GAME DESCRIPTION: Sheriff of Nottingham is a social bluffing game designed for 3 to 5 players. The objective is to successfully get various goods, both legal and illegal, past the Sheriff and rack up more total money than every other player to win.
SET-UP: Each player begins with 6 Goods cards and 50 gold. Two discard piles are created in sets of 5, and 1 player begins as the Sheriff. Rules are altered slightly with 3 players, with all cards with "4+" taken out.
MARKET: Each turn begins on Phase 1, the Market Phase. Each player places up to 5 cards in their hand in their colored bag. Players then draw back up to 6 cards. Players may draw from either the deck or the top of the discard pile.
BAGS: Phase 2 has all players who are not the Sheriff place 1 to 5 cards into their bag. Phase 3 has all players than announce the exact amount of cards in their bag. They then announce only 1 type of legal card, which are highlighted in green. However, any card may be placed into the bag, regardless of matching the players announcement or type of card, as long as the amount is accurate to the players number.
SHERIFF: Phase 4 is the Inspection phase. In this phase, the current Sheriff can investigate any amount of players bags. Players may also offer coins, cards from their Merchant Stand, or future promises in exchange to avoid looking in their bag or to look in another players bag. Cards in a players hand cannot be traded.
THE REVEAL: If the Sheriff has ignored or returned a players bag, they reveal all legal goods and place them under their Merchant Stand board in the appropriate places. If the Sheriff has looked into a players bag, and they were telling the truth, the Sheriff must pay equal to the Penalty of all cards, located on the bottom right. If, however, the player was lying, then that player must pay the Sheriff the total penalty, and all goods not declared are placed into either discard pile. Then, any goods that were truthfully declared are placed under the players Merchant Stand.
GAME END: The role of Sheriff is then passed to the next player, and the Market Phase begins again. Once all players have been Sheriff twice, the game ends. Players then add up all points on their cards in their Market Stand, located in the top right, with their coin total. Players with the most amount and second most amount of a legal good also get a bonus, located on their Merchant Stand board. The player with the most points wins.
CONCLUSION: Sheriff of Nottingham is a great bluffing game. It has a solid framework and relies heavily on bluffing, long term strategy, and reading people. It starts out a little overwhelming at first, but once you can get into the groove, you can start learning about people. My only problem with it is that it takes so much thought process that I end up feeling exhausted afterwards, so it's a once a week game for me. With so many bluffing games being created recently, this is one I can say that will keep me coming back again and again.
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