Hot Streak
Hot Streak Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Setup
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Decide who will be the Bookie (most honest), the Dealer (best shuffler), and the Handler (most enthusiastic).
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The Handler pulls out the racetrack mat from the box, until they get to the area behind the finish line. Pull the bar with one hand and hold the box with your other.
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The Handler puts the 4 mascots—Gobbler, Hurley, Dangle, and Mum—on their starting positions, facing the finish line.
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The Bookie sorts the betting tickets by color and puts them in 6 stacks, "Safe" side up, with the smaller size tickets on top.
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The Bookie gives everyone $10.
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The Dealer puts the shuffled side bet cards in a single face up stack between the YES and NO betting tickets.
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The Dealer creates the racing deck. Take the 4 starting cards—1 card per racer has a special border—then add a number of random racing cards, based on the number of people playing:
Players 3 4 5 6 7 8 Cards 11 10 9 8 7 6 Lay all those cards face up, so everyone can see them. We like to sort them by racer and line them up with each mascot's lane, so it's easy to see how each mascot might do.
Keep these cards face up until the first race starts!
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The Dealer also deals each player a hand of 3 racing cards face down. The remaining cards will not be used for the rest of the game and can go back in the box.
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The unluckiest player goes first.
How to Play
Hot Streak is about being a degenerate gambler, placing some bets, and watching the races play out while you scream at a man in a hot dog suit.
The game lasts 3 races, which all involve BETTING then RACING then PAYOUTS.
Betting
Each player will draft 2 betting tickets each race. Tickets come in two types: mascot bets, which pay out based on what place the mascot finishes, and side bets, which pay out if you correctly predict the answer to some weirder scenario.
Starting with the unluckiest player and going clockwise, each player drafts one betting ticket from the top of whichever stack they choose: the top bets being worth more than the middle and bottom ones.
Immediately after drafting a bet, the player chooses the safe or risky side. Risky is when you're feeling especially confident, since the risk and reward is higher—you can even lose money on some of them!
When the last player chooses a betting ticket, repeat this process but in reverse. The last player in turn order now drafts first, and the draft goes counter-clockwise until everyone has 2 tickets.
That's right, it's a snake draft!
- PLAYER 1 drafts 1st, then 8th
- PLAYER 2 drafts 2nd, then 7th
- PLAYER 3 drafts 3rd, then 6th
- PLAYER 4 drafts 4th, then 5th
Mascot bets pay more money the better the mascot finishes. Risky mascot bets are worth more than safe bets, but only if the racer finishes first!
Side bets only pay out if you correctly predict the answer to the question. You can even LOSE money on risky side bets.
Racing
Before each race, all players choose 1 card from their hand to add to the race deck face down. It's your one chance to affect the race, so choose carefully! Never show the card to other players, but feel free to table talk about it, coordinate, or bluff to other players.
After everyone has added their card, the Dealer collects all the cards in the racing deck, which should always have exactly 18 cards when a race starts.
Now we're at the main event of the game. The Dealer is going to flip over cards and announce what happens, while the Handler moves the mascots. There are no decisions to make during each race, so everyone else can just get lost in the moment!
After shuffling the deck, the Dealer burns (discards) 3 cards face down off the top of the deck while counting "3, 2, 1…GO!" On GO, they flip the fourth card face up and the race begins!
The Dealer continues flipping up 1 card at a time as the Handler moves the mascots.
Racing Cards
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A number moves a mascot that many spaces in the direction they're facing.
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A star moves a mascot to the next star in the direction they're facing. Note that a star can move a mascot over the finish line. In rare cases, a mascot may have no star to move to. If so, it doesn't move.
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Fall Down causes a mascot to fall over. The Handler lays the mascot face down in its current space. A fallen down mascot can only crawl, so all movements, whether forward, backward, or to stars, are reduced to moving 1 space.
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Turn Around causes a mascot to face the opposite direction. Movement now goes in the opposite direction: positive numbers and stars move away from the finish line and negative numbers move towards it. Turning around a second time can make the mascot face the right direction again.
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Swerve cards cause a mascot to move left or right into an adjacent lane—even off the track! The swerve is based on the direction they're facing. Swerves can also cause multiple mascots to be in the same lane, creating the possibility of collisions. If a mascot moves into or through the space of another mascot, a collision occurs! The stationary mascot falls down. Nothing bad happens to the mascot in motion. It's possible for multiple racers to share the same space. Fallen down racers can still swerve in addition to crawling forward.
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Recover causes a fallen down mascot to stand up, a turned around mascot to face forward, or a fallen down AND turned around mascot to do both! Recovery always happens before movement.
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Green multi cards affect ALL mascots! So they recover and/or move simultaneously. Unlike normal movement, the mascots cannot collide and cannot cross the finish line. But like Dangle, they use as much of the move as possible, up to the finish line.
