In an age Zoom calls and text messages, the ancient practice of writing long, elaborate letters has fallen to the wayside. A few creative, "epistolatory" tabletop games bring the tradition back, using letter writing as a way to tell their stories and to immerse players in the cultures of Renaissance Europe, Dungeons & Dragons-style fantasy kingdoms, 1920s America, and other non-contemporary settings.
More than books, newspapers, or magazines, the written letter may well be the greatest legacy of written language, a way for people to send their thoughts and stories across not only large continents but vast gulfs of time. Through history's famous letters - like the lifelong correspondence between John and Abigail Adams or the letter written by 11-year-old Grace Bedell to presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln, recommending he grow a beard - modern readers can get a peek into the lives and thoughts of saints, villains, and ordinary folk who lived and died in ages past.
The letter-writing tabletop games listed below pay homage to the unique stories preserved in these historic missives. Each in their own way, they have players imagine themselves as colorful characters from different eras, then figure out what sort of letters they'd write.
Love Letter
Love Letter is a compact card game designed by Seiji Kanai that sees two to six players take on the role of suitors vying for the affection of a noble princess. Not quite as literal as the following two letter-writing games, each player's goal in Love Letter is to deal out cards and tokens, maneuver their "letter" into the princesses' hands, and keep the letters of romantic rivals away. Publisher Z-Man Games has also produced two variants of Love Letter: the Marvel-themed Infinity Gauntlet: A Love Letter Game and the Lovecraft Letter Board Game, which follows scholars investigating forbidden lore and trying not to lose their sanity.
Quill
In contrast to Love Letter, where the "love letter" in question is heavily abstracted, Quill: A Letter-Writing Roleplaying Game for a Single Player is a solo tabletop RPG wherein players actually write out a real-life letter from the perspective of a fictional character. The character sheet players use during a session of Quill has letter-related attributes, such as Penmanship, Language and Heart, and players can boost the results of their dice rolls by using exciting words and phrases from a vocabulary list called an Ink Pot.
Epistolary
Epistolary is a multiplayer RPG designed for "play-by-post" gameplay - that is, an RPG campaign people play by sending messages to each other via email or actual letters, weaving plots over the course of weeks or months of slow-paced gaming. Each player takes on the role of a fictional character sending letters to their colleagues and receiving letters in turn. Epistolary's campaign genres can range from D&D-type fantasy tales to contemporary horror stories, but the general goal is to solve vexing mysteries and prevent terrible events from coming to pass, whether they be the outbreak of war, the conviction of an innocent person, or the unleashing of a cosmic evil.