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Culture: Game: Monopoly
Chemopoly   (+13, -2)  [vote for, against]
periodic table chemistry theme Monopoly

Replace the properties on the monopoly board game with elements from the periodic table, then players can buy up the most useful common ones to create simple compounds, or more complex item carbo-hydrates that require multiple purchases of Carbon, Hydrogen and Oxygen.

Assembling something like MDMA (C11.H16.N1.O2) would require repeated purchases of Carbon and Hydrogen, but once gathered you can sell ecstacy and make even more money in the game by being assigned as a Drug Dealer. Every aspect of the traditional game would be suplanted with a Chemistry/Physics equivalent. Buy an Iron Ore Mine instead of the Water Works. Pick up a card that says: "Your land has been poisoned by Monsanto's Agent Orange and you have to pay a giant clean up bill to The Bank".

The game could be enhanced with all sorts of pitfalls like toxic spills; explosions and supply chain problems, but also rewards: "You have discovered a new superconducting mineral - collect 20,000 from The Bank".

Naturally the small metal players which navigate the board would also be redesigned to appropriately reflect the theme, to include: a bunsen burner; the head of Nobel; a water molecule; a boiling tube; a set of scales etc.
-- xenzag, Jul 03 2017

I find this idea very fascinating. + As I do most of your posts. Yay.
-- blissmiss, Jul 03 2017


High praise indeed.
-- xenzag, Jul 03 2017


What if you get landed with a bunch of short-lived Actinides ? By the time you've worked out what you can make with them, they'll have decayed into something else.
-- 8th of 7, Jul 03 2017


The 'sets' of properties in Monopoly should correspond to groups in Chemopoly - e.g. "Oh no! I've landed on the Lanthanides!" or "Agh! I've landed on the Noble Gases and now I can't do anything!"
-- hippo, Jul 03 2017


Oh, but you can ... balloons, airships, gas-discharge signs, double glazing, welding ... and Xenon is an excellent anaesthetic.
-- 8th of 7, Jul 03 2017


Everything is an excellent anaesthetic, in sufficient quantity - in the same way that all varieties of mushroom are edible, once.
-- hippo, Jul 03 2017


Four stations -> four states of matter; Solid, Liquid, Gas, Plasma (Including Bose-Einstein Condensate would require a pentagonal board).

Go, Jail, Free Parking, Go to Jail ... hmmmm.

There are 18 groups in the Periodic Table, but only 8 sets of streets on a Monopoly board. Some adjustment may be required. Four sets of streets per side would probably be enough.
-- 8th of 7, Jul 03 2017


I also designed a Quantumopoly Game, but that's for another time and place.
-- xenzag, Jul 03 2017


// time and place //

Sp. "time or place ...

Heisenbergian uncertainty will only allow you to precisely specify one of the two parameters.

Besides, the game would be unplayable, since looking at the board would collapse its wave function, resulting in a change of state, so you'd be making decisions on the basis of information you knew to be invalid.

Einstein said "God does not play dice with the Universe". But maybe he does play Monopoly...
-- 8th of 7, Jul 03 2017


//Go, Jail, Free Parking, Go to Jail ... hmmmm// B.Sc, post-doc, university lectureship, completion of PhD.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jul 03 2017


You could play this game all of the time, and still only be playing periodically.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Jul 03 2017


Cue chemistry puns.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jul 03 2017


You're just compounding the problem. This time, the solution isn't elementary.
-- 8th of 7, Jul 03 2017


We should probably table that for later though.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Jul 03 2017


Sounds like the start of an potentially interesting game. The only flaw is basing it on Monopoly. There are SO MANY board games that are much more fun than Monopoly. So why are there so many themed versions of Monopoly?
-- scad mientist, Jul 04 2017


That's the bigpharma effect, the very best avian cancer drugs are developed and tuned in-house to perform exceptionality well on tropical parrots of all hues and variations - thus the Chemo therapy drugs are released from a single corporation for Poly's benefit.
-- zen_tom, Jul 04 2017


<Obligatory Parrot Sketch Reference/>
-- 8th of 7, Jul 04 2017


// Besides, the game would be unplayable, since looking at the board would collapse its wave function, resulting in a change of state, so you'd be making decisions on the basis of information you knew to be invalid. //

That doesn't make it unplayable. It just makes it a more interesting game. Antichamber, Echochrome, A Slower Speed of Light, etc., are all playable.
-- notexactly, Jul 05 2017


// //Go, Jail, Free Parking, Go to Jail ... hmmmm// B.Sc, post-doc, university lectureship, completion of PhD//

Hmm, Jails have rules regarding maximum number of work hours, minimum outside time and access to natural light/fresh air and guarantees regarding food.
-- bs0u0155, Jul 05 2017


Shhh ... don't let Ph.D. students hear that, if they realize they're better off in jail where will the next batch of junior lecturers come from ?
-- 8th of 7, Jul 05 2017


Is that ironic or covalent?
-- normzone, Jul 05 2017


It doesn't matter - just make sure you use a condom. Sharing electrons can result in all sorts of bad outcomes...
-- 8th of 7, Jul 05 2017



random, halfbakery