Remote President
A twist on the card game President that can be played over a video call.
Tried and tested by Friday Afternoons
2+ players
20 minutes
Requirements
- A video calling platform (e.g. WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Zoom)
- A device for each player from which they can join the video call
- A standard deck of cards for each player
For the most part, Remote President follows the same rules as President. The differences between the two are detailed here. Variations (such as playing with or without Jokers) should be agreed beforehand.
Before the game starts, everyone shuffles their deck of cards and deals themselves 10 cards. For the first game, the call host may begin the first round. In subsequent games, the President from the previous game gets to start the first round.
Tip
Keeping your played cards held up until the end of the round makes it easier for players to see who is yet to play this round.
When a round begins, the starting player holds up any card (or DTQ) to the camera and gets to nominate the person who will take their turn next (in regular President this would simply be the player to their left). The nominated player can either pass by raising an empty hand, or hold up a higher card/DTQ as per the standard President rules. In either case, they then get to nominate the next player from all of those who are yet to play in this round. This continues until everyone has either played or passed once, at which point everyone is given the opportunity to play on the current highest card by being the first to state that they wish to. If it isn't clear who spoke up first then the player who last played or passed has the final say on who gets to play next.
Once no one else can or wishes to play, all cards in the current round are discarded and the player who last played a card starts the next round.
Between games, no cards are swapped as they are in regular President. As such, you may choose to end each game as soon as one person wins, rather than playing for the Vice President, Vice Idiot and Idiot positions.
Variation
If there is a clear way to determine the order of the players (such as numbers on-screen) then the game can be played in a set order with no need to nominate the player who will go next or open the game up to everyone once all players have played or passed once. When playing this way, it's important that the player who wins each round starts the next one, regardless of their position in the sequence (i.e. the player assigned as number 1 should not go first in every round).
