Frequently Asked Questions

If you don't find what you need in the FAQ, please email me directly.

I'd also love to hear about your experiences with the game, as well as ideas for new Change Cards or any ideas for improvement, really.

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It was, yes. Though my game parodies Hasbro's Monopoly, and isn't directly related to Elizabeth Magie's game at all, I'd named it in affectionate homage to her original The Landlord's Game (the game which eventually became Monopoly), when I created it. I did so because Magie never received the credit she deserved for creating her brilliant game. Tim Harford's Pushkin podcast has more information on the history of Magie's game (shout out to Darnell Barkman for the recommendation). There's loads more information out there, if you're interested.

Turns out, though, there's a gentleman with the registered trademark for "The Landlord's Game." He has informed me that he intends to bring a replica of Magie's original game to market again under that name. Being any major dude, I've therefore registered my game as The Social Justice Game: A Game About Cents & Sensibility to avoid confusion.

I'm in the process of searching for another printer to offer a print-on-demand version of the game. Unfortunately, the printer I'd used no longer offers that service.

If you're interested in purchasing a copy of the game, contact me by email and we can discuss.

If you choose to download and print the game files as is, you need do nothing — the attribution information is included on the original materials. When citing the game, however, you should include an attribution note, such as:

Print

Web

<p><a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/"><img alt="Creative Commons License" style="border-width:0" src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-sa/4.0/88x31.png"/></a><br/><span xmlns:dct="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" property="dct:title"><em>The Social Justice Game: A Game About Cents & Sensibility<sup></sup></em></span> by <a xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" href="https://thesocialjusticegame.org" property="cc:attributionName" rel="cc:attributionURL">Randal Sean Harrison, Ph.D.</a>, is licensed under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License</a>. Based on a work at <a xmlns:dct="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" href="https://www.hasbro.com/en-us/brands/monopoly" rel="dct:source">https://www.hasbro.com/en-us/brands/monopoly</a>.</p>
Scholarly Citation

For more information on citing the game, read the Creative Commons license.

Harrison, Randal Sean. The Social Justice Game: A Game About Cents & Sensibility. South Bend, self-published, 2018. Print.

Harrison, R. S. (2018). The social justice game: A game about cents & sensibility. South Bend, IN : self-published.

Randal Sean Harrison. The Social Justice Game: A Game About Cents & Sensibility, 2018.

Put Simply

I don't believe it does. This game is a parody of the game Monopoly, is educational, non-commercial in nature and is issued under a Creative Commons license so that other educators may take advantage of it by downloading and even modifying the game materials for use in their own classrooms. It is a significantly transformative of the original game and must therefore be considered a new work subject to its own rights and protections.

Put Less Simply

the social justice board game is in no way affiliated, associated, authorized, sponsored by, endorsed by, or in any way officially connected with hasbro, inc., any of its subsidiaries or its affiliates, or with any of the monopoly trademarks. the social justice game represents an educational parody * of the monopoly game and more generally of capitalism.

* A parody is a form of protected speech under the First Amendment. As used here specifically, parody is a form of social commentary.

Probably not well. The Role Cards, Change Cards, Movement Tokens, many new squares, and various game pieces are all alien to Monopoly and tightly integrated, here. However, you may feel free to use anything we've designed here to spark your own creative efforts.

You are free to modify the game to suit your needs, provided that you abide by the Creative Commons license and my registered trademark. I have provided all source materials in .AI and .PDF formats (Adobe Illustrator / Acrobat). I only ask that you provide attribution to this original work in the new versions you create.

And I would love for you to share your variations with us as we iteratively improve the game!

No. Unfortunately, reality would like to disagree with the notion that "Anyone can be president." It’s pretty to think so, but in practice, the bedrock of politics is money. Of course, there's no reason you can't change the rules of the game...

These squares are property of the Owner character at the start of play. Players must pay the Owner $50 for Enron Electric and $50 for Flint Water each time they pass through the PayDay square as they travel around the board. If they land on either Flint Water or Enron Electric, they must pay $25 to the Owner (or any player who owns them).

Like property auctions, hotels have been omitted from The Social Justice Game. Only by adding houses to a property may a player add value to it.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.

No. Players need not own all properties of any single color to add houses. They may add houses (up to 3) to any property they own at any time during their turn.