Hotpot Havoc
Hotpot Havoc Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 25 Bowl cards: bowls of various sizes and fullness. Each player starts with a set of 5 Bowl cards.
- 105 Soup cards + 5 Menu cards: there are 5 soups that may be used in the challenge. Each soup set contains varying amounts of each food and comes with a Menu card that provides information on the mix of food it has. Each set contains 21 Soup cards with food on the front.
- 20 Sauce cards: various sauces you can dip ingredients in, enhancing their taste.
- 5 Rank cards: used to determine the order in which players pick their sauce. Fastest fingers first! But watch out for the modifiers on some of them.
Setup
- Give each player a set of 5 Bowl cards, 1 of each Bowl. Return any remaining Bowl cards to the box.
- Shuffle the Sauce cards and set them aside face down.
- Give each player a set of Soup cards and its matching Menu card of their choice, or at random. Set any remaining Soup cards aside. They may be used later in the game.
- Place the Group Soup sheet in the centre of the play area, within reach of everyone.
- Place Rank cards equal to the number of players (i.e., 1, 2 and 3 for 3 players) next to the Group Soup.
You're now ready to play!
Gameplay
Hotpot Havoc is played over 4 rounds, after which the player with the most points wins! Each round consists of 3 phases: Cooking, Grabbing and Eating.
Cooking Phase
Reveal Sauce cards equal to the number of players in the game. These are the sauces available to players this round. Each sauce provides bonus points for certain ingredients and each player is only entitled to one.
Players then shuffle their Soup cards and spread them out face down in front of themselves to form a personal hotpot. Be as messy or neat as you would like!
No space? Players may hold their cards as a deck in their hand instead.
Players can then spend a short amount of time checking the Menu card for their soup before picking one of their unused Bowl cards to use for this round.
Each Bowl card can only be used once, and scores points depending on how much food you eat (but be careful not to overeat!). The Fullness tiers on the right of the card tell you the points you will score based on how much food you eat. You start off with -2 points, but have great potential for points!
The icons in the centre of the illustration tell you the Bowl's capacity (maximum number of Soup cards it can hold), as well as any food restrictions.
After everyone has chosen their bowl, all players should count down together and shout "Go!" before they start the Grabbing phase.
Grabbing Phase
The Grabbing Phase is done in real time, with everyone searching for and grabbing food simultaneously.
Players must now search through their personal hotpot or the Group Soup, looking for the right food to score the most points. This is done by using a single hand to flip a face down Soup card in your personal hotpot face up to see what food it is and picking 1 of 2 choices: put it face up in your Bowl or throw it face up into the Group Soup.
Food in your Bowl will be scored during the Eating Phase, as long as you do not fill the Bowl past capacity.
Each piece of food gives a certain amount of points (stars) and makes you fuller (ladles).
All food thrown into the Group Soup is available for any player to grab.
At any point during this phase, you may decide to stop and take a Rank card of your choice. The Rank cards decide the order players get to pick their sauce in the next phase, starting from the player who took the Rank 1 card then in ascending order.
Each Rank card carries a modifier shown by its icons (the printed Rank 1 card shows a -1 ladle modifier, Rank 3 and Rank 5 cards show icons with a star or ladle; the exact printed values are small in the scan and are not transcribed here).
Once you have taken a Rank card, you can no longer grab any more food.
If there is only 1 Rank card left, the last remaining player must stop and take it. Once all players have taken a Rank card, the Grabbing Phase is over.
Eating Phase
Each player now picks 1 of the Sauce cards that were revealed during the Cooking Phase following the order of their Rank cards taken in the previous phase.
After each player has taken a Sauce card, players should check each other's Bowl card to see if anyone has filled it with restricted food and/or past capacity.
Some Bowls are restricted from taking certain foods. Remove the corresponding Soup cards from the Bowl if applicable at this time. For example, a Bowl that can't hold any Soup cards with a spoon in front. Clearly plates can't contain any liquids... remove them!
After removing any restricted food, all other players except the owner get to choose and remove Soup cards from Bowls that are filled beyond capacity until they are within capacity.
At this point, everyone tallies up their score for the round individually and records it down before moving on to the next round.
End of Round
At the end of each round, after noting down your score, sort all used Soup cards according to the Soup set and set aside the Bowl and Sauce cards used this round.
Players should now, in reverse Rank order, pick a new set of Soup cards to play with. Return all Rank cards to their original positions after.
End of Game
At the end of the 4th round, everyone sums up their points from all 4 rounds to find out their final score. The player with the highest score is the new Hotpot Havoc Champion! If there are any ties, the player with the lowest point value on the top left of their remaining Bowl card wins! If still tied, the player with the higher numbered Rank card wins!
Scoring
- Score 1 point for each star at the bottom of all Soup cards in your Bowl.
- For your Bowl card, score the base points on the top left. Then add or subtract points based on the number of ladles across the Soup cards for that Bowl, based on the chart on the Bowl card.
- For each card in your Bowl that matched the foods on your Sauce card, score the points stated on right. The same food type can be scored multiple times.
- Check your Rank card for any modifiers at the top that may alter your score.
Scoring Sample
| Step | Summary |
|---|---|
| 1. 1 pt per star = 5 pts | +5 pts |
| 2. Bowl base: 5 stars = 5 pts | +5 pts |
| 4. Total ladles from Soup cards: 8. Modifier from Rank card: -1 ladle. Actual total ladles for Bowl: 7 = 5 pts | +5 pts |
| 3. 2 matching foods x 2 stars = 4 pts | +4 pts |
| Total: 5 + 5 + 5 + 4 = 19 pts |