Contacta a El Chupalabras en: https://bsky.app/profile/elchupalabras.itch.io

Invítame un café aquí: https://ko-fi.com/laesquinadelrol

KOKOTÖNA es un juego de rol de ambientación oscura y siniestra, con reglas sencillas, inspirado en los mitos y leyendas del pueblo náhuatl de la Mesoamérica precolonial. Inicialmente estará disponible en inglés, español y portugués.

KOKOTÖNA se basa en el sistema de reglas ligeras de MÖRK BORG , donde las decisiones priman sobre las reglas, lo que permite usarlo como ambientación o suplemento para campañas de MÖRK BORG (u otros títulos OSR), o como un sistema independiente.

Aunque no necesitas MÖRK BORG para jugar a este juego, sigue siendo 100% compatible con las aventuras, clases, PNJ y enemigos existentes diseñados originalmente para MÖRK BORG.

Para acceder a esta promoción única para Latinoamérica y España, haz clic en la recompensa Curador en el siguiente enlace:

¡Quiero apoyar el proyecto!

¿Qué obtienes apoyando este proyecto?

• Un escenario original y totalmente nuevo: el continente insular condenado de Teotlan, para que lo explores y perezcas.

• Un conjunto de Reglas familiar: El reglamento completo “Compatible con MÖRK BORG”, junto con añadidos cuidadosamente elaborados como magia ritual, monturas, etc.

• Más de 10 clases de jugadores: desde acaudalados traficantes despiadados hasta cambiaformas Nahualhi marcados por el destino .

• Un montón de tablas para el escenario: ¡Armas, nombres, vicios, herejías, enfermedades y mucho más!

• Un bestiario con más de 100 entradas: Ejemplos de enemigos con tres variedades cada uno para atacar (¡y destrozar!) junto con fauna salvaje autóctona.

• Tres escenarios distintos: una mazmorra introductoria (”La red de la carne olvidada”), una breve exploración de cuevas (”Sangre de mil soles”) y un proceso opcional de creación de personajes en solitario (”La guerra de las flores”).

Mario | La Esquina del Rol Games: Leo Hunt, welcome to La Esquina del Rol. I’ve been listening to a few of your interviews, the latest one with my friend Iko. I really enjoyed the way you’ve brought VAULTS OF VAARN to life, and I was incredibly surprised to learn that you’re a professional writer. That connection suddenly made a lot of sense—understanding the setting in a deeper way and appreciating how interesting and layered it is.

I have many questions that came to mind while listening to your interview, but since this conversation will also be shared with Spanish-speaking readers, I’d love for them to get to know you. So, who is Leo Hunt, and how did you get into tabletop RPGs? What kept you engaged in them all these years?

Leo Hunt | Vaults of Vaarn: Hey Mario thanks for having me here! So my name is Leo Hunt and I've been a professional fiction writer for 10 years now, starting with a series of YA novels back in 2015. There was actually a Spanish translation of my first novel 13 Days of Midnight although I'm not sure it's in print anymore. I have been working in the TTRPG space since 2020

My very first encounter with TTRPGs was finding my mother's old B/X D&D books as a child. I really didn't understand them but I have always liked monsters and I enjoyed looking at the pictures. I have especially vivid memories of the white ape and carrion crawler illustrations for whatever reason. I think TTRPGs are kind of difficult to get into unless someone inducts you: reading those books when I got older didn't really help me understand why playing the game would be fun. It took until around 2017 when I started listening to some actual play podcasts (amusingly the very first one I enjoyed was some episodes of the comedy podcast Chapo Trap House where they play Call of Cthulhu). From there I started GMing Call of Cthulhu and Delta Green for my friends, and playing in a 5E campaign weekly. A couple of my rules issues with 5E led me to the OSR/indie TTRPG scene in 2019. I was intrigued to find out that those red and blue booklets I'd found in mum's attic as a child were actually kind of revered products. From there I started reading blogs like Goblin Punch and False Machine regularly and was really amazed by the size of the imaginations you can find in the scene. I knew I wanted to run something that had similar creative scope.

Mario: I didn't know one of your novels had been translated into Spanish. It genuinely fills me with joy to hear that. I've translated several role-playing games into Spanish, and it makes me so happy when I find these linguistic bridges that bring Spanish and English speakers closer together through cultural products we can clearly enjoy in our own language.

So, I'd love to talk a bit about the interdiscursivity between fiction writing and role-playing games—how that dialogue has been established in your work and how it led you to create such a passionate setting. Honestly, the conversation with the art of Mœbius, Wolf, Herbert, among others, is very clear when one looks at Vaults of Vaarn.

Leo Hunt: Thank you! I think fiction writing has an interesting relationship with TTRPGs. I think that being good at writing in one form doesn't always translate to another form, and that 'story telling' in it's purest form is still the preserve of fiction. TTRPGs require a different mode of creation which I don't totally have a name for - it's less about plotting and more about preparing the ground for a plot to happen (or not). So obviously some of the same instincts that guide you towards a plot in fiction writing (looking for places where conflict could arise) are used, but instead you're kind of passively creating these situations for the PCs to encounter.

There are other skills that I think are shared of course. If you're in control of your tone and form, then you can transfer that skill from one medium to another. Likewise being skilled at concise, vivid description of characters or places will serve you well in almost any written medium.

Mario: Leo, how was the writing process for this second edition? What aspects of the game’s setting are you most proud of in this new edition?

Leo Hunt: The writing process has been quite involved. I knew that 2E had to be the same thing people enjoyed in the original edition, but have enough expanded content to make it worth picking up even if you have the zines or the Deluxe Edition hardback. The Second Edition is currently 304 pages long and 80,000 words, more than twice the size of the Deluxe Edition! At this point I'm not sure it even counts as a minimalist game anymore, especially when you consider that the original zine was 48 pages.

What I've been doing is looking for conceptual gaps in the ruleset; places where GMs wanted more guidance or more content but didn't have it. Happily there are enough players and fans that I've heard plenty of feedback in the past five years, so it was easy to know where to start. A good example would be rules for followers and mercenaries: there's now a more complete system for hiring NPCs to fight alongside you. These rules are totally optional and some groups won't even use these pages, but the rulebook now covers it. So I've been trying to find spots like this where some added content will fit in seamlessly.

However I want the system to be approachable so every new addition has to justify itself. It's difficult because some groups want lots of extra rules and some want the system to be even simpler!

Regarding the setting itself, I've had fun expanding the anti-canon lore through some added dice tables. As an example, you can now generate random Autarchs, the fallen god kings who once ruled Vaarn. You get details of the length of their reign, how they died, and how they're remembered in folklore. So if your players are exploring Autarchy-era ruins, you can generate the Autarch who decreed the structure be built and learn something about them, which you could then integrate into the location if you like. And since it's another set of dice tables, you aren't bound by having to remember a big list of these dead rulers.

Mario: Awesome!. I can't wait to roll the dice on those tables. It's clear that the art of the original zine was inspired by Jean 'Moebius' Giraud, Kilian Eng and the comics of Stathis Tsemberlidis and Lando. Tell me, what decisions you have made in the art direction of this new edition - will you keep your illustrations, as in the original, or will you include commissioned art?

Leo Hunt: Yes, the illustration and layout will continue to be done by me. Although there are definitely more experienced artists out there I think my style is part of the appeal of the setting and I want to write every word and draw every line myself. For some of the oldest pieces I may be looking to remaster or redraw them, depending on how much time I have. There's going to be plenty of new illustrations, and I'm going for a limited colour scheme in blue and red to make them really pop.

Mario: I'm really glad you said that. I honestly can't imagine the game without your art. I think it's a wonderful decision. Your words and your artwork go hand in hand, shaping this fascinating world. I congratulate you on that—a wise choice.

Leo Hunt: Thank you! I do feel my art is quite integral to the tone of the project, I'm always striving to make the books look exactly how I want them.

Mario: On another note, I'd love for you to tell us more about the crowdfunding campaign you're planning. What can you reveal about what's coming to leave us on the best cliffhanger and get us excited to sign up and support the project?

Leo Hunt: Regarding the crowdfunding campaign, it will be launching at the end of July. I am raising money for an offset print run of the core 2E rules. There will also be a referee's screen and limited art print. I have a few stretch goals in mind including new ambient music from Out On Our Own, who have already recorded two Vaarn albums already.

I am not offering lots of components and add-ons because this is my first time coordinating international logistics and I want to keep the project lean and efficient to make sure everyone gets their books as soon as they're printed. However I'm really happy with the quality of the draft material and I think this is going to be the definitive version of Vaults of Vaarn. There is so much extra content in the new edition, and it keeps the streamlined rules while still expanding on the original zines and making them easier to run. If you're already a fan of the setting I think the updates will be welcomed, and for people who don't already know Vaarn, this is a chance to find out why it's been played and talked about for the last five years.

Mario: Oh! Leo, it’s truly great to know that the crowdfunding launch is coming soon, and I’m really excited about it. I’m very grateful for the time you took for this interview, and I just want to deeply thank you for taking the time to develop the second edition of the game.

Leo Hunt: Thank you Mario!

Our friends at The Weekly Scroll Tabletop Podcast had Leo Hunt as a guest to run a session of Vaults of Vaarn—if you haven’t checked out the game yet, this is a fantastic place to start!

Mario | La Esquina del Rol: Sam Mameli, welcome to La Esquina del Rol. I’m thrilled to have you here. When I interviewed Mark Conway about a year ago, I discovered that you illustrated the cover for Meatheads, and that’s when I first learned about you and your art. Then, I started hearing you on B2C over and over again, hahaha, and it’s been fantastic to listen to you there.

