Hexopoly

One of my players and playtesters (credited as sparkletwist in Genial Jack Volume 2) has programmed a fully playable version of Monopoly on Discord. She recently customized a version to play in the world of Hex, so I thought I’d share the rules. Having played this a few times now, I have to say I much prefer it to standard monopoly – spells add an extra dimension of tactical challenge, and some of the more unusual cards and features, like the Plasmic Woe potentially escaping and ending the game early, definitely enliven the usual Monopoly gameloop.

Everything below this point (including the wonderful art in a pastiche of my style, and the commentary on spell use) is sparkletwist’s content, lightly edited.

Rules of the Game

Unless noted, Hexopoly is played like standard Monopoly and all standard rules of Monopoly apply. All players in Hexopoly start with $2000 on Delirum Castle, and roll two six-sided dice to move around the hexagonal board, pictured here:

The board consists of the following types of spaces:

• Property – There are twelve color groups representing land, as well as a group of four Marketplaces, and six Skycabs.
  
• Delirium Castle – The starting space. Players also collect $300 each time they pass here.
  
• Mooncross – The second corner. Players landing here collect a random spell card.
  
• Nullworth/Spellcage – The third corner. Equivalent to Jail (and Just Visiting) in standard Monopoly. Magic may not be cast on this space, in or out of Spellcage.
  
• Feypark – The fourth corner. Characters landing here may be given a gift, find a spell card, or be the victim of a strange fey enchantment, determined randomly.

• Warded Ward – The fifth corner. Every time someone lands here, there is an increasing chance the Plasmic Woe will escape, immediately ending the game.
  
• Go to Spellcage – The last corner before returning to Delirium Castle. It sends any player landing on it to Spellcage, just like “Go to Jail” in standard Monopoly.
  
• Arcanum Tax – Replaces “Income Tax.” You must pay a tax of either 10% of your net worth or $300, whichever is lower.
  
• Church of the Magistra – Replaces “Luxury Tax.” You must pay a tithe of $75.
  
• Entropy and Bureaucratic Bijoux – Spaces where you draw a card and carry out its instructions, equivalent to Chance and Community Chest, respectively.

There are twelve color groups representing land, as well as a group of four Marketplaces, and six Skycabs. Rent for the colored properties works the same as in Monopoly, though the rents rise more slowly from group to group due to there being more properties. Brown, light blue, orange, red, dark green, and dark blue are unchanged, and magenta and yellow as well as the new purple, olive, light green, and pink groups have rent values interpolated from these.

Buildings cost $40 on the cheapest side of the board, increasing by $40 to $80, $120, etc., all the way up to $240 to build on dark green or dark blue. Buildings are salons (equivalent to houses), academies (equivalent to hotels), and universities, which can be built for the normal building cost by building again on a property with an academy. In addition to the normal limits on buildings, each color group may only have one university. The university rent is generally around $500 above the rent of a hotel.

Skycabs work like railroads, with rent instead being dependent on the number owned: $25 for one, $50 for two, $100 for three, $200 for four, $300 for five, and $400 for all six. Marketplaces work like utilities, where the rent is equal to the die roll times a multiplier, which also depends on the number owned: 4x for one Marketplace, 10x for two, 20x for three, and 40x for all four.

The biggest difference between Hexopoly and standard Monopoly is the use of spells. All players start the game with a random spell. You get an additional random spell card when you roll double sixes, or when you land on Mooncross, or on any university whether or not you own it. Some random Feypark events and Entropy and Bureaucratic Bijoux cards also grant spells.

Each spell card can only be cast once. Spells may be traded among players.

The following spells are available:

• Charm – You talk your way out of paying rent owed.
  
• Demonic Contract – A demon grants you $666, but you then lose $66 at the beginning of your next ten turns.
  
• Haste – On the next roll, the target will roll three dice, and any pair of two counts as doubles.
  
• Hexcrawl – Instead of rolling, advance 6 spaces.
  
