Rules
From two to ten people may play Monopoly, but the game dynamics are ideal with six players. With more than six players, it is too likely that an individual will not have the opportunity to purchase significant property, and be bankrupted without ever having been in contention. With four or fewer players, there are not as many possible combinations of property ownership, and the importance of astute trading and negotiation is diminished.
Each player begins the game with $1500 in cash and his token on the Go square. All property deeds, houses, and hotels are held by the bank until purchased by the players.
Players take turns in order, as determined by chance prior to the game. A player's turn consists of rolling two dice and advancing on the board the corresponding number of squares clockwise around the track. Depending where he lands, he takes the following additional actions:
- If the player lands on an unowned property, he may buy it for the price listed on the deed. If he declines to buy it, the property is immediately put up for auction. All players are eligible to participate in the auction, including the player who declined to buy it, and the bidding may start at any price.
- If the player lands on an unmortgaged property owned by another player, he pays rent to that person, as specified on the property's deed.
- If the player lands on his own property, or on property which is owned by another player but currently mortgaged, nothing happens.
- If the player lands on Luxury Tax/Super Tax, he must pay the Bank $75.
- If the player lands on Income Tax he must pay the Bank $200 or 10% of his assets. The player must decide which to pay before totalling his assests. (The 10% option is not available on the British board.)
- If the player lands on Chance, he receives a Chance card that has instructions on it which must be followed. Most of these involve moving, e.g. "Take a ride on the Reading", which means the player must advance his token to the Reading Railroad square, paying the owner the applicable rent, and collecting $200 if he passes Go. An oft-quoted Chance card is the one that reads, "Go directly to Jail. Do not pass Go, do not collect $200".
- If the player lands on Community Chest he receives a card as with Chance, except that most Community Chest cards involve money, and are usually favorable to the drawing player, e.g., "Bank error in your favor. Collect $200".
- If the player lands the Go to Jail square, he must move his token to Jail.
- If the player lands on or passes Go he receives $200 from the bank, unless he is going to Jail.
- If the player lands on Jail he is "Just Visiting" and does nothing. No penalty applies. However, if a player is directed to go to Jail by a card, or from having landed on the Go To Jail square, or by virtue of having rolled doubles three times consecutively, he lands in the Jail proper. A player in the Jail proper can get out by paying a $50 fine, using a "get out of jail free" card, or by rolling doubles. If a player refuses to pay the fine and fails to roll doubles, he loses his turn. If a player in Jail refuses to pay the fine three consecutive turns, and each turn fails to roll doubles, the $50 fine is assessed anyway, and he moves the number of pips on his last unsuccessful roll.
- If the player lands on Free Parking nothing happens.
A player who rolls doubles takes another turn after completing the first one. If he rolls doubles again, he takes a third turn after completing the second. If, on the third turn, he rolls doubles again, he does not take that turn, but instead goes directly to Jail.
Properties are arranged in "color groups" of two or three properties. Once a player owns all properties of a group (a monopoly), that player may purchase either one to four houses or one hotel (which is equivalent to five houses) for those properties, which raise the rents that must be paid when other players land on the property. The properties in a color group must be developed evenly, i.e. each house that is built must go on the property in the group with the fewest number of houses on it so far. If the number of houses built on the color group is not evenly divisible, then one or two properties may have one extra house. For example, houses in a group may be distributed (2,3,2) or (0,1,1) or (4,4,3) but not (1,2,3) or (0,4,4).
A hotel may be built on a color group only after all properties in the group have four houses. A player purchases a hotel by paying the price of an additional house, and returning the four houses on that property to the bank in exchange for a hotel. If there are not enough houses in the bank for a player to build four houses on each property before building a hotel, the player may not skip directly to buying a hotel by paying the full price at one go.
If more players decide to build houses at the same time than there are houses in the bank, the houses are auctioned off one at a time to the highest bidder. This rule favors the owners of expensive properties, for which the houses cost more in the first place, because the auction price of a house is not tied to the value of the property on which it will be placed.
At any time a player may, to raise cash, return hotels and houses to the bank for half their purchase price. If there are sufficient houses in the bank, hotels may also be "broken down" into a number of houses for the corresponding percentage of their purchase price. For example, hotels in one color group may be replaced by two houses each, and for each hotel thus broken down, the player receives half the cost of three houses. Also, properties with no houses or hotels may be mortgaged for the price listed on the deed. A property does not collect rent while mortgaged and may not be developed. To de-mortgage a property a player must pay "interest" of 10% in addition to the mortgage price.
Players may freely make trades amongst themselves, involving cash and/or properties. This is often done to obtain all the properties in a particular color group. In tournament games it is against the rules to loan money or trade anything for future consideration.
A player continues playing until he owes the bank or another player more than the amount of cash he can raise and is thus "bankrupted". When a player is bankrupted by a debt to the bank, all of his property is returned to the bank. When a player is bankrupted by a debt to another player, all of the bankrupt player's property is given to his creditor. The winner is the last player left solvent.
Because of the transfer of assets when a player leaves the game, it is tempting for a player on the verge of insolvency to play kingmaker. For example, a player who owes a larger rent than he can pay to a player he detests might say, "You wouldn't trade with me earlier when I needed it, so before I go out, I'm selling everything I own to a different player for one dollar, and that's all you are getting out of me!" To prevent this sort of behavior, it is forbidden for a player who has just incurred a debt to sell or trade anything unless he thereby raises enough cash to pay off the debt in full.
Alternatively, a player whose chances of winning have been destroyed by incurring a large debt may be tempted to leave ungracefully by handing everything over intact to his creditor without having been technically bankrupted. This also is forbidden by the rules. Before going bankrupt, a player must tear down all houses and all hotels, and then mortgage all his properties in an attempt to pay off the debt. Thus a player who comes into property by bankrupting someone else never receives anything other than mortgaged and undeveloped property.
The bankruptcy rules are an effort to enforce fair play, but in spite of them there are many ways within the rules by which a losing player can substantially affect the balance of power between the players left in the game.
House rules
Many casual Monopoly players are surprised and disappointed to discover that some rules they are used to are not part of the official rules. Yet, although many popular variations to the rules seem intuitively reasonable, most of them weaken the game dynamics in one way or another.
- A very common house rule is to have a kitty of cash based at the Free Parking space. A player who lands on Free Parking collects the cash, and the kitty is restarted. The disadvantage of having extra money flow to the players which would otherwise stay in the bank is that it prolongs the game by making it less likely for players to go bankrupt. Furthermore, it adds an additional element of luck to game already rife with luck. The kitty may be built in several different ways, for example
