Monopoly/House Rules

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HOUSE RULES

The game of Monopoly has many variations, even in the rules. Many casual Monopoly players are surprised and disappointed to discover that some of the rules they are used to are not actually part of the official rules. Some of these house rules include the following.

Contents 1 Free Parking cash 2 Go and movement 3 Snake-Eyes 4 Rents and auctions 5 Mercy Rule 6 Trades and negotiations 7 Property improvements 8 Original rules for a short game (60 to 90 minutes) 8.1 Other short games (unofficial rules) 9 Miscellaneous

[edit] Free Parking cash

A very common house rule is to have a kitty of cash based at the Free Parking space (or in the centre of the board, since there is more room there). A player who lands on Free Parking collects the cash, and the kitty is restarted. The kitty may be built in several different ways, for example:

• by sending Jail fines to the kitty
• by paying the fines and taxes on the Community Chest and Chance cards into the kitty rather than to the bank
• by placing a predetermined amount of money from the bank into the kitty at the beginning of the game and whenever it is emptied (for example, a $500 bill, the largest currency amount in the game)
• by requiring every player who passes Free Parking without landing on it to pay in a specified amount
• by paying income and luxury tax/super tax to the kitty
• some people play by a rule where $500 is put in the kitty at the start and the first lucky person to land on it gets the $500 and the other money. After that, $500 is not put in there every time it is emptied.
• some people place the final unbought property into the kitty as soon as the penultimate property has been purchased, and it must be won by whoever lands on Free Parking. Any player who lands on the property in question while it is in the kitty may not buy it. One variation of this is to have players pay the base rent price for landing on that property into the kitty to ensure a larger reward for whoever lands on Free Parking.

[edit] Go and movement

• Some house rules award a player $300, $400, or some other bonus for landing exactly on Go, instead of the $200 specified by the official rules.
• A player must either completely travel around the board (having collected $200 by passing Go) or roll the dice a certain number of times before he is allowed to purchase property - landing on a property or station space has no effect during that time, while other squares function as normal.
• No players may purchase property before all players have passed Go at least 5 times.
• No players may purchase property until ONE player has passed Go. This rule is similar to the one above but makes the game go a little faster. This rule and the one above are good with games with 5 or more players.
• Players are allowed to "take a chance" when they land on a Chance square. They have the option 1) to draw a chance card, or 2) to do nothing and sit freely on the square. No choice is given, however, when landing on a Community Chest square; the player must draw a card from the appropriate deck.

[edit] Snake-Eyes

When someone rolls two ones (or move two spaces) they get one of each bill from the bank (one $500, one $100, one $50, etc.), that is, $686. An alternative version gives a player $100 for rolling two ones.

[edit] Rents and auctions

The original folk game of monopoly was played in 1910 as an auction monopoly derived from the Landlord Game. Auctions were very much a part of Monopoly until 1930s when the Quakers of Atlantic City eliminated Auctions from Monopoly and assigned fixed prices on the board.

Some house rules disqualify an owner from collecting rent while in jail. This allows reprieve for other players landing on an expensive property with houses or a hotel during the time a player is incarcerated.

Some house rules omit the auction rule. That is to say, when a player lands on an unowned property and elects not to purchase it (or in some cases, merely doesn't announce an intention to purchase it before the next player rolls the dice), the property remains unowned, rather than being auctioned among the other players. This house rule originated with the Quakers of Atlantic City who eliminated auctions altogether. Jesse Raiford made the fixed prices of Monopoly found on your sets today.

Some people play by a rule where if the one who landed on the property does not win the auction, he pays the rent to the winner.

[edit] Mercy Rule

When a player reaches a certain level of wealth (determined by the players) they automatically win, this is sometimes used as sometimes players who at their end don't enjoy themselves and often get annoyed.

[edit] Trades and negotiations

It is common in home games to trade current assets for future consideration. For example, one might trade Boardwalk/Mayfair for $800 plus a promise that one will never have to pay rent when landing on that color group in the future.

