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:
¿Qué Onda? Cartas Unlocked y Actual Play!
about 8 years ago
– Wed, Mar 21, 2018 at 03:51:03 PM
Now that we’ve made it through the first week of our campaign, things have slowed down enough that I had some time to catch my breath! ¡Híjole, muchachos! In this update, we’ve got our unlocked stretch goal (¡las cartas!) and a Cartel actual play contest!
Unlocked Stretch Goal: Cartas de Amor
We’ve unlocked the cartas de amor! I’m going to create two distinct sets of love letters for each playbook, including limited edition playbooks we unlock as stretch goals, each designed to get your table rolling with Cartel sin retraso. ¡Órale!
And remember, when we hit $30,000, we’ll add La Esperanzada to the other stretch goal materials to create our second Cartel supplement, Sin Fronteras! ¡Ándale!
Actual Play Contest: March 14 - March 31
I am so, so excited to have people try Cartel. So excited, in fact, that we’d like to give you all an excuse to corral all your amigos into playing the game with you this month: the Cartel Actual Play Contest!
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 to let us know that you’ve entered the contest.
We will announce a winner on April 2nd, a few days after submissions close.
And what does the winner get?
We’re giving away four 8.5” x 11” prints of the Cartel cover art, selected at random from all qualifying entries. You can enter more than once! We’ll treat each session as a separate entry for the drawing, but you can only win once. You gotta leave some prizes for everyone else, cabrón.
Días y Días Left
Now that we’re through the first week, the fun really begins! We’ll be sharing design notes on the game, actual plays and podcasts we love, and more cool stretch goals. Please let folks know about the campaign using the #CartelRPG hashtag and join us in the G+ Community to talk more about the game!
¡Ave María Purísima! And La Esperanzada!
about 8 years ago
– Sat, Mar 10, 2018 at 01:15:42 PM
Okay, fifth day. Just the fifth day, amigos. And you’re knocking down our eighth stretch goal. Ocho stretch goals! You all están matando pulgas a balazos.
Unlocked Stretch Goal: El Abogangster
We have unlocked our first limited edition playbook: El Abogangster, the criminal attorney!
While these kinds of characters have a long history in crime fiction (Saul Goodman, Tom Hagen, etc.), they are also a big part of the story of the cartels in Mexico. Attorneys often grow rich off their drug lord clients…but it’s a foolish abogado who thinks he’s truly safe when dealing with narcos. Excited to have this playbook be a part of the game!
And remember, when we hit $27,500, we’ll create two sets of cartas de amor for each playbook, love letters that get your game primed and ready by kicking it into high gear from minute one. We’re almost there!
New Stretch Goal: La Esperanzada
I think Cartel exists in tension with my last game, Urban Shadows. The latter is about “good people” who find themselves slipping to the darkness; Cartel is about “bad people” who might be more complicated than they first appear. Both games are concerned with morality in the absence of legality...and so it was inevitable that a playbook would bridge that tension.
Dogged, oblivious, brave. La Esperanzada is a flicker of hope in the darkness, a cop who hopes to bring the villains of the drug war to justice. A would-be savior, in a war that turns heroes into martyrs.
La Esperanzada (The Hopeful) is a Mexican-American FBI or DEA agent who is committed to ending the drug war...and capturing or killing those responsible for so much suffering. She has extended family in the area, but Mexico is not her home turf; she isn’t prepared for what she will find south of the border. It is a war without victors, only victims.
If we reach $30,000, we’ll unlock La Esperanzada, This new playbook will be available to all $20+ backers as a PDF download, and unlocking La Esperanzada will also unlock our next supplement as a PDF: Sin Fronteras!
New Supplement: Sin Fronteras
I’m always excited to see a new PbtA game grow and expand mechanically. It’s been awesome adding limited edition playbooks to Urban Shadows, new playsets to Masks Unbound, and I’m definitely inspired by the work modifying the core game in the Book of Mirrors for Bluebeard’s Bride!
Once we unlock La Esperanzada, we’ll have enough new content (limited edition playbooks, cartas de amor, etc) to create a new supplement in PDF: Sin Fronteras. This book is designed to help you push, hack, and expand Cartel, including more information on creating custom moves and the aforementioned unlocked stretch goals.
We’re not ready to put Sin Fronteras in print just yet...but the day may come, amigos. That day may come.
¡Dile a Todos!
On that note, it’s a good time to remind you to tell everyone you know about Cartel! Your posts on Twitter/Facebook/G+ make a huge difference to our campaign, especially when you talk about why you’re excited to see the game come to life. Make sure to use #cartelrpg so the conversation is easy to find. And please come join us to discuss Cartelin the G+ Community. Thanks for your support!
¡Órale! And Cartas de Amor!
about 8 years ago
– Thu, Mar 08, 2018 at 09:38:27 PM
It’s day three, and you all know what you’re doing. Funding stretch goals! Keeping me busy!
