With the current times, a lot of us are stuck inside with little chance to get together for our usual game nights with friends. Gaming with the people in your house works, but if you are living alone or looking for a chance to still interact with friends, this can be a tough time. So what games work? What resources do I have to use? Today we will explore some of those options!
Equipment
We are going to be looking at playing games with friends via a video conferencing call. Sites like Zoom, Google Hangouts and Skype allow you to do this well if you have a few different aspects to make it work. The easiest thing is going to be to have a camera that you can set up on your game area and a microphone to be able to chat. If you would prefer face to face gaming you can use a second camera for your faces as well. Usually the person with the main game board/components will need to have the rig that allows for this to be done, and everyone else can usually get away with one camera.
Make sure that you aren’t streaming other services at the same time via the internet to really have your best chance at this working well. I would also recommend a good well light area for you and the camera to pick up the details.
Games
There are a variety of ways to do this. Complicated games with lots of pieces works here, but you each need to have a copy of the game and be willing to make reflective changes on your board. Stuart and I tried this with our wives to play Orleans this past week. It worked, but you have to really pay attention to changes on the board as you go. It was easy to miss little things like resources collected or the amount of tokens left after someone takes them.
Games with hidden information would be hard to do in this format. Hands of multiple cards would also be tough, or games that rely on deck building from a common draw pile. Dexterity games are a big no as well.
What we have found works best are games with a single person controlling actions and everyone else that is playing making moves or turns off of that. This allows one person to dictate the turns and everyone can participate on their side of the camera. There are a variety of games that allow for something of that nature, and one genre that really fits.
Enter the Roll and Write
We found that games of the Roll/Flip and Write variety really work well for this. One person can make the moves that change/manipulate the game state and everyone else can do their individual moves on their own. Here are the titles that worked the best for this in our experience and plans:
–Welcome To Your Perfect Home
A great flip and write, easy to learn and jump into. There are some files on www.boardgamegeek.com as well that can help players who do not own the game still join in on the fun. You can find a player board for Welcome To here.
-Cartographers
Another great flip and write, you can download the player board here from the game website. One player has a deck of cards and dictates the game play from their computer screen easily.
-Patchwork Doodle
This one requires a deck of cards like Cartographers for the main player, and everyone else just needs a 9×9 grid board to draw on. So as long as one player has the game everyone else can join along! You can find the file here to download and play if you don’t own it.
-Ganz Schon Clever
This one requires rolling of 5 dice by all players on their turn, but you could easily do that with one player if necessary. It is a fun Roll and Write with a lot of chains that can be done through the placement. The file for the scoresheet for this one can be found here as well.
-Codenames
This has some hidden information, but if you have two people on one screen they can act as the spy giving the clues to a variety of people on the other side. Easy enough to keep going as long as you don’t need to switch roles.
-The Castles of Burgundy: The Dice Game
Another roll and write this time with custom dice. If you have one person rolling the dice, everyone else just needs a scoring sheet. There are some fan made versions here that you could try out.
-On Tour
This one is easy to learn and play and could be done easily with a big group as well. Two D10 dice, a printable version of the map which can be found here and you are good to go! This is a great choice and one to consider adding in the mix!
-Rolling Realms
Kind of a fun new addition to the Roll and Write world, this game was created by Jamey Stegmaier of Stonemaier Games specifically during this time of quarantine! You can see the file to download the board for it here and grab a pair of D6 dice and you are good to go!
-Tiny Towns
If we all have our own copy of this game, it is an easy call the resource and play it on your personal board! You would need a copy of this game for each playing location for sure.
-Magic the Gathering
Magic and other trading card games with dueling like Pokemon, Yugioh, Dice Masters and others would work well here as well. Everyone has their individual deck and makes their own moves. Easy to do and there are a number of groups made up for stuff like this already!
Other Games
There are a variety of other games that could work well if you all have the game and the patience to play it out. Games like Sagrada, Karuba, Azul and others are fun options as long as everyone has a copy of the game. This makes for a few more turns that need to be walked through as you go. So you can scale this as high as you would like to. As I stated above, we went crazy with using Orleans, so don’t be afraid to let your choices be wild!
So good luck to everyone trying to find a way to make this work! I hope you also have a good time exploring all the options to play games together during this difficult time to get together in person. We can still play the games we like with the people we love if you make a few changes and get creative!
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