Online board games and party games
A list of games that can be played online with a group of friends.
Voice chat suggestions
Many of these games assume you are using a seperate tool to chat. Here are some free tools you can use:
- Discord - multiple text/voice channels that you can join and leave at any time
- Google Hangouts - a temporary video meeting with a shareable link, no need to install anything, but requires a google account to set up
- Jitsi - similar to Google Hangouts but no account required
- House party comes with a few games built in
- Zoom - a temporary video meeting, easy for other people to join without signing up, but you may need to restart the call every 40 minutes
Platforms
These websites contain multiple games.
| Platform | Type | Usability notes |
|---|---|---|
| Board Game Arena | Free to play (some games require the host to have a paid membership) | Starting a game is a bit unintuitive. |
| Mattle | Free to play | Iconography can be confusing on some games. |
| Happy Meeple | Free to play, with limits (you need in-game currency, but this is generated automatically at regular intervals) | Focuses on solo and 2 player games |
| Boiteajeux | Free to play | |
| Boardgame core | Free to play | |
| Super Duper Games | Free to play | Not recommended for real time play. |
| Netgames.io | Free to play | |
| Yucata | Free to play | |
| Boardgame core | Free to play | |
| BrettspielWelt | Free to play | |
| Free Board Games | Free to play | |
| Games by Email | Free to play | |
| BoardGamePlay | Free to play | |
| Aso Brain Games | Free to play | |
| Spiel by Web | Free to play | |
| Sloth Ninja | Free to play | |
| MabiWeb | Free to play | |
| WarGear | Free to play | |
| It’s your turn | Free to play | |
| Board Games Online | Free to play | |
| Triqqy | Free to play | |
| Playoq | Free to play | |
| Trickster Cards | Free to play | |
| Games.horse | Free to play | |
| Vassal | Open source game engine | Requires a lot of setup |
| Tabletop simulator | Paid | Simulates game pieces, not rules. Controls are very fiddly. Supports VR headsets. |
| Tabletopia | Free to play | Simulates game pieces, not rules. Controls are a bit fiddly. |
| Deck of Cards | Free to play | Simulates a deck of cards without rules. |
| Playingcards.io | Free to play | Simulates a deck of cards without rules. Cards can be customised |
| Roll20 | Free to play | Simulates dice rolls, maps and character sheets for role playing games |
| Random Noun Generator | Free tool | |
| Board game clock | Free tool | |
| Google Slides (or Google Drawings) | Free collaboration tool | A low tech solution that can work if the game isn’t available anywhere else. |
| Gidd.io | Free to play | Multiple Games like UNO, Yatzy, Categories and GeoGuess |
Free group games
Simple games
These games are easy to understand even if nobody has played before.
| Game | Alternatives | Player count | Board Game Geek Page |
|---|---|---|---|
| A Fake Artist Goes to New-York | 5-10 | https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/135779/fake-artist-goes-new-york | |
| Anagram thief (anagrams) | 2-6 | https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3359/anagrams | |
| Boggle | Serpentine, Wordmine | 2+ | https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1293/boggle |
| Broken Picture Phone | Drawphone, Drawception, Out of Context | ||
| Pretend you’re Xyzzy (Cards Against Humanity) | All Bad Cards or Massive Decks or Cards of Personality | 4-30 | https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/50381/cards-against-humanity |
| Insider | 4-8 | https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/206051/insider | |
| Jackbox party games (instructions for playing remotely) | Depends on game purchased | ||
| Just 1 | One Word | 3+ | https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/254640/just-one |
| Monikers | 4+ | Geek Page | |
| Skribbl (Pictionary) | Sketchful or Gartic | 3+ | https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2281/pictionary |
| Quack Stanley | |||
| Scattergories | Scattergories or Categories with Friends | 2+ | https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2381/scattergories |
| Scrabble | 2-4 | https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/320/scrabble | |
| Skull | 3-6 | https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/92415/skull | |
| Taboo | Taboo or Fishbowl | 4-10 | https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1111/taboo |
| Uno | 2+ | https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/2223/uno | |
| Richup.io (alternative to Monopoly) | 2+ |
Other games
These games are best if at least one person knows the game already and can explain the rules.
Trivia games
- Protobowl
- QuizWitz
- Virtual Pub Quiz (create or play pub quizzes)
Other ideas
- Tabletop games that can be adapted for remote play
- Freeze-dried Game Pack - a collection of games that use common components and can be explained in less than 100 words
- Improv games for videoconferencing
- The Wiki Game
- Lies game
Contribute to this list
- Edit this file
- Under commit changes, enter a description of the changes, select “Create a new branch for this commit and start a pull request” and then click “Commit changes”
- Wait for the pull request to be approved and merged