Last update: 6 January 2005
The official rules (available here) are reasonably easy to understand, but in parts give the impression of not having been thought through properly; some rules are unclear or ambiguous, and one or two are just plain silly. Consequently, my Totopoly gaming partners and I gradually evolved our own rules, keeping within the spirit if not the letter of the originals. This page describes the game and the rules under which we currently play it; the intention is both to improve other people's experience of the game and (hopefully) to solicit comments and suggestions for further improvements. As such it is probably incomprehensible if you don't actually own the game yourself; Images of the boards and playing equipment can be found at some of the links below.
Notes, mainly describing and explaining differences from the official rules, are set in this font; "he" is used a shorthand for "he or she" without prejudice. Finally, I will be very grateful to anyone who provides me with information about other varieties of the game, in particular the foreign editions.
Unusually, and notably, the game consists of two distinct phases: the training ring and the racecourse. During the training ring, the horses receive coloured advantage and white disadvantage cards, with money changing hands as a result of fees for services, training costs, vet's bills, and so on. When this phase is finished, it will be apparent that some horses have gained more advantages than others, and are thus more likely to win the race. The race itself is a straightforward dash for the finishing line, with the horses trying to make the most of their advantages while attempting to lose their disadvantages.
Much of the game's interest, and fun, derives from watching how the individual horses perform in practice, compared to their expected performance based on their colour and white cards. While some horses are naturally more likely to win than others, it is not always the case that the best horse will win, and this unpredictability is a large part of the game's appeal; I have played in many races in which the favourite got off to a bad start and never made up the deficit, for example. It is also fun, albeit rather bogus, to observe how the horses perform over several races. The official rules are oriented much more to the players than the horses, and the resulting games tend to be less interesting as a result.
This Christmas was spent with our relatives in Dundee, and on a whim we took the game along with us as perhaps something to play on Boxing Day. Thanks in no small part to the insistence of the then nine-year-old Alasdair Smith - who, appropriately enough, won the tenth anniversary game, fact fans - we ended playing it several times practically every day, and the game duly became an Eddy family Christmas tradition. It was during these intensive playing sessions that the need for rule changes became apparent; what you are about to read is largely a result of these Yuletide games.
The special double-sided board. One side contains the training ring, the other the racecourse.
Two six-sided dice. Older sets have a spinner instead. Ah, them were t'days. We also use an eight-sided die.
A large sum of money in notes of denominations 50, 25, 5 and 1 currency units (pounds in older versions; unspecified in newer ones and in this file). Money is a lot less important in Totopoly than in Monopoly, and the game can in fact be played quite satisfactorily without it; it is principally used for paying for leases, paying fees to businesses during training, and betting. Ascot, the French version, has notes of 20000, 10000, 2000 and 500 francs.
Twelve horse counters, three each of four colours (black, red, yellow, blue). Depending on the set, the horses are made of lead, pressed tin, card, or plastic. The black and red horses are heavyweights, trained at Walroy Stables; the yellow and blue horses are lightweights, trained at Stevedon Stables. The game is intentionally biased so that - all other things being equal - the black horses have the best chance of winning the race, followed in order by the red, yellow and blue horses. In practice, the blue horses almost never win; yellow wins are not unknown, but rather rare.
A set of Totalisator receipts, four per horse. These are not present after 1978. These are actually unnecessary if proper records of the betting are kept; it isn't difficult to find other uses for them in the game.
Twenty advantage cards in each of the four horse colours. These are conveniently called colour cards.
Twenty white disadvantage cards, conveniently called white cards. Quite often, more than twenty are needed; we currently have sixty. As with the colour cards, these are small in Totopoly, but much larger in the Italian Ascot.
Eighteen Trainer's reports for each of the two stables.
Fifteen (not eighteen) Vet's reports. The Vet's reports are omitted from sets made after 1972. Three of the Vet's reports pertain to quarantine and serve no sensible purpose, for which reason we don't use them. A fourth card, which requires a horse to be scratched (i.e. withdrawn), is regarded as unnecessarily harsh and is also not used - Diana West's opinion notwithstanding.
