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:
So, any brainstorms or aesthetic opinions? I think I'm probably in favor of option two, but I'm open for commentary, obviously.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Suckers!: Suction cup devices might provide more stability... but only if they worked. I'm afraid they would not be reliable.
- 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.
- "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...
- 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.
- 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).
Cut off the loop, paint green for houses, red for hotels.