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[Contest/Exercise] - Let's Kill Monopoly!

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Sun, 09/01/2013 - 03:41
AnEvenWeirderMove
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Joined: 03/07/2012

BGDF has been gifted with a time machine. We only have enough fuel for one use, so we have to make it count... Your mission should you choose to accept it, is to travel back in time to destroy the game which has closed off this hobby to many an individual, a game which makes adults scrunch up their noses at the mention of "board games" like they'd smelled something foul.

We're going to kill Monopoly.

But, we can rebuild it. We have the technology. We'll make it better, faster, more strategic... what's that? All the extra cardboard has gone to other prototypes? Well, we'll just have to make do.

Mission: Design "Monopoly", a game about buying and trading land and buildings in Atlantic City.

Constraints:
- Your game must use all of the same properties (in the same order of value) as in Monopoly. We can't lose Marvin Gardens, let alone Boardwalk. You may arrange them on a different board, or on no board at all.
- Your game must feature a die roll.
- Your game must be a FAMILY game. Unless people add "house rules" it should play in 90 minutes or less. Upper limit on mechanical complexity lies somewhere around Settlers of Catan.

Ideals:
- Your game must feature the building of hotels. Our chronoscope shows that if Monopoly didn't have hotels, we'd all have to stay in Bed and Breakfasts whenever we went anywhere, which is nice, but pricey.
- Your game must feature Chance and Community Chest cards in some fashion. Our scientists have determined that these cards affect the world far more than you know.
- Your game must feature jail, a way to get into it, and a way to get out of it for free. Removing the phrase "Get Out Of Jail Free Card" from our vernacular would disrupt the timestream too much.
- Your game must feature at least one of the original player movers. Because they're cool.
- If your game is playable using a current-timeline Monopoly set though addition of only simple components (and modifying text/values) then you get THREE TIMES THE POINTS!

Post an abstract of your design in this thread (try not to steal anyone else's bright ideas). To be honest this is more of a "design prompt" than a contest, but I'll try and offer feedback on any ideas that I get!

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Sun, 09/01/2013 - 17:30
#1
SLiV
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Joined: 10/21/2011
Uhm... what?

In my mind, the worst thing about Monopoly is not that it's a bad board game (which it is), but all the bloody Monopoly clones.

And you are basically trying to "kill Monopoly" by making *another* Monopoly clone.

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Sun, 09/01/2013 - 18:36
#2
questccg
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Joined: 04/16/2011
Two comments

1> There is already a CARD GAME of Monopoly called "Monopoly Deal" (Published by Parker Brothers and Hasbro). It uses the same properties to try to make sets, you can add houses and even hotels. The cool thing about the game is you can STEAL a property or a SET of properties from another player. But you need to be careful because the opponent may have a "Just say No!" card which nullifies the steal.

2> I think you might be putting too many conditions such as "must use dice", "must use all of the same properties", etc. If you want to design a BETTER Monopoly, maybe the game doesn't use DICE, maybe it uses ACTION POINTS, for example. I think you might get more responses (in terms of offshoots) if you remove the constraints and simply say: "Redo Monopoly (as you see fit)".

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Sun, 09/01/2013 - 19:08
#3
AnEvenWeirderMove
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Joined: 03/07/2012
SLiV wrote:In my mind, the

SLiV wrote:
In my mind, the worst thing about Monopoly is not that it's a bad board game (which it is), but all the bloody Monopoly clones.

And you are basically trying to "kill Monopoly" by making *another* Monopoly clone.

questccg wrote:
1> There is already a CARD GAME of Monopoly called "Monopoly Deal" (Published by Parker Brothers and Hasbro). It uses the same properties to try to make sets, you can add houses and even hotels. The cool thing about the game is you can STEAL a property or a SET of properties from another player. But you need to be careful because the opponent may have a "Just say No!" card which nullifies the steal.

2> I think you might be putting too many conditions such as "must use dice", "must use all of the same properties", etc. If you want to design a BETTER Monopoly, maybe the game doesn't use DICE, maybe it uses ACTION POINTS, for example. I think you might get more responses (in terms of offshoots) if you remove the constraints and simply say: "Redo Monopoly (as you see fit)".

While I appreciate the aggression, I'm not saying to create a Monopoly clone. It's actually EXACTLY the opposite, which if you'd read my post with any kind of openness or creativity, you would see.

