The on-air report suggested that there are no interest charges to borrow money from the bank in the traditional rules. In fact there is 10 percent interest charged when you un-mortgage properties.

Considering that the bank is being computerized this fall several opportunities to make the game a little more complex present themselves. Right now I can't build a hotel if there is a building shortage. What if there was a money shortage at random times as announced by the bank?

What if I could get pre-approved loans from the bank/computer based on my owned properties, at various interest rates (installments deducted from the $200 I get when I pass go), only they get treated as letters of credit? Then I can use the credit to boost my bidding power in an auction when somebody lands on unsold property and doesn't buy it.

The thimble token.

Eric

First remember that Monopoly is awfully socialist. You're NOT leveraging capital but operating on a basic level of fairness. To make it a little more capitalist we make a variety of stacks of very different amounts of money and pass those out randomly for the start.

Secondly to better resemble capitalism you would need to give each player a different role, rules and an entirely different goal. Games where everyone is doing something different tend to not be not much fun.

Mark

Among my other weird inventions, I've been planning to make a different Monopoly for several years, now. I'm a big landlord in a small town, and know firsthand what really goes on.
The first idea was to make property ownership more realistic: You should pay property taxes and income tax every time you pass “go”.
(Make the thing too realistic, and it gets too much like real life, so you might as well just go out there in real life and act like it's a game)
Then, I thought there should be political parties, and elections, but that would be for another game.
Anyway, since I'm a geometer and an artist, why not redesign the board radically?
Instead of going around and around on a 10 x 10 edge, you should have two or three rows of spaces and a spiral pattern of play that dumps you into the middle, where “Go” resides. You don't get your two hundred dollars just for being there. You have to have earned it.
So, when you choose your game token in the beginning, you also get a profession, like Accountant, Doctor, Race car driver, Dental supply company rep, and so on.
Each job has its own perks and problems. When you get to a square or three somewhere along the road, you must perform tasks accordion to your profession. Like play some music, if you are that.
You are rated by your fellow players, and your pay is accorded accordingly.
Some aspects of the game “Careers” could be folded in here.
You can apply for a bank loan to build only after you have a building permit, and a good income.
OK, forget all that, here's some other ideas:
Before you can develop your property, you must first get building permits. You apply for an EIS, have the property checked for wetlands, and so on.
You are allowed only certain uses in certain zones. You can apply to change zoning (with a fee) but without certainty of success. If you're downtown, and have enough credit, you can possibly build high-rise. The plastic hotels are made stackable for this purpose.
Also, you don't have to be “lucky” to be buying the property. Instead, before play, and after each has had each turn, properties come up for sale. An auction is held, and if the price gets too high, the buyer must be careful so as not to become “Property poor”
Every time you pass certain squares, you must buy gas and food.
You must at all times maintain lodging of some kind, unless traveling, but then must pay by the night or camp out.
Rent is cheap, but every player must pay something at each property he/she passes.(not lands on)
If a person doesn't have enough income to sustain trips around the board, he or she may stay at the youth hostel, (or at the homeless shelter), and remain motionless, but you can apply for public assistance.
If you land on a railroad, (you may not buy it unless it's up for auction), but you can pop out at any other railroad station of your choosing.
Same goes for airlines, but the ticket is more expensive.
If you fart, you're out of the game.
You can use real money if you wish, but then each player must start with the same given amount.
Initially, no player has enough money to buy any but the cheapest real estate outright, but must make it on a down payment, and payments per cycle. A player can purchase from another party, and assume the monthly payments.
There are surprises, like tenants who destroys your property and leave heaping amounts of garbage.
And rats. There is a rat clean-up fee, and you miss a turn because you're out sick.
More later

The basics are the same, but I've added so many changes, the mathematical balnces of the game economy would have to be recalibrated.

mike

I would create much more expensive property and very little affordable property. I would create a different tiered system where one or two players would always have more opportunity to get much more money and more access to the bank and the majority of the players would always receive less money (like for passing go). The players with advantage would also be able to pool their money and buy up more property together but the lower tiered players could not. I would do away with the Chance pile and make it a Washington Lobby deck that only the higher tiered players could choose from. Of course, the higher-tiered players never go to jail.

I like Mr. Moneybanks.

elaine

Add hazard cards such as flooding and earthquakes with the ability for land owners to have insurance or not would add an element of risk that could affect the amount of capital a player might have as well as loosing buildings etc.

Most of the elements of monopoly should be kept, just modified to meet the real world. I definitely think the banker should be more realistic as was mentioned on the show.

