The game that spawned Mysterium. Or the idea for Mysterium. Basically, Mysterium exists because of this game.
To the point!
/pic3483909.jpg)
Dixit is a family-friendly game that is ostensibly for up to six people. In reality, if you come up with more pieces for scoring and voting, and you have enough cards (there are numerous expansions), you can expand it as much as you want. So, in theory, it can be a real party game. It's definitely better when you're drunk.
The game's premise is simple: everyone has a hand of six cards. The active player chooses a card and creates a clue around it. Then every other player chooses the card they think will best match that clue, and all the cards go in a pile. They're shuffled, laid out, and everyone secretly votes on which card belonged to the active player.
Unlike a game like Codenames, the clue you give isn't particularly restricted; you can use one or more words, sounds that aren't words, references to familiar things, etc. Pretty much anything goes. The reason is that you don't actually want everyone to guess your card. However, you want somebody to guess your card—you only score if some, but not all, of the opponents figure out which card is yours.
So how the bloody fuck does that work? Pretty easily, once you've gone through a few rounds.
One of three things can happen: Everyone guesses correctly, some people guess correctly, or no one guesses correctly.
- Everyone's right: Everyone except the active player gets two points. The active player gets zero.
- Nobody's right: Everyone except the active player gets two points. The active player gets zero. In addition, each player gets a bonus point for each person who guessed their card.
- Some people are right: Everyone who guessed right gets three points. The active player gets three points. Everyone also earns a point for each person who guessed their card.
It's not a complex scoring system, but it's awkward relative to how most game scoring works (do thing -> get points), so mistakes can happen. Reading the directions again for purposes of this review, I realize we may have never done the scoring exactly right. Professionalism!
In terms of fun, I must reiterate a previous point: Bring alcohol.
Wait, are you twenty-one? If you're not twenty-one, disregard that last paragraph.
If you are twenty-one, bring alcohol. Drunk people make the best clues. BUTTERFLIIIIIIIES
Is this a good game? It is.. a... simple game. It's very easy to play (keep one person semi-sober for scoring). That's good for some people! It's quite good for people who don't play many board games, the ones who would see the cards, pieces, and scoring track come out and wonder what kind of over-complicated insanity they've gotten themselves into, so you can show them it's really simple and fun.
But just for a normal sober game night? Eh. It's strange in that the game is totally in control of the players—everyone picks their cards, the active player makes the clue, there is almost no randomness involved, and skill will win out most often—and yet it frequently feels as though you're not really in control of your outcome. You have a game where every time it's your turn, nobody can play anything even close and everyone guesses your card, so you're getting zeroes while everyone else is getting threes, and you just can't win enough guesses for your cards on other people's turns to catch up. Or all the guesses seem to work your way points-wise, even though you don't feel like you've done a great job and maybe even think someone else had really done a better job playing.
Really, just drink. Or smoke. Maybe don't do acid, not with the pictures on these cards.
Score: Six empty beer bottles, or eight full ones, out of ten.
Is this a good game? It is.. a... simple game. It's very easy to play (keep one person semi-sober for scoring). That's good for some people! It's quite good for people who don't play many board games, the ones who would see the cards, pieces, and scoring track come out and wonder what kind of over-complicated insanity they've gotten themselves into, so you can show them it's really simple and fun.
But just for a normal sober game night? Eh. It's strange in that the game is totally in control of the players—everyone picks their cards, the active player makes the clue, there is almost no randomness involved, and skill will win out most often—and yet it frequently feels as though you're not really in control of your outcome. You have a game where every time it's your turn, nobody can play anything even close and everyone guesses your card, so you're getting zeroes while everyone else is getting threes, and you just can't win enough guesses for your cards on other people's turns to catch up. Or all the guesses seem to work your way points-wise, even though you don't feel like you've done a great job and maybe even think someone else had really done a better job playing.
Really, just drink. Or smoke. Maybe don't do acid, not with the pictures on these cards.
Score: Six empty beer bottles, or eight full ones, out of ten.
No comments:
Post a Comment