Cartel: A Mexican Narcofiction Tabletop Roleplaying Game
Created by Mark Diaz Truman
Cartel is a tabletop RPG in which players portray bold narcos, naive spouses, and dirty cops caught up in Mexico's eternal drug war.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
¡Vamos¡ Berlin 1981, Awesome Blog Posts, y Aztlán 2033!
almost 8 years ago
– Wed, Apr 11, 2018 at 11:15:17 AM
And… we’re at $40,000. I thought you would give me a few days, muchachos. And yet here we are. Already at $40,000. ¡Híjole! We’ve unlocked Berlin 1981, and we’re well on our way to our next two stretch goals: more narcocorridos y Aztlán 2033. We’ll talk about todos those stretch goals in this update, along with some awesome blog posts and actual plays!
Oh… as a reminder, the voting for the new santos candle closes tomorrow, ¡así es, mañana! Please get your vote in to determine the candle we add as an available option for backers:
We’ve unlocked our first official hack of Cartel, Berlin 1981, giving you all the tools you need to bring the mechanical core of Cartel to a brand new setting: the Cold War. I’m super excited to expand what Cartel can do, and I’m thrilled that folks are excited about digging into the mechanics from a new perspective. Spy fiction has its own rich literary and cinematic history!
Berlin 1981 will be featured in Sin Fronteras, available to all of our $20+ backers as part of the digital stretch goals. We’ll make the materials available to backers for playtesting well before Sin Fronteras is published, so you all mendigotes will be the first folks who get to try out the hack.
New Stretch Goal: +2 Narcocorridos ($42,500)
After our short jaunt to Germany, it’s time for us to get back to Mexico. Now that we’ve upgraded our Deck of Locations and added new tattoos and candles, it’s time to add a few more songs to Corridos de Durango:
If we reach $42,500, we’ll have Justin add two more songs to our album of custom narcocorridos, bringing the total to six songs of betrayal, amor, drogas, y dinero. I’m excited to give you all some authentic corridos to play at your table (and perhaps even use as songs for your characters!).
New Stretch Goal: Aztlán 2033 ($45,000)
But we’re not stopping at $42.5k… we’ve got more stuff planned. First up, a second hack for Cartel, this time set as far into the future as Berlin 1981 was set in the past:
Aztlán 2033 is a hack of Cartel set in a fictional narcostate south of Canada and west of the Mississippi, a post-apocalyptic pseudonation wracked by climate changes and economic collapse. Aztlán—as the locals call it—isn’t technically part of Mexico...but it isn’t part of America either. Abandoned in the wake of a nuclear war precipitated by rogue artificial intelligence, Aztlán is cyberpunk dystopia haunted by diablos, programs that hijack human hosts to flee the restraints of La Red (the Grid). Now ángeles hunt those diablos, the trusted agents of the corporations who are paid to get the programs back in the box.
Aztlán 2033 is probably the most ambitious hack I will ever do of Cartel, a one player/one gamemaster noir engine that evokes Bladerunner and City of God in equal measure.
If we reach $45,000, Aztlán 2033 will appear in Sin Fronteras—in both print and pdf—and will include all the materials you need to run a game of Cartel in a totally new, cyberpunk setting.
Awesome Blogs: Bluestockings and Save vs. TPK
Since I launched the Cartel Kickstarter in early March, there’s been a goodly amount of internet ink spilled on the nature of the game, and the role it plays in our understanding of the drug war. It’s been really exciting—and sometimes stressful—to see people engaging with the material, and I’m still pumped to see folks thinking and talking about Cartel.
This past week, though, two of my favorite pieces have been published, and I want to share them with you.
