What are some good party games that can be played remotely?

January 10, 2017 6:25 PM

What are some good party games that can be played remotely?

My team would like to bond together by playing some fun games over lunch or in the evenings. The only problem is that 3 team members are remote. I have already picked up some board games that I think we can use for the main office (Coup, Avalon, Code Words, that kind of thing) but am looking for games that the remote employees would be able to play with us.

About half the team is semi-serious gamers, and half is very casual, so I'm looking for something that both sets would be able to enjoy. The games should be able to accommodate a flexible number of people (on any given day probably at least 6-7 people will show up, but we may have up to 12 or 13) and have a maximum playtime of about 40 minutes. We have access to personal computers, video conference equipment in each location, and all that other good stuff. I'm pretty stumped in terms of ideas; some kind of trivia game is the only thing that comes to mind.

posted by phoenixy to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (12 answers total)

Have you heard of Tabletop Simulator? I haven't used it but I've heard good things about it.
posted by poxandplague at 6:33 PM on January 10, 2017 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I just bought two jackbox party packs during the steam sale. I played it locally but with some kind of screen sharing software it should be doable. Lean heavily on word games/trivia sort of thing but drawful was a big hit
posted by FakePalindrome at 6:34 PM on January 10, 2017 [4 favorites]

Best answer: Jackbox plus video chat has been a hit with my friends. Just make sure it won't offend anyone before introducing it to the group at large.
posted by Candleman at 6:55 PM on January 10, 2017 [2 favorites]

Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes? Each person just needs a voice connection and a copy of the manual. Each round is only a few minutes so it's easy for people to step in and out as desired.
posted by zebra at 7:41 PM on January 10, 2017 [3 favorites]

I work remotely at my job, and we all played a few rounds of Codenames online during a holiday party, with a Hangouts call going on in the background. If you search for 'codenames online' you'll find a couple of knockoff sites for it.
posted by Fully Completely at 11:53 PM on January 10, 2017 [1 favorite]

I can't confirm the link because all game sites are blocked at my work, but there is an online playable version of Cards Against Humanity called Pretend You're Xyzzy. If I recall correctly, you can choose which decks to play with, and set up either public or private games. (I'm not entirely sure on the private games, though. That's what I wanted to check before linking, but you can have a look yourself!)
posted by easternblot at 4:14 AM on January 11, 2017

We're getting a lot of mileage out of Golf With Your Friends with remote players. It's early access and a bit basic but you can create private rooms, set your own rules & parameters and there's a lot of fun physics stuff you couldn't do on a real mini golf course.
posted by terretu at 4:15 AM on January 11, 2017

Best answer: Adding a vote for the Jackbox pack. We had great fun with it over the holidays.
posted by DrAstroZoom at 6:37 AM on January 11, 2017

Codenames would probably work well assuming there is camera that can show the remote people a grid of cards.
posted by o0dano0o at 11:54 AM on January 11, 2017

Best answer: Spyfall is great fun and ideal for this, as virtually of the game is just the players talking to each other. You can play online by replacing the game's cards with one of the free websites that have sprung up (e.g.), and chatting over video conference.

Spyfall is very flexible for number of players, has very simple rules, and a round takes 5-15 minutes. I've only played a handful of times, but it has been pretty consistently hilarious.
posted by metaBugs at 2:21 PM on January 11, 2017

Have played Codenames remotely via FaceTime. It works just fine. We've actually even played it while talking on a landline and texting photos of the board when there were weird tech issues.
posted by raspberrE at 3:11 PM on January 11, 2017

Response by poster: Thanks for the suggestions! I will be marking best answers as we try them successfully.
posted by phoenixy at 11:00 PM on February 10, 2017