State of Things and Pandemia
almost 6 years ago – Fri, Apr 17, 2020 at 02:26:51 AM

Hello everyone, I hope you are all staying safe during this hard time. I know things have changed in a weird way for many of you, please be careful and patience, and keep yourselves and your loves ones safe. 

For me, since I was already working from home, things haven't changed in a drastic way. But they have changed nontheless; we had to readjust a couple of things in our personal lives, regarding familiy, friends and the people that provide services for us at the house. However, the situation is still calm in town, and we are waiting to see how things develop. 

My day job has been quiet bussy, but I'm still pushing through the last part of the book to get it finished. Here is a summary of the chapters and their current state: 

• Chapter 0. Preface - Ready for copy editing.
• Chapter 1. The Setting - Ready for copy editing.
• Chapter 2. The Basics - Ready for copy editing.
• Chapter 3. The Angeleros - Waiting final dev editing pass.
• Chapter 4. The Changarro - On dev editing.
• Chapter 5. The Moves - On dev editing.
• Chapter 6. The Nahuales - On dev editing.
• Chapter 7. Life in the Barrio - On dev editing.
• Chapter 8. The Marakame - Currently writing.
• Chapter 9. The First Session - To be written. 

I'm sending those first three chapters to copy editing to keep things moving. My copy editor says it's okay for him to work in batches, and that he doesn't need to wait until I have the whole thing, which is pretty good news! 

Right now, the texts add up to 60,936 words, including the 4,944 words I've written so far for the Marakame chapter, which is a long and complex chapter since I explain how to run the game in it. Once I'm done with that one, the final First Session chapter I'm expecting it to be relatively quick to get done. 

Current Play Materials

I'm including here a link for the latest play materials for you all to have in one place, in case you are looking for them:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/wvyvvvgpa0b5jkh/AABi2ZgUlBLrXAkM9vxhn7f9a?dl=0

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Thanks as always for all your patience, I sometimes feel like a disco rayado as we say in Spanish, repiting the same thing over and over. But know that I truly mean it, that I'm still working hard and chipping away at this challenge, getting closer and closer to the finish line. One step at a time. 

Abrazos virtuales, and please stay safe everyone. Peace!

New Changarros with layout!
about 6 years ago – Fri, Feb 28, 2020 at 02:58:55 AM

Hello everyone, this is a super quick update to share with you the new changarros fully laid out. In general the whole chapter (Chapter 4) has been rewritten already, and is on dev editing. But you can already try the changarros and let me know your impresions. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/3316qcmjdeljp21/Nahual-Changarros-feb2020-eng.pdf?dl=0

Thank you again for all your patience, you really can't imagine how grateful I am for this.

February is gone, and it has been a pretty bussy month on my day job. There is no much to say, except that I'll keep the hard work. I'm going crunch mode again, working real late at night (for a while at least) to try and push this during the next month, and see if I can finish it. Let's see how long I can keep the pedal to the metal!

Gracias como siempre! XOXO

Happy 2020, Still Working Hard!
about 6 years ago – Sat, Jan 04, 2020 at 02:19:09 AM

Happy New Year to Everyone!

A new year is here, and I'm still sad I wasn't able to meet my deadline. But 2020 is gonna be the year of the Nahual! I pomise that!

I'm still working hard to pulish the book. And my time in PAX Unplugged was really cool for multiple reasons. First of all, I got to hangout with my fellow Magpies and help on the booth. 

I also got to run a couple of sessions of Nahual on the Magpie showcase room, and most of the players had never heard of the game before, and they had a blast! That was really exciting!

But more importantly, I got to talk long and in person with Mark (my dev editor) about the new Changarros. And it was a very productive chat!

Part of me just wanted to call them done and move forward, but it's like I openned a door to a complete new section of a building, and right there I had the new chagarros I shared, on the first room of that new section. But beyond that room, I could see more rooms, better rooms, more exciting rooms. So I ventured deep and now I know what I have to do about them. 

I would love to share the new texts I have been working on since I came back, but I rather wait and show you a more finished version later. For now what I can do is talk to you about what makes these new rooms so exciting. They are truly all different!

Asymmetry in Game Design

Before, the changarros were a single sheet, with "different" types of changarros that in truth were just the same. Then, I decided to separate them, each on its own sheet, and even though at a glance they looked different, they still were pretty much the same, their mechancis were symmetrical. You could compare them and see that their parts were more or less the same parts. Except for the Vecindad, the newest one, which was completely asymmetrical to the other three. And these was mainly what we talked about, and how my instincts were pushing me to go fully assymetrical, with all four. 

Long story short, right now the new direction for the changarros are these: 

•  Taco Truck: your changarro is a taco truck, and you move around the city selling the angels you hunt as tacos. But you are also being hunted by an elite group of angels that are not happy with you selling angels as tacos.
•  Carnicería: your changarro sells raw angel meat to special clients, and makes deliveries to them and get in all sort of troubles while doing so. No retail activity, you are not open for business, you just secretely make deliveries to different special clients. 
•  Cantina: you own a social club, all sorts of weird people come to your cantina to conduct their shady business and to enjoy your angelic tequila. Of course they also bring their troubles to your establishment, so you gotta deal with that while keeping your clients happy. 
•  Vecindad: you don't really run a business, you hunt angels once in a while and provide polvo de angel to the local dealers. But you leave in a vecindad among other people that don't hesitate to share their tribulatios with you. 

The intention with this new direction is to make the changarros truly different from each other, not only in flavor but also mechanic-wise. I'm sorry this is delaying the project a bit more, but I think that door I opened really required me to fully explore what was behind it, so that the game could grow to its full potential. 

The Plan Ahead

My intention is to keep working hard so I can have the book on the printer as soon as possible. I would like to say by the end of February or the beginning of March, let's push towards that goal and see how things develop. 

Thanks again to all of you for your patience and support and again, I wish you all have a great 2020 full of gaming, joy, and love. Y que haya much rol! 

Saludos!

Revamped Changarros and Layout Tests
over 6 years ago – Tue, Oct 22, 2019 at 02:25:27 AM

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Armadillo Playbook and Jaguar Masks Making
over 6 years ago – Thu, Aug 01, 2019 at 02:08:03 AM

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