Universal Score Tokens

Temporarily unavailable while I update the text formatting, sorry! -Jon

Do you play lots of card games that require tracking player scores over multiple rounds? Trick-taking games like Hearts, shedding games like Tichu, or other games like, I dunno, Rummy or 6 Nimmt or something.

I don’t know about you, but every time I see a game’s rulebook require “Pencil & paper for keeping score (not included)”, I think to myself, there has to be a better way!

For a while, I borrowed score tokens from my copy of Scout to track scores in other games, in particular trick-taking games. It was especially helpful that those had negative points on the back, since some of my favorite games (like Stick ’Em and Sluff Off) let you go into the negatives. It's also pretty convenient to grab a 10 and a 1 (flipping the 1 to the negative side) when you get 9 points.

The score tokens in Scout are pretty decent, but there are some issues: the tokens only go up to 20 points, and there just aren't enough of them! Plus I hate keeping them separate from the box they belong in.

Some people use poker chips, but these have their own issues: they’re big and heavy, they don’t always come in the most useful denominations (or aren’t even numbered and you have to remember which is which). Plus they are all the same size, and don’t support negative scores.

So, inspired by Scout's score tokens, I decided to create these Universal Score Tokens for use in a wide variety of games.

I can almost guarantee you won't run out of tokens, even when playing something like 5-player Tichu which can have total player scores in the thousands. The tokens go up to 500, and there are 7,500 points in total among the 172 tokens. I challenge you to find a game they won’t support (unless you need half a point, I guess).

These cardboard tokens come in a variety of shapes and sizes to make it easy to grab the ones you need: the lower denominations are smaller and have fewer sides, such as the triangular 1’s, the square 2’s, and the pentagonal 5’s, all the way up to the large circular 500’s.

Rather than a box, these tokens come with a drawstring bag to make it easy to bring them along (and, honestly, because it’s cheaper). Since they aren't needed as often, I usually keep the 100’s, 200’s, and 500’s in a small ziplock bag in the bottom of the drawstring bag, as it's good to have them available occasionally.

Anyway, I don't think there’s much else to say. They're Universal Score Tokens, they help you keep score in a bunch of games, you either find them useful or you don’t. :)

Token denomination	Quantity	Total points
	39 tokens	±39 points
	18 tokens	±36 points
	21 tokens	±105 points
	36 tokens	±360 points
	18 tokens	±360 points
	12 tokens	±600 points
	14 tokens	±1,400 points
	8 tokens	±1,600 points
	6 tokens	±3,000 points

Note: Like other cardboard tokens from The Game Crafter, these are printed on thick 60-point (0.06-inch) chipboard, with a linen finish, and are laser-cut. When you get the tokens, they will come in a token sheet with a thin layer of soot on both sides. I recommend wiping them off with some VERY slightly damp paper towels before punching the tokens, as it's much easier than wiping off the tokens one by one after you punch them. (Ask me how I know...)