Moomin Love Letter |
It’s one of my favourite and most-played card games; Love Letter. The game has countless of editions and rethemes, of which the Ken Niimura is my favourite. However, that version being available only in Japan, I conceived my own retheme with the similar Moomin-style, of which I first learned on a 2018 holiday in Finland.
There are several changes to the rules of the original. First, this version has more cards than the original: 21 instead of 16. That makes the game suitable for play with 2-5 players, although 3-4 is still optimal. Two new roles were added. Stinky is the new lowest card and allows you to copy the action of the card you put it on. Mr. Hemulen let’s you choose between two cards and put on on the bottom of the draw pile. I especially like this addition as it is the one out when holding Moomin in the early game. It leads to situations in which having knowledge of the bottom card of the draw deck gives a player the edge in the end game.
The cards were nicely printed by Cartamundi. 10 decks were made, consisted of the 21 playing cards, 5 overview cards and a rule card. Since the total comes to just 27 cards, ordering a normal deck of 54 cards allowed two full games to be printed, reducing the costs per deck.
Here are the 10 cards:
No. | Name | Frequency | Rule |
1 | Stinky | 2 | Copy the action of the card that you discard Stinky on. |
2 | Sniff | 6 | Choose another player and guess their hand (not Sniff). If your guess is right the player is out of the round. |
3 | Snork | 2 | Look at another player’s hand. |
4 | Little My | 2 | You and another play secretly compare hands. The player with the lower value is out of the round. |
5 | Snorkmaiden | 2 | Until your next turn, ignore all effects from other players’ cards. |
6 | Snufkin | 2 | Choose any player (including yourself) to discard their hand and draw a new card. |
7 | Mr. Hemulen | 2 | Draw a card. Choose one card and put the other on the bottom of the draw deck. |
8 | Moominpappa | 1 | Trade hands with another player of your choice. |
9 | Moominmamma | 1 | If you have this card and Moominpappa or Snufkin in your hand, you must discard this card. |
10 | Moomin | 1 | If you discard this card, you are out of the round. |