How to Teach Heat: Pedal to the Metal

A round of Heat has nine steps, and the temptation is to read all nine aloud before anyone touches a card. Resist it. Five of those steps only happen sometimes, and the race will show you when. New drivers need the loop, one corner, and three ways to get a little extra. The rest can wait for the moment it comes up.

Here is a script in the order you would say it, with the moments to stop talking. Print the Heat teach sheet and put it where everyone can read it. For the general method behind this script, see how to teach a board game in five minutes.

Before anyone sits down

Set up first, so the teach starts with cars on the grid. Use the USA track. Shuffle each deck: 12 Basic cards, the 3 Starting Upgrades, and 3 Stress cards. Put 6 Heat face up on each Engine and every Gear pawn in 1st gear. Place the cars on the grid at random.

Leave the Upgrade decks, Legends, weather tokens, and Championship pieces in the box. Decide how long the race is. The rulebook suggests 1 lap for a learning race instead of the usual 2. With new players, take that advice.

Minute 1: the goal

Say: “We are racing. First car across the finish line wins. Your car is this deck of cards.”

Hold up a Heat card. “This is Heat. You have six in your engine. You spend Heat to go faster than you should. Run out at the wrong moment and you spin.”

Minutes 2 to 4: one round, out loud

Walk one round through with your own car while you narrate, then put it back on the grid.

1. “Everyone does two things at the same time. First, your gear. Move it up or down one, for free. Two at once costs a Heat.”
2. “Second, play as many cards as your gear. One card in first gear, two in second. Face down.”
3. “Now the front car goes first. Flip your cards, add them up, and move exactly that far. Take the Spot by the Race Line if it is free.”
4. “Then draw back up to seven. That is a round.”

Stop here. Ask: “Questions on the round?”

Minutes 5 to 7: corners

Point at a Speed Limit on the board.

• “This number is the corner’s limit. If you cross this line, compare your Speed to it.”
• “Every point over costs one Heat from your engine. At or under, it is free.”
• “If you cannot pay, you spin: back before the corner, Stress cards in your hand, and you drop to first gear.”

Then the idea that makes Heat click: “Heat you spend goes to your discard pile. Later it comes back into your hand as a dead card. You cannot play it or throw it away. You get it back into your engine by cooling down, and you cool down in first and second gear.”

Minutes 8 to 9: three ways to get a little extra

• Slipstream: “End next to a car or right behind one? Move two more. Those two never count toward your Speed for corners.”
• Boost: “Once a turn, in any gear, pay one Heat. Flip cards until you hit a Basic card, a plain 1 to 4, and move that much more. This one does count for corners.”
• Adrenaline: “Whoever is last each round gets one extra Space and one extra cooldown.” With 5 or more cars, say “the last two.”

Minute 10: start, and teach the rest live

Say: “That’s it. Shift your gears.” Then play.

Teach the rest the first time it happens:

• Stress cards. When someone plays one, flip their deck with them until a Basic card appears.
• Discarding. At the end of the first turn: “You can throw away cards you don’t want, never Heat or Stress.”
• A full Space. The first time a car would land on two cars, show the first free Spot behind them.
• Two corners in one move. Pay for each one separately.
• The finish line. On the final lap, remind everyone that limits stop counting past the line, and slipstream cannot carry you over it.
• A hand full of Heat. If a driver cannot play enough cards for their gear, the rulebook has a fix: play what they can, fill the gap with Heat cards, and their car stays put while they drop to 1st gear.

What to leave out

• Upgrades, Legends, weather, and the Championship. All good, all for later. The modules lesson walks through them.
• Strategy. Let people discover that hoarding Heat loses races. It sticks better.
• Tournament Mode. Save it for players who want a sharper game.

Coaching during the first race

Help with the arithmetic, not the decisions. “You are 6 Spaces from that corner, and its limit is 4” is helpful. “Play your 2 and your 3” is driving the car for them.

Watch for a driver sitting in 3rd or 4th gear with Heat piling up in their hand. One question helps more than a lecture: “Is there a slow corner coming where you could cool down?”

When the race ends, ask who wants a rematch at the full 2 laps.