Sam Mameli (Skullboy): Hello! And thanks for having me!

Mario: Last week, I visited your website and checked out your portfolio—I was absolutely blown away! It turns out some of my favorite covers for games and adventures were illustrated by you, and I didn’t even know it, hahaha.

Thank you for the opportunity to learn more about you and your work in the tabletop RPG scene. To get started, I’d like you to introduce yourself to the community, so they can get to know who Sam Mameli is and what you do in the world of RPGs?

Sam Mameli: My name is Sam Mameli, and I go by "Skullboy" on the internet, I've been drawing things for TTRPGS since around 2013 and I've been a professional full time illustrator since 2018. My work is spread out around the OSR and DIY rpg scenes and I've also done some work in boardgames, videogames and lots of show posters for bands.

I'm glad you like the work, and the experience of "oh wait he drew that?" Is one that is very familiar to me lol. I try to adapt my style to fit the projects I take on and I think it makes me a little stealthy sometimes.

Mario: Honestly, I'm a bit absent-minded myself and don't always look at the credits page. But when someone says to me, “This is Sam's work” and I look at the artwork, it all starts to click. That moment when I realize that this is REALLY Sam's work is truly remarkable. What strikes me most is your ability to maintain your unique style while giving each illustration the flexibility to be exactly what it needs to be. I really admire that stealthy quality, like you say, which highlights your versatility and incredible skill as an illustrator, allowing you to create such diverse and distinct works.

Sam, at what point did tabletop RPGs and your art intersect, and what inspired you to explore that combination?

Sam Mameli: Thank you! That's very kind of you to say. I think ultimately no matter how hard I try to emulate something else it's always going to be done through the same visual language that I'm always working with so it will still look like me a bit- when I was younger and getting started this drove me crazy! (I wanted to draw just like all my heroes! Moebius, Akira Toriyama, Mike Mignola, ) but I see it as more of a feature than a bug these days, and I tend to like the things I make more now than I used to.

I've been playing TTRPGs since my freshman year of college in 2008. I played in a game of 4e the week that the books came out and I've been hooked ever since. Sometime later in college I found the OSR and Google+ and the Blogosphere and all that after getting fed up with a game of 3.5 that I was playing in. I've always done drawings for games that I played in but it wasn't until after I graduated with my art degree that I actually started doing commission work for people. At that time I was active on Tumblr and I found Sword & Backpack, the print it yourself "dungeonpunk" RPG by Gabe Soria. It struck me as a really cool little system and I really loved the tone that he wrote it in, so I did some fanart and he reached out to me to make some stuff for the next adventure he was working on. We still work together on various projects now, but it was doing that work that sent me down the rabbit hole for doing things like custom character sheets for people- I always did home made sheets for my games when I played so it was a fun way to make some extra cash while I figured my post-collegiate life out. The art school I attended spent a lot of time on theory but not much on business so I found myself working a lot of coffee shop jobs. While I did that I played in games online with folks and evetually started doing more and more paid work for peoples games. It all just sort of spun out from there!

Mario: Yeah! the truth is that the community is amazing. I started translating Yochai's game and I haven't stopped since. Things have flowed and it's gratifying how among the same people I've met there's a great sense of community and taking part in projects. It's really great and I totally understand you.

So, Sam, how has working in the TTRPG scene shaped your artistic style and creative process over the years? Are there any specific collaborations or projects that have left a lasting impact on your work?

Sam Mameli: I think TTRPGs are just one of the places that my style makes the most sense? I've been drawing weird monsters and characters for as long as I can remember, and I think TTRPGs gave me the framework to do a lot of art and text work together, and in doing that led me to finally making comics as well. I've been reading comics my whole life, and while I think I'm a good illustrator, my ability to plot out a story has always been really shaky. TTRPGs gave structure to storytelling for me and that's how I've been able to do comic work now. In terms of projects I think there have been a bunch that have just made me level up my artmaking- some that come to mind are the characters I did for the OSE rogues gallery, that was a lot of drawings and by the end I felt like my style had improved. The wimmelbilderbuch piece I did for Barkeep on the Borderlands book is another one, I had never done a piece like that but I really loved reading Richard Scary stuff as a kid, I learned a TON from that piece. And in some cases the lesson is to go fast and not think too hard, by far my best known work is Adventure Game in Need of Translation and I did all the work for that over a weekend.

Mario: Many illustrators have a distinctive style that consistently shines through their work, no matter the circumstances. How would you define your style, and what are the influences that have shaped it into something unmistakably created by Skullboy, rather than anyone else?

Sam Mameli: I'm more of a cartoonist than antyhing else in terms of style. I studied art in school and I'm able to do realistic portraiture and things like that but ultimately I enjoy the act of simplifying things into cartoons. It's tough for me to define myself but I think my style is always trying to take a freeze frame of a chaotic or soon to be chaotic moment. I try to make my characters feel relatable, so that even though they're usually in fantastical situations they look kind of like regular people? I'm influenced a lot by looking at crowds of people and how they interact and what everyone is wearing and doing. I really love people watching, and I think that influences my work a lot.

Mario: This is always a tough question. What are the three pieces that have represented a milestone for you or that have simply been a before and after in your career as an illustrator? If you can tell us a little bit about why you chose them, that would be great

Sam Mameli: This one from Phantasmagoria #2 by Chance Phillips comes to mind. I think I did this in 2019 or so? It might have been earlier- It was a piece that I saw in my head as soon as the prompt was delivered and I think I did the whole thing in a weekend. I think this is the first one that I did that really went crazy with detail work and it set the tone for a lot of work after.

This is one I did for an issue of "Rolled and Told" and I think was a really good piece for me in terms of color palettes. I still really like the lighting in this.

This one was a milestone not just because it took ages and was fairly complicated- but it's my first Album cover and I always really wanted to have done an Album cover. It's also legit a great album I highly recommend it.

Mario: You won't believe it, but those images are the ones that first called me when I saw your portfolio. You've done wonderful things I can't say otherwise, but there's something about them that makes them great. I would like to know how you approach your creative process when creating your art? do you have some steps already defined or does inspiration just find you working?

Sam Mameli: Well it depends on what I'm creating for. I do a lot of contract work because I'm a professional illustrator, so I have a process for that and I also still make art that's just personal work that no one is paying me up front for. When it comes to client work it usually goes like this:

A client approaches me and says that they would like to work together. If I have time for the project I ask for more details and a budget that we're working within. When I have that information I usually do a couple of thumbnails and give the client a chance to give their input and then from there I proceed with the finished piece. It's a lot of back and forth and it tends to be more on the mechanical side. When I've been working with a client over a long time this process is far more fluid and intuitive. There are some folks I've been working with for many years now and it's much easier to know what they're looking for.

When it comes to my own work it's a really different process. Usually I'll be trying to read a book or watch a show and I'll get an idea that sort of interrupts my day and I have to work on it. It's almost annoying. Like a buzzing fly or a hungry cat. So when that happens I kind of just have to drop what I'm doing and draw. Usually this things take less time because the image is in my head already. When I do work for others I have to build the image in my head to meet what they're looking for. When it's for myself it's just committing the idea to reality.

Mario: Of everything you have illustrated, what topics would you like to explore or are excited to do but have not been commissioned to do so far?

Sam Mameli: I think right now most of my interest is in comics. I think it would be really cool to do some comic collaborations with game designers to showcase how their worlds and systems work. I think the portion of gamebooks that deal with "example play" are really useful and I think doing something like that as a comic could open it up to a bigger audience.

Mario: There is a very cool example of what you say at the beginning of the Echo Mofos book and I think it's a great idea. Hopefully what you said will reach more designers, I would love to see those comics explaining about the game.

Hey, and why the Skullboy alias? Where did that alias come from?

Sam Mameli: haha Skullboy came from when I was trying to be an art streamer, I don't remember why I chose it but it felt like it fit. I always liked when artists took cool pen names like Moebius though, so it's in that tradition.

Mario: hahaha that's the origin of the best aliases, La Esquina del Rol stands for RPG Corner and it was the first thing that came to my mind when I created my Twitter account hahaha.

Sam Mameli: It's important to leave the heavy lifting of names to the sleeping mind, first answer is almost always best!

Mario: And currently, which three role-playing game artists do you like the most about their work and why do you like what they are doing?

Sam Mameli: I think Amanda Lee Franck is doing some really incredible work. She has a a flexible yet distinct style and her art just has so much SOUL. It's mythic and horrifying and charming and her linework is superb.

Another favorite is Peter Mullen. His work excels at showcasing the scale of OSR play. The figures are always crawling around in these massive and beautiful spaces. He just really knows how to make something look perfectly gnarled and twisted.

Bruno Prosaiko is another one that just GETS it. Like, you look at the work and you can just see the type of game we're all striving for. It's a perfect blend of comedic and mythic tones and the way it flows is just amazing.

A few quick shoutouts to some of my other favs though- Goran Gligovic, Mun Kao, JP Coovert, Jason Thompson, Alex Damaceno, Marie Enger, Stephan Poag, Doug Kovacs, Skullfungus, Chaoclypse, Dave Hoskins, Shafter Brown, Stonedrunkwizard, Nate Treme, and I'm sure a bunch that I'm forgetting.

Mario: There are a lot of really amazing people out there, all my support and love for their work! What is "made by humans" is really unique and amazing!

Now I would like to talk about your participation in B2C. I don't remember when I first heard you there but I do remember the many times you have been there. How did you meet Yochai and Brad?

