Monopoly "rule" question

The Game Room
1

So… family game night. The kids convinced us to play monopoly. We don’t play this game because we always fight. We knew it was a bad idea going in, but they insisted. I’m doing well, landing on and buying property. I have 2 out of the three “reds” and land on the third. I want to buy it but I’m a little short, so I tell the banker that I want to mortgage a property to pay for it. The wife jumps up on the table and screams “Nooooo!” (Not really). She says that I can’t mortgage property to get money to buy more property. I say that I can do whatever I want with my property. Keep in mind that we established a few rules at the beginning of the game.

Is my wife correct, or am I?

2

Here you go.

3

You are. You can mortgage any property you want, for any reason, as long as it’s your turn.

4

You are. You cannot collect rent on mortgaged properties, however. It doesn’t even have to be your turn.

5

I ended up losing, but not before I made some great deals with my youngest to set her up for the win… I don’t see us playing monopoly again any time soon. It is a good thing we don’t have any guns in the house.

6

Monopoly is probably the game with the largest inverse relationship between how much we think we like it and how much fun it actually is.

7

I’ve seen Monopoly as #1 on a good number of “Things that seemed like a good idea at the time” lists.

8

My FIL’s wife wanted to do the “Free Parking” thing. Unfortunately, people kept forgetting to put their payments in the middle of the board, and forgetting to collect it if they did land on FP. She also insisted that you had to pass Go to get your $200; you didn’t get it for landing on Go. She’s abrasive in a lot of ways though, far beyond Monopoly.

9

Maybe it would lead to a more civil game if you did play while armed?

10

I’ve played with real money before. 1c = 1 dollar, so when you pass Go, you get $2 in real cash. Land on Boardwalk with a hotel? $20 :eek:

Man, when you do this, the game gets real serious.

11

That’s moronic, unless you get the $200 on your next turn when you advance beyond Go, hence “passing” it. But then, there’s no point in making the distinction in the first place.

Playing like that, it would really suck to land on Go and not get $200, then roll a “4” and land on Income Tax.

12

Our house rules (in grad school, when we played a lot) were $500 if you land on Go.

13

Yes, you get it on your next turn.

Unless your point is to let everyone know that this is Your House (as opposed to your husband’s).

Exactly, and see above. Although to be fair, you can land on Income Tax and pass Go in the same turn. And I always take the 10% option if I have less than $2000.

14

I thought you had to include assets. I’m pretty sure that’s what the NES version did.

Incidentally, am I the only one who never played it with auctions? That was my biggest surprise when I rented the NES version.

15

I saw this recently and it seems relevant: http://www.criticalmiss.com/issue10/CampaignRealMonopoly1.html

16

I don’t know anyone who played with the Auction Rule. I suspect most people don’t even know it exists.

Our house rule was the Free Parking one: a $500 bill to start and any payments to Chance, Community Chess, or the Taxes go in the middle.

17

How long did your games last, if they ever ended? The first time I insisted that we play with no Free Parking and *with *auctions was the first time I ever heard my family say, “wow - Monopoly is actually kind of fun!”.

18

It’s also the game with the largest inverse relationship between the way it’s supposed to be played and the way it’s actually played.

19

Enlighten me. I would guess that even with aggressive mortgaging, auctioning of properties, and no free parking payoff, most games would end up either with an hours-long grind or a lopsided trade that would decide the game. Am I wrong on any of these counts?

20

interesting