Satchmo Played Monopoly: "And I Think To Myself What a Wonderful World!"

This month's theme for our regular Monopoly Club get-together was a total revelation. What I had understood to be "around the world" was, in fact, Wonders of The World (both natural and historical, with The Seven Wonders of The Ancient World being the most valuable properties).

As well as the traditional "forcing your opponents to go bankrupt" method of winning, this version introduced a new way to end the game, emphasising its theme of "seeing the wonders of the world".

Everyone was given a faux passport, containing a miniature version of the game board, upon which you marked off every "wonder" that you visited, and when a player had ticked them all off they got a £1,500 bonus and game would finish.

This change was complemented by a new rule for the airports (the railway stations on a traditional board). Landing on one allowed you a free "return flight" to any "wonder" on the board, so you could tick it off on your passport. Your counter didn't move, you simply marked off a square of your choice.

Pete shows off his passport

Passport interior: the game provided easy-erase marker pens to tick off the squares

The passports were decorated with date stamps from the early 20th Century, heightening the feel of the game as emulating the Golden Age of travel. Money in the game was pounds and you were building "guest houses" and "hotels".

Because of this passport twist in the game mechanics, for the first time in our 12 games, we opted not to use the official Monopoly speed die in case it made the game "too short". As it turned out the game ran long, and yet I still believe that the gimmicks of that special die would have made it too easy to tick off all the locations on the board.

Our musical background for the evening started as "EuroPop", but when Pete had an allergic reaction to Whigfield's Saturday Night, Rachel switched the Spotify playlist to "traditional music of the world".

We chose our movement pieces, which represented stages in the development of transport - Clare was Stephenson's Rocket (aka "Puffin' Billy"), Rachel was a three-masted schooner, Pete was the Montgolfier Brothers' hot air balloon, and I was the vintage motor car - and the game began. 

Pretty much from the off, although I was, of course, collecting properties along the way, my goal was to "visit" all the sites, claim the £1,500 bonus and (hopefully) win that way.

A promising start to my property portfolio

Although I managed to mark off all but one "wonder" on my passport by the time I went bust, I blew through my finances in the process and, not surprisingly, eventually crashed out on one of Pete's properties.

Pete had a cunning tactic of buying up all the airports. This meant that even though those squares gave us the potential to eliminate another site from our passport it would cost us £200 for the privilege. 

Because we opted not to go with the special die, that also meant we started with less money, and it felt like we spent a lot more time "cash poor" than usual.

Not long after I was out, Rachel followed, and eventually Clare, leaving Pete as master of the world!

No one else had come as close as me to marking off all the sites in their passport - for all the good that did me!

This victory means Pete's lead in the league table (see below) has become more commanding. He's now seven points ahead of me, and as a win nets you five points (second gets you three, third gets you two, and fourth gets you a single point), it is going to take several wins from any of the rest of us, as well as somehow ensuring Pete goes out first or second each time, to overtake him!

All our passports at the end of the game

Current standing in the Monopoly Club league table

Wonders of The World was a wonderful version of Monopoly (pun intended), provoking a lot of conversation and banter along the way, as we were inspired to share stories in the "I've been there" genre. Not only did the rule booklet have historical details on all the movement counters, but we belatedly realised that all the property cards had facts about their particular 'wonder' on the back.

All the squares on the board were also numbered and these tallied with numbers on the map in the middle of the board, so you could see where any particular 'wonder' was in the world (which was useful for me when I mixed up Angel Falls with Victoria Falls).

See where your property really is in the world

A beautiful iteration of Monopoly, with no printing errors that we discovered, nice chunky playing pieces (always useful when every player wears glasses), and an interesting educational element if you wanted it, it's no surprise that we all agreed that Wonders of The World was our first 'perfect', ten out of ten, Monopoly theme (see table below).

"Winning Makes Me Feel Good!"

For our second annual Halloween Monopoly Club outing, Pete - the Master of The Boards - busted out his untouched Ghostbusters-themed set.

