Rogue Review- Qwixx

This game came as part of my son’s Santa haul this year. I didn’t expect too much from it at first glance. It’s a dice rolling game.

Gameplay- A

*Any player could place a 9 on their score card and then the rolling player could do a red 10 or 11, yellow 5 or 6, blue 6 or 5, green 7 or 6*

The game play is pleasantly simple. Each turn, a player rolls the six dice (2 white, red, blue, green and yellow). Everyone has the option of taking the value of the two white dice and filling in a spot on their score chart. Then the rolling player has the option of taking the value of one of the white dice and one of the colored dice and filling in a spot on their score card. Then the dice are passed.

Simple enough to explain. But there are of course complications. On your score card, there are four colored rows. The red and yellow count up from 2 to 12 and the blue and green down from 12 to 2. Once you fill in a box you can not fill in any number to the left on that row. For example from the score card, once that yellow 5 was taken, the 2, 3, and 4 became off limits.

This locking out of numbers becomes the hard decision point of the game. The more boxes you fill out, the greater your score (high score wins). But the more boxes locked out the greater your risk of a penalty. If it is your turn and you cannot fill out any boxes, then you have to take a penalty which is worth -5 points.

For each of the rows, once you have five boxes filled in you become eligible to fill in the final box (a 12 or a 2 depending on row). Once that box is filled that color becomes locked. Anyone who locks a row gets bonus score because the lock circle counts as a filled in box. When a row becomes locked, that color dice is removed and no one can fill in boxes of that color, even with white dice. After two rows have become locked the game ends. The game can also end once any person has acquired four penalties.

The game is a balance between filling in as many boxes as you can and getting to five boxes in a row so that should a 12 or 2 come up on the white dice, you can lock a row if anyone else does. The best time to lock a row is when you get a 12 or 2 using colored dice because then you’re the only one locking a row. Each filled box is worth more than the one before it so you also want to aim to fill as many boxes as you can. But you also don’t want to overfill your card too early and get to a point where you’re taking penalties every turn while waiting for that lucky 12 or 2 to get rolled.

Production- B+

The box is small, which is a plus on its own, without being to small. The score cards are big enough and the determining factor on the box size. My only complaint is it feels like you could have fit more score cards into the box. Maybe we played it too much with my parents (burning five sheets every two games) but we’ll go through them fast.

Theme- N/A

This isn’t the type of game that has a theme. It’s a dice game. Plain and simple.

Expansions- N/A

None and it’s not that kind of game.

Conclusion- A

This feels a lot like Yahtzee or Farkle in that you’re rolling dice and making decisions about what dice to use and how. Those games, too, are relatively quick and easy for all skill levels to participate in. This one stands out some for one main reason. The white dice are available to everyone every round. This encourages everyone to be engaged with the game the whole time, rather than sitting back and doing nothing while you wait for your turn.

Recommended for as a good, Qwixx family game.