Sam Mameli: So Brad got in touch with me a while before I was on the pod to work on a piece for his book Wyvern Songs. I liked working with him and later I listened to the podcast. I was immediately charmed by the dynamic of the two of them and I sent them an email saying that I'd like to make a sticker for them if they were interested. They said yes and also invited me to be on an episode, It has since spun out of control entirely lol. I was originally only doing occasional guest spots to review old modules but I have since become a regular member- so I am now the 3rd guy on a 2 guy podcast.

Mario: I love listening to you on the podcast, you three seem to get along great and it's fun to listen to that two person podcast with three haha.

Now, I'd love to learn what you like to play when you have time?

Sam Mameli: We do have a lot of fun, and I'm really happy to be a part of it.

In terms of games I'm currently running a Swords and Wizardry game for my wife and inlaws. I also play a solo dungeon crawl game from time to time that I use to fuel the story of my comic Delvers. Other than that I've been embracing mostly lots of convention games because I really prefer playing with people IRL to online. I played in several really amazing games over the pandemic though that I wouldn't trade for anything. Other than that I like playing cribbage with my wife and occasional board games with friends. I'm in the process of trying to get into the rhythm of running a weekly open table game but so far this year is proving to be pretty busy so I haven't managed to lock that in yet.

Mario: Nice, what can you tell us about your work with comics and where can we get them?

Sam Mameli: I've only recently started making what I think of as traditional comics, but looking back at my work I think it's the best way to describe a lot of the books I've released- not all of it is panel structured but it's all pictures and words and much of it is only gameable if you decide to put in the legwork to do so. You can get the .pdfs of them on my itch.io page and you can get physical copies of some of them on my webstore. Delvers, my ongoing adventure comic is also now available in webcomic form here https://delvers.thecomicseries.com/

Mario | La Esquina del Rol: Thanks for sharing that with us. It's been great to learn more about you and get to know a little more of your work. You are really very kind and I have enjoyed talking with you. For those interested in commissioning art or other types of collaborations, where is the best place to reach you?

Sam Mameli (Skullboy): Thanks so much for having me! It's been great and I've enjoyed talking with you as well. You can get in touch with me by going to Betterlegends.com - all my info is there.

Mario | La esquina del rol Games: Chris Air, Welcome to La Esquina del Rol. It's been a while since I met you thanks to Iko's discord. It's amazing how many great people are there. Today I'm honored to have you as a guest. I'd like to start by asking you to share with our readers who ChrisAir is and what you are currently doing in relation to the hobby?

Chris Air | 5 Million Worlds Press: Hi Mario!! I'm honored to make it onto your roster of interviews with La esquina del rol! Thank you for having me.

So yeah, I'm Chris Airiau, a.k.a. ChrisAir, a neurodivergent game writer living in Alsace, France, publishing games under the 5 Million Worlds Press moniker. Whether for 5MW Press or as a freelance writer, I write adventures for Mothership RPG, The Lost Bay RPG, Cloud Empress RPG, and a few small adventures for other indie systems.

Right now, I'm working on several different Mothership adventures with various publishers, giving Eryk Sawicki a hand with Milk Bar RPG development, and writing my very first tabletop roleplaying game, 5 Million Worlds RPG for deep-future, transhuman space adventures.

Mario: It's great to know that you reside in France, Chris! I like your country, I spent a short time there finishing a master's degree.

When I talked to Johan Nohr he told me that he grew up without direct influence from dnd because in Sweden they had his own game version. In your case, in France, how did you venture into the hobby?

Chris Air: I immigrated to France in 2010, but it was here that I played my first real ttrpgs—not counting those no-rulebook, Toonami- and JRPG-fueled games I played in high school. I've actually never played any D&D, whether TSR or WotC, ha. (Even those insane homebrew high school games were more Outlaw Star than Final Fantasy.) I'm a spacehead, through and through. For as long as I could read, I've been obsessed with sci-fi, and sf lit especially. Fall 2016, I was actively seeking out how to curate and experience new science fiction stories with friends.

This research helped me uncover the first game I played, the GMless Shock: Human Contact by Joshua A.C. Newman: a first contact game heavily influenced by Ursula K. Le Guin's Hainish Cycle. I had a lot of fun, but I think it was a bit "much" for the board game friends I'd roped into it, haha. It took another two years after that game ended before I tried running another ttrpg, the OSR standard Stars Without Number. I played in a year-plus long campaign, and ran two campaigns of my own homebrewed setting, the first couple 5 Million Worlds sectors.

In 2021, I backed The Desert Moon of Karth, and started playing Mothership 0e about a month or so before the 1E Kickstarter. The kind reception and encouragement to create in the Mothership community is what truly brought me into the indie ttrpg scene.

Mario: First, where are you really from?

Chris Air: Alpha Centauri.

No, I grew up on food stamps in Indiana, managed to land a good uni scholarship, and lined up a job in France just after graduating. Sometimes, even after so long, biking through these streets feels just as dumbfounding as interstellar travel. Like, how am I even here? What have I done? Cue: "Once in a Lifetime"

Mario: LoL! You made me laugh…

So, unfortunately, we still don't have Mothership translated into Spanish, but it's amazing the community that has emerged around this game. What do you think is the reason for this great community?

Chris Air: Ha, honestly at first, being embraced by the Mothership community felt the same, but over time I learned that this kindness wasn't luck, but purely intentional. Everyone who makes Mothership stuff wants other people to make the best games possible. They want to help others do their best. These creators strive for high quality in gameplay density, and strong vibes through design. And they share their practices. Without folk like Marco Serrano, Violet Ballard, and Christian Sorrell, and so many more friendly souls who encouraged me as I stumbled through learning game design (a stumbling that's still rolling on), I'd have never dreamt to try to make it this far. So why is the community great? Because the people are not only immensely creative, but generous with their kindness as well. I can say the same thing about The Lost Bay community. At least, that's been my experience, and the experience I've been trying to pay forward too.

But yeah, Mothership hasn't been translated into French either, which is a real shame. Sans version française, I can't nearly as easily spread that excitement for this game to the francophone ttrpg community.

Mario: Something that really stands out to me is your adventure writing - how do you approach designing these adventures for so many amazing games (TLB, Mothership, etc.)?

Chris Air: Thanks, that's what I dig most, the adventure writing. For sci-fi stuff, I've just been obsessed so long I know what I want to mash together, what trope I must twist, untread ideas to explore, or overdone ideas to subvert. For any game though, making that conscious effort to inhabit the setting is essential for creating.

My brain never shuts up, so the ideas are the easy part. Making them good, useful at the table, this is the real work.

Write, play, repeat.

Mario: For those of us who are just starting to write science fiction adventures, what would be the best advice you could share with us for writing a good adventure in keeping with the genre?

Chris Air: I feel like there's no easy way to advise someone how to be literate in a genre other than "Read, read, read," which to be fair, is the same advice I'd give to any aspiring writer. For sf: Read Science Daily and other academic/scientific journalism. Read novels outside your genre. Read nonfiction. Read modules for the system you're writing in. Then read even more.

You can learn tropes through play, sure. Video games, tv and film are very good at boiling down genre trappings. This is especially useful for ttrpgs, where ideas gotta be big to engage with players. (Subtlety is great for fiction, but I find it's quickly lost at the table.) Everyone knows Alien, though, right? My favorite sf ideas live in sf literature. And the new stuff, not old white man sci-fi. So I would recommend familiarity with the sf lit scene to improve sf game writing.

In my admittedly limited experience, sf game writing becomes about how to seed novel (or less common) sf ideas to players, and skirt expectation in fun, digestible ways that folk can engage with.

I feel like my adventures fall into two camps: "What a weirdo, yikes!" and "What is this place?" Or, NPCs/creatures and locations, arguably the components players engage with most. This is the writer's chance to express their ideas to the players in a module. GM-facing mechanics can amplify those ideas, e.g., your doom clocks, infection tables, overloaded encounters, etc.

In short, learn how to use the tools of the craft to express sf ideas. Experiment! Create a one-page adventure to test out a mechanic, and move on. Hah, just add a constant cloud of "read" to that same mantra: write, play, repeat.

Mario: If you don’t mind, I’d like you to tell me a bit about your game 5 Million Worlds RPG. Honestly, I haven’t played it, but I’ve read it several times. I would love for you to tell us why this game came about and what you intended when you wrote it?

Chris Air: 5 Million Worlds RPG is a deep future space adventure game, using the Panic Engine (from Mothership RPG fame) to give player characters Limit to replace Stress. Players can risk keeping Limit for downtime character and project advancement, or use Limit Breaks during adventures to overcome adversity.

In 5MW RPG, Earth is myth and Terran descendants live across the titular 5 Million Worlds. Before they disappeared, the Serpents created incomprehensible technological wonders that still remain, affecting the lives within 5MW Space. Player characters are Avatars, an outcast cadre of highly-skilled people who travel the worlds. Most do so in reply to the Serpent's Call: Help those who ask.

In that spirit, free community copies of *5MW RPG: An Avatar's Primer* will always be available.

I am currently working on kitting out the rules with transhuman backgrounds, called Forms, with the amazing Roque Romero as illustrator. When they're ready, these five transhuman Forms will be added to the A5 zine: Trad, Looper, Emulant, Flesher, and Visard.

I spent the whole of 2024 writing short 5MW adventures for my newsletter to begin testing out 5MW adventure writing. I'm preparing these seven adventures for release on itch in the free 5MW RPG Adventure Archive. I hope to supplement the base rulebook with 5MW Sector zines that contain worlds inspiring sense of wonder, new transhuman & posthuman (as alien) Forms, and adventures focusing on social clashes within discrete locations.

