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Released in 2012 by AEG, Love Letter—a card game designed by Seiji Kanai—is set in the fictional realm of Tempest where players attempt to woo Princess Annette by… sneaking love letters into the palace and into her hand. (I know... and there's even a wedding edition. But it's still good!)

This fiction gives way to a game of bluffing and deduction that moves incredibly fast and has a surprising layer of strategy within its small deck of 16 cards. The cards fit inside a small felt carrying bag along with wooden “tokens of affection” to keep track of your score; win a round, win a token. For 2-4 players, Love Letter has become an instant classic, yielding numerous variants—three of which discussed below—and homemade knockoffs as well.

Prior to each game, one or more cards are removed from the deck, mixing up the population of suitors in the game. Each player is dealt a card and then draws one other card, discarding one of the two and applying its effects, even if said effects are detrimental to the player. When no one can draw more cards—or only one player remains—all surviving players compare their cards. The high value wins an affection token. The cards are re-shuffled and a new round begins until a victor earns enough affection.

The real meat of Love Letter is the interaction of the cards and trying to discard low-value cards to obtain higher-value cards while at the same time eliminating other players. Because on each turn players will have to discard a card, sub-optimal decisions may force one’s hand. For example, holding the 8-Princess early in the game will likely result in your demise, as you cannot discard her (its effect is “lose if discarded”), but another player unknowingly targeting you with a 3-Baron (effect: “compare hands, lower hand is out”) will be in for a sudden shock.

Playing the odds is also required, as discards are played—and stay—face-up on the table. Thus, when playing a 1-Guard (effect: "guess another player's card; if correct, player is out") and attempting to guess another player’s card, some strategy is required. Blind luck works, too; many times the meta-game at our table starts with a 1-Guard asking for a 5-Prince and taking a player out immediately, sometimes before he or she gets to play. And that’s alright, as Love Letter moves blisteringly fast. Getting knocked out of a round is, at most, a 2-3 minute setback until the next round begins.

The game's quick-hit fun meant that Love Letter "versions" began appearing almost immediately, each re-theming the game to appeal to a different geek interest.

Love Letter: Batman Edition

What, Batman can’t write love letters? Actually he doesn’t; the conceit here is that the cards represent captured villains having escaped Arkham Asylum, topping out at 8-The Joker. Whoever reveals the most heinous captured villain at the end of the round wins. (This is a little strange as 4-Robin, 2-Catwoman, and 1-Batman are also in the deck; just roll with it.)

Thematics aside, the draw of this version is the comic artwork and the clean card design. (Plus, cool yellow Batman victory tokens.) This is the easiest version for younger players to pick up and play, understanding right out the gate the hero/villain concept, although the idea of wanting 8-Joker in your hand is a bit suspect.

While Love Letter: Batman is identical with the original in card breakdown and abilities, it does use a unique scoring method in that if you correctly guess another player’s card with 1-Batman, you knock them from play and immediately receive a scoring token. In this context multiple players can receive tokens in each game, separate from the round winner. This has a nice effect of speeding up play.

This is most colorful and kid-friendly version to pick up; plus you can sneak in lines from the Batman movies in your best Bat-growl.

Love Letter: Star Wars

In this variant, the "princess" is the exactly who you would expect—Han. (Kidding. It's Leia.) You have to get inside the Death Star and sneak her out of prison while dealing with Darth Vader, stormtroopers, and a "walking carpet," among others.

Unfortunately, you'll be doing it in Russian, since the game was only released last year in Russia due to some quirk of licensing.

Once You Go Blackmail... (Archer theme)

Yes, it's Archer-themed Love Letter and yes, it will involve the "danger zone." According to AEG, "Your mission is to dig up dirt on Malory Archer and sell it to the highest bidder. To succeed you’ll have to deal with secret agents, the HR department, ocelots, and a mad scientist."

Munchkin Loot Letter

“Loot Letter,” get it? That, unfortunately, is as good as this Munchkin variant gets. The card breakdown and rules are identical to the core game with merely the names and artwork changed to conform to the Munchkin IP. The art and text are uninspired, making this version forgettable. Its non-standard-sized cards are particularly annoying.

If you want to buy one version of Love Letter and love Munchkin, this might be the one to get. For everyone else, pass.

Love Letter: The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

At the risk of removing all drama, this is the variant you should buy. The production values are solid (although the linen-textured box is more than you’ll need; the cloth bag used in other Love Letter games would be welcome here). Instead of plain wooden tokens for scoring, you get sparkling acrylic gems! The graphic design of the cards is a cut above the other variants as well—although all imagery is from the Peter Jackson movies and Tolkien purists may shriek in geek-horror.

Love Letter: The Hobbit also plays differently and in keeping with the series it emulates. 17 total cards in the deck represent ten different characters. Two of the cards introduce new mechanics and ways of mixing up the strategy of a typical Love Letter game. For instance, the 3-Legolas Greenleaf (1) and 3-Tauriel (1) cards standing out, as Legolas compares hands (the lowest one going out) while Tauriel causes the higher hand to go out. It’s a simple change that makes the semi-predictable nature of the 3-Baron in other games more of a gamble.

The new card here is 0-The One Ring, which has no effect when discarded but at the end of any round counts as a 7—just one below the Arkenstone. It doesn't make for a huge difference in play, but this type of iterative change to the game is what I had hoped to see in the other Love Letter variants.

Whichever version you pick, a few bucks gets you many hours of play in the geek-themed world of your choice. And if none of those get you going, there's always homebrewed theme replacements.