Six Owners' Club membership cards (also known as jockey club cards), which accord certain privileges to their owners. These cards were originally white on blue, and were later changed to black on white; like the Vet's reports, they are absent from post-1972 sets.
Twenty lease cards. There is one card for each horse, one for each of the seven businesses, and one for the Auctioneer. The complete set is as follows.
Aren't these great names! I'm informed that they "are the winners of the Lincolnshire Handicap run at Lincoln (now long since closed down) in the 12 years before the game was produced". In the Italian Ascot they are: (Black) Amanda, Flamenco, Zio Bob; (Red) Folgore, Texano, Star Blu; (Yellow) Duca, Sveltonio, Charlotte; (Blue) Furio, Guerriero, Elton. "Flamenco" and "Elton" are retained, and I like "Charlotte" and "Amanda", but these are otherwise nowhere near as evocative as the British names: "Texano", "Star Blu", "Duca", "Furio" and "Guerriero" are "Texan", "Blue Star" (hello Pooka!), "Duke", "Fury" and "Warrior"; "Sveltonio" is anyone's guess; "Folgore" means "Thunderbolt", and "Zio Bob" is of course "Uncle Bob"!!! At least it's clearer which ones are male and female...
The player who is dealt the Auctioneer card declares it by placing it face upwards on the table. If no player has this card, each player must exchange one card in his or her hand for one card in the auction hand, after which the Auctioneer card may then be declared. Each player may then discard one or more cards from his or her hand into the auction hand, at all times during the auction keeping the cards which he was dealt hidden from the other players. In Ascot, the exchange of one card per player is compulsory immediately after dealing; if nobody has the Auctioneer, one is chosen one by popular vote.
The Auctioneer then auctions each card in the auction hand as usual, until all of the cards have each been sold to the highest bidder. Any player, including the Auctioneer himself, may make a bid, and there is no limit to the amount which may be bid. For each 20 which is paid for a lot, the buyer pays an additional 1 in commission to the auctioneer. We find it convenient for all those participating in the bidding for each lot to touch the board, thus making it clear when there is only one interested party left. All lots have to be sold; a lot in which no-one is interested is sold to a player at random at face value. In Ascot, the Auctioneer's commission is 10%, not 5%.
While discarding into the auction and bidding, the following should be borne in mind:
It's fun, as I do, to keep records of the horses' performances in previous races; this adds some totally bogus indications of how well the individual horses are likely to perform.
When the auction has finished, each player pays for the cards which he or she retains from those dealt, at face value. All money paid for the horses and businesses constitutes the prize fund.
A single six- or eight-sided die, at the discretion of the Owners' Club Steward, is used on the training ring. The official rules state two six-sided dice, but this causes the training phase to finish in an average of five turns, which is too quick.
The Owners' Club Steward is the first to roll the dice, and play proceeds clockwise until all the horses have been once around the track. A turn consists of the following steps:
The official rules clearly state that colour and white cards gained during training, and also certain special trainer's reports ("unbreakable reins", "remount immediately", and "avoid burst blood vessel") may be used for any horse of the appropriate colour owned by the player. This is clearly unfair to players whose horses are all of different colours, for which reason we changed the rules so that the cards apply only to the horses which gained them during training and may not be transferred. This seemingly innocuous rule change made a fundamental difference to the game, placing the emphasis on the performances of the individual horses rather than the players. Ascot defends the official rule by claiming that it allows a player to favour his favourite horse, but I remain unconvinced; there are better ways of doing that anyway.
It is very rare that a player runs out of money during training. If this happens, the unfortunate player may sell one of his horses, businesses, or special reports.
The training ring is thus straightforward; while it requires almost no skill, it steadily alters the winning prospects of the individual horses.
