LOVE LETTER

This past week my regular RPG game night got cancelled but rather than lose the whole night I turned it into a Boardgame night.  I got to play 2 new games (to me) that I really liked. The first is Love Letter by AEG (Alderac Entertainment Group) who also produces L5R, Romance of the Nine Empires, Sail to India and Thunderstone Advanced, among many others.  Love Letter is part of their Tempest line which is sort of like a living campaign but for board games. All the games in the Tempest line (Which is currently Canalis, Courtier, Love Letter, Mercante and Dominare) are part of the same world and use the same characters.
Love letter itself is a super-fast game of “Risk – Deduction and Luck for 2-4 players.”  The story of the game is to be the first to win the affection of the Princess by acquiring Tokens of Affection (represented by red wooden cubes). You win a Token of Affection by being the last person in a given round.

To start, each player is dealt one card face down and one card is set off to the side.  There are only 16 cards in the deck and each one gives you an ability or effect. These are helpfully written on the card and collected in the cheat card pictured below.  Each turn you draw a card and then play a card.   The round proceeds until all players but one are eliminated or the deck runs out of cards. In that case all players compare hands and the highest point total (also pictured below) wins.

The game is super-fast to learn and play. With one practice hand all of us playing had the game down. There is a bit of strategy and deduction in trying to figure out who has what card so you can use the Guard effectively.  For example, in one round I had been dealt the Princess, which is worth the most points and a guaranteed winner if the deck runs out of cards, but if you get caught with it  (someone uses a Guard and guesses you have it) you lose the round. On my second turn I drew a Guard, played it and then guessed that Travis had the Princess, which kept anyone else from guessing that I had her for the rest of the round. Other cards let you look at another player’s hand (so you can see if they play it or not and then use a Guard next turn to eliminate them). The Handmaiden protects you from being targeted by any other powers/effects for the round. There is Risk in playing a Baron. You pick a player, secretly compare cards and the lower point total is eliminated.  I really liked it.

If you are looking for a fun and fast game that can be played by varying levels of gamers, this one is well worth the price tag of less than 8 bucks for the regular version and less than 9 for the Deluxe version.  Where I see this coming into play at my house is when we are playing longer games that have elimination. As soon as 2 players are out of game they can start playing this until the main game finishes.

It is a game that will soon be added to my collection and I encourage you to do the same.

If you are considering buying a copy for yourself, please think about using the links below which will help support our show as well.

~Michael

Regular version at Amazon.

Deluxe Version at Amazon.