A lot of love and care had clearly gone into adapting your standard Monopoly to this theme: for one thing, players aren't collecting properties, rather contracts; and houses and hotels were reshaped as "ghost traps" and "containment units".

There were also several nice new rules to shake things up: for instance, some squares let you (and the person to your left) battle a ghost, if you won you got the fee, if you lost you paid the city for damages caused; and the Ecto-1 square (in lieu of railway stations) allowed you to move to any square in that quarter of the board... for a fee.

Chance and Community Chest had been merged into "roaming vapour" cards (all suitably themed to the first and best - Ghostbusters movie), but the real gimmick here is that the cards were on the cool plastic ghost trap in the middle of the board, and each time you took one you pressed a button on the side of the box and the opening bars of the Ghostbusters tune played.

I though this might get a bit irritating, but after a while it was almost comforting!

One of the few gripes we had about the set was the movement counters. They were all modelled after 'iconic' objects from the movie, but, at a distance, looked quite similar and certainly didn't stand out on the board.

We all agreed there were better things these could have been shaped as: such as the movie's ghosts, an Ecto-1, an actual Ghostbuster etc

Having fired up a Ghostbusters/Halloween mix on Spotify, Rachel chose Dana's violin, Pete was the backpack and wand, Clare the walkie-talkie and I picked the ecto-goggles... and battle commenced!

I think I must have been channelling Monty Burns this week, because I played my most ruthless game yet. It was pointed out - more than once - that I was (subconsciously)  steepling my fingers and cackling in an evil manner.

To be honest, I don't know what came over me, but I was in a "take no prisoners" and "show no charity" mood (which, ultimately, I guess, is how Monopoly is supposed to be played).

There was a lot of (good natured, but quite sweary) haggling between Rachel and I, trying to acquire key contracts from each other, much to the amusement of Pete and Clare.

My property portfolio started off modestly and, as usual, I was slow off the starting block, getting lapped by everyone else.

However, my usual ambition (which everyone knows by now), is to try and purchase the two most expensive, royal blue, squares just before you get back to "Go", and then sit on these collecting increasing meaty rents.

Bizarrely, even knowing what I was aiming to do, Pete sold me one of the contracts for three (lower value) of mine and then - almost the next round - Clare traded me the other in a similarly beneficial deal.

And - with Spook Central and Temple of Gozer - under my command, the cackling began, and I started investing in ghost traps, then containment units.

The dice were also in my favour as player after player bankrupted themselves on my properties, and victory was - surprisingly quickly - mine.

Not until I was updating the league table (see below) did I realise actually how many games I have won over the past months, but there was something rather satisfying about this trouncing of my dear friends.

I rather suspect our next game (which I believe is themed on "Round The World") will see Rachel, Pete, and Clare ganging up on me because of my gloating this week.

In my defence, all I can say is: "Well, this is Monopoly!"

🎶 It's The End of The World As We Know It (And I Roll The Dice) 🎶

This month's entry for our regular Monopoly Club meet-up was a genuine surprise submission by resident Monopoly King, Pete, who'd brought along a Walking Dead-themed set for us to try out.

Adorned with gorgeous Charlie Adlard art from the Image comics, and using comic book fonts for the cards and board text, this was a magnificent game board that very quickly got the thumbs up from all of us.

Not that any of us were experts on the comics - I'd read the first few volumes and then the final issues of the run when it was announced it was coming to an end - but it didn't really matter, most of the material was analogous to aspects of the TV show (which Pete and I knew better), and we all got the vibe it was aiming for.

Instead of Monopoly dollars/pounds the cash was supply vouchers, instead of houses and hotels you were erecting "walls" and "guard towers" (I do think they missed a trick by not replacing the standard Monopoly houses with actual mini walls and towers) and so on.

Supply vouchers in lieu of hard cash

Pete won the dice-off to choose his counter and selected the bucket of body parts (!); Clare was the telephone; Rachel picked Dale's R.V.; and I went for Rick's lucky hat... not that it did me much good in the end.

Counters

As now seems to be mandatory, everyone else got off to great start while I slowly dragged myself around the board.

