Sherriff of Nottingham Rulebook English

7/25/2019 Sherriff of Nottingham Rulebook English

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CREDITS

Original Game Design by Sergio Halaban and Andre ZatzSpecial thanks to Bryan Pope or his edition work and great commitment to this game. - Sergio Halaban

Game Development by Bryan Pope

Lead Development Consultant: Benjamin Pope

Special Development Consultant:Dr. Jason Medina

Special Tanks to Dr. Jason Medina or great original ideas!

Development eam:Dr. Tomas Allen, John Guytan,Chris Henson, J Huzl, Colin Meller, and om Vasel

Bryan and Sergio thank all o the playtesters or their help and support. Tey provided great eedback and ideas,and tirelessly spent many hours bribing, smuggling, and backstabbing each other!

Playtesters: Ryan Alexander, Kip Asbury, Steve Avery, Joseph Barber, Alexander Beresord, Lewis Bronson, Aaron Brosman,Ivan Bukreyer, Matthew Burch, Robert rent Bush, Patrick Connor, Ray Darcy, imothy Deal, CJ Desilvey, Te Kevin Eilers,Laura Fischer, Reuven Fischer, Anthony Gill, Natasha Hayden, Nick Hayden, Sam Healey, Adam Humpolick, Matt Humpolick,Sean Kelly, Chris Leder, Dane Leitch, Sarah Leitch, Jason Levine, Matt rom Dice ower, Nathan Marchand, Chris Masterson,

Ryan Metzler, Alexander Mont, Scott Morris, Cristoer Pope, Mike Ritchie, John Rogers, Nichola Sobota, Brandon Smith,Dawn Studebaker, Eric Summerer, James olbert, Rachelle olbert, Matthew Whitacre, Janette Williams, Phil Williams,

Connor Wilson, and Grant Wilson

Rules Written by: William NieblingCreative Direction & Layout: Chris Henson

Art Direction and Rules Illustrations: John GuytanCard Art and Game Components:Lorraine Schleter

Box and Character Art:David Sladek

Production Manager: John Rogers

2014 Arcane Wonders, LLC, 2014 Sergio Halaban, 2014 Ilhas Galapagos Comercio de Brinquedos, Artigos Recreat ivos e Servicos LDA, all rights reserved. No part o this product maybe reproduced without specific permission rom the publisher. Sheriff o Nottingham is a registered trademark o Arcane Wonders, LLC.

Te Dice ower EssentialsLine is composed o games that notedreviewer om Vasel (www.dicetower.com) believes are essentialor any gamers collection. Tese are games that we love, and aresure you will, also!

See more at /DTEssentials www.DiceTowerEssentials.com


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An exciting game of bluffing, bribery,and smuggling for3 to5 players.

Prince Johns lust or gold has finally gone too ar! Its impossible or a merchant to make a living

anymore, being taxed as much as we are. Now hes got the greedy Sheriff o Nottingham

checking everyone who comes through the ront gate or contraband meaning all the good stuff

hes trying to keep or himsel! Good thing you know the Sheriff better than Prince John does. Tat

shify, no-good, greedy ellow might be intimidating when he stands in ront o the city gate, but lets

be honest, he is not above taking a well-placed bribe to look the other way.

You have come to Nottingham with your Goods on market day, and the only thing standingbetween you and your hard-earned profits is the Sheriff. All you need to do is bluff or bribe your way

past him or maybe, tell the truth!

In Sheriff of Nottingham,you are a merchant trying to deliver your Goods to market. Players

take turns assuming the role o Sheriff, who must decide which merchants bags to inspect and

which to let by. As a merchant, your goal is to convince the Sheriff to let you inby any means

necessary! At the end o the game, the merchant with the most wealth wins!

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GAME COMPONENTS

Each card shows a product that a merchant can sell in theNottingham market.

Te top right corner shows the Value o the Goods. Tis isthe number o points it will be worth at the end o the game iits in your Merchant Stand.

Te bottom right corner shows the Goods Penalty. Tis isthe amount o Gold you must pay i you are required to pay aPenalty during the Inspections Phase (see page 8).

Tere are 144 Legal Goods in the game: 48 Apples worth 2 Gold each

36 Cheese worth 3 Gold each 36 Bread worth 3 gold each 24 Chickens worth 4 gold each

Tere are also 60 Contraband in the game: 22 Pepper worth 6 Gold each 21 Mead worth 7 Gold each 12 Silk worth 8 Gold each 5 Crossbows worth 9 Gold each

In addition, there are twelve Contraband Goods called

Royal Goods, marked with a gold banner and a SheriffBadge on the bottom. Tese are used only i you are playing

with the optional Royal Goods rules (see page 13).

