Does Rent Party use the classic rules?
Yes — buying, auctions, rent, building, mortgages, Jail and bankruptcy follow the classic property-trading rules, with optional house rules you switch on before a game.
Nobody has to be the banker this time.
Some names are our own. The names list is near the end of this page.
How do you set up a game?
Pick how you’re playing: online with friends, around one phone or tablet, or against CPU characters. Then switch on any house rules you want before the first roll.
A game seats 2 to 6 players. Each of you starts with 1,500 bucks and picks a token. Someone always has a favorite.
How does a turn work?
Every turn starts with the tumble of two dice: you move your token clockwise by the total, and the space where it stops decides what happens next.
Each time you pass Start or land on it, the bank pays you a salary of 200 bucks.
Doubles mean you go again. Finish this move first, including the choice to buy or auction. Roll doubles a third time in the same turn and you go to Jail instead. Nobody stays that lucky.
Roll demo
Press Roll to try it. The first roll in this demo is always doubles, so you see the token move twice.
- Start
- Puddle Lane
- Neighborhood Mail
- Sawdust Row
- City tax
- Train Station
- Turnip Street
- Lucky Break
- Cobbler’s Yard
- Apple Cart Alley
- Jail
- Chalkboard Walk
- Windmill Power
- Recess Road
- Satchel Street
- Tram Station
What happens when you land on an unowned street?
You can buy it at the price printed on its deed, or turn it down and it goes straight to auction. Same for stations and utilities.
Turning it down isn’t the end of it. You can still bid, and you might get it for less than the printed price. Or you might watch Priya do exactly that.
Buying demo
Your token stops on an unowned street. Buy it at the printed price, or send it to auction and bid like everyone else.
Old MarketTurnip StreetRent6With the full color set121 house302 houses903 houses2704 houses400Hotel550A house costs50Mortgage pays50How do auctions work when nobody buys a street?
If the player who lands on an unowned street doesn’t buy it, it goes to auction straight away, everyone — that player included — can bid, and the highest bid wins.
You can’t bid more bucks than you’re holding. Pass when the price gets silly. If nobody bids at all, the street stays with the bank, so the next person to land on it gets the same choice to buy it or send it to auction.
In a game over days, auctions are always sealed bids. One bid each, highest wins. Live and local games can switch sealed bids on as a house rule.
Nothing makes a street look better than somebody else bidding on it.
How does rent work?
Land on a street, station or utility someone else owns and you pay them rent.
| You land on | You pay |
|---|
| A street | The rent on its deed. Once the owner has the full color set, it doubles on every street in the set with no buildings, even if others in the set have houses. Houses and hotels raise it to the amounts the deed lists. |
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| A station | 25 bucks if the owner has 1 station · 50 for 2 · 100 for 3 · 200 for all 4 |
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| A utility | 4 times your dice roll if the owner has 1 utility · 10 times if they have both |
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| A mortgaged deed | Nothing |
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If an 8 lands you on a utility whose owner has both, you pay 80 bucks. Owner in Jail? Rent’s still due.
Maya just landed on one of your stations, and you own all 4. That’s 200 bucks, Maya.
Rent demo
Complete the color set, then add houses one at a time, and watch the rent on one street climb. Every amount comes from its deed.
Old MarketTurnip StreetRent6With the full color set121 house302 houses903 houses2704 houses400Hotel550A house costs50Mortgage pays50Rent: 6 bucks
How does Jail work?
You go to Jail by landing on Go to jail, by drawing a card that sends you there, or by rolling doubles 3 times in one turn.
Three ways out: pay 50 bucks, use a Jail pass, or roll doubles. Roll your way out and you move by that roll, with no extra roll after it. After 3 tries without doubles, you pay the 50 bucks and move.
Jail stops your token. It doesn’t stop your deeds: you still collect rent, build and trade while you’re there.
Land on Jail with an ordinary roll and you’re just passing by.
What are Lucky Break and Neighborhood Mail?
They’re the two card decks, with 16 cards each. Land on one of their spaces and you draw a card, which can move you around the board, pay you, charge you, or bill you for repairs on every house and hotel you own.
Draw a Jail pass and you can keep it until you need it, or trade it.
Some cards are a gift. A repairs card isn’t, if you’ve been building.
What happens on Town Square and the tax spaces?
Town Square is the rest corner: nothing happens there unless the piggy bank house rule is on. City tax costs 200 bucks, and Party tax costs 100.
How do you build houses and hotels?
Own every street in a color set, then build evenly across it, one house at a time; a hotel replaces 4 houses.
You buy each house from the bank at the price printed on its street’s deed. No street can get its second house until every other street in the set has its first, and the same goes for each house after that. Your neighborhood grows houses first. Then hotels.
Stations and utilities never take buildings.
The bank has 32 houses and 12 hotels in all. When they run out, nobody can build. Holding 4 houses on every street of a set keeps them out of everyone else’s hands, too.
Selling works the same way in reverse: buildings go back to the bank at half price, evenly across the set.
How does trading work?
You can trade streets, stations, utilities, bucks and Jail passes with any player, at any time, unless the turn-only trading house rule is on. Make an offer. They can take it or turn it down.
While you owe a payment, you can only trade to raise the money for it.
You can’t trade a street while any street in its color set has buildings. Sell them back to the bank first. Mortgaged deeds can change hands too, and the mortgage section explains the 10% the receiver pays.
The best deals start with one street that someone needs to finish a color set, and with everyone else at the table knowing exactly how badly.
