Classic Board Games With a Touch of Tech - The New York Times

From November of 1955 to September 1957, my father played two games of chess with his friend Sam Frankenheim. My dad was in the Army, Sam was in the Air Force, and they mailed postcards back and forth detailing their moves. (Oh, to write the word “checkmate” before popping a triumphant card in the mail!)

Playing games with people at a distance has a long history — and now is as good a time as any to try it, given how badly we want to stave off boredom and bridge the distance between our islands of isolation.

Digital gaming is an obvious path; my own son plays raucous online poker with vast groups of his friends. But there is something so grounding about rolling a handful of noisy dice, clacking our pieces around a board, and seeing each other’s dear, missed faces (even if those faces are trash talking us about buying Park Place). To that end, my family has been experimenting with ways to play traditional, real-life board games with people who are sheltering in different places. With a bit of patience and some video conferencing, games can help virtually erase the miles between children and isolated grandparents or teenagers missing their friends.

Would it be more fun if your friends and cousins were crowded into your living room with you, eating jelly beans and Cheez-Its and arguing over the rules? It would. Is there, nonetheless, something to be said for the videoconferencing version? There is.

You can play with people you rarely get to see normally. You can gather spontaneously. And if the children (or adults) suffer from what my own kids have always called “a lonely feeling” — the sensation of it being just your family in the world — you can connect and play and feel less lonely.

There are a number of two-player games that work well as long as you are willing to painstakingly mirror each other’s moves (be sure to use the front camera on your device so you’re both seeing the board the same way). Chess, Checkers and Connect Four are all in this camp, and have the advantage of being known by many generations; grandparents will not need to learn game rules on top of the video conferencing specifics. And Mad Libs, while not a game per se, also work beautifully via video.

Here are others my family has enjoyed, with just a few hacks. We’re focusing on classic games that many people are likely to have in the house or may be able purchase easily.

Boggle

We’ve played a lot of this lovely old word game with other families, and it translates beautifully over the distance. For older kids and adults, we recommend bumping 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 naval-themed deduction game is a natural for 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 were you even playing in the first place?

Maximum number of players: 2

Requirements: A video conferencing platform (although you can actually play over the phone). Both players need to have the game, or you can download public-domain game sheets here to play a similar pen-and-paper version.

Special hacks: None.

Yahtzee

My 20-year-old son and his friends have rattled their dice for hours over Zoom and have thus worked out all the kinks for us. “What’s Shakin’?” is the game’s tag line, and you can drive everyone crazy by asking this a lot 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 5 dice, you can print score sheets from the public-domain 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 play what my son calls “the Cadillac of Zoom Yahtzee,” where each household joins from both a laptop and a phone. Angle the laptop toward the people and balance the (muted/sound off) phone camera-down on something high (say an upended tissue box) to show the dice.

Bananagrams

Even my mom likes playing this word game remotely, which says more about its (or her) adaptability than you might realize. Plus, she appears to complain about her tiles no less over FaceTime than she does in person.

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.

Pictionary

Zoom Pictionary is not the least chaotic game you’ll ever play, but it’s totally worth it for the zany factor. (“Sarcophagus!” “Wait, no. Cable car?”) We’ve played over multiple time zones and generations, and recommend splitting up teams over households to keep the energy and engagement high.

Maximum number of players: 8

Requirements: A video conferencing platform. Thick pens (such as Sharpies) for drawing. Only one household needs the game — and, honestly, not even that: You can use a random word generator for drawing prompts.

Special hacks: Ideally, each household joins from both a laptop and a phone: angle the laptop toward your face(s) and balance the (muted/sound off) phone on something high (say an upended tissue box) to show your well-lit drawing surface. Eliminate the too-tumultuous “All Play.” We also scrapped the fussy board: draw a card, roll the die, and pick the word on the card that your number corresponds to (six is wild); alternate play between teams and score one point for each correctly guessed word; play to 15 or 20. The drawer in a household without the game can generate a word randomly, or you can pick a card for them and hold it up while everyone else looks away.

Monopoly

The game itself is fun, of course, but one added bonus of your kids playing with their friends right now is that your home will fill with those badly missed voices.

Maximum number of players: 8 (over no more than four households)

Requirements: A video conferencing platform. Each household needs the game.

Special hacks: Ideally, each household joins from two devices: one to show people; one (muted/sound off) raised up on something high to show the board. Mirror the other households’ moves on your board. Mediate multi-household financial transactions — such as the paying of rent — through each household’s bank. Remove properties from your game’s stash as other households buy them and sort them by owner (we write each person’s name on a Post-it) so you know who has what.

What else are you playing? Let us know in the comments.

Catherine Newman is the author of the forthcoming book “How to Be a Person.”

---

Let's block ads! (Why?)

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/14/well/family/coronavirus-quarantine-board-games-videoconferencing.html

2020-04-14 20:27:53Z
CAIiEHMJ9GmsQuPZbKOt-4WO-zUqFwgEKg8IACoHCAowjuuKAzCWrzwwxqlf

Bagikan Berita Ini