Everyone knows the feeling of being one square away from Home, only to have a friend draw a Sorry! card and send you back to the start. It’s brutal. It’s classic. But if you’re playing the newer 2013 edition or any modern variation of the Hasbro classic, you’ve probably seen those translucent red and blue tokens sitting in the box. Those are the Fire and Ice power-ups. Honestly, if you aren't using them, you're playing a much slower, less chaotic version of the game. Adding the sorry fire and ice rules into your family game night changes the math of the board entirely.
It makes the game faster. Much faster.
Most people treat Sorry! as a game of pure luck. You draw a card, you move your pawn, and you hope nobody lands on you. But the Fire and Ice tokens introduce a layer of strategy that actually rewards you for taking risks. It’s not just about getting home anymore; it's about controlling the board state. If you have the Fire token, you’re an aggressor. If you have the Ice token, you’re a wall. Knowing how to juggle these two is the difference between winning in twenty minutes or being stuck in a two-hour stalemate because everyone keeps bumping each other back to Start.
The Fire Token: Moving at Warp Speed
Let’s talk about the Fire Power-up first because it’s the one everyone fights over. In the standard sorry fire and ice rules, you get the Fire token by landing on a space that has a Fire icon—or, more commonly, by drawing a card that grants it. Once you have that little red flame sitting on top of your pawn, the rules of movement basically break.
When you’re "on fire," you can move ahead to any space that is occupied by another player. You don't just land on them; you jump. But the real kicker is the "Fire Move." According to the official Hasbro instructions, if you have the Fire token, you can move your pawn to any other player's pawn that is ahead of you on the board. You then take that player's spot and send them—you guessed it—all the way back to Start. It’s a massive shortcut. It’s essentially a Sorry! card you can trigger on your own terms.
There’s a nuance here that people miss: you don’t have to use it immediately. You can sit on that Fire token, moving normally, until the perfect moment when an opponent is just a few spaces away from their Safety Zone. That’s when you strike. However, there’s a catch. If someone else draws a card or lands on a space that grants them Fire, they take it from you. It’s a hot potato. You want to use the Fire Move before someone else snatches the token away, but use it too early and you might waste the distance.
The Ice Token: The Ultimate Defensive Play
Ice is the polar opposite. Literally. While Fire is about aggressive jumping and teleporting forward, the Ice token is about making yourself untouchable. In the sorry fire and ice rules, the Ice token prevents your pawn from being moved back to Start.
Think about how many cards in the deck are designed to ruin your day. The Sorry! card? Doesn’t work on an Ice pawn. Someone lands on your square by exact count? They can’t move there. You are a literal block of ice. You’re an immovable object.
Interestingly, the Ice token also changes how the "Slide" spaces work. Normally, if someone slides into you, you're toast. But if you’ve got that blue token, you stay put. It’s the only way to protect a pawn that is vulnerable near the end of the board. The strategy here is usually to get the Ice token onto your lead pawn—the one closest to Home—so that no one can "Sorry!" you just as you’re about to win.
But there’s a downside. You can’t move.
Wait, that’s not entirely true. You can move, but the Ice token makes it harder for others to interact with you. In some house-rule variations, people play that Ice pawns can't move at all until the token is removed, but the official sorry fire and ice rules specify that the Ice token stays with the pawn to protect it until a card or board action removes it or passes it to another player. It essentially creates a "Safe Zone" anywhere on the board.
How to Get (and Lose) the Tokens
You don't just start with these. That would be chaotic. You have to earn them through the deck or the board.
- Drawing the Card: Certain cards in the modern Sorry! deck have the Fire or Ice symbol in the corner. If you draw one, you take the corresponding token from the center of the board (or from whoever currently has it) and place it on one of your pawns.
- Landing on Icons: If your board has the Fire and Ice icons printed on specific squares, landing there by exact count grants you the power.
- Losing the Power: You lose the token if another player draws a card that lets them take it. You also lose the Fire token if you use the "Fire Move" to jump ahead. It’s a one-time-use rocket booster. Once you land and send that opponent back to Start, the Fire token goes back to the middle of the board.
Strategic Depth: Fire vs. Ice
Imagine this scenario. You have a pawn three spaces from Home. Your opponent has a pawn halfway around the board, but they just picked up the Fire token. They are looking at your pawn like a predator. If they use their Fire Move, they land on you, you go back to Start, and they are suddenly sitting right at the finish line.
This is where the game turns into a tactical battle. If you can manage to snag the Ice token on your next turn, their Fire Move is neutralized. They can't jump to your spot because you're protected by Ice.
It turns Sorry! from a game of "I hope I draw a 7" to "I need to manage these tokens." It adds a layer of resource management. Do you use the Fire token now to knock back a mid-tier threat, or do you save it to leap-frog over someone who is about to win? Most expert players suggest using Fire aggressively. The board changes so fast that holding onto a power-up is usually a mistake. Someone will draw a card and take it from you before you get to use it.
Common Misconceptions and Rule Clarifications
People get the sorry fire and ice rules wrong all the time. One of the biggest points of contention is whether you can have both tokens.
The answer is yes, but on different pawns. You can’t have one pawn that is both "On Fire" and "On Ice." That would be a scientific impossibility and a game-breaking mechanic. If you have the Fire token on Pawn A and you draw a card that gives you the Ice token, you have to put the Ice token on Pawn B (or move the Fire token back to the box if you only have one pawn out).
Another big one: Does the Fire Move work if the opponent is in the Safety Zone?
No. Once a pawn is in those colored squares leading to Home, they are safe from everything—including Fire jumps and Sorry! cards. Fire only works on the main circular track.
Actionable Tips for Your Next Game
If you want to actually win using these rules, you need to change how you think about the "Start" area. In the old-school game, being at Start is a death sentence. With Fire rules, being at Start is actually an opportunity. If you can get out of Start while the Fire token is available, you can immediately jump to the lead player and catch up in a single turn.
- Target the Leader: Don't waste a Fire Move on someone who is behind you. Use it to close the gap with the person in first place.
- Ice the Safety Entrance: If you are about to enter your Safety Zone, try to get the Ice token. This is the most "vulnerable" part of the board because you're so close to the goal that you become a massive target for Sorry! cards.
- Don't Hoard: If you have Fire, use it. The deck is tilted toward shifting these tokens around frequently. If you don't use the jump on your turn, there is a high statistical probability you won't have the token by your next turn.
- Watch the Icons: If you are one or two spaces away from a Fire or Ice icon on the board, consider using a split move (if you draw a 7) to land exactly on that icon.
Next time you open the box, don't leave the tokens in the plastic bag. They might look like gimmicks, but the sorry fire and ice rules are what make the modern version of the game feel competitive rather than just a slow crawl toward the finish line.
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To get started, simply separate the Fire and Ice tokens and place them in the center of the board. Check your card deck to ensure you are using the version with the symbols in the corners of the cards. If you have an older deck but a newer board, you can still play by the "land on the icon" rules. Just decide before the first person draws a card so there aren't any arguments halfway through.
Next Steps for Your Game Night:
- Verify your deck: Look for the small flame and snowflake icons on the cards; if you don't have them, you can still play "Fire and Ice" by designating the "2" and "5" cards as the token triggers.
- Set the House Rule: Decide if "Ice" pawns are completely stationary or if they can move normally while protected; the official rules allow movement, but some families find "Stationary Ice" adds a fun challenge.
- Clear the Board: Start a fresh game and prioritize landing on the board icons to see how much faster the Fire token makes the typical 45-minute playtime.