Father Geek

The Basics:
o Ages 3+ (box suggests 8+…don’t you believe it)
o Takes 3 to 6 players
o About 30 minutes to play

Geek Skills:
o Active Listening & Communication
o Logical & Critical Decision Making

Learning Curve:
o Child – Easy
o Adult – Easy

Theme & Narrative:
o Anything you can imagine…

Endorsements:
o Gamer Geek approved!
o Parent Geek approved!
o Child Geek approved!

Overview

In Dixit, players take turns telling a short story, a description, or even making a sound based on colorful illustrations. This games requires all the players to listen, communicate, be imaginative, and have their wit at the ready.

The game is comprised of 84 colorful and beautifully illustrated cards that depict whimsical and magical places and things, a small wooden “Bunny” for each players that is used to keep score, numbered tiles 1 though 6 for placing votes, and a built-in-the-box score track. All the game components are of high quality and sturdy ensuring hours of great game play for your little geeks, friends, and you.

The illustrated cards are beautiful to look at, which is fantastic, considering they are at the heart of the action. There is nothing to read on these cards which makes it a wonderful game your young little geeks can play, too. Each card shows a whimsical illustration with no context to what is on the card or anything you might consider “descriptive”. Defining the context and what is being shown on the card is the player’s job, but more on that in a moment.

The built-in-the-box score track and the “Bunny” player pieces are also colorful. In fact, even the vote markers are colorful. Shoot, everything is just “beautiful” about this game. The art design was spot on with every aspect of the game, including the packaging . The only bland thing about the game is the single, two-sided instructions, but even that is illustrated!

To set up the game, shuffle the big deck of cards and deal each player 6, face down. Each player selects a “Bunny” player pieces and takes 6 vote tiles that match their “Bunny” colorful. The “Bunny” player pieces are placed on the score track on the spot marked “0″ and the first player is selected. You are now ready to play Dixit!

In this game, all the players participate. There is no down time, but the roles of the players shift. Depending on the role the player has, the goal of their turn is different. There are only two roles, which will make it easy to remember and to play. The roles are “Storyteller” and “Everyone Else”. See? Easy to remember.

If the player is the Storyteller, they look at their cards and think of a single sentence, a sound, a quote from a poem, movie title, or whatever they can think of that would describe one of their cards. This is a little more complex than I am making it sound. First, the illustrations do not provide the player with any clues about what the illustration is about. This is intentional because the Storyteller must not only use their imagination to craft a description, but their description must also not be so descriptive as to actually make it easy to identify the card. Essentially, the Storyteller must balance their description between explicative and purposely misleading. The reason for this will be clear when it comes times to score points.

Once the Storyteller selects a card and crafts a description, they place their card face down in front of them and say the description out loud to all the other players. Everyone else in the game must listen carefully to what the Storyteller says and then select one of their cards from their hand that they think contains an illustration that matches or supports the Storyteller’s description. Once they have selected the card, they place it face down on top of the Storyteller’s card.

After all the players have placed a card on the pile, the Storyteller collects the cards, shuffles them, and places them in a line in front for all the players to see. The first card placed is number 1, next is number 2, and so on until all the cards are played. The other players now look at all the other cards and do their best to determine which card is the Storyteller’s. When they think they have figured it out, they select the vote tile that has the number that matches the card they want to vote on and then place the tile in front of them, number side down.

Once all the players have placed their vote tile, they are all flipped and placed on their corresponding cards (vote tile “1″ goes on card “number 1″, and so on). The Storyteller reveals which card was the “real card” and points are scored.

o If all the players voted for the Storyteller card, or if none of the players voted for it, everyone except the Storyteller is awarded 2 points. This goes back to what I said previously about the Storyteller being required to balance their description between explicative and purposely misleading. If they described it too well, all the players would easily select it. If they described it so vaguely as to not really be of any help, then no one might select it.

o In all other cases, the Storyteller is awarded 3 points as do any player who voted for the Storyteller card.

o Additionally, each player scores 1 point for each vote placed on their card.

After the points are totaled, the “Bunny” player pieces are moved that many spaces ahead on the score track. All the cards played are collected and set aside. One new card is dealt to all the players for a maximum of 6 cards in their hand. Lastly, the role of the Storyteller is passed to the next player. A new round is ready to begin.

The game continues until the very last card is drawn and the players are unable to maintain 6 cards in their hand. The winner of the game is the player who has collected the most points.

Final Word

Dixit is one of those rare games that can be played with a mixed age and skill group with little to no difficulty. It is because of this that this game is a big hit in my family. Whenever we have guests over with kids (or even without kids), Dixit makes it to the table. This is also a great game for the non-gamers in your life. The rules are not complex, there isn’t a high level of difficulty, and all that anyone really needs to play is good listening skills and an imagination.

Another benefit of this game is the ability to see how my little geeks interpret stories and images. Many times over, I have been blown away with some of the very imaginative stories or how they intrepidity the stories told to them. What we do when we play (with just the family), is go through each of the cards after they have been played which allows the players to describe what they were thinking. In some cases, this is even more entertaining than the actual game. Hearing my kids tell the story as they understood, it is very insightful and somewhat magical. The imaginative mind of a child is truly incredible.

But the magic of Dixit doesn’t end there. This game is also very playable in any language. Even sign language. Children and adults with speech and hearing difficulties can join right in the fun. Teachers and educators can use this game to stimulate short story writing, impromtu speech practice, or as a psychology experiment to demonstrate how people think based on what they hear. Truly fantastic.

Have I sold you on the game yet?

