Will someone please enlighten me what the crew, treasure, and equipment do in the game?
Various effects; treasure is usually required to win the game. Full rules are at the bottom of the homepage if you don’t have them already.
Aren’t they just chits you place on islands and ships after they are punched out from their deck plates? I would assume their deck plates have the affect of the punched out chits? How does one keep track of it all?
Treasure goes on islands, crew and equipment usually go on ships. Yes, abilities are on the cards (usually a deckplate is only in reference to a ship’s main stat card, the first card of a ship). For tracking, just keep all the cards for your fleet in your designated spot on the table, likely with non-ship cards hidden away in a tin/etc so opponents can’t look over and see all your plans.