Last Updated: 12/09/10
Thanks for downloading Monopoly, an accessible version of the classic board game Monopoly developed by RSGames and ZanoSoft. This document will give you an introduction to the game itself, as well as introduce you to the features specific to this accessible version.
Monopoly is server based, meaning you must have an internet connection in order to play. With the all new RS Games Client, RS Games Monopoly can be conveniently played along with all of RS Games other titles from a single program, compatible on Windows, Mac, and Linux. Once connected, you can play against your friends, or computer players called bots
If you are reading this, and you've played RS Games Monopoly before, you probably know that there is a new version of the client that you must upgrade to in order to play. If you have never played Monopoly, you can skip this section.
If you start the old client, you hear a message telling you to go to the RS Games website and download the new RS Games client.
The RS Games client allows you to play all of our games from a single program. It supports more platforms, Windows, Mac, and Linux, as well as the NVDA screen reader on windows, in addition to JAWS, Window Eyes and Sapi as before.
Installing the RS Games client is easy. If you have not done so already, download the client from our website, www.rsgames.co.nr and follow the steps in the installer. Once the installation is complete, you can run the program from the start menu or the desktop, or by choosing the option to run it after installation.
You can use the same username and password you used for Monopoly with the RS Games client. You do not have to create a new account. Simply log in by choosing the login option from the menu, and enter your user name and password. If you forgot your password, do not create a new account. There is now an online form to reset your password. Click here to go to the online account system if you forgot your password.
Once you are logged in, you will be presented with a menu of all the games you can play. If you want to play Monopoly, simply choose Monopoly from the menu. The first time you play, the client will download sounds. This should only take a minute or so. After this is done, you'll be in the familiar main menu!
We hope you enjoy the new RS Games client. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to email us. We'd appreciate it if you spread the word and help any friends you might know with the upgrade process.
The object of Monopoly is to own as many properties on the board as possible, thereby bankrupting your opponents. The game is turn based, so you can only perform in game actions when it is your turn. Your turn begins by rolling two dice to determine the number of spaces you will move around the square Monopoly board. At the beginning of the game, you start on Go, which is one of the corner spaces of the board. Whenever you pass or land on this space you collect $200. Initially, you start off with $1500. There are a number of types of spaces you can land on.
If you land on a property, a number of things can happen. If the property is not owned by anyone, as is the case for all properties at the beginning of the game, you may buy it from the bank at a certain price. If you cannot afford a property, you can raise cash for it by selling houses or mortgaging properties if you wish. Moving around the board from Go, properties become progressively more expensive. If the property is owned by another player, you must pay them rent. Rent is based on the value of the property, as well as the houses or hotels on the property (explained later). If you own the property, nothing happens.
You can also land on Chance or Community Chest spaces. A number of these spaces are spread throughout the board. Landing on one results in you drawing a Chance or Community chest card. These cards will tell you to do something, for example, collect money or pay money to other players, move a certain number of spaces, or move to a certain property.
If you land on the Jail space, you are considered to be just visiting. However, if you land on the Go to Jail space or draw a "Go to Jail" card, you go directly to Jail, without passing Go. When it is once again your turn, you can either pay the $50 fine to get out of jail, use a "Get Out of Jail Free" card if you have one, or try to roll doubles. If you use 3 turns without rolling doubles, you will be forced to pay the $50 fine.
Should you ever need to generate a little extra cash, you can mortgage any property you own to the bank, in exchange for half its value. While mortgaged, you still own the property, and nobody can take it from you. However, you may not collect rent from others landing on your mortgaged properties. Furthermore, if you mortgage a property, none of the properties in that color group may have any houses or hotels, and none may be built on any of those properties until all of them are unmortgaged. When you want to unmortgage a property, you pay the mortgage value of the property back to the bank, plus 10% interest.
The properties on the board are divided up into color groups. If you own all the properties in a particular color group, you are said to own a monopoly in that color group. Any time you own a monopoly, the rent you collect from others landing on those properties is doubled. You may also build houses and/or hotels on a property once you own a monopoly.
Once you own a monopoly in a color group, you can buy houses or hotels to put on those properties. Each property can have up to four houses, or one hotel. A hotel costs the same as five houses. The more houses or hotels you have on a property, the more rent you will collect from others landing on that property. You must build evenly. For instance, if you have two houses on one property in a group, you may not put any more houses on that property until the other properties also have two houses. You may sell houses off a property at any time, for example, when you need to generate some cash to get out of debt. However, you will only receive half what you paid for them.
There are only thirty-two houses and twelve hotels available in the game. When there are no more houses/hotels available, or when the number is lower than what a player wants, this is called a building shortage. During a building shortage, no, or very few, houses/hotels may be purchased until some houses/hotels become available, either by a player selling them, or going bankrupt.
Quite simply, you can not go into debt. Any time you must pay more cash than you have at the moment, you must generate the needed cash by either mortgaging properties, selling houses or hotels, or trading with someone else. If you still cannot generate the needed cash, you are considered to be bankrupt, and out of the game. In this case, everything you have of value is turned over to the creditor (the person you are required to pay). If you are required to pay taxes, fines, or some other payment not related to any other player, you turn over everything you have to the bank. In either case, all the houses and hotels on all your properties are turned back over to the bank.
