How to Play Heat: Pedal to the Metal

Heat: Pedal to the Metal is a racing game where your car is a deck of cards. Each round you pick a gear, play that many cards, and move your car the total. Straights reward speed. Corners punish it, unless you are willing to burn Heat from your engine to get through faster. Push past what your engine can pay and you spin out.

Heat plays 1 to 6 in about an hour. This lesson follows the core Rules booklet in the box (version 1.1). The second booklet, with the advanced modules and the Championship, is covered in the modules lesson at Level 1.

Prefer to watch first? Watch It Played teaches the rules on video in its Heat How To Play video. Watch it, then come back here for the rules in writing and the rest of the course.

What is in the box?

For the core game you need:

• Two double-sided boards with four tracks: USA, France, Great Britain, and Italy.
• For each of six colors: a race car, a player mat, a Gear pawn, 12 Basic cards (three each of 1, 2, 3, and 4), and 3 Starting Upgrade cards (a 0, a 5, and one extra Heat card).
• 37 Stress cards and 48 Heat cards.

The Upgrade decks, Legends cards, weather tokens, and Championship pieces stay in the box for now.

How do you set up?

1. Put the board in the middle of the table. For your first race, use the USA track and consider racing 1 lap instead of the 2 printed on the board.
2. Each player takes the car, player mat, Gear pawn, 12 Basic cards, and 3 Starting Upgrade cards in their color.
3. Check the board for how many Heat and Stress cards each car gets. It is usually 6 Heat and 3 Stress.
4. Shuffle your Basic cards, Starting Upgrades, and Stress cards together. That is your draw deck, face down on the left of your mat.
5. Put your Heat cards face up on the Engine spot in the middle of your mat. Put your Gear pawn in 1st gear.
6. Put the remaining Stress cards face up near the board as a reserve.
7. Place the cars on the starting grid at random, one at a time, filling the spots in order.
8. Everyone draws 7 cards.

If an experienced driver is racing beginners, the rulebook suggests they remove 1 or 2 Heat from their own car to even things out.

What happens in a round?

A round has nine steps. Four happen every round: shift gears, play cards, move, and refill your hand. The others happen only when they apply.

Everyone does steps 1 and 2 at the same time. Then each car does steps 3 to 9 in race order, front car first.

1. Shift gears. Stay in your gear, or shift one gear up or down for free. Shifting two gears at once costs 1 Heat.

2. Play cards. Play exactly as many cards as your gear number, face down: one card in 1st gear, four in 4th. You can never play Heat cards.

3. Reveal and move. Flip your cards and add their values. That is your Speed. Move exactly that many Spaces. Each Space has two Spots; take the one closest to the Race Line if it is free. Cars never block you from passing, but if the Space you would end in is full, stop in the first free Spot behind it.

Stress cards add a gamble. For each Stress card you played, flip cards from the top of your deck, discarding them, until a Basic card shows up. Add that card’s value, 1 to 4, to your Speed.

4. Adrenaline. The last car to move this round (the last two, in a race of 5 or more cars) may move 1 extra Space, which adds 1 to its Speed, and may take 1 extra Cooldown. Use it now or lose it.

5. React. Use your symbols in any order:

• Cooldown moves Heat cards from your hand back to your Engine. 1st gear gives Cooldown 3. 2nd gear gives Cooldown 1.
• Boost works in any gear, once per turn, for 1 Heat. Flip cards from your deck until a Basic card shows up and move that many more Spaces. Boost counts toward your Speed.

6. Slipstream. If you are next to another car, or in the Space right behind one, you may move 2 more Spaces. Slipstream never adds to your Speed.

7. Check corners. The heart of the game, covered below.

8. Discard. You may discard cards from your hand, except Heat and Stress cards.

9. Replenish. Put your played cards on your discard pile and draw back up to 7.

When your draw deck runs out, shuffle your discard pile into a new deck. Cards in your Play Area stay out until step 9.

How do corners and Heat work?

Every corner has a Corner Line and a Speed Limit beside it. If you crossed a Corner Line this turn, compare your Speed to the limit. At or under it, nothing happens. Over it, you pay 1 Heat for every point over.

Paying Heat means moving a Heat card from your Engine to your discard pile. Later it cycles back into your hand, where it does nothing. You cannot play or discard Heat cards. The only way out of your hand is Cooldown, back to the Engine.

Cross two corners in one turn and you check each one separately, starting with the first.

What happens when you spin out?

If you owe more Heat than your Engine holds, pay all you have and spin out:

• Move back to the first free Space before that Corner Line.
• Take Stress cards into your hand: 1 if you were in 1st or 2nd gear, 2 if you were in 3rd or 4th.
• Drop your Gear pawn to 1st gear.

How do you win?

The first car to cross the finish line after the last lap wins. If several cars finish in the same round, the car furthest ahead wins, and the Spot closer to the Race Line breaks a tie. Speed Limits stop counting past the finish line, so move as far as you can. You cannot slipstream across the finish line.

Finished cars go to the Hall of Fame in order, and the race goes on until everyone is home.

Our Ludarium Library list calls Heat “a race that feels like a race.” After one lap, you will see why.