I decided to go ahead and pick up Love Letter after reading about it on the Board Game Geek forums. I didn't actually read about it, I just saw several people commenting how much they loved it, or referring to it as a "staple of their collection. It arrived in the mail, opened it up, and saw what came with it:
I thought that SURELY a game with a grand total of 16 cards and a little baggie of pink wooden cubes could not be that fun. I read the rules (that little booklet by the handmaiden card), and set about playing a game with our normal game group. Everyone has a "hand" of one card. When it's your turn, you draw a second card, and then choose one to discard. Then you carry out whatever action is listed on the card you discarded. The goal is to have the highest-numbered card out of everyone else when the deck runs out. If you do this, you receive a cube. Obtain a certain number of cubes (dependent on the number of players) and you win.
It's simple, but the card text is what makes this game shine. Say I'm holding a guard and countess. I discard the guard, and hold the countess. The guard lets me attempt to guess someone else's hand. If I guess correctly, they have to discard and are out of the game. Most of the cards involve causing someone to discard a card, or trade a card, or compare a card with yours.
You will be calling your opponents various names as they throw you out of the round, or silently kicking yourself for guessing "Prince" instead of "King". It's a quick game, it's a different game, and it's a great travel or filler game.
You can get it at Amazon for about $10, or BGG for around $7.
FUN: 4. Great guessing fun.
THEME: 4. It's a good theme, with a fun little story in the rule booklet to set up the game.
QUALITY: 4. Solid quality, nice bag, decent cards.
ART: 3. Nothing special, but nothing bad either.
INTERACTIVITY: 5. Everything you do affects someone else.
COMPLEXITY: 2. No complexity here.
LUCK: 3. Card draws make it a luck-based game, but the way you use your cards mitigates that somewhat.
Good game, belongs in any collection.
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