Because Sherlock Holmes is public domain
So, back when I first had the idea to do this blog (back in September, remember what I said about having this stuff just cluttering up my head?), I also had an idea for a game…well, the seed of an idea anyway.
It occurred to me that with all the interest in Sherlock Holmes nowadays, that there’d be interest in a Sherlock Holmes RPG (as it happens, there is one that was Kickstarted recently, but anyway…). And with all the different versions of Holmes et al currently on offer (if you count all the TV shows that have aired over the last few years with “deductive master” protagonists, it’s easily in the double digits), there was even a pretty interesting hook I could use: a Create-your-own-Sherlockverse. Or, as I would imagine the text on the back of the book would read:
"In an infinite multiverse, only two constants exist: there must always be a London, and it must always have a Sherlock Holmes."
Classic characters like Sherlock, Watson, and Lestrade become the equivalent of character classes: forming a basis for what the character can do without forcing players to either play only a “canon” version of characters or playing secondary detectives in a Sherlocky world. Hell, if it’s designed right, you could have a game where four Sherlocks solve a crime together (I’d pay to watch that glorious train wreck).
Thusly, I dub this odd little idea Anylock because you can be any Sherlock you want. Amusingly, Anylock is also the name of those little latching bag-clip things.
There’s more to this idea, but I’d rather try to start actually posting this stuff rather than just trying to pile it up until I have the whole thing ready to send out. This tumblr’s supposed to be about getting over my tendency to think too much and produce too little, after all.