Across the country we’re facing restrictions on what we can and can’t do when it comes to seeing friends and family so if you’re in an area where you’re not allowed to meet up in real life we’ve put together a list of ten things you can do to get together with friends online.
- The first on the list has to be a quiz. Quizzes were popping up everyone at the start of the national lockdown as a great way to get together with friends online. There are still lots on offer out there too so pick one and jump in.
- Watch TV together. Yes you can do this even if you’re not in the same house. Netflix lets you run Netflix watch parties although everyone watching needs a Netflix subscription. But there are lots of other services out there too like Watch2gether.com where you sign up and watch together. You can even browse Amazon together through this platform apparently although I’ve not tried that myself.
- Play board games. This is what we’ve been doing with our suspects throughout the national lockdown and it is a great way to get together with friends online. We’ve used Skype and then Zoom without the video to talk to each other and then we’ve been playing at boardgamearena.com Different games need different numbers of players just like an ordinary board game and we’ve discovered some real favourites online from Colt Express, Trekking Around The World and PI.
- Make your own online book club (or you can join ours on Facebook Crime, Cuppa & Chat, Choose a book, read it and then get together with your book club friends online. There are so many different platforms out there that allow you to chat to lots of friends. We’ve used Zoom for our book club but we’ve now settled into Facebook and use Rooms from our group. We only read crime and thrillers but it’s been a brilliant way of pushing us to read books that we wouldn’t normally pick up. We are a really friendly bunch if you want to join us just click here and come on in.
- Play online games together. I admit this is one that my children have pulled me into but it’s also something we’re doing together pretty often especially now that the eldest has headed off once more to drama school. We’ve found some great games to play together on the Steam platform including our current favourite Among Us. You can create a private room to play with up to ten friends and then you must uncover the imposter among you. There’s a chat facility but you can also use any chat platform alongside it.
- Watch a live performance. Yes, you can see our murder mysteries live but you can also find all sorts of other performances. If you seek out ZOOM entertainments on Facebook you’ll discover magic shows, a silhouette artist and even a mind-reading show there are lots of things out there and this Facebook page posts regular updates.
- Murder mysteries. I have to mention these of course! Following the last Government guidance we’ve started adding more and more nights and plots to keep you entertained. And because we now have a time-frame of six months of restrictions (probably) we’ve decided to launch a virtual murder mystery weekend for January as well. You can discover more about that here.
- Virtual tours. There are all sorts of different places offering virtual tours right now but one that I think might intrigue you as a murder mystery fan is the Jack The Ripper Tour in London. You can find that one here but there are other tours around the world still available virtually.
- Party games. Get your friends together on Zoom and set up some party games to play. If you make it a weekly event you could have a league to score winners and losers with scores for all sorts of random things from Player of the Week to Player Without A Clue. Maybe you’ll play bingo, perhaps a quiz, a comedy night or maybe charades. You could play a truth/lie style game where each person presents three facts but one of them is false and you need to decide which is the lie. There are so many games that can translate to being played on Zoom and I bet you can think of lots more.
- Play cards. Did you know you can play card games online with friends? If you’re card players or you’re looking for something different to do then head over to Cardzmania where you can find games like Whist and Hearts, Cribbage and even bridge. Get your friends to sign up and find each other to start a game.
So those are our favourite things to do if you want to get together with friends online. Have you got any other suggestions? I’d love to know because I’ll add them so everyone else can have fun too.
Book your next virtual murder mystery night here