SNAP Review – Picky Pixie

[Anitra] I think everyone has some experience with picky eaters. And it seems like foods that our kids like one day, they refuse the next.

[Andrew] I can’t help you solve that problem, because I would have done it by now, but I can help you discover the dietary restrictions for a fairy tale creature – in the new game Picky Pixie.

Game

Picky Pixie is a compact deduction game for 2-5 players ages 8 and up, by Elizabeth Hargrave. It’s published by Button Shy.

Each player gets a turn to be the pixie, while everyone else will try to figure out what flowers they want, before the deck runs out.

Art

[Anitra] So let’s talk about the art in this game.

Annie Wilkinson made the art for Picky Pixie. There’s a Pixie card with Yes and No on it, she makes me think a little bit of the fairy tale characters from Shrek…

[Andrew] I think like Inside Out emotions.

[Anitra] Yeah. But the meat of the game is these 16 double-sided offer cards. Each one has four groups of flowers, and they have a pretty border.

[Andrew] We’ve got orchids, roses, daisies, and trumpet flowers, in four different colors. Each type is clearly different, but the rose illustration doesn’t really work well for us with all these colors. That one, maybe they could have done a little bit differently.

[Anitra] Not included in the little wallet here is paper and pencils. You’ll want some for every player.

Mechanics

All right, we’re talking about the flower groupings – what do we actually do with these? Let’s talk about the mechanics for Picky Pixie.

Start by choosing a player to be the first Pixie. They take the Pixie and Reference cards. Then they draw two flower cards, and make up a secret flower rule. At least one group on one card must pass the rule, and at least one group on the other card must fail the rule.

What makes a rule? Well, in a standard game, it is an amount and a category. The amount can be an exact number, or something like “at least 2” or “less than 3” or “an odd number of”. The categories are listed on the reference card – they include types of flowers, colors, or alternate categories like “colors” as in “at least 2 colors” or total flowers, like “less than 3 flowers”.

Once the Pixie has come up with their rule, they write it down. Then they tuck their two flower cards underneath the Pixie card – showing one group of flowers on the “Yes” side, and one group of flowers on the “No” side.

Now, the rest of the players can start making offers and trying to deduce the rule. On each player’s turn, they take the top flower card from the deck, and then choose one group to offer to the Pixie player. The Pixie player takes the card and tucks it so the offered group is showing, either under “yes” or “no”.

Any time an offer has been made and a flower group has been tucked, ANY PLAYER (whether it’s their turn or not) can call for a guess.

If a guess has been called, every player writes down their best guess at what the rule is, while the Pixie takes a card off the deck and places it below the pixie card. This just tracks how many guesses have been called.

When everyone has written their guess, reveal them all. The Pixie tells the group if each guess is correct or incorrect.

If no one got it right and there are still at least two cards in the deck, continue with the next player making an offer.

But if one or more players did guess the rule correctly, they get points – one point for every two cards left in the deck. The Pixie gets two points for every time a guess was called (remember, that’s why we put cards down to mark each guessing session!)

Then you’re shuffling the deck back together and passing the Pixie and Reference cards to the next round’s Pixie. When everyone has had a chance to be the Pixie, the game is over. Who managed to get the highest score?

There are, of course, variations if this is too easy. You can make more complicated rules to spice up the Pixie’s palette!

There’s also a two player variant, in which the Pixie must give an additional clue with a new flower card after each incorrect guess.

Expectations

[Anitra] So, what did we expect from this game?

[Andrew] Well, let’s start with what we know. This is an Elizabeth Hargrave game, so we knew it would have some kind of nature element to it. It’s a Button Shy game, so we knew it would make clever use of a small number of cards. We saw that it said 8+, so we figured probably not a lot of reading.

[Anitra] This is the fourth game I’ve tried from Elizabeth Hargrave. She’s great at finding unusual themes in nature and the stories we tell each other. I love her other Button Shy game, Tussie Mussie. I hoped this would have the same kind of feel as that – easy to learn, but making players study each other to play well.

[Andrew] I really like deduction games. And we’ve seen things like this before in games like Visitor at Blackwood Grove. We really liked that game, too, once we figured out all of the confusing rules. But like we said, this is a Button Shy game, 18 cards, 8+: I figured it would be a little bit simpler and so I was excited to play this one.

Surprises

[Andrew] But there were some surprises too, right?

[Anitra] Yeah! I was surprised at how free-form the rules could be! Even within the framework that’s provided, there’s a huge difference between a rule like “exactly 1 color” or “an even number of flowers” or “at least 2 pink”.

[Andrew] For me, this actually made the game a lot harder. It was also weird that the guessers didn’t always feel like they should guess. Maybe fear of being wrong, I don’t know. Especially in a two-player game, it’s really easy to run down the pile and never be able to come up with a guess for the rule that you feel good about! In reality, while guesses do give the Pixie some points, they’re not that big of a deal, so it’s OK to be wrong. (Andrew, it’s OK to be wrong!)

[Anitra] When we played with our kids, I loved that everyone actually gets a chance to guess – every time a guess is called, everyone guesses. And then you can learn from other people’s incorrect guesses, too! That was a fun thing us to see our kids to learn, and then put into practice.

Recommended?

[Andrew] So Anitra, it’s that time. Do we recommend Picky Pixie?

[Anitra] I think it’s best for kids and adults who already like deduction games. With the limited information you get from the flower cards, putting them on “yes” or “no”, it can be hard to piece together a rule, and our youngest found it pretty frustrating.

[Andrew] For me, I don’t think there is enough here built up around the deduction part to help kids along if they’re new to this genre. For that, we would actually recommend games like Outfoxed or Deduckto.

[Anitra] I mean, I thought it was great. I can’t wait to play it again! Just remember that you’ll need something to write with.

We’re going to give Picky Pixie four flower buds out of five.

And that’s Picky Pixie, in a SNAP!

Buy it today from Button Shy Games.

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The Family Gamers received a copy of Picky Pixie from Button Shy Games for this review.

This post contains affiliate links, which do not change your price, but help support The Family Gamers.

SNAP review music is Avalanche, provided courtesy of You Bred Raptors?