Reshuffling
If the deck runs out, the race pauses briefly. Pick up the yellow bar at the end of the racetrack and fold it over to the next solid white line, shortening the track. Any stragglers under the mat are disqualified from the race (more on this soon!)
The Dealer reshuffles the deck, including the 3 burned (discarded) cards, and restarts the race by again burning the top 3 cards face down before flipping the 4th card face up. The race is back on!
Crossing the Finish Line
When a mascot crosses the finish line, put them on the highest ranking open place on the podium on top of the game box. (Just remember that mascots cannot cross the finish line on a green multi card.)
Disqualification (DQ)
In Hot Streak, not all racers cross the finish line. Mascots CAN and WILL be disqualified!!
This happens in two ways:
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Knockout: If a fallen down mascot has to fall down again, either from a card or being collided with. (Mascots never collide on a green multi card.) If a mascot has to fall down while they're already fallen down, that's a DQ! If a mascot is fallen down and is collided with by another mascot, they are DQed!
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Out of Bounds: If a mascot moves off the back of the track, off the side of the track due to swerving, or is ever under the mat from a reshuffle. If a mascot ever runs off the track, guess what? DQ!!
Whenever either of these things happen, the DQed mascot is immediately put on the lowest open place on the podium. If a mascot crosses the finish line before swerving out of bounds, it doesn't DQ.
In the rare case that two mascots DQ at the exact same time, put both of them between the two lowest places on the podium. Anyone betting on them gets the lower of the two payouts.
Ending a Race
The race ends when at least 3 mascots have finished the race, either by crossing the finish line or DQing. Put the fourth racer on the remaining open place on the podium.
Payouts
Money time! All players return their betting tickets and the Bookie pays them their hard-won cash from the money piles.
The mascot bets show different payouts depending on whether that mascot came in 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place. 4th place is always worth $0.
The side bet tickets only pay out if the player correctly predicted the YES/NO answer. The risky side of the side bets can lose you money.
If you ever have to lose money you don't have, pay the maximum you can. You now have $0.
Example: A ticket pays out $0 if Mum finished fourth. A ticket pays out $11 if Dangle finished first.
The 2nd Race
Before the next race…
The Bookie makes sure all players have returned their betting tickets and that they're stacked in the correct order, safe side up. Then they put the previous side bet on the bottom of the deck, revealing a new side bet.
The Dealer shuffles the racing deck and deals 1 face down card from it to each player, so everyone has 3 cards in their hand to choose from again. Remember that players are getting dealt cards from the existing racing deck, not new cards!
The Handler resets the track to its starting position if it had been folded up on a reshuffle. Then right before the next race begins, resets the mascots to their starting positions. It's helpful to leave them on the podium during the betting phase so players can easily reference the prior race's results.
Rotate who drafts first, moving one player clockwise.
Now run the second race, same as before!
The 3rd Race
The 3rd and final race works the same way, but with a spicy final twist. When a player drafts their 2nd betting ticket, they pick one of their two tickets to pay out double. Put it above the other ticket to remember which one you chose. Just be careful: negative amounts are doubled as well!
- Top bet in the 3rd race pays out double
- Bottom bet pays out as normal
Final Results
After the 3rd race payouts, players add up their total money earned. Consult the Life Outcomes to learn your life outcomes!
If you're finished playing, use the little side knobs on the box to roll the racetrack back up.
2 Player Variant
When playing with 2 players, all rules are the same, except…
Deal each player a starting hand of 4 cards instead of 3. Create the racing deck of 10 random cards, plus the 4 starting cards.
Each player drafts 3 tickets before each race instead of 2. When drafting, you should still follow a snake draft pattern: i.e. 1-2-2-1-1-2. Alternate who drafts first each race.
Before each race, each player adds 2 cards to the racing deck instead of 1. And after the first and second races, each player also draws 2 cards out of the racing deck instead of 1.
9+ Player Variant
We recommend this for large player counts, or at any size if you just want an even more casual game.
Setup
Give each player a piece of paper and something to write with. The money and tickets will not be used at all! Do not deal each player a hand of cards. Set up the side bet cards and racetrack same as you would for a normal game. Create a racing deck of 14 random cards, plus the 4 starting cards.
Betting
Before each race, all players will bet simultaneously by writing down 2 bets on their sheet of paper: (1) the name of a mascot they want to bet on and (2) YES or NO in response to the current side bet.
Before the third race only, players circle one of their two bets to double the payout.
Racing
Before the second and third races, randomly remove 3 cards from the racing deck, and replace them with 3 completely new ones. Then lay out the full contents of the updated deck for everyone to see.
