How to Play Sheriff of Nottingham 2nd Edition: Bags, Declarations & Inspections
Sheriff of Nottingham 2nd Edition is a bluffing and negotiation game. Each round, one player is the Sheriff while the others are merchants trying to move goods through inspection and into their market stands.
Scope: core 2nd Edition rules. The Black Market, Deputies and other included modules are treated as optional unless your group adds them.
1. Market phase: improve your hand
Merchants draw and discard Goods cards using the available market/deck options in the 2nd Edition sequence, preparing a hand that can support honest trade, bluffing or both.
2. Load your merchant bag
Secretly place the allowed number of Goods cards into your bag and snap it closed. The Sheriff cannot inspect the contents until deciding to open it during inspection.
3. Make one legal declaration
Tell the Sheriff how many cards are in the bag and declare one type of legal good. Your declaration must obey the rulebook restrictions: you do not openly declare contraband or multiple legal types, even if the bag actually contains them.
4. Negotiate bribes
Merchants may offer legal bribes allowed by the rules to persuade the Sheriff to pass or inspect bags. Deals can include coins and other permitted offers, but the Sheriff chooses whether to accept.
5. Sheriff passes or inspects each bag
If a bag is passed, its goods reach the merchant stand. If inspected, compare its contents with the merchant’s declaration. Incorrectly declared goods are confiscated and can cost the merchant penalties; if the merchant was truthful, the Sheriff may owe compensation for the legal goods inspected.
Rotate the Sheriff
After all merchants are resolved, pass the Sheriff role as directed. Continue until every player has served as Sheriff the required number of times for the player count.
Final scoring
At game end, add coins and the values of goods successfully moved into your stand, then resolve legal-good majority bonuses and any optional-module scoring in use.