Original sauce: Brian M https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/676496/2-player-co-op-dixit-variant
Having just picked up Dixit, Lisa and I wanted to play it right away. But there are only two of us. We would be very silly to try to play it with only two players.
We are, of course, very silly.
I can't think of a way to play competitively and still give clues, so we went for a cooperative game instead.
- Deal cards to each player as usual.
- Pick a scoring marker for the players (just one marker) and another as a failure marker.
- Pick a player to be Storyteller first. I'll refer to 'Storyteller' and 'Player 2'.
- The Storyteller picks a card from their hand and gives a clue or tells a story about it, then places the card face down.
- Player 2 picks a card from their hand to try to match the clue.
- Add 4 random cards from the deck to the chosen cards.
- Shuffle them out and places them on the table as usual.
- Each player now secretly makes a guess. The Storyteller wants to find Player 2s card. Player 2 wants to find the Storyteller's card.
Reveal your guesses!
If you both guessed the other player's card correctly, cheer and advance your scoring marker 1 space.
If either or both of you guessed wrong, pout and advance the failure marker one space.
Each draw a new card. If you still have 4 cards left in the deck, swap who is Storyteller and proceed to another round.
Try to have more points than failures at the end of the game!
What does this mean? When you are the Storyteller, you want Player 2 to guess your card. This is easy. You could just say "A city made out of eggs", and your partner is sure to guess it.
But...you also want to guess Player 2's card. Give a clue too specific, and your partner won't be able to play any card you can recognize!
You need to give them enough room to play a card you recognize, without making it too easy to be fooled by a random card.
No giving "double" clues that are meant to describe your card and the card Player 2 is supposed to play separately. ("My card is a scarecrow, but your card has plants").
No setting up codes.
No repeating clues.
Remember, you are trying to play a 4+ player competitive game as a 2 player co-op. Try to break the game and it will break. Go with it and have fun and it should provide some amusement. I've tried to make it resistant to "casual" abuse at least.
Please let me know if you try this!
Variant 2 Got a game like Train of Thought, Apples to Apples or any other game with cards with words? Draw a card from that game, and use that word as the clue. Both players try to match the clue.
This eliminates any "cheating" potential, but also removes the fun of coming up with clues and stories.