Dixit

Dixit teaches in about three minutes and then lives or dies on the people at your table. With the right group the surreal art does the work and a one-line clue turns into a long argument about what somebody actually meant by it. With the wrong group it is a pile of pretty cards and a lot of silence. We gave it 5/5 Bamboo and 4/5 Pandas, and everything we have written about it is collected here.

The review is our honest verdict on who should buy it, and it does not pretend the group problem away. If you already know you want in, read every Dixit version ranked before you order anything, because some of those boxes are standalone games and some are card packs, and the difference catches people out at checkout.

Once you have played enough that the base art feels familiar, the expansion rankings cover all nine and sort them by whose art actually makes good clues, which is the only thing a Dixit box is really selling. And if you are torn between this and the other surreal-art game from the same publisher, Dixit vs Mysterium splits it cleanly: Dixit is competitive and about thirty minutes, Mysterium is cooperative and about forty-five.