Mario: First of all, I have to congratulate you! Since I read 5MW (by the way, I love the name), I was amazed that with only 8 pages, you can actually run something incredible in a science fiction tabletop setting. That is truly fantastic. You've done an excellent job synthesizing exactly what is needed, and I admire that greatly.

Also, I think the twist you've added with the concept of "the limit" and how breaking that limit can even help in the face of adversity is something I really like. And, well, the second thing I truly enjoy is the setting. Tell us a bit about it, as I think it adds to a very well-rounded product that's definitely worth bringing to the table.

Chris Air: Thanks for your kind words about the 8pg ruleset. Honestly, I cannot accept credit for that, as the rules are a reskin of the Mothership 1E Pocketzine that Sean McCoy released a few years back. My sole addition was dividing Limit into a boon/bane table. Well, that and the single spread adventure, I suppose.

Not only is Earth a myth, but even the origins of the ubiquitous Serpent Tech left over in 5MW Space has mostly been forgotten. Yet all peoples of the 5MWs are Terran descendants.

I'm aiming to get all essential lore into the tables. Ended Careers / Mementos replace Trinkets / Patches. Each Mind has its Serpent's Call & Loadout. Each Form has its own duo of Background tables and Limit abilities. The skills, weapons, equipment all carry the responsibility of communicating lore so GMs don't have to spend time explaining a the setting.

If I've learned anything through NSR game design, it's that you want folk playing and immersed in the game as quick as possible, just "It's far future space, and look at all this stuff that makes you weird. Ready to go visit some worlds?"

Mario: Sure, I get what you're saying, but it needs to be acknowledged anyway. For example, I'm using the trophy system for my space horror RPG and I've added a stat called “Rust” to abstractly represent equipment and armor wear, supply depletion, and oxygen deprivation. It works like Ruin, but when you run out it starts to consume your Ruin, then a race against the clock begins to try to survive. At first glance, it may seem insignificant, but it actually ends up adding something new to the depth of gameplay that the system already has in and of itself, haha. So I give you the credit you deserve hahaha!

Personally, I really enjoy settings that play out through tables. I appreciate how, in such a compact format de 5MW, you've managed to define an attractive scenario for the game. Tell me, what direction is 5MW going to take in the medium and short term? I know you're eager to move the project forward, and I'd love to hear your thoughts on where it's headed.

Chris Air: Thanks Mario.

The first and most important goal is to finish the beta of 5MW RPG: Avatar Primer. That's the main piece of work to get through the door. Otherwise, I have one 5MW Cluster zine in the works to release alongside another upcoming project, the first of the adventure setting modules.

I have lots of plans and ideas for the GM guide, solo protocols & games, Form zines, adventures, etc. But ideas are cheap. For now, I'm going to focus on finishing the game writing, trying to find my sci-fi people, and playing.

Mario: That sounds truly amazing, and you have my full support to achieve it. To learn more about you and your upcoming projects, where can the community follow you and even reach out to you for collaborations?

Chris Air: Folks can reach out to me on bsky, follow my monthly newsletter 5MW Rokaner Reports for game and development news, and check out my published games at https://chrisair.itch.io/

5 Million Worlds Newsletter

The 5MW Press Newsletter, run by Chris Airiau. Covers ongoing game development, sf microfiction, creator highlights, sf lit & zine reviews.

By Chris Air

There are people I hold dear in the following projects, if you can support them, please do!

Liminal Horror Deluxe Edition

by Globlin Archives, Josh D and Zach Hazard Vaupen

Back it!

Liminal Grimoire

by M. Allen Hall

Back it!

Midnight Muscadines

by Pandion Games

Back it!

🗣️2. Our Latest Interviews

On March 21st, we celebrated one year since the first interview I conducted on the blog. I'm so happy to keep this project going and to have the chance to meet such amazing people. Thank you to everyone who has taken a moment of their time to help make this little project a reality.

Read the interview

Read the Interview

Read the Interview

🆕3. Broken Lands is on the wild!

Carlos Ferrer, an acclaimed Spanish writer, designer, and a friend of mine, has released the English version of his role-playing game, which has been widely recognized in the Spanish-speaking market. Let me share a bit about the release and the game with you.

Broken Lands: Adventures between Law and Chaos is a dark fantasy roleplaying game where you will play as heroes and antiheroes in a world shaped by religious strife and the ambitions of the gods. You will face secret cults and conspiracies, demons and automatons, forgotten ruins, deceitful pacts, moral dilemmas, and beings from other planes.

The present Quickstart Guide will help you become familiar with the basic rules, get a glimpse of its universe, and try out the gameplay experience of Broken Lands. It includes:

• A summary of the basic rules of Broken Lands, including combat and magic.

• An overview of the setting.

• The adventure Hearts and Masks, ideal for two gaming sessions.

• Four pregenerated characters with their character sheets.

Download Now!

📻4. The Weekly Scroll Podcast!

To me, these two guys, Ryan and Hunter, are doing something truly amazing with their podcast. I’m a big fan of their lengthy reviews and spot-on commentary. If you don’t know them yet, I’m sharing their latest episodes with you.

You can find everything about them at: https://linktr.ee/TheWeeklyScroll

The guys read and review MINIBX from Lucas Rolim, a minimalist hack that may in fact be a disruption, subversion, or even a profanity against D&D B/X!

The guy read and review NEVER GOING HOME from Wet Ink Games, a party-focused eldritch horror roleplaying game set in the trenches of the First World War, inspired by the World War Occult art of Charlie Ferguson-Avery.

The guys sit down with games educator and award-winning game designer VIDITA VOLETI to chat about A Land Once Magic, a conversational game of post-fantasy worldbuilding.

The guys read and review RAD from Hipólita, a tabletop roleplaying game set in a post-nuclear Soviet wasteland and inspired by Metro 2033.

💀5. Fallen Bundle

Buy it now!

We are pleased to announce, to the delight of the tabletop gaming community in Spain and Latin America, that our partnership with El Refugio de Ryhope, consolidated at the beginning of 2025, has already begun to bear fruit.

The team behind the project will be integrated by:

• The fantastic crew at El Refugio de Ryhope,

• Our dear Tania Herrero (a remarkable pillar of the Mörk Borg universe),

• And, of course, yours truly: Mario | La esquina del Borg.

See you next time!

Nos complace anunciar, para alegría de la comunidad rolera de España y Latinoamérica, que nuestra alianza con el Refugio de Ryhope, consolidada a principios de 2025, ya ha comenzado a dar frutos.

El grupo de trabajo tras el proyecto estará formado por:

• Todo el genial equipo de El Refugio de Ryhope,

• nuestra querida Tania Herrero (un gran baluarte del universo Mörk Borg),

• y, por supuesto, un servidor: Mario | La esquina del Borg.

No te pierdas ningún detalle de este proyecto, suscríbete al Newsletter de El Refugio de Ryhope y síguenos en nuestras cuentas de Bluesky.

Ponte atento a nuestros próximos anuncios porque sinceramente.

¡NO TE LA VAS ACABAR!

¡LA ÚLTIMA Y NOS VAMOS!

Si quieres conocer más sobre Johan Nohr te recomendamos la entrevista que le hicimos el año pasado, la puedes leer aquí.

💀1. ¡In Ruins ya en Kickstarter!

In Ruins fue escrito y diseñado por M. Allen Hall. Actualmente ha alcanzado su financiamiento. Estamos muy emocionado por el juego y ya queremos jugarlo. ¡A por tu copia ya!

Apoyar el juego

🦕2. Primal Quest: Facciones

Nuestra aventura El Valle del Quinto Sol, aventura oficial de Primal Quest en español, tiene una serie de reglas que hemos decido presentar poco a poco en el blog. Ya que no podremos sacar el PDF, estamos explorando la posibilidad de adaptar la aventura para un sistema español que nos ha enamorado. ¿Se viene un juego tipo Weird Stone? No lo sabemos, el tiempo nos lo dirá. Mientras tanto pueden leer las reglas de facciones en español para crear las propias para el juego de Diogo Nogueira.

Leer las reglas de facciones

🗣️3. Nuestra última entrevista en español

En febrero, tuvimos la chance de poder platicar finalmente con un gran amigo, les comparto la entrevista:

Alan Bahr Es un prolífico y galardonado diseñador de juegos de rol. Él es el editor y fundador de Gallant Knight Games. El mejor lugar para saber en lo que está trabajando y sus lanzamiento es su newsletter al que te puedes suscribir en gallantknightgames.com.

Leer la entrevista

👽4. ¡Caligaes' XENO en KS!

XENO es un juego de rol minimalista en el que tomas el papel de un XENO, una forma de vida alienígena que sirve a la MADRE. Has sido enviado a la Tierra para expiar tus pecados y conquistarla en nombre de tu creadora. El juego está diseñado para 2 a 5 jugadores, incluido el Alien Master, que pueden disfrutar de partidas únicas en las que cazan humanos, luchan contra demonios y cumplen los objetivos de MADRE.

Apoyar el juego

💪🏽5. Mascaritas Sagradas

Leer más...

🧑🏽‍🚀6. Dark Space Society RPG

Una versión actualizada con las nuevas reglas (V. 0.2.0) se publicará pronto en su versión Ashcan, ¡atentos!

😱7. Blackthorn ya en KS!

Blackthorn es un juego de rol diseñado para narrar historias de terror pulp de forma colaborativa. No es un juego donde los personajes estén destinados a ser los héroes, sino uno sobre los altibajos que experimentan al enfrentarse a un terror aparentemente insuperable. Es mortal, con momentos de alta tensión y rebosante de terror.

