I had my doubts when I heard about Sheriff of Nottingham, but those doubts faded away when the first round of negotiations started. I would highly recommend the app as it not only makes calculating the points a lot easier, but it also adds to the theme by having ambient noises playing while the app is running.
SHERRIFF OF NOTTINGHAM MISSING GREEN BAG.. FREE
I must also mention that there is a free app for the game that does the point calculations and that keeps time of the negotiation phase. This continues until each player has been the sheriff twice (depending on the number of players)Īt the end of the game, each merchant adds up the number of points allocated by the goods cards and any bonus points received. The players then place their legal goods face up next to their player boards and place the illegal goods face down. More than once the negotiation phases lead to funny accents and bursts of laughter between the players.Īfter the bribes have been negotiated the sheriff then inspects the bags that he has chosen and the relevant fines are paid.
This back and forth negotiating is where the fun lies in Sheriff of Nottingham. These bribes can range from gold, goods to favours. The merchants and sheriff are able to negotiate bribes so that for instance, the sheriff inspects another merchant’s bag and not yours. However, should the merchant have declared the incorrect items, or have any illegal goods in their bag, they then need to pay the sheriff the relevant fine. The catch is that if the merchant declared the correct items in their bag, and the sheriff decides to inspect it, the sheriff then needs to pay the merchant the relevant fine. The sheriff can inspect any number of bags.
They must however declare the correct number of cards in the goods bag, and can only declare one kind of legal goods (even though that might not be what is in the bag).Īfter each merchant has handed their bag to the sheriff and declared the goods, the negotiating phase starts. Each merchant can make any declaration they wish. The bags are then handed to the sheriff, and the contents are declared. They then draw the same number of cards that they discarded from the draw and discard piles.Īfter each player has discarded and drawn their cards, they then place any number of goods (not more than five) of any type into their goods bag and close it. In a round each player (excluding the player who is the sheriff) can discard any number of cards from their hand.
One player is then designated as the sheriff for that round. The players are then dealt a hand of six cards and also their starting gold. The game starts with each player choosing a character and receiving the matching player board and goods bag. With so many cards to shuffle it tends to take a while. The problem with this is that for the game to play at its best, the deck needs to be shuffled thoroughly. The card stock is a bit flimsy, especially considering that you have to shuffle a lot of cards. It would have been nice if the clasps were a better quality as I had to force open some of them and almost broke one clasp off. Hearing the click when you open them somehow adds a lot to the theme. I did have a problem with the clasps on the bags themselves. The bags that you place your goods in are made of a nice soft material. The cardboard used for the coins and the player boards are nice and thick, and felt good to handle. The cheese merchant always seemed to have the funniest back story and accent, no matter who played the character. There were many times when we would catch ourselves creating backstories and accents for our chosen characters. For starters, the artwork on the cards and player boards are great and sucks you into the Sheriff of Nottingham theme. It is the sheriff’s job to decide who may pass with their goods and whose goods need to be inspected. The catch? Each player gets to be the sheriff. Sheriff of Nottingham places you in the shoes of one of five merchants, each trying to transport their goods (legal and illegal) across the border safely.