Express Monopoly Card Game
Express Monopoly Card Game Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Equipment
- EXPRESS MONOPOLY® Game board
- Deck of 44 cards: 40 Property cards (streets, railroads, utilities, Chance, Community Chest, taxes and "corners") and 2 Rich Uncle Pennybags cards, plus 1 Monopoly Values and Bonus Points summary card and 1 Extra card describing Parker Brothers games
Assembly & Setup
- You will need paper and a pencil for scoring.
- Snap the four interlocking pieces of the game board together. Place in center of playing area.
- Remove from the deck the extra card that describes other Parker Brothers card games. Remove the Monopoly Values and Bonus Points summary card and give it to the scorekeeper.
Object
To complete and collect "monopolies" of different values and be the player with the highest score (at least 50 points). This usually takes two or more rounds of play. A "monopoly" consists of the four adjacent spaces on the board that have the same color running in a band along the bottom edge; the 4 Railroads; or the 4 Corners.
Game Play
- The game is played in rounds. A round consists of dealing the cards then playing them until all monopolies have been made and the board is cleared of all cards.
- Pick a scorekeeper, who will tally players' scores after each round.
- Pick a dealer to start the first round.
- The dealer shuffles all 42 playing cards and deals 4 to each player. The remaining cards are placed face down in the center of the game board as indicated.
- Play starts with the player to the left of the dealer and proceeds clockwise around the table.
On your turn
- At the start of each turn, draw as many cards as necessary to bring your hand up to a total of 5.
- Now play any one card* from your hand to the space in front of the matching property group on the game board. (See illustration under "Playing Cards to the Board.")
- *The only time you can play more than one card to the board is when you hold the remaining cards you need to complete a monopoly.
Playing Cards to the Board
- As long as you have a card in your hand, you must play a card to the board each turn.
- As you add more cards to a single property group, stack them in a column, as shown below.
Place each Corner card on an angle, facing its corner. Place each Railroad under its own space. Stack cards in the same property group in a column.
Making a "Monopoly"
- The four adjacent spaces with the same color in a band along the bottom edge form a monopoly. The example below shows the Yellow and the Red monopolies. The 4 Railroads are also a monopoly, as are the 4 Corner spaces (GO, Go to Jail, Jail and Free Parking).
- If you are the player who adds the fourth card to a color, Railroad or Corner group, you have completed the monopoly, and you will earn points for it at the end of the round. Remove the completed monopoly from the board and put it face down in front of you.
- You may complete only one monopoly per turn.
Special Cards
Rich Uncle Pennybags: Steal One Card
- Use any time on your turn—if you just drew it or you were holding it in your hand. Place it in front of another player and steal one card sight unseen from that player's hand.
- Remember: You should still play a card to the board.
- Saving a Rich Uncle card to use after the Draw pile is gone can be very helpful.
- Once used, Rich Uncle is out of play for the rest of that round. Put the card off to the side.
Chance and Community Chest Cards
- Play these cards like any others. Place them in front of any matching board spaces.
- They may be moved from one property group to another to help you complete a monopoly. Example: Take the Chance card from the Red group and add it to the Tax, Boardwalk and Park Place cards. You have now completed the Blue monopoly and may remove all four cards from the board.
- You may not re-use a Chance or Community Chest card that has been removed from the board as part of a monopoly.
The End of the Deck and the Round
When the Draw pile is gone, continue to play with the cards in your hand. On your turn you must always play at least one card; you may not "pass." The round ends when every card has been played and no players have any cards left—because all the monopolies have been made. Now add up your scores.
Scoring a Round
- At the end of each round, tally each player's score: Add up the values of all the monopolies the player collected that round, and any Bonus Points earned (as described below) and write down the total.
- The player who scored the most points that round becomes the dealer for the next round.
- Even if, during the round, a player collects a monopoly that would put him or her past 50 points, finish playing out the round before scoring. One player could overtake another.
- If no one has reached 50 points, play another round.
Monopoly Values
As in the MONOPOLY board game, there are valuable properties and not-so-valuable properties. The values increase as you move around the board. Refer to the separate Monopoly Values and Bonus Points card. The points you receive are for the whole monopoly, not for each card in it. For example, you receive a total of 6 points for the Yellow monopoly.
The Monopoly Values and Bonus Points summary card is a separate component and is not reproduced on this rules sheet.
Bonus Points
If you collect either of the following in the same round, you win 5 extra points and add this bonus to the values of the monopolies themselves:
- Both color monopolies on one side of the board, i.e., Greens and Blues
- All 4 Corners and all 4 Railroads
Winning
The first player to reach 50 points, or have the highest score after the final round has been completed, is the winner.