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Dixit
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2549 Victory Points
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Description
Dixit, winner of the 2010 Spiel des Jahres award (Family Game of the Year), is a hugely popular party game that’s all about using your imagination. If you like games such as Codenames and Mysterium where it’s all about describing, suggesting or giving clues, chances are you will adore Dixit!
The difference here is that this is not a co-operative board game where you are all working together (or there are two teams competing against each other). It’s every person for themselves. To win, be the first to 30 points, or the person with the most points when the deck runs out.
Dixit comes with 84 unique cards, each with wonderful, vivid and sometimes quite surreal artwork on them. Players start with a hand of six cards, and one player will start as the ‘Storyteller’. They will pick one of their cards and describe it in a sentence. This can be as wild, bland, creative or imaginative as they please. Then everyone will discreetly pick a card from their hand that they think best matches that sentence. All cards are shuffled and revealed face-up. Then players have to secretly vote using tokens (which are simultaneously flipped) on which card they think belongs to the Storyteller.
If everyone picks the Storyteller’s card (or if no one guessed right), then everyone scores two points, except the Storyteller. If only some people guessed correctly, then they and the Storyteller score three points. If others pick your own card when you are not the Storyteller, you alone score 1 point per vote for your card. (You are not allowed to vote for your own card!).
Therefore, it quickly becomes a case of the Storyteller having to balance proceedings. If they’re too vague in their descriptions, they risk alienating everyone from guessing their card. But at the same time, they cannot make it too obvious, because then everyone will know it and they’ll score nothing! At the end of each turn, everyone receives a new card to their hand, and then the next player becomes the Storyteller.
In some ways, Dixit is less of a board game and more of a fun activity you can experience with friends or family. Libellud have done a great job with the cards themselves. They’re lovely and big (8x12cm, so bigger than regular playing cards) and the cartoony artwork is adorable, with a surprising amount of detail in each one. Also, the interior of the box itself is the game board, which is sure to delight younger players!
Dixit’s rules are incredibly simple to teach. You’ll be up and running within 90 seconds of lifting the lid – meaning it’s not going to intimidate those who are new to board games. The whole table will be laughing in no time at all, especially when people guess the wrong cards for the most bizarre of reasons!
Player Count: 3-6
Time: 30 Minutes
Age: 8+
Everyone loves a good story. A fantastic tale captures everyone’s imagination: it will paint a picture in your mind and make you experience every detail. From the people you’re with to the places you visit, a decent story will make you vividly hallucinate to the point where you’re so engrossed, you don’t even realise how time has flown. Dixit by Libellud is a game of stories. You choose a card and then say a phrase, song lyric or go whole hog and give it something special for players to link to the card you’ve chosen whilst also throwing their own into the ring!
Gameplay
Dixit is a very unique game. Libellud themselves describe it as an illustrated game of creative guesswork, and that hits it on the head quite nicely. This game is about being able to balance. Not literally of course. But balance what you say between the obvious and the obscure. Master making things believable with a hint of scepticism. You need to be able to be convincing but questionable. Clear but not clear? Anyway, you need to be able to play so that you’re clear enough to have your card guessed, but not so clear that everyone can guess your card. If you’re too obvious, you’ll not score, but too obscure to be got and you’ll not score either!
To kick off, all players draw six cards to have as their hand. Cards are kept secret! The game is then played in turns of players being the main player. The main player says a phrase, a lyric or says a short story and then chooses a card from their hand they think best links to or represents that phrase. All other players choose cards to fit what the main player has said in an attempt to trick others. Players then try to identify which card was chosen by the main player by choosing tokens in secret corresponding to the cards. All players then reveal simultaneously.
If everyone guesses correctly, or no one does, the main player gets nothing! Everyone who guesses correct gets two points. You get no points for obviousness or obscurity. Should the main player only be caught by only some of the players, they get three points and everyone who fooled someone gets one point per player. Anyone who was correct in this situation gets three as well.
There is an art to this artistic game. Saying too much will give you lots to work with and open up a lot of interpretations but saying too little will make it too obvious. We found that saying around 7-10 words linked to a common phrase or saying worked best. If we played on inside jokes and repeated phrases from previous games, we had no hope of scoring. Sure, it was funny, but it didn’t help us in our endeavour to win.