El proyecto de nuestro amigo Marco de Spicy Tuna RPG ya alcanzó el financiamiento.

Apoyar el juego

🖌️8. ¡Patreon de Víctor J. Merino!

Nuestro amigo Víctor abrió su Patreon hace un tiempo. Él recientemente compartió un Lote de Retratos de Fantasía. Si está en tus posibilidades, suscríbete a su Patreon o contrátalo para alguna comisión.

Visitar el Patreon

💗9. ¡Amor por Valencia!

¡Gracias por apoyar a Valencia!

Donate!

🌆10. Outsiders de Luis Montejano

Para jugar necesitarás:

• De 2 a 4 jugadores.

• De 1 a 4 dados de seis caras (d6).

• Papel y lápices o, si jugáis en línea, un tablero virtual.

Las Hojas del arquetipo elegido por cada uno de los jugadores, la Hoja de negocio y la Hoja de misión.

Opinión esquinera

¡Sosténganme la cubata, por favor!

Tuve la oportunidad de leer el juego y sinceramente me ha encantado las herramientas que nos presenta Luis para crear las partidas tipo cyberpunk que queramos en cada quedada. Me parece es una de las grandes fortalezas de lo que presenta el juego. La ambientación del juego se puede crear en mesa y cambiar cada vez, no es definitiva.

Es un juego de reglas sencillas bastante compacto e interesante (bebe de Blades in the Dark). Incluir la idea de negocio, en términos de diseño fue genial, me recordó mucho a algo similar que funciona de manera espectacular en Nahual RPG, que ayuda a integrar y tener un motivador de conjunto para los personajes. Además, me parece que se responde muy bien a por qué demonios estos personaje están haciendo esto. Pagar por esa jubilación esperada los mantiene a flote en estas peripecias. Las mecánicas de los relojes me parecen muy bien adaptados al juego.

La lectura del texto es buena y clara. Muchas veces es como si Luis te hablará directamente explicando el juego mientras te tomas una cerveza con él (saludos si estás leyendo esto, Luis). El arte es totalmente evocador y la maqueta en términos generales cumple, tiene unos spreads y páginas muy buenas. Además, me gusta el manejo que hace de los espacios vacíos en algunos casos. En fin, me parece que es un juego que refresca y vale la pena probar por su sencillez para explicarlo y jugarlo. Incluso para aquellos con recorrido en el género y para los que no lo tienen encontrarán un juego divertido y con el que podrán disfrutar una buena quedada.

Conseguir el juego

💀1. In Ruins is now on KS!

In Ruins was wrote and designed by M. Allen Hall. Currently the project has reached its funding and We are really excited with the concept of the game and We can't wait to play it. Grab your copy now!

Back it now!

🦕2. Primal Quest: Factions

We've shared our faction rules for Primal Quest that were originally published in the Spanish edition of Primal Quest in 2022. We've finally decided to publish them in English. If you like Primal Quest, you might be interested in reading these rules.

Read more...

🗣️3. Our last interviews

In February we had the honor of talking with two great friends for our blog.

Alan Bahr is the publisher and founder of Gallant Knight Games. He’s a prolific and award-winning RPG designer and writer. The best place to find updates on his GKG work is at gallantknightgames.com where you can sign up for his newsletter.

Read The Interview

René-Pier Deshaies is a CRIT-nominated and Canadian TTRPG Designer. He made Stoneburner, Breathless, Firelights, etc. You can learn more about him at farirpgs.com.

Read The Interview

👽4. Caligaes' XENO is on KS!

XENO is a minimalist RPG in which you take the role of a XENO, an Alien lifeform that serves MOTHER. You are sent to Earth to atone for your sins and conquer them in the name of your creator. The game is designed for 2 to 5 players, including the Alien Master, who can enjoy one-shots where they hunt humans, fight demons, and fulfill MOTHER's objectives.

Back it now!

💪🏽5. Mascaritas Sagradas

Read more...

🧑🏽‍🚀6. Dark Space Society RPG

An update of the rules (V. 0.2.0) is coming soon, stay tuned!

😱7. Blackthorn is coming on KS!

Blackthorn is a role-playing game designed to collaboratively tell pulp horror stories. It's not a game where player characters are destined to be the heroes, but rather one about the highs and lows characters experience when confronted with a seemingly insurmountable terror. It is deadly, in and out of high-tension moments, and dripping with horror.

The new project of our friend Marco from Spicy Tuna RPG release March 13th.

Back it Now!

🖌️8. Víctor J. Merino's Patreon!

Our friend Victor opened his Patreon a while ago. He recently shared Fantasy Portraits: The Pointy Ears Pack [Batch 1]. If you can, subscribe to his Patreon or hire him to make commissions!

Read more...

💗9. Love for Valencia!

Thank you for your support!

Donate!

This post is in solidarity with the Valencian community, please read the message below and if you can help, buy it or promote the solidarity bundle. Spread the word! - Mario | La Esquina del Rol

On October 29th, a natural disaster struck much of the Valencian community. The group known as Roleros No Representativos has organized a charity bundle to help people rebuild their homes. You might have heard about this bundle from my latest newsletter on the topic. Well, today it has finally been released and is now available for purchase. At La Esquina del Rol, we deeply appreciate any support you can provide, whether by buying the bundle or spreading the word on your social media, newsletters, or wherever your heart tells you. Although we are not part of the initiative, we fully support its noble cause!

Support the Initiative!

Somos conscientes de que Substack está sufriendo un proceso de «enshittificación» y estamos explorando alternativas para seguir distribuyendo nuestros contenidos a través de otros canales. Nuestro blog se está convirtiendo en nuestro principal lugar de interacción, pero por ahora utilizaremos Substack hasta que encontremos la forma de independizarnos de cualquier otra entidad corporativa.

🧉1. ¡Qué comience la discusión!

2025 será un año de migraciones para nuestra comunidad. Ya sabemos lo dañinas que han sido las redes sociales en otras ocasiones, y no pretendo volver a meter el dedo en la llaga. Creo firmemente, como lo dijo Yochai Gal en su último post (que traduje para ustedes), que debemos llevar nuestra conversación sobre el hobby a lugares seguros y más independientes. Sé que no soy el único que no ve con buenos ojos ya Discord y (aunque me gusta, me pasa lo mismo con) Bluesky.

El llamado de Yochai Gal para traer la conversación de vuelta a los foros ha resonado en la comunidad hispanohablante y ahora hemos tomado un subforo de The Cauldron, en donde podemos hablar en español y tener la seguridad que ningún millonario llegará a llevarse nuestro contenido. Invito a quien quiera entrar a la discusión sobre el hobby en un lugar seguro y libre de mierda corporativa a unirse a nuestro subforo en español donde discutimos sobre NRS/OSER/FKR y otros juegos. ¡Te estamos esperando!

¡Únete a The Cauldron en Español!

🅱️2. 2025 es el año de las betas

Empezamos el año traduciendo este reto de Prismatic Wasteland challenge. ¡Te invito a unirte! Si tiene una idea guardada en el cajón desde hace mucho y no la has terminado de escribir porque parece interminable, entonces este año es un buen año para sacarla a la luz y veas que pasa. ¡Únete al año de las betas! #beta25

Leer reto de las betas

🗣️3. Sobre Mythic en español

También, durante enero hicimos una declaración oficial sobre nuestra participación en el equipo de edición en español de este crowdfunding y el paso de costado que hemos dado para que no se nos vincule de ningún modo.

Aunque no se reconozca públicamente nuestro labor para traerlo al español por quienes lo llevan actualmente, sabemos que la comunidad rolera que nos sigue siempre sabrá el papel que jugamos para tenerlo en nuestro idioma y lo mucho que luchamos para hacerlo realidad. Gracias a este tipo de situaciones que hemos vivido, es que ahora valoramos con quienes estamos y estaremos en el futuro.

¡Agradezco totalmente a Tana Pigeon por estar siempre atenta y agradecida con nuestro esfuerzo realizado! Sé que el futuro nos encontrará nuevamente. Asimismo, mi cariño y aprecio a JM de RPGTIPS por soñar juntos, desde un principio, hacer realidad este proyecto y aunque no pudimos hacerlo como quisimos, al menos estará finalmente en español. ¡Un abrazo hermano!

Leer la declaración

☠️4. SIX THRONES OF BONE

Nuestro amigo Alan Bahr está preparando el crowdfunding de un juego en solitario increíble basado en nuestro querido Firelights de que está próximo a lanzarse.

Tuve la oportunidad de leer el juego completo y la verdad es que es el segundo juego de Alan que estaré jugando este principio de año (Thanks, my friend!). ¡Se los recomiendo!

Les dejo el pitch del juego en español para que se animen a apoyarlo:

Eres un Paladín, jurado a una de las Órdenes de los Seis Reinos. Hace mucho tiempo, Seis Nigromantes derrocaron los reinos, canalizando destrucción mística desde sus poderosas torres y tronos de hueso.

Los reinos colapsaron, y los Nigromantes cayeron en la miseria y la vanidad. Ahora, el momento es propicio para atacar y liberar las tierras de los Seis Reinos de sus tiránicos señores no-muertos. Te han dado una poderosa reliquia de las bóvedas de tu orden y debes partir, esforzándote valientemente para liberar las tierras de la oscuridad.

¿Tendrás éxito con dignidad y gracia? ¿O caerás, tomando el poder para ti mismo y forjando un nuevo orden?

¡Suscríbete ya!