Sheriff o Nottingham includes: 216 Goods cards, including: 144 Legal Goods (green)

60 Contraband (red) 12 Royal Goods (red with a gold banner

and Sheriffs badge on the bottom)

110 Gold coins, in our denominations: 39 1-gold coins 42 5-gold coins

17 20-gold coins 12 50-gold coins

1 Sheriff marker 5 Merchant Stands 5 Merchant Bags Tese Rules

THE GOODS CARDS

Legal Goods

Sheriff Marker

CoinsMerchant Bags

MerchantStands

Royal GoodsContraband

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SETTING UP THE GAME

Each player takes a Merchant Stand along with the matchingMerchant Bag, and places those items in ront o them.Choose one player to act as the banker. Te banker gives each

player (including himsel) 50 Gold. Te banker keeps the rest o theGold close at hand so he can make change during the game. Tebanker must not mix his own money with the banks unds!

For your first couple o games, you may wish to play the basic game.Te basic game is played without the Royal Goods cards. Remove thetwelveRoyal Goods cards rom the deck and return them to the box(to use these cards, see Royal Goods on page 13). Ten, shuffle therest o the Goods cards together, and deal sixcards to each player acedown.

Place the rest o the cards in a ace down draw pile.

urn over five cards rom the draw pile to orm a discard pile.

urn over another five cards rom the draw pile to orm a seconddiscard pile.

Yes, there are twodiscard piles! All players can examine the cards inboth discard piles at any time.

Finally, the player with the highest value o actual cash on theirperson will be the first Sheriff. Give that player the Sheriff marker.I there is a tie (or i no one has any money!), then randomly choosethe Sheriff.

STARTING COIN AMOUNTS

THE PLAY OF THE GAME

The game is played over a series o rounds. During eachround, one player will act as the Sheriff while the otherplayers act as merchants.

Each round is divided into five phases, which must be playedin order:

1. Market2. Load Merchant Bag3. Declaration4. Inspection5. End of Round

Note that the player who is acting as the Sheriff onlyparticipates in Phase 4, Inspection, and Phase 5, End o Round.He would do well to observe the actions o the other playersduring the other phases.

At the end o each round, players will pass the Sheriff Marker tothe lef allowing a new player to become Sheriff. Te gamecontinues until each player has been the Sheriff twice (threetimes in a three-player game).

3 PLAYER GAMES

I you are playing a three-player game, you mustmake two changes:Beore shuffling the cards, remove all cards thathave the 4+ icon (return them to the box). Tis includes:all 36 Bread cards, our Pepper, five Mead, and three Silk. Iplaying with the Royal Goods, one Bleu Cheese, one Golden

Apples, one Pumpernickel Bread, one Royal Rooster, and twoRye Bread should also be removed prior to shuffling.

Continue playing until all players have been theSheriff three times.

Once you are done setting up, your playingarea should look something like this.

You are ready to begin!

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THE GAME ROUND

PHASE1: MARKET

In this phase, you may discardunwanted cards and draw newones, hoping to get a set of goodsto take to market.

Starting with the player to the Sheriffs lef and goingclockwise, each merchant player takes one turn. On yourturn, you may set aside up to five cardsrom your hand (acedown), then draw back up to sixcards.

When you draw cards, you can take them rom the topoeither discard pile or the draw pile. Yes, this means that i youreally want the third card down in a discard pile, you have todraw the two on top o it first.

You must alwaysdraw the cards you want rom the discardpiles beoredrawing any cards rom the draw pile. Youcannot take some cards rom the draw pile, and then decide

to take cards rom the discard piles.Aferyou have drawn cards, place the cards you set aside atthe beginning o this phase on one o the discard piles, aceup, in any order you choose.

Example:Little John has two Chickens in his hand, and heknows that there is another Chicken two cards down in the lefdiscard pile. He discards three cards rom his hand, draws those

two cards rom the discard pile, and draws one rom the draw

pile. Ten he places his three discards on top o the

right-hand discard pile.

Playing hint:Drawing cards rom the discard pile is a good way toget the cards you want, but it also shows the Sheriff

what you take! O course, this may also be a way totrick him

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PHASE2:

LOAD MERCHANT BAGIn this phase, you place the goodscards that you want to take tomarket in your Merchant Bag.

