Hot Heads – Card Game – Jolly Dutch

With Hot Heads, you get a tense, compact card game from Jolly Dutch for 2–5 players, where you push hot-air balloons upward for points—without ending up too high when the storm hits.

How do you play the game?

In Hot Heads, you build a “team” of balloons by drawing a card and playing one each turn. You may play a card into your own team to improve your position, or place it onto an opponent to disrupt their plan. Positive values make balloons rise, while negative values pull them down. When a storm card is drawn, the storm begins and every player must add extra cards from their hand into their own team; the more storm cards in the game, the more cards you must commit, shrinking your hand and limiting options. When the fourth storm card is drawn, players add any remaining hand cards and the game ends. Then you score per balloon type: the highest balloon of each type “flies into the storm” and is removed. Add up what remains in your team—highest total wins.

Why is this game worth it?

Hot Heads is fast to learn yet full of sharp decisions: do you chase big height for points, or stay safer so you’re not the one that gets removed as the “highest flyer”? Because you can play cards onto opponents, every turn has interaction and momentum. Storm moments crank up the pressure as hands empty and choices get tighter. At roughly 25 minutes per game, it works perfectly as a quick filler or as a repeatable challenge across multiple rounds. The balloon-race theme is easy to grasp and keeps the table engaged from start to finish.

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