“The game’s afoot, Watson,” Sherlock Holmes would say to his sidekick.

He meant he was about to bring some nefarious evil-doer to justice.

Nowadays, we play board games and video games. Games on our phones, on our computers, and on tabletops. We play games by ourselves, with friends, and with strangers the computer algorithms choose for us.

We can play a Scrabble-like word puzzle game. We can blow up candies. We can search for hidden items in rooms and mazes. We can build virtual farms and castle grounds.

We can spend so much time in these virtual worlds that we’re surprised when real carrots take longer than twelve hours to sprout and grow.

We recently played a very fun game that with a group moves from amusing to hysterically funny.

Telestrations is a combination of the old campfire game, Telephone, and the party game, Pictionary. Each player has a small sketchpad and draws an illustration of either a word or phrase, then passes their sketch. The next person looks only at the drawing, flips a page, writes a guess, flips the page and passes the pad.

The next one reads the guess and draws the word/phrase. And so on. Each person takes turns either guessing or drawing. When the pad has completed its circle around the players, hilarity ensues as the various drawings and guesses are revealed.

It’s fun enough to bring back group games and make me forget it’s my turn on Words With Friends.

What’s your favorite board game? Do you play games online or on your phone?