In my first game of Sheriff of Nottingham, I began the game as a wannabe crafty merchant seeking to smuggle the most absurd contraband past the scowling Sheriff, who was played by my husband in the first round.
With sly winks and shifty glances, I discreetly stashed wedges of the treacherous “Limburger Cheese” beneath piles of innocent apples, giving my husband an innocent smile as I passed him my yellow bag.
Sadly, I got caught in my lie – like my dad always said, I never was very good at lying.
But the true hilarity ensued when the roles were reversed, and I donned the Sheriff’s hat in the next round. As I interrogated my fellow merchants, their elaborate stories and loud denials had me both baffled and bemused.
In Sheriff of Nottingham, laughter is the most sought-after currency, and the outrageous bluffs and shenanigans are worth more than all the golden coins in the kingdom. It’s a game where deceit reigns supreme, and where being a “Sheriff of Suspicion” or a “Merchant of Mirth” is all part of the fun.
What’s included in Sheriff of Nottingham?
- Game Board: Depicts the town of Nottingham with spaces for market stalls, discard piles, and the Sheriff’s inspection area.
- Merchant Bags: Each player has a colored bag to hold their goods.
- Goods Tokens: These represent various legal and contraband goods.
- Royal Goods Tokens: Represent valuable but legal goods.
- Sheriff Marker: A pawn that designates the current Sheriff.
- Gold Coins: Used for scoring.
- Merchant Standees: Represent each player’s merchant character.
- Declaration Cards: Cards that players use to declare their goods to the Sheriff.
How to play Sheriff of Nottingham
Sheriff of Nottingham is a game of bluffing and negotiation where players take on the roles of medieval merchants attempting to bring goods into the town of Nottingham. The twist is that during each round, one player, the Sheriff, is responsible for inspecting the goods and determining whether the merchants are telling the truth or attempting to smuggle contraband. Here’s a detailed guide on how to play:
Setup
- Place the game board in the center of the table.
- Shuffle the Goods Tokens and place them in separate facedown piles for each type.
- Each player receives:
- A merchant bag
- Six randomly dealt Goods Tokens
- 50 Gold Coins
- A Declaration Card
- A merchant standee placed in their respective market stall.
Rules for Sheriff of Nottingham
Sheriff of Nottingham is played over a series of rounds, with each round consisting of the following phases:
1. Market Phase
- Players take turns being the Sheriff. The Sheriff role rotates clockwise.
- In turn order, each player may place Goods Tokens (between 1 and 5) from their hand into their merchant bag and declare them to the Sheriff. Players must announce a specific type of good (e.g., apples) and the quantity.
- Players can choose to declare goods honestly or bluff by declaring different goods than what is actually in their bag.
- Once all players have declared their goods (or contraband), the Sheriff decides which merchant bags to inspect.
2. Inspection Phase
- The Sheriff may inspect any number of merchant bags. To incentivize the Sheriff to not inspect one’s bag, one may offer a bribe to let their bags through. The Sheriff can decide to accept the deal or not.
- To inspect a bag, the Sheriff opens it, reveals its contents, and checks if the declared goods match what’s inside. If a player declared goods incorrectly (including contraband), they must pay a penalty to the Sheriff in gold coins.
- If a bag contains only legal goods, the Sheriff must compensate the merchant for the inconvenience by paying them a penalty.
- The Sheriff can choose to allow a bag to pass without inspection, to avoid paying penalties in the instance the merchant player isn’t lying or if they decide to receive a bribe from said player.
- After resolving inspections or not, the active player proceeds to market their goods, either placing them face-down in their merchant stand or discarding them.
- The next player in clockwise order becomes the active player, and the game continues until everyone has been the Sheriff twice (or as many times as indicated by the number of players).
3. Scoring
Scoring in Sheriff of Nottingham is based on various factors, and the player with the most points at the end of the game wins. Here’s how scoring typically works in the game:
- Legal Goods: Each player scores points for the legal goods they successfully bring into the market. The point values for legal goods are printed on the cards and are usually higher for rarer goods.
- Contraband Goods: Contraband goods are worth points as well, but their value is hidden. Players score points for contraband goods only if they successfully smuggle them past the Sheriff.
- King and Queen of Goods: At the end of each round, the player with the most of a particular type of legal good becomes the “King” or “Queen” of that good and earns bonus points.
- Remaining Goods and Coins: Players also earn points for any remaining goods and coins they have at the end of the game.
Winning the Game: The game is typically played over several rounds, and the player with the most gold coins at the end wins.
For the official rules, see the link below: