“Love and Betrayal” is a story of romance, marriage, betrayal, and divorce.

This setting inspires the first Killer Wink of the “Love Party” season, introducing couples, spouses, and secret lovers.

The card setup is more complex, as it creates the official couples while also linking together secret lovers. This gives every player a double role: keeping an eye on their spouse while secretly trying to reunite with their lover through hidden meetings. The goal, of course, is still to eliminate the other players, but this time you will have to divorce and remarry…

I hope you enjoy many unforgettable evenings filled with love and betrayal.

And now, let the game begin!

Take the time to carefully read the rules below. Explain them to your friends, show them the example images, and don’t forget anything — every detail matters!

Will Kinker

The organizer plays like any other player. There is no “game master” who runs the game without playing — the organizer is fully part of the game.

You can play with 8 to 16 players, ideally 10 or more with an even number of players. The game is recommended for ages 16 and up, but it can also be played with younger players, who may find it more difficult to stay patient and discreet during the game.

Game length varies from 30 minutes up to 2 hours when players are skilled and patient.

To create the perfect atmosphere, try to recreate the feel of a wedding reception hall: decorated tables, flowers, white veils, white chairs, a dance area, and soft ambient lighting. Before the party, ask your guests to come dressed in formal attire, with elegant shirts and beautiful dresses.

Start by sitting around a table to distribute the cards. Once the roles are assigned, the game will take place throughout your evening—during appetizers, on the porch, in the kitchen, or while dining. The Killer Wink is not played at the table but serves as the backdrop for your evening.

For a smoother setup of the couples, it is usually best to seat the men on one side of the table and the women on the other, so that male “Love” cards can be given to the men and female ones to the women. The players will be united in public marriages known to everyone, but they will also have secret lovers.

If the number of men and women is uneven, you may choose some players to play as the opposite sex. If you have an odd number of players, the person left without a partner will take on the role of the “Dark Cupid.” 

To explain the card distribution, we will use an example with 8 players, meaning 4 couples. No matter how many players you have, simply adjust the setup accordingly.

Take as many female “Betrayal” cards as there are couples and place them face up in a row in the center of the table.

Take the “Love” cards matching the female characters from the selected “Betrayal” cards. Place them on top of the corresponding “Betrayal” cards for each character.

Take the “Betrayal” cards featuring the male characters from the previous “Love” cards. Place them on top of the corresponding “Love” cards for each character.

Take the “Love” cards matching the male characters from the previous “Betrayal” cards. Place them on top of the corresponding “Betrayal” cards for each character.

Stack the groups of 4 cards together and turn them face down. Choose one player to shuffle the stacks while the other players close their eyes. Then choose another player to shuffle the stacks again while everyone else closes their eyes once more. Be careful to keep the 4 cards of each stack together while shuffling. To shuffle safely, you can simply swap two stacks, then two others, then two more, and ask another player to do the same.

Place the 4-card stacks back in a row in the center of the table. Then, for each stack, take the top two cards and move them to the women’s side of the table. Move the two remaining cards from the bottom to the men’s side. The two 2-card stacks that originally came from the same 4-card stack must remain facing each other.

Next, swap the top card of each women’s stack with the top card of the neighboring men’s stack facing it. The top card of the last women’s stack must be swapped with the top card of the first men’s stack.

You should now have one 2-card stack per player — in this example, 8 stacks total: 4 for the women and 4 for the men.

If you are playing with a “Dark Cupid” (with an odd number of players), take two additional cards from the deck: one “Love” card and its matching “Betrayal” card. Place the “Betrayal” card face down on top of the “Love” card, then add this new stack to the row belonging to the side with the extra player.

Once again, choose two players to shuffle the stacks one after the other within each row, while the other players keep their eyes closed. The stacks in the same row must be shuffled together, but the two rows must not be mixed with each other.

Everything is ready! Each player may now randomly take one 2-card stack in front of them and look at their cards without showing them to the other players.

« On July 21st, 1901, at noon, wedding bells ring across the world for seven newly married couples in love.

They have just exchanged vows of love, devotion, and security. And yet, deep inside, each of them feels the pain of an aching heart. Without fully understanding why, they sense the absence of a soulmate hidden somewhere across the world — a lover from a distant land whom they may never meet, but who was meant for them.

Days pass, then weeks and years, and even though they believe they have forgotten that moment of doubt, it sometimes returns to them through a chance encounter in life.

Until the day when fate — perhaps guided by Cupid himself — brings them face to face: beside a fountain for some, along a forest path for others, or even on the deck of a ship.

The encounter is a shock — a spark, a lightning strike. But in that very moment, as helpless witnesses to their own relationship, they also discover the betrayal of the spouse who has been living another life.

Pain leads to divorce, while love makes the wedding bells ring once again. Some couples fall apart while new romances are born, leaving behind those who failed to form a union — and those who were caught in the act of adultery.

And once again, Cupid toys with the surviving hearts, with their sorrow and their joy, drawing them into new traps until the dance of tears and desire finally comes to an end, when the last two couples are formed.

