Sherwood Showdown Rulebook

Robin Hood has some competition in Sherwood forest. Guy Fawkes and his band of Blazing Bandits have begun encroaching on Robin Hood's hood, and the tensions are rising. Can your band of Merry Men rob more rich to feed more poor?

Props

• 1 Tarot deck (4x14 regular suits, 21 trumps, 1 fool)

Setting the Stage

Each player takes 2 suits and shuffles the resulting deck of 28 cards. The trumps are shuffled and placed in a face down pile in the centre of the play area, which represents the wealthy travellers in Sherwood Forest. Each player draws 5 cards from their deck.

The Cast

• Traveller cards (Trumps 1-21): Wealthy travellers passing through Sherwood forest. A traveller's card number indicates their wealth in gold.
• The Fool: The fool, while richly dressed, is more trouble than he is worth. He is shuffled into the Travellers deck, and is worth -5 gold.
• Outlaw cards (regular cards 1-10): Outlaw gang members - each player uses 2 suits; outlaw cards have a combat value equal to their number.
• Ransom cards (Page, Knight/Chevalier): These cards may be played along with a combat card to increase the value of the active traveller by 1 gold.
• Ransom cards (Queen, King): These cards may be played along with a combat card to increase the value of the active traveller by 3 gold.

The Script

On your turn, you turn over the topmost traveller. You may then choose to allow the traveller to pass or rob them (proceeds to the poor, of course).

Allow a traveller to pass

Each player may allow up to 2 travellers to pass during the game. Take the traveller and place it face up to one side of your play area (these need to be kept separate from your spoils). Play passes to your opponent.

If the Fool is turned up, he may be allowed to pass as usual, if the active player still has a pass available to him. If not, he is robbed as a normal traveller and added to the active player's spoils where he counts as -5 gold. Ransom cards may not be played on the fool.

Example of playing area, with a game in progress: Player 2 will win the 8 traveller unless Player 1 can add an outlaw with a value of at least 4 to the melee.

Robbing a traveller

To indicate that you are robbing a traveller, place any of your outlaw cards face up in front of the travellers deck. Your rival will probably want to take what you rightfully stole, resulting in a melee of the merriest sort.

They may do this by countering with a card whose combat (face) value is equal to (resulting in a tie) or higher than the one you laid.

You may now counter if you have another outlaw whose strength is equal to or greater than the first you laid, and which makes your total combat strength (combined value of all active outlaw cards) equal or greater to your opponent's. You may never lay a weaker reinforcement (i.e. you play a 4, your opponent plays a 5. Now, you may not play a 2, even though this would make your total combat strength higher than his - you must lay another 4 or any higher card.)

This continues until one player can not or will not continue the fight, and so announces a withdrawal. All cards used in a melee are then placed in the respective player's discard pile. The winning player places the traveller in their spoils pile.

In the case of a tie, the traveller unties himself and escapes, leaving both parties with no spoils (and embarrassed, looking at the ground and whistling nervously as they shuffle back into the woods). Place the escaped traveller face down underneath any travellers which have been allowed to pass and pretend he's not there.

At the end of each melee, players may draw 2 cards.

If a player runs out of cards, they may buy more at the start of their next turn, not during an active melee, by selling a Traveller card (a card buys as many outlaws as it is worth in gold, and is then discarded, face down, underneath the pile of travellers allowed to pass).

The discard pile is not re-shuffled until both a player's hand and their draw deck are depleted. At that point, their discard pile is reshuffled, and the player may draw 3 cards and continue the game as usual.

Use of Ransom cards

Ransom cards (the Page, Knight/Chevalier, Queen & King) will appear in a player's outlaw deck. These cards may be played along with a valid outlaw card (one ransom card per outlaw) at any time during an active melee, and add their value (see "Cast") to the Traveller. They may not be added to a melee after one party has chosen to withdraw. The winner places any Ransom cards from the melee, along with the Traveller, face up and visible in front of them.

Curtains

The game ends when all of the Traveller cards have been turned up and resolved. The player with the most gold in their spoils pile (represented by both Travellers and Ransom cards) wins.

Encore

For a shorter game, put only the even numbered Travellers into the traveller deck. Each player removes one set of ransom cards (Page, Knight/Chevalier, Queen, King) from their deck. Play remains the same as outlined above.