Last week, I shared
Stevie Go!, my Minecraft-based retheme of Sushi Go! I had it printed on PrinterStudio.com using their "
custom poker cards" item. Stevie Go required 108 cards and PrinterStudio has an option for exactly 108 cards. But, for three dollars more, I could up it to 126 cards. But what could I do with those extra 18 cards?
How about make a Love Letter retheme!
No one in the world has thought to do that before! I own the game already, but almost no one gets excited about that theme.
With 18 cards, I could make the 16 Love Letter cards and two reference cards. I decided to use this opportunity to make an anniversary gift for my wife of (almost) 13 years, so for the basis of my retheme, I chose NBC's The Office, her favorite show of all time.
So, let me show you the cards!
We'll begin with the Princess, Michael Scott. The goal of the game is to get your memo to Michael, although he might accidentally file it in the special filing cabinet that's also a dumpster.
Next we have the Countess, Assistant (to the) Regional Manager, Dwight Shrute. He's in this position because he's Michael's closest confidant. It features my favorite design part of this whole retheme, namely the little "to the" in Dwight's title.
The King has been replaced with Toby Flenderson from Human Resources. This is partially because his ability is to trade hands with a player, and I get the feeling that Toby would like to trade lives with some of the people in the office. But this is also because Dwight cannot be in the same hand as the 6 card, and Dwight hates Toby almost as much as Michael does.
Of course, Dwight cannot be in the same hand as the five card either, and that's why I chose...
The two Princes are now two Salesman, Andy and Jim. Dwight hates them, so he leaves your hand when they are near. Also, I like to think that Jim making you discard a card and draw a new one is the equivalent to him playing a prank on you.
The Handmaids have been replaced by two of the accountants. Their ability is to ignore the cards of other players and I get the feeling that Angela and Oscar are two people who would like to ignore all the others in the office, or are at least bothered that they have to deal with them.
The Barons are now the two receptionists, Pam and Erin. They get to secretly compare info, which I envision as Pam canoodling with Jim and Erin canoodling with Pete.
The two Priest cards have been converted into Customer Service reps. Kelly is a snoop and gossip, so it make sense that she'll look at someone else's information.
Creed isn't really in customer service; I think he's actually a quality control person, but I figured that fit under the "customer service" umbrella, and Creed seemed like the type to pop into conversations and wonder what is going on.
Finally, we have the lowly Guards, who get to guess which card others had. I made them generic "Employees." I know they fit into other categories (Phyllis and Stanley are salespeople, Kevin is an accountant, Ryan does... something... and Meredith... also does something.
But I know my wife would appreciate having all the different characters in the game, instead of having multiples of the same character. So, this is why I went with job positions (Salesman, Accountants, Receptionists, etc.) instead of specific names.
I know this is a choice that might bug some, but that's why it's a gift for my wife, and not for you! :)
Love Letter is a 16 card game, and I had 18 cards to work with. So, I made the last two cards into reference cards, like the ones that come with Love Letter. They are two-sided, and above you can see the two sides. Now, before you let me know, I already realized (too late) that there is a type on the very first line of the rules card. It bugs me to no end, but it is what it is, ya know?
So, there it is: Office Memo, my retheme of Love Letter. When you win a round of Love Letter, you receive a "token of affection," which is just a red wooden cube. Since my budget is low and it fits thematically, the rules state that you receive a paper clip. However, if NBC ever decided to produce this game, I highly suggest that they create custom Dundee-trophy-shaped meeples that Michael gives you for successfully delivering the office memo to him!
I plan on storing it inside something like this...
but I haven't found anything the right size yet.
