Monopoly money gone (aka 'shoot me now')

[Russ M.]

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How about the main issue: Monopoly's classic rules are beyond horrible for what could otherwise be a great, strategic game.

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The actual rules...or the ones people make up at home (like the whole money-in-Free-Parking thing)? Or the unlimited houses and hotels?

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[J-Mac]

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I'm surprised they aren't trying to cash in on the poker boom by replacing the Monopoly Money with poker chips.

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I've played Monopoly with my roommates before using poker chips. We found it to be easier and faster than shuffling through the paper money.

[sexypanda]

A huge part of my monopoly strategy involves robbing the bank... this is terrible!

[billygrippo]

i play it with chips

[censored] tiny pieces of paper

[curtains]

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I read a great alternate version of the game that 2+2's curtains basically invented a while ago. I'll see if he's willing to post.

Basically there's a larger emphasis on auctions, where you don't have the option to buy property; instead there's a written auction held any time someone lands on a property, where you all write your bid for each property on a piece of paper and the highest bidder takes it. This makes it way harder to obtain a monopoly and also compromises everybody's cash assets early on, which decreases the value of the higher value properties later.

The advantage is people have to place a bigger emphasis on money early on in the game, and the dynamics change quite a bit as a result (dark green/blue properties are not nearly as valuable). Also, when a person 'busts out' their mortgaged properties go back to the bank, not the player, which is way better than the game's original rules. The game also ends more quickly this way.

The problem with the current game is the luck factor, the poorly set up auction system (which most people don't even use), and a basically limitless supply of money. Unless you are playing with people who make really bad trades, no amount of skill can overcome the game's inherent inequities of luck.

BTW I think if you made the Free Parking and Go spaces worth $50 each instead of just $200 for Go, the game would be a hell of a lot better.

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These rules sound way better. Every game I've played virtually turns into Candyland b/c whenever I try to trade people they're so worried I'm trying to trick them so they do nothing and we roll until the one person with a monopoly wins.

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There are my rules. I'll reprint them here. I'll possibly forget something:


1. Anytime you land on a property everyone writes a bid down on paper. Highest bid gets the property. You can bid any amount from $1 to all of your money. If you bid more than you have, you are eliminated from the game.

2. You do not collect rents in jail. I personally hate the late game strategy of staying in jail as much as possible. It's so absurd to me, but if you somehow enjoy that you can scrap this rule.

3. There are no freeparking bonuses. You still receive $200 for passing Go.

4. Before the game each player is given a token. You can use this token to automatically buy a property if you land on it, for double the list price. So once per game you can automatically buy a property without an auction being possible, but you must be the one to land on the property for this to be allowed. You can give these tokens away in trade. You can probably just use a hotel as one of these tokens.

5. Another cool rule is that if you mortgage a property, and someone else lands on it, they have the automatic option to buy it from you for double the list price. So you sometimeshave to be very careful about randomly mortgaging properties.

6. If you bankrupt someone you get all the money that they can pay after mortgaging their properties and selling their real estate. You do not get all of their properties, these go back to the bank.


You'll see very quickly that these rules make the game MUCH more interesting with tons of interesting strategical and psychological moments. The regular rules of Monopoly are simply made for idiots. It even makes headsup play interesting, although in that case we start both players with two tokens.


* - Also in headsup play, if you own two of a color group, you receive double rent on them.

** - It's very possible that I forgot part of the rules, if anyone has any questions let me know.

[Jeff W]

Cash->Debit reminds me of New Coke.

[frostbrn]

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How about the main issue: Monopoly's classic rules are beyond horrible for what could otherwise be a great, strategic game.

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The actual rules...or the ones people make up at home (like the whole money-in-Free-Parking thing)? Or the unlimited houses and hotels?

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VNH Sir. Under the Boardwalk!

[ScottySo]

my great grand uncle (or something similar) created monopoly and sold it to the parker bros. his name is charles something, some of the older boards used to mention him in the instructions. understandably I am a monopoly tradionalist and I hate this change.

[DonkeyKongSr]

I bet all you guys are against video poker tables, too.






Oh wait, that's a terrible idea for the same reason this one is. People like playing with paper money the same way people like playing poker with real chips and cards.

[Jack of Arcades]

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This is going to bomb horribly. They'll be putting the money back in less than 2 years.

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You can still buy about 15 different editions that all have paper money.