Bleeding Sherwood

Shooting ducks in a barrel has never been more fun. Welcome back to Sherwood Forest, where the poor are getting richer.

Some misguided fool called Robin Hood has taken it upon himself to burgle the rich nobles of Merrie Olde England, so he can redistribute their ill-gotten wealth to someone who deserves it even less: the ubiquitous poor.

You and your colleagues are a coterie of wily salesfolk, sworn to separate these peasants from their newfound wealth, by peddling such amenities as fyne arte, olde milke, and tropical fyshes. Because you are sure that these bumpkins have more cash than they have any right to.

Why, if it weren’t for you lot, they might not even stay poor.

Bleeding Sherwood is a simple bidding card game. It was one of the earliest games in the Cheapass catalog, product #004. This is the Pearl Anniversary Edition, with updated cards and rules that make it superior to all prior versions. We do this because we care.

This game is still in playtesting / design. It will ship to our Coconut Crabs in July 2026, and will be available for sale in August. You can preview the files below:

• Bleeding Sherwood Rules (Version 1.5, 6/8/26)

• Bleeding Sherwood Test Deck (Version 1.5, 6/8/26)

• View the Original in our shop

So, What Changed?

Bleeding Sherwood was created in the first year of Cheapass Games, back when we were in love with auctions where every bid was spent, even though only one player took the prize. In defense of this approach, some games handle it well (for example Ben Hvrt, from the same year, or literally any trick-taking game). Our playtest group learned to bid very conservatively, if at all, and we had a great time developing the game. We thought it was the bee’s knees.

But when we unleashed Bleeding Sherwood upon the world, nobody liked it. In fact, the game is one of the worst-reviewed products in the old catalog. People bid too much, ran out of bid cards, and got frustrated. For many years we stubbornly extolled the game’s virtues, begging people to play smarter. But really, if you’ve tried a game once and disliked it, are you really going to try it again?

Fast forward to now. To celebrate the game’s 30th anniversary, James Ernest decided to bring this old clunker back to the table. He was willing to build an entirely new game, if it told the story better. But after testing lots of variations, the game came nearly full circle, in a version that’s almost identical to the original but with one huge improvement.

Instead of taking nothing, the lower bids take something. Choose from secondary targets on the table, or other players’ spent bids. Even a player with no cards is never out of the game. On the next round they can usually pick up someone else’s bid.

Bleeding Sherwood has seen more playtesting and design work in 2026 than it ever saw in 1996 (see the list of playtesters), and the improvements are immense. It has become one of the best games in the catalog. We hope you will agree when it comes out in August (or you can print the files above, and try it for yourself!)

Does every old Cheapass Game need this level of revision? Probably. With Bleeding Sherwood, we’re glad we took the time. We hope you will enjoy it as much as we do.