Unlocked Stretch Goals: Map of Durango & Más Amigos
I’ve been working on this update all day, and you all funded another stretch goal right before we hit publish. Come on, amigos, let me catch up! ¡ay ay ay!
You all have unlocked the custom map of Durango! We’ll add it to the Cartel core rulebook and we’ve already made it available as a $20 add-on. And everyone who is getting El Narco’s Stash gets an 11” x 17” cloth version of the map for free. ¡Chingón!
In addition to the map, we’re adding five new characters from la comunidad to Amigos y Enemigos, fully completing that book (at roughly 110 pages)! I’m really excited that we’re going to be offer a full version of this book; each NPC is like a whole session (or three) of play!
And remember, when we hit $25,000 (so soon! so soon!), we'll add our first limited edition playbook, El Abogangster!
New Stretch Goal: Cartas de Amor ($27,500)
One of my favorite things to do for short PbtA games (or when my group has had some time off from a PbtA game) is to write custom cartas de amor (love letters) for each character. Basically, each carta gets the player into the action with a minimal amount of fuss, and it keeps us all from spending a lot of time getting the game moving.
Here’s an example carta de amor for an halcón you might know:
¡Hola, Joaquina!
You’ve been an halcón for Don Orlando for a few years now, taking his money out into the mountains and driving all those pinches hours back to Durango after meeting with his contacts.
Until yesterday.
Yesterday, you got caught. Los federales were just waiting at that pinche gas station. Waiting for you, cabrona. And they knew exactly how much money you had on you.
So now you’ve got to try to make a deal. Roll with Hustle. On a 10+, pick 2. On a 7-9, pick 1.
You know the NPC who ratted on you; tell the MC who it was and why.
You know that Don Orlando trusts you; tell the MC why he won’t be worried.
The cops are willing to offer you a deal. ¡Gracias a Dios!
On a miss, it’s pretty clear it was Don Orlando himself who sold you out. ¡A la verga!
Amor y besos, Your MC
If we reach $27,500, I’ll create two sets of cartas de amor for each playbook, all designed to work together at your table. If you want to get to the action quick, you’ll be able to hand a carta to each player...and watch the chaos unfold. All of the cartas will be available to $20+ backers as a PDF download, and we might just find a place for them in a future print supplement as we unlock more stretch goals!
Gender in Cartel
Since today is International Women’s Day, I thought I would talk a bit today about gender in Cartel. While gender and gender theory can be complicated in any game, Cartel has the specific challenge of the intersection of race, gender, power...and death.
One of the things I love about Powered by the Apocalypse games is that they have always forced players to deal with gender. The Apocalypse World playbooks were great at helping players confront their internalized expectations of gender ("wait, I have to say I’m a man when I introduce my character?"), and we were really thrilled to expand that to racial looks in Urban Shadows because the tech was so impressive and useful.
Obviously, Cartel builds on that tradition by including gendered options for look, but the history of women and the cartels complicates things! Here’s an example:
Nuestra Señora de la Santa Muerte: Patron Saint of Death
This is Santa Muerte, an important Mexican folks saint, often worshipped by the urban poor (mostly women), "outcasts" (including the LGBT community)... and narcos. Some people follow Santa Muerte because they believe she speaks to their issues more than the Catholic Church (a mainstream institution) ever could...but some people love death. Hard to tell which is which sometimes.
But that strangely expansive view of maternal support, encompassing everyone from transgender activists in Mexico City to sicarias in the hills of Sinaloa, isn’t that far out for Mexico’s more traditional gender norms. Women have a role to play, and many people are fairly comfortable with the role that Santa Muerte plays at the fringes.
When I was designing Cartel, I thought about trying to capture all of this in the mechanics, working to make the gender roles of Mexico feel real. But it quickly became apparent to me that the topic of gender in Mexico was enormous—probably more than I could do and still handle crime fiction—and that it didn’t reflect the way that many women in the cartels moved “beyond gender” in some ways while performing it in others.
In my playtests, however, I found that gender actually comes up a lot. Player characters are married to each other, with expectations about what that means; a sicaria doesn’t always behave quite like a sicario, but el jefe is el jefe, respected until they’re not. Gender is the fruitful void, the part of that game that the players explore without rules, supported by all the other rules that don’t directly address it.
Next Time on… Cartel!
Thanks to everyone who read all the way down to the bottom of this update! We’ve got more stretch goals, more design notes, and more Cartel to come, so please tell folks that the campaign is zooming along! It really helps a ton for you all to spread the word! ¡Órale, chamacos!
¡Chingón! And Más Stretch Goals!
about 8 years ago
– Wed, Mar 07, 2018 at 12:59:22 PM
We’re halfway through day two and still unlocking stretch goals! ¡Todos los objetivos!
Unlocked Stretch Goals: Más Amigos y Location Cards
Last night, you all broke through $15,000… and kept going. Now we’re up to nearly $20,000, and I can barely keep up.
