Let's Talk About: Love Letter

So I bought the Kanai Factory edition of Love Letter a couple weeks back, and I've played it a few times.

Love Letter is a strange beast to me. I'm surprised at how enthusiastically the game has been embraced, because a lot of things are simply out of your control. It's not like you can weasel out of it when someone just guesses your card randomly with the Soldier. The Kanai Factory edition also has the Minister, who replaces whatever the 7-rank is in the original English edition. But if you ever have two cards that equal 12 or more, you're out. There's not a lot you can do besides discarding the minister ASAP.

In other words, there are a lot of ways to get out of the game without it really being your fault. I don't think that's a problem really, since a round seriously takes all of five minutes and you play a ton of hands. But it does render the game moderately uncontrollable, especially in comparison to Coup, where a loss is generally a result of a failed bluff.

I do definitely like Love Letter, but I'm just fascinated by the response. It's also forced me to think about exactly how short a game should be before I don't need to bother anymore. I like it enough that that's not really a consideration, but we've expended a lot of energy railing against the idea of "filler" games. I think that "filler" is more useless as a term than as a concept, but the question remains.

So what do you guys think? Is there much to Love Letter besides some light card-counting and hoping the bullet isn't in the chamber when you draw a card? And do fillers really serve a purpose beyond marking time during game night? Like, I would play several games of Coup over a longer game. Love Letter, I'm not so sure.

Love Letter is not amazing by any means, rather it has achieved its success by hitting just enough of the right buttons for the majority of people in the hobby. It's like the McDonald's fries of the hobby - everyone enjoys them.

What it has going for it:

Very Short
This means it gets played. It doesn't sit on your shelf staring at you. It also means everyone is more forgiving of the randomness. The length affects nearly aspect of its gameplay as you view it down a different lense than if it was even a half hour game.

Very Cheap
You can't really hate a $6 game. Low expectations, easy to take with you anywhere, its ubiquitous. It's goddamn hard not to throw it into an online order.

It Lets You Feel Clever
This hard to do in a 10 minute game, but it's one of the game's most endearing aspects. When I play a Guard I have to expend a minimal amount of effort to look what's already been played and use context clues as to what statistically I should guess. As said, the effort is pretty small but guessing correctly is very satisfying. At the same time, the person you knock out is not pissed off because the game is so short.

This is repeated when you play a Baron (compare hands) and knock someone out, or get knocked out yourself in which case you can just laugh and enjoy it.

You can also feel clever when you discard the Countess and you didn't also have the Prince or King. "Does Ben have a Prince or did he discard the Countess to dupe us?"

Another clever aspect of the design is that with a Guard, I can target you and ask if you have the Princess. You don't? That's because I do and I'm being sneaky.

All of these things kind of allow a metagame to develop which you can bring more strategy and focus to the game than is present in the simple mechanics. There's a synergy here between repeated plays with the same people kind of like Hanabi, but it's more rewarding as it doesn't break the challenge in this instance.

It's Simple
This means you can teach it quickly and you can play with non-gamers. Win/win.

I agree with charlest on the strong points for LL but will add that I feel like it has a shoot the moon aspect. When you're dealt the Princess initially and can bluff/luck out a win - that feels damn good.

i prefer Love Letter to a lot of other games in its category. I definitely prefer it to Coup.


One reason why it works, is it requires very little meta game to get into. IN coup for instance, with the right deal you can just tell the truth to victory. The meta game can evolve to eliminate this, but thats the point, LL works straight out of the box first game with complete strangers. I prefer Mascarade to both, but it requires people to understand the game for it to really click.

Love Letter works straight up on a simple level and takes very little effort. And whilst it isn't the most indepth game, you can improve at it. There is a subtle developing meta game. For instance, you are better in some respects holding on to guards until the late game as there are few cards to guess from. The only draw back is if someone has a knight. Certain strategies can develop.

Also Charlest's point on it making you feel clever is very apt. When you make a correct 'lucky' guess it is very satisfying.