We calculate the odds with a formula which derives the odds from the probability of the horse winning, based on its colour and the number of colour and white cards it has. The official rules calculate the odds as the ratio of the amount bet on each horse to the total amount bet; thus, if the total amount bet minus the commission is 1000, and a horse has 100 bet on it, then the odds on this horse are 10-1.
The official rules only permit placing bets to win. Our resident Tote Clerk (Bruce), if he's in a good mood, also allows "each-way" bets on horses finishing first, second or third, paying out respectively 1/2, 1/3 and 1/6 of the full winnings. Thus, an each-way bet of 120 on a horse at 10-1 would pay out 600 if the horse came first, but 200 if it came in third.
One six-sided die is used for the race. The players dice to see who rolls first, with the player rolling the highest number going first.
The horses thus entered start in reverse numerical order, starting with Elton and finishing with Dark Warrior. The die is rolled once for each horse to give the number of the lane it starts in. The layout of the racecourse implies that horses 1 and 7 start in lane 1, 2 and 8 in lane 2, and so on to 6 and 12 in lane 6. The new rules remove this rather unfair bias.
Again in reverse numerical order, each horse makes one move, but is not allowed to change lanes. This starting move is not part of the official rules; it evens things up a bit by allowing the weaker horses a compensatory head start, and usually stops powerful heavyweights from racing into the lead straightaway.
This system works best with three throws per player; if some players have only two horses, we allow them a free throw, i.e. the option of ignoring the dice roll once per turn, to compensate. The free throw is not taken once one of the player's horses finishes the race.
The official rules allow each player to "nominate" one horse which may be moved out of turn provided that the other horses are always moved in the same order. Needless to say, people kept forgetting which horses they had nominated. Our new rules also make the race a bit less dependent on chance.
Two horses may not occupy the same lane within a length. If a horse cannot proceed further in its lane because another horse is on the length directly in front, it is baulked and must move to the next lane outside if possible, otherwise the next lane inside if possible.
It is very important to note that a horse may move to an adjacent lane, either through choice or through being baulked, provided that there are at least three clear lengths between it and any following horses on all lanes to which it moves. Changing lanes is not permitted on the final (staggered) bend.
The official rules aren't terribly clear about how baulking and changing lanes are supposed to work. These rules consitute "Eddycated guesses", and seem to accord with those for Ascot.
To clarify the rules on changing lanes, consider the following diagrams, in which the green spaces 1 to 5 represent horses under consideration (taken one at a time), red spaces A to G represent other players' horses, and the horses are moving to the right.
Colour cards thus effectively convert differently-coloured lengths to lengths of the same colour as the horse. This is why black horses are the strongest: not only do they get the most advantage from coloured lengths, but there are more black lengths on the racecourse than those of any other colour.
White cards may only be discarded if the horse would otherwise gain an advantage. If a horse still has white cards when it crosses the finish line, it is disqualified. The official rules rather unfairly disqualify all of a player's horses which cross the finish line before the player has got rid of all the white cards.
Having moved the extra lengths, the horse's turn is complete; only one length may be acted upon in a turn, otherwise a horse could gallop halfway around the track in one go.
Three of the instruction lengths are inconveniences, each of which may be annulled by one of the special trainer's reports:
As with the advantage cards, these reports only apply to the horse which collected them during training. The official rules differ; Ascot states explicitly that the stable from which the report was obtained doesn't matter.
The owner of the winning horse is awarded half of the prize fund. The owner of the second-placed horse is awarded half of the remainder, and so on until the owner of the last-placed horse has been paid. The remaining money in the prize fund is distributed evenly among all the players. Officially, the winner gets half, and second and third get a quarter each.
And then what? The official rules state that the winner of the game is the winner of the race, regardless of who ends up with most money, which is at least sensible. But, since the final amount of money is thus irrelevant, why bother playing with money at all? The answer is obvious if, as we did, you play several games in a row: you start the next game with the money you finished the previous game with, making allowances for players with less than - say - 500 currency units. It is, or course, also possible to play for money, with the player with the most money after the race winning the game. This is confirmed to be the case with post-1972 rules.
