Heat: Pedal to the Metal

Read this booklet first!

This booklet will teach you all the rules to play the core game. We suggest you play your first few races following these rules before trying the Advanced Play and Championship Rules found in the other booklet.

1–6 Players | Ages 10+ | 60 Minutes

Heat waves shimmer from the racetrack, obscuring the first corner. You adjust your goggles as the sun glints off the chrome of race cars slowly being pushed into position around you. The murmur of the crowd, the snap of flags in the wind, the gentle rumble of your engine. A blue summer sky, calm and tranquil in your pole position.

The countdown begins and sudden deep roars cut through the air as all the cars leap away from their starting lines; the Grand Prix is underway. Dust and wind rush past your helmet as you enter the first corner. Pushing your engine to the limit, you almost spin out. But tightening your grip on the steering wheel you slide through the corner apex still in first. You got this!

There’s no prize for crossing the finish line in a pristine car so… PUT YOUR PEDAL TO THE METAL!!!

Object of the Game

In Heat: Pedal to the Metal™ everyone races a car around the track for a given number of laps to determine the best driver. At the start of each round you can shift gears, which dictates how many cards you play that round. You control your car’s speed by adding the value of these cards to move that many spaces on the race track, jockeying for position.

If you’re playing this racing game, you love speed so you’ll be playing your high-value cards early and often. However, racing requires skill as you maneuver around the track, so be careful not to exceed the suggested speed of each corner or your car will start to overheat; push too hard and you risk spinning out. Manage your speed and take care of your engine if you want a shot at the podium!

Here are the components you will need to play your first few games. You can leave the rest in the box for now. They will be described in the other booklet.

• This Rules booklet
• 2 double-sided game boards with 4 different race tracks (USA, France, Great Britain, and Italy)
• 6 player mats in player colors
• 6 race cars in player colors
• 6 Gear pawns in player colors
• 72 Speed cards (12 per player)
• 18 Starting Upgrade cards (3 per player)
• 37 Stress cards
• 48 Heat cards

Setting up the game

1. Place the game board in the middle of the table (for your first game use the USA track, and consider only racing 1 lap as a learning experience instead of the regular 2 laps as printed on the board).
2. Choose player components: Each player chooses a color and takes the car, player mat, Gear pawn, and 12 Speed cards in their color. Each player also takes the 3 Starting Upgrade cards in their color.
3. Check the game board to discover how many Heat and Stress cards each player must add to their car (typically it will be 6 Heat & 3 Stress cards so that example is used below).
4. Setup player area: Place your player mat in front of you. Shuffle your 12 Speed cards, 3 Starting Upgrade cards, and 3 Stress cards together and place this draw deck facedown on your player mat’s left spot. Place the 6 Heat cards faceup on the Engine spot in the middle of the player mat and your Gear pawn in first gear.
5. Stress card reserve: Place the remaining Stress cards faceup close to the board as a reserve.
6. Starting grid: Randomly place all participating race cars on the starting grid to determine player order for the first round. Place them one at a time, filling the spots in ascending order.
7. Draw starting hand: Draw 7 cards from your draw deck into your hand. These are the cards available to you in the first round of the game. You are ready to begin!

Tip: If you are an experienced driver and playing with rookies, consider removing 1 or 2 Heat from your own car to level the playing field.

Heat: Pedal to the Metal™ is played over several rounds. Each round all players ALWAYS complete 4 mandatory steps:

• ➊ – Shift Gears (adjust their gear)
• ➋ – Play Cards
• ➌ – Reveal & Move (move their car)
• ➒ – Replenish Hand (draw back up to seven cards)

The remaining steps (4–8) are situational and only sometimes apply to your turn.

All players complete steps 1 and 2 at the same time (do them in order, but without waiting for each other). Then proceed to steps 3–9 once everyone has finished these two actions. Repeat this sequence until all cars have finished the race (check the number of laps on the board for the track you are using).

1. Shift Gears (Mandatory)

First check which gear your car is in from the previous round, and decide if you want to leave it there or shift it one gear up or down from that position.

Note: You can choose to shift your gear up/down two positions, but doing so will require your car to take one Heat, which you can read more about on p. 7: Heat Cards.

2. Play Cards (Mandatory)

Your current gear determines exactly how many cards you play from your hand. 1st gear means you must play 1 card, 2nd gear is 2 cards, and so on. Keep the 1–4 played cards facedown in your own Play Area.

Once everyone has finished steps 1 & 2, move on to step 3: Reveal & Move.

In steps 3 through 9, players move their car and finish their turn, one player at a time. Start with the frontmost car, closest to the Race Line, and proceed back through the positions one car at a time.

