What would a good and fun Monopoly game look like?

Loren Michael

I think most people can agree that Monopoly is a cultural classic, and many board gamers have a story or three from childhood about some cool shit going down with Kentucky Avenue or something. But I think most of us can also agree that it's just not a very fun game compared to many others out there.

Say you wanted to re-release Monoploy but... maybe change some or most or even all of its key features, but you want to keep the spirit of the game around. Buying, selling properties, collecting rent and scheming to get all the railroads, fucking someone over with a fully developed Boardwalk.

Before someone says it, I don't think Acquire is that game. Acquire is a great game, to be sure, but despite its theme of big business, it's not really in the same vein of play as Monopoly.

I love the additions and modifications to Risk that made up Risk 2210. They added nukes and you could conquer the goddamn moon. It's a very different game with a lot more depth and a lot more options, but it's still a Risk game, and not just in name.

What additions or modifications could make Monopoly a greater, funner game? What's wrong with Monopoly as it is right now? What makes it such a chore, ultimately?

PiptheFair

the ability to saturate the market with cheap hotels to devalue your opponents properties

Lucedes

the game was designed during the Great Depression.
its point was to allow poorer, un(der)employed people the opportunity to:
-play with lots of $$$, as they had none.
-play for a long time, since they had not much entertainment.

the first thing to do is increase the speed of the game. a good first step could be to shorten the board a little. the buildup of houses/hotels should be more significant as well; three houses makes a hotel, but they're more expensive or restricted in speed somehow. they could, possibly, be tied to the "rounds" you make, as another way to limit them. places should be worth more to start, and hotels should be more expensive, but monopoly & hotel-building is still a key strategy.

the house/hotel system could be reworked another way, but it needs to be reworked. as i've seen it, everyone always builds hotels whenever they get a monopoly, which loses some room for interest.

the core mechanics of monopoly, which make it fun:
-it's a linear game. the map is a single, linear loop.
-it's a poker/match game. you're looking for three-of-a-kind.
-it's a resource management game. invested money can get you more.
-it's a luck-based game. you roll 2d6 and move that many spaces, without control over direction.

what makes the game bearable in some ways is player-to-player trading.

Loren Michael

I discussed this over New Year's drinks tonight and one idea that was suggested was to enable the purchasing of some kind of "action card", so as to give wealthy players a means to end the game more quickly once they have accumulated a lot of cash and are only waiting to slowly bleed the other players dry (and/or to provide, depending on the nature of the individual cards themselves, a means for other players to gang up on a lucky bastard).

Nocren

Actually... I can't remember what it was called or where I saw it, but someone did a huge overhaul of the Monopoly rules. Basically they added a Free Market rule set. The idea being that you can add houses/hotels without needing the whole block and the market dictates the prices and since monopolies are illegal, being a free trader means you don't go to jail (as often).

Darian

I think the best way to make it more fun is just to impose a time limit: set a timer, and whoever has the most money when it dings (after 45-90 minutes) is the winner. In general, follow the rules as written and give the game a fair shake.

Don't put any money on free parking, enforce the rule that if you choose not to buy a property you land on it goes up for auction, and you should have a solid little game. The key is to recognize that Monopoly is at its heart a trading game; trade early and often to put yourself into a more advantageous position.
This BGG post is illuminating.

BGG wrote:

I tried playing monopoly not too long ago with very limited time so we decided to add a few rules. First of all we played by all the standard rules, which none of us had done before, and i might add the standard rules are phat...i love the fact that some lucky bastard wont win just becuase he landed on free parking. second we played with a time limit as the rule book does suggest, four people 90 minutes we decided was good. but in order to add flavor we decided on having a free trading round, which occurs after the first 45 minutes of the game or after all the property has been bought. the free trade round is just that, trade with who you can for what ever for ten minutes. after ten minutes the game will resume, although you can continue to trade if you wish, most players at this point dont want to trade or have nothing deseriable to trade so it ussually doesn't happen but i have only tried a few times. after the full 90 minutes is up count up your stuff and who ever has the most wins.
let me tell you it was the second most intense game of monopoly i've ever played. the most intense occured the next day, with 7 people and the same rules, imagine 7 people yelling at each other at the same time over monopoly!!!

worked for me... try it out.

If you want to try other rules variants, the Championship Edition include a speed die for faster play, and someone else in that thread mentioned using free parking as a "go to any space" ability (I think it would be decently balanced to allow the player to move anywhere on the board as their next move from free parking, without giving the $200 for passing go.)

illgottengains

Or you could just cheat. That always makes things interesting.

I called the banker out on cheating last game I played. I devolved into bickering. who won? Well I did of course!

JacquesCousteau

I think Parker Bros. has definitely been trying to answer this question for some time. The answer is presumably not Dogopoly but outside of that: making monopoly into a drinking game and/or simultaneously playing stocticker has led to some very fun nights.