Critical Miss Forums

[Jonny Nexus]

This thread is for discussion of the Issue 10 article, "The Campaign For Real Monopoly". To comment on the article, just hit the "Post Reply" button and type in what you think.
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"...if you like your humour coarse and black, this will probably have you rolling on the floor with laughter."
Simon Collins, ENWorld Staff Reviewer, reviewing my Slayers Guide to Games Masters

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I have never, ever, come across people who do not auction properties in this way.

I have come across mor... people who think fines etc accumulate on the Free Parking square for the next person to land there. This is an easy error to point out though, plus the explanation as why it's Wrong is simple: it messes with the supply of money and makes the game longer.

The arguments start when people don't realise that being able to buy houses / hotels "at any time" means "at any time" and not "at any time during your turn"...

I do like the way the opening paragraph of the US rules doesn't actually claim Darrow invented the game.

[Jody Macgregor]

[Jonny Nexus]

[scimon]

I do think the not auctioning rule was intstituted by many people to stop family feuds (especially as the game is often palyed at the classic time for such things Christmas). I recently (well last time I played) tried to explain the auction rule ot people (after reading the rules) weplayed with it but everyone seemed a bit shocked.

Which as you say is a shame because it's a terminally dull game without it.
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Move along.

[Ilium]

I was aware of the auction rule, but we never used it when I was a kid (in Wisconsin, USA, for you regional theorists). I've played Monopoly jr. (which has no auction rule) with my daughter. She's old enough now for the full game, but when we play board games it's usually just the two of us, which makes auctions a bit lame. It would also be grossly unfair for me as an adult to poach good properties on her like that. That might be part of the reason, too, of course. If people frequently play with 2 players, the auction makes little sense.

But I intend to convince a group of my gamer friends to try Monopoly the right way one of these days.

[Psilon]

The other thing to watch out for is housing shortages. I recently played a game where, as it turns out, I was the only one who knew what the 32-house/12-hotel limits really meant.

They didn't catch on to my strategy until I collected an $800+ rent on the light blues and still didn't upgrade them from 4 houses to hotels.

[Jonny Nexus]

[aurelia]

Ha! This is so true. I can still remember the culture shock when I (from a family of girls with a severely competition-averse mother) first played Monopoly with my husband's family (game-playing, Risk-playing, role-playing family of boys). There was blood on the Monopoly board and they revelled in it.

I personally still can't handle the social pressure of a full-on game, but I can see that it has been so much better for the kids in their family to grow up 'with full disclosure'; gaining a whole skill set you just don't get otherwise.

[Hunter Green]

I never knew or played the auction rule, but I'm not sure it would have changed things as much as all that, because everyone pretty nearly always bought everything they landed on anyway. Perhaps eliminating the Free Parking house rule would have made that less feasible, though.

[dorward]

[Jonny Nexus]

[BeckyO]

It's interesting to see the 'regional variant' idea coming up. I think there might well be some truth to it.

I was reccently explaining why Real Monopoly was interesting to a bank manager, as part of explaining exactly what it was I wanted to sell in the games shop described in the business plan in front of her. She thought it might be worth trying the 'new' rules with her kids who'd got bored of Monopoly a couple of Christmases ago.

[teucer]

Just weighing in in favor of the regional theory - I'm an American and was looking over the rules excerpt in the article, and was utterly baffled by its inclusion. "Am I missing something in there?" I asked myself.

Then I got to the discussion of why auctions are better than no auctions, and my reaction was "Who the fuck ever heard of playing without auctions?" They were always my favorite part of the game as a kid, and the only reason I didn't get bored with it sooner.

So yes, I agree - play by the rules. (Actually, I kinda like the free parking house rule, but removing auctions is just silly.)

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