Luckily, once you’re over the comedy hidden within some cards you can begin to construct some fantastic links between cards. But it’s not always a sure-fire winner, even when you say the best phrase you can there’s always a risk with Dixit that the saying you choose will fit someone else’s card better. Sure, that’s what you want to happen in some respect, interpretation is your greatest ally in this game, but when they play that sweet spot card and nail your phrase there is a moment of “Oh wow!” about it. And there’s never any bitterness amongst players from it, the game is too incredibly relaxed (at least that’s what we found, and we’re tremendously competitive!).
The most prominent thing about Dixit is its artwork – no, surprisingly it’s not the bunny rabbit meeple. The art leaves little to be desired in terms of interpretation – it’s a critic’s worst nightmare! It’s gorgeous, lucid, makes no sense and is exactly what you’d imagine a baby would dream about. It’s unique in every respect. There is always an element of ‘what on Earth?’ when looking through the deck, but there is a place for all of the cards and enough elements within them for you to find a focal point for your tale. The interpretation every player takes on the aspects within a picture combined with the different elements on it are what people who’ve played the game truly associate to it, and there is no way to dislike the artwork; it’s just stunningly whimsical!
Because of its unique feel and relaxed theme, when playing with other players the main question asked is whether Dixit is actually a board game… and I’d argue it is. But at the same time, with the right people, it also can be a beautiful storytelling experience. There is no argument that there is a competitive element to the game and that you need to strive to win, however it’s not a game you can be frustrated at; your interpretation of a card determines whether you’ll win. We found that this meant we were saying “I see what you did there!” and “Ah I see it now!” rather than the classic competitive grumbles.
The game also works excellently when playing with younger players. It’s no surprise that imagination comes more naturally to children, and this game plays perfectly into their hands! There is no skill necessary other than your ability to articulate what you see or interpret in an imaginative way, and that in itself is a skill no one can ever master. There will never be ‘that’ player who wins every time in this game, but you’ll always get better at it!
So, do I love Dixit? Well I’m a survival horror, take that game sort of guy. I’m a big fan of Lovecraftian horrors and fighting impending doom. If I’m not fighting a God-like beast or exploring a desolate building filled with nasties, I’m probably not 100% there. Dixit shouldn’t fit into my category of gaming… It should be too relaxing, too player driven, too “nice”…. And yet it does! I’m proud to admit I genuinely enjoy playing it!
There is something quite amazing about the game. The artwork from Marie Cardouat is captivating and the pace of play and need to look at the abstract in an obscure manner is incredible. I won’t lie, I was a true sceptic at first; I thought I’d much rather be running for my life and taking down my opposition brutally than talking to them about a strange image, but about 10 minutes in I was entranced, and before we knew it we’d used the whole deck of cards!
Component Quality
The artwork. Oh man the artwork! To describe it and try and elaborate on what it is would be to talk absolute nonsense and fumble over my words. To say it’s phantasmagorical is an understatement (and that’s the best word to describe the art!). I previously described it as what I’d imagine babies to dream about, and I stand by that. No adult could produce such imaginative art with such a child-like feel to it.
Newspaper’s content becoming stars? A snake metronome draining its colour onto a table? A castle being taken away by balloons? It all sounds like nonsense, but coupled with how the game is played and all of a sudden, these three images suddenly make sense within that context and all logic is unnecessary! And even then, I haven’t even mentioned the player board or meeple! Throwing that child-like innocence back out there, your player token is a bunny rabbit and the box is the board.
Replay-ability
Dixit is replay-able. No two ways about it. My instant impression after the first game was along the lines of “We’ve seen all the cards now, why play again?” But honestly, have you actually seen every last detail of every card? No. No way! I’ve played the core game without any expansions a few times and I can honestly say that there are still elements of some of those pictures to surprise me.
Couple that with different players’ interpretations of the cards when being the main player and you’ve immediately got a whole new spin on every card. If you are worried that the 80+ cards included in the core game aren’t enough for you, Dixit has over eight expansions available that all integrate easily into the game!
Player Interaction
Player interaction isn’t a hugely key element of Dixit. The game could be played in silence bar the main player’s story, but I guarantee you won’t be silent. There will be endless discussion about each card drawn and how every player interpreted their image or why they chose that card over someone else’s. The other thing to remember is that the game is dependent on players’ ability to convey a message through a card.
