GOT MonopolyHBO, out now

Customised versions of the classic games

There are plenty of customised versions of Monopoly available – you can get a set that features a large city near you, wherever you are in the world, and multiple different series have released versions that focus on their own characters (I’m beginning to lose track of how many different Doctor Who ones there are). The Game of Thrones one may resemble the normal Monopoly board superficially, but it’s very much within the fiction of the series. Community Chest isn’t exactly a concept that would fit so here they’re Iron Throne cards; the Chance cards become Valar Morghulis (all men must die!). The counters are Direwolf, Dragon Egg, White Walker, Crown, The Iron Throne, and the Three-Eyed Raven while the stations are four of the Houses (Lannister, Baratheon, Targaryen, Stark).

IMAG1204_1And as for that all-important pecking order within the series… well, the currency (marked with the illustrated symbol) has a different sigil for each denomination, starting with Greyjoy on 1 and Stark on 5 leading up to … well, that might be a spoiler. The attention to detail on this is staggering – if you’re a fan of either books or TV show and enjoy board games, pick this up.

GOT RiskWhile Monopoly with its use of houses might seem a good match, by far more appropriate is Risk, another game that’s had its fair share of alternate versions. To say the standard world domination game has been customised would be a large understatement (the ability to switch to 8-sided dice is not normally part of the game!), but I suspect this will be of interest to those who enjoy the standard game and are looking for new variants, Game of Thrones connection notwithstanding.

Verdict: Enjoyable variants of the classics. 9/10 each

Paul and Sophie Simpson

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