Love Letter

01Discover the game

In Love Letter, you almost always keep a single secret card. The characters allow you to guess the opposing cards, exchange your hands or protect yourself. We use the 21 characters of the Z-Man version with two to six players, with values from 0 to 9, according to the official booklet currently published. Do not confuse this version with the classic package of sixteen characters.

02Equipment

There are 21 cards Character: 2 Espionnes of value 0, 6 Guards of value 1, 2 Lenders of value 2, 2 Barons of value 3, 2 Servants of value 4, 2 Princes of value 5, 2 Chancers of value 6, 1 King of value 7, 1 Countess of value 8 and 1 Princess of value 9. The box also contains 6 game aids, 13 tokens Favor and a storage bag in the reference edition.

03The goal

Wins tokens Favour by winning rounds. To win a round, stay alone in play or keep the card of higher value when the Stock is empty. The Espionne can also give an extra favor without winning the round.

04Prepare a handle

Mix the 21 characters. Put a card apart, hidden, without looking at it. To two players, also put three cards apart, visible. Give each person a hidden card and keep the rest in pocket. Distribute a game aid to each and place the favors at hand.

For the first round, the person who wrote a letter by hand most recently starts; you can choose randomly if you don't know. Then, the winner of the previous round starts. In case of equal winners, choose at random between them. The rounds move in the clockwise direction.

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05Play and apply the ten characters

In your turn, pick one card: you have two. Choose one, put it visible in front of you and apply its effect completely. Keep the other one hidden. The cards played or defeated remain all legible in front of their owner, because their number helps to deduce the hands.

• 0, Espione At the end of the round, if you are still at stake and the only surviving person who has played or defeated at least one Espionne, receive an additional favor. Two Espiones at your house only give one favor. If two survivors have used one, none has this bonus.
• 1, Guard Choose another player and name a character other than Guard. If he has this card in hand, he is eliminated. He must answer honestly. You can never announce "Guard".
• 2, Priest : Look secretly at another player's card. Don't show it to others.
• 3, Baron : secretly compares your remaining card with that of another player. The smallest value is eliminated. On a tie, no one comes out.
• 4, Servant : until the beginning of your next round, others cannot choose you for their effects. You are not protected from your own cards.
• 5, Prince : choose any player, including you. He discards his visible card without applying its game effect, then takes a new card. If the Stock is empty, he takes the hidden card aside. If he discards the Princess, he is eliminated and does not repo.
• 6, Chancellor With the card left to you, you have three cards: keep one and place the other two under the Stock, hidden, in the order of your choice. If there is only one card left to pick, take it and then hand over a card. If the Stock is empty, the effect does nothing. The cards handed are not defeated: a Princess so replaced does not remove you.
• 7, King - Exchange your remaining card with another player's card, secretly.
• 8, Countess If your other card is a King or Prince at the time of choosing your tour card, you must play the Countess. You can also play it voluntarily, without revealing the other card. This obligation does not apply to cards temporarily watched thanks to the Chancellor.
• 9, Princess If you play it or waste it, whatever the reason, you are immediately removed from the round. Keeping it can win, but it is risky.

If all surviving adversaries are protected by a Servant, a Guard, Priest, Baron or King is played without effect. With the Prince, you must then choose yourself. A person eliminated defeats his card, no longer plays and can no longer be targeted until the next round. Its game effects do not trigger by mere defeat, but the Princess rule and the follow-up of the Espiones remain relevant.

06An example to understand

You keep a King and pick a Countess. You have to play Countess, even if you would have preferred to exchange your King. The others only know that you played Countess: they don't see your King and can wonder if your choice was voluntary.

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Later, you play a Baron and keep a Prince of value 5. Your opponent secretly shows a Priest of value 2: he is eliminated. If his card was also a Prince, no one would come out.

07End of the round and victory

If there is only one person left, she immediately wins a favour. Otherwise, after a complete turn, if the Stock is empty, the survivors show their card: the greatest value wins a favor. All people equal for the highest card each win a favor; do not split by adding up the defeats.

Then add the possible Espionne bonus. The winner can receive two favors in the same round. To win the game, it takes six favors to two players, five to three, four to four, and three to five or six. Several people can win the game simultaneously. For a new round, gather all the cards, including the separate ones, and start the preparation again.

08Frequent errors

Don't keep a Countess with a King or a Prince playing the latter. Don't announce Guard with a Guard. Don't solve the power of a card simply defeated by the Prince. Don't forget the bonus of Espionne, which requires to be still in play. Don't mix the values with another edition: here the Princess is worth 9.

09Start well

Count the characters already visible and observe the protections. With a Priest, hold the map view but monitor the following exchanges: the information can become false. A Baron is dangerous if your remaining card is weak. Playing a Countess without obligation can also blur the opposing deductions.