Love Letter; Kenai Factory Edition

A Game by Seiji Kanai
For 2-4 players, ages 10 and up

Introduction

Once upon a time, there was a kingdom in which lived a beautiful princess. She was a sweet soul, kind to all and was thus loved by the whole of the kingdom. Several young men had fallen helplessly in love with the princess, but unable to enter the castle, all they could do was send her letters of their affection. However, to their dismay, they found that letters from just anyone would not reach the princess. So the young would-be suitors set themselves on finding allies among the castle's servants, so that they might deliver their letter to the princess personally.

Game Overview

Playing Time: 20 minutes
Number of Players: 2 to 4
The players are the young men seeking to sway the heart of the princess, and attempt to get their love letter into her hands. The castle's servants, represented by the cards in your hand, are the ones who can carry the letter to the princess, but they can also assist the players in more mischievous ways.
Players may only keep one card in hand at a time ; this is the Character currently carrying his or her love letter.
However, the player must be careful not to reveal who this is, or the other lovesick men will be able to see to it that the letter never reaches its goal. The one who chooses his or her carrier most wisely, and manages to deliver his or her love letter to the princess, is the winner of the round.

Contents

16 cards - 2 promo cards - 13 tokens of affection
this rule-sheet

Card Overview

In the accessible version On the first line is the card's rank followed by the number in the deck.

A brief description of the character's special power follows. See the reference sheet for a more complete version of the text.

Preparation

Shuffle the 16 cards, and form a face down draw deck.
Without looking at it, remove 1 card from the top of the deck, not to be used in the round.
Each player draws a card from the deck and holds it in his or her hand, but does not allow other players to see the card. Determine however you wish who should play first.

Turn Sequence

On a player's turn, he or she first draws the top card of the deck, adds it to his or her hand, and then discards face up one of the cards from his or her hand. Any affect or ability of the discarded card is applied (there are some cards with no effect). Once the effect is applied, the turn goes to the next player in clockwise order. This is repeated until the round ends.
All discarded cards should remain in front of the player who played them, visible, so that it is clear in what order they were discarded. These can help players form educated guesses on what cards the other players may still have in their hands.

Note: If a player is out of the round he or she must reveal the card in his or her hand (if any) and place it in front of him or her.

Note: When you play a card and apply the effect, a target player€ chosen cannot be yourself, with the exception of the Wizard.

End of the Round

The round ends if, when a player's turn ends, the draw deck is empty. This means that time is up, and the princess has had time to read all the letters. All players left in the round must now reveal their hand, and the player with the highest rank wins the round. If there are several players tied with the highest rank, they all win the round.

The round also ends if all players but one are out of the round, in which case the sole remaining player is the winner. Only his or her letter reached the princess.

The winner(s) of a round receive one Token of Affection. The first player to accumulate 4 tokens of affection wins the game, and the heart of the princess!

Credits

Game Design: Seiji Kanai
Art: Noboru Sugiura
Graphic Design: Todd Rowland
Translation: Simon Lundstrom
Editing: Nicolas Bongiu, John Goodenough
Production: David Lepore
Seiji Kanai would like to thank Noboru Sugiura for her fantastic art, everyone who helped with the development of the game and most importantly all of you for trying Love Letter.

AEG would like to thank Japon Brand for introducing us to this gem of a game and its creator, Seiji Kanai.

NOTE: We included the promo cards of the Princess with Glasses€ and the Prince in case your group would rather pursue their hearts! Just swap out your choice of Rank 8 Character before the game.

Copyright & Contact

© 2013 Alderac Entertainment Group. Love Letter, Alderac Entertainment Group, and all related marks are TM and © Alderac Entertainment Group, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in China.

Warning: Choking hazard!
Keep away from small children!
For more information, visit our website:
www.alderac.com/loveletter and www.alderac.com/forum

Questions?
Email CustomerService@alderac.com


Accessible rules transcribed by Richard Gibbs for 64 Oz. Games accessibility kit in accordance with copyright law, 17 U.S.C. § 121: