How to play Hot Streak, the bonkers betting game.
Watch the Video
Read the Rules
The aim of the game
To win, accumulate the most cash, by winning the most bets over 3 separate mascot races.
To set up
To set up choose a Handler, a Bookie and a Dealer:
- The Handler rolls out the fancy track and places each mascot on their starting space.
- The Bookie sorts the betting slips by colour and lays them out in stacks of ascending order, with the ‘safe’ side face up. They shuffle the side bet cards and place them in a stack with the ‘yes’ slips on the left and ‘no’ slips on the right, sorts the cash by value and hands each player $10.
- The Dealer creates the racing deck by taking the 4 bordered cards - one for each character - then adding a number of random racing cards depending on the player count. Lay these cards face up so everyone can see. Finally, they deal each player 3 race cards face down and put the rest away. In a 2 player game, give each player 4 cards.
To play the game
The unluckiest player goes first. They pick a betting ticket, choosing either the safe or risky side.
- Mascot tickets score if the selected mascot places in the top 3. Their risky side pays more if the mascot comes first, but less for second and third
- Side bets pay out if you successfully guess if the condition on the card happens or not. The risky side pays more if you’re right, but loses you money if wrong!
Once each player has chosen a ticket, everyone takes a second one in reverse order, with the last player to pick starting first this time. In a 2 player game, each player takes 3 bets.
After betting, each player secretly picks a card from their hand to add to the race deck, passing it face down to the dealer, who adds these to the deck and shuffles them. In a 2 player game, each player submits 2 cards.
You can talk about your picks, but don’t show them!
Now it’s time to race! The dealer counts down from 3, burning 3 cards face down from the top of deck, then flips subsequent cards face up. The handler moves the mascots accordingly.
- Number cards move the pictured mascot that many spaces. Positive numbers move them forward and negative numbers backwards.
- Stars move the mascot to the nearest star in their lane in the direction they face.
- Fall down causes the mascot to trip up and crawl. Now they can only move 1 space per card.
- Turn around makes the mascot flip 180 degrees and run in the opposite direction. If a mascot is facing away from the finish line, negative numbers make them run backwards towards it.
- Swerve cards move the mascot, then make them swerve either left or right into the adjacent lane, depending on the direction they face.
- If a mascot moves or swerves into a space occupied by another mascot, they knock them over. The mascot in motion doesn't fall.
- Crawling mascots can still swerve.
- Recover causes a fallen mascot to stand back up, and a turned around mascot to face the right direction before moving. If fallen and turned around, it does both.
- Green multi cards affect all mascots at the same time. As they all move at the same time, collisions don’t occur.
- Green cards cannot cause a mascot to finish the race, if they would do, they stop in front of the finish line.
If a mascot crosses the finish line, place them on the leftmost unoccupied podium space.
If a mascot swerves off the edge of the track or runs off the back of it, they’re disqualified and placed in the right-most available podium space.
If a mascot that’s fallen down has to fall down again - either from a card or being collided with, they’re knocked out and disqualified.
If 2 mascots are disqualified at the same time, put them between the 2 lowest spaces on the podium. Anyone who bets on them gets the lower of the 2 payouts.
If the race deck runs dry, reshuffle it, including the 3 burned cards and fold the yellow bar to the nearest white line. Any mascots that haven’t crossed this line are disqualified. Burn 3 cards and continue racing until at least 3 mascots have finished or been disqualified! Put the 4th racer on the remaining podium space.
Game end & scoring
Now it’s time for payouts. Each player returns their betting slips and the Bookie pays them accordingly. If you ever need to lose more money than you have, pay what you can.
Finally, the Handler unfolds the mat and returns the mascots to the start. The Bookie sorts the betting slips and reveals a new side bet, and the Dealer shuffles the racing deck and deals 1 card face down from it to each player, so they have a hand of 3 again.
Draft your bets, with the starting better moving 1 space clockwise and race again!
Before the third race, when betting, each player picks one of their bets to pay out double. Careful, negative values are doubled too!
After 3 races, whoever has the most cash wins! Read the text on page 32 to see what you each do with your winnings.
That’s Hot Streak, the manic mascot racing game.
Enjoy!