Quarantine Life: Jackbox

A couple of weeks ago, I handed in my last assignment for my second year of university. And since the pubs are closed and most people are at home, organising a celebratory piss-up is kind of difficult.

Anyway, something I discovered while quarantining was Jackbox Games, who develop what can best be described as virtual party games. The idea is to run the games off a big screen, and players use a phone or tablet to take part by going to website and entering a four-letter code generated by the host. While the games are intended to be played by people in the same room, the game can be live-streamed via services like Discord or Twitch, allowing the host to share their screen with players elsewhere.

I was introduced to Jackbox by a member of a university society, and promptly picked up Jackbox Party Pack 3 on Steam so I could host my own games (and introduce it to my parents). The pack includes the following games:

Quiplash

This is a Cards Against Humanity-esque game. Players are given two prompts, and have to come up with a funny answer for each. Each prompt has answers from at least two different players, and the other players vote on which answer is the funniest. Points are awarded based on how many players voted for your prompt, with bonuses if everybody voted.  This is usually played for two rounds, and then in the final round, all the players are given the same prompt. This could either be an acronym or a comic with a blank speech bubble. Everyone else votes for their three favourite ones.

While you need a minimum of three players, it's better if you have more.

Trivia Murder Party

When I introduced the game to my parents, this ended up being their favourite. The players have been captured by a serial killer, who wants to host a trivia night. The killer asks questions with multiple choice answers, and any player who gets the questions wrong is forced to partake in a random mini-game. If they lose the mini-game, they die, but their ghosts can still take part. 

Once there is one player left, they must escape. During the escape phase, each round the player is given a topic and two answers. They have to tick which answers fit that topic, whether one, both, or neither. They go forward a space for each correct answer. However, the ghosts join after the second round, and are given a third option for the topic, meaning they can move faster. If a ghost overtakes the living player, they steal their body and become living. The first player to reach the exit wins.

While a lot of the questions relate to American pop culture, I think that can be part of the fun in not knowing the correct answer.

Tee K.O.

This one's a drawing game, in which the players compete to design t-shirts (with a host who sounds an awful lot like Matt Berry). The players draw two sketches, and then come up with as many slogans as possible. These are then shuffled and given to another player, who designs a shirt using the sketches and slogans. The players then vote on their favourite shirts, with points going to the player who designed the shirt.

Again, this is one best played with more than three people.

Fakin' It

I didn't really get this one, and neither did my folks. I think it's one which everybody has to be in the same room for.

Guesspionage

This is one which involves guessing percentages of an anonymous survey. One player gets how many people have done a certain thing, and the others have to guess if the correct answer is higher or lower than the player's guess. The player who guessed scores points if their guess is within 30% of the correct answer, depending on how close they are. The other players get points for correctly guessing if the correct answer was higher or lower.

If you have enough people, the audience can answer the questions in the survey.

Other party packs include Fibbage, in which players have to provide a wrong answer to a question, and then everyone has to determine the right answer, gaining bonus points if someone picked their lie.

It's a fun collection of games, and I definitely recommend giving them a go. You don't have to buy the games to take part, providing you have access to someone who does have them. It's good for a virtual game night.