International Shipping Update #2
almost 5 years ago – Tue, Apr 13, 2021 at 02:56:04 AM

¡Hola, muchachos!

A short update today to follow up on our last update on international shipping:

•  Everything has been shipped for Canada and Australia. If you live in one of those regions and have not received your package already, please contact us at [email protected].
•  All books, including LED books, and decks of cards have shipped from our UK reshipper to everyone in the European Union and the United Kingdom. Yay! Please contact us if you have not received your package by April 19th, 2021.
•  Everything else—candy meth, candles, maps, etc—is coming directly via FedEx from our warehouse in Albuquerque. New import restrictions for the UK stopped us from including them in the primary shipment, but we didn’t want you all to wait!

It’s possible that some of you might incur customs charges upon delivery. If you do, please let us know and we’ll reimburse you for all customs charges right away. We want to make sure this is still an internationally friendly campaign in regards to shipping!

As before, thank you all so much for your patience. Once we secured our pallet here in the United States, we were able to get it back out to the UK quickly, but all of the import process has been a challenge. I’m so happy that everything is finally on the way to all of you!

Stay tuned for an update next month about progress on Amigos y Enemigos and Sin Fronteras. Progress on both books is ongoing, but I should have some exciting things to show you in May like new playbooks and some sample spreads!

International Shipping Update
about 5 years ago – Wed, Feb 24, 2021 at 02:20:33 AM

Hey folks!

First, my apologies for the long delay for international shipping info. We have been working on getting updates from our reshippers since the end of last year, and the process—made more complicated by COVID and Brexit—has been awful. I have some updates today, mostly good news, but we are doing everything we can to have more up-to-date info for you more regularly.

Good News: Australia + Canada Shipping Update

First, the good news: everything for Australia should be already shipped, and all packages for Canada are going out now. Both reshippers were delayed by the international shipping backlog of 2020, but things seem to be going smoothly now. If you live in one of these regions and have not received your package by March 5th, 2021, please contact us at [email protected] and let us know. Thank you all for your patience!

Bad News: UK/EU Shipments Delayed

And the bad news: the pallet of accessories and limited edition corebooks we sent to the UK for reshipment has been returned to the US by FedEx. ¡Chingao! We aren’t 100% clear yet on what happened, but it appears that our reshipper was not able to get FedEx to release the pallet in time… and so FedEx returned it to the States—where it was promptly caught in the giant snowstorm that shut down much of the States last week. We’re still working on getting it released.

But at this point, UK/EU backers have been waiting WAY too long for your accessories and LE books. We’re committed to getting these packages out to you right away, so we’re offering all UK/EU backers the following choice:

• we’ll put a package in the mail to you direct via FedEx (at our expense) and reimburse any customs fees you have to pay on delivery
  
• or… you can wait until we can rush the Cartel materials back to the UK, and we’ll have our reshipper send a duty-free package to you as soon as everything arrives

If you’d like the first option, please fill out this form with your information, and we’ll get your package in the mail as soon as we recover our pallet from FedEx:

Cartel Direct Shipping Sign Up

If you’re okay waiting another few weeks, then you don’t need to do anything! We’ll get with our reshipper and make sure your package arrives as soon as we can navigate the new Brexit systems. We don't expect to have the same issue again.

And... if all you ordered was a standard corebook, you should already have received your package! Please get in contact with us at [email protected] if you're waiting on a standard corebook with no accessories. 

Apologies, Amigos!

Once again, I’m so sorry this has taken so long to resolve. We’re wrestling with a lot of challenges that arise from the realities of international shipping in early 2021, but we are committed to getting you all books as soon as possible—covering the additional fees for shipping and customs to try to make things right. Thank you!

Special Edition Books and International Shipping Update
over 5 years ago – Fri, Dec 18, 2020 at 03:58:14 AM

¡Hola, amigos!

We just got word from the printer that the special edition books have shipped to our warehouse in New Mexico! ¡Orale!  We've also got some news about international shipping which should hopefully clear up why we've seen so many delays. Read on for more!

Special Edition Book Shipping

First, thank you for your patience as we got the special edition books printed. COVID delays for both us and our printer means that everything is always slower than expected, and I really appreciate you all waiting patiently.

The special edition books should reach us early next week, which means we are going to try to put them in the mail before Christmas. Unfortunately, we don’t know exactly how long they will take to get here, and it may be the case that we can’t ship them until after Christmas weekend.

