Bertonopoly

The other night I couldn't sleep. Over the Christmas break, a friend had mentioned a competition from a while back to redesign Monopoly.  The idea stuck in my head. What an interesting challenge: “How do you redesign Monopoly as simply as possible while keeping the core of the game intact?”

I tossed and turned over the question for hours. My, admittedly poor, repayment for insomnia was several ideas that might actually work. I thought I'd share them.

Before going into detail, I should clarify that I actually like Monopoly a lot. I know, that puts me in a minority. Most people find it either too long or too luck-based or both. I admit that those issues are there, but I love it anyway. The history behind the game is fascinating, both the story of its creation and the uniqueness of its design for the time. The core system of buying property, trading it and profiting from it is really fun and exciting. I have a ton of fond memories of hardball negotiations and impossible comebacks, not to mention the arguments over house rules that preceded every game with my friends. Those discussions helped kindle my interest in game design. I at least have to respect Monopoly for that. It's just barely enough to compensate for the tedium that suffuses most of the game.

Before redesigning Monopoly it's important to understand what works about the game and what doesn't. As mentioned, what works for me most is the wheeling and dealing. I like having to valuate properties, sort out trades and hope I get the better end of the deal. I especially love making money off my opponents when they land on my spaces. (I promise, I'm not really as soulless as that sounds.) And I like the tension that the dice add to those moments.

What I hate about Monopoly is being in last place and feeling like I have no way to compete; or conversely, having a commanding lead and knowing that I need to go through the motions for another hour before the deed is done. I hate having almost no control over the outcome of my turn. Most of all, I hate that trading properties, my favourite part of the game, happens in a quick flash and then is done forever. To that end, my modifications need to change the end-game condition to make the game shorter and more fair; give players more control over the outcome of turns while maintaining a degree of uncertainty; and give players reasons to trade properties all throughout the game, not just in the middle of it.

With that, I offer Bertonopoly: my set of rule modifications that attempt to improve on and emphasize the core of what makes Monopoly interesting in the first place. I limited myself to use only the components that come in the box (the one I grew up with anyway – I'm not sure if they've added weird stuff in the intervening years). If I don't say a rule has changed, assume that it hasn't.

Bertonopoly

Rule Change #1: At the beginning of the game, every player gets dealt 2 properties.

Reasoning: This is a pretty standard house rule that makes a lot of sense. It speeds up the game a ton, and gives everybody a sense of where each other stands.

Rule Change #2: Every time a players touches GO by either landing on it or passing it, a Hotel is placed next to GO. Once the final Hotel has been placed, every player gets one final turn and the game ends. Whoever has the highest total value (cash plus the mortgage value of every owned property and House) wins the game.

Reasoning: This makes the game move much faster than before. I'm not sure how many Hotels are in the box, but it's got to be fewer than the number of times GO is touched in a normal game of Monopoly. (Notice that I specify “touching” GO, so landing on
Go to Jail would cause you to skip GO and not move the game closer to the end). Separating the end-game condition and the win condition also allows me to add some catch-up mechanisms without necessarily extending the length of the game.

Rule Change #3: Hotels cannot be purchased to improve a property.

Reasoning: Just an addendum to the last rule. Purchasing Hotels would screw up the end-game timing in a weird way. Also, Hotels are a quintessential “rich get richer” mechanism in the basic game and removing them makes the contest between players tighter.

Rule Change #4: After rolling the dice, the active player may choose to take either the sum total of the dice as their move or half of that total, rounded down.

Reasoning: This is my first means of giving players more control over the game. Already, this introduces a choice into every turn. Sure if my choice is take 7 and land on an opponent's property or a 3 and land on GO, I'll take the former. But what if the choice is between landing on two different properties owned by two different players? Now I have to consider who's in the lead, who's more likely to trade with me and who I've already pissed off. Combined with Rule Change #1, this also gives players more control over when the game ends, since if you take the smaller number every time you'll get more turns between passes of GO.

Rule Change #5: Rolling doubles has no extra effect.

Reasoning: Getting to roll again after rolling doubles is stupid.

Rule Change #6: Income Tax now triggers every time a player passes it, like GO. When a player passes Income Tax, they pay money to the centre of the board equal to the highest attained Rent on their most valuable property card, i.e. a player who owns Boardwalk with 3 Houses pays pay $1400 to the middle of the board.

Reasoning: This is one of those catch-up mechanisms I talked about. It means that if I want to build tons of houses on my properties, I can do that, but I had better make sure they're actually going to pay-off, because otherwise they'll just be a drag on my income, rather than a boost. This also gives players an incentive to trade properties even after they've invested in them. Normally, there's no reason to do any trades once you've acquired a couple sets, but if I'm coming up on Income Tax and nobody's close to hitting my most expensive property, I might be willing to sell it to another player in order to avoid the tax. The final reason I like this shift is that it lines up more with what an income tax actually is. The Income Tax space in the original game is more of a wealth tax.

Rule Change #7: Luxury Tax also triggers every time a player passes it, like GO and Income Tax. When a player passes Luxury Tax, they pay $75 to the centre of the board for each Monopoly (set) they control.

Reasoning: Another catch-up mechanism, this time playing on the namesake of the game. Again, it makes players prioritize their investments instead of just grabbing everything they can. And, like the Income Tax change, it encourages the sale and trade of properties after players have already developed them.

