Qwixx

A fast family dice game  2 to 5 players ages 8 and up

It’s no secret that we love dice games. But sometimes we need a new game to mix things up with. On one of those days, I found Qwixx. Qwixx is a roll and right game from Gamewright . It is more challenging than some of the other dice games that we love and we happily took on the challenge. It has the strategy of Shut The Box but a uniqueness of community. Read on to see what makes this game specail.

Object

The object of Qwixx is to be the player who has the most points by crossing off the most squares.

Playing Qwixx

Qwixx comes with it’s own score sheets and 6 dice: one red, yellow, blue, green and two white. On a player’s turn, she rolls all of the dice. She then adds the two white numbers together. This is the public number and all players can cross it off their sheet in any colour.

Next, she adds one of the white dice to one of the coloured dice. She can then cross off that number in that coloured row. This can be done with either white dice or any of the coloured dice. Only one per turn.

Once she has taken either the public number or a coloured number, or both, her turn is over and the dice are passed to the left. If she chose not to take either number, she must cross off a spot in the penalty boxes.

A player whose turn it is does not have to use the public number, choosing to cross nothing off.

Crossing off

The challenging of the game comes from knowing when to cross off numbers. The score sheet has the numbers 2 to 12 in yellow and red, and the numbers 12 to 2 in blue and green. Numbers are crossed off starting from the left side. Once you pass a number you can’t go back and cross it off.

Example: if you skipped over the red 2 to cross off the 3, you can not at any point cross off the red 2.

Locking a Row

At the end of each coloured row is a lock symbol. To lock a row, a player must have at least 5 numbers crossed off in that row and he must roll a sum that matches the last number in the row. (12 for red and yellow, 2 for green and blue.) The player then crosses off the number and the lock symbol. The cross on the lock counts as an X. This also means that no other player can cross off any number in that colour.

When a row is locked, that coloured dice is removed from play.

Ending Qwixx

There are two ways to end Qwixx. First, if a player crosses off all four of their penalty boxes. The second is if two rows are locked.

Scoreing

Scoring Qwixx  takes a little bit of work. First, below the coloured rows is a table that states how many points a player gets for how many Xs they have in a row. This number is placed in the corresponding box. All the points are added together, Next, the player adds up how many penalties he took. Each penalty is worth -5 points. That number is then subtracted from the coloured score.

Winning Qwixx

The player with the highest score is the winner.

What We Like

First, we like that Qwixx has a strategy component that a lot of dice games don’t have. Next, who doesn’t love a lot of dice with different colours? Or is it just us? The thing that we like the most is the public number. This keeps your interest and you have something to do when it’s someone else’s turn.

What We Don’t Like

First, Qwixx has a learning curve to it. It’s really not a complicated game but it takes a few rounds to get the hang of it. Next, the score sheet is a little small and complicated. It does take a while to do all the adding and subtracting to find the winner.

We have fixed that problem by creating our own Qwixx Score Sheet. You can get yours free in the resource library.

Is Qwixx Worth it?

Qwixx is a next level dice game that has both strategy and luck to it. I believe that the age level of 8 and up is a good fit. We highly recommend adding Qwixx to your Family Game Shelf.

To get your copy of Qwixx, shop here. Canadians can shop here. And to get your FREE score sheet, visit our fun library.

Rating:

If you’re looking for more fun see our dice games, cards games and game reviews.