Qwixx

 

Qwixx is a colored dice game from Gamewright, just six dice and a score pad. You can check it out here, even read the full rules. 

Basically, there are two white dice and four colored dice, which match up with the four colored rows of numbers on the score cards. 

The flow is that on each turn, the next player throws the dice.  All players get a chance to score the two white dice.  Then the player who rolled gets to score a combination of any white die and any one colored die.  So, everyone gets the white 2+4=6, then the active player can try to score an extra box of maybe white 6 plus blue 4 to get the blue 10.  The non-active players don't HAVE to score anything, but the rolling player must score one number on their turn or take a 5-point penalty box. 

The genius of the colored scoring rows is that the top two rows go from 2 up to 12, and the bottom two rows go from 12 down to 2.  If they all went from 2 to 12, you would just always be looking for higher dice as the game goes on.  This way it's up and down, or down and up.  You can easily miss the red 4 you needed because you thought red was still high, or the blue die was just so distractingly BLUE.  (And the other players will happily point it out to you right after you don't score it.)

Finally, you score based on how many numbers you manage to cross off on each row.

So?  

Well, you start off needing low dice on those top rows, high on the bottom, but toward the end it switches.  You try not to skip any numbers, to get the most X's per row (highest score) but the numbers just don't cooperate, and the penalties stack up toward the end when you get no numbers you can score with. 

An extra twist is that if any player has 5+ boxes marked on any row, they can check the final box on that row, which locks the row, and throws that colored die out of the game.

The game ends when two colored dice are thrown out, or when someone hits their 4th penalty box.

The final scoring ramps up significantly based on how many boxes are checked in each row.

It's relaxing fun for two, and sure it has a Yahtzee mood to it, but it is simpler and more colorful and feels less redundant.  Who hasn't gotten a thousand full houses in their lifetime?  But in Qwixx, the numbers you need can be dodgy and elusive, and there is no Chance box for that one extra fail.  One roll per turn instead of three, and less math.

It got surprisingly loud and competitive with four players.  Suddenly (haha), everyone was an expert on what the other players should be doing, while either missing their own marks or coming up with 70 points out of the blue.  All in good fun.

A new favorite of ours.  I do NOT recommend taking a drink every time someone says "this 7 is useless."