- forget rationale and just have a Sherlock Holmes in, say, the 900s (to give a fusty old fashioned atmosphere) and have done with it?!
In terms of the actual adventure I'd not really decided between a solo-adventure for one detective or the PCs having access to/meeting such a character to help them out.
But
that also raises my third difficulty, and that is that once 'modern' forensic science comes along, much of the use of SH's abilities become redundant.
Not necessarily, you might want to peruse the BBC series set in the modern day and, if you can get it, the US TV series ‘Elementary’ which both update the character successfully to the modern era (imo). People complain because neither Benedict Cumberbatch
or Jonny Lee Miller are Jeremy Brett, but that’s irrelevant (again, IMO) The Brett ‘Sherlock’ is a nearly slavish homage to the original, the others are no less true to the character.
(Note also that Doyle’s Sherlock was himself on the cutting edge of forensic science of the day)
IMO the key to the ‘getting-around-the-tech’ issue in the story is either figure out the forensic countermeasures of the criminal, or figure out the red herring nature of the forensic evidence. “The killer’s DNA is on the murder weapon!” no it was planted
by the real killer, no it IS that person’s DNA but there’s an innocent explanation, the person has an unknown twin, as they were adopted. etc. Electronic, video or audio evidence can be manipulated, or forged outright, etc. Also, real-life forensic science
is nothing whatsoever like it is on teevee. This will still apply in the far future.
The key to ‘being Sherlock’ is still (as it always has been) intense, obsessive attention to observation and detail, details that other miss or dismiss as irrelevant, and a laser-like focus on reason rather than emotion. Much of the Victorian Sherlock
can be transplanted right into the present day, which is why the modern adaptations do well, I think.
His methods may change, but the character is timeless and hardly subject to TL variations.
--
Bruce Johnson
University of Arizona
College of Pharmacy
Information Technology Group
Institutions do not have opinions, merely customs