3. Reveal & Move (Mandatory)

Flip the cards in your play area so that their values are visible, then add all values together to determine your speed. Move your car forward by exactly that many Spaces on the track. Always put your car on the Spot closest to the Race Line if available.

• Cars never prevent you from passing through them, even when it looks like the race track is blocked. However, if you would end your move in a Space where there are cars on all Spots, then you are blocked and must put your car in the first Space with a free Spot (as close to the Race Line as possible) behind the cars that blocked you.
• If there are 2 cars next to each other, the car closest to the Race Line is considered ahead for all purposes.

Stress Cards

All players start with three Stress cards shuffled into their draw deck, and you will eventually draw these into your hand. Stress cards represent lapses of concentration as you race around the track.

Each time you play a Stress card to get it out of your hand, you will apply an unknown speed between 1 and 4. Determine the speed by flipping the top card of your draw deck:

• If it is a Speed card, add it to your played cards for the round.
• If it is not a Speed card, immediately put it in the discard pile and keep flipping until you find a Speed card.

Do this for each Stress card you played. This randomisation is finished before moving on to the Adrenaline Step.

4. Adrenaline

Only applies if you are the last car to move this round (or two last cars in a race with 5 cars or more).

Adrenaline can help the last player to move each round. If you have adrenaline, you may add 1 extra speed (move your car 1 extra Space) before or after your boost (see below). You also gain access to 1 extra Cooldown. You can use both these advantages during your React step.

Note: Adrenaline cannot be saved for future rounds.

5. React

Only applies if you have access to symbols from cards played (Garage Module), Adrenaline or your current gear.

In this step you get to activate symbols you have access to in ANY order you want. In general you have access to symbols from your current gear or thanks to Adrenaline, but in the Garage Module you can also access symbols from cards played. The symbols you gain access to in the core game are Cooldown & Boost.

Cooldown

Cooldown is an important aspect of the game because it allows you to take a Heat card from your hand and put it back in your Engine (so you can use the Heat card again). The number in the Cooldown symbol indicates how many Heat you can move in this way. You gain access to Cooldown in a few ways but the most common is from driving in 1st gear (Cooldown 3) and 2nd gear (Cooldown 1).

Boost

You may boost once per turn to increase your speed. If you decide to Boost, pay 1 Heat (p. 7: Heat Cards) to flip the top card of your draw deck until you draw a Speed card (discard all other cards as you do when playing Stress cards). Move your car accordingly.

Note: Boost increases your Speed value for the purpose of the Check Corner step.

6. Slipstream

Only applies if you end your move next to or behind another car.

Slipstreaming is optional and available if you land next to another car, or in a Space behind a car or cars. If you choose to Slipstream, you move 2 Spaces forward.

Note: Slipstreaming does NOT increase your Speed value for the purpose of the Check Corner step.

7. Check Corner

Only applies if you crossed through a corner this round.

If you drive through a corner in your turn (crossed a Corner Line) you must now check if your total Speed for the round exceeds the Speed Limit of that corner.

• If your total Speed for the round is equal to or lower than the Speed Limit, nothing happens.
• If your Speed is higher than the Speed Limit, you pay Heat equal to the difference between your Speed and the Speed Limit (p. 7: Heat Cards).

Note: If you drive through several corners on the same turn, you must pay for each of them separately, starting with the first Corner Line you crossed.

Spin out

If you do not have enough Heat to pay for your excess Speed, you pay all the Heat you have and immediately spin out:

1. Move the car back to the first available Space before the corner that caused the spin out.
2. Take 1 extra Stress card into your hand if you are in 1st/2nd gear, or 2 extra Stress cards if you are in 3rd/4th gear.
3. Move your Gear pawn to 1st gear.

8. Discard

This is an optional step.

You may discard cards from your hand if you do not want to save them for future rounds. Do so by placing them face up into your discard pile. However, nobody can browse through the discard piles; only the top card is public knowledge.

Note: You can never choose to discard Stress or Heat cards (even the Upgrade ones).

9. Replenish Hand (Mandatory)

Remember, this is one of the required steps of your turn.

1. Take all cards from your Play Area and put them onto your discard pile.
2. Draw back up to 7 cards, then the next player can proceed with steps 3–9.

Running out of cards

At any point, if you must draw or flip cards and there are no cards left in your draw deck, immediately shuffle your discard pile and place it face down as your new draw deck. Then draw or flip the cards you were missing.

If this happens during your turn (before this final redrawing step), do not shuffle the cards in your Play Area back in the deck, as they have not been discarded yet.