In either case, we’re hoping all domestic backers receive their books before the end of the year. International backers will probably have to wait a bit longer—we need to ship these books to our reshippers first—but they should arrive in January!

International Shipping Error!

Unfortunately, it looks like we screwed up shipping the international standard edition books! When we shipped the standard edition books to our reshippers, we also needed to ship them accessories so that folks who ordered decks, dice, and maps got those along with their books. Our staff was holding off on shipping those accessories until the special edition books arrived—which has taken much longer than expected—and our reshippers have been waiting to ship any books until they receive the last shipment from us. ¡A la verga!

I’m so sorry for this error. We usually don’t have multiple print runs of the same book coming in so close together, and it looks like we dropped the ball. We’re going to work with our reshippers to get all the books out they can send out now ASAP, and we’ll get them the accessories and the special edition books before the end of the year. ¡Lo siento, amigos!

Thanks so much to our international backers who contacted us to let us know their books hadn’t been delivered yet. Our reshippers are also dealing with COVID delays, so sussing out this problem took a bit longer than expected, but your messages let us know there was a problem. ¡Gracias!

Live in the US? Missing Your Book?

If you live in the United States ordered a standard edition Cartel corebook and it has not yet arrived, please reach out to us via email at [email protected]. Our shipping staff is a bit slow right now—COVID restrictions mean we have a very limited staffing schedule—but we will track down your book and get it to you!

If you're an international backer, please be patient for just a bit longer. We'll have all the books out to you, including all the accessories and special edition books as soon as we can.

Next Steps: More Design!

I’m working now on both the NPCs for Amigos y Enemigos and a few of the new playbooks for Sin Fronteras. I’m really excited about both of these supplements! I’ll update you all after the break (in Feburary) with the new stuff, and give you an update on how our other writers are doing with their assignments as well.

Feliz Navidad!

In the meantime, thank you all for making 2020 an amazing year for Cartel. It’s still surreal to me to look at my bookshelf and see the finished game. I can’t wait to get my hands on the special edition book and to see your reaction to it as well. Thank you so much for all your support, and I hope you have a happy holiday and a wonderful new year!

Time for Shipping!
over 5 years ago – Thu, Oct 29, 2020 at 04:54:11 PM

There is a time for everything, mis amigos. Todo tiene su tiempo, y todo lo que se quiere debajo del cielo tiene su hora. And now the time for shipping has arrived...

Cartel Shipping Update

¡Tengo buenas noticias! We have received the Cartel corebooks and they are shipping to you all as we speak! Shipping for this large a project takes some time—and we have been slammed with an unexpected snowstorm that’s kept our staff at home—but anyone receiving a standard corebook should expect to see a shipping notification this next week!

Unfortunately, the special edition corebooks have been slightly delayed. We needed some extra time to finish the CIA chapter for inclusion, and we must wait a bit longer to get the books from the printers. Hopefully, we will have those out to you all before Thanksgiving!

In the meantime, the Magpie Games warehouse team is going to be shipping corebooks, maps, dice, candles, and everything else… just as soon as the roads are safe for driving!

Los Gringos Están Aquí

I am incredibly proud to present our first mini-supplement for Cartel: El Águila y La Serpiente. Covering la guerra antidrogas from the US side, this addition to the game contains everything you need to add more Americans to your game, including El Güero, the CIA operative whose misión in Mexico gets him mixed up with los carteles.

I’m gonna be honest, cabrones. My work here was muy triste. The history of American intervention, the role the DEA and CIA have played in perpetuating the drug war, the way that Mexican leaders have caved and thrown their own people under the bus...it was hard to condense it down into something usable at your table. But el trabajo sucio is done, and I think the result is going to bring some really wonderful stories to Cartel.

Right now, we’re giving everyone the full special edition PDF of the book, which includes the additional materials as a new chapter of the book. Eventually, we’ll put the mini-supplement up for sale by itself on DTRPG, and we’ll get everyone a code when it goes live.

Head over to your digital downloads page and grab the special edition PDF:

https://cartel-rpg.backerkit.com/backer/digital_rewards

If you’ve got any feedback, please email me at [email protected]. We’ve still got time to fix pinches errors if y’all find any.

Next Steps: Amigos y Fronteras

Now that the corebook is shipping, I’m starting work on Amigos y Enemigos and Sin Fronteras. In addition to my own writing, I’m working to include many new voices in these books, both writing characters for you all to use with Cartel and helping me to design the next set of LE playbooks, including La Mariachi and El Tahur!

