There are games that are, like Sheriff of Nottingham, just fun little diversions.
There is no depth to Sheriff, and not a lot of mind-twisting decisions, yet the overall game is fun enough.
You are a merchant bringing supplies to market; chickens, bread, cheese and apples, represented by cards.
From your hand you place goods into a provided velveteen bag.
Sounds simple, but merchants in medieval times occasionally dealt in illegal items, crossbows, potions and the like. A wily merchant might hide a potion among his apples to get past the sheriff.
And therein lies the heart of the game. Each turn one player is the sheriff. Other players prepared their bags of goods. They have to tell the number of cards in their pouch, but not the exact goods.
So a player might say three apples, knowing one card is the aforementioned potion.
The sheriff can then accept the merchant’s word, and the merchant gets the cards in the pouch and their game-end points. As you might expect contraband cards are worth more points.
If the sheriff searches the bag and finds the potion it is lost and the merchant pays a fine in gold.
If the sheriff searches a bag and finds the merchant was honest; it was indeed three apples as he stated, the sheriff must pay the merchant for delaying his business.
It is a very simple bluffing game played over a few rounds, the shortness of the game keeping it fun.
As fun as Sheriff is, it is also a game suffering from major over production in terms of components. This should be a card game in a relatively small box for easy storage.
But it’s not. It comes in a box triple the size it really needs to be.
The game includes large player boards that do look nice, but are not required. They have player options, something a card could easily accomplish.
The boards also mark areas to lay off your scoring cards, apples, bread etc. Anyone playing a number of rummy-style games will know it’s just as simple to lay-off a meld to your play area, where often you may add extra cards later.
The velveteen bags are neat, but slipping cards in and out is such an unnecessary action. Lay the cards face down before the sheriff and get on with things, it’s not like you can bluff the number of cards anyway.
Speaking of the sheriff there is a large stand-up that moves around the table to signify who is in that role on a turn. It comes off the stand rather easily, and will more so with repeated use. Again here a card to pass around would work nice.
I’d even suggest forgoing the coins for cards that show the coinage value, leaving a complete card use game, fitting a much smaller box.
The over-production aside, Sheriff is a fun game taken in small, occasional play doses, although if it hit the table too often the charm could easily wear off.
The game was designed by Sérgio Halaban, and André Zatz, and released in 2014. It can be found at www.arcanewonders.com/game/sheriff-of-nottingham/
