playingcards.io

When I announced that the newsletter was back, I asked for people to send me requests. I heard from A LOT of folks who were interested in finding a way to play games without sharing materials, either at home, in virtual classrooms, or in-person.

So I've been hunting for resources ever since! And I wanted to share one with you this week: playingcards.io

What is playingcards.io?

Essentially, playingcards.io is a completely customizable deck of cards that anyone who is playing can see.

So imagine your daughter makes a custom game room and invites your cousin from Chicago to enter the room. There will be a 52 card deck, face down in the center of the screen. If your daughter picks up a card and clicks it, then both she and her cousin will be able to see the value at the same time. 

There is a "hand" feature where everyone who is logged in can place cards in their hand so that nobody else can see.

So if you know any games that are playable with a standard deck, you can play online immediately just by starting a custom room!

But that's not all - there are also classic games available, such as cribbage, checkers, chess, euchre, and a few others. You can start one of those rooms as well and play right away.

Did you notice that not all these games are card games? That's right - when I said fully customizable, I meant it! In fact, I am working on a custom version of another game, to be released in a future email...

If you're curious, you can google "playingcards.io custom decks" and find some enterprising folks who have made decks for games as varied as Sushi Go, Uno, Apples to Apples, and Ticket to Ride(!). I can't vouch for the quality of all these files, but if you've played the game before you can test out those files with your friends and family!

If you do end up using the site, let me know what you played and how it went! I'd love some tips to include when I share the deck I am working on.