Patrick

Property values are radically effected by government rules on zoning, density, and environmental regulation. The most important and prevalent shift in values come from:
1. upzoning, in which allowable densities are increased or shifted to higher-value uses -- e.g. from single-family to industrial/commercial.
2. Infrastructure investment: an interstate exit, airport installation, or upgrade -- even a prison in an otherwise bleak environment.
3. development subsidy to attract corporations, factories, etc.

In each case, the opposite also happens -- e.g. land is downzoned to allow less lucrative use, etc.

Cards could be drawn that allowed one or another of these advantages (disadvantages) to be used on a chosen property.

go further toward reality?
campaign contributions (real estate interests are typically the largest single local source of campaign money).
Bribes?

I like the other elements, but agree to some of the crits made on the air.

Harvey

The gameplay could be improved by adding a couple of new monopolistic practices:

Hostile Takecover -- any mortgaged property could be purchased from the 'owner' at face value if landed upon. This adds a bit of fun by mimicking a takeover during an opponents weak financial times.

Eminent Domain -- the final remaining property piece needed to complete a full set for a player may be purchased from the current owner, at markup, by declaring eminent domain during their turn, if that property had been landed upon. The markup value would be set to the Hotel value for the individual property. Otherwise, the player could pay rent for landing on another's property. This adds the opportunity of acquisition for the purpose building projects such as houses and hotels.. or perhaps is key to a communities utilities or railroads. :-)

Real Estate Office would replace Free Parking. Landing on this would allow the player to purchase the Real Estate Agencies Client's property. The clients property would be the least valuable unsold property on the board. This improves gameplay by selling all the property more quickly, otherwise it can take a long time to sell off the remaining few pieces of property.

Everything except Free Parking. see above

Mark

As you mention in the piece Monopoly is a war of attrition with players turned into bystanders and only really fun for the person who's winning. I would suggest that players be forced to "declare bankruptcy" when they have no property and less than $200 in cash but remain on the board as an underclass of spoilers if you will. When they land on a property and can't pay rent they would be "freeloading" and the landlord would have to contribute a "tax credit" into the community chest in order to get them evicted. similarly if a bankrupt player lands on an ownowned property they could declare "squatters rights" and anyone who later wants to purchase that property would have to pay them to get them to release those rights. If a bankrupt person lands on community chest and collects all the fines that have been leavied they would no longer be bankrupt until their money runs out again. This would keep everyone active in the game until someone wins, (although that may never happen with these rules ;-)

I wouldn't get rid of anything but I would modify some of the chance and community chest cards to update them. Suggestions:
- Gov't Bailout cards for both the railroads and the utilities in community chest. the owner(s) of those properties collects a Gov't bailout and everyone else has to contribute $20 to the utility or railroad owner as their "tax burden" to finance it.
- Lottery winner card in chance which has a large sum going to the winner but they have to pay half that sum back in taxes to the community chest.
- Medical bankrupcy card in Chance, "Serious Medical condition is decalred a pre-existing condition by Health insurer" player has to mortgage all their property to the bank and all but $200 of their cash and declare bankruptcy becoming a bankrupt player per my new rules above.

Mark

Monopoly should be re-invented as a progressive, cooperative (commune-like) community. My hope would be to counter the American-Idol-ization of pop culture and to move away from making EVERYTHING we do a competition (art, singing, baking, making clothes). Instead of buying up properties, players have to plant community gardens, grow what they eat, plant trees, switch to a green energy source, recycle something (cars, clothing, electronics, promote positive legislative changes, trade their car in for a bicycle). Money should be eliminated, instead, scrips for time-sharing or bartering or goods are exchanged. Instead of a bank, there should be a credit union as the financial anchor. The "winner" is the player that reduces his/her carbon footprint the most.

The concept of the board, the tokens and some kind of "currency" (see above) should be retained, but should change to reflect the new sensibility. For example, there should be different boards to reflect various communities and the environmental issues they face (rain forest, the midwest where water is becoming an issue, a big city, LA, a third world country, the middle east). Tokens should be made of hemp and be appropriate to the objectives of the game (above) OR people can make and re-use their own tokens.

Tina

Add one card to "Chance" that indicates a "natural disaster" and one card to "Community Chest" that indicates a "man-made disaster." The property that is affected is determined when the card puller rolls the die again and, counting only his/her own property, must surrender all houses and hotels, and the cards back to the banker who holds them for 5 minutes before putting them up for sale again to the next person to land on the property.

paper money, metal pieces, wooden houses & hotels

Chris

They already have versions for different cities from Atlantic City. Add real chance to the "Chance" cards by adding natural disasters like earthquates and wildfires to California sities and tornadoes and hurricanes to midwest and eastern cities. this would make the "properties" a liability and would add to the luck of the game.

