Dixit: A Game of Strategy and Imagination

When Tee Morris emailed us to ask if he could talk about a game he’d recently discovered, naturally we were excited. It’s one that both taught him that card games can be amazing, and that he could have fun whether he was playing with his friends or his young daughter. We are big fans of Tee (see our interview with him and Pip) and especially discovering new games to play with friends and family, so we hope you take this review as an encouragement to do likewise.

Trying out a new game is always a tricky thing with me. In fact, it’s a tad nerve-racking. Especially when friends rave about it. I blame this fear on Magic: The Gathering. My friends were crazy about this game, and I admit I was quite taken by the artwork. Try as I might, though, I could never get my decks to work. I tried mixing elements, concentrating on one element, building multiple decks, and…I was usually out within the first hour. Then in 2006 came the “game of podcasters” — Killer Bunnies. Everyone raved about the game; but between its nothing-short-of-intense rules and the cutthroat nature of the game, I couldn’t relax and have fun. Then I heard people talking up the various Munchkin games, so imagine my excitement on sitting down to finally play one of these highly-praised game, Munchkin Cthulhu.

And imagine my disappointment when I was taken out by a “killer card” in the first round. The. First. Round.

Now, with our daughter reaching the age to game, I wanted to introduce her to cool card games, but with the exception of Cards Against Humanity (which, if you’re not familiar with this game, is the farthest thing from family friendly) I really wasn’t sure what cool card games were out there…

Okay, okay… I really wasn’t sure what cool card games were out there that I couldn’t play without sucking wind.

One night though, our friends, Chooch and Viv, came over to introduce my family to a new card game. I felt that pre-game anxiety begin to creep in from the shadows. Would I have another repeat of Munchkin Cthulhu, or would I find myself on a Monopoly-esque meltdown as players gang up on me in a Killer Bunnies fashion?

It was a game with an odd name — Dixit. “So, what are the rules?” I asked. The rules seemed easy enough: I take one of my cards, lie it face down, and give it a description. It can be a title, a phrase, an emotion—whatever I think the card should be called. So if I play a card I call “Fear not.” the other players look at their hand and try to find a card they believe I would also describe as “Fear not.” Once all players have turned in their cards, I shuffle them and display them one-by-one. The other players then have to guess which one is mine.

I was intrigued.

Then I saw the cards in my hand, and I was hooked.

The strategy of Dixit is challenging for players of any age, and perhaps the toughest trick of the game. You want some people to guess your card, but if everyone playing it guesses it, you receive no points. However, if no one guesses your card, you get no points. So it is a balance you walk in coming up with something obvious, but not too obvious.

And you need to have a poker face when you play lest you give up the cards that are not yours. The longer you look at the art, the more details emerge. I have seen a lot of gorgeous artwork through games, but Dixit offers imagery ranging between the breathtaking to the thought-provoking to the stuff that nightmares are made of. The darker artwork is not enough to traumatize younger players, but does lean to a sinister tone much like a classic Disney or Pixar movie.

I cannot praise Dixit enough. Like any game, it has a winner and those other players bringing up the rear; but when you play, you don’t care. The cards, and the game itself, reveals a lot about the players. It’s not as inappropriate or as unsettling as Cards Against Humanity, but definitely a look at what makes those playing tick. The night we played it with my daughter, we played two rounds. When we played it as a family, we did two rounds. Before the end of the week, I was ordering an expansion pack. I’m thinking before the end of March, I’ll be ordering another one.

Go on and take a journey with Dixit. Something tells me you’ll enjoy the ride.

Follow Tee at:

• His Website
• The Shared Desk
• The Captain’s Quarters (Facebook)
• Twitter
• The Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences 

And be looking for the Ministry to be coming out with its own tabletop RPG using the fate system soon!