# Do you follow standard Monopoly rules? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [November 4, 2011, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-follow-standard-monopoly-rules/601811 "2011-11-04T02:51:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2011, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-follow-standard-monopoly-rules/601811/1 "2011-11-04T02:51:19Z")
I’m pretty sure that these are real rules. At least my computer game version (Hasbro?) holds these to be true, though there are options to turn them on or off. \*The banker does not play, he or she just does the banking. (With the exception of a small number of players.) \*Free Parking is nothing but a blank space. Cash paid to the bank in fees and taxes is not piled there, and a player landing there gets nothing. \*No player may buy any property until he or she has gone around the board once, i.e. has passed GO. \*If a player declines to buy an unowned property, it goes up for auction by the banker. Bids can start as low as $1. \*At any time during any player’s turn, anyone can propose a trade with any other player. Trades can include property, mortgaged or not (but undeveloped), cash, and get out of jail free cards. All players must agree to this trade or it doesn’t happen. I’m sure that there are other rules, but no one I’ve ever played with has followed a single one of these. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2011, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-follow-standard-monopoly-rules/601811/2 "2011-11-04T02:56:39Z")
I haven’t played in ages, but we don’t follow any of those rules (except the Free Parking one). They just make the game more complicated. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2011, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-follow-standard-monopoly-rules/601811/3 "2011-11-04T03:01:46Z")
Except for the Free Parking one, I don’t think these are the standard rules… ---
**Author:** ![shijinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2011, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-follow-standard-monopoly-rules/601811/4 "2011-11-04T03:16:42Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > … \*The banker does not play, he or she just does the banking. (With the exception of a small number of players.) … never heard of this one. wouldn’t it be very boring for that person? ---
**Author:** ![PigArcher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bcef8e/32.png) [@PigArcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PigArcher)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2011, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-follow-standard-monopoly-rules/601811/5 "2011-11-04T03:24:59Z")
Other than “No player may buy any property until he or she has gone around the board once” those are all official rules. [Official Monopoly tournament rules](http://boardgamegeek.com/file/download/2y6dyfv0ls/MONOPOLY_US_TOURNAMENT_RULES_final.pdf) ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Mondegreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/91b2a8/32.png) [@Lord\_Mondegreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Mondegreen)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2011, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-follow-standard-monopoly-rules/601811/6 "2011-11-04T03:32:26Z")
“Yes” means we followed the rule, “no” means we didn’t. Mind you, I haven’t played a single game in the last 20 years. > [@tdn](#): > > \*The banker does not play, he or she just does the banking. (With the exception of a small number of players.) No. Talk about drawing the short straw. > [@](#): > > \*Free Parking is nothing but a blank space. Cash paid to the bank in fees and taxes is not piled there, and a player landing there gets nothing. Yes. > [@](#): > > \*No player may buy any property until he or she has gone around the board once, i.e. has passed GO. Yes. > [@](#): > > \*If a player declines to buy an unowned property, it goes up for auction by the banker. Bids can start as low as $1. No. > [@](#): > > \*At any time during any player’s turn, anyone can propose a trade with any other player. Trades can include property, mortgaged or not (but undeveloped), cash, and get out of jail free cards. All players must agree to this trade or it doesn’t happen. No. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2011, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-follow-standard-monopoly-rules/601811/7 "2011-11-04T03:34:44Z")
> [@kenetic](#): > > Other than “No player may buy any property until he or she has gone around the board once” those are all official rules. > > [Official Monopoly tournament rules](http://boardgamegeek.com/file/download/2y6dyfv0ls/MONOPOLY_US_TOURNAMENT_RULES_final.pdf) Are tournament rules the same rules as the ones in the box? ---
**Author:** ![Dag\_Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@Dag\_Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dag_Otto)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2011, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-follow-standard-monopoly-rules/601811/8 "2011-11-04T03:37:53Z")
Calvinball rules! ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2011, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-follow-standard-monopoly-rules/601811/9 "2011-11-04T12:07:45Z")
> [@kenetic](#): > > Other than “No player may buy any property until he or she has gone around the board once” those are all official rules. > > [Official Monopoly tournament rules](http://boardgamegeek.com/file/download/2y6dyfv0ls/MONOPOLY_US_TOURNAMENT_RULES_final.pdf) I don’t see anything in there regarding having to pass GO before buying properties, or all the other players signing off on trades that don’t involve them. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2011, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-follow-standard-monopoly-rules/601811/10 "2011-11-04T13:23:14Z")
We play with the empty Free Parking and the Auctions, but not ‘go-around-the-board-once’ or consensus on trades. Wouldn’t that trade rule allow the first person to get a monopoly to veto any trades that would allow anyone else to get a monopoly? That would just about guarantee a win, eventually. ---
**Author:** ![Scuba\_Ben](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/278dde/32.png) [@Scuba\_Ben](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scuba_Ben)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2011, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-follow-standard-monopoly-rules/601811/11 "2011-11-04T13:44:52Z")
> [@Skammer](#): > > We play with the empty Free Parking and the Auctions, but not ‘go-around-the-board-once’ or consensus on trades. I’ve seen a variant, where players start on random corners. (In a 4 player game, everybody starts on separate corners of course.) This evens out the randomness of who gets first crack at properties. > [@](#): > > Wouldn’t that trade rule allow the first person to get a monopoly to veto any trades that would allow anyone else to get a monopoly? That would just about guarantee a win, eventually. And Og knows that the first person to have a well developed monopoly has strong odds of winning. ---
