Pass in Review: Lord of the Rings Monopoly

 It must be more than half-a-century since I last played Monopoly.  And this was back when there was only one version.  The game debuted in 1935, and has spawned a slew of variant editions, starting in the late 20th Century.

One of my grandsons recently received a Boba Fett Edition for his birthday.  

Our respective grandkids are now advancing beyond the Candyland/Chutes & Ladders level of games.  So when I expressed interest about joining in the gameplay, my wife took this as a cue to buy me a Lord of the Rings Edition for my birthday.

The game comes in a hefty cardboard box, with cover art that evokes images of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings (LotR) movies.  The gameboard is matted and sturdy.  The money tokens are small, cardboard coins that come in 1 & 5 denominations, known as M .  It took me a while to discover just what an M  is.  It stands for "Monopole," which it seems has been the case for years.

Funny, I always thought it was "dollars."

Anyway, back to the gameboard.

Starting in the middle, there are a series of circles that track the progress of bearing The One Ring to Mount Doom from whence it was forged.  

The fringes of the game board is a colorful arrangement of locations using images from the LotR films, that players move their tokens around on.

 But beware, the Eye of Sauron, depicted on the two black 1d6s that players use to determine how far they go.  If a Ring Bearer rolls the Eye of Sauron, he must drop the ring where his playing piece landed.  Otherwise, the symbol is a regular "1."

The Ring Tracker Token advances up the slopes of Mount Doom every turn a player possesses The Ring.  

If a player loses The Ring, or gives it away, he has to pay the amount shown in the circle, and the Ring Tracker Token slides back to the bottom. 

The player currently bearing The Ring will be immune from paying rent, going to jail , or pay the fine if he lands on the Gollum or Ringwraith squares.  However he will be affected by Quest Cards, like every other player.  Quest cards often demand additional actions from the player who drew it.

Otherwise, the game is played like the original Monopoly; buy/selling properties, etc. 

The game can be won by the traditional means of bankrupting your opponents, or if the Ring of Power is destroyed.  The game ends immediately when The Ring is destroyed, and the player with the most money and assets wins.

Here's a look at the storage tray and rulebook:

A close-up of the storage tray containing the player tokens, buildings, currency and Quest Cards:

Instead of Houses and Hotels, players build Outposts (brown), or fortresses (white):

There are 9 player tokens, each representing a member of the Fellowship of the Ring.  From left to right: Gandalf, Aragorn, Boromir, Legolas, Gimli, Frodo, Samwise, Merry and Pippin.  However, the game is for a maximum of 6 players.

Here's a close-up of Frodo bearing The Ring, and Samwise:

What I found odd was the game using the traditional names and images for the corner squares--

--Go,

--Go To Jail,

--Free Parking,

--and In Jail/Just Visiting.

I mean, there's free parking's available at the Black Gates of Mordor?  Who knew?

Now I must admit, I'm an immersion gamer, and found the lack of LotR-appropriate images to be a bit jarring.

So I set out to remedy this.

Using my Comic Life program and PowerPoint, I made alternate corner spaces from images I found online.  (Since the game already utilizes movie images, and I'm not selling this as a product, I should be okay with copyright issues).

Anyway, legalities aside, here are my corner spaces--

--Imprisoned (The Secret Passage), replacing In Jail/Just Visiting,

--Captured! replacing Go To Jail,

--The Gifts of Galadriel, replacing Go, where players collect 2  M , and 

--Hiding From The Enemy, replacing Free Parking.

On a lark, I added one final touch.

I thought the cardboard coins were a bit wimpy looking.  And fake game money is expensive.

Fortunately, I came across a company that made coins for half the price of their competitors.  (I'm sorry, I can't remember who they are).

So I bought two packages each consisting of about 10, gold, silver and copper coins.  They come in 3 denominations, 1, 5, and 10, marked in Roman Numerals I, V, and X, respectively.

I look forward to playing this game.  When I do, I'll be sure to write an After Action Review (AAR).

Na-Den Pedim Ad

(Elvish for:  Until we speak again).