Blustockings: Playtest Focus - Cartel
First up, Kate Bullock wrote a fantastic piece on her blog (Bluestockings) reflecting on her experiences playtesting Cartel with myself and a few other Gauntlet regulars last week. Her piece is really honest, exploring what she found out about herself through the game:
“As I publicly shamed my husband for being less than a man, Mark looked at me and asked if I was verbally abusing or shaming someone. I blinked, stunned, that a game would mechanize emotional abuse. It's not something I've seen often other than in games that are exploring that topic. [...] It blew my mind that a game would own that bullshit, call it abuse, and acknowledge how much of a role these things have in the society it was talking about. In fact, the only Stress move that isn't abusive is confessing your sins to a priest, which is feeding back into community and healing. Yes please.”
And here's the playtest Kate is talking about on YouTube, a great example of the way that gender politics and familial drama plays out in Cartel:
Save vs. TPK: Without the Distance of Metaphor or Time
Over on Save vs. TPK, Ramanan Sivaranjan tackles some of the controversy and drama around Cartel’s subject matter, writing really elegantly about what games are able to do and how they are able to do it. As I said on Twitter, I’m honored he cast his critical eye on my project:
"The archetypes the playbooks of the game represent aren’t distant or fantastic: they are grounded in reality. Mark could tell his story about the Mexican drug trade using allegory (the cartel are the dark elves or some such nonsense), or he could push his story backwards or forwards in time (Cartel: 2120). As players you might be able to avoid dwelling too much on the reality of what you’re playing. But this seems contrary to everything Mark wants to do with his game. His goal—as he notes often—is to push people to play roles that might be uncomfortable for them. He wants people playing Mexicans."
Great stuff in both posts! Please go read and comment. Both these writers are really excellent contributors to the RPG community, and I'd love to see some Cartel fans engaging with them.
¡Last Week, Cabrones!
We’re down to the last semana of the campaign. Just six more días until we close on Sunday, April 15th. Tell everyone you know! This is their last chance to be a part of this campaign.
¡Mil gracias, amigos! It’s been an amazing ride so far, and I can’t wait to see what the última semana has in store for us!
¡A Toda Madre, Accessory Upgrades, Actual Play Winners, y Berlin 1981!
almost 8 years ago
– Sun, Apr 08, 2018 at 01:17:09 PM
After a few amazing days, we’re already at $37,500! We’ve unlocked the accessories upgrade, including new cards, new tattoos, and a new santos candle. ¡A huevo¡ In this update, we’ll cover all those upgrades, an exciting new stretch goal, the actual play winners, y más!
Unlocked Stretch Goal: Accessories Upgrade
We’ve unlocked our accessories upgrade, which means that we’re going to add thirteen new cards to the Deck of Locations, two new custom tattoos from Miguel, and a new santos candle option! ¡Órale!
I’m especially excited to feature more of Miguel’s art. He’s an incredibly talented designer and artist, and his work deserves more attention! Working with him on these temporary tattoo illustrations has been really fun, and I can’t wait to ship them to you all.
Of course, this stretch goal also brings the Deck of Locations up to a complete 54 card deck! Between the last stretch goal (15 cards) and this one, the Deck of Locations is totally complete. ¡Gracias¡
VOTE For The New Santos Candle
Speaking of accessories, it’s time for us to choose which playbook is going to be added to the available santos candles. Please fill out this survey, and let us know which one you’d like to see added to the list:
We’ll close the voting on April 10th, 2018 (a week from today). The selected playbook will be added to the options available in Backerkit at the close of the campaign, available to anyone as an add-on or to those backers who are getting a candle with their pledge.
New Stretch Goal: Berlin 1981 ($40,000)
Our next stretch goal is one I’ve been dreaming about since I first started working on Cartel. While I knew that I wanted the game to be set in Mexico and focus on the drug war, I also recognized that narcofiction is sort of postmodern spy fiction; the days of the cold war have given way to an international drug trade, a battle in the shadows ruled by secrets and violence. But it’s inevitable that Cartel’s moves would eventually come to an all new setting:
Berlin 1981 is a hack of Cartel that uses the core mechanics and systems in a completely new setting: Cold War Germany. In Berlin 1981, you’ll play corrupt section chiefs, scheming assassins, and desperate double agents...all trying to stay alive on the streets of Berlin. It’s a city divided by more than a wall, turned against itself by two superpowers who will stop at nothing to ensure that the other side loses.
