We started off by making the rules similar to that of Monopoly, where a player can buy certain royalties, must give money up to a number of "chance" scenarios, and receive money granted by the government. Government money, or "the bank" in general Monopoly games, were scholarships and grants in our case. The chances were many things from a large sum of money from your family, to spending a night out drinking and losing a significant amount of cash. We tried to make the scenarios as realistic as possible. Instead of "go to jail" we had "go home". The utilities in the normal Monopoly were made into shuttle passes, parking passes and transportation.
The places on the board that players could purchase were sequences of college education. We had a Bachelors of Arts Degree, and PhD, as well as law school and many others. Each came at a certain price, but eventually players have to pay you based on the amount of money you would perhaps earn from that type of degree you purchased.
We also had game pieces that were related to college items and activities like coffee, a laptop, graduation cap, etc. It was quite realistic, because no one player could escape the debt that many students today struggle with. As you play, you discover it is near impossible to go to college without earning yourself an immense amount of debt.
