Thoughts from the Yellow Meeple: Dixit

Game: Dixit

Publisher: Libellud

Designer: Jean-Louis Roubira

Year: 2008

Dixit is a party game I never thought I’d enjoy. The idea of a story-telling game is somewhat cringeworthy, given that I don’t consider myself creative or imaginative! However, I first got to play Dixit on our first visit to Stabcon South last year, enjoyed it a fair amount and expected to see it hitting the table quite frequently when we started to play game with different board game groups and groups of friends. However, in the space of around 12 months we never saw it again, so I bought it as part of my first Amazon Prime Now delivery and it arrived at my door 2 hours later (for some reason this is amazing!). Now that Dixit is in our collection, is it hitting the table and do we enjoy it?

In Dixit each player has a hand of cards on which is a selection of crazy and beautiful artworks. The active player selects one of their cards and tells a story, says a word or somehow communicates something about the card to the other players, without revealing the card. All the other players must then contribute to the pile one of their cards which they think fits the description. The cards are shuffled and revealed. All the players except the active player than vote on which card they think is the one belonging to the active player. Points are awarded to the active player if some people, but not everyone guesses their card. Points are awarded to players who guess the correct card and points are awarded to anyone other than the active player who gets a vote for their card.

A four-player game setup

The scoring mechanisms of this game are really what keeps everyone in check. The prospect of points means that the active player shouldn’t be too obscure as to get no votes or too obvious as to get all the votes. The other players are encouraged to throw into the centre, not just any random card, but one that might well get them some points too.

The base game is for 4-to-6 players, but for us it definitely plays best with 6 and we’d probably play it with 7 or 8 if we had enough cards and playing pieces (incidentally the pieces are pretty cute rabbit meeple!). We’ve played a couple of games with 4 players and generally it was always too obvious which card belonged to the ‘storyteller’ – with more players I think there’s just more chance someone else will have a good card that matches the story and just more cards to choose from and more brains that might see different obscure references in the card art.

Bunnies! And a nice use of the box as the scoreboard.

As you might expect, a game of Dixit also improves significantly with the right group. It’s not as dependent as some games because you can get away with a one word description, but having an imaginative group definitely helps with the stories and causes more laughter as the way people’s minds work is revealed.

I really enjoy Dixit and am looking forward to bringing it out with a new expansion for some fresh artwork. It’s really accessible to gamer and non-gamer audiences and is quite a unique competitive gaming experience, which makes it a strong addition to the collection. For me, it’s not a game that grabs me and is exciting, but it’s just ‘nice’ to play and the Yellow Meeple give Dixit a 6.5/10.