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[JoshuaFH]

For some reason I started combining the board games Monopoly, Battleship, and Chutes and ladders.

Basically, it plays as Monopoly, but with those two kind of sewn onto it in a horrid, Frankenstein's monster of extra rules complications.

Simply put, it uses Battleship and Chutes and Ladders to offer extra playing fields and alternate win conditions. Each player has a Battleship field that starts out completely empty, and the chutes and ladder board is placed right next to the monopoly board with each player having a separate character representing their monopoly character on that starting place as well.

You play monopoly normally, if you land on Free Parking or Start, you can purchase a battleship for your side, with the smallest one costing 400, with each larger ship going up in increments of 200 (so it's 400, 600, 800, etc; destroyers and submarine's cost the same because they use the same number of pegs), and you have to buy the smallest vessel first before moving to the next largest. A player can only have one of each type, and is placed on their battleship board when it's purchased and can never be moved again. Unsunken ships can be bought and sold between players in normal trades, and this is the only way to move a ship from it's placed location. Damaged ships are permanently damaged and can't be repaired, and the damage is persistent when being traded from one player to another. You can't sell ships back to the bank.

For each ship you own, then each turn you can pay 25 bucks to fire a shot at a player's property of your choice. If it has a hotel or houses, it goes down by one housing level (if it had a hotel, it goes back down to four houses, then four houses to three and so on...) and if there were no properties on it, then it's owner loses ownership of it and it is placed back up for sale. That has the additional caveat that if that property was mortgaged when it goes back up for sale, it's previous owner needs to pay it back or immediately declare bankruptcy and lose the game.

However, if you can't fire on a player's properties if they own a ship of their own. Then you must face their ship by paying to take a turn playing battleship against that player normally. This has the complication of needing graph paper or something so each player can keep track of each spot shot, which will only be rendered obsoleted again and again as players purchase new ships.

A player successfully sinking another player's ship earns a war prize equal to double that ship's value from the bank. The destroyed ships are left on that players board, however, they can purchase a new, duplicate ships to replace it. This may require a large number of ship tokens given an extended game.

If, at any point in the game, a player has a complete set of still floating ships and each other player has no ships, that player declares a military victory and wins the game automatically.

The chutes and ladders board represents a character's spiritual progression. In addition to a player's ordinary monopoly move, they can decide to be charitable and forgiving, and donate 25 dollars to any opponent to take a spin on the chutes and ladders wheel and move your character's spiritual avatar there forward following the rules of chutes and ladders. However, you can't move your spiritual avatar if you have a net worth (value of all property, including ships and houses + cash on hand) exceeding 2000 dollars. The wealthy can't attain enlightenment so long as they're weighed down by their worldly possessions afterall.

If a player gets to the final space on the chutes and ladders board, that player transcends humanity and obtains a spiritual victory, winning the game instantly.

To accommodate for these changes, the Chance and Community Chest cards would be altered to include things that get rid of boring stuff like "You win a beauty pageant and get 10 bucks" and include more relevant things like "Keep this card, and you can use this card to negate a ship attack" or "Keep this card. Use it to take three spins on the spiritual wheel, disregarding current wealth" and you could trade them and use them as bargaining chips in potential trades.

I just thought these would be fun changes and I wanted to commit them to writing, though I'll admit that it might lengthen a normal game of Monopoly, which already have a bad reputation for taking a long time, to requiring even ridiculously longer stretches of time for a group to sit down and just play a board game.

[Lectorog]

This sounds great. I will try to play it sometime. Bookmarked. How long have you found a typical game to take?

I'd imagine this being even more fun with over two people, due to the multiway Battleship. More chaotic and confusing, but those are included in "fun".

I may have forgotten how Chutes and Ladders works, but wouldn't that be the quickest way to victory? IIRC, it's a pretty short game.

[JoshuaFH]

I actually haven't sat down to play a game of monopoly in years, but back when I could play it online I enjoyed four player games that only took 1 or 2 hours or more.

