About a year ago, MarioLucarioFan64 was looking to start a game of Monopoly in thread form and got a lot of positive feedback, but it never really panned out as no one signed up for it. I'd like to try that again.

I'll be managing everyone's rolls, assets and the board on my end and updating with every turn. I have a dice app on my phone for rolling and we'll be using RNG for Chance and Community Chest card draws. I also have a board that will be edited and reposted with every move, along with everyone's assets and property being displayed. Here's an example of the board we'll be using.





Available player tokens are the Battleship, Boot, Dog, Iron, Race Car, Thimble, Top Hat and Wheel Barrow from the original edition of the game, the Cat, Diamond Ring, Guitar, Helicopter and Robot from the newer editions and Amy Rose, Chao, Knuckles the Echidna, Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog and Miles "Tails" Prower from the Sonic the Hedgehog edition of the game. If there are any other tokens from other editions of Monopoly you'd like to use, let me know and I'll see what I can get.





Most of what this thread is about is figuring out how much interest there is in doing something like this as well as establishing a set of rules before we start a game. I want to go with the standard rules for the most part but there is also a whole list of common house rules we could potentially add, as well. Give those pages a good read through and let me know what you suggest.

Some things I would like to discuss would be some variation on the Cash on Free Parking rule, whether or not we should have a limit of 32 houses and 12 hotels in play at once and how we should handle turn skipping in the even that a player winds up going inactive for longer than a given period of time. I'd also like to set something up where a player can drop out of the game at any given time without it completely ruining the balance of the game.


Your feedback is greatly appreciated.



EDIT: Something important I forgot to note: we'll be playing with Viz and the winner gets to keep all the liquid assets they made in the game. There also won't be an entry fee, so I'm basically hosting a competition with a Viz prize. I'm bankrolling the whole project.

Been a while since I last played Monopoly, even though I have the Wii game, so I'm totally up for this. I also have lots of Viz to spend on, so we could turn this into a millionaire edition if needed

It's the first time I've heard of the Free Parking rules, I remember not setting anything for it and have it as the only non-effect square in the whole board because of the "free" on its name. I don't mind discussing the rules you provided in that link and see what fits us better, but right now it's an unknown field for me so I'll wait on feedback by more people.

About inactivity periods, I'd go with 24-36 hours at most after your turn starts so your turn is skipped due to not checking the game. I'd like to suggest a maximum number of skipped turns before a player is dropped off the grid, being a relatively long game I wouldn't place such number below 5. As for dropping out by the own player's choice, maybe we should discuss that upon seeing if there's an excess of players wanting to join that could replace an active player, another choice being the auction of all his/her properties with the cash transferred to the bank again.

For the houses and hotels, there's a rule in the link you provided that houses and hotels are only placed in one of the properties of the color group to better keep control of their numbers. By that rule, and using the board you attached as reference, 32 houses would be enough for the whole board and 12 hotels would even be an excess, so I'm totally with this rule.

Let's see if we can get some people for this. Just curious, how many players are we expecting, including possible alternates that could join after a player drops out on their own? We'd have enough with 4 (three besides me) but definite numbers always makes things easier to help unsure potential players.

Wait, we can already sign up for this?

In that case, i'm in. Thanks for reviving this project! Hopefully there are enough users up for it now...

EX Palen :

My idea for the cash on Free Parking was something along the lines of allowing people the option. Like, if you land on free parking, you could have the option of paying $20 for a lotto ticket and you win if you roll doubles, or something, or you can just sit there. Just something I wanted to throw out there, though. We don't have to do anything special for Free Parking.

24-36 hours before a turn skip sounds good. That should be plenty enough time for people to drop in long enough to take their turn even after counting in time zone differences.

Maximum amount of players is something else I forgot to bring up in the opening post. Usually there are only 6 or 8 player tokens and so a game can only be played with a max of 6 or 8 people, but since I have 19 tokens and can easily shop up a few more if need be, I'm not sure where to cap it. I'd think more than 8 would get pretty cluttered, so perhaps we should cap it there? We could also let people pick a friend as a stand-in in the case that they can't take their turn for whatever reason or that they decide to drop out of the game and that would give most everyone a chance at some point. And in the event that an absent player can't take their turn and they either don't have a substitute or their substitute is unavailable, their turn could be skipped after their turn period. Having the assets of a player who's either dropped out or has been kicked from the game auctioned off is also a lot better idea than the way we always played it at home, where we would just put everything on free parking and whoever landed there got to keep it all. It threw off the balance of the game pretty badly. Having the repossessed property auctioned off would be more realistic and would give everyone a chance to grab some of it. We could also put the forfeited cash in the lotto fund, if we do decide to have one, that is.


MarioLucarioFan64 : Yeap, anyone who wants to play when the game starts can say so here. I haven't decided on whether or not I'll open another thread for the actual game or just repurpose this one, but I'm leaning more towards the former than the latter. If I do make a new thread, anyone saying they want in here will be summoned.



