibi cards again:
- If the player is right, they take the suspect card or, if they correctly accused Moriarty, take the top card of the suspect pile. The player places this card in front of themselves.
- If the player is wrong, they take no further part in the current round, and the players continue searching for the culprit without them.
When the culprit is found, they are replaced with a new suspect card. This way there are always 6 face-up suspect cards in the center of the table. Players take back their alibi cards, shuffle them and stack them face down in a pile in front of themselves. A new round begins. The player who took the suspect card is the first to flip a new alibi card.
End of the Game
The winner is the first player to collect 5 suspect cards.
Variant: Accusing Alibis!
Be vigilant! If players flip an already revealed alibi card a second time, the culprit is trying to divert suspicion from themselves! But you can't be fooled that easily... In this variant, setup and gameplay are the same as in the base rules, except that an alibi card revealed twice points to the culprit or culprits!
In that case all other alibi cards are ignored, and players must place their fingers as quickly as possible on the corresponding suspect cards with the twice-revealed alibi in order to take those cards (each player may touch only two cards). Players who manage to do so place these cards in front of themselves to keep track of the number of points earned. Even if several culprits were exposed this way, the player who placed the last alibi card in this round plays first in the next round.
If no suspect matches the two revealed alibi cards, then Moriarty is guilty! The first player to place a hand on Moriarty in the center of the table receives the top card of the pile.
The game ends immediately when the last card of the suspect pile is turned over. The player who has received the most suspect cards wins the game.