Love Letter

1 Game Overview

Love Letter is a game of deduction, luck, and calculated risk that fits in a tiny bag and plays in 20 minutes. You're trying to get your love letter delivered to the princess — which means staying in the game longer than everyone else or holding the highest card when the round ends.

The entire game uses just 16 cards (in the standard edition), each numbered 1–8. Each card has a special power. At the start of your turn, you have exactly 2 cards — your current card and the one you draw — and you must play one of them. That's the entire game. It's simultaneously one of the simplest and most brain-burning card games ever designed.

Love Letter is one of the best "filler" games in existence — it genuinely rewards deduction and memory while being teachable in under 2 minutes.

2 What's in the Box

• 16 character cards (Guard x5, Priest x2, Baron x2, Handmaid x2, Prince x2, King x1, Countess x1, Princess x1)
• 13 affection tokens (wooden cubes)
• 1 cloth bag
• 4 reference cards

3 Setup

1. Shuffle the 16 cards.
2. Set 1 card aside face-down (hidden from everyone). This prevents perfect deduction.
3. In 2-player games, also deal 3 cards face-up from the deck (known to all). This helps make deduction work with only 2 players.
4. Deal 1 card to each player. This is your starting hand. Keep it secret.
5. Place affection tokens in a central pool. The remaining deck goes face-down as a draw pile.

4 Taking Your Turn

On your turn:

1. Draw 1 card from the deck. You now hold 2 cards.
2. Play 1 card face-up in front of you, resolving its effect.

You hold exactly 1 card at the end of every turn. Play continues clockwise.

Special rule: If you hold the Countess (7) AND the King (6) or Prince (5), you must play the Countess — she refuses to conspire.

5 The Cards

• Guard (1) ×5: Name a player and guess which card they hold (can't guess Guard). If correct, they're eliminated.
• Priest (2) ×2: Look at another player's hand. Don't reveal it to others.
• Baron (3) ×2: Compare hands secretly with another player. The player with the lower card is eliminated. Ties: nothing happens.
• Handmaid (4) ×2: Until your next turn, you cannot be targeted by other players' card effects.
• Prince (5) ×2: Choose any player (including yourself) — they discard their hand and draw a new card. If they discard the Princess, they're eliminated.
• King (6) ×1: Swap your hand with another player's hand.
• Countess (7) ×1: No special effect, but must be played if you hold it with the King or Prince.
• Princess (8) ×1: If you ever discard or play the Princess for any reason, you're eliminated immediately.

6 Winning Rounds & the Game

Ending a Round

A round ends when either:

• All but one player have been eliminated — that player wins the round, or
• The draw deck is empty — the player(s) with the highest-value card win the round. Ties split the tokens.

Winning Tokens

The round winner takes an affection token. First player to collect the required tokens wins:

• 2 players: 7 tokens
• 3 players: 5 tokens
• 4 players: 4 tokens
• 5–6 players: 3 tokens