Stats:
No. of players: 3-5
Amount of time to play: 60 min
Age requirements: 13+
Set-up time: 5 minutes

In Sheriff of Nottingham you try to sneak goods past the sheriff and into your market. If your goods are inspected and you are lying, you pay. If you are being honest the sheriff pays you.

Sheriff of Nottingham Rules Description:

Each round of Sheriff of Nottingham one player is the sheriff and the rest of the players are merchants. After each round the sheriff role is passed clock-wise and once you have been the sheriff twice the game is over.

You start the game with 50 gold coins and six goods cards. There are four types of legal goods and four kinds of contraband and 7 different royal goods. The round begins with the Market Phase. In this phase you may discard cards to draw new ones from the top of the two discard piles or the face-down draw deck. This can help you get the goods you want to get into your market.

Next each player packs their bag with up to five goods cards. The game comes with small bags that snap shut. Then you must look at the sheriff and declare what is in your bag. When declaring the contents of your bag you can only declare one type of legal good and the number of cards in your bag. You cannot lie about the number of cards in your bag.

After all players have declared their goods to the sheriff, he or she decides whether he wants to inspect their bag. You can bribe the sheriff not to open your bag or just let him do it. If he opens your bag and you have told the truth he pays you and the goods go in your market. If he opens your bag and you lied, you must pay the penalty (based on the card), the legal goods you declared go into your market, and any undeclared goods go into one of the discard piles. If he doesn’t look at your bag or your bribe is accepted you place all legal goods face-up and any contraband face-down in your market.

Once the game is over you tally the gold values of your legal goods, contraband and your gold coins. Then players that have the most and second most of the legal goods get a bonus. Royal goods are contraband that count as 2 or 3 legal goods of their type for this bonus. The player with most gold wins.

Quick Review of Sheriff of Nottingham:

Sheriff of Nottingham is fun bluffing game with a dash of negotiation and set collection. It plays quick, is easy to teach and very accessible.

The components for this game are really nice. The art is well done and the cards and coins are sturdy. The insert tray is really nice. It makes setting the game up a snap. Though I do wish there was more room for the 5 value coins. The rules are easy to read and follow.

I am not a huge fan of lie-to-your-friends-types of games. But this one is just plain fun. It has just enough going on to make it interesting.

I like the set collection and how the royal goods work. They can really help you win the bonus for most legal goods.

My group had a good time living this one up. From “Do you know why I pulled you over?” quotes to “Please address me as sir.” we had fun playing the sheriff. So this game might be a bit dependent on the group.

If you like bluffing games, you should pick up Sheriff of Nottingham. Even if you are not a big fan of bluffing games this one does it well. Give it a try.

Score and synopsis: (Click here for an explanation of these review categories.)
Strategy 3 out of 6
Luck 4 out of 6
Player Interaction 6 out of 6
Replay Value 4 out of 6
Complexity 2 out of 6
Fun 5 out of 6
Overall 5 out of 6