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A heinous crime has been committed. A team of the Kingdom's finest detectives has been assembled and put on the case. They have a prime suspect, they have a motive, and they know what the opportunity to commit the crime was. Now all they have to do is prove it.
Using powers of deduction and communication, the players work as a team to eliminate dead leads and find clues to prove who, how, and why. All the relevant clues are available to them to do so. They just won't know it. On top of that, Sherlock Holmes himself is already on the case. Can they solve the crime before he does?
At the start of Beyond Baker Street, players select one of the crimes to solve, and a number of suspects, motives, and opportunities will be available for the players to convict of the crime. Each player holds a set of clues, but they won't be able to see their own clues — only those of their counterparts. Each turn, a player must take exactly one of the following actions:
ASSIST another detective
INVESTIGATE crime scene
CONFIRM evidence
ELIMINATE dead leads
PURSUE new leads
Players win together if they can gather enough evidence to make a conviction before Holmes does; otherwise, they crumble under the stress of the case.
- idea of giving clues was intriguing
- it's just missing something
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Clue giving — idea of giving clues
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Hey everybody, I'm Tom Vasel and welcome to look back where I take a look at reviews that I've done here in the Dice Tower. Last year this time, 5 years ago, 10 years ago, and 20 years ago and I tell you what I think about these games now if I think about them at all.
- So there you go folks, those are the games I reviewed one, five, 10, and 20 years ago.
- I'm Tom Vasel and this is look back on the Dice Tower.
- Hey, thanks for watching another video here on the Dice Tower. We really appreciate you stopping by and checking our things out. Thanks so much for joining us today and hey, if you really like what we're doing here at the Dice Tower then there are different ways to support the Dice Tower. One of those ways is through Patreon. We have links in the description to this video and we have links to lots of other things we do down there so definitely check it out but either way we're glad you watched us. Tell your friends about the Dice Tower. Until next time though, I'm Tom Vasel and I hope you enjoyed this video.
References (from this video)
- Cooperative puzzle with thematic weight and tension
- Good onboarding for new players through clear role framing
- Multiple cases and adjustable difficulty provide replayability
- Limited communication can frustrate memory-dependent play
- High cognitive load and time pressure may be stressful for some groups
- cooperative detective work and crime solving within a narrative case
- Sherlock Holmes universe; late Victorian London
- character-driven, tension-filled deduction with time pressure
- Hanabi
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- character powers — each player has a character card that grants a special power or a weakness affecting play.
- cooperative deduction — players work together to solve a case with limited information and no single player has full visibility.
- hand visibility constraint — players cannot see their own cards and must rely on teammates to guide decisions (Hanabi-like).
- Limited Communication — players cannot see their own cards and must rely on teammates to guide decisions (Hanabi-like).
- time pressure and case progression — a strict pace requires timely decisions and progress toward evidence accumulation.
- Unique Player Powers — each player has a character card that grants a special power or a weakness affecting play.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Beyond Baker Street is truly a Cooperative game where everyone has to be involved and on the same page it's stressful there's a lot of pressure not to be the clumsy forgetful detective who lets the side down but that's what makes it such a great game
- hive mind is a party game of thinking alike
- the auction is the only point of player interaction in the game and it can be the difference between life and death
- it's accessible it doesn't make you feel like an idiot when you're playing it
- it's not a trivia game you don't have to have encyclopedic knowledge you just have to remember the films you've seen
- the challenge of achieving Harmony had me invested in the game
- Snow Tales comes with a whole bunch of different tracks and loads of suggested racetracks
- it's not quite the perfect Gateway racing game