11 ms·
The Shortest Possible Game of Monopoly (2010)
- tobyhinloopen 5y agoNeat. The longest possible game is playing with family that don’t like or don’t know the rules and like to put money on free parking.
- dylan604 5y agoThat's when you sneeze or find some other reason to bump the table hard enough to lose the places of all of the pieces. "Ooops, I guess we'll have to pick this game up later"
- function_seven 5y agoBe the banker, embezzle the hell out of the bank, never worry about making rent. Eventually you’ll be discovered: “Hey! You’re cheating!” “Huh? I thought that’s what this game was about. Y’all started it with that Free Parking nonsense.”
- thakoppno 5y agoThere is an actual official version of “Cheaters Monopoly.” The rules are beyond convoluted, likely encouraging second derivative cheating.
- dylan604 5y agoWhat about the Lehman Brothers version instead of the one from Parker Brothers? That one has mortgage securities and toxic properties and the goal is to sell off as many properties as you can before someone calls time. The one with the least properties wins.
- toast0 5y agoI (unfortunately) have a copy of that. It much more quickly results in tables being flipped; which I guess is good?
- rufus_foreman 5y agoI played that version, for real. The lawyers got all the money and now everybody in the family hates each other. It took years.
- chapium 5y agoFor families I recommend Monopoly Deal since the games are quicker and the theme is similar.
- awb 5y agoAnyone want to roughly calculate the odds of this actually happening?
- tobyhinloopen 5y ago0 in practice, who decides to buy nothing? And even if player one declines to buy, player two can buy it via the auction.
- awb 5y agoSure for Player 1, but if Player 2 reduces their cash by buying properties that still results in a loss. The premise is creating so much rent on Boardwalk that player 2 can’t afford it.
- dorkwood 5y agoMy sister often buys nothing. She has this weird idea that certain colors and utilities aren't worth buying. I beat her every time with my "buy literally everything" strategy.
- nend 5y agoShe might not be wrong. Some properties are landed on more frequently than others, and some give better rents for their purchase price then others. Properties and sets don't all have the same game value. You obviously have to balance that though, can't just buy nothing.
- JoshTriplett 5y agoIt's still almost always worth buying one property of each color, to prevent other players from building a group.
- aidenn0 5y agoRemember that a property is still worth its mortgage price, so all properties should go for no less than that value at auction.
- simlevesque 5y agoThe Youtube comment are saying that this requires players to make completely irrational moves and I agree
- tobyhinloopen 5y agoI also agree but it’s still _possible_ in theory
- onychomys 5y agoThe comments of the article are full of people coming up with ways to play entirely rationally and still end the game in 8 moves, they're worth reading.
- insickness 5y agoThere's nothing irrational about this. Choosing not to buy properties is not irrational. Choosing to buy Park Place and Boardwalk and then put houses on it as soon as possible is not irrational. In fact, my strategy when I play is to get a color set as quick as possible while saving my money by buying as few other properties as possible, then spending all that money on houses/hotels for those few properties I have.
- systoll 5y agoProperties go up for auction if the player that lands on them chooses not to buy. The losing player had the option to bid a total of $4 and get Electric company, Illinois Avenue, Pennsylvania Rail Road, and Baltic Avenue. Mortgaging those properties would give them enough money to afford rent, and having a mortgaged property is still better than not having the property at all. It is irrational to not bid up to the mortgage price.
- insickness 5y agoThe winning player can still bid to raise the cost to the losing player without winning the bid. In other words, the winning player can bid $100 for Electric Company, forcing the losing player to bid and pay $110 for Electric Company.
- CapriciousCptl 5y agoIf you drop some presumptions about the players you can go even faster-- Player 1: Roll a 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 11 or 12. Don't purchase, so it goes to auction. In auction player 2 buys for 100% of their cash. Player 2: Rolls a 4, lands on income tax. Game over.
- koolba 5y agoYou’d be surprised how few people know about the rule for auctioning property that is not purchased. I’m guessing most people learned to play without reading the actual rules. It’s just passed down by copying the actions of your older siblings.
- Cyykratahk 5y agoExactly, even this run is using house rules, as the official rules state that you are required to own all properties of the same colour before building, and also that houses must be built evenly on each property.
- juped 5y agothis isn't true about either the blog post (buys boardwalk and park place, purchases houses evenly on this complete property group) or the comment above (no houses or hotels are involved)
- Cyykratahk 5y agoYou are correct, I guess my reading comprehension isn't what it used to be. I thought I saw an error and got blinded by the rush of posting a correction.
- cortesoft 5y agoThe blog buys both BW and PP, and buys houses evenly.
- vmception 5y agoAs someone's thats read the many country's and state's constitutions, all major holy books and heavily weighted side-books for different sects Its surprising I haven't thought to read the rules for Monopoly yet Could be an onion headline. Constitutional lawyer has never read the Monopoly(R) official rules.
- cryptoz 5y agoMy favorite monopoly games are those where the players have played together before, and agree on a set of custom rules to the game in advance, and are fast-paced. I remember having rules added like loans and interest, and effectively unlimited freedom to make deals with players. Deals logged on paper, loan interest measured in turns and percentages, so much...fun. Actual fun though. A game like this can even go fast paced where the next player is making their turn while you're still interacting with the bank from your turn, while someone else is calculating interest. Doesn't sound fun typing it out but it was a blast.
