The Crew Task Tokens: Numbers, Arrows, and Last

Around the time your crew gets comfortable, the logbook starts adding task tokens. They do not change how tricks work. They change when each task is allowed to be fulfilled. Break the order and the mission fails at once, just like winning someone else’s card.

Setting tokens out

The mission tells you how many task cards to use and which tokens go with them. Put the tokens out first, face up in a row. Then deal the task cards from left to right, one beside each token, starting with the first token. Any extra task cards have no token.

When you take a task card, you take its token too. The token travels with the task.

The three kinds of token

The box has ten task tokens:

• Number tokens, 1 to 5. A task with a number must be fulfilled in that place among all the mission’s tasks. A task with 1 must be done first of all the tasks. A task with 2 must be done second. This does not mean the first trick; it means first out of the tasks. Any number of tricks can pass before it.
• Arrow tokens, one to four arrows. These set an order only among the tasks that carry arrows. The one-arrow task must come before the two-arrow task, and so on. Tasks without a token can be done at any point, before, between, or after them.
• The last token. That task must be the final task fulfilled in the mission.

The rulebook’s own examples show the difference. With number tokens 1 and 2 on two of three tasks, the order is fully fixed: the 1 task, then the 2 task, then the untokened one. With the first two arrow tokens instead, only the two arrowed tasks have an order. The third task can be done whenever it fits.

Two tasks in one trick

A single trick can hold more than one task card. The rulebook allows two tokened tasks to finish in the same trick if their tokens are next to each other in the order, such as 1 and 2, or one and two arrows. Both count as done correctly, whichever card was played first. Tokens that are not next to each other, like 1 and 3, cannot finish in the same trick unless the 2 task was already done.

This is a quiet strength. A player with strong cards in a color can sometimes collect two ordered tasks at once.

Reading the order before the first trick

Before anyone leads, the crew should know the full required order. Say it out loud; the order is public, and naming it reveals nothing about your hand. Then ask:

• Which task must happen first, and who owns it? That player needs to win their card early. Everyone else should avoid winning any other task card until it is done.
• Who owns the last task? That player must stay patient. If they win their card early, the mission fails.
• What is free? Untokened tasks with arrow missions have the most room. Under number tokens, they come after all the numbered ones.

How order changes your play

Hold back cards that are someone’s late task. If you hold a card that is a teammate’s last task, it can only fall into a trick that teammate wins, and only after every other task is done. Keep it safe in your hand until then, and avoid being forced to play it early by running out of its color.

Feed the first task quickly. The player with task 1 often needs help. If you hold that task’s card, getting it into a trick the owner can win, early, clears the path for everything else.

Watch the lead. The order makes the lead more important. Whoever wins a trick chooses the next color. A lead in the wrong color can force a card out too soon.

A useful habit: name each trick’s job

Before each trick under tokens, say silently: “This trick should complete task 1,” or “This trick should complete nothing.” Most failures with tokens come from a trick that was supposed to complete nothing but caught a card by accident.

Signals under tokens

Signals become more valuable when order matters. Telling your crew you hold a card that is part of a late task, or that you are short in the first task’s color, helps everyone plan the sequence. The next lesson covers the other ways information moves at the table, with and without signals.