Gotopoly V2.1
by Howard Bishop
INTRODUCTION
A rather dubious Monopoly variant in which players represent students and their unscrupulous landlord uncles. The aim is to be the first to complete an anti-clockwise circuit of the board, still be in credit and have attended 9 terms-worth of lectures.
1.0 STARTER FOR TEN
1.1You are at the University of Life (previously Scumbag Poly). Each turn that you land on one of the standard colour-coded properties you successfully negotiate a term's worth of lectures and get a TERM CREDIT. Nine TERM CREDITS is enough to get you a degree. The aim is to get a degree, get round to Go and stay in credit.
1.2 You get a grant of £200 in easily distributed beer token quantities.
1.3 You also get a pool of MOVE TOKENS (one each of 1,2,3,4,5,6).
2.0 TURN SEQUENCE
2.1 Before the first turn, six properties are auctioned to the UNCLE's (see below)
2.2 Each turn is comprised of the following three phases; Build/Trade - Auction - Movement.
3.0 MOVEMENT
3.1 You start on Go and move anti-clockwise round the board.
3.2 Each turn you move using one of your 6 move tokens. You pay £1 for each space moved. Your pool of move tokens is replenished with a new one with a value which is the inverse (imagine the opposite faces of a regular die) of the one just used (ie. a 5 is replaced with a 2, a 3 with a 4, etc.).
3.3 Order of move is determined by how far round the board you are. The furthest advanced player moves first, the least advanced player moves last (once a slacker always a slacker).
3.4 You then act on whichever space you land.
4.0 SPACES
4.1 Community Chest/Chance - You get a random card from a Poly-fied version of the original card set.
4.2 Property (colour-coded) - Pay rent (see RENTS below). You can then study to get a TERM CREDIT or choose to work instead which gives you £25.
4.3 Income Tax/Super Tax - Daddy is stung for tax. Lose the amount shown from your grant.
4.4 Stations - You can go home to see Mummy and Daddy. You pay the RAIL FARE (see below) and get a handout (2 dice x number of terms completed x £3). Alternatively, you can sleep rough at the station and don't pay rent. There is no TERM CREDIT for stations whatever you choose to do.
4.5 Go to Jail - Exactly what it says on the tin. (See JAIL below).
4.6 Jail (Just Visiting)/Free Parking - You spend the term skateboarding in car parks, or stuck in police stations waiting to be charged. No RENT, but no TERM CREDIT.
4.7 Water Works/Electric Co. - Pay 4 x MOVE TOKEN for Water Rates or 11 x MOVE TOKEN for Electric Bill OR choose don't pay and take a RISK card. No TERM CREDIT in either event.
5.0 RAIL FARES
5.1 The rail fare is equivalent to the rent, but each station on passed/landed on adds one to the stations for this purpose (e.g. Liverpool St. is £25 and Marylebone is £100).
5.2 If you have a student railcard, the rail fare has a 40% discount.
6.0 LANDLORD UNCLES
6.1 Each player also has a landlord uncle, whose sole objective in the game is to make renting as expensive for students.
6.2 Each landlord uncle starts with £2000. At the start of the game, 6 of the colour-coded properties are put up for auction. Players place a single blind bid for each property. Their total bids cannot exceed their remaining cash.
6.3 Each turn 2 more properties are put up for auction in the same way. Bidding (and ownership) occurs before all students have moved.
6.4 Once he owns all properties of a particular colour, LANDLORD UNCLES can buy extra houses on the same property (at the cost printed on the property card). No more than 1 house can be added each turn. Houses must be built evenly as per the normal Monopoly rules. Houses are added before the property auctions are complete.
6.5 Four houses can be upgraded to a B&B (hotel) at the normal cost.
6.6 Money is NOT transferable between a STUDENT and his UNCLE.
6.7 Properties cannot be mortgaged, but unimproved properties can be traded between UNCLEs before the auction phase.
7.0 RENTS
7.1 If the property is NOT owned by any of the LANDLORD UNCLES the rent to pay is the basic rent as printed on the card. Money goes to the bank. If the property is owned by a LANDLORD UNCLE, the rent goes to him.
7.2 The first person to land on the property pays the rent. Everyone else who gets there in the same term kips on the floor. Rent is zero and a TERM CREDIT is earned in the normal way.
7.3 If all properties of a particular colour are owned by LANDLORD UNCLEs, the rent is doubled, irrespective of whether they have all been purchased by a single player or not.
7.4 If you land on a property owned by your own LANDLORD UNCLE you don't pay any rent, but neither do your freeloading chums if they land there later in the same turn.
8.0 JAIL AND RISK
8.1 If a player lands on the Go To Jail card his token is moved to the jail square and is considered to be in prison.
8.2 Through certain cards, players will receive RISK cards. If on any turn a player uses a MOVE TOKEN with a value equal to or less than the number of RISK cards he has, the player goes to jail.
8.3 If a player has a RISK card and then draws a Go To Jail card his token is moved to the jail square.
8.4 A player stays in jail for 3 turns or until he can get out by paying £50 or using a Get Out Of Jail Free card.
9.0 BANKRUPTCY
9.1 If a player ever goes into the red, he is immediately thrown off the course. He can decide to start back at Go with no TERM CREDITS, if there is some prospect that he could still win the game.
10.0 WINNING THE GAME
10.1 The first player to land on Go with nine TERM CREDITS and a zero or positive cash holding wins the game.
11.0 NMR
11.1 Any player not playing a card or playing an illegal will use the card number which they have most of (lowest first if ties exist).