Rivers for Railroads

December 6, 2004 11:03 AM

Yes, I am a pathetic geek. And yes, this homemade LOTR version of Monopoly rocks. Much more beautiful than the Hasbro product (which I bet doesn't include a shortcut through Shelob's Lair). Too bad there doesn't seem to be much of a homemade movement happening. Or is there? Little brothers everywhere need somethng cooler than a dumbed-down Shrek 2 edition. [via kottke]
posted by scarabic (14 comments total)

Be sure to hover over the image in the main link; it's annotated with all the "neighborhoods" etc.
posted by scarabic at 11:06 AM on December 6, 2004

Funny. I was just discussing this with my wife this weekend while in an FAO Schwartz in Vegas. Game companies, when they wanted to churn out a quick movie-themed board game, used to go with parcheesi. Now it's Monopoly. Sad thing is that Monopoly really doesn't work with most movies, tv shows or whatever random license Parker Brothers happens to be making a Monopoly version of. That board is pretty rad, but LOTR doesn't have anything to do with collecting property and making money.

Make me an LOTR version of Diceland, and I'm all over that shit.
posted by eyeballkid at 11:31 AM on December 6, 2004

Don't forget the LOTR Civ 3 Mod, tre geek.
posted by plemeljr at 11:37 AM on December 6, 2004

Shhhhh. Don't tell my kids, but I got a Make-Your-Own-opoly to make a game for them, as the one game the two of them will usually play longest without fighting is "Cat-opoly." (Don't worry, I won't center ours around penises, as the sample one apparently does.)

As I expected, the rudiments that you get for the price make it kind of a ripoff, but you do get a board, which is the kind of thing that, if I had to construct that myself, I just wouldn't ever bother getting to it - whereas now that I've shelled out good money, I gotta do this one. Fortunately, I'm crafty.
posted by soyjoy at 11:58 AM on December 6, 2004

The Hasbro version has one great addition - the One Ring, which moves around the board as a special token based on certain dice rolls. Once it completes a circuit, the game is over, blessed, blessed day.

Now if only Risk introduced a similar mechanic to keep the game within playable lengths of time.

Aside from that, the official edition is pretty unremarkable and even outright bizarre at times - my token was Gandalf, yet other people owned Gandalf's horse (a railroad) and staff (utility). Needless to say, much fun was poked at the cranky and powerless wizard hoofing it to his own property out in Mordor.
posted by Sangre Azul at 12:12 PM on December 6, 2004

LOTR doesn't have anything to do with collecting property and making money

You're right, of course. Check how the board is laid out. The circlular path lays out the journey undertaken by Frodo, from the Shire to Rivendell through Moria to Caradhras, etc. It seems that money functions as "points" of some kind, representing the unique challenges of passing through that area (as opposed to paying rent to stay there). Land on the "safe-passage" between Mt. Doom and Barad-Dur and you only lose 75, as opposed to stopping on top of a volcano, which would presumably cost you more. You could even call them life points in that instance. Owning the volcano just makes you the beneficiary of points lost there.

Eh. Thin line, I suppose.
posted by scarabic at 12:15 PM on December 6, 2004

Now if only Risk introduced a similar mechanic to keep the game within playable lengths of time.

The LotR Risk adaptation does -- the Ringbearers move one space every turn and the game is over when they reach the other end of the board. You can extend the game by changing it to once every round or eliminating it entirely.
posted by John Shaft at 12:29 PM on December 6, 2004

How can we forget the original Lord of the Rings Board Game from the Tolkien Sarcasm Page. Lots of fun, especially when you read the Plot Complication Cards.
posted by graymouser at 12:30 PM on December 6, 2004

Sweet links, people. Thanks.

Except you, plemeljr. I just KNOW you're going to cost me days and days of getting that installed and playing it. Curse you and all the halflings.
posted by scarabic at 12:52 PM on December 6, 2004

My favorite Monopoly edition is the dot.com one. It sparks endless conversations of "are they still around?"
posted by smackfu at 1:00 PM on December 6, 2004

scarabic - why do you think I haven't installed this mod myself!? There is only so much time in the day, and playing LOTR Civ3 would blow that time away.
posted by plemeljr at 1:59 PM on December 6, 2004

Got a guilty conscience, have you? We accept your token of goodwill.
posted by scarabic at 2:12 PM on December 6, 2004

Graymouser, thanks for the Tolkien sarcasm link! Lovely.
posted by Specklet at 2:28 PM on December 6, 2004

If I had the bandwidth, I'd show you a picture of the Mario 64 board game I made for my kids because I was sick of playing Chutes and Ladders.
posted by straight at 8:00 PM on December 6, 2004