Lochenvar

VivaJava: The Coffee Game: The Dice Game. An over-complicated title for a fairly simple, fun game. Locally anyway: it was a bit more complex than I thought it would be over Zoom, hence the need for a second camera. Before that, we played SteamRollers, which worked very well. Most roll and write games play well remotely. Our friends don't have a printer, so we've laminated some scoring sheets and posted them to them.

Our weekly Zoom gaming session with friends moved to a two-camera setup last night: The phone captured a wide of the main playing area and cards that tracked what each player was doing, while the ipad had a close up view of ability cards and dice rolls. Worked really well! In recent sessions I've already added an LED panel to the basic lamp so, by the end of all this, I'm expecting to be using a full TV Outside Broadcast truck.

Generally, I'd say that a roll and write would be perfect for you, but I guess it depends if he has any motor control impairment? They're good too as, generally, all information you need is visible at all times, so there's not much need to keep a lot of things in memory. Some of them can be very good solo too. They can be a bit hard to come by right now, as everyone's playing them over Zoom. Some good entry level ones are: Noch Mal!, Kokoro and Qwixx. Getting more advanced, you have Welcome to..., Corinth and Castles of Burgundy the dice game. If you can get hold of some dice and a printer, Corinth is available as a print and play version right now, here. Back to normal board games, Patchwork is very good, and I'd put in another vote for Carcassonne (ignore the farm rules, at least at the start - those can get pretty confusing). Definitely not Ghost Stories though, it's much more complex than it looks.

Play them? You don't just add them to your virtual pile of shame, like I do?

I've got a code of Scythe going spare. Gone

The publisher have made some of the materials available for download, to help with remote play. Go here: https://www.spacecowboys.fr/sherlock-holmes-consultingdetective Hit 'More' under the edition you have and then scroll down to 'Material for Remote Play'. There have been a lot of other games and expansions released as Print and Play, which are being collected here: https://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/271049/publisher-covid-19-response-offers-free-stay-home/page/1 The best one for me has been the full game of Corinth. If you've got some spare dice, it's a great game, and really easy to play remotely. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1juhTYboh6Qoh3ENwl07tYrY_lu1gKG5g Most roll and write games work well remotely - we had a session with some friends at the weekend. They don't have a printer, so I laminated some scoring sheets for various games and posted them to them. Check Boardgamegeek and you'll probably find printable files for scoring sheets.

I've got a free code for Think of the Children, if anyone wants it. More available here: DM me for codes.

Do they have an online store, or is it shops only?

Mrs Lochenvar found a mint copy of Patchwork in the local charity shop. Paid the princely sum of £1.50 for it.

That's Carla, not Claire. Hmm...I might watch too much of the test kitchen.

I didn't realise there had already been a book out with new translator. Anyone know how it was, compared to Anthea Bell's work?

It looks like it's still running, if anyone hasn't taken advantage of it yet: https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/p/xbox-game-pass/CFQ7TTC0KHS0/0007?activetab=pivot:overviewtab The other day, MS were even advertising the fact you could load up on Live or Game Pass months before converting, calling it a 'life hack'. So they must be getting a ton of new subs out of it.

Pandemic is absolutely brilliant - a modern classic for a good reason. And it's a great co-op game, so your GF may really like it because of that. My wife and I don't do loads of competitive stuff, so we've played a lot of co-ops in our time. Can't play base Pandemic any more though: she plays about ten games a day of the ipad version and so doesn't like the way I play the board version: too slow and don't make the right decisions. If you find you like it, have a look at Pandemic Legacy, which is Pandemic with a story campaign. Stick with the base one for a while though.

Yeah, soon you'll end up with cupboards like this: (there's games in a couple of the drawers as well) And we have the occasional cull too.

Yes, that one works fine - it's the one I bought when I did the Game Pass deal.