All merchant players place Goods in their bags at thesame time. You can place rom one to five Goodsinyour Merchant Bag. You cannotplace zero Goods or morethan five Goods in your bag.

Be careul that you dont let the Sheriff or the othermerchants see which cards you put in your bag.

When you are satisfied with the Goods in your bag, snapit closed and place it on the table in ront o you. Once youclose your bag, you cannot change your mind later!

ExampleAlan-a-Dale has been collecting Apples. Heplaces our Apple cards rom his hand into his Merchant Bag.

Ten he adds a Crossbow. He would love to toss in the Silk hes

holding, but he can only put a maximum o five cards in his bag.

He closes the bag and places it in ront o him.

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PHASE3:DECLARATION

In this phase, you must declareto the Sheriff what goods you

are delivering to the market.

Of course, you can feel free to lieto him. In fact, you will probablyhave to lie at some point duringthe game!

Starting with the player to the Sheriffs lef and goingclockwise, each merchant player looks the Sheriff in theeyes and tells him what Goods he is taking to market. Whenyou make your declaration, you must hand your MerchantBag to the Sheriff.

Important: Te Sheriff cannotlook in the Merchant Bagsat this time!

You may make any declaration you wish, but you must ollow

these three conditions:

You can only declare LegalGoods. You can only declare one kindo Goods. You must declare only the exactnumber o cards in

your Merchant Bag.

ExampleWill Scarlet looks at the Sheriff and announces:My bag has our Chickens in it! He has to say our, because thereare our cards in his Merchant Bag, but they might not all

be Chickens! In act, Will only has two Chickens in his bag. Te

other two cards are a Cheese and a Silk. Te Silk is contraband, so

he would have to lie about that anyway: Will can only declare

LegalGoods.

Will cannot declare three or five Goods, because he must always

declare the exactnumber o cards in his bag. He could not

declare that he has two Chickens and two Cheese, because he

can only declare one typeo Good.

THE GAME ROUND

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PHASE4: INSPECTION

Now the Sheriff can choose toinspect the Merchant Bags!

When you are the Sheriff, you decide the order in whichyou inspect the bags. You can inspect any number oMerchant Bags during this phase. You can even decide not toinspect any bags!

Beore you inspect a bag, you maychoose to threatenthebags owner. Tat player may offer you a bribe to avoid theinspection. A bribe can be just about anything you can thinko, in any combination. Here are some o the things you canoffer as part o a bribe:

Gold Legal Goods in your Merchant Stand Contraband in your Merchant Stand Goods in your bag (Legal or Contraband)

Promises o uture avorsSee Honor Among Tieves on page 10.You cannotoffer any of the cards in your hand as

part of a bribe!

Once the Sheriff has made a choice it cannot be changed.As soon as you unsnap a Merchant Bag or hand it back,its too late to change your mind!

Afer the Sheriff hears your offer (and afer any negotiationrequired to settle the issue), the Sheriff must eitherallow you

to pass (accepting any bribe that may have beenoffered), and hand you your Merchant Bag,orinspect the bag (reusing any bribe thatmay have been offered).

ExampleTe Sheriff is about to inspect Friar ucks bag. ucksays Wait, Sheriff! You dont need to look in that bag! How about

I give you five Gold and two Apples or your trouble? Te Sheriff

looks at the good riar suspiciously and says, Make it eight Gold

and we have a deal.

Looking hurt that no one believes his innocence, uck pays the

Sheriff eight coins and two Apple cards rom his Merchant Stand.

Te Sheriff hands ucks Merchant bag back to him.

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IF THE SHERIFF LETS YOU PASSYou must now show the cards in

your bag to the other players.All LegalGoods are placed in the matching spaces o yourMerchant Standace up. Te Legal Goods o your MerchantStand can always be inspected by any player at any time.

All Contrabandis kept secret! You must reveal the numberoContraband cards you have smuggled into Nottingham, butnot their type. Keep your Contrabandace downat the top oyour Merchant Stand.

IF THE SHERIFFINSPECTS YOUR BAGthere are two possible outcomes:

If you were telling the truth,and your bag has exactlywhatyou declared, the Sheriffmust pay you Gold equal to thePenalty on every Legal Good in your bag. Your Legal Goodsare then added to your Merchant Stand, as above.

If you were lying, and your bag does not have exactlywhatyou declared, three things happen:

1. Any Goods that you diddeclare truthully are allowed intothe market. Place them on your Merchant Stand ace up, asnormal.

