Game night has been a family tradition for such a long time. Sit down with parents and siblings, order dinner, and test your skill and luck, start arguments over how someone has an extra $100 in monopoly, or trying to argue if house rules are actual rules. But ever since the pandemic of 2020 hit, I’m sure game nights have been harder to do. Especially with students who stay on campus. Then there are friends who live far away, either in another part of the country or outside the country. So, what do you do there?
I found a suitable answer in the form of Tabletop Simulator by Berserk Games. A game where up to 10 people can play any board game they want, and I do mean anything! Thanks to the game being open source and the use of the workshop, you can play anything as simple as snakes and ladders all the way to The Campaign for North Africa. A friend of mine, who will be simply named Falk gave me this quote. “Tabletop Simulator has the biggest collection of tabletop games in a single game, both official and modded.”
The price is usually 20 dollars, but it will go on sale a lot of times, as well as 42 expansions which will give access to games that are sponsored by the company. There are a lot of indie titles like Boss Monster, Cavern Tavern, Super Fight, and Three Kingdoms Redux.
If those dlc options are not what you want, you also have the workshop, which has anything you could possibly want. From Uno and Monopoly, to fan made games, to even minigolf. It’s open source style allows for games of any kind, and it can allow you a lot more freedom in the long run, AND the workshop is free! It’s FREE boardgames. This has given the game the humorous if endearing title of “Piracy for boardgames” in the review section of the game which sure, can have negative connotations, but I’m sure Hasbro won’t kick the door down and arrest you for any crime beyond getting people to play extreme monopoly!
Now the game itself has a tutorial that can make the unusual controls of the game, where all the pieces of the board game is hidden, where props are, how to set up a room, it’s simple, clean, and once you are done you are open to the wide world of board and card games.
Now if you want recommendations on what to download off the workshop, I’d highly recommend the basics, Clue, Life, Uno, and Catan if you want some basic test games to make sure everything works. If you don’t want those, you can use the basic test games they have pre installed, such as Chinese checkers, dominos, or Poker. If you want any other games without going to the workshop, you’ll need to shell out for the DLC, which I will go over in some way or another in the future articles.
I hope to have more people read this and take a close look at these wonderful titles in the future, letting a brand new era of family and friend board game nights. Thank you, and remember to take a drink of water, call your parents and write that paper you’ve been putting off.