Understanding the rules of Monopoly helps players feel more engaged and excited. This strategic board game is extremely useful for bonding family and friends during gatherings or holidays.
This game also has practical significance in real life; if children are exposed to Monopoly early and play it proficiently, they will develop sharpness in negotiation and bargaining.
What is Monopoly? The origin of the rules of Monopoly
The rules of Monopoly were created in 1903 under the name Monopoly, developed by Lizzie Magie – an economist who opposed monopoly capitalism.
This game was born with the purpose of bringing the Single Tax theory (a concept referring to a type of monopoly tax revenue, often understood as land tax) closer to people of all social classes.
During many important historical periods, this game was so popular that it was recognized and allowed for use by German concentration camps during World War II.
Later, Monopoly was introduced to our country and was modified with local information and landmarks, becoming widely known as Vietnamese Monopoly.
Items in the Monopoly game
In the rules of Monopoly, the items in a set include:
- Tokens.
- Real estate property cards and accompanying pink and red books.
- Chance cards.
- Community chest cards.
- Hotels.
- Houses.
- Money in various denominations.
- Bank box (tray for money and banking items).
- Dice.
- Extensions.
Note:
- Monopoly money: The currency used in this game, including players’ money and the bank’s money placed in the bank tray. There are various denominations.
- Monopoly property papers: Certificates of land use rights and assets on the land. This card indicates land value, rent, and sale price.
- The quantity of items may vary among different manufacturers.
Preparation steps to play Monopoly
Monopoly for 2 players is the minimum number of players, with no maximum limit on the number of participants in this game. Depending on the number of tokens you have, you can play with more or fewer people.
If there are only 2 players, they can agree to play by the general rules. Players create a virtual financial management unit and place shared assets in a tray, temporarily called the financial box.
When there are more than 2 people participating in this game, one person can be appointed as a representative for the bank/state/market to manage assets that do not yet have an owner.
Steps to play Monopoly
The guidelines for playing Monopoly below are the basic steps that need to be followed:
- Step 1: Arrange the game board. Place and shuffle the chance cards into the chance space, place the community chest cards into the community chest space. Distribute the tokens for players to use as their game pieces.
- Step 2: Distribute money to the players. The amount of money for each player is the same and should leave about 30% cash for the bank. All assets are managed by the bank or placed in the financial box.
- Step 3: Roll the dice to start the game.
Principles of Monopoly Game Rules
Any game has unified principles known as Monopoly rules. This allows all players from anywhere to easily play together without facing many difficulties or obstacles due to differing game rules.
- How to choose the first player: Self-agreement or roll the dice to choose who goes first.
- Direction of movement: Clockwise.
- Game piece representation: You can choose any small item to represent your path.
- How to move Monopoly pieces? Roll 2 dice to determine the number of steps. The player rolls as many dots as they can move that many steps.
- If 2 faces are the same once: Get an extra turn.
- If rolling 2 matching faces for the 3rd consecutive time: Go to jail.
- If not rolling 2 matching faces: After finishing one turn, it will be the next player’s turn.
- How to determine the winner: The only player not bankrupt is the winner. Or the player with the most assets when the game time is up.
Notes When Playing Monopoly
The way to play Vietnamese Monopoly has some notes that players need to remember as follows:
- If landing on or passing properties that have an owner: The player must pay a fee.
- To get out of jail: The player must roll the dice to get 2 matching faces.
- Properties that no one owns, taxes, debts, and unclaimed titles: The bank/market or state is responsible for managing these properties. In case there are not enough players, there may be no bank manager and it can be placed in “the property box”.
Need to grasp some principles of the Monopoly game to avoid finesThe purpose of Monopoly paper game rules is to move as many times as possible, as quickly as possible to earn as much money as possible. Buy as much land and build as many assets as possible effectively playing Monopoly.
The more land and higher quality assets you have, the more money you can earn from other players. In playing Monopoly with paper, you should accumulate as many chance and community chest cards as possible, and get out of jail as much as possible because they can be sold.
Meaning of Administrative Units on the Monopoly Board
The structure of the Monopoly board consists of 40 property spaces surrounding the central area.
- 28 real estate spaces marked with different property functions. The spaces include landmarks, locations, properties: Real estate landmarks, street names,… in a specific city. Depending on the manufacturer, this could be Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, or Da Nang,…
- 8 special function spaces: Chance, Community Chest, luxury tax, income tax.
- 4 special spaces at the corners of the board: Go, Jail, Free Parking, Community Chest.
Detailed Monopoly Game Rules
Explanation of 40 real estate spaces and how to play Monopoly in detail to help you understand the essence of this game.