Berlin 1981 will appear in Sin Fronteras—in both print and pdf—and will include all the materials you need to run a game of Cartel in a totally new, Cold War setting. As a reminder, Sin Fronteras is now available as a printed supplement and the PDF of Sin Fronteras is included for every $20+ backer.
Actual Play Winners
Thanks to all who participated in our actual play contest. We’re always so excited to see folks playing Cartel in the wild, and I love to hear the stories of doomed sicarios and lucky cocineros. Each one is so different!
Here are our winners:
Adrian Thoen posted an intense actual play on in the Cartel G+ Community, featuring two sisters (La Polizeta y La Sicaria) caught up in the machinations of their cousin (El Halcón). Not everyone makes it out alive.
The Chimeracast did an amazing actual play podcast that captured so much of what I love about narcofiction! El Narco finds that his people may have betrayed him, leading to a shootout at the police station that puts La Polizeta’s life on the line. Meanwhile, El Sicario’s revenge on his abusive father puts him in the line of fire…
Hijos del Rol featured an actual play in Spanish on their YouTube channel! It was amazing to see a group of Latino gamers playing Cartel in our language. I’m working my way through it slowly to practice my Spanish!
Thanks to all our winners! We’ll be in touch soon with information on how to get your print!
Less Than Two Weeks Left!
It’s hard to believe muchachos, but we’re down to our last two semanas: the Cartel Kickstarter ends on Sunday, April 15th. Please get the word out on G+/Facebook/Twitter! Let la gente know that we’re getting close to the end...so they don’t miss out!
¡Con Madres! La Mariachi, Sin Fronteras, and Accessories Upgrade!
about 8 years ago
– Mon, Apr 02, 2018 at 08:13:09 AM
Keep it coming, you chamacos locos. This morning we broke $35,000, a few días earlier than we expected. ¡Híjole… we’ve already unlocked La Mariachi and Sin Fronteras in print! We’ll talk about both in this update, along with our new accessories upgrade stretch goal ($37,500), some more media appearances, and our final reminder for the actual play contest!
Unlocked Stretch Goal: La Mariachi
We’ve unlocked La Mariachi, the Rodríguez-inspired playbook whose kind innocence stands in stark contrast to the drug war’s brutal heart. El Mariachi is the movie that originally inspired my love of Mexican narcofiction, and I’m excited to bring a piece of it to Cartel.
Since we reached $35,000, La Mariachi will be added to Sin Fronteras, which will include new cartas de amor for this playbook as well! Everything you need to get mixed up with the cartels in the worst way, amigos, even when you play someone who wants nada to do with them.
Unlocked Stretch Goal: Sin Fronteras in Print
Speaking of Sin Fronteras, we’ve also unlocked our second supplement in print! ¡Órale! I am so pumped to be able to make this supplement a full book (70+ pages); I think it’s going to be a great tool for modifying, adapting, and hacking Cartel at your table, including all the new playbooks, cartas de amor, and more information on hacking and custom moves.
New Reward Tiers: El Soldado y La Emperatriz
Since we’ve unlocked a new supplement, we’ve added two new reward tiers to the project: EL SOLDADO ($110) and LA EMPERATRIZ ($180). Each of these new tiers adds another supplement in print to your pledge, allowing you to pick up both Amigos y Enemigos and Sin Fronteras alongside your Cartel core rulebook. You can also simply add $30 to your pledge to add the print version on to your pledge directly. Either way works!
Of course, everyone who is backing at $20+ gets Sin Fronteras via PDF as part of the stretch goal package. We’ll be releasing the supplements sometime after the corebook, but we’ll keep you all updated with the release schedule as they progress. I can’t wait to have folks playtest these new playbooks (and maybe a few more things we unlock...)!
