Deedland rules
Deedland is a property-trading board game for two to four players. You go round a board of streets buying what you land on, charge rent to anyone who lands on yours, build houses and hotels once you hold a whole colour group, and trade with the others to get one. A player who cannot pay what they owe is bankrupt and out. The last player left in the game wins.
The board
Forty squares run round the edge of the board:
- 22 streets in eight colour groups of two or three. The further round the board a group is, the more its streets cost and the more rent they earn.
- 4 stations — North Station, River Ferry, Tram Depot and Airfield.
- 2 utilities — the Gasworks and the Windmill.
- 6 Fortune squares, where you draw a card.
- 2 taxes — Land Tax (20,000) and Window Tax (10,000).
- 4 corners: Start, the jail, the Town Square and Go to jail.
Everyone starts on Start with 150,000.
Your turn
Roll the two dice and move your pawn that many squares clockwise round the board. Every time you pass or land on Start, the bank pays you 20,000.
Roll a double and you take another turn after this one. Roll three doubles in a row, though, and you are going too fast: you go straight to jail and your turn ends.
Where you land decides what happens:
- A street, station or utility nobody owns — you may buy it at its price. If you don't, it goes to auction at once.
- One someone else owns — you pay them rent.
- One you own — nothing happens.
- Fortune — draw the top card and do what it says.
- A tax — pay it to the bank.
- Go to jail — you go to jail.
Once the square is dealt with, you may build, mortgage or propose a trade, and then you end your turn.
Auctions
A street you decide not to buy is auctioned to every player still in the game, you included, starting with you. On your bid you either bid more than the top bid so far or pass. A player who passes is out of that auction. When only the top bidder is left, it is theirs at their bid. If nobody bids at all, it stays with the bank.
Rent
The rent on a street is on its title deed: tap any street on the board to see it.
- A street with nothing on it earns its base rent, and twice that when the owner holds every street of its colour group.
- With houses or a hotel on it, it earns much more.
- Stations earn 2,500 with one owned, 5,000 with two, 10,000 with three and 20,000 with all four.
- Utilities earn 400 times the dice you rolled, or 1,000 times when the owner has both.
- A mortgaged property earns no rent at all.
| Group | Streets | Price | Base rent | 1 house | 4 houses | Hotel | Each house |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brown | Mill Lane, Tanners Row | 5,000–7,000 | 400–500 | 2,000–2,500 | 22,000–27,500 | 28,000–35,000 | 5,000 |
| Sky | Orchard Road, Well Street, Lantern Walk | 9,000–11,000 | 600–800 | 3,000–4,000 | 33,000–44,000 | 42,000–56,000 | 5,000 |
| Pink | Kiln Street, Weavers Way, Chapel Row | 13,000–15,000 | 900–1,100 | 4,500–5,500 | 49,500–60,500 | 63,000–77,000 | 10,000 |
| Orange | Harbour Road, Fish Market, Rope Walk | 17,000–19,000 | 1,200–1,400 | 6,000–7,000 | 66,000–77,000 | 84,000–98,000 | 10,000 |
| Red | Theatre Lane, Clock Square, Poets Corner | 21,000–23,000 | 1,500–1,600 | 7,500–8,000 | 82,500–88,000 | 105,000–112,000 | 15,000 |
| Yellow | Bell Street, Printers Yard, Guildhall Road | 25,000–27,000 | 1,800–1,900 | 9,000–9,500 | 99,000–104,500 | 126,000–133,000 | 15,000 |
| Green | Parkside, Observatory Hill, Glasshouse Lane | 29,000–31,000 | 2,100–2,200 | 10,500–11,000 | 115,500–121,000 | 147,000–154,000 | 20,000 |
| Blue | Crescent Gardens, Lighthouse Point | 34,000–38,000 | 2,400–2,700 | 12,000–13,500 | 132,000–148,500 | 168,000–189,000 | 20,000 |
Houses and hotels
Once you own every street of a colour group, and none of them is mortgaged, you may build on it — on your own turn, before or after you roll.
- Build evenly: no street in the group may have two more houses than another. Put one on each before you put a second on any.
- A street takes up to four houses. Its fifth building is a hotel.
- You can sell houses back to the bank for half what they cost, evenly again, from the street with the most.
Jail
You go to jail if you land on Go to jail, draw the card that sends you there, or roll three doubles in a row. You go straight there without passing Start. Landing on the jail square by an ordinary roll is just visiting, and nothing happens.
To get out, on your turn you may:
- pay 5,000 and roll as usual,
- use a get-out-of-jail card if you have one, or
- try for doubles. Roll a double and you walk out and move by it (but do not roll again). Miss three times and you pay the 5,000 and move by your third roll.
You still collect rent and trade while you are in jail.
Fortune cards
Fortune cards move you (to Start, to the nearest station, back three squares), pay you (a dividend, a tax refund, an inheritance, your birthday — 1,000 from everyone), or cost you (a fine, school fees, repairs of 2,500 a house and 10,000 a hotel, 2,500 to every player as chair of the residents' committee). One card gets you out of jail free: you keep it until you use it.
Mortgages
When you need cash you can mortgage a street, station or utility: the bank pays you half its price. It earns no rent while it is mortgaged. To pay the mortgage off you pay back what you got plus 10%. You can only mortgage a street when nothing is built anywhere on its group, so sell the houses first.
Trading
On your turn you may put a trade to another player: any of your deeds, any of theirs, and money either way. They accept it or turn it down. Groups with houses on them cannot change hands — sell the houses first — and a mortgaged deed changes hands still mortgaged. You can put one offer to each player per turn.
Debts and bankruptcy
If you owe more than you have in cash, the game waits for you to raise the money: sell houses and mortgage deeds until you can pay, then pay. If even that is not enough, you are bankrupt. Everything you have goes to the player you owed — cash, deeds (mortgages and all) and any jail card; houses are sold back to the bank first. If you owed the bank, your deeds go back on sale.
A player who resigns is treated as bankrupt to the bank. When only one player is left, they have won.
Playing with friends
Open a table from Play with friends and send the link. Everyone who opens it takes a seat, up to four. Whoever opened the table starts the game once at least one friend has sat down and everyone seated has pressed Ready; the game is for whoever has come by then. Each decision has 30 seconds on the clock: if it runs out, the table plays the safe move for you — it rolls, leaves a street to auction, passes at an auction or ends your turn, but it never spends your money: it does not buy, bid, build, trade or accept a trade on your behalf. Whoever opens the table can turn the clock off before the start.
Anyone still in the game can offer a draw. It goes to everyone else still playing, and the game is drawn only when every one of them has accepted; one refusal ends the offer, and so does playing on instead of answering. Each player may offer once a roll, and an offer lapses if someone leaves the game. The players talk to each other in the table's chat, beside the board.
Playing the computer
Against the computer you choose one, two or three opponents and how well they play. They buy, bid, build and — at the medium and hard levels — offer you trades for the street they need to complete a group. Think before you accept.