👥5. Entrevistas de enero

Entrevista con Patrick Buechner

Tuve el honor de platicar con sobre su newsletter The Soloist, el futuro de los juegos de rol en solitario y su nuevo proyecto: Solo Borg! Si les gusta MB, entonces esto que nos traerá Patrick será de su gusto.

Leer la entrevista

🎲4. ¡1d12 Crowdfundings a seguir y apoyar!

1. Solo Borg por Patrick Buechner

2. Midnight Muscadines por Pandion Games (¡Antonio, dime que traerás esto!)

3. XENO Invasion por Caligaes

4. A PERFECT WIFE: TTRPG Adventure + Fundraiser! por Zedeck Siew, ilustrado por Amanda Lee Franck y Scrap World.

5. Liminal Horror Deluxe Edition por los fuera de serie: Goblin Archives, Josh D | Vaulted Pyramid y Zach Hazard Vaupen

6. Out of Orbit: A Troupe Survival TTRPG por Andrew Beauman

7. Pirouette - A Ballet Horror TTRPG por InnocentGoblin TTRPGs

8. Mum Chums por Tanya Floaker

9. Dungeon Bound por (¡Y esto!)

10. Six thrones of bone por Alan Bahr

11. Rol de Guerrilla Vol.1 - Media Docena de Rol por Rol o barbarie

12. Tira de nuevo dos veces

We are aware that Substack is undergoing a process of "enshittification" and we are exploring alternatives to continue distributing our content through other channels. Our blog is becoming our main focus for interaction, but for now, we will use Substack until we find a way to become independent from any other corporate entity.

🧉1. Bring on the Discourse

2025 will be a year of migrations for our community. We have already seen how harmful social networks can be on other occasions, and I do not intend to delve further into them.

I firmly believe, as Yochai Gal shares in his latest blog post, that we must take our community's discussion to safer and more independent places. I know I'm not the only one who doesn't see Discord or Bluesky in a positive light at the moment.

Yochai Gal's call to bring the conversation back to forums has resonated with the Spanish-speaking community, and we have now taken a subforum in The Cauldron. I invite everyone who wants a safe and corporate-free space to start the discussion in English and Spanish in The Cauldron. We're waiting for you!

Join The Cauldron!

🅱️2. 2025 Is the Year of the Beta

We start the year with this Prismatic Wasteland challenge. I invite you to join. If you have an idea in the drawer that you haven't published yet because it seems endless, then this is the year to bring it to light and see what happens. Join the Year of Betas!

Entries to the Beta Challenge (in no particular order):

1. Mulberry

2. Oozes and Oubliettes

3. Everything You Are Must Be Found

4. The Doom that Came to Wizard City

5. Dark Space Society (This is mine!)

6. Tombstone - Grit & Determination

7. NO GOOD DEED: Bleed 10,000 Hit Points

8. LEVEL: Adventures in a Virtual Fantasy

9. The Explorer’s Guild

10. 5 Million Worlds: Avatar Builder

11. Wormtooth

12. Bill Posters Will Be Prosecuted

13. Gasmasks & Goblins

14. Fate of Faltera

15. Absurd Lands and Curious Creatures

16. The Demon of Dogwater Gulch

🗣️3. January Interviews

Thinking about what might happen with Substack, we have moved several of our English interviews to our blog. If you missed any, you can now find most of them here.

An Interview with Goblin Archives

Excited by the announcement of the upcoming deluxe edition of Liminal Horror, I'm thrilled to share an interview I did with one of the authors, Goblin Archives. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Read Interview

An Interview with Patrick Buechner

It was a blast chatting with about The Soloist, the future of TTRPGs and Solo Borg!

Read the Interview

🎲4. 1d10 Crowdfundings to Follow!

1. Solo Borg by Patrick Buechner

2. Midnight Muscadines by Pandion Games

3. XENO Invasion by Caligaes

4. A PERFECT WIFE: TTRPG Adventure + Fundraiser! by Zedeck Siew, illustrated by Amanda Lee Franck and Scrap World.

5. Liminal Horror Deluxe Edition by Goblin Archives, Josh D | Vaulted Pyramid and Zach Hazard Vaupen

6. Out of Orbit: A Troupe Survival TTRPG by Andrew Beauman

7. Pirouette - A Ballet Horror TTRPG by InnocentGoblin TTRPGs

8. Mum Chums by Tanya Floaker

9. Dungeon Bound by

10. Roll the Dice Twice Again!

Una de las cosas increíbles que nos pasó este mes fue hablar con Alan Bahr y aprender más de él y de lo que está haciendo ahora. También tuvimos el honor de que nos regalara una copia de Siege Perilous, que nos parece realmente genial. El sistema que utiliza es Firelights de Rene-Pier Deshaies, pero en lugar de una baraja de cartas de póquer, utiliza una baraja de tarot.

Nos gustaron mucho las nuevas mecánicas que agregó y que encajan perfectamente con la temática artúrica. Las misiones agregan mucha profundidad y elementos narrativos, lo cual nos gustó mucho. También, nos agradó cómo incorporó una mecánica para el “envejecimiento” de los personajes y sobre cómo abordar el romance en el juego. Estamos felices de jugarlo y estamos ansiosos por recibir nuestra copia física.

🎲2. La segunda edición de Cairn

Aún no lo podemos creer, y esperamos no estar siendo demasiado presumidos con esto. Este año, hemos traducido muchos juegos al español , pero dos de ellos son nuestros favoritos: Liminal Horror y Cairn. Es un honor para nosotros que nuestra edición en español de Cairn sea la primera traducción oficial de la segunda edición del juego . Estamos increíblemente agradecidos con Yochai Gal por la oportunidad y por ser siempre tan amable con nosotros. También estamos inmensamente agradecidos con los 4.649 patrocinadores de Kickstarter que financiaron nuestro trabajo . ¡Muchas gracias por regalarnos esta edición en español de un juego tan importante!

🗣️3. Nuestras dos últimas entrevistas del año

Tuvimos la oportunidad de hablar con Johan Nohr, y no podemos dejar de decir lo amable que es y lo abierto que es a compartir lo que piensa sobre su propio trabajo y lo que ha hecho en la escena de los juegos de rol. Si te la perdiste, recomendamos mucho leer esta entrevista .

Además, en noviembre publicamos la segunda parte de la entrevista con Antonio de California Games. Si no has tenido la oportunidad de leer la entrevista completa, te la recomendamos encarecidamente aunque por el momento solo está en inglés. Antonio es un excelente diseñador de juegos de rol en solitario de España, y puedes encontrar todos sus trabajos publicados de forma gratuita aquí .

👩🏽‍🚀4. Cosmophobia

Ricardo Montesinos y Eneko Palencia están trabajando Cosmophobia, un juego de horror que está siendo ilustrado por nuestro amigo Penny Melgarejo. Les recomendamos ampliamente seguir su página para estar pendiente de la publicación: https://grapasymapas.com/

💰5. ¡Ayúdanos a alcanzar nuestra meta!

Cada año, invitamos cordialmente a la comunidad internacional de juegos de rol a unirse para apoyar y colaborar con nosotros para cubrir nuestros costos operativos en La Esquina del Rol. Su apoyo es lo que mantiene vivo este proyecto. Realmente agradecemos cualquier ayuda que puedan brindar. ¡Gracias por ser una parte esencial de nuestra comunidad!

🆕6. ¡Dark Space Society (playtest) ya está disponible!

Este conjunto de reglas simplificado, escrito por nosotros, es parte del juego de rol de horror espacial de baja fidelidad que estamos creando llamado Dark Space Society (que se lanzará en el tercer trimestre de 2025). Está fuertemente inspirado en Trophy Dark y Trophy Gold de Jesse Ross , Primal Quest de Diogo Nogueira y Liminal Horror de Goblin Archives .

Fue diseñado para jugar aventuras o módulos de otros juegos conocidos del género, pero con un sistema de reglas ligeras y un énfasis en principios modernos que priorizan la narrativa. ¡Puedes leerlo gratis ya!

Versión en Español

😊7. Una nueva alianza

Estamos encantados de anunciar a la comunidad que comenzamos a colaborar con la editorial española El Refugio de Ryhope , que ha publicado juegos de varios autores que apreciamos. Algunos de los autores que recordamos de memoria incluyen a René-Pier Deshaies, Pandion Games, Iko de The Lost Bay, Ben Robbins, Scott Malthouse, Jim Pinto, Isaac Williams, Tim Hutchings, Kimi Hughes, Pepe Pedraz, Dani Vicente, entre otros.

Agradecemos la invitación que nos han hecho y sobre todo que hayan creído en nuestro proyecto y principios. ¡Gracias Antonio!

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One of the amazing things that happened to us this month was talking with Alan Bahr and learning more about what he's working on now. We also had the honor of him gifting us a copy of Siege Perilous, which We find really awesome. The system it uses is Firelights by Rene-Pier Deshaies, but instead of a standard deck of cards, it uses a tarot deck.

We really liked the new mechanics he added that fit perfectly with the Arthurian theme. The Quests add a lot of depth and narrative elements, which We greatly appreciate. We also enjoyed how he incorporated aging and romance into the game. We are happy playing it and can't wait to receive our physical copy, especially because We think the artwork is fantastic.

🎲2. Cairn 2nd Edition into Spanish

We still can't believe it, and We hope we are not being too boastful with this. This year, We translated many games into Spanish, but two of them are our favorites: Liminal Horror and Cairn. It's an honor for us that our Spanish edition of Cairn is the first official translation of the second edition of the game into another language. We are incredibly grateful to Yochai Gal for the opportunity and for always being so kind to us. We are also immensely thankful to the 4,649 Kickstarter backers who funded our work. Thank you so much for gifting us this Spanish edition of such an important game!

