10 Fun Virtual Games to Play during Quarantine
With all the physical distancing going on right now you might think it would be impossible to have a fun games night with friends right? We disagree! That’s why we have come up with a number of different game ideas you can play with your friends virtually. We’ve also added in a few ways to make them drinking games as well…please drink responsibly.
Settlers of Catan - play online at colonist.io Free version available for up to 4 players and up to 6 with the expansion purchase. You can create your own private games, edit the settings and send the link to your friends! We recommend also getting on a skype, zoom or hangouts call for the trading aspect.
Also, if you have a board at home and are isolated with only one other person, here are some adjusted rules for 2 player Catan. All the normal Catan rules apply with the 2 player version but with the following changes:
Every player rolls twice per turn and you cannot roll the same number twice i.e a 7 cannot be rolled twice no matter how it was rolled (4+3, 5+2, 6+1 etc.) If a number is rolled twice, simply re-roll until a different number comes up. Collect your resources as you would normally just from each roll.
You may start building or trading only after you have rolled both times.
There should be 2 neutral players which start at opposite ends of the board with a settlement and a road placed one hex piece inwards from the coast but in symmetrical fashion to each other.
Each time any player builds any item that same item needs to be built for one of the neutral players. If the same item cannot be built for the neutral player (for example a settlement cannot be built due to the neutral player not being 2 roads away from another settlement) then a road can be built. Each player can build items for any of the neutral players.
You will need 20 trade tokens to be added to the game. These can be poker chips, dimes, cuts of paper or whatever else can be used as tokens. Each player starts with 5 tokens and the rest are placed with the bank.
Trade tokens are used to “force trade” with your opponent. This force trade consists of drawing 2 random cards from your opponent and giving your opponent 2 cards of your choice.
If you are tied or winning, in terms of victory points on the board (i.e cities, settlements, longest road, largest army or displayed development card victory points) you will need to pay 2 tokens for a force trade. If you are losing, only pay 1 token to force trade.
You can pay one token on your turn (after your roll) to move the robber back to the desert
You may receive 1 token by building a settlement/city on the coast and 2 tokens for building a settlement/city on the desert.
You may also exchange an already played knight card for 2 tokens once per turn.
Pictionary - This classic game can be played with all your friends through Google Jamboard. Simply invite all your friends to the Jamboard to use it for your drawings.
Open Google Jamboard through your g suite account (hopefully someone has gmail) and click the “share” icon at the top right. Input all the players emails to send the invite.You can name the Jamboard as well in the top left corner.
Once everyone is on the video call, separate into 2 teams as you would normally and whoever’s turn it is to draw will present their screen for the drawing.
Jamboard is great as you can keep each drawing (if you like) by simply switching frames at the top of the jamboard.
You can use https://randomwordgenerator.com/pictionary.php to come up with words for each team. We love this site as you can customize the difficulty or category as you like.
Someone (ideally the most honest player) should be designated as the time keeper to start the 1 min timer for each artist, and inform them when time is up.
To add in some drinking fun, everyone drinks if their team doesn’t guess the drawing and the opposing team drinks if the drawing is guessed correctly. Make it 2 drinks for the opposing team if the drawing is guessed correctly in under 30 seconds!
Hangman - Jamboard is also a great tool to use for this classic game!
Once everyone is on the video call the player with the nearest birthday goes first to the board
Use the random word generator here https://randomwordgenerator.com/pictionary.php to come up with a good category for guessing
Start guessing to save that little stick man!
To add in some drinking fun, 1 drink for every person who guesses a letter incorrectly; 1 drink for the player at the board if a letter is guessed correctly; 2 drinks for the person who guesses the word incorrectly; 2 drinks for the player at the board if the word is guessed correctly; and everyone but the player at the board drinks if the hangman is hung!
Bingo - Use this site for the bingo caller https://letsplaybingo.io/
You can then have all the players generate their own bingo cards HERE
And off you go! After each game every play can simply hit “generate bingo cards” for a new card.
To add in some drinking fun, every time one of your numbers is called take a drink, everyone but the first person to get BINGO drinks!
Charades - Once again you can use the random word generator here https://randomwordgenerator.com/pictionary.php to get your charades topics and then split into 2 teams.
Designate someone from each team to be the time keeper, you can use a smart phone timer app or game hourglass if you have one handy
For more fun you can have each team come up with words or topics for each other as well.
To add some drinking fun, if the team guessing does so incorrectly then the opposing team must drink for as many syllables in the word and vice versa if the word is not guessed correctly!
