Dixit Review

Some of the best board games to play with friends aren't the ones where you're working with the board game to beat your opponents or even the ones where you're working as a group to beat the board game. Board games can be their most fun when they allow you to play off each other. Dixit is a word/picture association game where every player gets to look at images and try to think how someone else would have interpreted them.

Just how fast can you get started with Dixit?

Inside the box is a flip-out board with all of the scoring rules, spaces for picture cards to be placed, and a movement track for player pieces. Also included is colored rabbit tokens, numbered tokens of the same colors, and a deck of 84 gorgeous picture cards. Players should each get a hand of picture cards, and the rabbit piece and numbered token of the same color.

From here the players pick the Storyteller to go first. The player who is the Storyteller will pick one of the picture cards in their hands and pick a word that they'll associate with it. The cards range from brightly colored landscapes to surreal pieces of art. An image of a card might display a cat with raised paws over a closed fishbowl with stars twinkling in the sky behind. The Storyteller could pick any aspect of the image that jumps out at them and use it as their image. It could be something obvious like "Cat" or "Stars" or more abstract like "Prey" or "Natural Selection".

The Storyteller will put their card facedown and each other player will submit a card that they feel also matches the Storyteller's hint. These cards are all shuffled and laid out on the board. Players will then guess which card belongs to the storyteller, based on the player's guesses the points are awarded.

If all or none of the players correctly guess the Storytellers card then the Storyteller gets no points, and points are given out to the other players. This is where you aren't playing the game directly, but you're instead playing against your friend's perception and ideas. When picking you'll need to try to figure out a perfect balance of what will most but not all of your friends guess. There's some good comedy in discussing angles you approached an image. From there the game continues to rotate around the table until one player's rabbit token reaches 30 points.

Dixit is an extremely light game in every aspect. It's easy to teach, easy to bring out or put away, and every rule you might need to know is on the same folded-out board where you're tracking your points. It's so simplistic that you're almost waiting for the other shoe to drop and some more difficult setup to be introduced part way through the game. This ease of use is what will also keep Dixit at the top of your pile for games to pick out to fit a casual gaming atmosphere.

Should I buy Dixit?

Dixit is a short and sweet game, and sometimes that's just the mood you want. It definitely won't satisfy the room if people are in the mood to get deep into a board game, but it's always going to be an easy option for any occasion. With so few instructions it can simply be printed on the board itself it's a game that prides itself on that simplicity. Dixit is also an enjoyable play for any age range of players so is a good one to share.