Keep the reactor under 99. Blow it up, and it's on your watch.
2–6 players · ages 8+ · 15–30 minutes
The Premise
You and your crew of woodland creatures run a power plant that is one bad decision away from blowing up. Every card you play adds load to the meter. The meter must never climb above 99. Push it over — on your turn — and the whole plant blows on your watch. You lose a spark token.
The last creature still standing in the plant wins.
Components
- 60 game cards (see the Deck Breakdown below)
- Spark tokens — roughly 20, enough for a full 6-player table
- This rulebook
Setup
- Shuffle the deck and deal each player 3 cards.
- Give each player 3 spark tokens. These are your lives.
- Place the rest of the deck face-down as the draw pile, leaving room beside it for a discard pile.
- The meter starts at 0.
- The youngest player goes first — or whoever most recently broke something.
How a Turn Works
On your turn, do these three things in order:
- Play one card face-up onto the discard pile.
- Announce the new meter total out loud, so everyone can hear how close to disaster you've brought things.
- Draw back up to 3 cards from the draw pile.
Play then passes to the left — until somebody reverses it.
The Golden Rule: the meter can never go above 99. If you can't play a card without pushing it over 99, you're overloaded — see Overloading.
The Cards
Number Cards
Most cards simply add their value to the meter: 4s, 5s, 6s, 7s, 8s, 9s and 10s add that many.
Spark (the Ace) — counts as 1 or 11 — your choice, each time you play one. Gentle filler early in a round; a desperate escape when the meter is near the top.
Special Cards
| Card | Effect | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Vent Steam | subtract 10 | Your main relief valve. Lowers the meter by 10. The meter never drops below 0 — if it's under 10, Vent Steam simply sets it to 0. |
| Full Reset | set to 0 | Slams the meter all the way back to 0. Rare and precious — savour it. |
| Redline | set to 99 | Forces the meter straight to the brink and hands the crisis to whoever plays next. It's also the answer to a Full Reset: right after someone resets the meter, a Redline can shove the load back to 99. |
| Pass the Buck | counts as 0 | Adds nothing to the meter — the total stays where it is. The next player must play two cards on their turn instead of one, announcing the total after each. If that player has their own Pass the Buck, they may use it as one of their two cards to bounce the burden onward — chaos is encouraged. |
| Reverse Polarity | counts as 0 | Adds nothing to the meter — the total stays where it is. Flips the direction of play: what was going left now goes right. |
| Coffee Break | counts as 0 | The crew downs tools for a breather and the meter holds steady. Adds nothing — play it and the total stays exactly where it is. Your safest possible play, and a lifeline when the meter is near the top and everything else would bust you. |
| Overclock | a special 7 | Adds 7 like any other 7. But then you may optionally play one more card of any kind, then draw back up to 3. It's a gamble to churn your hand and dig for better cards — you take the +7 no matter what, so you can only afford the extra play when the meter has the room. The extra card can be anything, including another Overclock, so chains are possible. |
A Turn in Action
Four creatures are at the table — Hazel, Pip, Bram, and Cinder — playing to Hazel's left, in that order. The meter reads 81.
- Hazel plays an 8. She announces "89." She draws back up to 3. Getting tight.
- Pip is holding a 9, a 10, and a Redline — every number card would bust the meter, but he isn't stuck: he plays Redline, announcing "99," and grins. He's shoved the crisis straight onto Bram and drawn back up.
- Bram stares at 99. Anything that adds even 1 blows the plant — but he has a Vent Steam. He plays it: "89." Relief. He draws back up.
- Cinder decides to gamble. She plays her Overclock — "96" — then uses the extra play to drop a Spark, counting it as 1: "97." She draws back up to 3, having churned two cards out of her hand for a fresh look. Risky, but the meter had just enough room.
- Back to Hazel at 97. She's holding a 5, a 6, and a 9 — every one of them would push past 99. She reveals her hand to prove it, and loses a spark token. The plant has blown on her watch.
The round ends. Everyone gathers the cards, reshuffles, deals fresh 3-card hands, and resets the meter to 0. Hazel — the one who overloaded — starts the new round.
Overloading — Losing a Token
If, on your turn, you cannot play any card in your hand without pushing the meter over 99, you overload.
Reveal your hand to show it's true, then lose one spark token. The plant has blown on your watch — and the round ends.
Ending a Round
The moment a player overloads:
- That player loses one spark token.
- Gather every card, reshuffle the whole deck, and deal fresh 3-card hands.
- Reset the meter to 0.
- The player who overloaded starts the new round.
When the Cards Run Out
Rarely — usually thanks to a Full Reset or two keeping the meter low — the draw pile can empty before anyone overloads. When it does, stop drawing back up to 3 and simply keep playing from the cards already in your hands.
Play continues as normal: if someone can't play without going over 99, they overload and lose a token, just as always. But if every player runs out of cards without anyone overloading, the shift ends quietly — nobody blew the plant. The round is a wash: no one loses a token. Gather the cards, reshuffle, deal fresh hands, reset the meter to 0, and start the round again, with the player to the left of whoever started the washed-out round going first.
Winning
Lose your last spark token and you're out of the plant. Play continues without you. The last player still holding tokens wins — the only creature who kept the reactor from blowing on their watch.
Deck Breakdown
For the curious, the meticulous, and anyone counting cards:
| Card | Type | Count |
|---|---|---|
| Spark — 1 or 11 (your choice) | Number | 4 |
| 4 | Number | 4 |
| 5 | Number | 5 |
| 6 | Number | 5 |
| 7 | Number | 3 |
| 7 — Overclock | Number | 2 |
| 8 | Number | 5 |
| 9 | Number | 5 |
| 10 | Number | 8 |
| Vent Steam (−10) | Special | 4 |
| Full Reset (set to 0) | Special | 2 |
| Redline (set to 99) | Special | 4 |
| Pass the Buck (next player plays twice) | Special | 2 |
| Reverse Polarity (reverse order) | Special | 4 |
| Coffee Break (counts as 0) | Special | 3 |
| Total | 60 |
41 number cards · 19 special cards (about a third of the deck).
Now go run a power plant. Try not to blow it up.