The Crew: Mission Deep Sea

Setup and captain: For 3–5 players, distribute the 40 playing cards as evenly as possible and give each player a sonar token and reminder card. With three players, one player has an extra card that remains unplayed after the final trick. The holder of submarine 4 is captain, chooses tasks first and leads the first trick.

Play and winning: Each player plays one card clockwise. Follow the led suit if possible, including when submarines are led. Only without that suit may you play another suit or a submarine. The highest submarine wins; otherwise the highest card of the led suit wins. The winner takes the whole trick and leads next; there is no obligation to beat another card or win.

Task selection: Draw tasks using the difficulty value for the current crew size of three, four or five, reaching the logbook total exactly and skipping cards that would exceed it. Starting with the captain, choose one task at a time clockwise until all are assigned. Passing is allowed only if there were initially fewer tasks than crew members, and all must still be assigned within one circuit. Mission exceptions take priority.

Communication: Normally each player communicates once per attempt, after tasks are assigned and before any card of a trick is played. Reveal a non-submarine card with the token at its top, middle or bottom to mean highest, only or lowest of that color. It remains part of your hand and the token cannot later move. An arbitrary middle card and additional hand disclosures are prohibited.

Success and failure: A task applies to its owner. It is complete only when its conditions are met and cannot subsequently fail; completing every task can end the mission early. If a task becomes impossible, fail and redeal the playing cards, retrying the same tasks or drawing new ones. Unavoidable impossible combinations use the stated replacement or redeal procedure; merely believing a deal is difficult does not justify a free redeal.

Mission exceptions: Logbook symbols may alter communication, task selection or impose a time limit; timed missions still use normal turn order. Ordinarily only the most recently won trick may be inspected again. Cards collected toward a task may temporarily be displayed beneath it as a reminder.

Distress signal: After task assignment but before any communication, the crew may jointly activate assistance. Everyone passes one non-submarine card to a neighbor in the same direction. The signal remains active until that mission succeeds; later attempts may all pass or all decline. Add one to the mission’s recorded attempt count once.

Two-player variant: Add Tonoja as a third crew member, with seven face-down cards covered by seven face-up cards. Each human receives 13 cards, with submarine 4 guaranteed to be in a human hand. Use three-crew task difficulty. The captain alone chooses Tonoja’s tasks and plays her exposed cards; reveal a covered card only after the trick in which its covering card was played.