To make things more interesting, and in keeping with the horse-centred spirit in which we play the game, we sometimes also allow the horses to retain their colour and white cards into the next game. In one game in 1992, one of the black horses (I think it was Flamenco) had a few black cards left after winning the race; it went up for auction and eventually sold for 350. It promptly won the next race again.
We've never actually tried this, and I very much doubt it'd be very satisfying with fewer horses, which are after all the whole point of the game.
This variation is noticeably quicker than the full game, but still interesting. For added Monty Haul effect, all trainer's and vet's reports which do not award colour and white cards may also be removed.
The training is larger and redesigned to take account of the additions. The race, meanwhile, consists of several short sections of track (expanded to 8 lanes), which can be joined together in any desired order. The total length of the race is, IIRC, 105 lengths; it also contains four staggered bends and five jumps which allow for horses to lose their riders.
If the normal Totopoly is likened to a 200-metre dash, the 36-inch remix is more of an 800-metre endurance test; the only time it has been played to date (Christmas 1997, with four players) lasted 6 hours. It's only recommended if you take your Totoply very seriously, or if you genuinely have nothing better to do.
Jason says that the inventors' note reads as follows...
(Mr. Walter Lee in top left pic)
MESSAGE FROM Mr. LEE:
"I hope many people will enjoy playing TOTOPOLY, and that the many hours which Roy and I have spent in making the game true to life, will enable players to get all of the thrills and excitement of the Sport of Kings."
(Centre message)
MESSAGE from the Inventors of "TOTOPOLY"
The Inventors of "TOTOPOLY," Mr. Walter Lee and Mr. Roy V. Palmer, have endeavoured to give the public all the thrills of Racing, in a game. It has been their earnest endeavour to follow out strictly the Rules and Laws of Horse-Racing, and apply them to TOTOPOLY.
It has taken many months of careful consideration for every detail to be included, and whilst the Rules appear complicated, this has been necessary in order to make TOTOPOLY the actual Race in the Home.
The Inventors ask you please to read the rules and instructions very carefully, as it is necessary to understand All the finer points of the game in order to derive the greatest amount of pleasure from playing it.
(Mr. Roy V. Palmer bottom left pic)
MESSAGE FROM Mr. PALMER:
"I know that TOTOPOLY will require a considerable amount of patience during the first quarter of an hour, but if the rules are carefully read, the players will be more than repaid by the amount of pleasure they will derive from the game. The method which I adopt in play is to obtain, if possible, three horses and a stable, so that during the Training period, whilst I am paying out for the training of my horses, I am least drawing something in on the stables. Furthermore, when I come to the actual Race, the horse which I nominate has a very good chance of winning."
Isn't that thoughtful?
A very nice page with pictures of several different editions of Totopoly and copies of the official rules in English and French.
Another page with pictures, with fewer editions but more details. The edition we play with is from the 1961-1965 period. They don't make 'em like they used to...
Diana West's reminiscences of playing Totopoly as a child one winter in Ireland. The reminiscences are interesting, the conclusions highly questionable; this is after all an online conservative political newspaper of the sort I'd normally stay far away from. I'd certainly disagree that removing the Vet's report which scratches your horse is evidence of "dumbing-down", since there are three equally decisive ways your horses can be eliminated during the race, and it's very rare that all horses finish it. I'd also like to know which rules she was playing with; the aforementioned Vet's report is the only one which can eliminate your horses during the training ring, and it quite clearly says "Keep this card", so you can't lose all your horses at this stage. And it is, of course, Marmaduke Jinks, not Jenks, but he can't have done too badly, since he was still racing as recently as 2001.
This page is linked to from here, where it's called "half-decent". I'm not aware of horses "vbreaking" [sic] legs in any version I've seen, though; and I'd love to know what "Elephant with mouse gyp" means by "uh huh".
Some Australian racing results. Look at race 7, 13th place.
Courtesy of Board Game Geek Dot Com: other horse-racing board games, and some pictures. Donay Games also has some pictures.
