Have you ever imagined making a Monopoly set in your city? A group of young people from Turin did it, it's called TorinoXXL!
Yes, Turin boasts the presence of a board game, based on the classic Monopoly, with a city theme, with streets, museums, stadiums and so on.. As such, it is easy to explain for those who already know Monopoli, it is accessible to any age and even having a large dashboard is XXL, indeed, TorinoXXL !.
A bit of history…
In 2017 SRL Torinopoli, creator of the board game of the same name, got involved with none other than Hasbro. Reason? The Torinopoli game was too similar to Monopoly, both for certain dynamics and for the suffix -poli. In order not to miss the nickname "bogia nen" which indicates the Piedmontese as typically stubborn and resolute, the boys of Torinopoli have closed production at the second edition (8500 boxes sold in 6 months) ... To then start again with TorinoXXL !, where XXL! it is precisely the censorship of –poli.
In reality, a similar episode had happened in a completely different area: in 2009 the slow / fast food restaurant chain of Rivoli (TO), Mac Bun (which means "only good" in Piedmontese) lost the case against McDonald's due to the similarity of the name. Since then the name written became M ** Bun
In any case, today only TorinoXXL! Is on the market, whose general rules follow those of Monopoli… But what characterizes the game, making it fun and special?
The characteristics of TorinoXXL!
- The colors of the city, yellow and blue, are repeated on the dice, cards and houses (yellow) and hotels (blue);
- The terrains are, of course, the streets of Turin, in order of prestige and grouped by colors, on 48 squares on a very large board;
- Up to 10 players can participate; the pawns represent the typical Turin elements: the Pastiglie Leone, the toret (typical fountain in the shape of a bull's head), the gianduiotti, the bagna caoda, the Mole Cola (a cola produced in Turin) ...
- The money is called sold (denominations of 1, 10, 100 and 500) and four characters linked to the city are represented: the comedian Macario, the soldier Pietro Micca, Camillo Benso, count of Cavour, the lawyer Gianni Agnelli;
- The Unexpected and the Probabilities are called Lu savia nen and A's sa mai, that is Non lo sapevo and Non si mai knows, with references to the city and mottos in Piedmontese; in addition, there is the La Stampa deck of cards, to read the news of the day;
- It is possible to buy the two sports fields and then build on them, optionally, the stadium of Turin or Juventus (and collect the entrances); also you can buy the basketball company Torino Help;
- Once the houses and then the hotels have been built, it is possible to build the 5-star hotel Principi di Piemonte (where not everyone can afford to stay ...);
- It is possible to buy some commercial activities in the city (sponsors of the game) and manage the city's museums: the Egyptian Museum, the National Cinema Museum, the Royal Palace of Venaria Reale and the Royal Museums.
These elements and a bit of parochialism have created the success of TorinoXXL !, whose idea of a "citizen monopoly" has been revived in Bolognando, a game dedicated to Bologna ...
And you? Do you know other territorial board games realities?