Something else I forgot to ask in the initial post: what would everyone's opinion be on requiring everyone to pass Go at least once before buying property? Since I'll like use RNG to see which players will go first, second and so on, maybe it could level the playing field for those of us who will be going last? It might allow someone to gain a lead on the board before the first rollers can buy property up.

Yeah, I'd cap it at 8 players. Normally it's just with 4, so doubling that amount should be the maximum allowed by logic.

I'd personally not do anything special for Free Parking and leave it as a non-effect square. I don't mind doing something for it, just that we already have the Community Chest and Chance to test our luck at a juicy prize and adding one more square with custom prizes or actions can affect the flow of the game.

Being able to pick a backup just in case sounds good, but then again, unless we have more than 8 interested players it's not something that can work. I'd rather have 8 players join and auction the assets of a fallen player instead of having 4 players each with a backup player should anything happen. It's a lot more fair for everyone and allows us all a chance to play without having to wait for a (certain) player to drop out/be kicked out.

As for passing Go at least once before buying, I never used that rule. You can go first but roll badly, then someone behind has the chance to overtake you and buy a property ahead of you. Having to do a full lap around the board just makes the first turns a race, and the only activity comes in the Chance, Community or Go to Jail squares. I'd personally allow buying since the very first roll, also because of speeding up the game even if it's just a handful of turns.

It's nearly 2:30 AM here, so I'll make another post tomorrow or whenever I'm able to finally decide which of the several awesome tokens I want to have

I'm down for this! Count me in, dude!

The two rules I never liked from our house rules were the free parking pot (Because it makes the game so unbalanced), and the pass go before buying rule, because again, it can make things unbalanced. If one player rolls doubles two times or more they can easily be past go before the others even make it to the second half of the board.

And Idk if it's settled on yet, but I like the idea of holding a silent auction if a player opts not to buy a property. Normally it would be an auction, but a normal auction could take days to resolve if we give twenty four hours, and any less would risk some people not seeing it. The silent auction would give everyone one chance to name their price secretly, and the game could continue on while the auction was underway for a day.

Just my two cents.

Eirinn : I love the silent auction thing, I'm all in to include it. Just like you say, it would allow for a faster game, and when talking about Monopoly a game is never fast enough

Also, you mark the 4th person to post here besides TC, so we have half the maximum field in the case the bank isn't one of the active players, which I think it's our case. This also means I'll have to go deeper into the rules so we can discuss everything very soon, we shouldn't let the hype die after this.

Eirinn : I forgot to bring up the property auctioning if someone doesn't outright buy it. If I understand you correctly, do you mean having the auctions via PM or something similar so we don't hold up game progression? I suppose that could work, but I figured it would make sense to establish who owns property before people start rolling again. That way rent that's due can be paid. But if no one thinks that'll be a problem, then I'm fine with it.

EX Palen : I debated joining for a bit, but I think it's an interesting idea, so I decided not to pass it up. I'm looking forward to seeing it in action.



m0ssb3rg935 - Yeah, pretty much. You would announce that the property is up for auction and everyone that was interested would send you a PM saying what they would pay for it. They would only be allowed one bid though, so whoever offered the most would get it. It might end up with a disparity of $2 or $200,000, no one would have a way of knowing what the others were bidding.

The idea of a property being ruled rent free for 24-48 hours (long enough for the auction to end and the user to claim it) is odd, but with momentum being as key as it is in forum games, I was afraid that halting gameplay for one to two days could be a bad idea. I could see it either way, I was just thinking of the already slow paced nature of the game and how it might be expedited a bit.

Again, I definitely want this to remain true to your vision, since I've started forum games only to have people alter them until they no longer resembled what they were meant to be, and it can be pretty aggravating. Just tossing out the idea and thought behind it. Either way works for me.

Eirinn :
EX Palen :

Actually, thinking more on it, I think it's a great idea. We'd just need figure out how long an auction period should be. Is 48 hours what you recommend, or do you think that's too long? Would we cut the auction short once everyone either messages with their bid or states they're not interested or let it go until the timer runs out? With the former, the action could keep pace with the game as opposed to having one move faster than the other, but really, I'm just fishing for suggestions.

Since a silent auction would need just one PM with each player's bid, we could give it the same period as a turn, which would be the stipulated 24-36 hours. That's more than enough time to think about your move.

About rents that could be left in limbo, it depends on how the player drops off the grid. If a player drops off voluntarily at any given time we can hold a silent auction before continuing, with any property that hasn't a buyer returned to the bank. If a player has gone inactive, then before the next turn starts we can hold a silent auction, which shouldn't affect too much the development of the game, otherwise rents that are due can be paid to the bank instead for not having a rightful owner of the property.

If everyone replies before the deadline then I don't see why we shouldn't end it early.

I like Palen's idea of letting the rent go to the bank while a property is up for auction, since it would in a sense be property of the bank until someone bought it back.

I'd also like to propose a rule amendment: If a player goes inactive and misses a turn, all rent that they would have collected during their absence is forfeited, and the player(s) that landed on those spaces wouldn't have to pay. Monopoly is a game of risks, balances, etc. With every turn, you stand a chance to make money, but you also stand to lose money every turn. If you don't take those risks of loss, you shouldn't get the chance to gain during those turns either.

