Scrabble-opoly!

Once the kitty krisis subsided last night and Othello went to sleep (after I bugged him to take pictures and pet him, that is), my wife and I invented a whole new game by putting together two classic board games that simply belong together. We invented…Scrabble-opoly! Be warned, this is not a game for those in a hurry.
Here’s how it works. Since it’s Scrabble and Monopoly at the same time, you’ll need both boards.
The Scrabble word score replaces Monopoly dice rolls. If your word is worth 7 points, you move 7 spaces. Traditional Scrabble scores are not kept, but traditional Scrabble scoring is kept – a good word can zip you around the board at warp speed! (However, be warned that this is the only thing about this variation that moves at warp speed; a regular game can take a long time to play, and property, especially monopolies, can take a long time to acquire.)
Collect paydays for each time you pass go, even if it means you went around it three times in one word.
If someone lands in jail: they roll dice three times or until a double number is rolled, per standard Monopoly rules; they don’t get to play Scrabble again until they’re free. (My wife thought this made a Monopoly jail sentence much more punishing than normal!) Monopoly dice are also used to roll for utility charges.
When all Scrabble tiles are used, clear the board and restart Scrabble from scratch. Any tiles still in each player’s rack stay there into the next round.
If someone has to pass in Scrabble and draw new tiles, they’re at a dead standstill in Monopoly too. (Alternate rules: roll one or both dice if you can’t play a round of Scrabble.)
Unplayed Scrabble tiles can be traded among players, just like properties. Or even bought. (You cannot just buy an additional tile from the grab bag though, nor can you have more than the standard 7 tiles at any one time – you can’t trade for an eighth tile.)
We played for about 2 1/2 hours before giving up because she has to go back to work tomorrow too (Tuesdays are her day off). So this isn’t a game for anyone who needs to be somewhere in the next four hours. It probably would’ve zipped along faster with more than two players, though you have to factor in, along with the painful death march of a good long Monopoly game, “think time” for Scrabble. At the end of the game, she had every non-utility/railroad property on the stretch between “Go To Jail” and “Go” blanketed with hotels…but on the flipside of that, I had $2,500 that probably would’ve helped me survive at least one visit to Boardwalk. You really start thinking about what words you’re putting down – suddenly, where in a normal game of Scrabble you’d never waste everyone’s time by putting “cat” down on the board, it might mean life or death in Scrabble-opoly!
It was amusing for at least one night. My wife seems quite enthusiastic about playing Scrabble-opoly again – even though it gets more complicated than an Odyssey2 master strategy video-and-board game.