Turning The Game Up To Eleven!!!

For our Halloween special this year, Pete brought over the Stranger Things - Collector's Edition of Monopoly.

He also brought round the "horror movie icons" set he'd ordered from a store in the States that turned out to be a shockingly poor, home-made rip-off (with a flimsy cloth "board", rubbish flat counters et al).

A sad state of affairs, but Pete isn't the sort of person you want to cross so I expect he's not going to let this lie until he has some degree of restitution. 

This was the first meeting of Monopoly Club since June, due to my osteoarthritis diagnosis, and - as it was Halloween - Rachel had really pushed the boat out on seasonal decorations and snacks.

In the Stranger Things version of Monopoly 'houses' and 'hotels' were replaced by 'forts' and transparent 'hideouts', while the Chance and Community chests were replaced by a single deck of Transmissions cards.

These, however, included a number of powerful "Upside Down" cards that a player, upon drawing one, would keep secret until they wanted to deploy it - often with devastating effect!

At one point Rachel used one such card to steal a whole set of properties - with their forts - from Clare, which then became the subject of a running gag for the rest of the evening.

With a single card, the Starcourt Mall and Fairgrounds - each with two forts on - switched
from Clare's possession to Rachel's

Stations were replaced by tunnels and landing on them gave you a roll of a d4 to show where you popped up. With a 25% chance of not moving (which we seemed to roll a lot), this extra rule felt like a bit of a gimmick that didn't add anything to our game.

As an aside, we felt the designers missed a trick by not including a special rule of some kind that would be triggered by rolling an 11.

For this week's game, my counter was the d20, Rachel was a cassette tape, Clare was Hopper's hat and Pete chose the camera.

Our counters

For the majority of the evening the game pretty much ran as usual (even though Pete had removed the 'speed dice' option and I, sitting in a different seat to usual so I could freely stand up and move around with my mobility aid, was nominated banker - a position I was ill-qualified for).

That said, I like to blame my discomfort and the distraction of being banker for my poor luck and weak tactical choices. By the time the time I was bankrupted I only had one complete set of properties.

Clare was out a short time later, never really having recovered from Rachel stealing her two "big money" properties from her.

It then came down to a race against the clock for Pete and Rachel (cut-off time was 11pm), which eventually ended in a draw, neither managing to financially destroy the other.

This means Pete is tearing away from me at the top of the league table (see below) and Clare is nipping at my heels. It turns out I'm developing a bit of a habit of coming last. 

Rachel still has a way to go, but a few more wins or first place draws should see her gaining on the main pack.

The Stranger Things - Collector's Edition looked great, branding-wise, and it's always rewarding to see a game in a slip case, but there were several minor niggles that led to it being marked down in our on-going assessment of the various themed Monopoly sets (see below). 

For instance, while it was nice to have the choice of about a dozen player tokens, they appeared smaller than typical meeples and some (such as Rachel's audio cassette) were particularly difficult to spot on the busy board.

Conversely, the forts were squatter than traditional Monopoly houses and thus it was impossible to get four lined up on the colour bar of a property.

Rachel's elusive token (left) and an overflowing line of forts

"The Chamber of Commerce Has Been Opened"

Because this month's roleplaying game session had to be cancelled, Pete suggested we sneak in an extra meeting of Monopoly Club instead - which we did last week.

Then, for our 'regular' game of Monopoly, Pete conjured up a surprise themed set that I don't think any of us could have predicted: Harry Potter. 

Game elements even came with their own little suitcases

Based on the successful movie franchise, this set turned out to be not only very attractive but also a rather innovative hack of the original game.

In my excitement I forgot to take a picture of the board, but here's a publicity picture

The game's main financial resource was rebranded as "house points", and all the property costs were different, for example everything on the first side of the board was "10 house points", on the second side was "20 house points" and so on. Rents on single properties were equal to the purchase price, and increased if you had a full colour set, or planted a "house crest" on your properties.

There are no 'houses' and 'hotels' in this game, instead you can buy - once you own a complete colour set of properties - a "house crest".

Once you've purchased a property it is considered "explored" and the game ends the moment the final property is "explored". Then everyone, who is still in the game, adds up the value of their properties and loose house points. The person with the highest number of points is declared the winner.