New Stretch Goal: Accessories Upgrade ($37,500)
Now that we’ve unlocked a bunch more playbooks, I’m excited to fund some upgrades for our accessories, including some new art from Miguel Ángel Espinoza and more location cards!
If we reach $37,500, we’ll unlock an accessories upgrade that includes:
Two new temporary tattoos created by Miguel Ángel Espinoza
Thirteen new location cards, focused on cultural sites in Durango
An additional option for the custom santos candles, decided by backers
The new tattoos and location cards will be automatically added to their respective accessories (pack of tattoos and Deck of Locations). If you’re getting one or both of those items as an add-on or through El Narco’s Stash, they will be added to your pledge for free! Also, everyone who is backing at $20+ will get the new cards and tattoos as PDFs!
For the new candle, we’ll post a survey for the community to select which playbook will be added to the santos candle options. Will it be La Esposa or La Rata? Or maybe something more exotic like El Güero or El Aboganster? It’s up to you! Whatever images we unlock will be available as options in Backerkit for anyone getting a santos candle.
Media Appearances: Al Día y Misdirected Mark Podcast
I’ve had a busy few weeks talking to various podcast and media outlets. Thanks to you all, people are really excited to talk about Cartel!
I did an interview last week with Al Día, a Latino newsmagazine based out of Philadelphia. They had some great questions about what it’s meant for me to be a Latino designer/entreprenuer, and I’m excited to show my Mom that I occasionally show up in the real news:
In addition to the piece in Al Día, I also did an interview with the Misdirected Mark Podcast about creating non-heroic games like Cartel and Urban Shadows. The hosts of MMP brought a ton of interesting questions that I think made this one of my favorite podcasts I’ve done on Cartel:
And finally...we’re down to the last TWO DAYS of the Cartel Actual Play Contest! We’re still pumped to give away FOUR 8.5” x 11” prints of the Cartel cover art, so please make sure to fill out your form for your actual play posts.
¡Gracias! Truly, truly.
HItting $35,000 is an amazing achievement. I still marvel, each time I look at the page, that I’ve gotten so much support from you all for this game. I love Cartel and Mexican narcofiction, but… I know that our industry is often not a place where games about people of color thrive. Thank you all so much for your pledges and support. It means the world to me.
¡Híjole! El Tahur Unlocked y La Mariachi!
about 8 years ago
– Sun, Apr 01, 2018 at 08:56:22 AM
Another phenomenally busy week for Cartel! In this update, we’ve got an unlocked stretch goal (El Tahur), two new stretch goals (La Mariachi and Sin Fronteras in print), new media appearances, and more!
Unlocked Stretch Goal: El Tahur
We’ve unlocked El Tahur, the gambler whose debts put him in a tough spot with the cartel. I love playing these kinds of scoundrel characters, and I’m excited to add another character to the game who operates just outside of the cartel’s immediate grasp.
El Tahur will be added to Sin Fronteras, which will include new cartas de amor for this playbook as well! Just remember...El Tahur has to know when to hold ‘em and when to fold ‘em. You can only push your luck so many times before it runs out, cabrón...
New Stretch Goal: La Mariachi ($35,000)
We’ve unlocked five new playbooks already, but this next one might just be my favorite: La Mariachi!
Innocent, passionate, doomed. La Mariachi is a local musician who suddenly finds herself in grave danger, caught up in the chaos and violence of the drug war in Durango.
In Cartel, La Mariachi is driven by grief and happenstance: someone she loved was killed by a member of the cartel, and she may have an opportunity for justice or vengeance. Yet, she also bears a striking resemblance to another major character (La Sicaria? La Narca?), one that might put her into the crosshairs of people she’s never met.