The Dice Gods were against me. By the time I eventually got my first property (The Kingdom), in an auction by the way, Pete had lapped me and my three fellow players had already purchased numerous properties, utilities, and methods of transport.

My first property

Much like everything else associated with this Monopoly set, the property cards were beautifully designed with random "weathering" effects, such as fading and finger prints.

Card detailing was top notch in this set

My poor start meant I missed out on any chance of accumulating a large portfolio and even though I was 'cash rich' for a while, the first time I landed on one of Clare's guard towers I had to fork over most of my money.

Talking of money, somehow we managed to go most of the game without landing on Free Parking, meaning the accrued collection from fines and other random events amounted to almost 2,000 "supply tokens" before Clare finally found her way to Free Parking and picked it all up.

The Free Parking loot tray

Rachel was the first to be bankrupted (having spent surprisingly little time in jail compared to her usual games) and I didn't stay solvent for much longer (despite my cunning 'spoiler' ruse of refusing to sell certain key properties I owned).

It finally came down to a head-to-head battle between Pete and Clare, with Clare eventually having to concede after she landed one too many times on a "guard tower" belonging to her foe.

Another victory for Pete further cements his commanding position at the head of our league table, although I reckon we're all now getting savvier about the rules and tactics of the game.

Clare has equalled me on points, but has a game in hand since the early days of the club, so has slipped into second place, while Rachel still brings up the rear of the main pack.

I had to doublecheck all the points this month and actually used a calculator to tally the scores - rather than relying on my addled brain - and taking the tied match between Pete and I at the end of last year, I think the scores are all correct now.

League Table, as of July 31, 2024

The theme of the set was well received, although there were issues in spotting the pewter counters on the generally dark squares (as well as the missed opportunity with the houses - see above), but we still ranked it equal to the Simpson's Treehouse of Horror and Star Wars.

"Let The Wookie Win!"

With several Star Wars playlists blasting on Spotify, and a barrage of film quotes in our arsenal, this month's Monopoly contest used a Star Wars board that drew just on the Original Trilogy.

As it was Clare's choice, she got to pick her counter first and chose Princess Leia, Rachel took R2-D2. Pete was Boba Fett, and I was Luke.

Left to Right: Boba Fett, R2-D2, Leia, and Luke

Although the temperatures weren't quite Tatooine levels, it was still hot and sticky when we sat down to game - even with the back doors wide open - leading to a fractious (but good natured) contest of cut-throat commercialism. 

Pete pretty much led from the off, if such a thing is possible in Monopoly, while I dragged along behind the others. Everyone else had almost completed a couple of laps of the board before Luke finally limped back to the Go square for the first time.

It was quite a development-heavy game, with more hotels (space ports) and houses (colonies) seemingly popping up than usual, which meant three of us were pretty much 'cash poor' for the majority of the game.

Conversely, Pete somehow engineered an enormous property portfolio empire and a personal fortune that rivalled (if not exceeded by the end of the game) that of The Bank.

The underused 1,000 credit coin - more Monopoly themes should employ coins!

My only moment of financial "happiness" was trading in a couple of 500 credit notes for the 1,000 credit coin... which I then promptly used to purchase two-thirds of Endor off of Rachel.

Rachel's collection of property, around the game's mid-point

The start of Pete's empire: space ports on Dagobah

The rebels strike back: I build space ports on Hoth...

... for all the good it did!

Clare went out first, when I somehow bankrupted her, but then the rest of us fell in quick succession to Pete's impressive array of Imperial space ports on high value sites.

I was next out and then Rachel, pleased with her second place, which has helped her slightly in the overall rankings.

With his victory in this game, Emperor Pete pulls ahead at the top of the Monopoly Club league table, while at the tail end Rachel is clawing her towards Clare's third place spot (although we have to remember Clare has a game in hand, as Nick subbed in for her during one of our early games).

The Star Wars board had some nice theming touches, starting with the counters being divided into Light Side and Dark Side, which then determined which style of colony (houses) and space ports (hotels) a player could build.

