ISOSAD: Monopoly Challenge

[Teamcasa]

Okay, new question: How should I handle the housing situation?

Obviously, I can't use the houses as they come, since even the smallest eddy will toss them around like... well, like little plastic bits underwater. That leaves a few options:

1. Interior weighting: For Connect Four, pennies were glued to the checkers. Gluing something into the cavities of the houses and hotels would look most normal, but it would provide the least weight.
2. Attached "foundations": Gluing something into the cavity but not requiring it to be completely within the buildings would allow for more substantial weighting while still maintaining the buildings' integrity.
3. Magnets: Unfortunately, these would require some ferromagnetic material in the board (which is simple corrugated plastic right now). You could run some steel runners through the holes, but then you have to worry about corrosion. The magnets would be sealed in epoxy resin inside the buildings.
4. Suckers!: Suction cup devices might provide more stability... but only if they worked. I'm afraid they would not be reliable.
5. Castings: Making forms of the buildings and then casting them from lead would provide the most density while maintaining the size and shape of the buildings. I have no experience with casting, so that's probably out.
6. "This is a house.": Using pyramidal sinkers or other such fishing tackle would be easy, but it wouldn't look very Monopolish. Perhaps if they were painted green and red...
7. Grease pencil: Having squares on the board that are simply marked with a grease pencil would be trivial, and it would work even in non-platform games (it may be required for a mid-water game), but it's the least true to the game.
8. Physical attachments: Using bulldog clips, bolts, or some other physical attachment method would also work in non-platform games, but it'd be more work and require further modification of the game board (possibly including through-holes or attached hardware).

So, any brainstorms or aesthetic opinions? I think I'm probably in favor of option two, but I'm open for commentary, obviously.

Cut off the loop, paint green for houses, red for hotels.

 

[ClayJar]

Cut off the loop, paint green for houses, red for hotels.

Okay, pyramid sinkers were the consensus at work, too. (They're fishing people, not divers, but hey.) I was thinking that Plasti-Dip might be a nice treatment for them, but it's not available in green. I suppose I could buy a can of red for the hotels, and cans of yellow and blue could mix to make green for the houses. Dip the sinkers with a string through the eye, let it set, get the eye out, and then re-dip the bases... that ought to work...

Now, the question is whether I can find Plasti-Dip locally... or in the right colors.

 

[The Anchor]

For the money, you could potentioally laminate all of it and use it as you would the cards in Uno. This would probably be quite expensive. You could by cheap plastic poker chips and drill holes in them. The problem here would be getting 7 colors.
7 Sheets of colored plexiglas would work. just match the colors to the money and write the amount on them. Add a beaded chain and you are set for cash.

The houses could be cast. I offer my services for the cost of shipping only. THe molds I can make out of plaster of paris, and the lead form used tire weights. All I have to do is dig out my sisters old set. To help distinguish between them, the house and hotels could be painted. I would recommend plasticoat, I think it is available in red and green. It is commenly used to coat the handles of tools that don't have a rubber coating or that have lost it. This would also help them stick to the board. I will also do this if you want.

To shorten the game, I believe that the rules have Monopoly in an hour and Monopoly in 30 Minutes. The first has the banker deal 3 random properties to each player and the second is 5 properties to each player.

 

[ClayJar]

For the money, you could potentially laminate all of it and use it as you would the cards in Uno. This would probably be quite expensive. You could by cheap plastic poker chips and drill holes in them. The problem here would be getting 7 colors.
7 Sheets of colored plexiglas would work. just match the colors to the money and write the amount on them. Add a beaded chain and you are set for cash.

Hmm... according to the official site, the distribution of bills is:

• 20 x $500 (orange)
• 20 x $100 (beige)
• 30 x $50 (green)
• 50 x $20 (blue)
• 40 x $10 (yellow)
• 40 x $5 (pink)
• 40 x $1 (white)

That adds up to 240 bills. Given that you can get ten bills out of a US-letter sheet of paper (looking at their print-your-own PDF), that's only 24 sheets of laminating film. It'd be significantly more difficult to use "real" money, but it wouldn't be prohibitively expensive (at least for someone with a laminator... convenient, that :biggrin.

Having played quite a few card games, it seems to me as if the biggest problem with using "real" money would be that it will drastically slow down an already slow game. If we were doing a Monopoly dive in a pool, it might be fun to use real money, but for open-water Monopoly, I think we'd have to go with central bank accounts just to make it more practical.

(That said, I intend to write Hasbro once we've played. I want to ask them if there's any way I could acquire the top sheet of a Monopoly board without the cardboard backing, as I could then laminate that so we could play on an "authentic" board. If they'd come through with that, I'd absolutely use real money for a pool game to record on video and send to them.)

The houses could be cast. I offer my services for the cost of shipping only. The molds I can make out of plaster of paris, and the lead form used tire weights. All I have to do is dig out my sisters old set. To help distinguish between them, the house and hotels could be painted. I would recommend plasticoat, I think it is available in red and green. It is commonly used to coat the handles of tools that don't have a rubber coating or that have lost it. This would also help them stick to the board. I will also do this if you want.

Cast houses and hotels to use instead of the 32 and 12 plastic ones in the set would be absolutely fabulous. Some day, I'll likely learn how to cast, but in the meantime, I would certainly not look askance at an offer to help.

As for plasticoat, I know that the Plasti-Dip brand has black, red, yellow, and blue. At least that brand does not have green, although I figured I could get around that by simply mixing some blue and yellow.

To shorten the game, I believe that the rules have Monopoly in an hour and Monopoly in 30 Minutes. The first has the banker deal 3 random properties to each player and the second is 5 properties to each player.

There's also a special die included in the sets these days that is supposed to greatly increase the speed at which the game develops. I haven't tried playing with it, but it shouldn't be a significant problem to work out which special rules to use to make the games short enough to be played by an average diver on 2000psi or so from an AL80 at 20 feet or shallower.

 

[Deefstes]

So? Where are you at? Would love to see some pics of your "setup".

 

[ClayJar]

Stalled for a bit while doing Divemaster, but that's done. We just replaced the filter pump in my parents' backyard pool, and my brother's now certified, too. Once the pool's fully operational, I should be able to start testing some of the prototype pieces and board concepts.

 

[nuke]

You could try playing monopoly JR. This significantly reduces the time to play a game. About 20 - 30 min. Also, no houses/hotels and the rent is on the board.

 

[ClayJar]

To quote Gonzo, "Sure, if you want to do it the *easy* way."

 

[trucker girl]

I totally forgot about this challenge. Ugh- major craft project. Can we fill the monopoly houses (etc) with lead?

 

[ClayJar]

I totally forgot about this challenge. Ugh- major craft project. Can we fill the monopoly houses (etc) with lead?

I'm thinking that filling them with lead, either a slug or shot, and epoxying it in place might work well. I have to see how well they'll stay put. The other obvious option is strong magnets.