🗣️3. Our last two interviews this year

We had the opportunity to talk with Johan Nohr, and we can't stop saying how kind he is and how open he is to sharing his thoughts about his own work and what he's done in the role-playing game scene. Although it's currently only published in Spanish, We highly recommend reading this interview.

Additionally, in November, we published the second part of the interview with Antonio from California Games. If you haven't had the chance to read the full interview, we highly recommend it. Antonio is an excellent solo role-playing game designer from Spain, and you can find all of his published works for free here.

👩🏽‍🚀4. Cosmophobia

Ricardo Montesinos and Eneko Palencia are working on Cosmophobia, a space horror game that will be illustrated by our friend Penny Melgarejo. We can't recommend enough that you learn Spanish to be able to play this. We suggest keeping an eye on their page for more information: https://grapasymapas.com/

💰5. Help us to reach our goal!

Every year, we warmly invite the international role-playing community to join us in supporting and collaborating to cover our operating costs at La Esquina del Rol. Your support is what keeps this project alive and thriving. We truly appreciate any help you can provide. Thank you for being an essential part of our community!

🆕6. Dark Space Society (playtest) is in the wild!

This simplified ruleset, written by us, is part of the Lo-Fi Space Horror TTRPG we’re making called Dark Space Society (coming Q3 2025). It’s strongly inspired by Jesse Ross's Trophy Dark and Trophy Gold, Diogo Nogueira's Primal Quest, and Goblin Archives' Liminal Horror.

It was designed to play adventures or modules from other well-known games in the genre, but with a rules-light system and an emphasis on modern, narrative-first principles. You can read it for free!

English Version

😊7. A new partnership

We are thrilled to announce to the community that we have begun a partnership with the Spanish publisher El Refugio de Ryhope, who have translated games from various authors into Spanish. Some of the authors We can remember off the top of our head include René-Pier Deshaies, Pandion Games, Iko from The Lost Bay, Ben Robbins, Scott Malthouse, Jim Pinto, Isaac Williams, Tim Hutchings, Kimi Hughes, among others.

We are grateful for the invitation they have given us and, above all, for believing in our project and principles. Thanks, Antonio!

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Lo que leerás a continuación son extractos de una increíble charla que tuvieron Iko y Mario hace un par de meses atrás durante el Kickstarter de The Lost Bay RPG. Originalmente fue planeada para publicarse antes como parte de la promoción del KS, pero por diferentes motivos de ambos participantes esto se pospuso. Ahora, hemos decidido publicarla para promover el lanzamiento de la Guía de inicio rápido de La bahía olvidada publicada en español gracias a la editorial El Refugio de Ryhope.

¡Esperemos la disfruten!

Esta es la segunda parte, si quieres leer la anterior clic aquí.

Mario | La esquina del rol: Me gusta saber que las ambientaciones que creas son pequeños pedazos de lo que eres tú como persona. Lo que quiero decir, es que son tus memorias, tus sentimiento sobre un lugar mágico que habita tu mente. Quizás es por eso cuando leo los juegos que has escrito noto muchas cosas personales tuyas en ellos. No sé si tu ojo cinematográfico te ha llevado a mirar el mundo y los recuerdos de esa manera, pero es extraordinario cómo lo unes todo de modos muy interesantes. Ahora que lo dices, encuentro muy claros esos extraños vínculos entre una ambientación y otra. Gracias por compartir esto con nosotros.

Me gustaría explorar un poco el proceso que recorriste para desarrollar las mecánicas de La bahía olvidada, pero antes de llegar a eso, ¿te importaría decirnos cuáles son esos principios de diseño que generalmente estructuran la forma en que abordas el diseño mecánico de un juego?

Iko | The lost bay: Me llevó bastante tiempo dar con el sistema adecuado para el juego. Aparte de los objetivos de diseño clásicos que siguen casi todos los juegos independientes, es decir, mecánicas sencillas y con reglas ligeras, quería que el motor del juego encarnara la tradición del entorno implícito. Ahora sé que puede que no sea una opinión popular, pero creo en las reglas como lore. Tomemos como ejemplo los juegos de Mark of the Odd. El sistema impulsa juegos tan diferentes como Cairn, EcoMOFOs y Liminal Horror. Pero tal vez todos estos juegos tengan algo en común, en términos de experiencia de juego y, por lo tanto, en términos de lore implícito. Todos fomentan la exploración, y esto dice implícitamente algo sobre el mundo y sobre quiénes son los personajes jugables.

El objetivo del diseño era encontrar (y utilizo este verbo a propósito, porque la mayor parte del proceso de diseño del juego consistía en explorar, probar, hackear y modificar mecánicas ya existentes) un sistema que de alguna manera encarnara la dualidad del entorno. La bahía olvidada es un lugar de contraste constante, salvaje y urbano, antiguo y nuevo, sobrenatural y mundano. Y los personajes jugables conllevan contradicciones similares. Son adultos jóvenes, les pasó algo y fueron tocados por la Singularidad, la fuerza que está en todas partes y en cualquier cosa en La bahía olvidada y la convierte en lo que es. La Singularidad los cambió y les otorgó poderes, pero no les quitó su vulnerabilidad, su humanidad.

¿Cómo se desarrolla esto en el juego? El motor del juego es un tanto dual y se divide en dos partes complementarias. Primero, los personajes tienen tres atributos, Fuerza, Fluidez y Foco, que indican cómo cada personaje aborda los problemas y dónde se encuentran sus fortalezas y debilidades. La mecánica central del juego, casi única con algunas variaciones, es una reserva de dados de 1d6. Los jugadores eligen el atributo relevante, tiran un d6 por cada punto de atributo, más un dado de bonificación si corresponde, y se quedan con el resultado más alto. Con un 5 es un éxito con una complicación con un 6 es un éxito. Eso es todo. Es un sistema bastante desafiante, especialmente cuando se combina con valores de Corazón relativamente bajos (algo así como la PG del juego). El juego es mortal. Pero los personajes son tenaces. Cuando se enfrentan a situaciones extraordinarias, o seres, los personajes pueden confiar en sus poderes. Y eso añade un giro al juego: al usar poderes siempre obtienen éxito. No hay tiradas involucradas. Por supuesto, esto sucede con limitaciones, no estás jugando con un inmortal (todavía). Para activar un poder, solo tienes que gastar un punto de Singularidad, el recurso principal en términos de jugabilidad, y listo. Pero, aquí está la parte divertida, usar un poder puede darte una Cicatriz y afectarte a ti o a tu entorno, incluidos tus aliados o enemigos. Puede hacerte daño, cambiarte, hacerte más fuerte. También puede hacer avanzar la historia, como por ejemplo cuando el efecto secundario es convertirte en una pira humana y prender fuego a todo lo que te rodea. Usar poderes y fallar la tirada de Cicatriz es la forma principal en que evolucionan los personajes. Me encanta cómo crea tensión en la mesa, cómo decidir usar poderes en lugar de atributos va más allá de la simple gestión de recursos. Y esa es la otra cosa, traté de llegar a un sistema que de alguna manera mezcla un enfoque de la new school revolution más tradicional con uno narrativo. Depende de la mesa decidir cuánto quieren empujar la palanca en una dirección u otra, desde el terror tipo slasher hasta el realismo mágico oscuro. Desde la exploración de mazmorras hasta la resolución de misterios.

The Lost Bay se basa principalmente en el sistema LUMEN de Spencer Campbell, para los atributos y poderes, y en Cairn de Yochai Gal, para las cicatrices. Dos sistemas ágiles, con un diseño hermoso. Los forcé y los modifiqué un poco, al unirlos. Además de eso, tomé prestados elementos de muchos juegos independientes, como el equipo inicial similar a los equipamientos de Mothership, o los trasfondos de Troika que se convierten en las vibras jugables del juego. Quería que The Lost Bay y sus personajes fueran tan intensos y frágiles como es la juventud en sí misma.

La otra cosa es que el juego, o más bien la ambientación implícita, tiene una gran cantidad de información sobre el lore. Nunca necesitarás saberla para dirigir una partida de TLB, y puedes construir tu propia historia. Pero estoy diseñando algunos elementos mecánicos, específicamente las cicatrices, el bestiario y los Inmortales, de manera que revelen la historia a medida que juegas y los encuentras. Hay algo en juego, tanto en la parte más oculta de la bahía como en todo el suburbio. Pero la verdad de La bahía olvidada está oculta para sus habitantes, como está oculta para los jugadores, ni siquiera se revela por completo a los DJ. Hay fragmentos de ella diseminados por todo el libro, puedes ignorarlos o hacerlos tuyos. Habrá referencias visuales o pistas ocultas a simple vista en el diseño y algunas ilustraciones.

Mario: ¡Vaya! realmente estoy impresionado. TLB me parece un juego que es muy sólido. La ambientación simplemente es increíble y me parece que mecánicamente tomaste decisiones de diseño muy buenas. El juego fluye de una manera interesante  y sinceramente mientras más platico contigo, más me intriga leer más sobre el juego. Creo que la ambientación por sí misma brilla de una manera fantástica. 

Otro punto notable para mí es la dirección de arte que decidiste seguir. Tanto el arte como el diseño de maquetación me parecen estupendos y suman a tener un juego más oscuro. ¿Cuáles fueron las fuentes de inspiración que tuviste para el arte y estética en general de TLB y hacía dónde quieres seguir llevando estéticamente esta línea en los próximos suplementos?    