Keep the "free" money from the bank in the beginning when all players start out equal.

Margaret

Hoo boy, you're opening up a huge can of worms here. While Monopoly is considered a timeless classic by most people in the US, it is also one of the most roundly criticized board game designs of all time. In the past 100 years, the art of designing board games has come along way, thanks in part to a German board games renaissance, the most popular product of which has been The Settlers of Catan.

Most modern board game enthusiasts see a lot of flaws in Settlers as well, but they recognize that Settlers and its like correct four major problems with Monopoly's design:
* players are eliminated from the game: in Monopoly, once you're bankrupt, you just have to sit around waiting for the rest of the players to finish
* the conditions for winning the game in insufficient: only after all other players are bankrupt, the remaining player wins, causing games to go for hours and hours with little end in sight if two players are nearly tied for the lead
* luck plays too much of role: you roll two dice, hope you land on a property that's not owned, and hope you have enough money to buy it
* lack of interesting decisions: during the game, if you are lucky enough to land on a property that's up for sale, there's very little reason why you wouldn't want to buy it (other than you can't afford it)

The best games attempt to avoid player elimination, define the end of game such that the game lasts a reasonable amount of time, reduce the amount of luck involved (but not necessarily eliminate it all together) and provide the player with as many meaningful choices as possible (often, in a well designed game, you'll have to make many decisions during your turn, each of which might be completely agonizing.

For a good example of an improvement in the hotel buying genre of games, see Sid Sackson's Acquire, from the 1960s. It's old enough to be considered a classic too at this point, but has a much better design.

So! If I were to change Monopoly's ruleset, I'd start with trying to eliminate some of the luck factor. Maybe instead of simply rolling dice, in order to move a space, you first roll a dice and then may pay to move up to that many spaces as you rolled, provided you pay a set amount of money for each space you move, reflecting the high price of gas today. For example, you roll a 5: now you must move 1 to 5 spaces, and moving 3 spaces would cost you, say, $30.

I would have a better end game rule: once the last hotel in the box has been built, all player take one more turn then the game ends. The player with the most money at the end of the game is the winner. This reflects the volatile housing market.

Instead of being eliminated, players can take out of loan from the bank, which they would need to pay back. If the end up with a negative amount of money at the end of the game, they're definitely not going to win. This would be a reflection of the credit crisis.

Because of the new end game rule, that the player with the most money wins the game, players now have more decisions to make during play: will investing in housing really pay or, or will it just affect your bottom line, giving you less cash on hand. If you notice that the pool of hotels is beginning to run dry, you'll be less likely to spend your money on future investments.

All these modifications are simply off the top of my head. For them to be implemented well, I'd need some time to think through the changes, test them out, and make sure they don't break the game completely.

But the one rule for sure I'd change is: no free parking!

Mr. Moneybags, the names of the properties, and the cute little dog.

Clyde

1. Make it possible to borrow money, with interest, in order to buy property. Right now, you can buy property only if you have the cash, which happens rarely.
2. Make it possible to borrow money, with interest, using property you own as collateral.

We tried both of these changes many years ago when trying to educate some young people about borrowing, debt, interest, wealth. What we found, in brief, is that all the tendencies in conventional monopoly -- the concentration of wealth and ownership -- were accelerated. The rich got richer faster. The question we were unable to answer was whether we could build in forces that would lead to more equality.

Monpooly only deals with property. It does not consider other important economic factors: providing goods and services, having a job, getting an education, etc. These could be built in also and players would have to consider, for example, whether to stay in school and defer income in order to increase future earnings or to get a job and increasing earnings now.

Keep everything except for the $200 every time you pass Go. At the start of the game, toss dice to determine whether you went to a good school or a bad one and whether you had to work right away in order to support the family. Then, income every time you pass Go would be graduated and timed (after four revolutions you income would go up, for example).

Jim

One of the strange things about Monopoly (at least in today's world) is that once you buy a property, you no longer have to pay for it anymore. And you get paid when one of the other players lands on it, which I suppose represents "rent." But there are only so many players to "rent" all the properties on the board.

Instead, what if the renters weren't player-controlled characters? You'd have a bunch of non-player-characters that move from place to place (maybe even depending on what you charge for rent), but you also have to pay each turn for rent and upkeep whether anyone is renting there or not.

And there should also be some way of simulating the ups and downs of the housing market.

Almost none. Maybe the paper money.

