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Eldoria · a party game for the TV

How to play
Hot Streak

On your turn you either flip another card or bank what you've got. Flip a number you're already holding and the whole pile is gone. Everybody watches every card land. First player past 200 wins.

2–8 players one TV, a phone each first to 200 about 15 minutes every player for themselves

The whole game in one picture

One card too many

Three flips in — worth 21
7 3 11 = 21
→
Bank it — 21 in the bag
7 3 11 +21
or
Flip again — and draw a 7
7 3 11 7 +0

That's the entire game. A hand is worth the sum of the numbers in it, and it's worth nothing at all the moment a number turns up twice. Nothing is banked until you say stop — so every card you flip is the whole pile riding on the next one.

Setting up

Getting everyone in

1

Open Hot Streak on the TV

Pick it off the party-games home screen and the TV shows a four-letter room code and a QR code.

2

Everyone joins from their phone

Scan, name, in. Turn order is join order and it never changes, so the person who joined after you is the person you'll be watching sweat.

The TV, waiting for players The Hot Streak lobby on a TV: a QR code, the room code, and three joined players
3

The host starts it

There's no length to pick here: Hot Streak is a race to 200, and it takes as many rounds as it takes — usually four or five. The host taps between rounds and that's the extent of their job.

The loop

Your turn, in two buttons

1

Hit — the server flips the top card, face up

There's no hand to hold: every card you flip lands in front of you where the whole room can see it, on the TV and on everyone's phone. Then the turn passes to the next player, so a big pile is built one card at a time with plenty of time to regret it.

The TV mid-round The Hot Streak TV during a round: three players' face-up card rows with running round scores, and a line naming whose turn it is
Your phone, on your turn A phone on its turn: the player's face-up cards, their round score and banked total, and Hit and Stay buttons
2

Stay — bank it and sit out the rest of the round

Staying locks your round score into your total and takes you out of the round. You don't get another turn, and you can't be touched by anything that happens next. Everyone else keeps going without you.

3

Bust — a number you already hold

The round is over for you and you bank nothing. Not the duplicate, not the modifiers, not the fifty points that were sitting there a second ago. Everyone else plays on.

4

The round ends when nobody's left — or somebody hits seven

Normally a round runs until every player has stayed or busted. But a player who gets 7 different numbers in front of them ends the round instantly, for everybody, takes a +15 bonus — and everyone still in banks whatever they had, ready or not.

A round ending three different ways at once A Hot Streak round-end screen: one player with seven cards and a hot streak badge, one marked frozen, one marked bust with a repeated four

Cersei flipped her seventh number and shut the round down on the spot. Bran was frozen earlier and banked whatever he was holding, whether he liked it or not. Arya drew a second 4 and got nothing. That's a fairly typical round.

What's in the deck

The big numbers are the common ones

Every number card appears as many times as it's worth. There's one 0, one 1, two 2s… and twelve 12s. So the card that would pay you most is also the card most likely to be the one that ruins you.

0 1 card
1 1 card
2 2 cards
3 3 cards
4 4 cards
5 5 cards
6 6 cards
7 7 cards
8 8 cards
9 9 cards
10 10 cards
11 11 cards
12 12 cards

79 number cards in all. Once you're holding the 9, 10, 11 and 12, more than a third of what's left in the deck busts you — which is why a big hand gets frightening far faster than it feels like it should.

The other cards

Modifiers and actions

Mixed in with the numbers are a handful of cards that don't count toward the streak and can never bust you. Some pay, some point at somebody.

+2…+10
AddersStraight bonus points, added after everything else. Five of them, one each.
×2
The doublerDoubles your numbers — and only your numbers, before any adders. One in the deck.
Second
Chance
Cancels one duplicateHeld until it's needed, then it and the duplicate both vanish and you play on. Drawing a second one means giving it away.
Freeze
Banks somebody, nowYou choose who — yourself included. Their score locks in and they're out of the round.
Flip
Three
Three cards, no choiceYou choose who takes them — yourself included. They flip three in a row and bust if any of them repeats.
A Freeze being aimed The Hot Streak TV waiting on a Freeze: the tableaus, and a line saying the drawer is choosing a target
The phone that drew it A phone showing a Freeze pill, an explanation, and a button for each player still in the round including the player themselves

Both action cards are aimed by whoever drew them, which makes them the only social moment in the game: Freeze is a mercy to yourself and a mugging to anybody else, and Flip Three is the reverse.

Scoring

Adding a hand up

In order: sum the distinct numbers, double if you're holding the ×2, then add the adders. The streak bonus, if you earned it, goes on last.

A hand with a doubler and an adder
7 3 11 ×2 +4
The numbers7 + 3 + 1121
Doubled by the ×221 × 242
Then the adder42 + 446

The order matters and it favours you: the ×2 doubles the numbers before the adder is applied, so a ×2 early is worth chasing cards for, while a +10 late is a reason to stop.

Banked totals only. When a round ends, the game checks whether anybody has reached 200 — if so that's the game, highest total wins, and the round that got them there still counts for everyone else. So a round can be won by somebody who wasn't in front when it started.

A bust, in public The Hot Streak TV after a bust: one tableau stamped BUST with a repeated four, another stamped FROZEN, and the third still in the round
The last screen of the night The Hot Streak finished screen: the winner named, and the final banked totals for all three players

Tips

Playing it well

Count your own cards, not your points

Four cards is comfortable, five is a decision, six is a coin flip. The number that should stop you isn't your score — it's how much of the deck now busts you, and that goes up faster than the pile does.

Low cards are safer and cheaper

Holding 1, 2 and 3 means almost nothing in the deck can hurt you — and almost nothing is worth having. Holding 10, 11 and 12 is the opposite. A pile of high cards is worth banking early; a pile of low ones is worth pushing.

A ×2 changes the whole turn

It doubles numbers, so it's worth most on a hand you're going to keep growing. Draw it early and it's an argument for one more flip; draw it on a big hand and it's an argument for stopping immediately, because you're now risking twice as much.

Freeze yourself. Genuinely.

You can target yourself, and on a hand you were about to have to gamble with, that's the best card in the deck: a guaranteed bank. Spending it on the leader feels better and is usually worth less.

Flip Three is a weapon, and a rescue

Aimed at a fat hand it's close to a kill. Aimed at yourself on two low cards it's three free cards toward a streak. Look at the table before you assume it's an attack.

The seven-card streak ends everyone's round

Which cuts both ways: if the player before you has five or six numbers down, your round may be about to close whether you're ready or not. Bank before they do rather than being caught mid-build.

Being behind is a licence

Totals are all that matter and there's no prize for second. If the leader is within a round of 200, a bust costs you nothing you were going to keep — push until it breaks.

Watch what's gone

Everything is face up, all round. If the 12s have been coming out all over the table, the 12 in your hand is much less dangerous than it looks — the deck the room can see is the deck you're drawing from.

In short

The seven things to remember

  1. On your turn: flip another card, or bank and sit out.
  2. Every card is face up. There are no secrets.
  3. A repeated number busts you — the whole round, gone.
  4. Each number appears as often as it's worth. The 12s are everywhere.
  5. ×2 doubles your numbers; adders go on after.
  6. 7 different numbers ends the round for everybody, +15.
  7. First past 200 at a round's end wins.