You may initiate a trade with any other player in the game. You may trade properties or "Get Out of Jail Free" cards, and you may offer, or ask for, cash in the deal. No houses or hotels may be traded. If you want to trade, or receive, a property that has houses or hotels on it, those houses or hotels must be sold back to the bank first. Properties and "Get Out of Jail Free" cards may be traded at any price agreeable to both parties.
This is just a summary of the rules of the game, enough to get you started. A copy of the official rules of Monopoly, in PDF form, may be downloaded here: http://www.hasbro.com/common/instruct/monins.pdf - Note that the official rules assume a game with a physical board, and all players physically located in the same room. There are also a few differences between the official rules and this version. For example, in the official rules, any time a player decides not to buy a property, that property is immediately put up for auction and sold to the highest bidder. In this multi-player networked computer version, this auction does not occur. Also, in the official rules, any time someone lands on your property, you must ask the other player for rent before the second player following rolls the dice, otherwise, you are not entitled to receive the rent. In this version, all rents are automatically paid.
For help on logging in or creating an account, see the readme for the RS Games client. If you are using windows, this can be found by going to start menu/programs/rs games client and choosing RS Games Client Readme.
Once you are logged in successfully, you are presented with the Main Menu, where you can either choose an option with the up and down arrow keys and the enter key or wait for a notification that someone has created a game. The Main Menu has three options:
This option will start a new game, after which you can wait for players to join. While waiting, you can press B to add a bot or R to remove a bot. When you are ready to begin playing, press Enter.
Selecting this option will present you with a menu of available games, if there are any. You can arrow through the games and press enter to join one.
This option simply speaks a list of active games which you can join, and the players in each game.
If you choose to start a new game, you can press enter to start it as mentioned above. Otherwise, the game master will have to start the game. Once this is done, the dice will be rolled, and the player who rolls the highest number will go first. Each player will then be asked to choose a token. This prompt, along with most other prompts in the game, is presented in a menu. Use the arrow keys to move through the choices and enter to select one.
When it is your turn, you are presented with a menu:
Roll Dice: Rolls the dice and proceeds with your turn.
Manage Assets: Presents you with a menu of your assets. You can press Enter on any one of them to buy/sell houses and mortgage/unmortgage the property.
View Assets of Other Players: Allows you to select a player and hear a summary of his or her assets.
Trade: Allows you to make a trade with another player. You are first asked to select the player to trade with. Then, you can select the properties you would like to give to the player in the trade. The menu is a checklists where you can press space to check or uncheck properties. Once the properties you want are selected, press enter to continue. If you do not want to give any properties in the trade, press enter without choosing any properties. Next, enter the amount of money you would like to give in the trade, or hit enter for no money at all. The process then repeats itself, except you select properties and enter an amount of money you would like the other player to give you. Once you finalize the deal, it is read to the player, and he or she can choose to accept or deny it.
Leave Game: Allows you to leave your current game.
If you are in jail, you can either roll the dice and attempt to role doubles, or choose to either use your get out of jail free card if you have one, or pay the fine from the menu. If you roll three turns and fail to roll doubles, you will automatically pay the $50 fine.
The game is entirely menu based. This includes selection of properties and other options, as well as Yes or No prompts. Use the up and down arrow keys to move through the options. The escape key automatically chooses the last option in the menu, which in most cases will return you to the previous menu. In a Yes or No prompt, the escape key chooses No.
While playing, you can chat with other players in the game by pressing F2. Type in a message and it will be sent to all players in your current game. Also, the players will be notified when you are typing a message, and vice versa.
If you type #who as your message, you will receive a list of players currently connected to the server.
You can also chat while in the main menu. In that case, your messages will be sent to other players who are waiting for a game.
The history buffer stores all messages from the game so they can be reviewed later. The following keys can be used to navigate the buffer:
From time to time, a player will disconnect or go idle, causing the other players to be unable to continue with the game. when the game starts, the game master can enable a feature that allows a player who is idle or disconnected for a chosen amount of time to be kicked from the game. Once a player is idle or disconnected for this amount of time, any player can press K to kick this player from the game.
There are several ways to get information on your current game. To hear who's turn it is, press T. For a list of players and bots in the game, press Tab.
In the menu accessible when it is your turn, there is an option called "View Assets of Other Players", which allows you to view information on properties owned by yourself or other players. This feature can also be accessed when it is not your turn, by pressing the V key.
If you have any questions while playing the game, or would like to report a bug, press F1, and type a message to the administrators in the text box that appears. An administrator will get back to you if one is online. The message will only be sent to online administrators, so please use this feature for urgent issues only.
The following keys can be used during game play:
When using Sapi:
RSGames Monopoly was programmed by Michael Forzano, Ryan Smith, and Jayson Smith.
Some sounds and music were downloaded from www.findsounds.com and www.freeplaymusic.com,.
Thanks to the beta Testers for testing the game, helping to fix bugs and ensure the game worked properly. The beta testers were Derek Roberts, Peter Mahacz, Brett Boyer, Harrison Tu, Shaun Everiss, Sean Randall, Shane Davidson, Liam Erven, Philip Bennefall, Oriol Gomez, and Andy Smith.
A big thanks goes out to all the players who have reported bugs and made suggestions since the initial release.
For any game related questions, please email RSGames at rsgames@gmail.com.
This game is Copyright 2009-2010 by ZanoSoft and RSGames.