So much of my amor for narcofiction is rooted in watching El Mariachi as a kid. It was so inspiring to watch a movie shot by a Mexican-American director, and I was blown away by how he did it. The budget was a mere $7,000… and it launched not only Rodriguez’s career but also a whole trilogy of movies. Let’s hope our mariachi is as beloved at your table!
New Stretch Goal: Sin Fronteras in Print ($35,000)
In addition to unlocking La Mariachi at $35,000, we’ll also unlock Sin Fronteras in print! With four new limited edition playbooks (El Abogangster, La Esperanzada, El Tahur, La Mariachi), more than twenty cartas de amor, and a section on custom moves/hacking, Sin Fronteras is now complete enough (60+ pages) for us to print a physical book.
If we reach $35,000, we’ll unlock both La Mariachi and Sin Fronteras in print. The new playbook will be available to all $20+ backers as part of the Sin Fronteras PDF, and we’ll add new reward tiers and add-ons so that you can add print copies of Sin Fronteras to your pledge. ¡A toda madre!
Media Appearances: Reddit AMA & Full Metal RPG Podcast
Huge thanks to everyone who came out and asked questions during my AMA last Thursday. We had a really great discussion, including one sparked by this question:
Q: I have some friends who are nervous about playing characters that do not match their racial/ethnic identity. Can you offer some advice on both playing and running games where people are playing someone else's background?
A: For sure! I think it's easy to be dismissive of that feeling ("y'all will play elves...but not Mexicans?"), but I've really come to understand it as a reaction rooted in wanting to be respectful. After all, there aren't any real elves for you to slander with your terribly offensive portrayal.
I have a couple of rules I follow when I play a character (including NPCs) from a different racial/ethnic identity:
1) Focus on demeanor/affect not slang/accents. I try to stay away from things like "Black slang" or "Asian accents." I think that stuff is mostly a cheap stereotype, and it's probably the least exciting thing about racially/ethnically diverse characters we love. Instead, I try to think of an actor that I would love to see playing the character, and try to think about their demeanor and affect: how do they say things and what do they say?
Take Benicio Del Toro, frex. He's going to show up in a lot of Cartel games I run, but I don't try to mimic his accent (it isn't consistent anyway), but I do try to make him intense. He tends to lead with his head, as if he's thinking his way through scenes. He's precise with his language. All that stuff is not going to cause any harm or offend anyone, while totally summoning up the character you want to see in the fiction.
After my AMA last week, I appeared on a bonus episode of the Full Metal RPG Podcast to talk about Cartel, game design, and the state of the RPG industry. It was an awesome (perhaps even METAL) discussion with Brendan from Full Metal RPG, and I’m really excited for y’all to hear it:
Seriously. I love these chamacos. An absolutely great discussion on games, gaming, and the business, all in a pretty tight hour of conversation! (My apologies in advance for the slightly poor sound quality on my end; my microphone didn’t do a great job!)
Actual Play Contest: Last Week!
And finally...we’re down to the last week of our Actual Play Contest! We’re totally excited to give away four (THAT’S RIGHT! FOUR!) 8.5” x 11” prints of the Cartel cover art, so please make sure to fill out your form for your actual play posts.
As a quick reminder, here are the rules again:
Run a session of Cartel either online (streaming) or locally, using the newest Quickstart downloaded from DTRPG [LINK].
After you run your session, post a new actual play podcast, video, or blog post between March 14th - March 31.
Podcast/videos must be at least 60 minutes; blog posts must be at least 500 words.
Once your entry is up as a public post, fill out this form [LINK] to let us know that you’ve entered the contest.
We will announce the winners on April 2nd, a few days after submissions close.
¡Órale Muchachos!
We’re getting close to unlocking our next sourcebook! And our next playbook! Spread the word on Facebook/G+/Twitter! Your support for this campaign has been amazing, and I really appreciate every post that lets folks know that the campaign is still running. ¡Gracias, muchas gracias!
