Slumlord of the Gameboard

I'm not sure how many people actually do "family game night." We don't with any regularity, but we happened to this evening. Ann has more-or-less learned the basics of Monopoly (I remember doing the same in first grade), and was eager for all of us to play. So we did for about two hours.

Our set is a little frayed. The fold of the board is worn, some of the money is crumpled, and the barrel of the canon piece is bent. But it's all serviceable. Most of the money seems to be there, and more importantly, so are all of the deed cards.

In the end, I had the most properties and money. Yuriko and Lilly had left the game, and while Ann controlled a fair number of properties, she was cash poor. It might not be widely appreciated, but low-rent monopolies like Mediterranean and Baltic avenues can be cash cows if set up early enough, as I was lucky enough to do. I ended up being the slumlord, in other words, though toward the end I was Trump too, with Boardwalk and Park Place. Yuriko had the light-blue properties, and even some houses on them, but started development too late, as did Lilly with the green monopoly and Ann with the orange.

I spent some idle moments dreaming up round-the-board games for our time, since Monopoly is so Depression-flavored. Foreclosure would be one. Not sure how that would be structured, but it would involve the bank misplacing important loan-modification documents. Then there's Rescission, the exciting new game that rewards players who drive policyholders into penury. Or what about Cartel, the game of collusion and price-fixing?