Board games to play over Skype/Facetime

[Anonymous]

Do they like Minecraft? If you find someone with a small server set up, they can all get on the same Minecraft world and build together. They can see each other's Minecraft people. It cost $10 a month to "host" a server -- my teen does it for my younger ones. But I bet if you have a neighborhood listserve, you could find someone that already has one hosted that would let you use it for this purpose. Ours allows up to 10 people on at a time, and they have to receive permission from the administrator (my teen) --but then once she allows them, they can get on whenever.

[Anonymous]

IF he enjoys games like Ticket to Ride, Evolution, Ascension, Settlers of Catan, there are apps for the games that allow players to create private rooms for friends/family to meet in and play the game online. So you could play with him there and either have another device set up for Skyping/Facetiming or use the chat in the game.

[Anonymous]

Agree online game would be easier. Think it would be difficult to keep two boards going.

How about roblox or Minecraft?

[Anonymous]

OP here,

For a variety of reasons, I think board games are going to work better for us. I appreciate the suggestions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What about mastermind? My 7 year old has been enjoying this lately and it seems like you could play "virtually" without a lot of talking (since you can put the pegs in for the right/wrong guesses).

My kid is also really in to Ticket to Ride and has been playing a lot on his Kindle. We've been playing "pass and play" so I don't know if there's an option to play on two separate devices.

OP here,

Great idea, I'll add it to the list.

[Anonymous]

What about Sorry? Definitely has elements of both strategy and luck, and with the cameras it shouldn't be too hard to maintain both game boards the same, because each move has only a couple of options at most. Once they get the hang of a few simple strategies, everyone has a chance to win at Sorry, and it doesn't take a lot of mental energy like something like Mastermind (which would otherwise be perfect).

Clue might be fun, if he's feeling up to making and responding to all the suggestions, but there is at least a little bit of talking involved for each turn. Maybe on good days?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What about Sorry? Definitely has elements of both strategy and luck, and with the cameras it shouldn't be too hard to maintain both game boards the same, because each move has only a couple of options at most. Once they get the hang of a few simple strategies, everyone has a chance to win at Sorry, and it doesn't take a lot of mental energy like something like Mastermind (which would otherwise be perfect).

Clue might be fun, if he's feeling up to making and responding to all the suggestions, but there is at least a little bit of talking involved for each turn. Maybe on good days?

OP here. Sorry is a great idea. I think for something like Sorry, we could just set up the board at home, and whoever is playing on that end could shift the camera so he gets a good view of the board when it's his turn. With Chess, we have two boards, because he plays it in person, and when he plays long distance with a good player it's nice to able to keep the board up and think about the next move when there's a gap.

I think Sorry sounds like a great solution to the problem of the unbalance, but mental energy is less of an issue than physical energy right now.

I don't know Clue. Will check it out.

[Anonymous]

Monopoly, Life, Mastermind, Trouble.

[Anonymous]

Not what you're asking, but what about Mad Libs?

[Anonymous]

What about Yahtzee? Some strategy but also luck. No board, you would just need a set of dice and a scorepad on each side. You could theoretically do it with no talking if he just recorded his score on his pad at the end of his turn and held up the pad to show his brothers where he had chosen to use it. Also very easy to take a break and start again later since there is no board to worry about keeping set up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not what you're asking, but what about Mad Libs?

OP here, I like that idea. Single word answers!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What about Yahtzee? Some strategy but also luck. No board, you would just need a set of dice and a scorepad on each side. You could theoretically do it with no talking if he just recorded his score on his pad at the end of his turn and held up the pad to show his brothers where he had chosen to use it. Also very easy to take a break and start again later since there is no board to worry about keeping set up.

I have never played Yahtzee but I will check it out. Middle kid doesn't write by hand, but there's probably a work around.

[Anonymous]

By the time you buy two sets of board games, you might as well buy two kids kindle fires to play with or even regular fires.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:By the time you buy two sets of board games, you might as well buy two kids kindle fires to play with or even regular fires.

Yes, except that Child Life at the hospital has most of the games, and if I put out the word that I'm looking for them, I'm sure I'll get plenty of offers to borrow them. We also don't really need two sets for most of them, because we can just set up one at home and middle kid can watch it through the camera.

Also, my younger two kids are craving familiarity right now. Playing board games together is something they've done a lot of at home. They don't have a lot of experience playing video games together, in part because I limit screen time, and in part because their taste in video games is really different. Both have played, and continue to play, video games separately, but they generally spend their time together building legos, watching movies, or playing board games. Also, neither has played online, because our family rule has been that online play is only for middle school and up. Not that I mind changing that (and middle kid has played a fair amount of online chess during this hospital stay, so we already have to some degree) but it means that it's new and unfamiliar, and that's just not what we're looking for.

Finally, we know how to make a board game work. I don't know enough about online games to pick a game that works with the current limitations we have, as far as timing, fine motor, hand use, positioning, talking . . . For example, when people tell me to set up a chat room, I assume that involves either typing or talking? Both are hard right now. I'm sure we could make it work, eventually, but it could easily be an exercise in frustration while we figure it out and frankly I'm not looking to add more frustration to my son's life.

[Anonymous]

Battleship!