This kind of writing and design work is slow—especially when we bring in other writers—but I’m hoping to have drafts of a few playbooks by the end of the year. I’ll do a monthly update in November and December to keep you all appraised of both shipping and our progress!

Urban Shadows 2E on Kickstarter

And finally...Magpie Games has launched a new Kickstarter for the second edition of Urban Shadows, the game that launched my career as a PbtA designer. ¡Chingón!

Urban Shadows is a political urban fantasy tabletop roleplaying game in which mortals and supernaturals alike vie for power in a modern-day city. Vampires, faeries, hunters, wizards, and more clash in the shadows...or make backroom deals for their piece of the streets and skyscrapers. No one is ever safe, and everything is always at stake.

In many ways, Cartel is the successor to Urban Shadows—a crime fiction game that built on my obsession with community dynamics—but now Cartel is informing a new revision of Urban Shadows by refocusing the game on tighter moves, tighter economies, and a tighter setting, including City Hubs that make sure the players get more time together in the spotlight! I’ve learned a lot this past six years, and I'm excited to bring it to Urban Shadows!

If you’re not familiar with Urban Shadows, it’s a great time to get started. My co-designer (Marissa Kelly) and I have reworked the mechanics from the ground up, and we’re incredibly excited to see what y’all think. You can even grab the free quickstart today on DTPRG to see how it looks.

And… Thank You!

It was an indescribable feeling to open up a box of Cartel corebooks, take one out, and actually hold it in my hand for the first time. By all rights, this book should not exist—the subject matter is difficult, the process too long and too hard, the audience too small—but thanks to all of you...it’s real. Thank you. Your support has meant the world to me.

Accessories y Shipping!
over 5 years ago – Thu, Oct 01, 2020 at 11:14:48 PM

¡Órale, muchachos! It’s time for us to talk about shipping! But first, let’s show off a few more accessories!

Cartel Accessories: Maps, Dice y Meth

We received a few more accessories at the office, including the maps of Durango, the Deck of Locations, and the candy meth from the Bad Candy Lady here in Albuquerque.

I’m muy emocionado about the map. The size of it is perfect for a full table, and Miguel’s layout is amazing. We’ve included numbers on the map corresponding to each location card in the Deck of Locations, so you can get a sense of how each place fits into the overall ciudad. Great stuff!

The Deck of Locations also looks amazing! Miguel continues to knock it out of the park, and the cards are a great way to ground the story in Durango. We are such huge fans of custom moves in PbtA games, but I know folks have trouble implementing them sometimes. I think the Deck shows you how to build those moves in ways that really support the setting!

Finally, the candy meth turned out great. The Candy Lady has been an Albuquerque institution for decades, so I’m thrilled to be able to share a little New Mexican culture with you all for this project. Very tasty!

Shipping: October 2020

Now that we have the dice, decks, tattoos, candles, candy meth, and maps… we’re only waiting for the books. Our printer says the books will ship in roughly the next two weeks, so we should be ready to ship to backers by mid-October. Yay!

As a reminder, no one has paid any shipping yet for this campaign. Now that we’re ready to ship, we’re going to be charging shipping through Backerkit. Here’s what will happen next:

• If you did not add a credit card for add-ons or extras to Backerkit, you’ll get a message from them asking you to fill out your survey again. Add a credit card and you’re set! We’ll run the card on October 7th.
   
• If you did add a credit card already, we’ll run the card on file on October 7th. If it’s declined, we’ll email you. If you need to change the card you have on file, you can log into Backerkit any time before the 7th and change it out.

Since all of you have been so wonderful and patient, Magpie Games is subsidizing shipping down to the lowest rate we quoted during the campaign for domestic/reshipper packages: just $5 for domestic packages and $10 for EU/CA/AU, regardless of weight (plus $3/$8 per candle, respectively). We’re going to reach out to everyone not in those regions (rest of world) directly to make sure you all have options for shipping!

We cannot ship you books if you do not fill out your Backerkit and pay for shipping. If you have not done so already, please add your credit card information before October 7th so we can ensure you receive your rewards as soon as possible!

We’re still working with our printers on the special edition books, so there may be a slight delay on shipping those out. I want to make sure the cover and additional pages are perfect! Thanks again for your paciencia eterna!

Next Steps: Shipping the Books

I’ll update you all in October as the books come in, but we’re so, so close, amigos. Please let me know if you have any questions!!