Like almost everything so far in 2020, the Thanksgiving holiday looks a lot different this year. Amidst what seems like an out of control spread of COVID-19, many public health officials and government leaders are begging people to not travel or gather with people outside their household for Turkey Day. If we have any hope of getting this virus under control, people are going to have to forgo their traditional 20 seat table with all the grandparents and aunts and uncles, and embrace an intimate Thanksgiving with only their own household.

Just because you shouldn’t gather with family and friends in person doesn’t mean you shouldn’t gather virtually, though! I know, we’ve all been on a lot of Zoom calls this year, and they can get a little crazy with more than 5 people on at once. So I’m here to suggest you add some fun to your pre or post-Thanksgiving call with the fam and try something that my friends and I have been doing together since the beginning of the pandemic: play games together over voice / video chat! It may not be quite as nostalgic as a touch football game with grandpa, but it’s still a way to connect and keep everyone as safe as possible, and that’s what we gotta do this year.

So here are a few online games that I’ve found to be a blast to play over video calls: two free, and two that cost a few bucks. Zoom has even lifted the 40-minute call limit for their free plan on Thanksgiving, so you can go all night if you want! Pour some drinks and laugh with your friends, and it will be almost like there isn’t a pandemic going on.

1. Skribbl.io – Free / Web based

Skribbl.io is a game of horrible drawing and hilarious guesses. Everyone joins a communal room with a PC or mobile device, and you take turns choosing 1 of 3 words to draw with your mouse while everyone else watches you draw live and tries to guess what you are drawing—essentially virtual Pictionary. It doesn’t take a lot of brain power, is fun to play for basically all ages, has multiple difficulty levels, and you can even add in your own words to the pool if you want to throw in some inside jokes. Scoring happens based on who guesses the word first, and the drawer gets points based on how many of the others guess successfully. Drawing with a pointer is not the easiest thing in the world, however, so it can get pretty hilarious watching someone try to draw a lobster with their laptop trackpad.

2. Allbad.cards – Free / Web based

You’ve probably played Cards Against Humanity before, the “party game for horrible people.” If you haven’t, it’s essentially a fill in the blank game where one player picks a prompt card and everyone else tries to fill in the blanks on the card with their own card, while being as funny as possible. Allbad.cards takes the game online, but the gameplay is exactly the same. Like Skribbl, you join the room with a PC or mobile device and all the card picking and voting happens by clicking around on your screen. The “card czar,” aka the person who is running each round, can read back each answer over the call and then vote on which one is their favorite. The nice thing about the online version is that all of the various first and third-party card expansion packs that have been created for the game are there, so it’s very unlikely you will run out of cards or get bored of seeing the same prompts over and over. Fair warning though, it gets pretty raunchy, so maybe wait until younger kids are in bed before busting this one out 😉

3. Jackbox Games – Steam / $10 – $20

From the creators of old-school trivia classic You Don’t Know Jack comes the Jackbox Games collections, which number up to 7 now. Each one is a collection of various interactive game show-like rounds that range from pop culture trivia, to guessing your friends’ secrets, or to debating the merits of whether or not Jim and Pam getting together ruined The Office. Only one person in your party actually has to  buy a copy of the game itself, and they then share their screen while everyone else joins via phone to contribute their answers and play. These games provide endless hours of fun and have a lot of variety, some of my favorites include the pictured Quiplash (Jackbox 2, 3, and 7), where whoever can come up with the best pun usually wins, and Trivia Murder Party (Jackbox 3 and 6), where one wrong answer has you fighting for your life playing a deadly mini-game.

4. Among Us – Mobile (Free w/ ads) / Steam ($5)

Among Us was released to little fanfare in 2018 but has recently gained a ton of popularity via YouTube and Twitch streamers since everyone is looking for virtual hang-out opportunities in the time of COVID. Probably the most involved & hardest to just “pick up and play” game on this list, it is still a ton of fun with the right crowd. The premise is simple: you are split into two groups, crewmates and imposters, and it’s the job of the crewmates to figure out who the imposters are before the imposters kill everyone. As players complete given tasks around the  to repair the ship or base and get the crew back home, the impostor attempts to kill others while concealing their identity. When a dead body is found, everyone discusses who they think the imposter is, and then votes on it, so there are lots of chances for lying and deception. Did the person who reported the body actually commit the murder themselves? Or did the killer sneakily hop into the vent afterwards to pin the murder on someone else? It’s your job to figure that out, and it can be harder than you think.

I hope everyone stays safe this upcoming holiday season. Stay home, stay healthy, and we will hopefully be able to return to in-person festivities next year ❤️