It’s late-stage capitalism rearing its ugly head. One player has all the best properties and is taking all the rent. Everyone else is drowning in debt. It’s supposed to be a fun-fucking board game! It’s supposed to be a hoot and a laugh and a great time for the family! But now, everyone is pissed, depressed, and ready to flip the board — Monopoly fallout is a real thing. Even when games aren’t that exciting, Monopoly takes forever to play. Round and round the square board everyone goes, when it all stops, no one knows.

As it would turn out, many of the tried-and-true rules that we all follow are actually wrong. Wait, what? That’s right. Some of the rules that people have learned to accept over the years were actually never part of the game to begin with, or they’re just misconstrued. A spokesperson from Soduku Bliss — yes, a cool little online and free Soduku provider — highlights some of the things that can go wrong on family Monopoly night.

I don’t consider myself to be a “board game expert” personally, but someone from the Soduku Bliss team sure does, and they’re here to share commonly made-up rules used while playing the game. Let’s crack open the box and get into it.

Board game expert reveals 10 commonly made-up rules: You’re playing Monopoly wrong

Source: Nebular / Unsplash

I’ll be upfront here. With some of these made-up rules, I was shocked. Shocked and appalled because I genuinely thought they were real rules.

1. You don’t receive M$400 for landing on GO

While it can help you out of some bad situations, you’re not actually supposed to get M$400, or double the amount rewarded, for landing directly on GO. If you land on the space, you’re only supposed to get M$200 like every other time.

2. You’re not supposed to get money for landing on Free Parking

While it makes sense that you’d get the full pot rewarded for landing on the Free Parking space, that’s not actually in the rules — or how it’s supposed to be. All in-game fines, taxes and fees should be paid to the bank. It’s not an official rule to keep them in a pot. Normally, when you land on Free Parking, it should just be a “resting place” and that’s it.

3. You do have to buy or auction properties you land on

Some believe that if you land on an unowned property and don’t want to buy, you can skip over it. That’s not so. A player who lands on a property gets first dibs, but if they don’t want it, it should immediately go up for auction. Every player can bid, including the one that passed, but it goes to the highest bidder in the end.

4. You should collect rent while you’re in jail

People tend to stop the world when they go to jail, avoiding collecting rent when someone lands on their property. That’s not how the game should be played. You can collect rent, buy, or sell properties all from within jail. You keep the game moving, whether you’re behind bars or not. For example, if a property is auctioned off, even someone stuck in jail can bid.

5. You don’t get out of jail free after three rolls

The rules state that if you’re in jail, you can roll a double during your turn to get out. Most people think that after three turns, and three rolls, you automatically get out for free. But no, you’re still supposed to pay the M$50 fine that’s owed to the bank before moving your piece. Crime does pay people. Except, you’re the one paying the fine if you do the crime.

Five more commonly made up Monopoly rules

Source: Aedrian Salazar / Unsplash

Phew. That was intense. I don’t blame you if you fee like you need an intermission here. Some of those rules really caught me in the feels. No M$400 for landing directly on GO? No Free Parking money? What the hell is going on.

Anyway, we’re not done, if you can believe it. There are a few more commonly mistaken rules.

6. You can’t unmortgage properties for the same price

Mortgaged properties are supposed to be paid back with interest. To unmortgage, you would need to pay the amount of the property plus an additional 10% in interest. That’s how banks work in the real world, though the prices are a bit steeper.

The board game expert even gives an example: “If a player mortgages a property for M100, they would need to pay the bank M110 to unmortgage it.“

7. You don’t have to wait your turn to buy houses

As you’re usually supposed to do, players often wait patiently until their turn to do certain actions, like buying houses for properties they own. But the rulebook actually allows you to build houses and hotels at any point during your turn or between other players’ turns. You don’t have to wait. You just can’t throw a house or hotel down on a space a player has just landed on. But after that, between turns, if you want to make sure the next person who lands there has to pay, well, that’s kosher.

8. You have to build houses on all properties in a color group

Although you own all the properties in a color group, when you start building houses and hotels, it has to be done on all the related properties at once. You can’t build them piecemeal, one-by-one. Even worse, if one of those properties is mortgaged, you cannot build any houses at all on any of the colored spaces until that mortgage is paid off. Don’t forget the 10% interest, either!

9. Properties don’t always go back to the bank

It’s common knowledge that when a player goes bankrupt, their assets go to the bank. That’s not how the rules go, however. If you bankrupt another player, you are supposed to acquire all their mortgaged properties. In addition, when you receive mortgaged properties this way, you must pay the bank 10% interest on each one, or pay to unmortgage them. Properties only go to the bank if a player cannot pay a tax or fine, and only then are they auctioned off to the remaining players.

10. The game isn’t over until almost everyone is bankrupt

To speed things along, people often play until one person is bankrupt. It’s tempting to end the game there, too, because it’s over with fewer people pissed off. But according to the rulebook, the game only ends when a single player is left and everyone else is bankrupt. If there are four players, three of the four have to go bankrupt for the game to end. Good lord.

Some of these rules are going to fix the infighting, and some are just going to make it so much worse.

The content and information in this story were originally shared by Soduku Bliss.