Negotiating with Sheriff of Nottingham
Sheriff of Nottingham is a game of negotiating and strategy where you are a merchant trying to bring merchandise into the city. You can choose to either be honest and tell the truth or try to sneak in contraband. But if you’re caught by the sheriff, he may just confiscate your goods.
Created by: Arcane Wonders
Platform: Physical game
Target Audience: Families
Notable Formal Elements:
- Players: There are two main rolls for players: merchant and Sheriff. The merchants are trying to convince or bribe the Sheriff into letting them into the city. Each round, the Sheriff role changes. This provides an interesting negotiating dynamic which you don’t see often in games.
- Conflict: The main conflict or obstacles in this game are your opponents. Specifically, the Sheriff. That player has the control to investigate or let your goods pass un-inspected.
Type of Fun Intended: Allows players to “break” the rules by bribing and lying to win.
Is it fun?: With the right crowd, it definitely can be. It can also be super difficult and frustrating for someone who’s a bad liar or doesn’t like lying. But, of course, they can also just play a good clean game and play honest. I’d say it was fun the last time I played it.
*Quick note: I haven’t played this game in years… I don’t have a physical copy of it and you really do need to play it in person. This analysis is based on my memory of the experience and my reading a bit about it to refresh my memory.
Competitive Analysis
Sheriff of Nottingham is a relatively comparable game to the social mediation game that my team is creating. Both games rely on negotiation between players as a core mechanic.
I really like how the negotiation is handled in Sheriff. The merchant makes an offer and the Sheriff decides how to respond. A little back and forth is possible, but in the end the merchant has to put forward his goods and the Sheriff needs to decide whether to inspect or not. There are consequences if the merchant lies and gets caught, and there are also consequences for the Sheriff if the merchant was telling the truth and they investigate. The rules and consequences for the final deal are abundantly clear. This is something that we can learn from for our own game.
We’ve been struggling with how to get players to actually reach a deal and how to evaluate the deal. I like the way Sheriff of Nottingham handles it.