Heat Cards

As you race around the track you should use Heat to drive faster on straights and in corners. As a consequence, Heat cards will move from your Engine to your discard pile. Later on they will be shuffled into your draw deck and reach your hand. The only way to get Heat cards out of your hand and back into the Engine is to cool down, typically by shifting to lower gears. This cycle means the same Heat card could be used several times during a race, depending on how fast you use it, draw it and cool it down again.

Heat cards can never be discarded or played from your hand. They effectively reduce your hand size by filling it up with useless cards.

Paying Heat

Every time you are asked to pay 1 Heat, you must take 1 Heat card from your Engine and move it to your discard pile. If you do not have a Heat card available, you cannot choose to Boost. If you went through a corner exceeding the Speed Limit and do not have enough Heat to pay, you spin out (see p. 6).

Shifting up/down 2 positions

If you want to move your Gear pawn an extra step up or down (e.g. between gears 1&3 or 2&4) during step 1: Shift Gears, you have to pay 1 Heat immediately. As everyone shifts gears at the same time, just announce you are doing it, pay the Heat and move your Gear pawn accordingly.

Cluttered Hand

In rare circumstances you can get stuck with so many Heat cards in your hand that you don’t have enough playable cards for the gear you’re in. If this happens, use as many playable cards as possible and cover the difference with Heat cards.

In this case, your car does not move this turn. Instead move your Gear pawn to 1st gear, place the cards that are in your Play Area in your Discard pile, and skip straight to step 9 (Replenish Hand).

How to Win

You win the race (and the game) by being the first player to cross the finish line after the number of laps indicated on the board. If two or more cars finish in the same round, the winner is the player whose car is furthest ahead (the spot closest to the Race Line is the tiebreaker if two cars end up side by side).

When you have crossed the Finish Line on the last lap:

• Slipstreaming is not allowed (you cannot slipstream across the Finish Line either).
• Disregard any speed limits in corners after the Finish Line, simply move as far as you can.

At the end of the round, remove all the cars that crossed the Finish Line from the track and place them in order on the Hall of Fame Space on the board. Continue playing until all cars make it to the Finish (give Adrenaline to the last car or last two cars based on the number of cars that started the race, not the remaining cars in play).

Start your engines!

You are now ready to play. We suggest you play a few games before reading about the Garage & Legends Modules in the other booklet.

Just draw 7 cards into your hand, if you haven’t already, and start playing the first round (begin at step 1: Shift Gears).

Designed and developed by Sidekick Studio

Authors: Asger Harding Granerud and Daniel Skjold Pedersen
Illustrations and Graphic Design: Vincent Dutrait
Graphic Design and Layout: Cyrille Daujean
Editor: Jesse Rasmussen

The authors want to send a very special thank you to their amazing families for always being supportive of their crazy endeavours.

They also want to send a heartfelt thank you to the many friends and playtesters who have helped them over the years: Adam K. Wegge, Allan Kirkeby, Amalie Bülow Nielsen, Anders Hebert, Andreas Skjold Liberoth, Andreas Skov Esbech, Bastian Borup, Bo Frederiksen, Daniel Engsvang, Daniel Greve, Danny Halstad, Dennis Friis Skram, Eivind Petersen, Jacob Engelbrecht-Gollander, Jacques Dahl, Jakob Lind Olsen, Jeppe Skafte Johansen, Joachim Christoffersen, Johan Friis Skram, Jon Høj, Julie Nielsen, Kasper Mackeprang, Keith Edwards, Kristian Hedeboe Hebert, Kristoffer Enggaard, Lars Wagner Hansen, Lasse Poulsen, Lau Korsgaard, Lise Thygesen, Mads Fløe, Mads Laurits Hansen, Martin Holst, Mathias Eilenberg, Morten Blaabjerg, Morten Lund, Morten Rodam, Nichole Chambless, Nick Pilegaard, Ole Palnatoke Andersen, Per Larsen, Rasmus Faber, Rasmus Schou Christensen, René Christensen, René Ørsig Hansen, Steffen Bunch Morsing, Søren Hebbelstrup, Thore Nellemann, Tine Ann Christensen, Tobias Prentow, Troels Panduro, Ulrik Morten Madsen, Valdemar Dahlgaard, everyone at our Superhero Meetups, the Bastard Café, Giants Club and Nordic Game Artisans.

The illustrator wants to send many thanks to Peter Hutton for his encouragement and attention. His work has been a source of inspiration and has opened new horizons to enrich the universe of “Heat: Pedal to the Metal™”.

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