"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.