2. Any Goods that you did nottruthully declare areconfiscated! Te Sheriff takes all o those Goods and placesthem on oneo the discard piles, in any order he chooses.

3. You must pay a fine to the Sheriff or all confiscated Goods.Te fineis equal to the Penalty shown at the bottom o eachcard.

ExampleMaid Marions sweet and innocent reputation gother past the Sheriff without even paying a bribe! She pulls three

cards out o her bag: wo o them were Cheese, just like she said inthe Declaration Phase. She places those in her Merchant Stand ace

up. But the third card was Contraband! Te Sheriff groans as she

places it ace down above her stand.

Example Much the Millers Son turns out to be an honestman. Te Sheriff inspected his bag and ound that it does, indeed,

have exactly our Chickens in it, just like he said. Te Sheriff must

pay him eight Gold (two or each Chicken). Much the Millers Son

then gets to add the Chickens to his Merchant Stand.

ExampleGilbert Whitehand has our cards in his MerchantBag. He declared that he had our Apples. Even afer Gilbert

offered a hefy bribe, the Sheriff reused to believe him and

inspected his bag. Inside he ound only one Apple, one Cheese

and two Mead.

Since Gilbert was truthul about the one Apple, he is allowed to

keep it (adding it to his stand). But, he lied about the other three

Goods, so those are confiscated (and placed in the discard pile).Gilbert must now pay the Sheriff ten Gold (two or the Cheese plus

our or each o the Mead cards).

Playing hint:When offering bribes to the Sheriff, keep in mind

that you will have to pay him a Penalty or any

confiscated Goods anyway. Sometimes its worthoffering him a little bit more to avoid having your

Goods confiscated.

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Normally, all deals you make must

be honored! However, there are acouple of exceptions:

Promises o uture avors, which take place afer the currentinspection phase, are notbinding!

A merchant might offer the sheriff a bribe, which includesGoods in his merchant bag. O course, he might be lyingabout the contents o his bag. I he is allowed to pass, whenhe reveals the Goods in his bag, he need only pay the sheriffthe Goods he promised which actually exist! I he promised

Goods to the sheriff, which are not in his bag, he does nothave to pay those.

ExampleTe Sheriff is threatening to inspect Richard at the

Lees Merchant Bag. Richard decides to use this opportunity to getback at Sir Guy o Gisbourne. He makes the ollowing offer: Sheriff,

I will pay you twenty Gold i you agree to let me pass unchecked and

agree to inspect Sir Guys bag, regardless o what bribes he may offer

you! Te Sheriff agrees, taking Richards money and waving him

along. Now the Sheriff mustinspect Sir Guys bag, since the deal can

be completed in the same round.

In a later round, Sir Guy makes a deal with the Sheriff: I you dont

inspect my bag this round, I wont inspect your bag next time Im

Sheriff. Te Sheriff agrees and lets Guy into the market. But, whenGuy is the Sheriff during a later round, he could decide to betray his

honor and inspect the (ormer) Sheriff s bag!

HONOR AMONG THIEVES

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RUNNING OUT OF GOLD

It is possible that you will run out o Gold coins during thegame. You cannot offer Gold or bribes i you do not havethe coins to pay.

I you cannot pay a Penalty you owe, you must give the playerLegal Goods rom your Merchant Stand with a value at leastequal to the amount you owe. (Tis may mean you give morevalue than you owe, but you wont receive change or theexcess.) I you do not have enough Legal Goods, you mustreveal and hand over Contraband to make up the difference.Te player who received the Goods may then add them totheir Market Stand.

I you have exhausted all the Goods and contraband in yourMarket Stand to pay a debt, any lefover debt is consideredpaid.

this helps a desperatelypoor player!

RESHUFFLING CARDSIn the event that you run out o cards during the game,you will need to shuffle all but the top five cards rom

each o the two discard piles to recreate the draw pile.

PHASE5: END OF ROUND

If all players have been Sherifftwice (three times in a three-playergame), the game ends immediately!

Otherwise, the player who was the Sheriff passes theSheriff marker to the player on his lef. Tat player willbe the Sheriff during the next round.

All players draw cards until they again have six cards in hand.Note that the Sheriff should have six cards in hand rom thelast round.

Te next round begins withPhase 1, the Market Phase.

