Monopoly: Aftermath
Game Mechanics:
- Free Parking -> Parking Tax $150
- Income Tax -> Increase pay to $400
- Luxury Tax -> Increase pay to $200
- Go To Jail -> Go To Just Visiting
- All “pay” cards are doubled (chance/community)
- Going to jail card takes you to Just Visitng instead
Fun Fact:
- The total cost to buy and upgrade everything to max is $14,850
- The total amount of money per Monopoly game is $20,580
Game Setup:
Do math: 20,580 – 14,850 = 5,730
- 2-players -> 2,865 per player
- 3-players -> 1,910 per player
- 4-players -> 1,432 per player
- 5-players -> 1,146 per player
Rules:
- Regular Monopoly Rules except…
- Everything is always fully graded and bought
- Last player standing wins
Other ways to play:
Players agree on how much money they wanna start with and try to outlast each other.
Time to not go broke
Artist Statement:
When thinking of a game to create, I had my eyes set on Monopoly. The first concept of the game was called “The Landlord’s Game” created by Elizabeth Maggie. Her intention was to expose how property owners profit from impoverishing renters. I wanted to use that idea but modernize it, creating a game where you can “win” but come to the realization that you will never truly beat the game. In Monopoly: Aftermath, you start the game with all the properties already being bought and fully upgraded (hence the “aftermath” in the title). You are given some money to go around the board and try to be the last man standing. I decided to also change some of the spaces and rules. All the tax spaces are doubled in cost, Free Parking now charges you, all chance and community chest cards that say pay are now doubled, and you can no longer go to jail(the idea is that you are not worth the police’s time since you are too poor to be significant). While I also wanted to edit the cards, I unfortunately had no time to do so. My reason for these changes is to highlight the state of our economic system where people aren’t able to buy property, cost of living has increased unlike our paychecks, and it’s only a matter of time before everything seemingly leads to you becoming bankrupt. After going through my two playtests, players loved the satirical aspect of how realistic. In the readings there was anti-war art, specifically in the Berlin chapter with John Heartfield and George Grosz who created art to not only express their feelings about the war but to also convey the detrimental effects of it. I wanted to create an anti-property owner game like Maggie did. I also had players suggest themes for this concept in actual places like Los Angeles, Boston, San Francisco, etc. But why not let someone else come up with that idea? In the spirit of DADA, I would love it if someone would appropriate my game and/or come up with a different interpretation with my game as inspiration.