Pass and Play Games: 33 Free Board and Party Games to Play on One Phone

Not every game night has a board game box on the shelf, and not every group has a phone each. Pass and Play Games is built for exactly that situation. It is a free website with board, dice, word and party games that 2 to 12 people play on a single phone, tablet or computer, taking turns and passing the device around.

Below we look at how it works, which games it has, the features that make it handy for travel and family nights, and which games to try first for different groups.

The Pass and Play Games home page. A carousel previews the games, starting with chess.

How it works

1. Pick a game and the players. Type everyone's names and decide who goes first. Playing alone? Switch any seat to the computer and choose how strongly it plays.
2. Take turns on one device. Make your move and hand the device over. You can turn on a pass screen for a clear "Pass to Sam" moment between turns.
3. Undo, rematch and keep score. You can undo a slip, restart, or start a rematch where the other player goes first. The session score is kept and the game saves itself.

Setting up Ludo on a phone: each seat can be a person or the computer, and there is an adaptive difficulty option.

The computer opponents deserve a mention. In Ludo, for example, you can choose Easy, Medium or Hard, or an Adaptive level that goes up one step after you win and down one after you lose. That keeps games against the computer close, which matters a lot for children.

What games are there?

At the time of writing the site has 33 games you can play, with 15 more marked as coming soon. They fall into a few groups:

Group	Games you can play now
Classic board games	Chess, Ludo, Checkers, Backgammon, Snakes and Ladders, Mancala, Reversi, Nine Men's Morris, Royal Game of Ur, Chinese Checkers
Party games	Imposter, Charades, Mafia, Truth or Dare, Draw and Guess
Quick strategy	Tic-Tac-Toe, Four in a Row, Dots and Boxes, Gomoku, Ultimate Tic-Tac-Toe, Sea Battle, Code Breaker, Rock Paper Scissors
Dice, tiles and words	Hangman, Yacht Dice, Dominoes, Hot Dice, Shut the Box, Liar's Dice, Matching Pairs
Question games	Would You Rather, Never Have I Ever, Most Likely To

Card games such as Crazy Eights, Go Fish, Gin Rummy, Hearts and Spades are listed as coming soon, along with Carrom, Go, Bingo and Tambola.

Features that make it useful

• It works offline. Open the site once while you are online and every game, rules guide and tutorial is stored on your device. After that it works on a plane, on a road trip or anywhere without Wi-Fi.
• It installs like an app. Add it to your home screen and it opens like any other app, with nothing to download from an app store.
• No sign-up. There is no account to create before you play.
• Rules guides and tutorials. Each game has a written rules guide, and guides such as Ludo's explain the common house rules too, which helps when your family argues about how the game "really" works.
• A wide range of group sizes. Games run from 1 or 2 players up to 12, so the same site covers a quiet game for two and a loud party.

Which games to try first

• For two people: chess, backgammon or Reversi for something thoughtful, and Four in a Row or Ultimate Tic-Tac-Toe for quick rounds. The 2 player games collection lists them all.
• For families with kids: Ludo, Snakes and Ladders, Mancala and Matching Pairs are easy to learn and fun at any age.
• For a group of friends: Imposter, Charades and Mafia only need one phone and a few people. Our separate guide to the Imposter game explains how a round works.
• For travel: anything in the offline games collection. Load the site on Wi-Fi before you leave.

Good to know

Because everyone shares one screen, pass and play works best when players are sitting together. If you want to play a friend who is somewhere else, you need an online chess site such as SuperChess instead, which we cover in our SuperChess guide. And if chess is the only game you need, the single-purpose Chess Pass and Play adds a chess clock and a Face to Face mode.

Frequently asked questions

Is Pass and Play Games free?
Yes. All the games are free to play and there is no sign-up.

How many people can play?
It depends on the game. Board games are mostly for 2 to 4 players, Chinese Checkers and Snakes and Ladders take up to 6, and party games such as Imposter and Charades work with up to 12.

Can I play on my own?
Yes. Most board and strategy games have a computer opponent with several difficulty levels.

Does it need the internet?
Only the first time. After your first visit the games work offline.

Does it work on iPhone and Android?
Yes. It runs in the browser on phones, tablets and computers, and you can add it to your home screen.

Browse all Pass and Play Games

Disclosure: Pass and Play Games is made by the same small team that runs this blog.