Outfox the Fox

People love lists. All you have to do is an internet search, and you can find a top five or top ten list for just about anything.

But what if you don’t know the order of the top five and have to guess?

And what if the person giving you the clues is giving you a sixth option that they’ve made up to trip you up?

Then you get Outfox The Fox.

Outfox the Fox is a trivia/social deduction game for 2-10 players ages 10+. It is designed by Jeff Grisenthwaite and published by Smirk & Dagger Games.

Gameplay

Each player selects a matching pair of colored Fox tokens, placing one on the green starting square of the main gameboard and taking the other.

The player who either owns the game (or is hosting the game night) takes the first turn as the Fox. They take the sand timer and draw three Question cards from the box of cards. The player to their left takes the dry-erase marker and dry-erase boards.

Fox: Read Answers and Bluff

Without looking at the answers on the back, the Fox selects one Question card and returns the other two to the box. Then they flip the card over and read the five given answers. They also insert their own made-up Fox answer in the designated spot on the list.

The player to the Fox’s left writes one answer on each dry-erase board.

Guessers: Put the Answers in Order

Then the guessers debate the order in which the provided answers go, placing them on the left side of the main gameboard. After the group reaches a consensus, each player can place their colored Fox token on the answer they’re most sure of. This doubles down on that guess, giving them a scoring bonus if it’s placed correctly.

Reveal the True List

Now the Fox reads the top five – in the correct order – from the card. As the Fox reads the answers, players move the answer whiteboards to the correct slots on the right side of the gameboard. If the guessers guessed correctly, place the dry-erase board into the slot, leaving the green checkmark revealed. But if they guessed incorrectly, they place the correct answer to reveal the red X instead.

If any Fox tokens are placed on a dry-erase board that is in the exactly correct spot, those Fox tokens will move over with the answer to the right side of the board. Otherwise, Fox tokens with incorrect guesses are returned to their respective players.

Then proceed to scoring.

Scoring

First, score the Fox player based on where the other players put the Fox answer. (5 points if ranked 1st, 4 points if ranked either 2nd or 3rd, 3 points if either 4th or 5th, and 0 points if the other players guessed correctly that it was the Fox’s answer).

All the guessers get one point for each green checkmarked answer. Any player whose Fox token was placed exactly correct gets an additional three points.

The game continues until each player has had a turn as the Fox. For smaller player counts, the game recommends each player takes two turns as the Fox.

Impressions

I grew up playing trivia games like Trivial Pursuit at family gatherings before I got into hobby board games, so I love a good trivia game. I also have been known to enjoy social deduction games like Werewolf. So I expected Outfox The Fox should bring those two together perfectly for me!

Well, it works great for the rest of my family and pretty much everyone we’ve played it with. The idea of having to order these six items as a group is fun for the guessers. And the Fox has a great time while trying to keep a poker face to not let slip when someone is actually putting the Fox answer as the number one. (I’ve seen it.) Plus, the little Fox meeples for each player are great.

The game recommends that two players work together as Foxes when playing with larger groups. We didn’t love that – it actually made it less fun in our experience.

Fun for Everyone?

For just about everyone, Outfox the Fox has been a hit. It doesn’t overstay its welcome in terms of length. The fact that the Fox gets to pick from three different topics (without seeing the answers first) lets that player choose something they can fake.

But I bounced off this game. Hard. As noted, I love both trivia games and social deduction games. But I struggled to combine the two in this game. I suspect it might have to do with my feelings of nostalgia for trivia games. I have this sense that trivia games are meant to be simply focused on the truth of the answer. This can be quite hilarious when you play an older one where the answers have changed. But the combination of trivia with bluffing made Outfox the Fox a struggle for me.

At the end of the day, this is a really good, fun game. Just beware that if, like me, you prefer your trivia to be simply trivia and to stay separate from social deduction, you might struggle.

Otherwise, get together with a group of your friends, organize some lists, and don’t let the Fox slip one by you.

Find Outfox the Fox on the Smirk & Dagger website, on Amazon, or at your friendly local game store.

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The Family Gamers received a copy of Outfox the Fox from Smirk & Dagger for this review.

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