Chili Loco
Stir the Pot
8 cards · dark border
Play order reverses: clockwise becomes anti-clockwise, and back again.
What's in the box
- 64 pepper cards. 8 peppers in 4 colours (red, green, yellow and purple), two of each.
- 32 coloured action cards. Stir the Pot, Hot Sauce, Heat Stroke and Salsa Slap, two of each in every colour.
- 16 wild cards. New Recipe, Reaper, Blender, Taco Trade, Hot Potato and Milk Chaser.
- A marker for signing winning cards.
- 2 bonus Personal Recipe cards. Leave these out for now. See House rules.
Meet the peppers. Every pepper comes in all four colours.
Bell
Cherry
Jalapeño
Scotch Bonnet
Cayenne
Habanero
Ghost
Carolina Reaper
Cream border or dark border?
Check the border. Cream-bordered cards can be played out of turn, as a twin of the top card. Dark-bordered cards can only be played on your own turn.
Cream-bordered cards: the 64 pepper cards and the 8 Salsa Slaps. Every other card has a dark border.
Setup
- Shuffle and deal 6 cards to each player.
- Put the rest of the cards face down in the middle. This is the draw pile.
- Flip the top card of the draw pile to start the play pile. Treat it as if the dealer had just played it: if it's an action or wild card, follow its instruction. A wild takes the colour of the bottom card of the draw pile. If that's a wild too, the dealer chooses the colour.
- The player to the dealer's left goes first, unless the first card says otherwise. Play continues clockwise.
Your turn
Play one of your cards onto the play pile. It must match the top card by colour or by pepper, or be a wild, which matches anything. If you play an action or wild card, its instruction happens right away.
Your cards
Same colour
Same pepper
Wild
No match
Can't play?
There's no passing. Your turn only ends when you lay a card. Until then, you can do either of these, in any order, as many times as you like:
- Draw a card from the draw pile.
- Ask for help. Say “help” to the table. Another player may slide you a card face down. The moment you touch it, it's yours. To turn it down, don't touch it.
Only the player whose turn it is can ask for help. You can ask even if you already have a card you could play, and bluffing is allowed. Helpers can give anything, including Milk Chaser or a card that doesn't fit, and nobody has to help.
Twins & playing out of turn
Got a twin? If you hold two identical cream-bordered cards, play them together as one turn: two of the same pepper in the same colour, or two Salsa Slaps of the same colour. No other card can be twinned.
Cream-bordered cards are the 64 pepper cards and the 8 Salsa Slaps. See What's in the box.
Salsa Slap twins: the slap still happens, and the penalty doubles. The last player to slap draws 4.
Jumping in with a twin
If you hold an exact twin of the top card, you can play it straight away, even when it isn't your turn. It has to land before the player whose turn it is lays their card. Play then continues from you, as if you'd just taken your turn.
Action card on top? Finish its action first, then anyone can jump in. Salsa Slap works the same way: once a slap is over, anyone holding its exact twin can jump in and start another.
First card to touch the pile wins. If two cards land together, the first one down stays and the others go back to the players who laid them.
Settling arguments
Before the game, agree how you'll settle a tie, like who slapped last: talk it out as a table, rock-paper-scissors between the players involved (loser draws), or a coin flip.
Card library
Every action and wild card prints a short reminder of what it does. Here's the full version. Tap a card to see it bigger. “Stacking” means laying a Hot Sauce straight onto one aimed at you, so the penalty grows and moves on.
Coloured action cards: play on the same colour, or on the same card. Two of each in every colour.
Hot Sauce
8 cards · dark border
The next player draws 2, then still takes their turn.
Or they can lay their own Hot Sauce on top straight away, instead of drawing. They draw nothing, and the spice builds: the following player draws 4, then 6, and so on. Hot Sauce only stacks on Hot Sauce.
Heat Stroke
8 cards · dark border
The next player loses their turn completely.
Salsa Slap
8 cards · cream border
Plays just like a pepper card: on its own colour or on another Salsa Slap, and out of turn only as an exact twin of the top card. When it lands, everyone slaps the pile. The last player to slap draws 2, or 4 if two Salsa Slaps were played as twins. Play continues from whoever played it.
Big group? With lots of players, slap the table instead of the pile in the middle, so nobody gets hurt reaching in. The table votes on who was last, and majority rules.
Wild cards: play on anything. After a wild, the player who laid it picks the next colour.
New Recipe
6 cards · dark border
Choose any colour. Play carries on in that colour.
Reaper
4 cards · dark border
Choose the colour. The next player draws 5 and loses their turn. Because they lose their turn, they can't lay a Reaper back: Reapers don't stack.
