Family Monopoly

My children got together tonight to make their very own version of Monopoly up for family game night.   We were told to meet in The Game and Lounge Room upstairs in ten minutes for the game to commence. 

The Game and Lounge Room sounds very grand but it is a small space off my son's room that was going to be one of those rooms in a house that has a square tiny door that you have to have for code when the space inside is larger than a certain number of square feet.  In this case, there was enough height to make it into a little room with a real door. 

Years later, the children renamed it.  Games do take place there but I don't think a lot of lounging does.   Tonight I lounged in the chair that was in our living room until we got new furniture.  My daughter and husband were on either side of me and the banker, who was not playing the game because his role was pivotal, was bouncing around the rest of the room. 

The game was similar to most Monopoly games but they'd added some interesting twists.  When you landed on a railroad you couldn't buy it, but you could elect to warp to the railroad directly across the board.   It did not count towards passing go, but it was a faster way to move around the board.   At the beginning of the game you could take the normal starting money of fifteen hundred dollars or you could take only half, and then your passing Go money would increase to three hundred dollars.  

There were Free Parking rules too.  Every time you passed or landed on it you would guess a number the banker was thinking of from one to twenty.  You called out your number and if you were correct you got the pot, if you didn't get the number another hundred dollars was added from the bank and play continued.  The more numbers guessed, the less numbers there were so your chances increased. 

The banker could create challenges at any time.   They could have a mystery result.  For instance, my son told his father who had successfully landed on Water Works that if he chose to buy it all rent on any owned properties was twenty dollars higher.  However you could lose ownership of the property.  The next person who landed on Water Works could choose to buy it, but it cost fifty dollars more than the last owner paid.   

Another challenge turned out to have a house as the reward. You could put it on any owned property, even if you didn't have all of the group and you could collect rent for one house.  The banker had more challenges, but at this point it was late and we had to all go to bed. 

The game was very orderly and well thought out.   I'm looking forward to what happens next.   It's made the game of Monopoly more exiting.