Our tokens

As well as picking your transport token at the start of the game (I was Harry's broomstick, Pete was Hagrid's motorbike and sidecar, Clare was the night bus, and Rachel the Hogwarts' Express), you also got to choose your house: I was Gryffindor, Rachel was Hufflepuff, Clare was Slytherin, and Pete was Ravenclaw. 

My House card

Your house granted you certain bonuses (such as not paying rent when you landed on your own 'common room' - this edition's version of train stations), but could also make you susceptible to certain Owl Posts (this game's brilliant spin on Chance and Community Chest).

Some cards you drew that might land you in trouble could be redirected at other players if they were of certain, named houses. I remember at one point I managed to send Clare to jail because she was a Slytherin.

The Owl Post cards came with their own little owl stand

Some of the cards, though, were clearly marked as Howlers... and they were always bad news for the person whose turn it was to take the next Owl Post.

As this iteration came with its own, unique finishing conditions, we opted not to use Pete's official 'speed die' this week (something we haven't entertained since last November's Wonders of The World game).

And while Pete remained arbiter of the rules, for the first time ever he passed the mantle of 'banker' to someone else. Rachel took up the position of Prefect, which meant not only did she get a badge (see below), but she was in charge of doling out - and collecting - the house points as properties (locations in and around Hogwarts) were brought and sold.

We'd already guessed that this would play quicker than our usual games and, in fact, the session lasted around 90 minutes, which still felt like a reasonable duration.

The start of my property empire

I won't bury the lede: I won, which moves me within touching distance of Pete at the top of the league table (see below). But what surprised us was that Pete went out comparatively early in the game.

In fact, he was the only person not to make to final House Point tally. 

The general consensus was that he had been unlucky in his early trips around the board, not being able to purchase any property, while the rest of us were hoovering up whatever we could. 

Gryffindor House crests on display

This isn't a version of Monopoly to be taken cautiously. I just went on a spending spree, then as we got down to the final available properties I indulged in some horse-trading, got myself a couple of complete colour sets, slammed house crests on them, and waited for the rents to roll in.

Bizarrely, I think a lot of my own good fortune came from the fact that, compared to everyone else, I hardly ever landed on the Owl Posts, instead those turns were spent making purchases when possible.

While I ended up with the most House Points, Clare was second, and Rachel third, which means I managed to glide ahead of Clare in the club's league table and am now just two points shy of Pete.

With its emphasise on the accumulation of House Points rather than properties per se, the Harry Potter Monopoly plays quite differently to the more traditional iterations of the game.

However, once we got our heads around its particular quirks it turned out to be as challenging and exciting as any version we've played in the last two-and-half years.

When it came to grading the actual theme, there was no denying that a lot of thought and love had clearly gone into the various elements and reworking of the old school rules.

There were some gaps in the rules mechanics though (e.g. how do you count 'mortgaged properties' in the final tally?) and a lack of baggies for the House Point tokens - which we'd popped out the cardboard sheet they arrived in - shaved half a point off of perfection.

"Th-Th-Th-That's (Not) All, Folks"

It was another hot night in Monopoly town, meaning we had the kitchen louvre doors open all evening to let in the cool air (and flies!).

Compounding that, we were all exhausted for various reasons. However, the evening's Looney Tunes theme brought out the best in all of us and the evening's thrilling game went down to the wire.

The theming of this 26-year-old set (which Pete had purchased second-hand, via eBay, from the States but was still in pristine condition) was top class. 

The overarching idea, as I grasped it, was that you were film company executives "hiring" the stars (the individual properties) for a variety of animated features (the completed sets).

Houses and hotels became "TV sets" and "movie theatres", while cash money was replaced with "laughs". Every denomination of "laugh" featured a different famous Looney Tunes character.

A That's All Folks card I picked up during play

"Chance" and "community chest" became "What's Up, Doc?" and "That's All Folks!", and, again, these were all decorated with black and white sketches of famous cartoon characters.

An added treat that we all approved of was special abilities that could be gained from rolling doubles. These ranged from being gifted "laughs" from all the other players to removing competitor's properties from the board.

The pewter playing pieces, representing well-known faces, were gorgeous (and I kept thinking how cool they would be painted up like wargames' miniatures).

