HIGHLIGHTS AMONG GAMES

DIXIT

A FEAST FOR YOUR EYES

Dear reader! A bunny rabbit with a key ring, a magician on a globe, a sea of houses in the shape of an egg, an anchor in the desert – seemingly endlessly rich in images is the imagination, with which French designer Jean-Louis Roubira together with artist Marie Carduat enchant us in this Game of the Year 2010 and its second edition Dixit Odyssey as well as a few expansions. A plethora of images, a feast for the eyes of aficionados of creative, nearly surreal image cards. Some of those images could have been created by Masters like Salvador Dali, René Magritte or Giorgio de Chirico – that manifold are the interpretations of that images that come up in our minds during a game. The game expert Christward Conrad believes the dated “Lexicon Game” or Urs Hostettler’s “Der wahre Walter” to be predecessors of the principle that was so successfully implemented in Dixit. All the same, the many awards for the game may be deemed to be well-earned which is confirmed by Conrad in his elegant comment: “It is less the original idea or the special mechanism of the game but exclusively the range of images that turns Dixit (Latin for “He said”) into a special game to whose enchanting charm all those will succumb who see a gorgeous piece of art in each image.” Should you not yet be familiar with Dixit, simply go and visit Österreichisches Spiele Museum at Leopoldsdorf im Marchfeld for a visual feast. www.spielen.at

A greater wealth of images than dixit cards will rarely be lit up by the light of our lamp on a games table. And indeed, artist Marie Carduat has opened up borderline worlds with her imagination, which elicits an astonished comment from everybody who is experiencing his first contact with dixit. And that despite the fact that the mechanism of this guessing/assessment game is basically very simple. From six big image cards in his hand one of the players, the current narrator, secretly chooses one and offers a comment which can be words, terms, gestures, sounds or even a story. Then all other players are tasked to find one card among their hand of six cards which they think fits the comment just made by the narrator best. Then all those secretly chosen cards are shuffled face-sown und then turned up. All players but the narrator try now to mark the card selected by the narrator, using colored number tiles. When they manage to do so points are scored, when another card but the card of the narrator is marked its owner also scores because of the “misleading” comment of the narrator. This is repeated in turns until one of the rabbits on the scoring track (each player has one in his color) reaches or passes a certain value. Those rabbits contributed a lot to Dixit being taken for a children’s game which it is definitely not, because the core of the game, the creative comments and the associative assignments demand certain intuition or flair, sometimes even insight into human beings. In the right group of players, with the focus not on concentrated thinking but on relaxed guessing Dixit can enchant players. Who would not like to know what he said – Dixit!

Comments to: hugo.kastner@chello.at

Homepage: www.hugo-kastner.at

RECOMMENDATION # 93

Players: 3-6

Age: 8+

Time: 30+

Designer: Jean-Louis Roubira

Art: Marie Carduat

Price: ca. 30 Euro

Publisher: Libellud

Year: 2008

Competence: 2 von 9

Info±: 3 von 9

Chance: 4 von 9

The kind of competence on demand in Dixit is a high ability to associate and also to communicate. Much depends on chance or luck in this fantastically beautiful image assessment game. But this does not matter, because once again the valid motto is “The journey is the reward”. At the end all open questions on assessments will be answered and usually players at that point look forward to the next round.

Hugos EXPERT TIP

You can set aside the original rules and simply enjoy Dixit as a pure association game. For instance by asking: “What does XY associate with the term ‘love’?” Lay out four cards and let all players give a secret guess. The XY in question secretly writes down his own choice. If you guess correctly you score one point. This is only one of many ideas which you can implement with this excellent material for communication. Please let your creative juices flow untrammeled.

Hugos FLASHLIGHT

I have seldom encountered a more beautiful game! But, as happens often, the enchantment of images can dwindle if you adhere to strictly to the scheme for connotation possibilities. So, please, pay attention to the recommendation to leave room for free interpretation of the rules and to experiment as your fancy takes you with the beautiful components. Dixit Odyssey, the second edition, already does show beginnings of creative rules.

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