Monopoly of the Living Dead

Because we can’t have a Monopoly set that’s based on the films of George Romero, and because people seemed to enjoy the concept of Zombie Munchkin, we’ve decided to come up with a set of house rules that incorporates our favorite bits about zombies into our favorite board game that concerns grinding your friends into financial oblivion.

These rules are pretty basic…

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Game play is perfectly normal until The Event makes the dead rise.

As for what The Event is, it could be anything. We’ve tried saying that when three doubles are rolled, which can send you to jail in some circles, that’s what makes the dead rise. Or it could be whenever all properties are finally bought. Or when the first person grabs the money from the center of the board for Free Parking. Go with whatever works for you. And indeed, if you change it each game, that will also conform to the Romero zombie ethos.

Zombies are added to the board at the rate of one per complete round. The zombies can be anything you have lying around: coins or bits of paper. Or hey, if you own the Zombies! game you can use those. Whatever works. Zombies first appear at the Go space.

Life on the board is perfectly normal, except that there are zombies. And the fact that money is what allows to upkeep your property improvements, which keep you safe. More on that in a second.

At the end of each round, a player rolls a single die and the zombies move–backwards–that number of spaces.

At the beginning of each player’s turn, they have to contend with zombies having shown up where they are. Players are safe if they have avoided zombies, or if they’re in a place which has no location associated with it (i.e., Luxury Tax, Community Chest, Chance, etc.). Also, if they are on a space where there’s houses or a hotel, they are safe and considered to be barricaded inside.

If you are on a space with no improvements and it’s a location, you have to roll a single die. 4,5,6 and you give the zombie a good strong blow to the head and it’s removed from the board. 1,2,3 and you’re toast. Your game piece is replaced with a zombie. It’s a roll per zombie that you contend with, so if you land on a space with three zombies, good luck.

Players who land on a space where they own the property pay nothing. Players who land on a space where someone else owns the property must pay rent. Players who cannot pay rent have their asses kicked outside where they may or may not be eaten, depending on zombie presence.

Spaces with improvements lose a single improvement per zombie that lands on that space per turn. A space with a hotel that has two zombies land on it is reduced to three houses, for example.

Last player alive wins.

This might seem like it would end swiftly after the zombies show up, but that’s fairly accurate. Generally once the zombies get inside in a Romero film, it’s over fairly quickly.

Now this being said, I would encourage anyone who has the rights to make a George Romeroply. Start with Baltic and Mediterranean as the house and the cemetery from the first film and go from there. Thoughts?

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