THE GAME ROUND

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WINNING THE GAME

The game ends afer all players have had two chances(three chances in a three-player game) to play as theSheriff. At the end o the last round, all players discard

any cards they have in handthose cards are not worthany points!

Ten, reveal your Contraband cards and count up your score.You earn points equal to:

Te value o allGoods you have in your Merchant Stand(Legal and Contraband);

Any Gold coins you have;plus

Any bonuses you have earned or being the

King or Queen o a type o Good.Te player with the most points wins.

I two players tie or the same amount o points, the playerwith the most Legal Goods wins. I there is still a tie, then theplayer with the most Contraband Goods wins.

So you want to bethe Chicken King?

The player who has successully delivered the mostandthe second mosto each type o LegalGood is declaredthe King and Queen, respectively, o that Good. Tey

receive bonus points as ollows:

TYPE OF GOOD Kings Bonus Queens BonusApples 20 10

Cheese 15 10

Bread 15 10

Chickens 10 5

I there is a tie or the Kings Bonus, add the King and Queenbonuses together, and divide the total equally between all thetied players (rounding down). Do not pay out bonuses or

second place.

I there is a tie or the Queens Bonus, divide those pointsequally between the tied players (round down).

ExampleDavid o Doncaster ends the game with these Goodsin his Merchant Stand: 4 Apples, 6 Cheese, 1 Bread, 4 Chickens, 2

Pepper, and one Crossbow. He has 42 Gold.Comparing his totals with the other players, he sees that he has the

most Cheese, making him the Cheese King, and that he is tied

with one other player or the second most Chickens, so they split the

Chicken Queen bonus. His total score is as ollows:

Legal GoodsApples: 4 x 2 = 8Cheese: 6 x 3 = 18Bread: 1 x 3 = 3

Chickens: 4 x 4 = 16

ContrabandPepper: 2 x 6 = 12

Crossbow: 1 x 9 = 9

Gold Coins on hand: 42

Cheese King: 15

Chicken Queen: 5 2 = 2.5

rounded down to 2.

Total: 8 + 18 + 3 + 16 + 12 + 9+ 42 + 15 + 2 = 125 points! 12


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optional RULES

ROYAL GOODS

Royal Goods are the finest quality Goods in the kingdom.

Prince John has declared that these Goods can onlybeused by himsel and his most loyal cronies. So, all Goodsmarked with a gold banner and a Sheriff s badge are consid-ered contraband.

Te Royal Goods are normally meant to be played with thegame, but are removed when first learning the game. Addthe twelve Royal Goods cards to the deck beore you shuffle.Tey are treated just like any other Contraband card duringthe game.

At the endo the game, the Royal Goods cards are added toyour other Legal Goods beore you determine who wins theKing and Queen bonus or each type o Good. Each RoyalGood counts as 2 or 3 o the matching type o Good, as listedon the Royal Good card. Note that six o the Royal Goodscards are marked with a 4+ icon and must be removedduring a three player game.

ExampleWill Stutely and the Bishop o Hereord are com-peting or the title o Cheese King. Will has 10 Cheese cards and

the Bishop has 11. Normally, that means the Bishop would get a15 Gold bonus and Will would only get 10 Gold.

But, Will has a surprise! He has a Gouda Cheese card. Tat brings

his total to 12 Cheese, which is more than the Bishop has. Will

gets to be the Cheese King!

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INSPECTION TIME LIMIT

Sheriff of Nottinghamis even more un when you put atime limit on the Inspection Phase! Te Sheriff only gets

1 minute or each merchantin the game. So, in a our-playergame, the Sheriff only gets 3 minutes to decide i he is goingto inspect anyo the Merchant Bags. I you run out o time,any merchants you have not inspected mustbe allowed topass without bribing you.

You can use your own timer or this, but why not downloadour ree app at www.dicetoweressentials.com? We built inlots o un sound effects to add atmosphere to your game!

REMOVING CARDSBEFORE THE GAME

Have annoying card counters in your group? Frustratethem with this optional rule!At the beginning o the game, afer shuffling the cards, ran-

domly remove 10 cards rom the deck and return them tothe box without revealing them. Tis way, no one will knowwhich cards were removed!

seven card hand

Increase each players hand size rom six cards to seven.Tis gives the merchants more control and makes it alittle more challenging or the Sheriff.

PROMO CARDS

Promotional cards or Sheriff o Nottingham can beidentified by the blue banner at the bottom o the card.Tese cards may be added to the deck without needing toremove other cards.

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Documents

Sherriff of Nottingham Rulebook English