How do mortgages work?
Mortgage a deed and the bank pays you half its printed price. The deed stays yours, but it charges no rent until you pay it back. It’s just taking a nap.
Paying it back costs the mortgage plus 10%: every 100 bucks you borrowed costs 110. You can only mortgage a street when no street in its color set has buildings. Sell those first.
If a mortgaged deed changes hands, whoever receives it pays the 10% straight away.
What happens when you can’t pay rent?
You raise the money first — sell buildings back to the bank at half price or mortgage deeds — and you only go bankrupt if that still isn’t enough. The same goes for anything else you owe.
Trading counts too. A friend might give you bucks for a deed. Count your houses before you count yourself out.
Owe another player and still can’t cover it? They get everything you have left. If it’s the bank you owe, your deeds go to auction. Either way, your game ends there and everyone else plays on.
How do you win?
Be the last player who isn’t bankrupt. Until then, the leader is fair game.
Quick mode is different: everyone starts with 2 random deeds, and after 20 rounds the highest net worth wins. Net worth is your bucks, plus your unmortgaged deeds at their printed price, plus your buildings at what they cost, with mortgaged deeds counted at half.
How long does a game take?
As long as your table wants. Quick mode ends after a set number of rounds and the richest player wins, and a full game can stretch over several evenings with pauses in between.
Nobody has to stay up till 1 a.m. to see who wins anymore.
How does pausing work?
Local and CPU games pause any time, and they’re still there after you close the app. An online game pauses only when everyone at the table agrees. It resumes once everyone’s ready.
Dinner’s on the table? Pause.
When a paused game resumes, you’re back on the same turn at the same table, with every deed exactly where you left it. Signed-in players can continue on another device.
A paused online game waits 14 days, and your seat’s saved the whole time. After that, the players who are ready can start a 48-hour final call. Anyone who still isn’t ready when it ends forfeits.
Pause vote demo
In an online game, someone asks to pause and everyone votes. One Keep playing ends the vote, and the game goes on.
What happens if a friend leaves an online board game?
Leaving an online game counts as a forfeit, paused or not: their deeds go back to the bank and are auctioned, and the rest of the table plays on.
If you need to step away, ask the table for a pause instead. A friend who just stops taking turns falls under the missed-turn rule in the online play section.
How do you play online?
Sign in with Google. Then start a live room or a game that runs over days. Send each friend a game invite: a link, a QR code or a 6-character room code. The invite works while the room waits in its lobby, 24 hours by default. The host starts the game. Spectators can join to watch.
Live rooms: everyone’s in the game at the same time, and each turn lasts 90 seconds.
Games over days: each turn has a deadline the room picks from 8, 12, 24 or 48 hours, and you get a nudge when it’s your move. Take your turn on the bus, or right before bed. Its auctions use sealed bids, as the auction section explains.
Miss a turn in either one and the game plays it for you with safe moves. That counts as a strike. In a live room, 3 strikes in a row is a forfeit. Over days, 2 in a row is enough.
How does pass-and-play work?
Everyone shares one phone or tablet and passes it around the table, up to 6 of you; between turns, a hand-off screen hides private choices before the next person picks it up.
Pass it on. No peeking.
What house rules can you switch on?
Before a game starts, pick a preset or switch house rules on one at a time.
- Official: the classic rules, with every house rule off.
- Classic family: the piggy bank, the Start-landing bonus and trades any time.
- Quick: the short game described under winning.
- Tournament: Official, with turn and decision timers always enforced.
The house rules:
- Piggy bank: taxes, fees and every card payment to the bank go in, repairs included, and whoever lands on Town Square takes it all.
- Start-landing bonus: an extra 200 bucks for landing exactly on Start.
- Turn-only trading: you can only trade on your own turn.
- Game length limit: a set number of rounds or minutes, then the highest net worth wins.
- No auctions: a street nobody buys stays with the bank.
- Starting bucks and salary: choose your own amounts.
- City-tax choice: land on City tax and pay either 200 bucks or 10% of your net worth, and you have to pick one before you count.
- Sealed bids: for live and local games, as the auction section explains.
- Quick deal: everyone starts with 2 random deeds from the bank.
If your family always piled the taxes in the middle of the board and handed the pile to whoever stopped on the quiet corner, the piggy bank is that rule.
What do Rent Party’s names mean?
Every name that’s ours, in one place.
| Rent Party word | What it means |
|---|
| street | A deed in a color set. Houses and hotels go here. |
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| deed | The card that proves you own a street, station or utility. |
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| station · utility | The 4 stations and 2 utilities you can own. |
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| Start | The first corner, where you collect your salary. |
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| Jail · just passing by | The second corner, and what you are when an ordinary roll lands you there. |
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| Town Square | The rest corner, home of the piggy bank house rule. |
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| Go to jail | The fourth corner. It sends you to Jail. |
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| City tax · Party tax | The two tax spaces. |
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| Lucky Break · Neighborhood Mail | The two card decks. |
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| Jail pass | The card that gets you out of Jail. Keep it or trade it. |
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| bucks | The play money in every game. |
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| coins | Earned in online and CPU games and spent on tokens, boards and dice skins. Separate from bucks. |
|---|
Who are the CPU characters?
They’re the computer opponents, each with a name and a personality, and you can play them on Easy, Normal, Hard or Expert. Begin on Easy. Move up whenever you like.
A CPU game pauses any time, so a practice round can wait while you check a rule on this page.
Get a round in before game night.
Practice against a CPU character