Watch the Video
Read the Rules
The aim of the game
In the Sheriff of Nottingham you’re just a humble trader, bringing in goods to sell at market. Unless you're the Sheriff, who must sniff out undeclared items!
To set up
- Shuffle the deck and give each player 6 cards, place the remainder in the centre of the table.
- Give everyone a character board and a value of 50 coins.
-
The player who has the most money on them gets the Sheriff marker.
To play the game
A round goes as follows.
- First, you may discard up to 5 of your cards and draw new ones if you wish
- Next everyone, apart from the sheriff, secretly puts between 1 and 5 cards into their bag and makes a statement about what they are. Bribery and scheming is encouraged.
- Then the sheriff decides which bags to check, with penalties for wrong inspections and fines for undeclared goods!
Putting items in your bag
Blue cards are legal goods, red cards are contraband - they fetch a pretty price, but heftier fine. The value at the top is what the item is worth, the value underneath is the fine to pay if you get caught out.
Each round you can put between 1 and 5 of any assortment of goods in your bag
- You cannot lie about the number of items.
- But you can Lie about what the items are.
Because you may only declare one type of legal good to the sheriff.
For example, if I put two chickens, a crossbow and an apple in my bag, I could say I have 4 chickens, or 4 apples, or 4 loves of bread if I’m mad.
Bribery and Scheming
Once everyone's bag is closed and declarations made, now’s the time for dastardly schemes:
Maybe you offer the Sheriff some extra coin not to check your bag… as a thanks for all his hard work, or throw in a chicken from your stall to let him know how law-abiding you are. You could promise to let their goods pass unhindered when you’re the sheriff, or if they check someone else’s bag instead. Ofcourse, you don’t have to commit to future promises!
Checking the Bags
Finally, the sheriff decides which bags to check and which to let pass.
If your bag is let pass, open it and place any legal goods face up onto their space on your market stand. Tuck illegal goods face down above it. How did they get in there!?
If your bag is checked and you've told the truth, the sheriff must pay YOU the fine value of each good, for wasting your time.
If you’re caught lying, place the legal goods you didn’t lie about on your stall and discard the rest after paying the sheriff a fine for each.
For example, If i said I have 4 chickens, id have to pay ……… for this crossbow and ….for this apple to the sheriff and discard them, but can keep these 2 chickens
After a round ends, the role of Sheriff passes to the left.
Game end and scoring
The game ends when everyone has been the Sheriff twice in a 3 - 4 player game and once in a 5-6 player game, then scoring begins.
- Whoever has the most of a certain good on their stand gets the points in gold above it.
- Whoever has the second most gets the points in silver.
- Add that to the total coins you have and the sale value of all the goods you have on your stand.
Whoever has the most points wins!
That’s Sheriff of Nottingham - I’m just a humble trader sir…honest!