Telegaming

I don't have an specific software or hardware set up for long-distance gaming, but I did manage to play a game of Axis & Allies with my brother using laptop videoconferencing software earlier this month. He set up the board, moved the pieces, and rolled the dice as I viewed from afar. The opposite end of the board was a little hard to make out from this angle, but the occasional top-down pic of the board (sent via text) helped me (even though I failed to notice that I had no troops in Souther Europe, leaving me open to an Allied invasion). It was fun, and a nice way to game with someone I haven't seen in person in month, although I wasn't able to play the Axis countries as well as I should have. 

A couple of weeks later, we played a little of Steve Jackson Games' Melee, this time with me running it. Instead of setting up a board with counters or figures, I imported the map into PowerPoint, drew some simple counters, and used the share screen function to let him see the board and tell me how to move his figures (note that I numbered and lettered all the hexes to make that easier). I also set up a spreadsheet using Excel's RANDBETWEEN function to simulate dice rolls. Another fun game, even if he did kill all my guys.

I'm hoping for more gaming in the new year, whether in person or through screens. Either way, here's to finally ending this shitshow of a year. Hope the upcoming one is a whole lot better.