A "clone" is a game which uses identical mechanisms but different visual presentation and theme. I am talking about designing a game which uses identical visual presentation and theme, but which uses different mechanism. This is PRECISELY the opposite. It should be clear from the prompt that I'm suggesting that the base mechanisms can be changed without the visual presentation and theme being much different. Changing the mechanisms would be sufficient to differentiate the game from the current "Monopoly"

Constraints are crucial to good exercises, and being able to work within them is a great way of flexing one's design muscles. If you think a good game can't contain dice, or can't contain a deck of cards, then you're not thinking very creatively.

Also, I know about Monopoly deal. I wouldn't be surprised if the designer of that game set about designing it with criteria very similar to those I have suggested here. But, The goal of the thread isn't for someone to design a game that I can then buy to have a game which "fixes" Monopoly. The goal is to see some interesting design ideas. I will post one I had shortly, so you can understand what I mean.

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Sun, 09/01/2013 - 19:30
#4
AnEvenWeirderMove
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Joined: 03/07/2012
(all of this is off the top

(all of this is off the top of my head so I am sure there are problems with it, but you will see the kind of thing I mean; with only subtle changes to mechanisms you can end up at a game which may be much more rewarding.)

Monopoly
A game of real-estate trading in atlantic city for 2-6 players.

Components:
- Monopoly board (exactly as is)
- Player markers (in the shape of houses, in different colors per player)
- 7 movers (6 tourists (suitcases) and one Auctioneet (dollar sign))
- 1 first player marker

- 2 dice

Setup:
Each player takes their starting money and supply of houses. The auctioneer token, plus one "tourist" token per player, are placed on the starting space.

Rules
The game of Monopoly is played in rounds. Each round is divided into two phases, moving and building.

Moving:
The start player rolls two dice, and may use either or both of them, moving the auctioneer's figure to the space indicated. If the space is a property, it will be put up for auction, with the starting player beginning the bid. The player who bids the highest pays that amount of money to the bank and takes the title card. If the space is not a property (or is already owned) the Auctioneer will move backwards to the nearest unowned property, and that space will be auctioned.

During the second part of the game there will be no properties remaining to sell. Once there are no properties left, the Auctioneer is replaced with the Assessor. He will instead ALWAYS move the number of spaces on the die, collecting upkeep from EACH SPACE HE PASSES. Each player who owns a property that he passed must pay its basic rent value to the bank, or mortgage the property.

Then, that player moves two "tourist" markers, each of them moving the number of spaces indicated on one of the two dice. (If the tourists are moved to the newly bought property, they do not pay rent yet, as there is no house for them to rent out.) If the tourist lands on a non-property space (taxes, chance cards) the event there happens, and then the tourist moves forward to the nearest property space. If a tourist lands on a property space, the player who owns that property collects rent from the bank.

Building:
Players may build more of their houses on properties they already own, with each house costing the amount shown on the card. Houses increase the rent when a tourist lands there; Additionally, if a tourist lands in a property group but cannot pay rent (because there are less houses than tourists on that property) he moves to the nearest property in that same group which DOES have an empty house. In this way, building more houses makes properties more attractive. If there are four houses on a property, a Hotel may be built; this will attract any tourist who lands on the property group until it is filled.

After the round, the start player token is passed. Once the start player token has rounded the table, each player must pay upkeep on all of the properties they have built (this upkeep is equal to the base rent for that property) or forfeit their houses on that property, returning it to the unowned pile.

Game End:
The game ends when a player reaches (some number of) victory points. Victory points are achieved by:
- Building hotels
- Owning monopolies
- 1 VP can be purchased at the beginning of a player's turn, with the cost increasing each time a player buys one.

Alternately, the game ends when a player is bankrupted. That player cannot win the game. In the case of a tie, the player with the most cash on hand wins.

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Mon, 09/02/2013 - 05:12
#5
Oripy
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Joined: 08/21/2013
3 dices for more strategy

My Monopoly design only changes the way the players moves from street to street, which are arranged on a different board.

Take all 40 spaces, remove 2 chances 2 community chests, taxes, go to prison space. Put aside the prison.

All is left is 32 spaces.

Put those spaces in two rows, each column numbered from 3 to 18. In the center (columns 10/11) are the following spaces : chance (10), community chest (10), "start" (11, which is just now "get 200$"), free parking (11). All the other spaces are properties, you should put the most expensive ones at both end of the board (keeping the colours together).

Each turn, the player roll 3 die. Add up the 3 values and choose between the two possible spots. Only one player can be in each space, so if one is occupied, you must go to the other.
If both are occupied, you go directly to jail.

The rest of the game is exactly the same as the original game.

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