Digital Ports
TONS of games have made their way to the digital realm. Honestly, there are too many for me to even list. But if you go to Steam & type in your favorite board or card game, there's a good chance you'll find it.
Personally, I would recommend Sentinels of the Multiverse, which is currently on sale for $5 (base game only). You can buy the expansions if you so choose, but the base is still a solid game. This is also a game that gets clunky in simulators (more on that below).
Love Letter is another affordable game at $8 (same as a physical copy). You might want to couple this with a video chat (honestly I would do voice chat at least for anything on this post, but the video is ideal), since apart of the fun is reading your opponents.
(Settlers of) Catan is an official port. The base game is free to play, up to 3 players. Beyond that, you'll need to invest some money, but it looks like only 1 payer needs to paid content, which is a plus. We haven't checked this out yet, but it is on the short list for the future.
(Settlers of) Catan is an official port. The base game is free to play, up to 3 players. Beyond that, you'll need to invest some money, but it looks like only 1 payer needs to paid content, which is a plus. We haven't checked this out yet, but it is on the short list for the future.
There's an Asmodee Humble Bundle going on (through May 20, 2020) that has a pretty good selection. For just $1 you get Love Letter, Carcassone, and Small World. For those of you unfamiliar with the platform, Humble Bundle is a pay what you want service for a variety of digital goods. The more you pay, the more you unlock, but you always get something decent for under $5.
Board Game Simulators
Tabletop Simulator is near & dear to me. We jumped on this when it first launched. It's a 3D physics engine with table & moving parts (you can even flip the table! which is cool, but also sucks because you have to pick it all back up lol). The Steam Workshop has a lot of plug-ins for you to add custom game content, although you will need to know or have the rules, as the program does not run the game, just create a virtual environment for you to play it. You can also design your own if you are so inclined. As this has grown in popularity, a lot of board game publishers have started releasing their own official plugins (paid) for the game. This is a bit pricey at $20 for the base simulator (although if you buy a pack of 4, everyone saves $5), and then throwing on the cost for official games. However, Steam Workshop offers a lot of free content and only 1 player needs the content for everyone to be able to play (so you don't all need to buy Cosmic Encounter).
Tabletop Playground seems to be very similar to Tabletop Simulator. It's currently in beta with early access opening May 15, 2020. You'll need to create and connect to an account at mod.io, and I'm not sure about potential pricing/licensing for games. It seems worth checking out though.
Tabletopia is another like the above. It is free upfront and requires you to create and connect to an account on its own platform. The advantage here being it supports multiple platforms, so you can play on mobile or desktop. Tabletopia has its own workshop as well as pre-made games. There are subscription levels for advanced workshop features, premium games, and guests.
Tabletopia is another like the above. It is free upfront and requires you to create and connect to an account on its own platform. The advantage here being it supports multiple platforms, so you can play on mobile or desktop. Tabletopia has its own workshop as well as pre-made games. There are subscription levels for advanced workshop features, premium games, and guests.
Web-Based Solutions
Some games actually have web-based platforms. These tend to be clunkier than an official digital port, but often are free and/or support playing with randos, in case your group is too small.
Cards Against Humanity has a pretty decent platform that is free to play. We had a few hiccups with loading, but overall the experience was still there. Even without a video/voice chat, you are still amused, and there is a text chat box available.
PlayingCards.io is another option if you want to play generic card games. They also have things like checkers & cribbage.
If you are looking for something a little more "hobby gaming," check out Tak. Board Game Arena also has quite the selection of hobby games, or you can check out Board Space which tends more towards the classic & abstract but still has some hobby games listed (like Hive & Santorini).
Role-Playing Platforms
There's a lot of opportunities out there for RPGs. At the simplest, you could just hop on a group video call and use theater of the mind. Either trust everyone's rolls, reveal your rolls (kind of annoying with a laptop, but doable), or use an online tool for rolling.
D&D Beyond is a great campaign & character resource. One of our DMs has bought all the content, so as long as we are all in his campaign we have access to all the books. This tool makes building & leveling characters a breeze & your DM can easily run any book campaign. To be honest, most of us pull up our character sheets on our phones or tablets even when playing in person! Being the official toolset, it also tends to functions a bit better than some of the others mentioned below.
Roll20 might be one of the best-known solutions, and since it is not tied to a franchise it works well for any setting. You can upload your own maps and tokens, use fog of war & accommodate different vision settings, create custom character sheets, build macros that will accommodate for roll adjustments, and more. It also rolls your dice for you (I personally like to enable 3D dice & see them roll, but the values will pop up in the chatbox too), so you don't have to worry about anything untoward ;)
Infinitas DM is newer to the playing field. It offers a lot of what Roll 20 does, but is not a browser-based solution. We've talked about this before back when it launched on KickStarter, as Wakowski knows the creator. This app solution allows you to customize content & cast to your players. It's a bit more refined than Roll 20 in some aspects, but also requires some more work on the DM's part.
And then, of course, some of the tabletop simulators work if you want a more 3D dungeon to work through. It really depends on how you want to do it. People use to play via BBS (and might still? I'm out of the loop), so continuing to get your RPG fix is 100% doable during the time of quarantine and self-isolation (or lockdown, depending on where you are).
Party Games
If you are not familiar with the JackBox series of games yet, go check them out. they have 6 different bundles, plus quite a few stand-alone options. Everything is on sale through their website right now too! While these games were designed more for sitting around together, you can have someone stream the game using Zoom or a similar service. There's a bit of lag so a few games may not be ideal (e.g. Zeeple Dome), but since players control their actions from their mobile device (or tablet/computer--it's browser based), the impact is minimal.
Drinking Games
Good old-fashioned drinking games still work too! Use a web-service for card games, but if everyone has dice they can play for themselves. My friends & I have successfully done a few nights of Pirate's Dice / Liar's Dice via Zoom (they seem to be the popular choice, but WebEx, Chime, UberConference, Hangouts/Duo/Meet, and Skype are also free solutions...check around).
And check your area...a lot of bars near us are doing pick-up/delivery for both food & drinks. Liquor stores are also offering delivery if you don't want to go out (and who would blame you). Or learn to brew your own (distilling, however, is illegal in our country so...at your own caution). Our newest DM is brewing a batch of beer he has dubbed "The 'Rona Reserve." I'm thinking about stealing all of Rabbit's mead equipment to give sours a try, and if I ever stop being lazy and go pick about a gallon of dandelion flowers (heads only), I might make some dandelion wine too. Hell, you can even do a brewing Zoom party (I did it for bread baking & taught my friend how to make burger buns, why not do it for beer?).
What are your favorite gaming solutions during the pandemic? How are you getting your analog gaming fix? We want to hear from you. Share links, advice, and more in the comments!
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