Many of the world's greatest real estate tycoons say that as children, they frequently played Monopoly, and list it among their favorite board games of all time. The reason for this is simple - Monopoly is a fun, engrossing, and challenging game whose rules mimic the real world. The core concept is to dominate the board by making intelligent real estate purchases while carefully managing one's finances, while trying to shut down opposing landlords and forcing them into bankruptcy.

Common "house rules" for Monopoly include placing a $500 bill in the center of the board, which is rewarded to the player who lands on the "Free Parking" space, then replaced by another $500 bill. This variant can be expanded to include Chance and Community Chest card payments, as well as the two tax spaces, in the "lottery" on the middle of the board.

More in-depth house rules can be adapted to make game play even more like real world occurrences, such as mortgages and bank loans. One method, to keep the numbers friendly and the math easy, is to charge one and a half times the mortgage or loan amount and require it to be paid off over 5 turns. Real estate investors might scoff at a 50% interest rate, but again, it keeps the numbers simple and ensures that there will be no decimals (since Monopoly has no coins.) Another variant is that any player with improved properties (houses or hotels) pay a certain dollar amount every turn to whomever owns one or both of the utility properties. Nothing like playing a board game that makes you pay an electric bill!

Lastly, a variant concerning the railroad spaces and the $200 for passing "Go" rule. When one lands on a railroad space that is owned (after paying the rent, if another player owns the railroad,) they may, instead of rolling the dice their following turn, move to another railroad owned by the same player (without paying additional rent.) This makes more sense than paying rent for a train only to never leave the station, per se. This variant, however, leaves the possibility open to skip right to the railroad before the "Go" space and collect the $200 reward every turn. Instead, award $50 to every player on passing any of the corner squares. This eliminates any unfair advantages created by the railroad variant.

Learn more about this author, Casey Cavender.
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