The Lord of the Rings Monopoly

This is a great Christmas present for the Lord of the Rings fan in your home. This is a board game and you can buy it at Walmart, Boscov, or any other toy store. The game runs from $19.99 to $39.99 depending on sale and the place you buy it. You could also look on ebay some times you get good deals there.

This game differs from the orignial game in many ways. The first difference you will notice is that the chance and community cards are now called people and event cards. These card have thing to do with the movie on them as far as talking about wizards and middle earth. You can gain power by out smarting the wizard or even taking on a trol.

The next difference is in the money. It is replaced by power. You need power to over come wizards and get horses. Power is just like money in all ways.

The tokens or players pieces are Legolas, Gimli, Gandalph, Galadriel, Frodo, and Aragorn. You also have two dice as well. The difference here is that the eye of Sauron is on one die. There is one other piece that is in the game and that is the gold ring. The one ring to rule them all.

You can use this one ring to make the game shorter. You place this ring on the first property. As the game is played the ring moves as well. When a player roles the eye of Sauron the ring moves one space. The ring only moves from property to property nothing else. When the ring is on a property that is owned and someone lands on it the fines are doubled. If someone lands on the property and it is not owned they can own it at no cost. When the ring has gone the complete length of the board the game is over. This is the short version.

The board is a little different as well. The places marked for utilities are now marked by the staffs of the wizards. The staff of Gandalf, the good wizard and the staff of Saruman, the bad wizard.

The spaces that were the railroads are now the horses from the movie. They are Shadowfax, Asfaloth, Brego, and Bill the pony.

The properties you will buy in this game come from the movie. You can buy Buckleberry ferry, Bree, Weathertop, Farmer Maggot's, Bag End, Mount Doom, Farad Dor, Rivendell and others from the movie. Those were just a few of the places on the board. Instead of buying houses and hotels to put on your properties you buy fortresses and strong holds.

The object of the game is still the same as any monopoly game. You need to get properties and collect money. The one with the most money at the end of the game wins.

My family loved the movies so the game was a big hit here. We fight over who gets to use what pieces. We also fight over some of the properties. The game is fun and can be made short so that you do not get board with the never ending game. With this game you do not have to set a time limit, you can just use the ring. As the ring moves around the board it creates more fun because you want to land on a property that is not owned but has the ring on it. Then you want to miss the ring because someone owns that property and you know it will cost you double. The ring not only makes the game shorter but it makes the game more interesting as well. I personally think if you try the game you will like it too.