Heat (2015)

About this game

Recruit members of your criminal mob, then pull off jobs in the city for cash. Some crimes attract more attention from the police than others, and bringing down the Heat is bad for everybody. Heat is a micro-ish card game that plays out over three rounds. Every round, there's a drafting phase where your hand evolves by passing cards to your neighbor and drawing new cards. Then you select which cards from the hand you draft to play, attempting to out-guess the other players while scoring the highest yourself and carefully managing the amount of Heat you have, lest the police come down on you at the end.

Does it fit your group?

• Group size. Works with 3 to 5.
• Rules load. At 1.6/5 this is a light game — explain it in a few minutes, good for a table that has not played much.
• Age. The publisher suggests 13 and up. That rates the rules rather than the artwork, so judge the box yourself for younger players.