¡Oigan Muchachos! Time for El Tahur!
about 8 years ago
– Sat, Mar 31, 2018 at 03:43:58 AM
We’ve got a ton of stuff in this update, including: a new unlocked playbook (La Esperanzada) and PDF supplement (Sin Fronteras), a new stretch goal (El Tahur), a podcast announcement (Misdirected Mark), a Reddit AMA announcement, and a reminder about our Actual Play Contest! Y’all are keeping me busy, cabrones.
Unlocked Stretch Goal: La Esperanzada y Sin Fronteras PDF
We’ve unlocked La Esperanzada, the hero cop who is determined to bring down the cartels once and for all. Of course, del dicho al hecho, hay mucho trecho! She’s got her work cut out for her.
I’m excited about adding La Esperanzada to Cartel because she shifts the locus of the action in the story. A game that features El Halcón, La Sicaria, and El Cocinero is focused on the illicit side—moving drugs, avoiding rival cartels, etc.—but a session based around La Esperanzada, La Polizeta, and El Güero is the polar opposite, centered on law enforcement’s attempts to stop the cartel’s illegal business!
Unlocking La Esperanzada also means that we’ve unlocked our next Cartel supplement, Sin Fronteras! This PDF supplement will contain limited edition playbooks, cartas de amor, and more advice about hacking, expanding, and building upon Cartel. ¡Con madres!
For now, we’re only making Sin Fronteras available in PDF…but that might change sooner than you think. Keep getting the word out! ]
New Stretch Goal: El Tahur ($32,500)
The basic playbooks for Cartel are intimately tied to the cartels. While La Esposa might stay a bit outside of the immediate orbit of illegal activity, everyone else is in deep. The limited edition playbooks give me a chance to explore folks who aren’t so directly involved...
Charming, reckless, drowning. El Tahur is a gambler who has gotten himself mixed up with los narcos in the worst way: he owes them money. Lots of money. What will it take to free himself from their clutches?
El Tahur is a gambler, a risk-taking bon vivant whose lifestyle fluxuates from session to session. Sometimes he’s up, sometimes he’s down, but one thing is for certain: his debts to the cartel have reached a breaking point. And the time for final payment is coming due. You might recognize El Tahur from Rounders (Worm / Ed Norton) or The Gambler (Alex Freed / James Caan).
If we reach $32,500, we’ll unlock El Tahur, This new playbook (and the accompanying cartas de amor) will be available to all $20+ backers as a PDF download as part of Sin Fronteras!
Media Appearances: MM Podcast, Reddit AMA, y Mas!
If you’re interested in hearing me talk more about Cartel, I’ll be appearing on a live stream with the Misdirected Mark Podcast TODAY at 8:45 pm Eastern on their Twitch stream. We’ll be talking about developing “non-heroic” games like Cartel. We’ll be taking audience questions too!
If you miss the stream tonight, you can still listen to the recorded version. I’ll post a link here in an update and add it to the Kickstarter page. But please join us! I'd love to have some backers asking questions during the stream.
In addition to the Misdirected Mark Podcast tonight, I’ll also be doing a Reddit AMA on Thursday from 11am to 1pm Eastern. Please come by and ask me questions about the game! I’ll be thrilled to talk about my design process, inspirations, and where Cartel will go from here.
Reminder: Actual Play Contest Continues!
Don’t forget that we’re still holding our Cartel Actual Play Contest through the end of March. All you have to do to enter is post an actual play report or podcast/video between now and March 31st! You can even write up a session you played previously, so long as you let us know that you’ve posted the actual play publicly and where to find it. Just remember to fill out this form after you post it!
Thank you, once again, for all your support. Watching Cartel cross the line above $30,000 is amazing, and I’m so excited about everything you all have made possible. Please keep letting folks know about the campaign on Twitter/Facebook/G+! We love it when new folks find us through our existing backers! And I can't wait to see your actual play submissions!