Only those who listened most carefully and saw through the marriages and betrayals — the most observant witnesses within the storm — will deserve, in one final act of seduction, to become the couple of hearts bound together for eternity…»

Each player has a “Love” card representing their public marriage, tied to a specific city and country, as well as a “Betrayal” card revealing their secret lover.

One player at the end of the table places their “Love” card face up in front of them and says, “I am…,” followed by the character’s name and the city where they are located.

The player married to them, who has the matching card in the same city, places their own “Love” card face up in front of them, naming their character and city. They place their card next to their spouse’s card to show their union. (If you wish, you may move seats so the couple can sit facing each other.)

The player next to the first player then places their own “Love” card in the same way to form a second union, and so on until all the couples have been revealed.

During the introduction round, each player is able to identify their soulmate among the other couples. Their soulmate recognizes them as well, since the card setup secretly links the lovers together. The married couples are therefore public knowledge, while the pairs of lovers are known only to the lovers themselves.

If you have an odd number of players, one player will place their “Love” card without anyone pairing with them. That player reveals themselves as the “Dark Cupid,” since their “Betrayal” card points to themselves. They will play alone in the role of the “Dark Cupid.”

The goal of the game is to chain together divorces and marriages in order to eliminate the other players, and ultimately remain as the last married couple with the most ring tokens to win the game.

If the accused lover confesses: they are eliminated along with their lover, who is the spouse of the player initiating the divorce. The player who announced the divorce then marries the spouse of the accused lover. They place their two “Love” cards together in the center of the table to symbolize their union, while keeping their respective lovers secret. The game then continues with this new married couple and two eliminated players.

If the accused lover denies the accusation: the player who announced the divorce is eliminated for falsely accusing their spouse of adultery, and their loyal lover is eliminated with them. The spouse of the accusing player then marries the spouse of the eliminated lover. They place their two “Love” cards together in the center of the table to symbolize their union, while keeping their respective lovers secret. The game then continues with this new married couple and two eliminated players.

Any player may act as a witness to a secret meeting. When a marriage is officially celebrated with witnesses, those players become the official witnesses of that marriage.

During the wedding celebration, each witness receives a token containing one ring as a reward. The newly married couple receives one token containing two rings for their union.

During a divorce, if the divorcing couple owns double-ring tokens, the player who remains in the game inherits them. The eliminated player keeps their single-ring tokens.

The “Dark Cupid” is a cupid who helps bring marriages together, but who can also spread chaos by causing divorces.

They have the special privilege of acting as both witnesses for the same marriage, allowing them to earn both single-ring tokens from the two witnesses.

They may accuse two players of being lovers, triggering divorces between those lovers and their respective spouses. During these divorces, the Dark Cupid claims for themselves any double-ring tokens the couples could have earned. If they falsely accuse two players, they are eliminated from the game.

Their goal is to collect as many ring tokens as possible and win the game by ending with more rings than the final two remaining couples.

A few important rules to ensure the game runs smoothly:

You are not allowed to refuse to act as a witness if someone invites you with a wink.

You are not allowed to lie if you are accused of being a lover.

You are not allowed to expose a lover in order to trigger a divorce that would benefit you. If you are neither the lover nor the spouse involved, then this situation does not concern you — unless you are the Dark Cupid.

The game ends when only two married couples remain. Each couple then counts the number of ring tokens they collected during the game.

The winning couple is the one with the most ring tokens. In the event of a tie, the last couple to celebrate a marriage wins the game.

If there is a Dark Cupid in the game, they win if they have more ring tokens than the winning couple.

Everything is ready — don’t forget your spouse and your lover. Play throughout the evening while doing other activities: having drinks around a table, chatting, cooking, going out onto the terrace, eating, dancing, going outside, or even playing other games. Killer Wink is not played around the table, but in the background of your entire party.

Keep a close eye on your spouse, but also on your lover’s spouse, who may catch you during a secret meeting as well. Try to figure out who your spouse’s lover is by observing their movements and the looks they exchange with other players. If you choose to play patiently and wait for the right moment, don’t forget that you will still need ring tokens to win in the end.

If you would like to choose the first married couples at the beginning of the game, slightly modify the card setup: after the final shuffle of the two rows of stacks, turn the “Love” card face up on each stack from one row and place it back on top. The players from the other row then each randomly take one stack. During the couple introduction round, the first player places their “Love” card on the table. To form a couple, the matching player then chooses the stack with the corresponding visible “Love” card, and so on for each couple.

If you would like players to choose their own lovers, modify the card setup as follows: use only the “Love” cards, one for each player. Shuffle one deck for the men and one deck for the women, then distribute the cards to the players. Go through the introduction round so that every couple is publicly revealed and known to everyone. During the game, you may have secret meetings with any player and choose your own lover, but you must complete at least three secret meetings in order to celebrate a marriage. The first secret meeting officially defines your lover and allows your spouse to initiate a divorce if they discover the affair.

You may combine “Arranged Marriages” and “Destined Lovers,” but Killer Wink declines all responsibility for any tragic relationship drama that may result from it…

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Feel free to ask your questions through the contact form in the website menu. I will reply as quickly as possible. You are also welcome to share your feedback and suggestions for improving the game through this form. Thank you.

The pocket version of the game in English is available on The Game Crafter website.