What is a game? Games are composed 4 main elements. Objects, Actions, Goal, and Rules. For a game of tic-tac-toe, these would be the breakdown:
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| Tic-tac-toe is used to illustrate the four elements of play in a game. Illustration by Maria Than. |
With these things in mind, let's examine the game "Love Letter"
ACTIONS: Drawing cards and playing cards for their effect.
RULES: You must always draw a card and discard one per turn. You must apply that card's effect, even if it's bad for you. All discarded cards must remain in front of the player who discarded, overlapped slightly so that it's clear in which order they were discarded. If a player is knocked out, they discard their hand face up and take no more turns until next round. A round ends if the deck is empty, or if all but one player are out of the round, in which case that remaining player would win. If deck is empty, all players show their hands and whoever has the highest value card wins the round. Honesty is key to a fun game!
GOALS: End up with the highest value card per round. Player who obtains the most tokens at the end of the game wins (how many tokens is based on # of players.
OBJECTS: Cards, affection tokens
Now, if I were to change up one rule to change it, I'd say turning your discarded cards face down each time you discard a new one (leaving the recently discarded one face up). This is already a deduction game, so having the other cards face down would also add an element of trying to remember all the cards that have already been played. Love Letter, hard mode (for me anyway, my memory sucks for such things!)
