Heated
Heated Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
78 temperature cards; 30 action cards; rules.
Objective
HEATED is a short, exciting, and amusingly aggressive card game. Players use temperature and action cards to control their own and their opponents' heat levels. The goal is to win the game by either:
- Reaching exactly +13 degrees with the sum of temperature cards placed in front of the player.
- Eliminating all opponents by causing them to "overheat" at +16 degrees or "freeze" at -13 degrees.
Game Setup
- Shuffle and deal 5 cards to each player.
- Place the remaining cards face down in the center as the card deck. Leave space for a discard pile.
- The player who last took a hot bath starts the game.
Turn Structure
A player's turn consists of 3 sequential phases:
Phase 1: Player must draw a card from the top of the card deck. If it is:
- Temperature card - Player must place it face up in front of him.
- Action card - If it is not a combo card, play it immediately (see action card powers). Combo cards are discarded immediately without activating their power.
Phase 2: Player must play one card from the hand. If it is:
- Temperature card - Player must place it either in front of himself or any opponent.
- Action card - Play it according to its power.
Phase 3: At the end of your turn, the player must refill his hand by drawing from the card deck until he has 5 cards in hand.
Then the turn passes to the next player clockwise.
Action Card Powers
Phase 1: Player must apply card power to himself if it is not a combo card. Discard combo cards without activating.
Phase 2: Player action card power may apply to himself or any chosen opponent.
Protection Card
When playing this card, the player places it face up in front of himself or a chosen opponent. When an opponent plays a temperature card against a player, the player must discard both the protection card lying in front of him and the temperature card played against him at the time to the discard pile. A player can have more than one protection card protecting him.
Prohibition Card
When playing this card, the player places it face up in front of himself or a chosen opponent. During phase 2 of a player's turn, a prohibition card lying in front of the player prevents him from playing cards from his hand (do not skip phases 1 and 3). Instead, he must discard the one prohibition card he has to the discard pile. A player can have several prohibition cards played against him at the same time: in this case, he discards one of these cards each round.
Hand Exchange Card
When playing this card, the player must discard it to the discard pile. Then he has to choose any opponent or himself. The chosen player discards all the cards in his hand to the discard pile and draws an equal number of new cards from the card deck.
Combo (Combination) Card
Allows you to play up to 2 or 3 additional cards. After a player uses a combination card, it is possible to play fewer cards than indicated. These can be action and/or temperature cards. When playing multiple cards, the player can distribute them to himself and/or opponents as he sees fit. The played combination card is removed to the discard pile.
Card Simplification
For convenience, if at any time on table a player has temperature cards of equal value but opposite signs (e.g., -3 and +3; or -4, +2 and +2), discard them.
Player Elimination
A player is eliminated if temperature card total reaches:
- -13 degrees or lower (freezing).
- +16 degrees or higher (overheating).
Game End
The game ends immediately when:
- If the player's temperature becomes exactly +13 degrees at any time. This player wins the game.
- If all but one player is eliminated. This player wins the game.
- The card deck is exhausted. In this case, it is not reshuffled and players play with their remaining cards in their hand, starting with the first player on whose turn card deck is completely empty at the start of the turn. Each player gets one more move, skipping phases 1 and 3. So the last move goes to the player who previously drew the last card from the card deck. The one whose temperature sum is closest to +13 degrees wins the game. If there is a tie, those players share the victory.
Team Variant
The game can be played in teams (2 vs 2 or 3 vs 3). If any team member wins, the whole team wins. If any team member loses by freezing or overheating, the whole team loses. In this variant, the losing thresholds are -10 and +16 degrees. In Phase 1, you can play a drawn card for a teammate, but must remove any protection card first.
Rule Clarifications
- If a player has no cards left, proceed to Phase 3 and draw cards to end the turn.
- Protection cards do not guard against prohibition or hand exchange cards, nor against temperature cards drawn during the player's own Phase 1. They only protect against a single temperature card played by an opponent or teammate.