Every good game collection needs a few light offerings that you can break out for a quick session between longer games. Or maybe while waiting for people to arrive, or just to play with families or those not keen on a more complex and time consuming game. Today we look at two games that deliver just such an easy to digest experience in 15-30 minutes.
Love Letter
Designed by: Seiji Kanai
Publisher: Alderac Entertainment Group
Players: 2-4
Love Letter is a simple card game of bluffing and deduction that sees players competing to win the favor of the Princess by being the one whose letter gets smuggled closest to her at the end of the day. The goal is to be holding the highest card of a set ranked 1 to 8 at the end of each round, without having your letter tossed in the fire, eliminating you from that hand. The first player to amass enough tokens of affection from being ranked highest or being the last non-eliminated player each round is the winner.
It sounds basic enough, and it really is. The deck consists only of 16 cards ranked 1 to 8, varying in quantity (the player rules reminder cards list the totals but it won't take long to memorise them) and the actual play couldn't be simpler. Each player starts with one card in their hand, and on their turn will draw one card then play one card. Repeat until the deck is empty or all but one player is eliminated to determine the winner of the round. One card is also dealt off the deck face down, so players are never exactly sure of the total number of a given card remaining in the deck.
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| Simple but charming components. |
Which matters, because Love Letter is a deduction game, and the slight element of uncertainty adds to the bluffing and guessing about the others hands. The abilities on each card will help you work out what opponents are holding as their hand card, or eliminate them from the game when you think you've got a good idea what they have and if you can beat it. There is a line or two of text on each card describing the effect of that card when discarded, and that is basically all the rules players will need, so the game is extremely fast to teach and to play. In order of rank, Guard (1) lets you choose a player and guess their card, guess right and they are eliminated. Priest (2) lets you look at another player's hand. Baron (3) compares your hand to another player's, with the lower rank being eliminated. Handmaid (4) makes you immune to being targeted by other players until your turn comes around again. Prince (5) makes a player (even yourself, if you like) discard their hand and draw another card. King (6) swaps your hand with another player's. Countess (7) has the second highest rank but must be discarded if you draw a Prince or King. And the Princess (8) is the highest rank card but if for any reason you are forced to discard her, you're eliminated.
That's all there is to it, but the bluffing and strategising are surprisingly satisfying for such a light and quick game. I've introduced this to multiple non-boardgamer groups and they all got into it very quickly, one even purchasing his own copy and introducing it to his family to great success. It's got simple mechanics anyone can understand and enjoy, setup is a matter of seconds and it packs away into its tiny velvet bag to be ultra portable. It's not a hugely deep game but that suits the light filler style perfectly, anyone can jump in and after a couple of hands will get the gist of the strategy and be able to play competently and competitively with experienced players, and everyone will be having a good time. You won't want to sit down and just play Love Letter for hours on end, but as an inbetweener game or just a bit of casual fun you will get a ton of mileage out of this little $10 game, you'll likely have no problem breaking it out for a play every gaming session. Definitely a must buy.
King of Tokyo
Designed by: Richard Garfield
Publisher: Iello
Players: 2-6
From Richard Garfield of Magic: The Gathering fame, King of Tokyo is a yahtzee-like dice throwing game of movie monsters battling for control of the long suffering city of Tokyo. Players take on the role of a giant monster in a race to amass 20 victory points or eliminate all other monsters and be crowned the king. Games are short so the player elimination is usually not a big deal and the push-your-luck dice mechanics are familiar and simple to learn so everyone can be up and running quickly.
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| Oh no, there goes Tokyo.. |
Each turn players roll a set of 6 dice up to 3 times, keeping or rerolling individual dice as they try and make sets of symbols. After 3 rolls, a players 'hand' of dice is scored, they have the opportunity to buy items from the visible upgrade cards and the turn moves to the next player. The dice faces can show 1s, 2s or 3s representing victory points (a player must make a set of at least 3 of the same number to score that many victory points), hearts which heal one point of damage each, lightning bolts which provide 1 energy each (currency to purchase and power cards), and claws which deal 1 damage each. The first player of the game to roll an attack moves into Tokyo, claiming 1 victory point for taking the city. If a player manages to survive an entire round and begins their next turn in Tokyo, they gain another 2 victory points.
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| Big chunky dice are just so satisfying to roll |
But that's not as easy as it might sound. While occupying Tokyo, a monster's attack rolls hit every other player outside the city. However, every other players attacks in turn target the one in Tokyo. In games with more players, this can add up to a world of hurt. Monsters in Tokyo are also unable to use heart dice to heal, so there is an additional push your luck element of just how much damage you can risk in chasing the bonus victory points for starting your turn in Tokyo. After taking damage, the controller of Tokyo has the option to yield the city, and if so the attacking monster must move in, but there is no way to yield the city without first taking a hit, so when you're in, you're in for at least one round of beatings. A particularly lucky or determined player re-rolling for claws could drop you by up to 6 damage in a single round, forcing you to yield the very next turn after you entered Tokyo, with a bunch of wounds and not much to show for it. These type of tense risk/reward scenarios weighted with a healthy dose of greed for victory points and cubes make the game engaging and exciting.
Additional variety is added to the game through item cards, which come in the form of one-off discard effects, or persistent upgrades that are kept for the duration of the game. At any one time 3 cards from the rather large deck are dealt face up for players to purchase, being replaced as they get bought. Each card has a cost in energy cubes so players must balance pursuing lightning bolt dice in addition to the basic attack/heal and victory point-sets in order to get the subsequent payoff of possibly game-swinging bonus cards. I really like the card element but one complaint is that in many games, it will go almost totally unused. Games can easily be over before anyone acquires enough energy for more than one or two small cards, or if there is nothing great on offer initially, players will tend to prioritise attacks and victory points over stockpiling energy, as nobody wants to be the one to pay 2 to clear the board and deal out 3 new cards. There's no guarantee that you'll then get something you want to buy, or that you won't just have blindly flipped out a perfect card for the next player who didn't spend their energy clearing the item shop!
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| There's a huge deck of items of which you'll only see a few in any one game |
King of Tokyo is fast paced. Even with healing from heart dice, 10 health is not a lot, and monsters will quickly begin to fall. Rarely will players be left out for long though, as once the first player goes down the game is usually not more than a few turns from wrapping up. If people are playing a more conservative and defensive game trying to roll up a lot of hearts, the victory point win condition adds a clock to the game that only accelerates as players are removed. When you're down to two players the guy in Tokyo is getting their 2-point bonus once every opponent turn instead of after 3 or 4 opponent turns, and the game is racing towards a conclusion one way or another. This quick resolution mitigates the normal severe downsides of player elimination, and encourages a 'let's play another round' feeling after finishing, which long games don't tend to do.
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| GigaZaur, not to be confused with a copyright-protected giant lizard beginning with G. |
Component-wise, this game is just beautiful. The player boards and tokens are solid, gorgeous art everywhere, delightfully chunky dice and shiny energy cubes. Everything about the game is a joy to handle and play with, the dials that track victory points and life points are especially a nice touch. It's really the perfect game for engaging new players of all ages in boardgaming, mechanically and thematically but also simply in terms of boardgames as physical objects to interact with - everything about it just screams 'Play with me!'. And it's telling that in a game where the monsters are mechanically identical, people will still pick and jealously guard their favourite monster champion. Except Alienoid. Nobody likes Alienoid.
There really is something here for just about anybody. As an entry level game for those new to boardgaming, a fun and easy filler between serious games, or as an all-ages family experience, King of Tokyo will fill a niche you didn't even know was empty. Fill it with giant, rampaging monsters.
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