![]() ![]() ![]() If a malefactor was caught, in addition to verbal condemnations from the other players, they would be forced to return their ill-gotten gains and be assessed a penalty of double the amount they had appropriated. Regardless of who ended up holding the power of the purse, the rest of the players would double count their own payouts and always cast a wary eye towards the bank anytime a major transaction was occurring. This was enough power to effect the outcome of games, and the position was of sufficient importance that it was usually fought over, and the most intense disagreements usually occurred when arguing about which player should not be the banker. would go surreptitiously into the banker’s personal pocket. For particularly bold bankers, when a player purchased a property and handed the requisite cash to the banker, the $180 dollars for Tennessee Ave. This could happen in multiple ways. Sometimes, after passing “Go” and collecting two hundred dollars, an extra hundred might make its way into their personal stash. When we played, the banker was allowed, and even expected, to skim off the top. ![]() This brings us to the Monopoly House Rules I was raised on. Like many big Catholic families, life in the house centered around the kitchen table, and this made it the perfect spot for board games. From there I launched into a history of the privileged position of the banker in my family’s variation of Monopoly.īoth of my parents worked when I was young, so I spent a good deal of time at my grandparents’ house. I was not alone either, because in the house lived aunts and uncles, either finishing college or in various stages of transitioning to adulthood. “House Rules, that’s how we played when I was a kid,” I replied. She looked at me, a little confused, and said, “Why would they be able to cheat?” We settled on Monopoly and as we were setting up the board and selecting our pieces I asked, “What’s the rule for the Banker?” The weather had turned poor and instead of a night on the town in Asheville, North Carolina, the two of us and our dog settled into our cabin and decided to look through the stash of games the cabin owner had left out for guests. This question of House Rules came up during a trip my wife and I made just after the New Year. For instance, House Rules might determine the starting order, or be used to break a tie, so long as they do not deviate too much from the game’s foundational rules. One concept that has, to my knowledge, no exact analog in the various other forms of gaming is the idea of “House Rules.” This term, succinctly put, means whoever hosts is allowed to tack on caveats and qualifiers to the rule book’s requirements. The smell of old cardboard when the box is opened, the sound of dice being shaken and their subsequent clatter against the tabletop, and the energy and emotion of the other players in the room all make each turn unique. There is a flow that develops where conversation waxes between turns, and then ebbs as all eyes fixate on the die being rolled or the card being played. The immature, peevish, and bullying behavior that is quite common in online gaming is mitigated by the fact that seated across from you is a friend or family member, and you cannot simply log off and throw down your controller to disconnect from the experience. Additionally, board games provide gratification for the senses that you would be hard-pressed to obtain from a computer game or an app on your iPhone. Truth be told, I am a sucker for games of all types, but there are a number of aspects to playing a board game that simply cannot be replicated by any electronic game.
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