A picture speaks precisely 1 word:- Dixit

Game: Dixit

Publisher: Libellud

Designer: Jean-Louis Roubira
 
Year: 2008

Dixit is a 4-6 player card game in which you try to decipher which of the cards was placed by a storyteller and which were bluffs played by the other players. Dixit comes with 84 cards with varying pictures that remind me of the dream cards from Mysterium, though less dark, and a little more clear in what they are trying to depict. However there are many expansions which contain a complete replacement deck, should you wish for variety or a longer game. 

Each turn 1 player is a story teller, they play a card from their hand face down and tell a “story” which must be at least one word... or a sound... or a gesture, or really anything that gives people an idea on what the card is meant to depict. Each other player then places 1 card from their hand which they think matches the story. I do wish the cards in the base game had a little more going on, as you often find yourself not having a suitable card in your hand, and in a 4 player game you occasionally get the situation where no-one has a suitable card so the storyteller gets punished for no real reason.

The game set up ready to play, each player has a hand of 6 and a number of betting chips equal to the number of players.

The game scores based on guessing the correct card, should everyone guess correctly then they all get 2 points, but the storyteller gets none. If at least 1 player guessed wrong then the storyteller gets 3 points, as does everyone who guessed right, and then anyone who wasn’t the story teller who had a card guessed gets a bonus point. Should no-one guess correctly then the storyteller gets no points and everyone else gets 2 points plus points based on who guessed their cards. So the trick to being the storyteller is to use a word vague enough that as few players as possible get the answer, but clear enough that you aren’t risking no-one getting it.

A selection of cards, I do feel that the game would be a bit better if each card had just a little bit more going on.

Dixit doesn’t scale well with lower numbers of players, if you are playing with 4 players then each turn there will be 4 cards in the centre, 1 of which you played, one of which is the correct answer and 2 bluffs. So even playing randomly you’d have a 33% chance of getting the right answer, but then when you count the fact that the odds of people having a suitable card in their hand for the story seems to be around 50/50  you are often left with turns when the answer is painfully obvious. However it shines at 6 players when there is a decent selection of bluffs on the table and you have more of a chance of playing obscure references that only one or two players might get.

Dixit is a fun party game that fills an unusual slot in our game collection, games that suit 5/6 players are often rare, and those that do often end up being drawn out and painful. Dixit is quick, super-simple to understand, has gorgeous art and its score tracker is a bunch of bunnies hopping round a field! What more could you want? 

 

8/10