Posted: 6 weeks ago, last updated 2 days ago.
Author: @GeekDadGamer and Jo Robertson.
Overview
Play involves drawing a card from the deck and adding it to the one in your hand. You then choose which card to keep and which to use. It's an important risk-reward decision. Do you choose the most attacking card to knock someone else out or the best defensive card which is least likely to be guessed by other players.
As you progress players use cards and leave them face up so you can see what has been played. Because there are only 21 cards and you know how many of each character value, things become increasingly tactical. Not only to avoid having common cards that may be guessed by others, but working to ensure you have the highest card at the end of the round, as this wins.
The variety of the cards and their actions make this a really tactical game. The King card lets you swap cards with someone. The Chancellor lets you draw 2 new cards. The Guard lets you guess someone's card and force them out if you are right. The Priest lets you look at someone's hand. The tactics on how to play (and not to play) cards slowly changes as you close in on the end of the game.
The result is a simple card game where you work to gain information about other player's hands as much as directly attack them.
Game Details
Skill Rating: 8-10 year-olds
Release Date: 01/01/2012, updated in 2019
Genres: Battle, Collecting, Communication, Push-Your-Luck and Sequencing
Pieces: Cards and Tokens
Developer: Z Man Games (@ZManGames_)
Players: 2-6
Lists
View our choice of games like Love Letter. This game is good if you want to:
Duration
The first time you play it can help to do the following:
- Review the different abilities of each card as outlined on the reference card.
- Experiment with some different combinations of cards.
- Highlight how important it is to pay attention to the visible discarded cards and numbers of other cards.
- Highlight how you can win a round. Be the last remaining player. Be the player with the highest value at the end. Have the Spy card at the end.
Play Time: This game will take between 20 minutes and 25 minutes to complete.
Play Style
You can play this game in the following styles:
Age Ratings
Skill Rating
8-10 year-olds usually have the required skill to enjoy this game.
Content Rating
We rate this suitable for 3+ years-olds.
Costs
Accessibility
We haven't documented accessibility features for this game yet. Our Love Letter Accessibility Report details system-wide settings that may help, and suggests similar games with accessibility features. Tweet the developer (@ZManGames_) to let them know about our Accessibility Questionnaire.

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