We’re adding 20 more pages of gringos to Amigos y Enemigos, making that book roughly 100 pages! And we’re also adding 15 location cards to the Deck of Locations, bringing that deck up to 40+ cards. Well done!
And remember, when we hit $20,000 (which is going to happen any minute más o menos), we’ll also add a map of Durango to the book…and put a free cloth map into El Narco’s Stash. All for you, jefes!
New Stretch Goal: New AyE - La Comunidad ($22,500)
The real tragedy of the drug war, of course, isn’t what happens to los narcos. It’s what happens to everybody else. What will you do, güey, when madness becomes the new normal?
If we reach $22,500, we'll add five new characters to Amigos y Enemigos, completing the book (roughly 110+ pages). These new characters will focus on the professional community of Durango, including the lawyers, doctors, and priests that fill the everyday roles in el barrio.
New Stretch Goal: El Abogangster ($25,000)
But not every abogado is on the up and up, cabrón. Some walk a darker path.
Astute, connected, flexible. El Abogangster is the corrupt lawyer, the legal agent for the cartel that keeps the money flowing and los federales away from everyone important.
Our first limited edition playbook, El Abogangster does the real dirty work for the cartel: all the paperwork. When someone is arrested or los federales get too close, he’s there, making a mess of things before the hammer falls. He’s not just a criminal lawyer. He’s a criminal lawyer.
This new playbook will be available to all $20+ backers as a PDF download, and we might just find a place for him in a future print supplement as we unlock more stretch goals!
Featured Podcast: The Gauntlet (Mar 2016)
As we head into day two, I’m getting a ton of questions about why I wrote Cartel. Thank you all so much for taking the time to understand my vision, and thanks to Miguel for making that vision authentic! We’ve put in a lot of time and effort into striking a balance between making the game fun and addressing the real damage that the cartels do in Mexico.
If you’re interested in hearing more about this balance, the Gauntlet podcast that I did back in 2016 addresses this very issue:
I have a great conversation with Jason, Steve, and Rich about the game, my goals, and what Cartel means to me. Give it a listen! Jason is a tough interlocutor, and I think he does a fabulous job sussing out the real issues that live at the heart of the game.
And if you’re not familiar with The Gauntlet… you should be! Here’s a few links:
The Gauntlet is a gaming community and podcast network that focuses on indie RPGs, story games, and the OSR. They produce a number of original programs, publish a monthly zine, and organize over 100 online game sessions per month.
These stretch goals aren’t our last, amigos. Not by a long shot. We’ve got a ton more stuff planned for the campaign, including more playbooks and hacks of the game. Falta mucho!
Tell your friends! Tell your enemies! Let everyone know that Cartel is on Kickstarter, and we’ll reach those stretch goals fast. Thank you for all the support!
¡A Huevo, New Stretch Goals!
about 8 years ago
– Tue, Mar 06, 2018 at 04:37:03 PM
It’s still day one. And y’all have knocked out another two stretch goals. ¡No manches!
Unlocked Stretch Goals: Más Amigos y The CIA
Not only have you expanded Amigos y Enemigos to 80 pages, but you’ve also unlocked El Güero, a limited edition playbook that brings the CIA directly into the game.
I’m excited about both these goals, but I’m especially pumped about giving players the chance to make a mess of things as gringo federal operatives. I love Johnny Depp in Once Upon a Time in Mexico and Josh Brolin in Sicario, and I can’t wait for you to see El Güero at your table.
And remember...when we reach $15,000, we’ll be adding 20 pages of gringos to Amigos y Enemigos. We're so close! Less than a $1,000 to go!
New Stretch Goal: More Location Cards ($17,500)
Over the last few years, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about ways to make Cartel more accessible to people who aren’t as familiar with Mexico. The setting of Durango is so important to the game, and I want to make sure that the city shines at your table. One of the best tools to make Durango (and the drug war) feel real is the Deck of Locations!
If we reach $17,500, we’ll add 15 new location cards to the Deck of Locations, giving you all new places to set scenes and all new moves to use during the game. This will bring the deck to a total of 41 cards, allowing us to feature a huge range of locations for you to use as an MC or as a player!
New Stretch Goal: Map of Durango ($20,000)
Speaking of new locations…
If we reach $20,000, we’ll create a custom map of Durango for use with Cartel, featuring it in the Cartel corebook and making it available for download to all our backers as a printable PDF. In addition, we’ll also add a free 11” by 17” cloth print of the map to El Narco’s Stash and make the cloth map available to everyone as a Kickstarter Exclusive Add-on ($20).
Keep It Up, Muchachos!
Thank you all for spreading the word about Cartel! We’ve almost tripled our goal on the first day thanks to all of your support. Please keep posting about the project on Twitter, Facebook, and G+, and let people know that there’s more Cartel to come!
Also, if you’re interested in joining the Cartel discussion on G+, you can join our Google+ Community for Cartel here:
