Sheriff of Nottingham Preview & Interview with Bryan Pope!

Sheriff of Nottingham is the debut title in the new Dice Towers Essentials Line from Arcane Wonders. It’s a bluffing social game that’s a lot of fun to play with both experienced gamers and those new to the hobby.

“Arcane Wonders had planned to develop and publish many other games in addition to Mage wars. We thought it was best to establish a separate line, so as to not confuse or frustrate our Mage Wars players. Mage Wars is, and will remain, our flagship game and primary focus!” Bryan Pope, President of Arcane Wonders said. “The Dice Tower Essentials line was setup to be the primary avenue for these additional games. We discussed with Tom Vasel and decided to produce a line of games with him. These all must be games that Tom really enjoys and loves to play.”

Sheriff of Nottingham is based on Robin Hood, a 2011 game that was a re-themed version of a Brazilian game. So when Arcane Wonders got its hand on it the first thing they did was spend a year development and tweaking its theme.

“During that time I changed the game quite a bit from the original,” Pope said. “My goal was to “turn it up a notch”, giving the game much better/tougher risk/reward decisions, more bluffing and bribing. I also wanted to reduce the luck and increase the strategy and control players have. I am quite pleased with the final results!”

After being revamped, the new version of Robin Hood didn’t feel like the same game and although it was set in the same era and location as the fictional character, the famous archer didn’t actually appear in the game, which is why Arcane Wonders decided to rebrand it as Sheriff of Nottingham.

“The game just never really felt like a Robin Hood game,” Pope said. “It was kind of a theme mismatch. After development, the game was very much focused on getting goods past a tough authority figure, and we decided that the Sheriff of Nottingham was a perfect theme, and still close to the original concept. We had also considered a pirate theme, smuggling goods past a port or harbor inspector, and a Texas Border Patrol theme, smuggling contraband and other goods from Mexico into Texas past a tough Texas border patrol agent. I really loved the Texas Border patrol theme, but we decided it may be too “adult” for the crowd and target audience we wanted.”

Sheriff of Nottingham has become one of the hottest games in the past year. It’s a quick social game with tons of bluffing, where players try to smuggle illegal goods into Nottingham without being busted by the Sheriff.

“We made the game’s focus so that it is more about players against a particular character (sheriff), rather than players against each other. Each player has a chance to be he the tough guy and against everyone else,” Pope said. “We were careful so that it is not easy to gang up on any one player. It’s hard to directly hurt another player. If you call someone’s bluff, they have to blame themselves partially for taking a big risk.”

Sheriff of Nottingham is currently for sale on Amazon as well as all major online retailers.