There is always going to be the immediate reluctance not to say something stupid, and that’s just human nature, however once you’re past that and let loose you’ll be narrating short novels and saying poetic metaphors before you know it! The final thing to know is how easy it is to understand the game. It will take one full turn for everyone to fully understand the rules, regardless of their age!
Engagement
Something about this game makes it near impossible to take your eyes off of it. It could be the artwork or the story telling, but it just feels like it sucks you in and you become engrossed in every image. There will undeniably be down time as the game is player driven (you’ve got to think up those awesome stories!). However, that won’t actually stop the play for long and it’s easy enough to pick back up as everything is done sequentially. Honestly though, any down time will be spent gawping at the stupendously beautiful cards!
Final Thoughts On Dixit
Dixit isn’t a game for anyone specifically as everyone can pick up and play. So long as you can look at a picture and associate it to something, someone or somewhere you’ll do just fine! In my time playing board games I don’t believe I’ve actually met anyone who has played Dixit and didn’t have positive things to say about it. Sure, it won’t always fit your ‘type’ of game, but it’s far too lovely a game to not enjoy!
Dixit isn’t without its faults, but it’s not a game you can’t help but find charming. The play is steady, the concept is wonderful and the design it amazing! (Have I mentioned that I like the artwork?)
Editors note: This blog was originally published on May 13th, 2018. Updated on May 29th 2024 to improve the information available.
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First released back in 2008, the ever popular Dixit now celebrates its 10th anniversary and is still a firm favourite with casual and veteran gamers alike. The story-telling picture card game takes a simple idea and really gets your creative juices flowing.
Let’s see how to play Dixit.
Set-Up – Hare Today, Gone Tomorrow
The newer version of the game has a neat board built into the box with stones numbered from 0 to 30. Each player selects a coloured rabbit and places it on the zero space. The cards are shuffled and then each Dixiter is dealt six cards from the deck, with the remaining ones placed by the board to make up a draw pile. Players are also given voting tiles in their colour for each round.
A simple set-up and were ready to play.
Dixit Rounds – Picture This!
For the first turn in Dixit, select a ‘storyteller’ at random. That player will look at the hand of cards they have and secretly choose one. They then have to think of a sentence or word that can describe the card they’ve selected. After saying the sentence or word out aloud to the rest of the group,everyone else selects a card from there own hand that they feel matches the storytellers description the closest.
The selected card from each person is secretly given to the storyteller and they then shuffle them up. Cards are then placed face-up in a line and its up to the other players to decide which one was the storytellers original card. Once a decision is made, you put a voting token on the one you feel is correct. For obvious reasons, the storyteller doesn’t vote. With all votes cast,the storyteller reveals the truth.
Easy you’re thinking…not so fast!
Dixit – Box and Components (Credit: Libellud)
If all the players guessed the storyteller’s card correct, then the storyteller gets no points whilst the rest get two points. If no one gets the storytellers card, again nil poi for the storyteller. If at least one person but not all get the right card, the storyteller gets three points. Finally, if someone else selected your card then you get an extra point for each person who did so.
It’s a fine balancing act of not being too obvious,but at the same time being so vague that you perplex everyone.
Once the round is complete, the storyteller is the next player clockwise from the previous one and each person takes a new card to fill back to a hand of six. The game ends when all cards from the draw pile are gone, with the furthest along classed as the winner or if someone reaches 30 on the board.
Mix it Up
If you like the concept of Dixit but want to add a bit more razz to it, how about trying different criteria for each full round completed. Each player will have a go at the chosen theme, then after a full cycle, you change it up. Our favourites at the moment include:
- Sound only.
- Movie/TV shows.
- Music.
- Silent action.
- Literature.
There’s so many ways to keep the game of Dixit fresh, so just keep trying new ideas out to see what works well in your group.
I also advise getting the card protector sleeves. Many of my group place cards near there mouths etc, and greasy fingers from snack munching during a games night can ruin the beautiful artwork on the cards. It just keeps them in mint condition and for a cheap price.
Zatu Score
You might like
- The art style.
- The freedom of interpretation.
- The charming styling overall.
- The player driven pace of play.
- The ease of access for anyone.
Might not like
- The need to think on your feet.
- The simple concept.
- The tricky to grasp scoring.