D&D General D&D Monopoly

[Twiggly the Gnome]

This particular edition replaces the properties with living beings, many of them intelligent so it also effectively makes it into a slave trading game. Fortunately it does it in a way too brain-deadly meaningless to be offensive.

Reading the description of the game, the first thing that came to my mind was, "Is Volo a slavemonger now?".

 

[Charlaquin]

Huh, I would have guessed that they'd use famous dungeons (or other locales) instead of monsters. Like, making the Tomb of Horrors be Boardwalk, the Temple of Elemental Evil be Park Place, all the way down to having the Sunless Citadel be Baltic Avenue.

Using monsters, by contrast, gives the whole thing a quasi-Pokemon vibe, since now you're buying, selling, and trading creatures instead of properties.

To be honest, I doubt the audience they’re targeting with this would be familiar with the names of many famous dungeons, if any.

 

[Charlaquin]

Monopoly is a terrible board game. Hard pass.

Wrong. It is an evil board game, but not a terrible one.

Thanks. I was about to reply too.

Monopoly is a selfish board game, not co-operative, not even adversarial like a war game, just plain greedy, but can still be fun in small doses played occasionally.

It’s none of those things. What it is, is excellent, though tragically misunderstood, satire.

Most people turn Monopoly into a terrible game by adding terrible house rules (usually thinking they are playing it correctly, because whoever taught them played it that way). Two in particular drag the game out for hours:

• Not auctioning unbought properties. When a player lands on a property and doesn't buy it for the face value, you are supposed to auction it off to the highest bidder, starting at a bid of $1. If you don't do this, it takes way longer for players to build up their holdings, and it removes one of the few strategic elements in the game.
• Putting the money from fines and taxes onto Free Parking. You aren't supposed to get anything for landing here; it's just Free Parking. Taxes and fines are meant to drain cash out of the economy and push the game toward a conclusion. Recycling that money means the game never freakin' ends. (If you want to make this house rule super extra bad, throw in a bonus $500 bill just because.)

I mean... It certainly plays faster if you don’t use these common house rules. But it still isn’t fun. It isn’t supposed to be. Most of those house rules arose because people noticed that the game, as designed, is inherently unfair. These house rules are intended to fix the problems that are there by design, but somewhat predictably only make it take longer to achieve the same outcome. Which if you think about it, really only drives the message home even further by demonstrating that incremental reform won’t fix a fundamentally broken system.

If you play the game correctly, it works fairly well for what it is: A game for general audiences that illustrates the... ah... joys of monopoly capitalism. I won't claim it is a game of deep and intricate strategy--it ain't. But it is well designed for its intended purpose.

I agree that it’s well designed for its intended purpose. But, uh, joy is not what it’s meant to demonstrate

Every time I ever played Monopoly as a kid, we used the common stupid houserules that you describe, because that's how we were taught to play it. So of course, as an adult I've always thought that it was a terrible game.

I learned the facts that you point out a few years back. I have to admit it's... tempted me... to try to play the game properly by-the-rules. Tempted. But I haven't done it yet.

It definitely sounds like it would be much better that way.

I’ll save you the trouble. It isn’t any more fun played “right.” It’s just over mercifully sooner.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I’ll save you the trouble. It isn’t any more fun played “right.” It’s just over mercifully sooner.

Thanks! I suspected as much - I was just enough suspicious of it that I didn't ever "get around" to giving it a try. Now I don't have to. I appreciate what you're saying about its satire. I can see it.

 

[imagineGod]

It’s none of those things. What it is, is excellent, though tragically misunderstood, satire.

I mean... It certainly plays faster if you don’t use these common house rules. But it still isn’t fun. It isn’t supposed to be. Most of those house rules arose because people noticed that the game, as designed, is inherently unfair. These house rules are intended to fix the problems that are there by design, but somewhat predictably only make it take longer to achieve the same outcome. Which if you think about it, really only drives the message home even further by demonstrating that incremental reform won’t fix a fundamentally broken system.

I agree that it’s well designed for its intended purpose. But, uh, joy is not what it’s meant to demonstrate

I’ll save you the trouble. It isn’t any more fun played “right.” It’s just over mercifully sooner.

To me, having played Monopoly many times, it is designed to be a selfish game from its core rules premise, which is exactly what I said.

Please do not quote me to then lecture me with a definitive comment that your view is somehow right and mine wrong, because I too have lived experience playing Monopoly.

Bad wrong fun, is not something we should apply to games.

 

[DEFCON 1]

The only game I ever hear that has the same cries of "not fun" like I do for Monopoly is Diplomacy. Personally, I really enjoy both-- even though they are both long, involve the systematic dismantling and elimination of all the other players to get to a winner, and can reach stalemates with no real chance to progress the game unless someone intentionally throws their game just to change the status quo. But so long as you get into a game with other players who understand this dynamic is going to happen and not only accept it but thrive in it... they can be a lot of fun for us.

When someone tells me they played Diplomacy once, hated it, and never want to play it again... I always agree with them 100%. If you get stabbed in your first game (which is inevitable) and you are unable to shake it off and want to jump right back into another game to try and fix what you did wrong the first time... you probably aren't going to be the right audience for it and I tend to believe you never will be. So choosing not to play it is probably a smart idea. Only a few of us have the masochistic side to us that we're willing to give up eight hours to play a game where 5 or 6 out of the 7 of us are going to have our hearts crushed into pulp... and then turn around and say "Yessir, may I have another?" for the next game.

 

[Arnie_Wan_Kenobi]

The only game I ever hear that has the same cries of "not fun" like I do for Monopoly is Diplomacy.

I have heard the same comment about both games, "[Monopoly/Diplomacy] is the game to play with your friends when you absolutely, positively want a new group a friends." (Implying you'll all hate each other by the time it's over.)

 

[Swarmkeeper]

Something I hadn’t learned until decades after first playing the game:

Monopoly Was Designed to Teach the 99% About Income Inequality

The story you’ve heard about the creation of the famous board game is far from true

www.smithsonianmag.com

 

[Charlaquin]

To me, having played Monopoly many times, it is designed to be a selfish game from its core rules premise, which is exactly what I said.

Please do not quote me to then lecture me with a definitive comment that your view is somehow right and mine wrong, because I too have lived experience playing Monopoly.

My dude, it’s quite definitive that Monopoly was invented to teach the ills of capitalism. Just look up “the landlord’s game.”

Bad wrong fun, is not something we should apply to games.

I have no idea how you’re getting “badwrongfun” out of what I’m saying...

 

[loverdrive]

They missed an opportunity by using the standard Monopoly spaces for "In Jail" and "Go To Jail." Obviously they should be "The Dungeon" and "Caught by the City Watch" with D&D appropriate art. The standard spaces are a bit jarring.

I suspect there's something in Monopoly license that forbids changing them.

When those naughty word spaces are replaced with something fancy -- it's a telltale sign of a fan-made conversion.