A particularly welcome touch, and seemingly rare in the games we've played, was having sets of properties united by their in-universe locations (e.g. there were three green properties all on Endor; two dark blues on Coruscant; two slightly different shades of blue on Dagobah etc).

Chance and Community Chest were labelled Rebel and Imperial, with their all-important text themed to the Star Wars universe, and accompanied by appropriate clip art.

The miniature movers were sculpted after Star Wars characters from the Original Trilogy, and reminded me an awful lot of old school RPG minis produced for the legendary West End Games d6 roleplaying game from the late '80s and '90s.

Unfortunately, I found the figures occasionally difficult to identify, especially against the darker squares, and developed a tendency to move the wrong one (usually Clare's Princess Leia) instead of my own. Much to the amusement of my fellow gamers! 

It's Pete's choice which of his many, many themed Monopoly boards we play next time, and so we'll have to wait and see which he chooses (Ghostbusters and Game of Thrones were mentioned, but he has a lot to pick from).

"Hey, Doctor Jones, No Time For Love!"

The gorgeous board for the Indiana Jones Monopoly set

Last night's Monopoly Club session saw the four of us - Pete, Clare, Rachel and I - let loose on the deluxe Indiana Jones-themed set that I had had my heart set on playing since we formed our little group a year ago.

The set (pictured above) came in a wooden crate (pictured below).

The magnificent crate!!!

The properties were grouped and themed by film location (the set covers the first four Indiana Jones films from Raiders through to Crystal Skull), the currency was "reputation points" rather than cash (which actually worked really well in my mind), Chance and Community Chest cards were - of course - Fortune and Glory, homes and hotels were Fertility Idols and Arks of the Covenant, and the player tokens were iconic objects (rather than people) from the franchise.

The Fortune and Glory cards even had film quotes and photographs on them

There were also optional rules, if you rolled doubles, with varying effects ranging from swinging to any space on the board and pulling ("whipping") other characters towards you, to fighting for control of another player's property.

As it had been my turn to pick which board theme we'd be playing, I also got to pick which token I wanted first as well, and so I chose the fedora. Rachel was the minecart, Clare the Grail diary, and Pete the bullwhip.

Our tokens

Pete was the first to go out, with Rachel following. Both had fallen foul of huge rental payments to Clare, but their bank balances had been sucked dry by my Raiders-themed trilogy of locations from the Tanis dig for the Ark (The Map Room, Cairo marketplace, and The Well of Souls).

I was then fearful that Clare would load up all her properties with Idols and Arks as she staged an impressive comeback, having scooped up all the mortgaged properties of the players she'd driven into bankruptcy. 

While I only had the set mentioned above and the first pair of ultra cheap properties past Go: The (Rope) Bridge and The Temple of Doom.

My secret weapon: Alice hopped up to give me a few pointers

After a long head-to-head battle (I'm sure we didn't finish until well after 11pm), I came out on top when Clare eventually conceded that it was unlikely she'd be able to beat me (Pete - as the Banker - checked my account and I had eleven 500 Reputation Point notes as well as a ton of other notes).

Before the game, Pete had revealed that the latest addition to hiss fast-expanding Monopoly collection was a novelty silver, stuffed toy "top hat", which will now be handed to the winner of each game to hold until the next session.

While it isn't actually a hat, I still wore it with pride...

To The Winner: the silver top hat!

In retrospect, I realised the moment I "accidentally" sabotaged both Rachel and Pete: early in the game Pete had secured the high value, blue property right by Go (Akator Temple), then a little while later Rachel landed on the other square of the pair (Chauchilla Cemetery).

She was hesitant about buying it, but I pointed out it would be a great "spoiler" for Pete's progress and so she splashed the cash and took that property.

This resulted in those two squares being an on-going source of tension between Pete and Rachel (including several fruitless "dice-off battles", from the set's optional rules), with neither able to get hold of the other's property and secure a profitable and dangerous corner of the board.

Luckily, my wife is quite easy-going when it comes to boardgames as this wasn't the only time I risked marital ructions.

