Sherlock Holmes and the Things of Tomorrow

Sherlock Holmes and the things of tomorrow: A collaborative storytelling game to reflect on emergent technologies and future scenarios. Imagine a murder in the year 2100. And you are the police detective who is called to solve it.

Together with your team you inspect the crime-scene. You gather clues and reconstruct what has happened in this world full of new technologies. This is the setup for a collaborative storytelling game that offers a intuitive, playful and fun way to reflect on future technologies and how we think they might influence us.

Instead of a rational approach to create and discuss future scenarios the game allows every player to immerse himself into the future. Each player gets a better understanding of how he and his team see the future. And this shared understanding helps them to rewrite the future of their organisation, business or brand.

I use the game as an entertaining element in creative and innovation workshops. It is a light adaptation of „Sherlock Holmes and the Internet of Things“ developed by the Digital Storytelling Lab at Columbia University. It takes about 90-120 minutes depending on the size of the group playing it. It is best played with 10-15 players.