I haven’t been able to post review in the last fiew days, life got in the way. Hopefully this week goes better!
Today’s game is Lovecraft Letter.
TL;DR
Score: 9/10
Positives:
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Very easy to teach
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Very fast
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Light-hearted
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Very nice components
Negatives:
- Some folks really dislike “accusing”, they won’t like this game
The Review
Lovecraft Letter combines the classic Love Letter game with an H.P. Lovecraft theme. This isn’t just one of those simple Batman re-themes, if feels more like an expansion to Love Letter.
Image credit to Petra on bgg, source here
The goal of the game is to be the last surviving person. In your turn you will draw a card and play one of the 2 cards in your hand. Each card has a number and an associated action that you can perform. For instance, the card number 1 lets you attempt to guess someone else’s card and if you succeed they are out of the game. The number 8 card cannot be played and if you are ever forced to discard it you lose the game. Though the game has player elimination, the rounds are very quick and it won’t take long before you play again. If there were no cards left to be drawn, the person with the highest numbered card wins.
In the base Love Letter game, this was the entire game and boy did we enjoy playing it. It felt really great to play after a longer and heavier game. It’s just such a chill and light-hearted fun game. You don’t have to think too much, we mostly didn’t even care too much about odds or anything. Folks just like to accuse me of being a Princess and that was fun. Sometimes we ended playing Love Letter for the entire evening. It was great but eventually we burned out a bit.
That’s when Lovecraft Letter was released. The game is essentially the same but it adds a push your luck mechanic. Now there is an additional 8 alternative, green cards (1 for each number). Playing or discarding one of these alternative cards will leave you insane. The green cards will now have VERY strong abilities at your disposal, however you will need to do a sanity check before each of your turns. For each green card you have played/discarded you have to flip a card from the deck… if it’s a green or 8 card you just lose. It was such a simple and subtle twist in the game but it REALLY refreshed the game for us. If I have a green card in hand do I want to risk using its amazing power? It will certainly pay off… If you survive long enough to use it!
The components are great for the price. The game comes with a really neat box, a nice organizer, sleeves and poker chips. You’re set. If, for some reason, you don’t like the push your luck component added in Lovecraft Letter, you can still play base Love Letter just by removing the green cards.
I have really great memories playing this game for so many evenings with my friends. I still don’t get how such a simple game hooked us so hard, but it really did. You can teach this game to anyone, it’s so easy and plays in like 5 minutes. Can’t recommend it enough!
Context Information
Number of plays: Certainly 100+
Suggested player count: 4+
Average playtime: A single game is like 5 minutes and if you win 2 games as insane or 3 games as sane you are the ultimate winner. Sometimes it takes a while to find the winner, depending on the number of players, but each individual game is super fast.
Honorable mentions:
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Fantasy Realms - Trying to build combos is super fun
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Arboretum - I tend not to like “mean” games, but I don’t think one is as mean as people make it out to be. I love building my Arboretum!
Best Love Letter version i have played so far.
And it high jacked many board game nights, just because someone wanted to play “just another quick round”. The insanity mechanic really adds something.
The only thing that sometimes annoys me is the high luck factor, but rounds are over so quick that a round lost to an unlucky insanity check or drawing cthulhu and the necronomicon at the same time is quickly forgotten.
We always forget to do the insanity check :/ there’s something complicated about it.
My group is pretty good at starting to act insane after actually using an insanity effect, so we might miss the first check, but after that the manic laughter and the shouts of “fhatagn” and such are good reminders.
We’d proably miss it more often if we were just playing cards though…
The sanity check is a hype momment for us, no one is going to let that slide!
And it high jacked many board game nights, just because someone wanted to play “just another quick round”.
I can really relate to this XD
It really is the better Love Letter.
Wow! I thought it was a typo at first, I didn’t know there as a Lovecraftian themed version of Love Letter. It sounds neat too. I’ve had fairly positive experiences to Lovecraftian spins on board games, like Pandemic Reign of Cthulhu. Will check this out.
Can’t blame you, we thought the exact same thing.
Man thanks! I always thought it was a cash grab made for the wordplay and b/c everything needs a cthulhu reskin. Might have to get this now
Can’t blame you, we thought same!
Is there a Love Letter version or variant that works decently at 2? If not, what’s the next best thing? It’s such an iconic game, I’d love to somehow capture the magic at 2p.
If you like Lovecraft Letter, you’ll probably also like Jabba’s Palace. It’s a Loveletter game as well but has a star wars theme and more goals than just “get the highest card”. The only con is, that you don’t have this insanity mechanic but the different goals make up for it
What else could you recommend?
Did you check the honorable mentions?
Yes, that’s why I am asking for more : D
I actually have a small shortlist that I can share:
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Startups - Small set collection game that can play with a lot of players. In my opinion it’s better than Jaipur, for instance.
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6 nimmt! - Love the mind games on this one
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The Shipwreck Arcana - Probably stretching the definition of filler game but a cooperative deduction game? Count me in
Perfect, thank you! Is Startups hard to learn? I want to play with a group of 12 year old who have kinda short attention span
It’s very easy to learn, 12 year olds will grasp it fast.
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Looks like it’s tough to get ahold of! Any reprint news?
Such a cool looking game. Love the art and the components. I got it randomly, for really cheap a few years back, but haven’t had a chance to play it yet. How does this game play with 3 players?
It plays well with 3 but really shines with 4, in my opinion
Infinity Gauntlet love letter works pretty well at 2. Had a lot of fun playing with my gf.