The Basics:
o Ages 10 and up
o Plays 2 to 7 people
o About 30 minutes

Geek Skills:
o Active Listening & Communication
o Logical & Critical Decision Making
o Reading

Learning Curve:
o Child – Moderate
o Adult – Easy

Theme & Narrative:
o None

Endorsements:
o Father Geek approved!
o Child Geek approved!

Overview

Train of Thought is a party word game that will challenge and entertain. This game is not for the dull or slow. Train of Thought requires you to be engaged and listen attentively during the entire game. At the same time, this game is not overpowering or overwhelming and is easily taught within about 2 minutes.

The game is comprised of two types of cards. The single Conductor Card and the Station Cards. The Conductor Card is used to signify which player is leading and is passed from player to player during the game. A Station Card have 6 words printed on it, with a value of 1 through 6 next to each word. Also included in the game is an easy to read and understand rule book, a 60-second timer, and a single six-sided die.

Players are either Guessers or the Conductor. Regardless of the player’s role, there are points to be won. This is an excellent mechanic as it keeps all the players active and involved. There is no downtime. Once the game starts, everyone at the table is simultaneously playing for points.

If the player is the Conductor, they take the Conductor Card and roll a single six-sided die. This die value is placed on the Conductor Card. It is visible to all the players and serves as a reference for the Conductor. The Conductor then takes one of the Station Cards and places it face up so all can see it. The number next to the word that matches the die roll is the “start word”. The conductor then takes another Station Card, but does not reveal it to the other players. This hidden Station Card lists the “destination word”. The previously rolled die value identifies the destination word in the same manner as the start word. The game is ready to begin.

The goal of the game is to get the Guessers to correctly name as many destination words as possible within an allotted amount of time. Doing so wins a point for the Guesser and the Conductor. It is therefore in the Conductor’s best interest to be as precise and clear as possible. It is also in the Guesser’s best interest to pay close attention and do all they can to guess the destination word first.

One of the Guesser’s takes on the role of the Breakman for a single turn. The Breakman is in charge of turning over the timer and calling “time” when it runs out. The Brakeman is still very much in the game and should participate in the guessing.

When the Conductor says go, the Breakman turns over the timer. The Conductor then provides the Guessers with a 3-word sentence or short phrase that will help the Guessers guess the destination word. Note that the 3-word sentence or short phrase must contain the start word and cannot contain the destination word.

The Guessers then get to shout 1 word each and no more. The Conductor must listen to the words carefully. If one of the Guessers shouts the destination word, a point is immediately scored for both the Conductor and the Guesser! If none of the words match the hidden word, the Conductor must use one of the words said by the Guessers in a 3-word sentence or short phrase. Again, the Conductor can never say the hidden word. This continues until one of the Guessers shouts out the destination word.

Once the destination word has been guessed, a new hidden Station Card is drawn. The previous hidden Station Card is placed face up in front of all the players. Play continues with the Conductor providing a new 3-word sentence or phrase using the previous destination word on the now revealed Station Card. The new hidden Station Card provides the new destination word. The six-sided die is never re-rolled.

The Conductor continues to draw new Station Cards and providing new destination words for as long as there is time on the 60-second timer. Once the Breakman shouts “time”, the Conductor Card is passed to a new player, another Guesser becomes the Breakman, and a new turn begins.

Points are tracked by players taking one of the Station Cards that have been discarded or not used yet and set aside in a separate “scoring pile” in front of them. Train of Thought comes with 200 Station Cards, which means you will never be short cards to play with.

Play continues for 2 rounds, providing each player with 2 chances to be the Conductor. After the second round, all players count the cards in their scoring pile. The winner is the player with the most cards and goes on to have a lucrative career in the locomotive industry or word franchise.

Final Word

I am not a fan of word games. I find most of them to be fairly unimaginative in their game design and repetitive to the point where it is painful to even participate. Lack of replay value, player interaction, and imagination often go hand-in-hand with word games, in my opinion. There are exceptions, of course. There are some very good word games available on the market today.

Train of Thought is one of those very good word games.

This game does a lot of things right. First, it provides for a high level of player interaction. I love games where I get to actually play with the other people. Second, it is fast-paced. There is no downtown and a single game doesn’t last very long or feel drawn out. Third, this game is challenging and requires all the players to use their active listening, communication, and logical thinking skills. This makes the game very challenging and rewarding. Fourth, and finally, the game’s mechanics and flow are easy to understand and to teach. This makes it very easy for me to introduce the game to veteran gamers and new players, alike.

This game is not for your littlest geeks. Reading and having a moderately large vocabulary is required to play. Your littlest geeks can still participate, however, but with assistance from the parents. If you play with your littlest geeks, put them on a team with another adult or older geek. This is how we played and it worked just fine. I also suggest you have a “practice round” to help everyone get in the mindset of how the game is played.

For those with older little geeks, the suggested age range is appropriate. Expect some words to be unknown to the Conductor. If this does happen, simply have the Conductor draw a new Station Card as quickly as possible and continue without penalty. The point of this game is to get your little geeks to strengthen their communication and logic skills. This game will do that with ease while not feeling like work.

Train of Thought is all about connecting the dots. As the game progresses, all the Guessers must do their best to follow the thread, or “train of thought”, that is being communicated by the Conductor. If the Guessers fail to do so, they will not follow the logic thread being cast by the Conductor, costing everyone points. Likewise, the Conductor must do all they can to keep the Guessers on the right track by adding small but important details that are connected. If everyone does this correctly, destination words are guessed fairly quickly.

I enjoy this game very much and get it on the table whenever I can. It is fast and challenging. I highly recommended it for your older little geeks and for adults. Great for parties or whenever you just want to have some fun!

This game was given to Father Geek as a review copy. Father Geek was not paid, bribed, wined, dined, or threatened in vain hopes of influencing this review. Such is the statuesque and legendary integrity of Father Geek.