![]() ![]() Gingerly you pick up a bag, toying with the little fastener that keeps it sealed. It’s your first turn as the sheriff and also the first turn of the game. Let me paint a typical couple of turns for you. In fact, I’d wager that after a turn around the table, anyone you’re teaching this game to will instantly “get it”. Still with me? Good! We could start playing a game right now. Adding spice to this are special goods which are worth tons more money if you can sneak them in, but that the sheriff will definitely confiscate if he opens your bag (netting you the penalty fee). The winner is the one with the most gold at the end of the game. Each player takes it in turn to be that inspector, the dreaded sheriff, deciding whether to check the bag (potentially paying an honest merchant a penalty for the holdup) or let it through as is. You do this by taking between 1 and 5 of the cards in your hand (representing, chickens, cheese and other items) and putting them in a small, velvety pouch, passing them across the table to the local inspector. In Sheriff of Nottingham, you are all merchants trying to bring goods into the town for an upcoming festival. ![]() If you like deals, table talk, riotous laughter, and rules that can be explained in under 5 minutes, let me introduce you to Sheriff of Nottingham. Unlike those large games with complex rulesets, there's a middle ground now, where there's more player control in a game, but still that fun of player interaction. You’re not alone! These are some of the core ideas behind many of today’s board games, capitalizing on trading and wheeling with the other players around the table. Perhaps you like set collection and getting satisfaction from completing neat combinations of the same color property. Maybe you love the buy/selling of the game. The ideas in the game still are pretty great, after all. The good news is, if you still think fondly of Monopoly, then you’re actually one step ahead of me. Once the veneer of “being the millionaire” departs with youthful imagination, what’s left seems more like a linear luck-fest. It’s easy to see how anyone could tire of this formula after their childhood years. At most, you make one or two decisions a turn, usually to buy/not buy whatever you’ve landed on, to build a house/hotel somewhere, or to pester your neighbor once again to trade that last orange property you need. ![]() ![]() You roll (randomly) and move (randomly), suffering or benefiting from whatever space you land on (randomly). Games like Monopoly may be fun to play when you’re younger, allowing banter back and forth as you take each others’ paper money, but they don’t offer much in the way of choices. Don’t be so hard on them though: most folks (myself included) grew up with games like Clue and Monopoly, what we in the hobby call “roll and move games”. There are people we try to get to try board gaming - be they friends or family - who lovingly tolerate our penchant for this hobby, but often seem convinced it's a little inappropriate for our age. Sheriff of Nottingham is a great example, and with that as our focus, let's dive into what makes a board game great. Never fear, dear reader there is a solution, a middle ground of games that are both simple and yet still fun. For them, the idea of spending the next two to three hours in epic gaming may seem more akin to sitting down for a root canal. A new big game means a new challenge, a new puzzle to solve.īut sometimes, new big games are hard to share with others: some folks go into deer-in-the-headlights mode when the lid comes off. If you're like me, you're already checking the "all of the above" box on your answer sheet. Does your excitement spill across the table in proportion to the amount of stuff that tumbles from the game box? Maybe you own games that have yet to be unleashed on family or friends, but your fingers tremble with anticipation every time you open the game up to take a look inside. Do you like big board games? I'm talking really big board games. ![]()
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