Later in the game I used the "whipping" optional rule to pull Rachel's token towards mine, depositing her on one of my EXTREMELY high rent properties (by this late stage in the game, both my sets of properties were loaded up with Arks), severely draining her resources.

Tallying up our on-going points total, this victory puts me tied with Pete at the top of the league (although, he has more second placings than I, so technically he's still the leading player).

As to our feelings on the Indiana Jones set itself: it could so easily have been a "10 out of 10", being so beautiful, well illustrated, and thematically on-point, except for the fact that more than a few of the property cards had the wrong details printed on the back for mortgage purposes. This meant things got a bit confusing when you were looking at the card backs for whatever reason.

Such a production blunder is a real disappointment when clearly a lot of love and attention has gone into the development of this deluxe set. 

"Where's The Bloody Tea Room?"

The National Trust-themed Monopoly board

Dressed in metaphorical cagoules and wellington boots, the first Monopoly Club meeting of the year saw us visiting (and purchasing and developing) National Trust properties around the British Isles.

After our last game at Christmas, Rachel had chosen the National Trust-themed board from Pete's extensive catalogue of quirky Monopoly iterations.

This also meant she got to pick first when it came to choosing game tokens and Rachel plumped for the iron, which turned out to be a right bugger to spot when it was being moved around the photographically-illustrated playing surface.

Our Tokens: the only one unique to this set was a wheelbarrow and none of us chose that one

Clare was the thimble, Pete was the race car and I was the dog.

At first, I felt I was doing quite well, accumulating a small portfolio of linked properties that allowed me to build the first Visitor Centres (this game's take on hotels), but alas my hubris was my downfall.

The start of my property empire... and, pretty soon, the end also!

I was focused on my standard tactic of trying to buy up the sets on either side of the "Go" square, but this meant I wasn't focussed on the bigger picture.

Property rich and cash poor is never a great state to be in, and employing Pete's "speed die" to keep the game moving, meant I was soon facing bills I just couldn't afford to pay. My property empire crumbled and I was out.

And I'm out of the picture, leaving Pete, Clare and Rachel to fight over the board

A little while later Pete went bankrupt as well, leaving a stalemate between Clare and Rachel.

The board was awash with the red "Visitor Centres", with only a few of the green "Holiday Homes" still in play.

Cash was flowing across the table in both directions for a long time with neither player really gaining much ground, although Clare seemingly holding the largest number of properties we have yet witnessed in our games.

By the time we called it a night, Clare owned a substantial chunk of the board

Eventually as the clock struck 11pm, it was agreed to call it a draw and let the ladies share the points for first place (four points each, as we did last month when Pete and I called it a draw, instead of the usual five points for the overall winner).

You can see on the table below that Clare has jumped over me into second place and Rachel, while still in fourth place, is closing the gap on me from the other direction.

As Pete would later point out, Clare is now in a very strong position as she has a game in hand.

The general consensus was that the National Trust board was "okay", but except for some wordage changes on the "chance" and "community chest" cards, the addition of the wheelbarrow, and, of course, the properties themselves there wasn't that much difference from the standard, vanilla Monopoly.

It was felt that if the game had really wanted to emulate the National Trust experience it should have featured "tea rooms" at some point, as these are often the highlight for many a British person visiting these locales in reality. 

In fact, it's a bit of a cliché but many people - especially season ticket holders - will pop in to National Trust properties just for a cream tea in the Tea Room!

While the final conflict was being fought around the board, Pete and I were researching other Monopoly variants on Amazon, with a Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory iteration catching my eye.

The trouble with that one was that players were purchasing a mixture of "people" and "places" (locations around The Chocolate Factory, as seen in the classic 1971 Gene Wilder version of the story).

Generally, we're quite old school and prefer versions where you are buying locations, but can sometimes justify the switch to putting together a team of people. However, on superficial inspection this mixing of both styles didn't sit right with us.

Next month's board theme was my choice and we're going globe trotting and treasure hunting with the Indiana Jones Monopoly set.