"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!"

"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).