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The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine

2-5 players 20-20 min 7.8 Board Game Geek Rating

Players become astronauts embarking on a cooperative space journey through 50 progressive missions to find Planet Nine. This trick-taking card game requires teams to complete individual tasks with limited communication. Victory depends on timing—capturing specific tricks at precise moments rather than accumulating quantity. All players must successfully fulfill their assigned objectives to advance missions.

Published 2019

The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine

Get Ready

Setup the game with these step-by-step instructions before diving into your turn.

1
Shuffle and deal playing cards
Distribute all 40 large playing cards face down and equally to all crew members (with 3 players, one person gets one extra card)
2
Distribute communication tokens
Each player places a radio communication token with the green side up in front of themselves
3
Prepare reminder cards
Put a reminder card for each player at the ready
4
Place distress signal token
Set the distress signal token face down nearby
5
Prepare task cards
Shuffle the 36 small task cards and place them as a face-down pile with task tokens handy
6
Determine the commander
The player with the four rocket card announces this and receives the commander token
7
Draw task cards
Take the number of task cards specified by the mission and place them face up in the center of the table
8
Distribute tasks
Starting with the commander and going clockwise, each crew member selects one task card at a time until all tasks are distributed
9
Place task tokens (if required)
When using task tokens, first lay out the indicated tokens, then place drawn task cards from left to right starting with the first token

On Your Turn

What you can do during your turn.

1
Play a card to the trick
When it's your turn, play one card from your hand face up in the center of the table
2
Follow suit if possible
You must play a card matching the suit of the first card played in the trick; only play a different suit if you have no cards of the required suit
3
Determine trick winner
The highest value card in the designated suit wins the trick, unless a rocket (trump) card was played
4
Win with rockets
Rocket cards are trump and always win the trick; if multiple rockets are played, the highest value rocket wins
5
Collect won tricks
The winner takes all cards from the trick and places them face down; only the most recently won trick may be viewed
6
Start next trick
The winner of the previous trick plays the first card of the next trick
7
Fulfill tasks
When you win a trick containing a playing card matching one of your task cards, turn that task card face down
8
Communicate before tricks (optional)
Before any trick begins, you may use your one-time radio communication by placing a color card face up in front of you
9
Respect communication restrictions
Never communicate about rocket cards, never communicate during a trick, and never discuss cards in your hand verbally
10
Use dead zone communication (if active)
Place a card meeting conditions but do not place the token on it; flip token to red and let others interpret
11
Observe disruption rules (if active)
No communication is allowed until the specified trick number is reached
12
Send distress signal (optional)
Before the first trick, the group may activate the distress signal to pass one non-rocket card to a neighbor in a chosen direction

Winning

How to claim victory.

1
Complete all tasks
The mission is successful when every crew member has fulfilled all of their assigned tasks
2
Fulfill tasks correctly
Each task requires the task card's owner to win a trick containing the matching playing card
3
Follow task token order
If task tokens are used, tasks must be completed in the specified order (numbered tokens) or relative order (arrow tokens)
4
Lose by wrong task completion
If any player wins a playing card for which another player holds the corresponding task card, the mission immediately fails
5
Lose by violating conditions
Breaking any special mission rules or task token order conditions causes immediate mission failure
6
Restart after failure
For each new attempt, reshuffle all cards, deal new hands, and receive new tasks
7
Record attempts
After successfully completing a mission, record the number of attempts needed in the logbook
8
Add distress penalty
If the distress signal was used, add one to the recorded number of attempts
9
Progress through missions
Complete all 50 missions to finish the campaign; missions increase in difficulty as you progress

watch & Learn

Let the pros teach you with these top videos.

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FULL rules

Looking for the full details? Grab the complete rulebook as a downloadable PDF.

PDF RULEBOOK

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