Rachel initially chose Daffy Duck, but then switched to Bugs Bunny before we started

Rachel was Bugs Bunny, Pete was Marvin The Martian, Clare was the Road Runner, and I picked Wile  E. Coyote to be my avatar.

After a slow start - getting used to the board and its idiosyncrasies - I suddenly realised I was actually doing rather well. Thus it was a huge surprise when I bankrupted Pete, who, in recent games, has been on a hot run of luck.

Then Rachel walked into one of my cunning traps and I bankrupted her as well.

Which left Clare and I in a head-to-head tussle (rather appropriate for Wile  E. Coyote and the Road Runner) with our mandated 11pm cut-off fast approaching.

Although I had the bigger bank balance and property portfolio at that point, Clare managed to hang on and force a draw (according to our club rules, which I wrote... so I can't complain!)

Clare and I share the trophy as Pete looks on 

Thus we both shared the Acme Looney Tunes trophy and got four points each on the league table (see below). This left the pair of us still tied in second place (although Clare has the advantage of having played one less game).

The trophy!

Even going out first in this week's game, Pete maintains a commanding lead that's going to take a number of similar results in coming months to stand a chance of any of us overtaking him.

When it came to judging the gorgeous board and its adherence to the Looney Tunes theme, the only genuine issue we had with it was the difficulty of discerning the actual names of the properties.

While the name of the particular cartoon (the set) was prominent on the board and relevant cards, the actual individual name (the cartoon character) was comparatively small. Yes, they featured coloured pictures of the characters, but not every one was immediately recognisable in the heat of the moment.

Check the picture at the top of this post and the one immediately below to get an idea of what I'm talking about.

Nevertheless, this was a minor glitch in an otherwise perfect set, so we rated it at 9.5 out of 10, on a par with the posh Indiana Jones set. And Looney Tunes didn't even come in a wooden box!

"No, Mr Bond, I Expect You To (Roll The) Die!"

With the iconic music from the movies playing out of our smart speaker, we sat down last night to play the James Bond-themed Monopoly board.

For movement counters, Pete chose the Lotus Esprit (from The Spy Who Loved Me), Clare picked Rosa Klebb's dagger shoe (from From Russia With Love), I took Oddjob's bowler (from Goldfinger), and Rachel was the 007 logo/pistol.

Instead of properties, this set allowed players to buy up the various films in the Bond franchise, marked out on the board in chronological order, starting with Dr No just past 'Go' right round to No Time To Die and M16 being the two most valuable squares.

Oddly, this meant that - while the "utilities" were two variations of Q Branch - the "stations" (from the traditional game) were just whatever film came at that point, which felt a bit strange given the wide variety of signature vehicles associated with the character of Bond over the years.

While there were no special rules for this set, some effort was made to personalise it to Bond by having the houses and hotels as "safe houses" and "headquarters", and chance and community chest cards were "allies" and "enemies".

I started off poorly, never really recovered, and was the first to go out - bankrupted by my own wife.

After that there was a bit of a lull when it looked as though several people were on the verge of being knocked out, when suddenly the game got its second wind and a spate of house building ensued, upping the threat level enormously.

That's a lot of headquarters on the board!

There was definitely something in the air last night that meant everyone was slightly befuddled and possibly not bringing their a-game to the table, with a mixture of tactical errors and minor rules mistakes (such as forgetting whose turn it was or forgetting to take property cards when you made a purchase). 

Everyone was tired - and slightly distracted - for various reasons, meaning their minds weren't always focussed 100 per cent on the game. There was even a distinct lack of Bond-related punning, which with this franchise is always an open goal no matter the situation.

Nevertheless, the final three fought on heroically, with Rachel's property portfolio and cash reserves eventually being whittled down until it was just Pete and Clare remaining in a tense head-to-head showdown.

As 11 o'clock drew closer (now our official "end time"), Clare chose - in the dying seconds of the game - to concede to Pete, taking second place rather than sharing the glory of joint first.

She explained her reasoning on her Three Beautiful Things Substack today, and while it was good sportsmanship, I breathed a slight sigh of relief as it meant points-wise Clare only drew level with me, instead of sliding ahead of me (see table below).

