4 classic games you can play via Zoom
Playing games with people at a distance has a long history — correspondence chess, for example, is a centuries-old pastime — and now is as good a time as any to try it. Sure, there are video games, but there is something so grounding about rolling a handful of noisy dice, clacking pieces around a board and seeing faces you’ve missed (even if said faces are trashtalking your so-called Monopoly strategy). Here are four classic games you most likely have on hand that, with a few hacks, can be played with people sheltering in a different place than you.
Boggle
This timed word game remains wholly frantic and fun when played longdistance. For older children and adults, bump the minimum number of letters to four.
Maximum number of players: 8
Requirements: A video conferencing platform. Only one household actually needs the game.
Special hacks: The household with the game joins the call with two devices: one for the people and one (muted, sound off ) to show the game. In lieu of the second device, text a photo of the letter arrangement to the other households.
Battleship
The classic navalthemed deduction game naturally lends itself to videoconferencing, since you’re not even supposed to see each other’s board. Make sure to yell “You sank my battleship!” at the appropriate moment, or else why are you even playing in the first place?
Maximum number of players: 2
Requirements: A video conferencing platform. Both players need to have the game, or you can find public-domain game sheets online to play a similar pen-and-paper version.
Special hacks: None.
Yahtzee
“What’s Shakin’?” is the game’s tag line, and you can drive everyone crazy by continually asking this right now (“Um, not much”). The games Farkle and Qwixx can be adapted almost identically.
Maximum number of players: 6 (The game allows up to 10, but it can get slooow.)
Requirements: A video conferencing platform.
Every household needs the game — or, if you have five dice, you can print score sheets from the publicdomain game Yacht.
Special hacks: For maximum enjoyment, tilt your screen to show your (expressive) face(s) while other people are rolling and the dice when it’s your turn. Roll the dice into a small box so everyone can see them all. Or try Yahtzee 3.0, where each household joins from both a laptop and a phone. Angle the laptop toward the people and balance the (muted/ sound off ) phone cameradown on something high (say an upended tissue box) to show the dice.
Bananagrams
This word game can be easily adapted — and players can still sufficiently complain about their tiles via FaceTime.
Maximum number of players: 8 (but more than four households gets unwieldy)
Requirements: A video conferencing platform. Everyone needs the game. (In a pinch, all households can use Scrabble tiles and adjust the rules accordingly.)
Special hacks: The household with the highest number of players uses all 144 tiles; the other households use the appropriate fraction of tiles. If the biggest household had three people in it, that would be 48 tiles per person, and the other households would scale accordingly (a two-person household would play with 96 tiles). Draw tiles from the center and play normally, except that you must eliminate the “Dump!” option. Be sure to share your grids after the game ends so you can admire each other’s words.