Soviet Monopoly

Post by **Gandalf** » 2005-02-16 09:18pm

I've spent much of the past week writing the following rules. Mainly because I always wondered what Monopoly would be like with a more socialist angle.

I wrote:Players

1 Player plays as " The State." The State owns all properties on the table.

All other players play as workers. The workers still receive 200 Roubles from The State every time they pass go. Workers are free to trade amongst themselves as to bring about Perestroika.

State Rules

All payments go to The State. There is no double rent rule. The State must pay the workers their income as they go around the board. If they cannot, the state goes bankrupt and Perestroika is initiated.

All building that is done must be done evenly. Ie: No property may have two houses until all on the board have one, and so on.

If the state gets apartments on every property, Communism is acheived.

The State has no token to move around the board.

Perestroika

With Perestroika, all properties are now unowned (they lose houses that are there) and all properties can now be bought. The State now plays as a regular player (with a token), but they still receive taxes.

Coup

If the players are unhappy with The State, they can attempt to revolt. One player must declare he is leading a coup, and other players may follow him. To see if it is sucessful, the Coup Leader must roll 2 dice. The coup is successful if:

Dice Roll + Number of cohorts - Martial Law level = 10 or more.

If the Coup is successful, the Coup leader can become the new State and thus own all properties (He may sell them). Or he can nominate another person to be the State. Or he may elect a Capitalist Democracy government be put in place. In which case, the game plays like regular Monopoly.

If the Coup fails, the coup leader must roll for his survival. If Two Dice = 9 or more. He goes to the gulag, any less and he is removed form the game. All other participants are merely sent to the gulag.

Martial Law

If The State senses that a Coup may be in the works, they can pay for Martial Law to be imposed. Martial Law costs the State 100 Roubles per turn per level.

Starting conditions

State starts with 3000 Roubles.

All others start with 1000.

Misc

Railways do not count as property, landing on a railway gets a re-roll at a cost of 20 Roubles.

Hotels are called apartments.

The Gulag

In this version, jail is renamed Gulag. It cannot be left early except for a "Get out of Gulag Free" card. Players also go to the Gulag on a 2 dice roll. However; the player may cut a deal with the State if they so wish.

Sorry if the details are a little sparse, but this was all I could think of.

Any Monopoly fans wish to comment?

Executor32 · Post by **Executor32** » 2005-02-16 10:31pm

In Soviet Monopoly, GO passes you!

Sounds cool, I'd play it.

darthdavid · Post by **darthdavid** » 2005-02-16 11:47pm

Page bookmarked. I will be playing this as soon as possible.

Trogdor · Post by **Trogdor** » 2005-02-16 11:53pm

Executor32 wrote:In Soviet Monopoly, GO passes you!

Part of me dislikes this idea, simply because capitalism is basically the whole point of monopoly. But I must admit it sounds fun. Two problems with it: getting ejected from the game for screwing up a coup is rather harsh, especially since everybody's going to want to be the state. There should still be some big punishment, but outright "execution" is a little much for a board game. Also, it should be possible to coup even if capitalism is establised. After, Marx was all about rebelling and disposing of the capitalists.

It sounds like the State would be too powerful (I know that's kind of the point), but you'd have to see the game executed with these rules to see if it really is in practice.

Post by **Gandalf** » 2005-02-17 05:02am

Firstly, thanks guys for all the good feedback. Should you wish to play it, please mention me to your friends.

Trogdor wrote:Two problems with it: getting ejected from the game for screwing up a coup is rather harsh, especially since everybody's going to want to be the state. There should still be some big punishment, but outright "execution" is a little much for a board game. Also, it should be possible to coup even if capitalism is establised. After, Marx was all about rebelling and disposing of the capitalists.

I had to come up with a decent deterrent for coups, but still make them possible. I might just extend the bribe feature so that they can pay off the state and live, or something. Or maybe just gulag + less income for a while.

Besides, the way Monopoly games usually go, someone gets booted with 40 minutes anyway. [resentment]And it's usually me.[/resentment]

It sounds like the State would be too powerful (I know that's kind of the point), but you'd have to see the game executed with these rules to see if it really is in practice.

I have yet to playtest this. I'll post here when I can with the results.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2005-02-17 06:49am

If it works, you'll get the state hoping the people take as long as possible to get around the board, to prevent bankruptcy.

How about rules concerning players aquiring too much money? A black market system, perhaps?

Post by **Gandalf** » 2005-02-17 06:53am

Stark wrote:If it works, you'll get the state hoping the people take as long as possible to get around the board, to prevent bankruptcy. How about rules concerning players aquiring too much money? A black market system, perhaps?

If someone is rich, the state isn't doing it's job.

This may be a problem I'll iron out when I get aorund to playing it.

wautd · Post by **wautd** » 2005-02-17 06:58am

sounds like fun

InnocentBystander · Post by **InnocentBystander** » 2005-02-17 10:19am

I suspect workers will run out of money pretty fast. If a player were to hit 1 unhoused space on every row, how much would that cost? Shouldn't be much more than their wage... Then again, a couple bad rolls and they'd be out of the game pretty fast. Can the state give them extra money to keep them in the game perhaps?

Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi · Post by **Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi** » 2005-02-17 10:59am

InnocentBystander wrote:I suspect workers will run out of money pretty fast. If a player were to hit 1 unhoused space on every row, how much would that cost? Shouldn't be much more than their wage... Then again, a couple bad rolls and they'd be out of the game pretty fast. Can the state give them extra money to keep them in the game perhaps?

If that's a problem, then I guess more money could be handed out for passing "Go", or payments for landing on a space could be lowered.

I have a small question, though: Is "Free Parking" still "Free Parking"?

InnocentBystander · Post by **InnocentBystander** » 2005-02-17 11:24am

In Soviet Russia car parks you!

It's just a nothing space, nothing happens to you that turn. In the beginning of the game it's normally bad, in the end it's more good (yikes, avoid a board full of hotels!) - I think for this varient it's always going to be good...

What about some new Chance/Community Chest cards? Stuff to help revolutions and such?

Post by **Gandalf** » 2005-02-17 08:31pm

InnocentBystander wrote:What about some new Chance/Community Chest cards? Stuff to help revolutions and such?

[shame]I don't quite know what in the Chance/Community Chest[/shame]I'll dig up a list and make some revisions as needed.

As for the issue of workers going broke, I'm still unsure as to what to do as a safeguard against bankruptcy. Maybe as a set of houses is built all over the table, income goes up another amount of Roubles?

InnocentBystander · Post by **InnocentBystander** » 2005-02-18 10:17am

in soviet russia, boardwalk lands on you!

Perhaps part of the martial law money can go back to the workers?

I think I'll preface every post in this thread with an "in soviet russia" joke -you all should do the same

Oh, and what are you doing about the luxury tax tile and income tax tile? Maybe those, along with the utilities, can earn workers money? Perhaps based on a wager or dice roll?