• Slow – On the next roll, the target will roll one die. Rolling doubles is of course not possible.
  
• Mage’s Mansion – Add a salon to any property with space for one. The spell can be cast even if there are no salons available, nor does the property need to be in a complete group or built evenly. You need not even own the property, but it can’t be unowned.
  
• Magic Missile – The target will lose between $20 and $50 [you could roll 1d4 to determine in an analog version of the game], and will roll 1d4+1 to move on the next turn. Magic missiles can also be cast at summoned monsters in order to get rid of them faster. Cannot be used during auctions.
  
• Miasma – Places a miasma cloud on any property, which prevents rents from being collected. The owner must land there (or another property in the same group) to clean it up.

• Mirror Image – Roll three different moves and you get to choose which one is the real you. The two illusions then vanish.

• Polymorph – The target is transformed into a frog for 3 turns. Frogs neither collect nor pay rent, and cannot cast spells. They can engage in all other business transactions, because a frog buying real estate isn’t actually that weird for Hex.
  
• Suggestion – Use to propose a “reasonable” trade that will be auto-accepted. A reasonable trade consists of a one-for-one exchange of property that does not break up a complete group, or a cash offer equal to the property’s value. This definition of “reasonable” of course can and should be abused!
  
• Summon – Conjure a rampaging otherworldly beast that will move around the board causing costly damage to property— including yours, if it lands there. The Warders will eventually defeat it.
  
• Teleport – Teleport directly to any property. You need not own it, but you will pay rent if you don’t. You don’t count as passing Delirium Castle.
  
• Thieving Hand – Steal up to $200 (limited to cash on hand) from the target. Cannot be used during auctions.

Many winning strategies for standard Monopoly also apply to Hexopoly: you want to remain in Spellcage (jail) when there’s nothing left to buy, it’s still generally a good idea to build your groups up to three houses as fast as you can, the last property in each group has slightly higher rents so should be built first if you can’t develop the whole group, and there’s really no reason to unmortgage properties with trivial rents.

The board layout is somewhat different, though orange and red are still good investments due to increased traffic from players being sent to Spellcage and being let out. Of the other properties on this half of the board, yellow is still decent, and light green and pink are also about as valuable as yellow, albeit with somewhat higher rents and house prices. Light blue is slightly better than it is in standard Monopoly, since salons only cost $40 and the rents are the same. Purple and olive are a bit lackluster, but the houses are still pretty cheap; the rents won’t finish anyone off who isn’t already in bad shape, but the income can help you build and trade.

If you can get two groups, controlling one side or corner is good, as is holding one cheaper group and one of the more pricy groups, using the modest rents from the cheap group to pay for expensive houses on the expensive group.

Skycabs (railroads) aren’t likely to win the game by themselves, but, just like in Monopoly they can make a valuable secondary source of income, especially if you have a color group that you can’t develop due to lack of cash on hand. Getting four out of six skycabs is generally good enough (for a $200 rent) but if you can get all six, that’s even better. On the other hand, if you have only one skycab, it can make useful trade leverage to complete a group of your own, though you should avoid giving an opponent their sixth skycab if you can.

Marketplaces (utilities) are similar to standard Monopoly, but there are now four instead of only two, with rents of 20x and 40x the die roll for owning three or four of them. This means that if you own all four marketplaces, you collect an average of $280 rent, which also means that unlike Monopoly’s utilities, in Hexopoly, having the four marketplaces is a secondary investment equivalent to owning four or five skycabs. If a player can amass both a sizable number of skycabs and marketplaces, this is more dangerous than any single color group, even orange or red.

The biggest strategic change in Hexopoly comes, of course, from the spells. Here is a brief summary of some ways to use each spell effectively.

When to use charm is generally situational, but it’s best to save it for a rent that would impact you severely. If you can pay a $300 rent by mortgaging a couple of properties, that will probably be worth it instead of charming, especially if Hordewalk has a university on it. If you have one, you might also consider signing a demonic contract instead for one of these mid-tier rents.

