Why is the Guard so fun to play in Love Letter?

I'm going to start this post by saying that I believe the original Love Letter card game is one of the best-designed games, period. There is no bloat, no balance issues, the game length is perfect, and it's a great gateway game. I'm not the first person to say this, and I'm sure as hell not to be the last. 

Still, I wanted to make my post about Love Letter, one and done, specifically on the ever-fluctuating changes in the lasting effect of the core mechanism in the game, using the Guard card. Just as a warning, I will be mentioning a game I am currently working on and working on the said game consequentially made me realise why Love Letter is so good. 

Credit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Letter_(card_game)

Anyway, the Guard card, what does it do? It is essentially a sniper with one bullet, you can use it to guess what card another player has in their hand, and if you are right, they are out of the game. Love Letter has a win condition of either having the highest card or being the last person standing. In my experience, the last person standing win condition is usually the most prevalent, so the Guard card is essential to achieving this win condition. 

So, we know it's essential, but why is it fun? I believe it is fun for a few reasons:

1. It's a tremendous bluffing mechanism for both the accuser and the person being accused. I've played a King against someone "forgetting" that they played a Handmaid or a Countess early on, faining that I have a Prince in my hand to throw people off the scent that I have a Guard in my hand. Whilst they're guessing Princess or Prince with their Guard, I'm getting further into the game and learning more about what cards people have. 
2. It's quickly resolved with a yes or no without adverse effects on the player that played the card. Unlike Coup, where any accusation could be disastrous for the accuser, Love Letter doesn't punish a player for being wrong, so there are only benefits to playing the card.
3. The ratio of Guards to the rest of the deck is perfect. It'll be rare that even in a four-player game, people don't get the chance to play a Guard card. 
4. You can't guess that other players have a Guard. This is such a small detail and would have been a post-playtesting addition. It's great for a few reasons. Of course, if it weren't a rule, then everyone would always guess Guard, and they wouldn't feel good about getting it right because it's pretty much a 30% chance from the offset, but also, having this rule makes it more manageable to guess the rest of the deck. It allows the player to analyse a player's chances of having one of 11 cards rather than 16. It is a small change, but a good one. 
5. Finally, it's fun because of the discarding and deck mechanism. I want to talk about this in more detail. ​

​When designing my own bluffing game, I became frustrated that players didn't feel that they had enough information to accuse people of lying about the cards they played. This is because, in my game, all cards are played face down. On top of this, the deck size was originally 52 cards as I wanted to create a more in-depth version of the card game "Bullshit". 
This combination of horrible design decisions leads to the game being very dull and not fun to play. So I took a step back and looked at why Love Letter and Coup, the two main inspirations outside of Bullshit, worked. 

Credit: https://whatsericplaying.com/2016/02/14/love-letter/

​Love Letter has two significant differences between itself and the old version of my game, Love Letter has a tiny deck of just 16 cards, and you play all cards face up. This works perfectly in conjunction with the Guard card as the percentage of likelihood that any player has any particular card at any given time is constantly ticking down. Of course, this is muddied when you are playing with more than just one other player, as you could be doing the calculations for one player when it's the other player that has the Princess, but this clear transparency of cards that have been played, and thus a clear transparency of what cards haven't been played, creates an even more stimulating effect. 

Early Game
At the start of the round, if a player guesses a card correctly, it's pure luck. It makes for a significant moment in terms of shock value, but at the same time, the player doesn't truly feel like they have earned it. 

Middle Game
However, when we make it to the middle game, it's possible to weigh up the chances even to a 50% chance (excluding Guard cards) that a player has one of two cards. Getting this right makes the player feel so intelligent; it's just a straight-up shot of dopamine to the cranium. I haven't had a feeling like it in any other game. There is still enough chance that it could be another card that the player feels like they earned it, but through thinking about the odds, the player feels brilliant for getting it right rather than just lucky.
​
This doesn't just have to be based on what cards have been played either; it could be down to how they have been acting or what cards they have specifically played themselves. For example, if someone plays a Prince straight away, I'm always going to guess either Princess or King as there is no way they would play a Prince if they had a card lower so early on, but that's just me. 

End Game
Anyway, back on track, we've talked about how the player feels during the early and mid-game, but what about the end game? When there is just one more card to pick up before the end of the game, and you have a Guard and a Baron in your hand, you know you aren't going to win via the highest card win condition, so you have to use this Guard you have to guess correctly. Usually, in this scenario, unless you know the card discarded at the start of the game (to make sure you can't straight up card count) is a Guard, then it's about a 50% chance again in guessing it right unless you have been paying attention to how they have been playing then it could be closer to a 100% chance of guessing it right. At this point, the danger is it is too easy for a player that has managed to keep hold of a Guard until the end or was just lucky enough to draw it at the end to guess correctly. Still, this guess is so essential, that the moment is so tense, and that there is still a slight chance of getting it wrong leads to some of the tensest moments in gaming I have experienced, and some of the most shocking when I get it wrong. 

I have just outlined three very different yet all valid and credible experiences when using just one card that does just one thing. You could do the same for almost all the cards in Love Letter, which speaks just on how well designed it is. After looking at Love Letter, I made the appropriate changes to my game and innovated on the deck system that Love Letter uses to fit my game as my game is more similar to Coup. However, I'll be making a blog post about the deck system in my game in a different post further down the line. 

In conclusion, I have yet to find such a great combination of deck mechanism and card that compliment each other so well; it does motivate me to continue designing games so one day I can do the same. What do you think of this combination of a transparent and easy to count deck system, coupled with a versatile card such as the Guard card? Let me know in the comments below. Also, comment on any games you think have a similar quality as I'd love to give them a go.