According to some home rules no property trading happens until all properties are owned by someone. At this point, play stops and a flurry of trading proceeds until all players are satisfied, e.g. when everyone has a monopoly. Trades may only be made on the turn of the person who wants to make the trade.

[edit] Property improvements

Another common house rule is to exclude the requirement of owning all properties of the same color before being able to buy houses.

Some house rules allow a player to build a hotel directly, even if there's not enough houses in the bank (one hotel equals five houses). This way a building shortage only affects poor players.

Another common house rule allows players to build on a certain property only when they land on it. Combined with the requirement that properties in a colour group be developed equally, this makes development very slow as it can only be done one house at a time.

Trades can be made if a player is in jail.

[edit] Original rules for a short game (60 to 90 minutes)

The official Monopoly rules allow five rules changes for this short game.

1. During preparation, the banker shuffles and deals three Title Deed cards to each player. These are free---no payment to the bank is required.
2. You need only three houses (instead of four) on each lot of a complete color-group before you may buy a hotel. Hotel rent remains the same. The turn-in value is still one-half the purchase price, which in this game is one house less than in the regular game.
3. If you land in jail you must exit on your next turn by a) using a "Get Out of Jail Free" card if you have (or can buy) one; or b) rolling doubles; or c) paying $50. Unlike the standard rules, you may try to roll doubles and, if failing to do so, pay the $50 on the same turn.
4. The penalty for landing on "Income Tax" is a flat $200 (i.e., the option to pay 10% of cash on hand is removed). The UK version of the game makes Income Tax a flat tax anyway.
5. The game ends when one player goes bankrupt. The remaining players value their property: a) cash on hand; b) lots, utilities, and railroads owned, at the price printed on the board; c) any mortgaged property owned, at one-half the price printed on the board; d) houses, valued at purchase price; e) hotels, valued at purchase price including the value of the three houses turned in. The richest player is then declared the winner.

[edit] Other short games (unofficial rules)

One way to shorten the game is to play for a predetermined amount of time. When the time limit is reached, the winner is the one with the greatest assets in cash, property, and houses. This method is used for tournament play.

Another way to create a shorter game is to randomly distribute a predetermined number of property cards before the start of the game.

A third way is to play until all have gone around the board a certain number of times.

