Overview
2 - 8 players. 90 - 180 minutes.
I'm sure almost everyone stumbling on this page already knows what Monopoly is. Hopefully I'll hit on at least one thing that you didn't know and perhaps you'll just like my opinion. According to the latest rules on the Hasbro site Monopoly was invented by a bored American back in 1934. There now seems to be plenty of evidence that it, or a game incredibly similar to it, was doing the rounds much earlier than that. According to this flow chart on Boardgamegeek "The Landlord's Game" was being played back in 1904. The game does appears to be a product of the American dream. You play a hotel magnate and have to try to make yourself rich while bankrupting the other players by charging them extortionate prices for staying in your houses and hotels. Every player has a pawn and a sum of money. Each turn a player rolls the two dice, moves that many spaces and carries out the action relevant to that space. Either take a card and follow the action described, pay a tax, pay a player rent for staying on their property, buy the property from the bank at the value shown or put the property up for auction. Yes, that's right, if you don't buy the property then it is put up for auction (See below). Unfortunately no version of the rules that I've ever seen have explained why you might want to stay in other players buildings when you have perfectly good ones of your own on the next street. Perhaps it's so that you can check out the service levels of your competitors. Or maybe you just want to trash one of their rooms or set fire to the lobby or something.Review
Until recently this would have been a scathing review, echoing the points made by Monopoly players all over the Internet. The main two problems which crop up again and again are that the game takes too long and is far too random. However, I recently played the game for the first time in many, many years and didn't have any of those troubles (although I was first to be bankrupt so perhaps it is random).
Do you know the rules?
Monopoly links
(c)Gary Barker, 2003
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