Online Games

games you can play in a Zoom meeting or in your browser

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Charades
The leader can privately message the movie/TV show/book/whatever thing is going to be acted out to the person whose turn it is. Very easy and simple no prep needed.

Gartic Phone (In Browser)
A great game you can play with up to 30 people. Lots of different game modes, the main one being akin to Pictionary Whispers, taking turns drawing and writing prompts to see how close the group can keep your original sentence. Easy to play, only prep needed is for one person to setup a lobby and share the link. Play here.

Goosechase (App)
Goosechase is an online platform made for running real-world scavenger hunts. You take a photo or video of each challenge (e.g. snap a pic of everyone in your group reading a book) and earn points for each successful one. Split the meeting into (up to 3) breakout rooms, and make sure they select the right team. Then they can go about completing different challenges, finding specific things in their house, or whatever else you can think of. It's a great game to get creative with. Most of your players will need to download the app, and the leader(s) will have to set up a free game on the website which can take around 20 minutes, but you are easily able to reuse challenges in future games. Set up a free game here.

Hide and Seek
Have everyone set up their camera in such a way so that they can hide from view while still onscreen (e.g. under the bed which can be seen on camera). Move the seeker into the waiting room until everyone's ready then bring them back in to guess where people are hiding. Very easy and no prep needed. NB: Have some leaders not hide to keep the seeker and anyone who can't play (for whatever reason) company.

Jackbox Party Games (Paid Browser Games)
Jackbox games require one person to purchase the game or pack and run it (make sure to have family friendly settings turned on). There's an array of different social games for you to try like Quiplash (who is the funniest), Fibbage (who is the best at making up fake facts), Trivia Murder Party (who is the best at not being killed), and more - all self-run by a narrator. Once the game is running, share your screen and have the players head to jackbox.tv to play using their phones or other devices. Games don't have space for heaps of people, so Jackbox is better suited to smaller groups. Takes a few minutes to set up but easy to play once you start.

Scattergories Online (In Browser)
A random letter is chosen then everyone has to complete a list of different categories (boys names, cities, fruit) that all start with that letter, but if you write the same as someone else, you don't get the points. Takes a little bit of time to choose the categories and set up your private lobby, but once you have you're good to go! Play here.

Scavenger Hunt
Players take turns choosing an item from their house. Then everyone else must find the same item in their house, or something similar, whether that be visually or functionally. E.g. A player may choose a chess piece, in response, another player finds a six-sided die, because both are used in board games.

Skribbl.io (In Browser)
Kind of like Pictionary, players (up to 12) take turns drawing a word and the faster the others guess what is being drawn, the more points they earn. Setup a private lobby (add whatever custom words you want) and share the link. Play here. OR head to https://sketchful.io/ to play with more players.

Speed Dish
Everyone gathers three different ingredients (can be anything from skittles to eggs) from their homes within 60 seconds, and return to make a "dish" using those ingredients. Extra points for a catchy name and for eating your dish. A game created by Anthony.

Trivia
There are a few ways to run trivia (we'll describe one). Send teams into breakout rooms and have them fill out answers on a google form or google doc. Send through the questions via announcements that all breakout rooms can see. Obviously this requires a lot of preparation, but trivia is always super fun, especially if you get creative with it.

What's in my house?
Have a few leaders prepare their stories ahead of time, then tell everyone else about a strange object that is in their house. Players then have to work out who is telling the truth, and who is lying. At the end reveal the objects and who was telling the truth.

What's that sound?
Players take turns making a noise with something off camera (e.g. harmonica, M&Ms in a jar, rolling dice) and the rest of the players have to guess what's making that sound.