Of all the board games currently rocking tasty Black Friday deal prices, Love Letter is neither the cheapest nor the most discounted. Hell, there's so little to it, physically, that you could easily pass over it in favor of chunkier discount percentages. But don't! Even with a mere 16% off the list price, this is still easily the number one budget board game I'd recommend swiping from the '$15 or less' Black Friday aisle this year.
If you've already got Love Letter in your collection, you'll know why I'm saying so, and why it spent so long in our list of the best board games of all time. Don't leave just yet, though, fellow Love Letter lovers, because I'll include a couple more 10-15 buck finds below that are nearly as good.
If you haven't tried this game, I'm going to explain why it's so essential that you should buy it, even if you only save $2.50 on the regular price. Think of all the things you could buy with that $2.50, and then read this.
First off, Love Letter has maybe the best ratio of teach time to fun time of any board game I've ever owned. Explaining how it works takes five minutes at most, setup time between rounds takes a few seconds, and each 15 to 20 minute game flows like warm, runny butter that you've just given a quick buzz in the microwave so it goes on the toast just right.
That's mainly because it's an absurdly simple game: you never have more than two cards in your hand, and everything - everything - is about working out what cards the other players (2-6 total) have in their hands, and playing down your cards accordingly.
I'll explain (and it won't take long). There are eight types of card in Love Letter, with medieval-ish names like the Guard and the Baron, and number values between two and eight. Everybody starts the game with one card, and your goal at the end of each round is to have the highest value cards in your hand. If you do, you win the round and claim a Token of Affection, and the first player to reach a given target number of tokens wins the game.
Each round, you'll take turns to draw one card from the deck, then choose one of your two cards to play, face up. Obviously, you're looking to hold onto the biggest number, but there's another layer. Each type of card also has a compulsory, immediate effect that could force your opponents out of the round (if you've successfully sussed out what cards they have in hand) but will also often give them clues as to what you're holding.
The Priest lets you secretly look at another player's hand; the Guard lets you guess at a card in another player's hand and knock them out if you get it right; the Countess must be discarded if you also have the King or Queen, and so on. Each card laid adds more information for everyone, but not all of it is reliable. It's easy and fast moving, yet intricate and oh, so satisfying.
Love Letter is a brilliantly straightforward way to teach youngsters and newcomers to the board gaming hobby how to think about player interactions, probing probabilities, and bluffing. But it doesn't wear out its welcome once you're all wise-headed gamers, either; it just keeps being the most awesome warm up/gap filler game in the biz, year after year. So please, if you haven't already, add this one to your shelf. Consider the $2.50 saving free money; get yourself a nice hot dog or something.
And while you're cleaning up the mustard, for the Love Letter old hands, here are some other banging small box games with superb Black Friday discounts, that we recommend almost as much (apologies in advance to our British friends, who don't have access to all the same deals - though there are still savings to be had).
Sushi Go - $9.74 (19% off)
The most delicious 'pick and pass' card drafting game in the world is still a must have (especially when it's under ten bucks).
The Fox in the Forest - $11.17 (30% off)
This is my personal favorite trick taking card game of all - partly because of the delightful "play to lose" option in it, but mostly for the beauteous artworks throughout.
Poetry for Neanderthals - $9.99 (50% off)
Describing stuff in single syllable words only is approximately 500% more fun than you might think (and significantly more fun than the original Exploding Kittens in my personal opinion). Also, it comes with an inflatable club to hit people with. A+.
Did I miss a really good one? Come join the free Wargamer Discord community and tell me what other light board and card games you couldn't live without.