PLAYING VIA ZOOM

Sadly, the Covid-19 "Coronavirus" pandemic has affected many of our brothers and sisters from across the world. Our hearts and sincere prayers go out to all those dear ones and their families. Many have been forced into self-isolation, meaning limited association with fellow-believers, friends and family. This has prompted many to ask whether it is possible to play Gem Diggers via the Zoom app. We are happy to report that you can! We have put together the following tips so you can continue to enjoy "Enhancing your store of Spiritual Gems" despite these uncertain times.

PRE-GAME SETUP

• Once you've determined all the players, divide these into teams before starting the game.
• We found it better to limit teams to around five people per team (dependent on how many players you have in total). This gives everyone an equal opportunity to have several turns to act as "Gem Master".
• Send out the team lists to each player via WhatsApp or similar so that everyone knows which team they are on.
• Assign one player who will act as the game host. This person will be responsible for setting up the Zoom meeting, and for directing the flow of things during gameplay. The host will also be responsible for sharing their screen (to show the board and tokens between rounds).
• Ask each player to rename his / her device in the following way: "Team 1 - TheirName", "Team 2 - TheirName", etc. This way its easy for the host to keep track of who is in which team.
• We have created a nifty "Virtual Board" which can be used by the host of the game to do a screenshare between turns highlighting everyone's progess on the board. Click here to view the Virtual Board.

PLAYING THE GAME

• The host will ask one player from each team to roll the die to determine who will play first.
• Each round will have one person acting as "Gem Master" (to describe, act out or ask trivia questions) as in the game proper. The other members of the team will act as "Gem Diggers" and guess.
• When the team that rolled highest is ready to start with their first "Describe" card, the host will mute all other participants (or ask them to mute themselves) with only the team who's turn it is unmuted.

SCORING

We found that its better to adjust the scoring when playing via Zoom as follows:

• For Describe mode, 1 point for each correct clue. If all six clues are correctly guessed, then only 1 point for the Bible Scripture. If however less than 6 are guessed, then 2 points for the Bible Scripture. Hence, maximum moves per turn = 7.
• For Action mode, 2 points per clue. If all 3 clues are acted out within 60 second time-limit, the team gets and additional point. Hence, maximum moves per turn = 7.
• For Trivia mode, 1 point each for the first two questions. 2 points for the 3rd question. 3 points for the 4th question. Hence maximum moves per turn = 7.

This speeds the game up a bit - this same method of scoring can also be applied when playing the game under normal circumstances. The rest of the game works exactly as per the normal game. Enjoy!

* Whilst it is preferable for each player to have their own game, you could include those without a game by sending them 'screenshots' of the cards via WhatsApp or similar beforehand.