Eirinn : I'm all in to that amend, as some kind of encouragement to never let your turn pass by if you want to win.

If we make that amend, maybe the limit of turns where you go inactive before being kicked out should be reduced from the 5 I initially suggested. This is because the risks you face by not claiming rents can potentially bring you down sooner than usual. I could be wrong, but we're here to discuss and here's my opinion on the matter (blurry opinion, very late right now here )

I probably should've already been doing so, but I'm starting to type up these rules.

Eirinn : There's actually something in the standard rules along those lines.

"If the player lands on an unmortgaged property owned by another player, he or she pays rent to that person, as specified on the property's deed. It is the property owner's responsibility to demand rent, and he or she has until the beginning of the second following player's turn to do so."

Should we give them the window of opportunity in case they miss it the first time, or should we just require that they catch it on the occupants's turn?


One rule we always had difficulty interpreting:

"If the player lands on Income Tax he or she must pay the Bank either $200 or 10% of his or her total assets (cash on hand, property, houses and hotels). In some editions of the game, this is a flat rate of $200."

We were never sure whether that meant it was our choice to pay either a flat $200 or the equivalent to 10% of our total assets, so we just assumed it was 10% with an absolute minimum of $200. Whichever comes out higher, basically. Opinions?


Extra rules so far:

--Turn periods are a maximum of 36 hours. If your turn isn't taken in that amount of time, you'll be skipped.

--You're kicked from the game and your property will be auctioned off if you miss five consecutive turns. Cash will be returned to The Bank.

--Open property auctions are replaced with silent auctions. Each player will send the banker a Private message with either their bid or a statement saying they're uninterested in the property. Auction periods end after all players have messaged or 36 hours have passed since the auction started.


Let me know if I missed a rule somewhere.


EX Palen :
MarioLucarioFan64 :
A user of this :

What are your opinions? Everything listed look good?


EDIT: EX Palen - I was typing this when you replied lol. I was thinking that requiring five consecutive skips before kicking seems like a rather high number, myself. I was thinking something more along the lines of 3. What do you think?

I don't really think we could use the rule requiring a player to call the other one out for landing on their property unless we require a post everyday, in which case I'd say go with it, but make them call it on their next turn, that way they could call out every property that was landed on at one time if multiple spaces of theirs were hit.

The income tax rule: If the games are any indication, it's meant to be a choice: either pay 10% or $200. At least that's how it was always handled in the game adaptations that I've played.


How will play be handled anyway? At the start of each turn you roll for everyone, tell us where we landed, and then give us until the start of the next turn to make any decisions that need to be made? Also, will there be trading? It says on the box "Property Trading Game" but our house rules never allowed for it, which in turn made for a much longer game.

If these questions were answered in the opening post, I apologize. I'll read through it again in a minute here.

I was more thinking on skipping 5 turns in total, whether or not they were consecutive. By skipping 5 turns you basically went without notice for a whole week while the game lasted, and that's more than enough reason to be kicked out. I honestly doubt anybody would skip 3 turns consecutively, that'd mean more than 4 days straight without coming here even if it's just to check on this game.

We could probably add that window of opportunity, given the timezone differences me and MLF64 have when facing the rest. As far as I know, once a player confirms their move within 36 hours after you post their roll it moves into the next player, and in a case like right now where two users are active that can mean a short amount of time under certain circumstances. Maybe I haven't yet fully understood how turns will work, but I guess that we can expect some picaresque from the players to skip rents by moving faster (or that's just how we Spanish people play lol).

As for the Income Tax, it's your choice over what you want to pay, or at least that's how I understand it. There can be quite a difference between both options, so having the choice looks like the best idea. However, the choice to pay one or another is made by the player who landed there. Not sure if that cleared something up, maybe I should unbox the version I own and check the rules there so my memory starts rewinding

We were discussing not needing to pass Go before buying and having Free Parking as a non-effect square. Not sure if we ever reached a consensus, but I already stated my opinion on both so I'm done here. No other topics were being discussed up to this post, so right now reaching a consensus on those two can mean registration open. I'm quite busy lately so I'll hardly come up with any other rule to discuss, it's up to everyone else now.

Eirinn : That's actually not a bad idea. It would also be a little more work for the owner to keep track of who all owes him rent if they were all called at once. We could do it that way.

Actual play will probably have to be handled a little awkwardly... Since all the RNG and rolls are handled on my end, everyone will basically need to let me know what they want to do every turn. :/ That'll be one of the downsides of doing in long distance since I couldn't really come up with a decent solution.

Trade will actually be allowed. As you said, it'd be cutting out a major part of the game if we excluded it. Trading can happen at the beginning of anyone's turn.


Alright. Unless anyone has anymore questions or suggestions, we can start just as soon as I get everything set up on my end. I'll summon everyone to the the game thread when it goes up.

m0ssb3rg935 : Yeah, that looks good to me. I'm cool with all that.