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Together Apart: Ways to Play Games Together Remotely

Social Distancing is hard. No way around it. Right now we’re in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic and many are under orders to stay home and avoid unnecessary trips and interactions with people outside the home. It stinks not being able to get together with friends and family during this stressful time when we crave connection and security the most. But social distancing doesn’t have to stop us from connecting with our community entirely!

Outside of the crisis the world is currently experiencing, during times of calm and normal life happenings, we can often be separated from our friends and family. In my own family alone, we are spread out among four states with no one closer than about 10 hours from one another. It’s important to stay connected then, too, not just in times of crisis!

So while we’re all missing the valuable connection that being with our friends and family brings us, we thought it could be helpful to round up some resources for ways you can now play games together even when you’re apart. There’s no need to feel completely isolated from one another, its important to continually find that connection and playing games virtually with our friends and family can provide both that connection and some much needed levity during these stressful times.

Games to Play over Video and Voice Chat

For all of these suggestions, we recommend getting your group together and logging into a group voice or video chat. Use FaceTime, Google Hangouts, Zoom, Discord, or even Facebook to connect together, hear each others’ voices, see everyone’s faces and enjoy the game while truly feeling like you’re together.

Many games are able to be played over a simple video call!

Roll & Writes!

Roll and Writes are perfect games to play! These merely require one person to have the game, and the others to just download and print off their player sheets or mark them off on their computer using a program like word, pages, or notes! The player with the physical game is in charge of all rolling or card flipping and then relays the results to the group.

Try games like Quixx, Rolling America, Kingdomino Duel, Welcome To…Your Perfect Home

If you want to try a brand new game invented specifically for this time of social distancing, head over to Stonemaier Games’s website where you can download a copy to play along with designer Jamey Stegmaier with his new roll & write Rolling Realms! It scales infinitely so no matter how big your group, you’re all able to play!

Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective.

This is one of my all time favorite games! All you need is for one person in the group to own the physical game, then everyone else will be able to access the necessary files so they can read, investigate and play along. My sister and I played this together over FaceTime and I truly forgot she wasn’t actually in the room with me!

Access the materials for remote play here. Simply choose which copy of the game you are playing, then select “material for remote play”

Party Games

Many party games can be played through video chat with just a little bit of creativity! Here are some great ones to try:

Trophies, Just One, Wavelength, Mr. Lister’s Quiz Shootout (Access the FREE PDF game!)

Jackbox Party Packs

Jackbox is a collection of party games that you’ll be able to access online on your computer or TV and play through your phone!

Everyone needs to have a smart phone with internet access so that they can log in with the group’s game code. Then you can play this one of two ways. Either point a camera at the television screen so that everyone can see, or, use a free screen sharing application like Discord! Create a free account and then the player with Jackbox can start a group, share the their screen and everyone can play along, see the game clearly, and hear what everyone is saying. We played a 5 player game of this just last night and it was a great time!

If you all have a copy of the game, these make a great choice!

Many games function around primarily solitary play thats shared around a table with minimal player interaction. For these games, it’s easy to enjoy it together over video or voice chat if you each have a copy of the game.

Games we think work well for this, without being too fiddly and requiring minimal to no direction, are:

Karuba, Quacks of Quedlinburg, Disney Villainous, Tiny Towns,

Online Board Game Services

iOS/Android Apps

There are a huge variety of wonderful board games available on your phone’s app store. Many of these allow you to play online with friends! While you can often play games by taking your turns here and there when you can; playing throughout the day, we recommend setting a time to connect on a group chat and play together so you can all interact together!

Check out our favorite iOS games!

Steam

Steam is free to create an account and here players can build their computer board game library and connect with other steam users to play together. This is a great option for folks who do not like to play games on their phone or tablet. Like apps, games on steam range in price with even some free options. Once you buy them they are yours forever. Sales are common on Steam, so watch for some of your favorite games to go on sale. Steam also has a wide variety of games that are not currently available on iOS, so if you haven’t been able to find a digital version of your favorite game, it might be on Steam!

Board Game Arena

This is a web based site that is free to play and connect. There are no AI players, so you’ll need to make sure your group can get together. If they can’t, no worries! There are a bunch of friendly players looking to join a table and play games together so it’s a great place to make some new friends as well. Games on Board Game Arena are “rules enforced” so you don’t have to worry about making an illegal move accidentally, and it’ll keep score for you as well. If you don’t know how to play the rules, it’ll help you get access to those online. There are a few games that you have to be a premium user to access, but you’ll definitely know many of the free titles they have available for you to play as a free user!

Tabletopia

Tabletopia is a service where the digital materials of a game are provided to you, and then you play the game much like you would in your own home in real life, just online! This service can be accessed through your web browser, Steam, or even through your phone’s app store. Tabletopia is not rules enforced, meaning that you will all need to know how to play the game, it won’t stop you if you accidentally make an illegal move, and you’ll have to keep track of your own scores as well. There are hundreds of board games you can access to play with friends all over the world! If you love playing games digitally, Tabletopia is definitely something you should check out.