Card games
Love Letter
AsmodeeSeiji Kanai2012
- players
- 2–6
- minutes
- 20
- years
- 10+
In the box
Love Letter deck
Official rules (PDF, publisher's site)
Box details
- Designer
- Seiji Kanai
- Artwork
- Kali Fitzgerald, Andrew Hepworth, Jeff Himmelman, John Kovalic
- Publisher
- Asmodee
- Mechanics
- DeductionHand ManagementPlayer EliminationTake That
Where to buy it
Near you and online
In a shop
Within 50 km.
Online
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The basics
Each player holds a single card and wants to get their letter to the princess, by being the last player standing or by holding the best card. On your turn, draw a second card and play one of the two, whose effect applies: the Guard guesses an opponent's card, the Baron compares, and playing or discarding the Princess knocks you out. Each round won earns a token of affection, and the game is played to a number of tokens set by the number of players.
Checked against the official rules · September 2026
The rules, step by step
Setup
1 card set aside, 1 card each, 2 players: 3 more aside
- Current edition: twenty-one cards numbered from 0 (Spy) to 9 (Princess), for two to six players.
- Classic version: sixteen cards from 1 to 8, for two to four players; remove one Guard, the two Chancellors and the two Spies.
- One card is set aside face down. Each player is dealt one card.
- With two players, three more cards are set aside face up: without them, the deduction would be too easy.
How to play
Draw a 2nd card, Play one, Apply its effect
- On your turn, draw a second card and play one of the two, which stays face up in front of you.
- Each card has an effect: the Guard guesses an opponent's card (you cannot name Guard), the Priest looks at it, the Baron compares and the lower card is knocked out, the Handmaid protects you until your next turn, the Prince makes any player, yourself included, discard and draw again, the King swaps hands.
- The Chancellor makes you draw two cards, keep one of the three and slide the other two under the deck.
- The Countess must be played if you also hold the King or a Prince; you may also play her without being forced to.
- The Princess knocks you out of the round as soon as you play or discard her, for any reason.
- A player knocked out of the round reveals their hand, can no longer be targeted and does not play until the next round.
Scoring
1 token per round won, Lone Spy: +1
- Winning the round earns a token of affection.
- Spy: if, at the end of the round, only one player still in the round has played or discarded a Spy, they gain one more token, even if they did not win the round.
End of the game
6 tokens with 2 players, 5 with 3, 4 with 4, 3 tokens with 5 or 6
- The round ends when only one player is left, or when the deck is empty: the highest card wins. On a tie, all tied players win the round and a token each.
- The winner of the round starts the next one.
- Current edition: the game is played to 6 tokens with two players, 5 with three, 4 with four, 3 with five or six. Several players can win at the same time.
- Classic version: 7 tokens with two players, 5 with three, 4 with four.
Going further
Variants · Frequently asked questions · Rules on video · In the same family · Play with the game assistant
Variants
Tokens to reach
6 tokens (2 players)
7 tokens (2 players, classic version)
5 tokens (3 players)
4 tokens (4 players)
3 tokens (5 or 6 players)
choose them when you start a game: the scorer adapts
Frequently asked questions
What is the goal?
Get your letter to the princess: be the last player standing, or hold the highest card when the deck runs out. You win tokens of affection over several rounds.
How does a turn work?
Draw a card (you then have two) and play one, applying its effect. The characters have values from 0 to 9 in the current edition (1 to 8 in the classic version) and powers: guess, compare, protect, knock out.
What does the Countess do?
You must play her if you also hold the King or a Prince. You may also play her by choice, to muddy the waters: nobody knows whether you were forced to.
How are you knocked out?
When a Guard correctly guesses your card, when you lose a Baron comparison, or when you have to discard the Princess, for example through a Prince. A knocked-out player sits out until the next round.
What does the Princess (9, or 8 in the classic version) do?
Nothing good if you play her: whoever discards the Princess, for any reason, is knocked out on the spot. So you hold on to her carefully.
Rules on video
Videos in French, hosted on YouTube.