- xahrepap 5y agoMy favorite variation included these rules: 1 - Double 1s or double 6s: steal any property from any player. 2 - you can build on any property you own. You’re not forced to build evenly and you’re not forced to own a monopoly on that color. A 2 player game would last an hour, maybe 2 tops. 4 player still took some time but was still fun and exciting :P Also, with these rules the balance of the game shifted. BW/PP are good, but not the best. Utilities and railroads are pretty lame. The winning properties seemed to me to be, from best to less best: Orange, Red, Pink, Yellow, Green. Orange and red because they’re properties most likely to be landed on after leaving jail. :)
- Stratoscope 5y agoMany years ago I was at a church singles retreat, and someone suggested playing Monopoly. At 11:30 at night. With an early worship service scheduled the next morning. A couple of people groaned about the late hour and how long the game would take. So I suggested some simple rule changes that make for a faster game. The pastor's daughter said "we can't do that." She pulled out the Monopoly rules, pointed to the relevant chapter and verse, and said "Look. It Is Written." People drifted off to do other things or just call it a night. In hindsight, maybe I should have gone along with her literal interpretation of the rules. After everyone else gave up, it would have been just her and me playing until the wee hours. That might have been nice!
- aidenn0 5y agoSo I suppose that church hews to the doctrine of "Sola monopolia"
- 867-5309 5y agoI'd be interested to see / write an algorithm for this
- dumbfoundded 5y agoA breadth first search?
- jaredsohn 5y ago[2010]
- dang 5y agoAdded above. Thanks!
- jdwyah 5y agoMonopoly simulator is a fun little project. I had a very strange reason to build one once upon a time because a chef was doing a monopoly themed dinner and needed to know how much food for each square. http://blog.jdwyah.com/2013/08/the-statistics-of-monopoly-with-respect.html?m=1 http://blog.jdwyah.com/2013/08/the-statistics-of-monopoly-wi...
- trackofalljades 5y agoI thought Monopoly only used a single six-sided die, why are they rolling two of them?
- nojs 5y ago> Roll: 2-2, Lands on: Income Tax Action: Pay $200 (now has $1300), Doubles therefore rolls again Wait, doesn’t doubles prevent the default action?
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- bombcar 5y agoNo doubles just means the player rolls again after resolving the action.
- uptown 5y agoVery timely. I just finished a four-day game of Monopoly this afternoon, winning by having hotels on Boardwalk, Park Place and the green properties.
- jacquesm 5y agoFor once: very apt username :) And congratulations. Not sure if I would have the patience for that.
- uptown 5y agoA rainy weekend with a couple young kids. I normally wouldn't either, but I remember "being them" as a kid -- asking my parents/grandparents to play Monopoly whenever possible, so I try not to resist despite the time commitment the game requires.
- johannes1234321 5y agoCheck you are using proper rules. There are many house rules prolonging the game (no auction, money collected on free parking, uneven house building, limiting numbers of houses in the game, ...) After reading the rules you can use the time they save arguing rules and why some wants to use house rules ...
- blendergeek 5y agoHouses and hotels are limited by the official rules. There are 32 houses and 12 hotels.
- jedberg 5y agoThe limited number of houses is part of the official rules and also a key strategy. If you get a few monopolies and build them all to four houses, you block everyone else from building houses.
- dopidopHN 5y agoThat’s commitment! I would rather drive them to the nearest board game shop, have them pick any other game :)
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- h2odragon 5y agoThe essence of the game is to show how important it is to be the one making up (or interpreting) the rules. Thus everyone has their own. The best rules include "take a shot whenever you roll dice, 2 if you get doubles" and "articles of clothing are negotiable instruments of exchange".
- whycombagator 5y agoThe only memories of playing monopoly I have are with family. I hope that’s not the same for you
- KMag 5y ago> The only memories of playing monopoly I have are with family. It sounds like the GP may have played with non-family members, but not retained the memories. The Monopoly games you don't remember are the ones you really need to worry about.
- newobj 5y agoTIL games of Monopoly have a formal ending
- dang 5y agoDiscussed at the time: The Shortest Possible Game of Monopoly: 21 Seconds - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1408549 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1408549 - June 2010 (26 comments)
- charles_f 5y agoTurns out that the fastest game of monopoly is also the best
- SamLL 5y agoSpeedrun - Monopoly 0:21 (Any%, RNG manipulation, glitchless)
- TMWNN 5y agoIncoming complaints about how it's obviously tool-assisted
- Sniffnoy 5y agoThis isn't a legal Monopoly game at all. When you land on an unowned property you have to buy it or auction it. "No action" is not a legal option.
- SamBam 5y agoNo one is required to purchase during an auction, everyone could pass. Simply insert in the directions in the appropriate places "...put the property up for auction and everyone passes immediately."
- Sniffnoy 5y agoWell, OK, here we run into a bit of a problem, in that the rules don't actually specify how the auction is conducted, so what happens if everybody passes is kind of just undefined. What you say is one reasonable interpretation. However, there is no interpretation that leaves these games as the shortest.
- SamBam 5y agoWhat would you imagine happens if everyone passes? It would be absurd for the rules to require a player to bid who does not want to bid, particularly if they did not write that out.
- ludocode 5y agoWhy would it be absurd for the game to require that? It could just require that the person landing on it bid $1 as penalty for landing there. Seems perfectly reasonable to me. Besides, you can always immediately mortgage a property so it's always worth buying it for less than the mortgage price. The only situation I could imagine where everyone would pass is if everyone has exactly zero dollars, no houses and no unmortgaged properties, so nobody can afford to buy it for a dollar. In that extremely rare event, triggering bankruptcy of whoever landed on the property seems more reasonable to me than "nothing happens" because at least it advances the game.