Love letter is a fantastic card game in an incredibly tiny package. Despite only having one thing to do each turn, players still need to play strategically.
Things to like: Very portable, quick to play, simple rules, cute theme.
Things to dislike: Rounds can sometimes be decided by luck.
Game overview
| Number of players | 2-6 |
| Game length | 20 minutes |
| Age range | 10+ |
| How long to learn the rules | 5 minutes |
| Component quality | Basic |
What is in the box?
- 21 character cards
- 6 player reference cards
- 13 scoring tokens
- A lovely cloth bag to store all the components
How Love Letter plays
The beauty of Love Letter is its simplicity. Each player starts with just one card representing a character. On their turn players draw another card and then choose one of these two cards to play. That is essentially it. Simple right?
There is of course slightly more to it, but not much. As you discard the card, you resolve the effect that is written on it. Different cards (characters) will have different effects on the game. For instance, if you play the King character, you exchange your remaining card with the card of another player. If you play a Guard character, you can guess what character another player is holding. If you guess correctly, that player is out of the round. At the end of a round, any players remaining reveal their cards. The player with the most important character (represented by a number from 0 to 9) wins the round and a scoring token. The first player to collect a specified number of tokens wins the game.
You can read the full rules here.
Final thoughts on Love Letter
As you can probably tell, the basic concept of Love Letter is incredibly simple (draw a card, play a card). The slight complexity comes from the fact that each of the 10 characters have their own effects when they are played. Once players are familiar with all the characters however, the game really shines, with trying to identify what cards your opponents hold (whilst keeping your own card hidden) being key to success. Since the game is so small and is contained in a drawstring bag, it is very easy to pick up and take anywhere. With each round lasting just a few minutes, it can be also be a very difficult game to put down.
Thoughts on Love Letter from a non-gamer (my wife)
Coming soon.