Game 22: Love Letters

 Love Letters is a fast playing game that is simple yet subtle and is particularly well-constructed.  The game consists of 16 cards representing members of court - from King and Prince to Priests and Guards and Handmaids.  The goal is to get a love letter to the Princess.  Each player begins with one card (character), and each card (character) has a specific action.  On each turn a player draws a card and chooses one of the two cards in hand to play.  Possible actions are looking at another player's card, exchanging hands with another player, forcing another player to discard their card and draw a new one, etc.  Players are eliminated one-by-one as certain actions happen.  For instance if a player is forced to discard the Princess, that player is immediately out.  If a Baron is played, causing two players to compare hands, the player with the lowest point-value card discards it and is out of the game.  Once all cards have been drawn the hand ends, and the player with the highest point-value card wins that round and earns a love token.
Here is the end of a round.  The cards are hard to see, but the two players left standing had the Princess (worth 8) and the Prince (worth 5).  I'd had the Princess in my hand, but I drew the King.  With the Princess and King in my hand it was a sure lose for me.  I couldn't play the Princess, because then I would lose automatically, but by playing the King I had to trade my hand with another player, which meant I gave the Princess, the highest value card, to Jacob as the last move of the game, giving him the win!  It's very tricky (and can be dangerous) holding onto the Princess!!

Below are images of the cards - reminder cards, character cards and card backs.


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