**Author:** ![Busy\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d78d45/32.png) [@Busy\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Busy_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2011, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-follow-standard-monopoly-rules/601811/12 "2011-11-04T13:57:52Z")
Free parking is just an empty space that does nothing. It is written. I recall all sorts of invented nonsense involving this space. Round the board once with nae buying was the rule we played as kids in the UK, and there were no auctions. If you didn’t want to buy a property that was it. The few times I’ve played as an adult it did strike me that the rules were sub-optimal for producing a competitive game. So I see why people home brew their own. ---
**Author:** ![SCSimmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e495f1/32.png) [@SCSimmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCSimmons)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2011, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-follow-standard-monopoly-rules/601811/13 "2011-11-04T14:18:42Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > I’m pretty sure that these are real rules. At least my computer game version (Hasbro?) holds these to be true, though there are options to turn them on or off. > > \*The banker does not play, he or she just does the banking. (With the exception of a small number of players.) Real rule, never played with enough people for it to be practical. Makes sense, though–the banker has tremendous opportunities for cheating. > [@](#): > > \*Free Parking is nothing but a blank space. Cash paid to the bank in fees and taxes is not piled there, and a player landing there gets nothing. Real rule, we use it. > [@](#): > > \*No player may buy any property until he or she has gone around the board once, i.e. has passed GO. Not a real rule, don’t use it. > [@](#): > > \*If a player declines to buy an unowned property, it goes up for auction by the banker. Bids can start as low as $1. [Real rule always use it. Games can get very long and boring if you don’t use the auction rule.](http://www.criticalmiss.com/issue10/CampaignRealMonopoly1.html) > [@](#): > > \*At any time during any player’s turn, anyone can propose a trade with any other player. Trades can include property, mortgaged or not (but undeveloped), cash, and get out of jail free cards. All players must agree to this trade or it doesn’t happen. Other than the ‘all players’ part, this is a real rule, and one of the most fun parts of Monopoly. Always use it. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2011, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-follow-standard-monopoly-rules/601811/14 "2011-11-04T14:35:38Z")
FWIW, I play a Hasbro-published computer version of the game and the “Standard Rules” for this version do not include ‘once around the board first’ or ‘all players must agree on a trade’. Trading and auctioning are important parts of the game, though (although I never trade with computer players unless I get a better monopoly from it than they do). ---
**Author:** ![notquitekarpov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@notquitekarpov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notquitekarpov)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2011, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-follow-standard-monopoly-rules/601811/15 "2011-11-04T14:47:10Z")
All players having to agree on any trade even not involving them would be totally stupid. The auctioning unpurchased property rule is a standard one and absolutely essential to the game. Never add additional money to the game in any house rule - including the free parking varients. The “not starting to buy property before passing go once” variant essentially adds 200 to the game for each player before the real action starts and so should be avoided. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2011, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-follow-standard-monopoly-rules/601811/16 "2011-11-04T15:55:36Z")
I don’t think I have ever played a game that didn’t give you money for Free Parking or used the auction system. As discussed above, the around the board once is a house rule and sometimes I have played that way and sometimes not (FWIW I don’t like it). The others I have never seen. Re: Trading, of course I have seen trading. Every game does that; it’s the part about everyone having to agree I have never seen. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2011, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-follow-standard-monopoly-rules/601811/17 "2011-11-04T16:12:14Z")
> [@Skammer](#): > > FWIW, I play a Hasbro-published computer version of the game and the “Standard Rules” for this version do not include ‘once around the board first’ or ‘all players must agree on a trade’. In my version the first of those is optional. The second is not. There is no way to turn that off. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2011, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-follow-standard-monopoly-rules/601811/18 "2011-11-04T16:17:15Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > In my version the first of those is optional. The second is not. There is no way to turn that off. My verson has an option for “House Rules” but I’ve never clicked on it to see what they are. So just to make sure I understand - your version allows any player to veto any trade between two other players, and there’s no way to turn that off? That just seems really weird. ---
**Author:** ![Molesworth\_2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9dc877/32.png) [@Molesworth\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Molesworth_2)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2011, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-follow-standard-monopoly-rules/601811/19 "2011-11-04T17:23:19Z")
I haven’t played Monopoly for nigh on 20 years, but No to all of those. Our house rules were as follows: 1/ You don’t have to pay rent if you rolled a double. ie If the dice show 2-2 or 6-6 then you don’t have to pay rent. But if you rolled doubles three times in a row your freeloading ass went straight to jail. This was awesome when you rolled doubles and landed on a hotel on Boardwalk. 2/ When you have landed on the jail square you can score some drugs for $25. ie You can pay $25 to smoke a cone from the bong. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2011, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-follow-standard-monopoly-rules/601811/20 "2011-11-04T17:40:37Z")
> [@Skammer](#): > > So just to make sure I understand - your version allows any player to veto any trade between two other players, and there’s no way to turn that off? That just seems really weird. I’m pretty sure that it can’t be turned off, but I’ll have to look again. But yeah, the trade has to be accepted by all players. You can also agree to a trade only if other players give you large amounts of cash. Sometimes the computer accepts that! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-follow-standard-monopoly-rules/601811.md?page=2)