Rule Change #8: If a player lands on a Railroad that is owned by another player, they may, at the end of their turn, move directly to another Railroad, skipping every space in between.

Reasoning: This is possibly my favourite change, because it has so many effects. First, it gives players more control over where they land on the board, allowing them to completely skip dangerous areas. Second, because it only comes into play once a Railroad is owned, it gives players an incentive to purchase them and gives them extra value since other players may actually want land on Railroads in many cases. Third, it gives players another way (in addition to the Go to Jail space) of extending the game, since if you take Short Line to Reading, you skip GO. Finally, it makes the Railroads feel like actual railroads.

Rule Change #9: Landing on Community Chest no longer has you draw and resolve a Community Chest card. Instead, you draw a Community Chest card and keep it face down. All Community Chest cards are identical for this purpose. You may redeem a Community Chest card for half of the money in the centre of the board (rounded down). 

Reasoning: This is a modification of the classic Free Parking house rule. I like it better for a lot of reasons. This is a running theme, but the inspiration was again that it makes sense. The pot in the middle, funded through the taxes of the rich players, is literally a community chest. I remember thinking that Community Chest did something like this the first time I saw my relatives playing Monopoly. The change also takes another mechanic that fed the randomness of the game – “which card will I draw?” - and turns it into a strategic decision. When do I take half the pot? Will there be more there next turn? Will somebody grab it before I do? But making it give you only half the pot lowers the punishment for waiting too long. And tying the effect to cards means that you can trade them along with properties, giving the negotiation side of the game another layer.

Rule Change #10: Landing on Chance no longer has you draw and resolve a Chance card. Instead, you draw a Chance card and keep it face down. All Chance cards are identical for this purpose. When you spend a Chance card, pick a half of the board, with the line between Go and Free Parking as the middle. Each property on that half (discounting the Railroads but including the Utilities) corresponds to a die roll, counting from GO to Free Parking. Roll the dice. The bank pays the owner of the corresponding property Rent as though a player had landed on the space. If the corresponding property is unowned, the player who played the Chance card may purchase it from the Bank at its normal price. Mediterranean and Baltic both correspond to 2, as do Boardwalk and Park Place. Therefore, both properties pay (or may be purchased) on a roll of 2 for their respective halves of the board.

Reasoning: Okay, this is the most complicated rule I've added. But I think it's necessary. First, there are all the same reasons as the Community Chest change: another thing to trade; changing Chance to make more sense; and adding more choice. But more than that, the extra control I've given players to determine where they land both in terms of the dice and the Railroads means they can too easily avoid dangerous properties. On top of that, Income Tax and Luxury Tax dissuade players from investing in properties too much. So I needed to add some value to properties in order to balance things out. The Chance cards mean that even if everybody is dodging your stuff, you can still make money off it with good rolls. And because the money is coming from the bank, the total money floating between players is going up steadily, which should also encourage investment. The two property sets next to GO have to work weirdly, because you can't roll 1 with two dice. Also, that corner is the most likely to be dodged, because of the Taxes, so it gives those four properties an extra little boost. As a nice side effect, this rule also adds value to the Utilities since both Electric Company and Water Works are number 7 on their respective halves, making them the most likely properties to pay out.

Rule Change #11: The order of actions on a players turn goes: a) trade with other players b) buy Houses on eligible properties c) spend Chance cards d) spend Community Chest cards e) roll dice f) resolve effects of the space landed upon.

Reasoning: I just thought it was important, since I've added actions, that I clearly lay out when and in what order all this stuff happens. Chance and Community Chest happen after trading but before rolling so that you can spend a card immediately after you've traded for it but not immediately after you've gained one from landing on the space.

Rule Change #12: “Going to Jail” is removed. The Go to Jail space still sends players to the Jail space, but they are not stuck there the next turn. Jail is simply a blank space.

Reasoning: Jail has always been a weird thing in Monopoly and mechanisms that make players lose turns are usually a bad idea, so I decided to just ditch it. Incidentally, Free Parking is also a blank space, but that's not actually a rule change, just a change from a common house rule so I didn't think it needed its own spot.

Rule Change #13: When mortgaging a property, it is sold directly back to the bank for its mortgage value plus the half the value of all the Houses on it. The Houses are removed from the board and returned to the supply. The property is available for purchase again through the normal means.

Reasoning: This is almost exactly the same as previous mortgaging rules, but it just simplifies the dumb buyback rules from the original game. It doesn't make it anymore like an actual mortgage, but whatever.

Rule Change #14: Landing on an unowned property does not trigger an auction for that property. The player has the option to buy the property or not and then their turn is over.

Reasoning: Nobody uses Monopoly's auction rules anyway. They do ensure that properties are bought more quickly, but the changes I've made to set-up, rolling and Chance already have that same effect.

And that's everything! Fourteen rule changes and about half of them are barely changes at all. I have yet to actually test any of this, so for all I know it's a terrible mess, but I think it has potential. Players have more control and the game is shorter, while evening the odds between the richest and poorest players and emphasizing trading between everybody. The interaction of the movement system, the tax system and the property system might create some weird exploit that I haven't noticed, but that's what playtesting is for! So go try it out and report back if you'd like. I know I will. If nothing else, this has made me really want to play Monopoly again.