And yeah, I'm not actually sure on the chutes and ladders thing being the most surefire method to victory. Some balancing would probably be required.

[Korbac]

This sounds AMAZING.

I'd make the "Spiritual Chutes and Ladders" board require a % of your networth, rather than require it to be under $2000. For example, a player has to donate 10% of his networth + $25. This would mean it would be a safer avenue of victory for poorer players, as long as they weren't almost completely skint.

The battleship thing is amazing. Blowing up each others properties and whatnot is hilarious. I've always been trying to link in board game and such with each other since I was little. I'd often try and link card games with monopoly; i.e. you'd have to "purchase" your cards to use them effectively.

[Lectorog]

Korbac's suggestion is good. That, or the limit should be raised. I think the money would have to be rebalanced anyway. If your properties are so transient and you're expected to pay every turn, a bit more than $200 every go-around seems more appropriate. I think playtesting would be required.

[Neonivek]

The 200 for going around the board is in fact there for the moral of monopoly (that being: Monopolies are bad!)

There is no real reason to raise it for balance.

[Ultimuh]

Interesting.. have you concidered combining Cluedo into it somehow? 

edit: Such as if a player lands on a hotel, they might refuse paying and suddenly,
someone is murdered! DUN DUN DUUUUN!

[Neonivek]

Interesting.. have you concidered combining Cluedo into it somehow? 

edit: Such as if a player lands on a hotel, they might refuse paying and suddenly,
someone is murdered! DUN DUN DUUUUN!

Almost reminds me of the SUPER EXPANDED version of Life in Malcom in the middle.

I am still sad that I found out the "Game of Life" I played as a child was actually better then the original. I had no idea.

[JoshuaFH]

This sounds AMAZING.

I'd make the "Spiritual Chutes and Ladders" board require a % of your networth, rather than require it to be under $2000. For example, a player has to donate 10% of his networth + $25. This would mean it would be a safer avenue of victory for poorer players, as long as they weren't almost completely skint.

One thing I would like to avoid is forcing players to do too much math, because having not only to remember the value of your assets, but also having to calculate which percentage of that net worth you'd have to pay in a given situation is just too much.

It's the one thing I didn't like about the vanilla monopoly rules, that mortgaging properties forced you to apply a small percentage to the value of the property so you're forced to pay back just a little bit more to make mortgaging unprofitable. It's little rules that make play more needlessly complicated that are a must-avoid-type issue, atleast in my mind, and always get brushed over in real life play because no one wants to put up with that crap.

But yeah, Chutes is a really short game, and because it's the most straightforward wincon it needs to have more strings attached to make it difficult. How about instead of having net worth of 2000, it's only available to players with a net worth equal to or less than 500? That way it only effects the poorest players on the verge of losing, and given that players start the game with 1,500 dollars, by the time they're at less than 500 they're most likely on a developed board anyhow.

Korbac's suggestion is good. That, or the limit should be raised. I think the money would have to be rebalanced anyway. If your properties are so transient and you're expected to pay every turn, a bit more than $200 every go-around seems more appropriate. I think playtesting would be required.

Playtesting would definitely be required, but I do think you have a point. Trying to run through how the game would play in my head, given the additional avenues for competition and that your things can now be forcibly taken from you, that players need additional ways of making money to keep the game going smoothly besides simply extorting it from eachother and getting a small allowance every now and again.

I think everyone's familiar with the house rule where certain fees or amounts paid to the bank are kept under the free parking space and awarded to the player that lands on it. I liked that it exciting to have such a huge amount of cash still possibly circulating in the game's closed economy, but the luck factor involved made it very arbitrary; so I thought that while we're combining stuff, might as well have something that triggers the trivia board game (only the questions) of your choice, and you get either some or all the money if you get it right. There could even be a chance card that just distributes that money evenly across all players.

