The Crew Campaign: 50 Missions and the Distress Signal

The Crew’s logbook holds 50 missions that tell one story, a trip across the solar system in search of a ninth planet. The first missions take a few minutes each. The later ones can take many attempts. The rulebook suggests playing them in order, over several sessions, because each new rule arrives exactly when your crew is ready for it.

How the missions ramp

The early missions use few tasks and few rules. As the story goes on, the logbook adds:

• More task cards, shared among more players.
• Task tokens that fix the order tasks must be done in.
• Special conditions written into the mission, such as a player who must not win any tricks.
• Communication limits, like the dead zone and disruption.
• Commander missions, where the commander controls who takes the tasks.

The rulebook warns that the deal can make a mission surprisingly easy or unexpectedly hard. With four players, it notes, there are over 42 trillion ways to deal the cards in the first mission alone. Accept the variance. A tough deal is not a sign your crew is bad.

Keep the logbook

After each mission you pass, write down how many attempts it took. Over a campaign, that column becomes your crew’s record. It also gives you a fair way to compare a later run through the missions, or a run at a different player count.

A few habits help:

• Write the date beside the first mission of each session. It shows how your campaign moved over time.
• Note the player count if your crew changes.
• Circle the distress signal when you use it, as the rules require.

The distress signal

The distress signal is the game’s help system. You can use it at the start of a mission, after the cards and any task cards are handed out but before anyone communicates.

How it works:

1. Decide together to send it. Flip the token to its active side and circle the distress signal box for that mission in the logbook.
2. Everyone passes one card to a neighbor. You decide together whether to pass left or right, and everyone passes the same way. Rocket cards can never be passed.
3. Play the mission as normal.

The token stays active until you finish that mission. On every new attempt, you may pass a card again, in either direction, as a group. You do not have to pass every time. When you start the next mission, flip it back to inactive.

The cost: when you pass a mission with the distress signal circled, add one to the attempts you record.

When to call for help

The rulebook says every mission can be passed without the distress signal, and invites you to try. But it also says to use it at your own discretion. Some guidelines:

• Call it when a crew is getting discouraged. One passed card can fix a bad deal, and morale matters more than one point in the log.
• Call it early on a hard mission. The penalty is a single extra attempt, no matter how many tries you need afterward. If you expect a long fight, sending it on the first attempt costs the same as sending it on the fifth.
• Skip it for bragging rights. Some crews keep a clean log as a goal. Agree on this before the campaign starts.

Passing well

You may not discuss your cards, so you cannot say what to pass. Pass the card that helps your neighbor most from what you know, or the card that hurts you least to lose. A common choice is a card in a color you want to be out of, so a rocket in your hand becomes useful.

Commander missions

Two kinds of mission give the commander special power over tasks.

Commander’s decision. The tasks go face down in the middle. After everyone looks at their cards, the commander asks each player whether they feel fit to take on all the tasks. The only answers allowed are “yes” and “no.” The commander then picks one player, never themself, who takes every task. The mission is complete when that player has done them all.

Commander’s distribution. The commander turns up task cards one at a time and asks each player in turn whether they want it, again with only “yes” or “no.” The commander then decides who gets it, and may choose themself. At the end, no one may have two tasks more than anyone else. Task tokens travel with their task cards.

In both, your one word matters. Answer truthfully for your hand. The commander should listen for confidence in the answers and weigh it against what the mission asks.

Make your own missions

When the 50 are done, the rulebook invites you to design your own, mixing any number of tasks, tokens, and special rules, with a short story to go with them. That is a fine way to keep a crew flying after the campaign ends.

For tips on keeping a group together across many sessions, see our guide on how to start a game night group.