Of course, she still, historically, has a game in hand on the rest of us (having missed our Scooby-Doo game, subbing in Nick in her stead).

Monopoly guru Pete continues, frustratingly, to pull away at the top of the table with another win, while Rachel's third place finish this week did little to help her close the gap on Clare and I.

In judging the theme of the evening, we all agreed that while the James Bond set was well made, when you dug down there were issues - from the plastic insert in the box not being geared to double as a bank to some of the 'property' names and cards being difficult to read at a glance.

Also Rachel's chosen token (the 007 logo) was so narrow that it was surprisingly hard to spot on the board when its thin edge was pointing towards her.

"You're Going To Need A Bigger Table!"

duunnn dunnn… duuuunnnn duun… duuunnnnnnnn dun dun dun dun dun dun
dun dun dun dun dunnnnnnnnnnn dunnnn

Like the tense final act showdown between Chief Brody (Roy Scheider) and the shark (Bruce), our Jaws-themed Monopoly evening came down to a protracted test of wills between Clare and I.

We each dominated two sides of the board and while, for a long time, it had looked as though I had things in the bag, we kept landing on each other's properties and so large sums of money were just moving from one bank account to the other.

Eventually, with midnight looming, we called it a day and agreed to declare the game a tie.

On her Three Beautiful Things substack, Clare elaborated this morning:

"Tim and I have a nice little Monopoly ecosystem: he has eaten the other players and owns everything except for six well developed properties of mine. He lands on them just often enough that I can survive another turn around the board. I feel constantly off balance, though, and I'm only really coping because of some lucky rolls, a few turns in jail so I don't have to land on his properties, and some helpful chance cards. We end with a draw, because it's getting very late."

The first Monopoly Club meeting of 2025 used Pete's Jaws-themed board, where the properties were a bizarre mix of locations (I, for instance, owned "the ocean" for the entire game, which I thought was hysterical), objects, and people... including the shark-attack victims!

The chance and community chest cards were "repairs" and "rewards", with most sporting a quote from the film, although there were no illustrations as we have seen in other sets, and the houses and hotels were replaced by "boats" and "workshops" respectively.

There was minor disappointment round the table that the boats weren't actually little plastic boats, so we agreed that the "green houses" should be placed on their rooves to, at least, vaguely resemble something sea-worthy.

Our chosen playing pieces for the evening's battle

At the start of the game Rachel chose the Lilo as her figurine, Pete was The Orca (Quint's boat), Clare was the oxygen tank, and I took the oil drum.

Rachel had abandoned her usual cautious approach and came out of the gate on a spending spree... which unfortunately saw her bowing out of the game first.

Pete didn't last much longer than that and then it came down to the final hour (or so) that was the duel between Clare and I.

I had plumped for my usual tactic of trying to own - and develop - the properties either side of "Go" and that certainly worked this time, with the high value "shark" and "The Orca" (obtained by some natty horse-trading with both Pete and Clare) and the inexpensive to develop "ocean" and "Amity Island" soon under my control.

Mine, all mine! I rule the ocean and control the shark! Bwahahaha!

My property holdings for the final act

Clare had tried to persuade me to concede soon after Pete went out, but I was utterly convinced I could win this, because of my massive portfolio of property (most of which I'd inherited from Pete when I drove him to bankruptcy).

Which I did, sort of. An agreed draw between two players gains us both "four points" in our ongoing league table (see below), instead of the "five points" for a clear winner.

I'm still hanging in there at second place overall, with Clare nipping at my heels, but Pete's five-point lead is going to take, at least, a couple of sessions to wear down.

Despite some short-comings in its design (for instance, some of the property images on the board were quite indistinct) and no exciting "bonus rules", Jaws Monopoly was really enjoyable to play, so we communally agreed to rate it as an eight out of 10, which currently places it as eighth in our rankings (see below).

This was our longest game of Monopoly and so we've also agreed, for the future, to place a timer of sorts on our sessions - calling time at 11.30pm, regardless of how everyone's doing.

Next month is scheduled to be a James Bond theme, which we felt was quite topical in light of the recent announcements of Amazon taking over the Bond franchise (Pete - a massive Bond fan - was not happy about this news and didn't want to talk about it!)