[Rexfelum]

For some reason I started combining the board games Monopoly, Battleship, and Chutes and ladders.

You may have created joy.  Like with Korbac, there're a lot of people who love mashing things up to see what comes out.  I encourage this endeavor!

Thoughts:

Simply put, it uses Battleship and Chutes and Ladders to offer extra playing fields and alternate win conditions.

The win condition for Monopoly is as normal?  Or have you considered making it easier to destroy people with pure unadulterated money?  This would help with the slowdown of play noted elsewhere.

This has the complication of needing graph paper or something so each player can keep track of each spot shot, which will only be rendered obsoleted again and again as players purchase new ships.

Actually, the fact you cannot move ships means that each old graph is useful for catching whatever arrangement was then present.  So when you fire on E6, it's useful to mark it on every graph you have until ships start getting eliminated/moved.

In other words, a computer could be helpful.  Have you thought of such?

I think the money would have to be rebalanced anyway. If your properties are so transient and you're expected to pay every turn, a bit more than $200 every go-around seems more appropriate. I think playtesting would be required.

I think that the Community Chest and Chance cards, which already have changes planned, might help.  What if specialty cards (spiritual quest spins, et cetera) had little text that said "Or turn card in for $50"?  Or just plain gave money out as a side product?

Also, there was the mention of Free Parking.  You could turn it straight into a second Go tile; a second $200 per board circuit with no randomness.

I'd make the "Spiritual Chutes and Ladders" board require a % of your networth, rather than require it to be under $2000. For example, a player has to donate 10% of his networth + $25. This would mean it would be a safer avenue of victory for poorer players, as long as they weren't almost completely skint.

But yeah, Chutes is a really short game, and because it's the most straightforward wincon it needs to have more strings attached to make it difficult. How about instead of having net worth of 2000, it's only available to players with a net worth equal to or less than 500? That way it only effects the poorest players on the verge of losing, and given that players start the game with 1,500 dollars, by the time they're at less than 500 they're most likely on a developed board anyhow.

How about divorcing it from money completely?  It's "spiritual," after all.  Perhaps a condition like "don't move in Monopoly this turn, get one spin in Chutes and Ladders."

--Rexfelum

[Lectorog]

Actually, the fact you cannot move ships means that each old graph is useful for catching whatever arrangement was then present.  So when you fire on E6, it's useful to mark it on every graph you have until ships start getting eliminated/moved.

If you fired on E6 previously for a miss, and they buy a new ship, that ship could be placed on E6. You're right in that the maps aren't totally obsolete after each change, but past that I don't quite understand your point.

Perhaps a condition like "don't move in Monopoly this turn, get one spin in Chutes and Ladders."

Being able to skip a turn in Monopoly can actually be beneficial, because you can't land on anyone's property and pay the hefty fee. And Chutes and Ladders is a much shorter game than Monopoly, so people would be playing only that.

[Rexfelum]

Perhaps a condition like "don't move in Monopoly this turn, get one spin in Chutes and Ladders."

Being able to skip a turn in Monopoly can actually be beneficial, because you can't land on anyone's property and pay the hefty fee. And Chutes and Ladders is a much shorter game than Monopoly, so people would be playing only that.

Good point.  Well, if there are other non-monetary sacrifices one can make . . .

Huh, there might not be too many such options in Monopoly.

Actually, the fact you cannot move ships means that each old graph is useful for catching whatever arrangement was then present.  So when you fire on E6, it's useful to mark it on every graph you have until ships start getting eliminated/moved.

If you fired on E6 previously for a miss, and they buy a new ship, that ship could be placed on E6. You're right in that the maps aren't totally obsolete after each change, but past that I don't quite understand your point.

I think we're both okay on the understanding.  The old maps are good because the old E6 still tells you information about the old ships; that's all I mean.

--Rexfelum

[Rumrusher]

Clearly this game needs to replace battleship with Risk. Though then you end up with a game that will take hours to play and finishing it will lead to friendships ending.