Play Along

I can’t remember where I saw it, but I chanced upon an online conversation about creating a Howard County Monopoly game. I think it was a purely hypothetical proposition. One of the participants recalled there being an actual Columbia Monopoly game, back in the day.

Was there really such a thing? Do any of my readers have one? I’d love to see it.

If there were a Columbia/HoCo Monopoly game, what would you want it to contain? What streets/neighborhoods would be essential? Would you want to add in local parks? Merriweather? The Chrysalis? What about the Mall? Would the Fairgrounds be on your game board? Perhaps some of the major local farms?

Draw a card:

• Stuck in traffic due to downed tree on Route 32. Lose one turn.
• No parking at the Mall on a Friday night. Lose one turn.
• Your home project is immediate approved by your local RAC. Skip ahead three spaces.
• Columbia Flier/HoCo Times prints your letter to the editor. Take an additional turn.
• Unexpected goats are blocking your driveway. Go back three spaces.

As always, what do you think? What would make for the quintessential Columbia/HoCo Monopoly game? What tweaks to the original would add to the fun of game play, personalizing it to our local experiences? 

Things have been so heavy around here lately that a bit of play might be just what we need.

*****

UPDATE: I have been informed by a reader that there is a perfectly vile version of this concept circulating in some social media circles. I just want to make it clear that is not where I saw it. I think it is safe to say that I don’t hang out in that part of the Internet. So please take this post in the spirit in which it was intended: that of innocent, light-hearted fun.