1/ How to start playing Monopoly?
All players will start at the Go space, the bank will give you a certain amount of money to purchase properties in the first round. After completing the first move, anyone who passes this space will receive an additional amount of money to reinvest and continue their business.
2/ Instructions on how to play Monopoly on the property spaces
When rolling the dice on this space, several scenarios can occur:
- Vacant land: Players can purchase it by paying the bank/market or the government.
- Land with an owner but no buildings: You must pay rent to the landowner according to the price specified on the land deed.
- Land with properties on it: Pay fees as specified, the higher the property level, the more you have to pay.
- When rolling the dice on mortgaged land: Players do not have to pay any fees.
- If someone lands on your land or house: You collect rent from the house/hotel/services of the visitors.
3/ Building houses and hotels
If you want to build a house on that land, players must meet all the building conditions as per the game rules. Additionally, you must pay taxes to the government to build a house.
To build a house, players must have all the properties of the same color. Therefore, you need a strategy to roll the dice to land on adjacent properties as soon as possible.
Building a higher-level property than a house: When you have 4 houses on a property, you can build a hotel. To have money to build a hotel, you must sell all 4 houses to the market/bank to build just 1 hotel.
4/ Jail in Monopoly game rules
Jail space: Monopoly game rules when going to jail has many scenarios for players to end up in jail. All activities of the player are not temporarily suspended, including: receiving money when someone passes by your house, bank funding each round.
- You must go to jail in the following cases:
- Draw the “go to jail” card
- Roll doubles three times in a row
- Land on the Go to jail space
- You do not have to go to jail if you roll the dice on the “Jail” space. In this case, the player can consider it as visiting the jail.
- Monopoly rules allow prisoners to be released in the following cases:
- Roll doubles
- Draw the “Get out of jail” card
- Buy a “Get out of jail” card from another player
- Pay a fine to the bank
5/ Public services
Land on a train station that has no owner: The train station is a valuable asset, you can buy it through an auction, if your bid is higher, you will become the owner of the train station.
Land on a train station that has an owner: Players must pay the owner of the train station if they roll the dice and land on this space. You can imagine that this money is the train ticket to use this service.
6/ Chance cards in Monopoly
When a player rolls the dice on this space, they will randomly draw a lucky card, receiving benefits and 100% avoiding misfortunes.
7/ Monopoly chance rules
Similar to the chance space, players will draw a random card from the chance deck. However, there will be positive opportunities but also negative situations that can affect the player.
8/ Tax spaces in Monopoly
- Luxury tax: Players must pay the bank a certain amount as specified on the game board.
- Income Tax: Players must pay the bank the required amount, similar to the luxury tax. Typically, this tax will be 10% of the total assets or a specific amount as stated on the board.
9/ Festival
When rolling the dice on the festival space, players can throw a party at any property they own. Any other players passing by or entering must pay a fee to participate in this festival, whether they want to or not.
10/ Free parking
This space can be understood as a place where you can park or stop, with no rewards or penalties.
At the same time, you must end your turn and give the opportunity to the next player.
Guide to playing Monopoly to win easily
The rules of Monopoly are based on the practice of private real estate ownership, so you can play this game well by the following methods:
- Buy as much property as possible
The effective way to become the richest person is to own a lot of real estate. When you have a lot of land, players can charge rent for passing through their properties or hotels. The more land you have, the higher the chance of collecting money from others. Thus, players will become richer and have the opportunity to be the ultimate winner.
- Build as many assets on your land as possible
When the assets on the land are increasingly invested, the money earned from customers renting becomes more. Especially when building houses, if you build many houses, the remaining houses will become scarce, driving the house prices up. Consequently, selling houses to banks will also yield better prices, while competitors will not have many houses to increase land value or build hotels.
- Choose land where many people have to pass by
There are many cases where people have to go to jail, so placing your property right at the jail entrance will attract many passersby. You should try to buy the land right at the jail entrance as early as possible to earn a lot of money from those who have just come out of hiding.
- Choose the most suitable time to be in jail
In the early game, you should avoid being in jail to take advantage of the time to accumulate assets. However, once you have a lot of land and the real estate map is filled with many other players, being in jail is not a bad option.
Being in jail will help players limit access to other lands while still being able to collect rent from the land.
Conclusion
The rules of playing Monopoly are very complex but will become extremely easy to understand and engaging after a few rounds of play. This game helps players learn more about the significance of owning a lot of land and assets in reality. Therefore, in daily life, if you have the opportunity to own land, you should seize the chance.