Netflix party drinking games
If you didn’t have Netflix before the outbreak of Covid-19, I suspect you have it now. With a whole list of interesting series’ and films to indulge in, the potential for fun and entertaining drinking games has virtually no limits. We recommend starting with a movie or series everyone is familiar with, this keeps things light and a little predictable (not a bad place to start). There are a few ways to implement the virtual participation with your friends. I will share two below:
One person will need to download “Netflix Party,” an exclusive extension through google chrome. After installed, choose a movie or series of your choice (remember our recommendation to start with something generic that everyone knows; however this isn’t truly necessary - you do you!). After you’ve chosen your preferred film/series, start it up and click pause. Click the “NP” button at the top right of your browser, this will give you a link to a shared session. This shared session will allow everyone to view the film/series. It also includes a chat bar on the right hand side of the screen. This option does not include a way to verbally chat. You can run a zoom call simultaneously and split your screen, or simply stick to using the chat bar. The choice is yours!
This option is easier, but to be honest, not as good. Everyone starts the series/film at the same time and watches independently; i.e. no screen sharing of the series/film. The problem with this is you are likely to have a little bit of a lag in when each person presses start. You can use the same strategy of running a simultaneous zoom chat on your computer.
Keep in mind for both of these options, you will be running a lot of video content which will eat up a lot of your bandwidth. Just make sure to be mindful if you have limited Gigs to spare.
Now that you have everything set up, let the games begin!
GAME 1 - DRINK IF!
Now, the reason we recommended watching a film/series that everyone is familiar with, is because our first game is a timeless classic that works a lot better if you’re familiar with characters, dialogue, etc. Collectively make a list of events, phrases, or actions that are likely to occur in the film/series. Every time these occur, every participant will grab their craft beer of choice and take a drink. Using the timeless 90’s classic “Austin Powers,” as an example we’ve included the brief sample list bellow:
DRINK IF/WHEN:
Austin says “Yeah Baby!”
Doctor Evil holds his pinky finger to his mouth
Doctor Evil says “1 million dollars.”
Austin says the word “shag.”
A Union Jack appears on screen
GAME 2 - WHO’S PAYING ATTENTION!?
This game will test who’s paying close attention to the film/series. For this game, our initial recommendation of choosing something that everyone is familiar with can be (and probably should be) disregarded.
Make sure everyone has a pad of paper and a writing utensil (or, if you’re a millennial, just use your damn phone!). For each 15 minutes, write a trivia question in regards to something that occurs in the film/series. Be creative; look to the background of the scenes to spot anything your fellow audience members may have missed. After each 15 minutes pass, hit pause and let the trivia session begin. Each person will ask the question they came up with. If anyone answers correctly, the person who created the question must take a drink from their craft beer. If no one can answer correctly, each person (minus the person who asked the question) must drink. One additional rule is that if there are any repeat questions, that question must be thrown out and each individual who formulated the repeated question must drink. This will incentivize everyone to be as creative as possible with their question.
Snapchat Games - Who doesn’t love Snapchat? If you don’t have the app, download it now and join the global community of over 180 million people. If you’re a little bit older and think Snapchat is just for younger folk, think again. And besides, it’s free!
Something you may not be aware of, is that Snapchat also includes some really fun interactive games that you can play with your friends. To access these games, click on the friend you want to play with (or create a group of multiple friends). On the chat screen you will see a little image of a rocketship on the right hand side of your screen. Click this icon and you will have access to all of Snapchat’s free games. Most of these are pretty quick to play, so we recommend trying them all. We’ll include a few games below that we find particularly entertaining:
Pizza Cat
Ready Chef Go
Snake Squad
Tiny Royale
There are 12 more available which will surely make for an awesome Friday or Saturday night.
Number 4 on the list, “Tiny Royale,” is a personal favourite.
You may be thinking, how can I add a little craft beer lovin’ into these games. Plain and simple: If you lose the game...you guessed it...you drink.
Cards Against Humanity - If you’re not familiar with Cards Against Humanity, be forewarned, this game is not G rated. The rules of the game are pretty simple: “Each round, one player asks a question from a black card, and everyone else answers with their funniest white card.”
The easiest way to play Cards Against Humanity with your friends from the comfort of your own respective homes, is to download the app. One thing to keep in mind is there is a cost: $0.99/week. You can give the free trial a spin if you want to initially test the waters. Easy way to add some craft beer to the mix...losers drink, of course.
Geography game - This game has been called many things, but this is how we know it. One person starts by saying a country name and the next person has to say a country in which the first letter is the last letter of the country previously said. For example, if I started with “Spain,” then the next person could say “Netherlands,” and so forth. If the next person cannot come up with a country or if they take too long, they drink! The next player can then have a try. This should go in sequential order of players and not a free-for-all type play. This can be done with countries, brand names, and other topics of your choice.
Cooperative Jigsaw Puzzle - Who doesn’t love puzzles. This activity is so culturally intertwined with staying home that you would have to be from Mars not to get down with a puzzle or two during your long days at home. The internet has brought things to a whole new level with online jigsaw puzzles that you can play with your friends.
We personally love this site: https://jigsawpuzzles.io/ Just follow the link to get your puzzle-on!
The great part about these jigsaw puzzles is that you and your friends play TOGETHER, therefore, no losers and only winners! You can sip your delightful plethora of craft beer in peace and comfort as you embark upon a puzzle that suits your fancy.