Negotiate, negotiate and negotiate. Sheriff of Nottingham allows you to do one thing, but it does it really well! This is a light, social and really fun game for 3-5 players. The main game mechanic for Sheriff of Nottingham could be described as follows:
- Each turn, one of the players will play the role of the Sheriff, and the others the role of merchants that are trying to get goods past customs, of which the Sheriff is in charge.
- The game has 2 types of goods (represented as cards): legal and ilegal.
- In each turn, the merchants will put all the cards they wish (legal and/or ilegal) from their hand into a bag and give it to the Sheriff, who will decide if he lets the goods into the city without inspections or if he decides to open it. If he inspects the bag, he will receive gold for all the undeclared goods, but if the merchant had truthfully declared his goods, the Sheriff will have to pay him for them and the merchant may keep them.
- Merchants are allowed to negotiate with gold, and even goods, with the Sheriff.
These are the reasons why this is such a good “make me better” game:
- Before you start any negotiation, you have to know where your thresholds are. What is the maximum you can lose? What is the maximum you can win?
- Every turn you have to negotiate; you and another player. You’re on the spot light, you can feel the heat. If you are the Sheriff, you’ll be putting everyone up to the test. If you’re the merchant and have been lucky enough to draw good cards (legal and expensive), you’ll have the upper hand and will not be tense, but if you drew a lot of ilegal goods, you’re going to have to be convincing. You’ll see what you’re made of: you can crack or be courageous, you can try to make the deal a win-win or stand your ground, you can get creative or you can keep it simple.
- As the Sheriff, you’re going to have to read people. This is where reading body language and even microexpressions comes into play. Did your friend touch his face after he said there were only 3 apples in the bag? Did she look away? Did he hide his thumbs?
To finish off the post, here is a match of Sheriff of Nottingham played by the Tabletop crew of Geek & Sundry (feat. Wil Wheaton), and a review of Jamey Stegmaier’s favorite mechanic of the game.