Blender
1 card · dark border
Whoever lays Blender collects every player's cards, shuffles them, and deals them back out one at a time, starting with the player on their left, until all are dealt. With 4 players holding 16 cards between them, everyone ends up with 4. Once the reshuffle is complete, they choose the colour.
Taco Trade
2 cards · dark border
Choose a player and swap all your cards with theirs. Then choose the colour.
Hot Potato
2 cards · dark border
Every player passes all their cards to the player on their left. Then choose the colour.
Milk Chaser
1 card · dark border
On your turn, play it to cancel the action or wild card played just before you, before you have to follow it. If that card is part of a stack, the whole stack is cancelled and nobody draws. For example:
- A Reaper is coming your way. Cancel it: you don't draw 5 or lose your turn.
- Three Hot Sauces are stacked up on you. Cancel the whole stack: nobody draws 6.
Milk Chaser is your play for the turn. The cancelled card stays on the pile, you choose the colour, and play continues to the next player. Milk Chaser can't be cancelled, and it can't be your last card. Don't have it? Another player can slide it to you when you ask for help.
Good to know
- Skipped players. If Heat Stroke or Reaper makes you lose your turn, you don't lay a card. It's the only time a turn ends without one.
- Draw pile runs out. Set the top card of the play pile aside, shuffle the rest into a new draw pile, and put the top card back. If there still aren't enough cards for a penalty, draw what's left and the rest is forgiven.
- Card counts are public. Anyone can ask how many cards you're holding, and you must answer honestly. Which cards they are stays secret.
LOCO! & winning
Shout LOCO!
As soon as you're down to one card, shout LOCO! before the next player finishes their turn. If another player yells LOCO! before you do, you draw 2.
It doesn't matter how you got down to one card: on your turn, by jumping in, or after a Taco Trade, Hot Potato or Blender. After any swap, anyone now on one card shouts right away.
Expect things to get spicy! Shouting LOCO! paints a target on your back. Reaper, Hot Sauce, Salsa Slap and Milk Chaser are everyone's chance to team up and stop whoever's about to win.
Winning
The first player with no cards left wins. If your last card is an action or wild card, including Taco Trade, Hot Potato or Blender, you still win. The game ends straight away, and no cards move.
Win by giving
When another player asks for help, you can give them your very last card. You win the moment they touch it. If you hadn't shouted LOCO! yet and someone catches you before then, you draw 2 instead and the game carries on.
Sign the win
The winner signs the card that won the game, using the marker from the box: your name, the date and, if you like, a short note.
Don't cover the pepper, the card's title or its instruction text, so the card stays easy to read and play. If twins won, sign one of them. If you won by giving, sign the card you gave away.
Signed cards go back in the deck. The more you play, the more stories the deck holds.
House rules
For laterThe two blank Personal Recipe cards aren't part of the standard 112-card deck. Leave them in the box for your first few games. Once your group knows how Chili Loco plays, use them to invent your own wild cards.
Before you deal, agree one rule for each card as a table and write it on the card in pencil, so you can change it next game. When someone plays a Personal Recipe, follow its rule, then they choose the colour. Milk Chaser can cancel it.
Writing a good rule
- Keep it to one sentence that happens straight away when the card is played.
- It can't change how you win.
- It can't target one player for the whole game.
Ideas to get you started
- Everyone except the player of this card draws 1.
- Choose a player: they must show their cards.
- The next player must play a wild or draw 3.
- Everyone speaks in a terrible accent until the next wild is played.
Cheat sheet
| Situation | What happens |
|---|---|
| Starting cards | 6 cards each |
| First card flipped | Counts as if the dealer played it. A wild takes the colour of the bottom card of the draw pile. |
| What can I play? | Same colour or same pepper. Wilds go on anything. |
| Can't play | Draw or ask for help, as often as you like, until you lay a card |
| Asking for help | Cards come face down. Touch it and it's yours. Bluffing is allowed. |
| Twins | Two identical cream-bordered cards (pepper or Salsa Slap) play together as one turn |
| Out of turn | Cream border only. Play the exact twin of the top card before the on-turn card lands. Play carries on from you. |
| Stacking | Hot Sauce only. Lay one straight onto a Hot Sauce instead of drawing, and the next player draws 2 more. Reapers don't stack. |
| Salsa Slap | Plays like a pepper card. Last to slap draws 2, or 4 for twins. |
| Milk Chaser | Your turn only. Cancels the action or wild played just before you, or a whole stack. Never your last card. |
| Forgot LOCO! | Draw 2 if another player yells LOCO! before you do |
| Win by giving | Give your last card to a player who asks for help |
| Winning | First to run out of cards. Sign and date the winning card. |