A guest who has never played a property trading game does not need the rulebook. They need five sentences: roll two dice, walk that many squares, buy the city if nobody owns it, pay rent if somebody does, and say no if you would rather let the table bid. Everything else can wait until it happens. Below is that first turn as a script, using Property Rush, an independent Monopoly alternative made for friends who are apart, so the script assumes everyone sits at their own screen, playing with friends online while a call carries the chatter. Every number comes from the game's own code.

Before anyone rolls

Tell the guest three facts and stop. There is no download to explain, because the whole game runs in a browser.

Everyone has the same starting cash. The default purse is 1,500, and the host can pick a purse from 500 up to 5,000 in the lobby. Starting poorer means cash runs out sooner, which shortens the evening.

The board has 40 squares, and 22 of them are cities, spread across Canada, the Netherlands, Germany, Japan, France, Italy, Argentina and Brazil. Cities of one country sit together, so a guest can see at a glance that Venice and Rome belong with each other.

By default the game draws the turn order at the start (the host can switch that off). Do not promise the guest that they go second, or first. Let the table find out.

Turn one, line by line

Read these lines aloud, one per step. The dice and the city are an example; the rules are the real ones.

  • 1. Say: "Roll the dice. Your piece walks that many squares from Start." The guest throws a 3 and a 4, so the piece moves seven squares.

  • 2. Say: "Square seven is Córdoba, a city in Argentina. Nobody owns it, so you may buy it." The price is $110, and the guest's cash drops from 1,500 to 1,390.

  • 3. Say: "From now on, anyone who stops on Córdoba pays you rent." For a single unimproved city that rent is small. Córdoba's is $6.

  • 4. Say: "If both dice show the same number, you roll again. Three matching rolls in a row send you to Prison, so do not get greedy."

  • 5. Say: "Now end your turn. The next player is up."

That is a complete turn. The guest has rolled, moved, bought and learned what rent is. When the next player lands on Córdoba and hands over $6, the whole idea of the game is on the table without a speech.

You can open the game in a browser, with nothing to install, at playboardit.com.

If the guest says no

Some guests freeze at the price. Tell them that saying no is a real move, not a skip.

Say: "If you pass, the city goes to auction. Anyone at the table can bid, including you."

Here is how that works in the engine. There is no turn order in an auction. Any player can raise at any moment. A bid has to beat the standing bid, and the bidder has to hold the cash to cover it. Every raise restarts a five-second clock. When five seconds pass with no new bid, the highest bidder pays and owns the city. If nobody bids at all, the city stays with the bank.

A made-up example shows the rhythm. The guest passes on Córdoba. One player bids $50 and another bids $80. Five quiet seconds go by. The $80 bidder pays and owns the city, which would have cost the guest $110. Passing did not save the guest money. It handed the city to someone else at whatever price the table chose.

The host can switch auctions off. In that case a declined city simply stays unowned.

Two rules to hold back

Do not explain these on the first turn. Mention them when they come up.

Whole countries. A player who owns every city of one country has their rent doubled across all of those cities before any building starts. That is why trading matters, and why a city is worth more to one player than to another.

Running short. A bill you cannot pay is not the end of the game. You owe the rest, and you cannot roll again until you raise cash by mortgaging, selling or swapping cities. Bankruptcy ends your game, and so does sitting idle for 150 seconds. Turns are untimed, so nobody needs to feel rushed while they think.

A checklist for the host

  • Say the five sentences. Skip the rent tables.

  • Let the first auction teach the bidding. Nobody learns it from a description.

  • Keep the first table to two or three people if you can; fewer rivals means fewer things to track.

  • Remind the guest that the winner is the last player still in, and that a bad roll alone does not end anyone's game.

Boardit is not affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro.

By Ahmed Moaz, who builds Boardit.