(This is an excerpt from a short story I may never finish...)
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The game was called Instant Death Monopoly. It was played exactly like traditional Monopoly, save one minor rule addition: a player who managed to land on free parking would proceed to get shot in the chest by a double-barrel shotgun � you know, the kind of old, rusty firearm you see cattle hands wield in cheesy westerns � at point blank range. When a player landed on free parking, the remaining competitors would all get a swipe at committing homicide by rolling both dice; the person with the highest number rolled would do the honors. If the result of the rolling happened to be a tie, the corresponding people were required to roll again until a winner emerged. The game was won by the person who either a), possessed the most assets at the end of the game, or b), was the last person who was physically able to play. And, just in case you were wondering, the person who was lucky enough to land on free parking would still receive the monetary pot amassed in the center of the board, assuming that rule was being used in that current game.
Unfortunately, there were a few problems about our game �mainly the packaging was expensive and way too bulky. The shotguns, with their 30� barrels, could not be fit into traditionally sized board game boxes. After searching around and testing out different packaging schemes, we eventually decided on 36-inch television boxes because my uncle Norman had just purchased three Philips TVs for his bar back home in Portland. This was perfect because we only got a hold of three antique shotguns.
We ultimately wanted to create a large plastic mold to seat the gun, board, and pieces securely each box, but due to time constraints and lack of any kind of budget or funding, we settled on my mothers meager supply of Styrofoam shipping peanuts. But eventually, those ran out with only the first box filled halfway, so we ended of using crinkled up newspaper for the majority of the packaging.
There was also one other major problem: we were never able to coax anyone into playing the game, so it was left untested. There was no way in hell I was going to take part in a friendly match and my esteemed partner in crime, Brock, felt the same way. I think something about the game repelled people for some reason.
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