The randomness actually helps the game and makes it more accessible. Yes having the councilor can ko you, as can having 2 knights (barons depending on version), or just drawing the Princess at a really bad time. I'd say you are straight ko'd about 1 in ever 5 hands or so. But this takes the sting out of loosing and in such a short low commitment game is forgivable.

Compare this to Yomi which has many similar ingredients in terms of deducing your opponents hand, but has very low randomness. If you lose at Yomi it makes you feel stupid.

Mark my words, Love Letter is a cash cow on the lines of Apples to Apples. You're going to find this at wedding receptions, conventions, each with custom art. AEG has hit their head against a gold mine. You heard it here first.

S.

^I could definitely see this. If they can just get it into the popular mindshare somehow. Maybe being seen in a TV show or anything to get it circulating, I bet it would be big.

It's faults would be unforgivable if it lasted longer than 20 minutes but in that time frame they end up becoming strengths.

Love Letter has a huge degree of luck and less meta-game than advertised, but that helps non-gamers and those less talented at lying etc... actually have a chance at winning. Which makes the game more fun for everyone involved.

What I appreciate the most is actually the theme, it's original, silly, easy to understand, and fun. I don't know what more you could want from a game of this sort. I can still play Here I Stand on a week-end with gamers.

It Lets You Feel Clever

This is huge. It's why Coen bros. films, any number of casual games, countless TV shows, books, Solitaire, Dominion, Woody Allen, etc. are popular.

A very, very powerful quality.

Love Letter day at the ball park.

I agree with JonJacob's point above. We tried out the "sequel" Lost Legacy and find that since it runs about twice as long (maybe 10 min a hand), it's stay is overwelcome.

I suspect AEG will sell alot of their Lost Legacy for the first print run and it will be the BGG darling but after a few months, no one will talk about it.

Love Letter is closer to a mass-market game that I've seen in a while from a smaller publisher. It will be at Target or Toys-R-Us in some form or another. Probably a Big Bang Theory retheme or something like that.

JonJacob makes a good point about the theme. It's not like it's some strong thematic experience, but it sure does stand out in a sea of orc-smashers and bishop-pleasers. The little velvet bag is a great visual hook too.

What do people think about the differences between the editions? I didn't realize there was a different card between the Kanai edition and the Tempest edition. The minister seems a good deal sharper than the countess in the Tempest version. I'm not sure if I like that or not.

Has anyone played the Legend of the Five Rings version?

Love Letter is awesome. I would never bring this out on a 'game night' proper, because it's not the type of game I want to play when I have those types of folks around. It gets _a_lot_ of play with the in-laws and kids though.

Great game!

I prefer the Tempest edition. The Countess provides a little more wiggle room. Instead of being automatically knocked out for a score over 12 you have to discard her if you draw the prince or king. Obviously you do the same if you get the Princess. So when you lay down the Countess people probably have a pretty good idea of what card you have. The more cards played the better their odds. But I've seen it used a lot as a bluff too, especially in early game. Which is great. You're convinced the dude has a Prince and it turns out he was bluffing and only had a Baron or something.

The Kanai edition takes some of that fun away and makes it a simple equation.

i could be mistaken here but i think there are some other minor differences. For instance i think in the Tempest version when you play a hand maiden you are immune to the effect of the card played against you. In the Kanai you cannot be targeted. I could be in error here.

I own the Kanai edition, but probably slightly prefer the countess to the minister, it adds a little more bluff.

Love Letter doesn't seem to fit in to my gaming opportunities. I bought the nice Alderac edition for my girlfriend for Christmas in 2012, but we quickly discovered that it's a terribly boring 2-player game. Almost as bad as Tic-Tac-Toe.

I suspected that my friends might like Love Letter, only it would need a more appealing theme to land on the table. So I made my own version using an online custom card generator for Jyhad, along with some of my own adjustments. My version is about Camarilla vampires trying to influence the Prince of the City. I also made extras of some of the cards, to make the game playable by as many as 8 players.

Either way, I just can't get Love Letter on the table. Both my girlfriend and my gaming friends would rather talk than play a filler game. And they have a point: a conversation is often more enjoyable than a filler game.