The businessman and I were introduced to the dice game Qwixx on the rooftop of a Jerusalem hotel. We had just had a busy day of sightseeing, and it was time to relax and wind down. At least, that's what we thought we were doing as we joined some of our tour group members at a table under the warm night sky.
The game they were playing was Qwixx. The guy who'd packed it in his suitcase, Brad, gave us a quick rundown of the rules, and we caught on fast because it reminded us of another game we enjoy called Welcome to Your Perfect Home. Once we started playing, we found Qwixx to be surprisingly intense for how simple it is to play.
In Qwixx, your score sheet has two rows of ascending numbers and two rows of descending numbers.
Players take turns rolling the dice, and the whole group has the option of crossing off the number of each roll as it's made. The object is to cross off as many numbers in a row as you can, but the hard part is that you have to cross them off in order. There's no going back after you've gone forward.
Dilemmas abound as you try to decide whether to jump forward or wait it out, and the pressure mounts--especially if you have someone like Brad egging you on.
Qwixx lands smack in the middle on the interplay scale because other players aren't affected by the choices you make. However, they are affected by each roll of your dice, and that's one of the reasons this game works so well: everyone is playing at once. There's no thumb twiddling as you wait for your turn to come around. You're always engaged.
Because it's a dice game, it's highly luck-based, but there's enough decision-making to hold the interest of strategy lovers too. This fun mix of luck and strategy is one of the reasons we came home from that rooftop in Jerusalem and bought a copy of the game for ourselves. Next time, we'll be the ones packing Qwixx in our suitcase, and we're sure you're going to want to play. We'll see you on the rooftop!
A by-the-numbers Game Review of Qwixx
# Players . . . 2-5 (So says the box but we've played with a lot more)
Ages 8 and up
Game time . . . . . . . . 30 minutes
Set up . . . . . . . . . . . . . > 1 minute
Luck . . . 3 . . . . . . . . Strategy
*Interplay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Visual Appeal . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Component Quality . .. . . . . 8.5
*Replayability . . . . . . . . . . . 9
*See "How We Rate" for a definition
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