Payouts
Players will split the contents of four pots:
- 1st Place pot: $18
- 2nd Place pot: $12
- 3rd Place pot: $6
- Side Bet pot: $18
After each race, the Bookie takes a survey of all players who bet on the 1st place mascot. Those players then split the contents of the 1st place pot, rounding down. For example, if 5 players all bet on first place, they would each receive $3. The Bookie is responsible for doing the math and announcing the correct payout. Then each player writes down their personal payouts.
Repeat the process for the rest of the pots. At very high player counts you may wish to double or triple the size of all pots.
When the game is finished, the Bookie should have everyone raise their hands, saying "Everyone with $5, keep your hand up," increasing the amount until only the winner is left with their hand up.
About the Mascots
Hurley — Don't be fooled - Hurley is no hot dog. Boxford, a humble pork processing town, independently invented their own unrelated meat-filled tube on a soft split bun back in the 1880s, calling it a bun banger. The cheap and playful food is a point of hometown pride, christening their ball team and launching multiple lawsuits against Oscar Mayer, Sabrett, and Vienna Beef, none of which have stuck. Bun bangers are still happily wolfed down at games and town festivals, served with chopped walnuts and plum jam. And diehard fans have a tradition of tossing theirs onto the field when a game is going into extra innings – underhand when they're happy about it, and overhand when they're pissed.
Gobbler — Until 1935, Glenbrook's mascot was Tony the Turkey, a beloved town pet who wandered freely, presided over ribbon cuttings, and enjoyed annual Thanksgiving immunity. That all changed when the circus came to town and Tony encountered Gobbler: a trained bear with wanderlust and a knack for lockpicking—an encounter only Gobbler walked away from. Having demonstrated his clear superiority, the town enthusiastically embraced Gobbler as both town pet and mascot. Today, his taxidermied body is still wheeled out to intimidate visiting teams.
Dangle — Dangle is a mascot birthed in disaster. In 1905, the perpetual underdogs of Ashford had clawed their way to the playoffs, and were holding their own in a bitterly fought game 7 when a freak waterspout off of the nearby bay dropped hundreds of previously-undiscovered deep sea creatures onto the field in a brutal gelatinous rain. Almost no one was injured - no one except for "Breaker" Bingham, the team's star pitcher and secret weapon, who'd been tragically, wholly, and vertically swallowed whole by a gigantic fish. Thus began the century-long curse on Ashford, who sardonically renamed their team after the falling fish in a self-deprecating stab at turning their fortunes around.
Mum — Thanks to a quirk of mapmaking and a catastrophic postal failure, Queveland never actually left British rule with the rest of colonial America, which the town itself kept quiet for a century and a half, until the heat blew over. Today, Queveland proudly flies the Union Jack, serves mince pies and earl grey at ballgames, and relishes their role as the villain of the league, threatening to bring any town they defeat back under the heel of the crown. Their mascot, Mum, is a recent replacement for Robby the Redcoat, who was retired after burning an American flag at a 4th of July exhibition match in a regrettable show of team spirit.
Credits
- Game Designer: Jon Perry
- Game Director: Alex Hague
- Game Design & Development: Alex Hague, James Nathan Spencer, Justin Vickers
- Art: Cécile Gariépy
- Sculpts: Josh Divine @ Heavy Cream
- Engineering: Ravi Varma
- Rulebook and Graphic Designer: Kristen Leach
- Lead Writer: Sophie Abromowitz
- Manufacturer: Strom MFG
- Publisher: CMYK
Contents
- 1 racetrack mat
- 4 mascot figures
- 53 race deck cards
- 12 side bet cards
- 12 mascot bet tickets
- 6 side bet tickets
- 100ish fake money
Quick Start
Setup
Everyone starts with 3 cards in their hand and $10. The rest of the racing deck is face up on the table—the 4 starting cards, plus this many random cards:
| Players | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cards | 11 | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 |
Betting
Snake draft 2 betting tickets per player. After you draft a ticket, choose the safe or risky side.
In the third race, after drafting your second ticket, pick one to double and put it on top.
Racing
Everyone secretly submits one card. Afterwards, the race deck should have exactly 18 cards.
Burn 3 cards face down to start the race.
If the deck ever runs out, reshuffle the cards, fold the end of the mat onto the next solid line, burn the top 3 cards of the deck, and restart the race.
When a mascot moves into or through the space of a stationary mascot, a collision happens! The stationary mascot falls down.
Mascots can be DQed by a knockout. That happens when a fallen down mascot is collided with or draws a fall down card while already fallen down. They can also be DQed by going out of bounds off the side or back of the track, or the mat is folded over them during a reshuffle.
When 3 of 4 mascots have finished or DQed, the race ends.
Remember: mascots cannot collide or cross the finish line on a green multi card!
Payouts
Players get the amounts listed on their betting tickets.
After a Race
Shuffle the race deck and deal 1 card to each player. They should have 3 cards.
After 3 races, the game is over. Discover your life outcome!