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Playing with my 10 year old niece. She ropes me into it without much info. I read about 2 player game and 3 cards up and she insists the old love letter game was different and wanted to throw away the rule book in rage. I think she simply never learned all the rules. Most rage-inducing was the hand maiden card. I interpreted the rules as saying that she must target herself in a 2 player game when I had handmaiden out. Reading the above just confuses me more. Do I need to read the rulebook? How does handmaiden work if she must play princess or guard?

In Love Letter, can you discard a card instead of playing it?

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  • Sometimes kids have their own interpretation of the rules. You can either correct them or play along. The later version is often the most adult reaction. – Toon Krijthe Dec 07 '15 at 13:24
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    Possible duplicate of In Love Letter, can you discard a card instead of playing it? – Joe W Dec 07 '15 at 13:42
  • @JoeW This question was asked after reading that other question and being unclear about it. – GendoIkari Dec 07 '15 at 14:39
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    This definitely isn't a duplicate at all. This is about how the Hand Maiden works, specifically what you do when all opponents have a Hand Maiden out. The other question is about if you are allowed to discard a card without performing the text. – GendoIkari Dec 07 '15 at 14:41
  • @Gendolkari and my answer in that question also answers this question which is why I raised the duplicate flag. – Joe W Dec 07 '15 at 14:41
  • @JoeW So it does... but the other question could have been answered without mentioning the Hand Maiden at all; you just chose to give a lot more detail in the answer. So this might be a case of 2 different questions where a comprehensive answer could answer both. He also said that "reading the above" confused him, presumably meaning reading your answer. But he wasn't clear about what he was confused by. I think we might need more clarification on his question here... – GendoIkari Dec 07 '15 at 14:45
  • @Gendolkari Do you mean give an answer that says you have to use the cards abilities except in certain cases and not explain them? That sounds like a partial answer to me. To fully answer the question it was necessary to also explain what happens when you can't use a cards ability. – Joe W Dec 07 '15 at 15:01

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You are correct: where appropriate you must target yourself if all other players in the game are affected by a Handmaid card, although the effect of this is not as intrusive as you would think.

The rulebook (pages 19-20) expands upon the Handmaid card, specifically stating:

If all players other than the player whose turn it is are protected by Susannah, the player must choose him- or herself if possible.

However the rulebook also expands upon each other card in the deck (pages 15-23), and states that the only card that will (must) affect yourself in this case is the Prince:

If all other players are protected by the Handmaid, you must choose yourself.

The rest of the cards either do not target other players, or are specifically expanded upon to say they have no effect.

Ken Herbert
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