Jonathan

I would first change the pieces. Of course keep the dog and the shoe. Why? I just like the dog and the shoe. Then add perhaps a space shuttle, a cell phone, a smart car, a skateboard, remote control, and a potted plant. I would then connect all of the railroads with tracks leading to a central roundabout. If you choose to go there you must pay $500 to go to ANY other railroad, of course paying the rent to whomever owns it once you get there. This allows those who can afford it to get back to places in an attempt to either bypass a monopoly with big rent OR to get to a property that they need. And as in life only those that can afford it can use this option. So it will be a calculation as to whether the $500 fee to travel and the possible rent on the RR you go to are worth the expense to avoid or obtain property. Add sets of puzzle pieces to the game that you collect when you land on Free Parking. When you get 6 pieces they will read "trade any one property with any player." NOt always an easy decision. Get rid of the Jail and make it a swap places space where you can swap places with anyone on the board.

Keep metal pieces. Update Community Chest and Chance cards. Keep all the same properties and go back to the wooden houses and hotels

Dan

Added Rules: (in real life property may be 'owned' but that's a figure of speech
1> "Eminent domain" -- Rule, property not owned as part of a set: 4 railroads, 2 utilities, a color group. May be purchased from the "owner" at property value plus mortgaged value (adds up to 1.5* board value) if another player lands on that property and chooses to.

2> "The Hostile Takeover"- Property mortgaged may be purchased at property value, whether part of an owned set or not.

Everything except free parking. Monopoly is about opportunities. Free Parking should allow for Eminent Domain or Hostile Takeover of any available property on the board

Mark

Allow all players be banks and should be able to lend to anyone based on fractional resurve banking pracices. Maybe even allow compound interest every time you pass go rather than simple interest. Be able to leverage your property more than the price on the back. Make the central bank LOAN the money that is in circulation rather than give it.

the battle ship

Brendan

Real estate development is very different in real life. Zoning regulations usually prohibit hotels being built in the same neighborhood as single family homes. Governmental review boards (planning and zoning, design review, wetlands and flood plain, need I go on) don't guarantee that the project you plan to build will be at all, or maybe not the way you planned. There may be a sewer moratorium that stops the project, or a councilman that causes the developer to spend millions on unexpected of-site improvements. And let's not forget impact fees - water, sewer, open space, traffic, school, ...

I would add another deck of cards to be pulled when you want to develop a property. The card could impose restrictions, or even denials for developing your property. Restrictions my include the extent or type of development, and costs for development.

After approval, there is the problem of financing and construction overruns. The cost of these uncertainties could be added to the deck.

Once constructed, there are carrying costs. In the game you make money when someone lands on your property, but there are no costs if you have no customers. There should be payments made during each completion rounding the board to represent taxes and mortgage payments. This will add risk to the ownership.

Why does the game need to be limited to houses and hotels, besides the utilities? Why not factories and retail centers. Maybe even medical facilities? There could be tax benefits for creating jobs.

That brings up another development obstacle: affordable housing! Here in NJ, developers have been required to make contributions to affordable housing based on the number of jobs they create. Isn't that counter productive? But there is always the risk of unreasonable regulations that could make a project uneconomical. So why not a card that requires a payment for the developing process without the reward of being able to build the project.

The cards:
*Pay an impact fee of $10,000 for each house or $50,000 for a hotel.
*Council changes zoning code, project is denied. Pay $20,000 for design and legal fees.
*Unexpected cost overruns of $100,000
*Code changes cause replacement of the elevators. Pay $50,000.
*Worker strike delays opening for 6 months. No rent can be collected.
*Air conditioning fails. Pay $5,000 for repairs.

Not all cards should be bad news:
*Large convention in town. Hotel if filled, collect $50,000 in unexpected profits.

The board is fine. But I prefer the board for the The Game of Life.

I like the pieces.

I like the paper money.

Calisto (Ka-lee-sto)

There should be some places to chill out. I would add a Yoga Retreat , a Meditation Center, a Spa and some fun cards like "get a massage", "Collect Spa Dollars", "Learn to Breathe"! How about a nutrition spot, an organic farm stand??
Let's get back to caring for ourselves before we implode!
Hey, in this 24/7 high tech world we live in we all need a place to stop and breathe, to " smell the roses" and a time to turn off all of the email/texts/social media.

Having fun with friends and the old time fun of a game that gets played around a big table for hours!

Gail

Monopoly set in a foreign country with high instability and two rule sets: capitalist & socialist. Players will start playing with a set of rules and somebody draws a "government change" card in which for example a populist sets in and starts to chase landlords, flipping the rule set.

Add a tiny offshore playing board per player where players can buy properties without other players seeing it. If the player is sent to jail, he/she can escape to the private board until he/she is deported back.

Everything else.

Tomas