Overview: All the eligible bachelors are trying to woo the princess, but they have to rely on others to deliver their letters to her. Whose letters will reach her? Love Letter is a pocket-sized game in the new Tempest line from AEG (see below), but don't let its small size fool you.

Players: 2 to 4

Ages: 10 and up

Playing Time: 20 minutes

Retail: $9.99 (The first print run sold out, but the next printing should be hitting US Customs tomorrow, according to AEG's website. So although it's currently on Amazon for $60, that price should be dropping soon.)

Rating: Lovely and beguiling, like the princess herself. (And, perhaps like the princess, a bit slim and not a full deck of cards.)

Who Will Like It? Here's a game that works for both casual gamers (it's small, easy to learn, quick to play) and gamers who like a bit of strategy, logic, and card-counting.

Theme:

I mentioned the Tempest line in my review of Courtier; it's a collection of separate games that take place in a common world with interconnected plotlines. Love Letter is sort of Tempest Game #1.5: it takes place between Courtier and Dominare: Queen Marianna has been arrested for high treason, and Princess Annette is heartbroken. So of course this is a great time for all the suitors to court her, but she's hiding away in the palace, so they have to resort to intermediaries to carry their letters to her. In each round, the card you're holding represents the person who currently holds your letter — and as you draw and discard cards, your letter passes from one hand to another. At the end of the day, the letter closest to the princess is delivered — which wins a token of affection. (It appears Princess Annette is easily swayed.)

The game itself can feel somewhat abstracted, but there actually is a reason for most of the powers that the various characters have, so I'd recommend reading at least the little character bioses included in the rulebook.

Components:

The photo at top shows all of the game components:

• 16 character cards
• 4 reference cards
• 13 wooden cubes
• velvet bag

The cards are fine (though it's always hard to shuffle only 16 cards) and the text on them is fairly easy to interpret. The rulebook has a tiny little story set in the world of Tempest, but also has a profile of each of the eight characters for people who are interested, explaining why the cards have their particular abilities.

Gameplay:

The game takes place over a series of rounds (each representing a day). At the end of each round, one letter reaches the princess and that player wins a token of affection (red cube). The game ends after one player wins a certain number of tokens, based on the number of players.

Shuffle the 16 character cards and deal one to each player. In a two-player game, take three more cards and turn them face-up — these will not be used this round, but help to narrow down the number of cards left in the deck.

On your turn, you draw a card from the deck, and then discard one of the two cards you hold, following the directions printed on the card. You must apply its effects, even if it's bad for you. All discarded cards remain face up, overlapping so everyone can see all of the cards that have been played. If a player is knocked out of the round by a card effect, they discard the card in their hand face-up and do not take any more turns this round.

The round ends when the deck is empty at the end of a turn. All players still in the round reveal their cards, and the player with the highest number (closest to the princess) wins. The round can also end if there is only one player left in the round, in which case that player wins.

There are eight characters total; some appear only once or twice in the deck, and the Guard appears five times. Most of the characters have abilities that may help you eliminate other players. However, if you discard the Princess card for any reason then you're out of the round (Princess Annette is shy and will toss your letter in the fire if confronted), and the Countess must be discarded if you have the King or Prince in your hand as well, which can give people a clue about what you're holding.

Conclusion:

Despite the weak-willed princess, Love Letter is a lot of fun to play. It's quite easy to explain, takes no time to set up or put away, and comes in a little velvet pouch that you can easily slip into your pocket to play anywhere. Some of the card abilities do require a little bit of clarification (the rules printed on the cards are more detailed than the reference cards) but other than that it's a very straightforward game to play.

The balance of ranks and abilities is excellent. The lowest-rank Guard can eliminate any player if they guess correctly what's in that player's hand – and this ability becomes extremely useful late in the round when it's easier to guess who's left in the deck. The high-ranked Princess will win the round if you have her when the day ends — but if you get stuck with her too soon then you may find yourself eliminated by somebody who figured you out.

There's also room for subterfuge — for instance, discarding the Countess can make somebody think that you're holding a King or Prince. Or using the Guard and guessing somebody else is the Princess can draw attention away from the fact that the Princess is in your own hand. The reference cards provide the number of each card, so as you play you'll know how many of each character are left.

I love the fact that game designer Seiji Kanai was able to create such engaging gameplay out of only 16 cards. The rest of the Tempest line so far is more typical Eurostyle – lots of cards, wooden bits, cardboard tokens – but Love Letter is tiny and elegant. Of course, it's not extremely deep strategy — you can't plan ahead from round to round — but there's still room in this tiny velvet bag for some tough choices and sneaky plotting.

Wired: Fantastic hidden-role game in a deceptively small package; great introduction to AEG's Tempest line.

Tired: Princess Annette doesn't make a great role model for my daughters, falling for whatever suitor manages to get his letters to her.

Disclosure: GeekDad received a review copy of this game.