[edit] Miscellaneous

• Six Railroads: The two utilities are treated like additional railroads. They cost $200 to buy and can be mortgaged for $100. The rent for five railroads is $300 and for six railroads is $400. (An "Advance To Nearest Utility Card" can either be removed from the deck or changed to "Advance to Nearest Railroad and Pay owner twice the rental...")
• Traveling Railroads: Whenever a player lands on a railroad, the player may choose to move his or her token to any other railroad owned by the same player. The player must pay rent even if he or she does not choose to travel. A player may travel on his or her own railroads for free. A player may not travel on unowned railroads. Travel is across the board, so a player does not get $200 for passing Go when he or she travels from Short Line to Reading Railroad. The owner of the railroads may not prevent the player from traveling. A player may travel to or from a mortgaged railroad. (NOTE: If a player travels from a mortgaged railroad to an unmortgaged railroad, he does not have to pay rent.)
• Borrowing Money from the Bank: At any time a player may borrow $500 from the bank. Until the loan is paid off, the player will only receive $100 when passing Go, as interest. A player may not pay off the loan until he has passed Go at least once since borrowing the money. If you go bankrupt the creditor inherits your debt. Anyone who inherits a debt cannot pay it off until he has passed Go once since inheriting that debt.
• Jailing Cheaters: If a player is caught cheating by the other players, he or she must go directly to jail. They don't pass go or collect $200.
• Mississippi Bankruptcy: Before a player (referred to as "the dealer") rolls the dice, there is a betting round, in which, starting from the dealer's left and moving clockwise around the table, each player (other than the dealer) is given the option of betting by placing money on one or more unowned properties around the board and/or on Free Parking. After the betting is completed, the dealer continues with his or her turn, and if the dealer rolls doubles, then the bank doubles all the money on the board. If the dealer rolls snake eyes, then the bank pays out 10 dollars for each dollar down. If the dealer lands on a property that has money on it, then as long as the player who put money down, put down at least 10% of the cost of the unowned property, then that player has purchased the right to bid in an auction for the property against the dealer and any other player who had put down at least 10% of the cost of the unowned property on that property. Also, those players' tokens are then moved directly to that property, without passing Go, without collecting $200. Bidding begins at the property's original cost. Players who lose an auction have to pay the winner rent. If none of the players bid on the property, then the property remains unsold, and no money changes hands. A player who wins an auction, if he or she has completed a set, does not have the option of building houses on said property, even if it is his or her turn, until after the losing player or players have paid their rent. If a player puts down money on Free Parking and the dealer lands on Free Parking, then the player's token is moved to Free Parking (without passing Go, without collecting $200). After the dealer's turn is completed, play continues to the dealer's left and the next player to roll the dice becomes the new dealer.
• Mulitiple-Board: If you have multiple Monopoly boards of different versions (ie. Original, dotcom, NHL, Canadian, Star Wars, etc.) you can overlap the corners of the boards with free parking above free parking or go above go. Each board will overlap at most two opposite corners. You need different versions so you know which properties belongs to which board. Starting money is $1500 per board in play. Rents for Utilities are 1: 5x roll, 2: 10X roll, 3: 15X roll, 4: 20X roll etc. Railroad rents keep doubling: 1: $25, 2: $50, 3: $100, 4: $200, 5: $400, 6: $800, 7: $1600 8: $3200, etc. Play proceeds around the outer edge of the row of boards, so when you reach an overlapping square, you turn to the left. When being sent to Go, or Jail you advance to whichever on would next appear in your travels. When advancing to a specific railroad, utility or other property it is conceivable to pass by several Go spaces on your way depending on how many boards are in play. Houses and hotels built, must be from the pieces available for that board. If you're playing with the free parking cash optional rule, there is a pot for each board, and you collect the pot for the board you were on when you rolled the dice to land on free parking. Game time may be quite long or quite short - depending on whether one player manages to collect many of the railroads as large numbers of railroads are the quickest way to put an opponent out of the game!

A version of multiple-board monopoly exists with different rule variations than those above. First, the "Go" spaces of the two boards overlap, effectively creating one "Go" space shared by both boards. Railroad rents max out at 200$ as in a standard one-board game. So a player having 5 or more RRs still receives only $200 rent per RR (but obviously his chances of getting rent are greater). Utilities work similarly: Rent maxes out at 10x the roll, even if a player has three of more utilities. Also, if a player lands directly on "Go," he may choose to travel onto either board the following turn. This also applies at the beginning of the game when all tokens are on "Go." But, players must announce before the roll which board they will advance onto. Keep in mind that if a player does not land directly on "Go" he must advance onto the next board as normal. If playing with the Free Parking reward, the money is pooled into one kitty which is won by landing on either of the two Free Parking spaces. As for building properties, one must have the complete color monopoly (i.e. an Orange monopoly means SIX oranges). However, if a player has a monopoly on only one board, he may build up to 2 (TWO) houses on the properties until he obtains all six properties (or, in the case of Baltic/Mediterranean & Boardwalk/Park Place, all 4 properties). Once a 6-property monopoly is obtained (usually via trades), the player may build more than 2 houses. Houses of their respective boards are kept separate (32 houses, 16 hotels per board). Upon going to jail, the player goes to the jail on the board from whence he came. A player can never advance to the other board's Jail. Regarding cards which require movement (excluding "Go To Jail" cards), the player must follow the instructions and move around the boards normally. So if a player hits the Boardwalk-side Chance and must move to Illinois Ave for example, he moves to the other board's Illinois Ave.