What I Got For Christmas Part 7 – Spiderman Monopoly

Everyone knows: I love Monopoly

So it’s no surprise that my uncle would get me Spiderman Monopoly… Something that combines my love for Marvel Comics and my love for World Conquest through capitalism.

I even got to play a game where using my mad trading skills, I was able to secure what most people would call the “3 light blues”, and go to town with some serious 4 house action. All in all, a great game.

I really don’t talk about Monopoly for as much as I play it. In fact, I play computer monopoly almost once a week while watching Star Trek just before bed. I am constantly trying out “variations” on the game to see how it changes the strategy. It’s amazing how well balanced the real rules are (and how fast the game can go when you play correctly). In any case, here are the rules I am currently in love with for the increase difficulty it seems to provide:

• I play with auctions turned on – This is actually how the game is supposed to be played… Most people however don’t play this way, which actually ADDS to the length of the game.
• $500 starting cash – This variation makes deciding what you buy very very important… Spending to much to fast can mean certain bankruptcy. Buying when you should have been putting it up for auction can be bad to. Mortaging to buy becomes very very risky. All in all, this is my favorite adjustment to make.
• 12 to 24 houses instead of 32 – Most people don’t realize this is actually a rule built into the game, because well, most people never survive long enough for it to be an issue in the game. The game only has 32 houses and 12 hotels. That said, if they are all built, no one else is able to build. The other thing people tend not to realize is that you must be able to get 4 houses before you can buy a hotel. So for example: by putting 12 houses in the game instead of 32, a single player can effectively prevent ANYONE else from building by simply leaving their 3 properties houses instead of hotels. This is a tad unfair to some degree, but it does get to be very painful for the homeowner should they happen to draw the “building improvements” chance/community chest card.
• No $$ for landing on free parking – This is a funny rules that I don’t understand why so many people have added it to the game… All those people that complain about the length of Monopoly should learn that part of the reason it is taking so long is that things like “money in the middle” cause money to stay in the game that was supposed to leave. That immediately makes the game LONGER.
• If I’m playing with my $500 rule… I change the 10% or $200 space to be $75.00 (or the same as luxury tax). The reason is, I hate calculating 10%, and removing $200 from the game when your dealing no funs to start with, makes for an imbalance of power very very quickly. However, occasionally if I want to speed things up, I will leave this space alone. I very rarely play with 10% because I hate totaling the value of the properties.

So yeah, that’s how I play Monopoly these days by myself… How do you play?