Miguel
France
Caen
(from Valencia, Spain)
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WHAT IS "JINX"?
For those of you who don't know yet, in a few months a new game of the "Dixit family" is coming, Dixit-Jinx!
If you understand French, this link explains the idea of the game. If not, you will get an idea from this variant. I think it will be a great game, a quicker and more portable version of Dixit, but I realized that one could give a try to the new game mechanics with the existing Dixit components to see how it works. And it does!
WHAT YOU NEED
1) One Dixit deck, or more if you have/want.
2) The board from Dixit Odyssey (or this one).
3) One d12 and a dice cup.
That's all! No voting tokens, no score path, no rabits... Item 2) is just to identify the cards with a number, you could use small pieces of paper if you want.
HOW DO YOU PLAY?
Put 12 cards around the board. The story teller rolls the d12, leaves it covered by the cup, and secretely looks at the result. He has to make the other players guess the card corresponding to that number! Now players have to think fast and point one card with their finger. But beware, once a card has been pointed it cannot be chosen by other players! If that was the card, the player pointing keeps it face down in front of him and the round ends.
If it was not the card, the story teller keeps it in front of him and the other players can continue guessing. But if none of them guesses the card, then the story teller gives the cards back plus one if he already had cards from a previous round. When you decide to end the game (no more cards, a given number of rounds, whatever), each player counts the cards in front of him and the one with the most is the winner.
So if the clue is too easy, you may not earn cards/points, but if it is too difficult you may even lose one. As a story teller, you want the first players to guess wrong, but not all of them. And as the guessers, you have to find the card fast, before any other player does.
WHAT I LIKE
You have no cards in hand, which means you don't need to make an effort to hide them from your neighbors (good when you are 6+). And you don't have to choose (nor wait till the others do) a card, the die does it for you!
In the new game you will have always 9 cards on the table and up to 6 players (you need more cards than players for the game to work), so here you could try 10 cards and a d10, but the d12 worked fine (we were 7-8).
You don't need to calculate/keep the score, and there is some suspense in the endgame because no one knows exactly how many points he or the others have.
WILL YOU NEED DIXIT-JINX?
YES! This variant provides another way to enjoy your Dixit, but the new game will have more abstract cards that suit the new mechanics better. One thing we found is that the existing Dixit cards are too detailed. And you won't need die and cup, there are special cards that tell the story teller which one he has to describe. Here is a preview of the new cards:
I'm not sure, but I think that the cards will be small format and the box will be the size of the cards (remember, no need of tokens), so the game will be fast and portable... and cheap I hope!
So try this variant if you want during the next few months, and then I'm afraid we all will buy Dixit-Jinx...
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Justus Pang
United States
Houston
Texas
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hmm this is not good news...I guess I need to make room in my budget for the next version of Dixit.
I was not particularly enthralled with the Dixit Oddessy set, I do think it was a bit too detailed. I do hope they keep the same card format, I think it would make for an interesting experience to throw everything in together.
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Justus Pang
United States
Houston
Texas
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Clarification just so I "get it":
 Story teller lays out 9-12 cards
 Story Teller rolls die
 Story Teller gives clue for card # rolled
 Speed game: guess! each guess is resolved before another player may guess, each player has only one guess
 If correct the guessing player takes the card
If incorrect the story teller takes the card temporarily and other players may guess
If all guessers fail, then the story teller must surrender a previously captured card along the the temporary captures.
 Clear the board and the next player in order is the story teller.
Winner is the one with the most captured cards on the table
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Peter Millen
United Kingdom
Greyabbey
Northern Ireland
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No rabbits??
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Matt Loscutoff
United States
Sacramento
California
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ITS DUCK SEASON!
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Miguel
France
Caen
(from Valencia, Spain)
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aaarg_ink wrote: Clarification just so I "get it"...
Yes, you got it! And you said the same thing with way less words.
However, since the existing Dixit cards are too detailed, I think having 9 cards for 6 players would be too few, for this variant. That's why we started with 12 cards for 8 players, but when two left we kept using 12 cards.
I'm looking forward this "pocket Dixit"!
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Russ Williams
Poland
Wrocław
Dolny Śląsk
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This sounds like a clever interesting pleasing variant. No need for separate score-keeping and voting chits etc.
(But you still the die or some other method of deciding which card the storyteller describes... Too bad! It would be great if you literally only needed a deck of cards! Perfect for a compact portable travel game! Wait, you could solve that by adding special number cards 1..12 and the storyteller mixes and draws from them! Cool.)
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Miguel
France
Caen
(from Valencia, Spain)
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Well, a die is small, and for a travel version you can skip the dice cup and use your hand to cover it. The cards to tell which card people have to guess will look like this:
EDIT: But you are right, poker cards from 1-10 plus Queen and King would be a great compact alternative!
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Miguel
France
Caen
(from Valencia, Spain)
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The one thing I didn't like was that, when 6 players had failed, the last one (we were 8) often didn't want to guess right because that meant 1 point for him but 6 for the story teller, and then he chose a wrong card on purpose.
But this is because we were too many, the new game is advertized for 3-6 players. So, when playing with more than 6, maybe add a -1 card/point penalty for failures? Or better limit the cards that the story teller can earn to 4? Next time we play we may try...
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Russ Williams
Poland
Wrocław
Dolny Śląsk
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franchi wrote: The one thing I didn't like was that, when 6 players had failed, the last one (we were 8) often didn't want to guess right because that meant 1 point for him but 6 for the story teller, and then he chose a wrong card on purpose.
But this is because we were too many, the new game is advertized for 3-6 players. So, when playing with more than 6, maybe add a -1 card/point penalty for failures? Or better limit the cards that the story teller can earn to 4? Next time we play we may try...
Or say that the correct guesser divides the cards with the storyteller (with the odd card going to the storyteller)?
I.e.:
1st guess is correct: the 1st guesser gets 1 card.
2nd guess is correct: the storyteller and the 2nd guesser each get 1 card.
3rd guess is correct: the storyteller gets 2 and the 3rd guesser gets 1 card.
4th guess is correct: the storyteller and the 4th guesser each get 2 cards. (Instead of 3 and 1.)
But that might encourage people to delay guessing, hoping to increase their potential reward... But on the other hand "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush" - if I really think I know the card, I'd rather get 1 point now than have someone else claim it before I can later.
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Miguel
France
Caen
(from Valencia, Spain)
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But on the other hand, the players guessing last have an easier choice (less cards), getting in addition a higher reward does not feel right...
At first sight, the 4 point limit for the story teller seems a good compromise to me, and is in line with the 6+ player rules of Dixit Odyssey.
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Miguel
France
Caen
(from Valencia, Spain)
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We played yesterday with the 4 points limit for the story teller and it worked quite well. Indeed this variant is set up and explained much faster/easier than the original game!
I insisted to the new players that this is not the way the game is supposed to be played though...
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