Demonic contract gives you $666, which must then be repaid over time. This is actually a much better deal than mortgaging, though the steady cash drain can also ruin your day. It’s best to be proactive with demonic contract, as the trivial rents you collect each turn from single unmortgaged properties can go a long way to giving you the needed $66 per turn, but you can’t collect these rents if you’re already overleveraged. Also, pay attention to the demon’s face: he has a surly frown if you have enough cash on hand to repay your outstanding debt, and a wicked grin if you do not.

Cards like haste and slow are used to give some degree over movement, whether yours or that of an opponent. Haste is valuable for getting around the board quickly, and with 10 being one of the most common rolls, it might also be a good time to try casting haste if you’re on one skycab and hoping to buy the next one— or on an opponent, if you own the skycabs and not much in between! Slow is useful when an opponent is near one of your properties to give a greater chance of landing on it, or you can cast slow on yourself when you’re near a property group you’re hoping to buy.

Mage’s mansion builds a salon anywhere, but building a single salon won’t actually make you much money. If you can manage to get three of these cards, it might be worth developing a lone expensive property, but otherwise you should probably just save it to build a house on a group you’ve already developed. On the other hand, if things are going against you, might as well build that mansion!

Magic missile costs an opponent a bit of money, which is useful to annoy cash-poor rivals, but its real power is that it reduces the movement roll to 1d4+1, i.e., 2 to 5. The best time to fire a magic missile is thus when they are two spaces from the first property in a well-developed group you own— there is then a 75% chance they’ll land on it.

Miasma is useful for shutting down a high-rent property, and it can be even more valuable in collusion with another player who also has one; it is often a winning play to follow up another player’s miasma against a third player with one of your own on the same group.

Mirror image gives even better control over you move than haste or slow, and should be cast when you’re close to somewhere you really want to land, or somewhere you really want to avoid. You can also combine a mirror image with a haste or slow, giving you triple the potential value from the spell.

Polymorph turns you or an opponent into a frog, which cannot collect or pay rent. Polymorph is most often used offensively against a player with dangerous properties, but it can also be used defensively if you’re coming to a dangerous stretch of the board. It only lasts three turns, so try to time it so that it maximizes the amount of potential income lost for opponents, while not really harming your own prospects.

Suggestion lets you trade one property for another, regardless of what they are. Of course, this usually means completing a color group while giving an opponent a property they can really do very much with. On the other hand, if you’re on the receiving end of a suggestion, try to make the best of it. You’re going to have gotten something of a raw deal, but you’ll always gain something, so try to do what you can with your new gains, including trading it to another player. You can also offer the cash value of a property for a suggestion, which is a good way to pick up cheap property, as it ends up being far more valuable than its low retail price. Buying higher-end property like greens or blues is less worthwhile, and you’re better off making a trade.

Summon makes a rampaging monster appear at your current location which then goes around costing everyone money as it smashes up the board. The amount is randomized, but it is generally around $25 per salon, or $125 for an academy and $150 for a university. You generally want to cast summon if you have far less exposure than your opponent(s), and preferably cast it near their properties rather than yours. Also remember that you can shoot a summoned monster with a magic missile to try to get rid of it early.

Teleport lets you move to any property on the board, which has a number of valuable applications. If you own two properties in a group, you can teleport to the third one and buy it. Teleporting to somewhere near Delerium Castle is also possible, but it’s often a better idea to hold onto the teleport and try to fulfill a quest goal instead, especially if it is on a property you can then buy.

Thieving hand is pretty self-explanatory most of the time. The main thing to remember is that it is limited to cash on hand, so try to steal from a player who has at least $200. It may not always be most effective to steal from the richest player: often a player who has amassed a pile of cash doesn’t really have anything to spend it on. Stealing someone’s last $200 before they can build houses with it is sometimes a better idea!

Also remember that spells are commodities that can be traded, just like property.