Iko: Estoy de acuerdo en que el arte del juego es fenomenal, es obra de Evangeline Gallagher, una artista única que es capaz de aportar un toque muy personal al arte figurativo. Me siento muy afortunado de trabajar con Evangeline. El arte hace que el libro sea lo que es. De hecho, me topé con Evangeline por casualidad, una de sus ilustraciones apareció en mi feed de x/Twitter. Me puse en contacto con Evangeline para preguntarles si podía comprar una licencia para el juego. Esa ilustración era Firestarter (N.d.T: Pirómano en la edición en español del Refugio de Ryhope), la actual portada del libro. Y ha sido una especie de base, ha marcado un estándar o una dirección artística para el estado de ánimo que intentamos alcanzar con cada dibujo: un estado de ánimo austero, iluminación contrastada, normalmente una sola fuente de luz. Hemos estado trabajando durante más de dos años en las ilustraciones de TLB y nos hemos entendido mejor. Ahora le envío a Evangeline resúmenes que están más abiertos a la interpretación, a veces textos simples, y les pido que dibujen lo que quiera. Recientemente han dibujado una ilustración inspirada en los vídeos de los avistamientos del cometa azul en Portugal. Le envié un video de TikTok e hizo una ilustración increíble de dos páginas. Por cierto, la ilustración está llena de sorpresas visuales.

No hay ilustraciones puntuales en el libro. Cuando las hay, las ilustraciones llenan la página. Tienen algo de atrevido, y algunas de ellas influyeron en la escritura y me llevaron a rediseñar algunos poderes, cicatrices o las deidades tutelares del personaje. La colaboración se está dando de forma muy orgánica, paso a paso. Necesito tiempo para ser honesto, para entender lo que está pasando, para ver cómo las cosas se van delineando. Soy un poco lento con la tarea general de diseño. A menudo temo que esto pueda molestar a la comunidad, pero en última instancia, cuando acelero demasiado siento que trabajo mal.

El maquetación es algo extraño, para mí es como magia negra. Soy un maquetador autodidacta y siento que todavía estoy descubriendo lo que me gusta y, lo más importante, ¡cómo hacerlo! Al principio, cuando empecé a reunir referencias para TLB, estaba mirando fanzines independientes de los años 80 y 90. Quería que el estilo visual del libro estuviera arraigado en esa época. Pero de alguna manera me pareció una elección demasiado obvia y quizás no muy práctica. Los juegos de rol tienen muchos datos, hay muchas tablas, listas, mapas y el estilo punk de los fanzines no parecía una buena opción. Así que empecé a estudiar los manuales de usuario de los electrodomésticos de los años 80 y 90. Incluso compré una reedición de las guías de estilo internas de IBM. Eso es lo que ha alimentado el estilo de diseño de TLB.

Intento darle ritmo a la maquetación, como lo haría al editar un video, y trato de usar el espacio negativo tanto como puedo. Siento que esto puede ayudar con la lectura y memorizar los conceptos básicos de las reglas. Una de las páginas del zine Urban Legends (específicamente la aventura UNIT DH-17) contiene solo una oración "No hay salida" porque ese es uno de los conceptos básicos de esa mini mazmorra. Una cosa, una página. Esa es una especie de regla mía. Honestamente, como muchos, me he visto muy influenciado por el diseño de maquetación de Mörk Borg, no solo por su pura creatividad, sino por cómo usa una libertad creativa desenfrenada para apoyar el estado de ánimo del libro y el diseño de la información. Es un equilibrio complicado mantener la coherencia y romper un poco las restricciones. Esto puede parecer repetitivo, pero cuando estoy atascado o dudo, recurro a la comunidad en el servidor de The Lost Bay para obtener orientación y consejos. Como siempre. Me encanta esa comunidad.

Además de todo esto, estoy muy emocionado porque recientemente comencé a colaborar con Scragend. Están haciendo streams nocturnos y un módulo de aventuras de terceros para TLB. Son unos verdaderos magos del diseño con habilidades increíbles. Acaban de terminar las dos primeras hojas de personajes oficiales y ahora son parte del equipo de diseño de maquetación del libro principal (eso sería yo y ellos jajaja). Quería que el libro se sintiera como un artículo que ha atravesado el tiempo, casi como un manual de usuario de 199X, que ha sido fotocopiado una y otra vez, y Scragend tiene una forma única con las texturas y los efectos (además de increíbles habilidades de diseño). Todavía estamos aprendiendo a trabajar juntos, pero siento que su contribución agregará mucho al libro.

Eso es para el zine principal. Para el zine de Urban Legends voy a tomar un camino diferente. He decidido diseñar cada aventura con un estilo diferente. Estoy seguro de que en algún momento me arrepentiré de esto jajaja. Pero la mayoría de las aventuras incluidas en el libro también estarán disponibles como fanzines separados, así que tiene sentido. Por ejemplo, para Lost Barrios, un entorno con influencias de México de Irvin Morales, haré un fanzine completamente independiente y haré que parezca panfletos activistas de antaño, mientras que Winter in the Bay de Wren the Forrester, una aventura y un entorno que recuerdan a los inviernos y al hielo canadienses, está diseñado como un fanzine comunitario vintage, sin arte y con mucha fotografía.

Mario: ¡Vaya! Realmente ha sido increíble conocer tu perspectiva de cómo usar el arte y la maquetación para compartir esas sensaciones. Si algo he sentido cada vez que miro las reglas básicas de TLB es esa sensación de regresar en el tiempo, yo era un niño en los 90s pero recuerdo muy bien la música y esos elementos culturales que nos marcaron y aunque en el juego hablamos de unos 90s que nunca existieron, en mi mente fueron muy similares a los que pintas con elementos extraños jajaja Siempre he tenido una mirada muy extraña sobre las cosas (todavía la tengo jajaja).

Me gustaría preguntarte algo que me ha dado vuelta en la cabeza desde que te conocí cuando traduje skyrealms y es tu interés real por la accesibilidad de tus juegos. Como sabes para mi eso es esencial, desde que yo comencé el proyecto de La esquina del rol en 2020 ha sido una parte fundamental la democratización y liberación los juegos de rol para darle acceso a todos en sus propios idiomas. Pero ha sido gracias a encontrar a personas como tú, Yochai Gal, René-Pier Deshaies, Perplexing Ruins, Goblin Archives y otros más que lo que buscamos se ha podido hacer realidad. Entonces, mi pregunta es: ¿por qué tienes una apuesta importante a la accesibilidad y el apoyar a personas que no tienen el inglés como principal idioma?

Iko: No estoy seguro. Probablemente se deba al hecho de que crecí en un contexto multilingüe. Tanto en mi casa como en el pueblo estaba rodeado de personas que hablaban varios idiomas y dialectos. A menudo cambiaban de idioma según el contexto en el que se encontraban. Ese idioma en particular podría haber sido hablado solo con ciertos miembros de la familia, ese otro principalmente con personas de un género específico, ese otro para rezar o maldecir. De manera similar, me gustaría que los fanzines que publico hablaran varios idiomas. La accesibilidad lingüística simplemente tiene sentido. Permite construir relaciones a través de las fronteras. Y siempre siento que es una bendición conectar con personas que tienen un trasfondo diferente. Más específicamente con respecto a la escena de TTRPG, somos solo un puñado, hagamos lo mejor que podamos para mantenernos en contacto.

Descarga la Bahía Olvidada

A partir de hoy, puedes adquirir la versión física del fanzine de Liminal Horror: Edición investigadores en lulú.com. Este juego escrito por fue completamente financiado por la comunidad a la cual debemos todo nuestro trabajo. ¡Sin su apoyo esto no sería una realidad! ¡Gracias totales!

Les informamos que el autor ha otorgado a nuestra edición el reconocimiento de “traducción oficial al español de Liminal Horror publicada en colaboración con Goblin Archives LLC”. Reconocimiento que nos llena totalmente de felicidad y mucho orgullo como pequeña editorial.

Esta Edición Investigadores está actualizada a la versión más reciente del inglés y será compatible con la edición de lujo que se publicará muy pronto en el idioma original del juego. El fanzine que hemos puesto a su disposición con el modelo impresión bajo demanda, podrá conseguirse prácticamente al coste de producción. Recuerden utilizar el código WELCOME15 para un descuento al total de su compra del 15%.

¡Comprar mi copia!

Por otra parte, a todos los que les ha gustado nuestra edición de Liminal Horror: Edición investigadores queremos informarles que estamos en busca de partners, tanto en México y España, para una tirada de impresión de mejor calidad y que pueda distribuirse más fácilmente en ambos países y, posteriormente, en otros. Igualmente, no descartamos traer más material de la línea antigua y la nueva línea que está por salir del juego. Estamos totalmente comprometidos con darle más material a todos los jugadores de Liminal Horror en español y nuestra meta es hacer crecer el juego en el gusto de la comunidad hispanohablante. ¡Esperen noticias pronto!

🚀2. Houston, We Have a Problem!

Empleando el SRD de Liminal Horror RPG, estamos preparando un juego de rol de horror y ciencia ficción de baja fidelidad que publicaremos en español e inglés, de manera escalonada, próximamente.

La idea nos ha surgido luego de leer varios módulos para Mothership que nos mandó nuestro amigo de Spicy Tuna RPG y de tratar de seguir una máxima que hemos aprendido de Alan Bahr sobre los juegos de rol: “buscar mantener las cosas simples”. Esperemos ver a dónde nos lleva este proyecto, que estará ilustrado por Víctor J. Merino y tiene el objetivo de mantener compatibilidad con los módulos para Mothership y de otros juegos ya existentes.

📚3. Lecturas y recomendaciones.

A partir de lo que he leído y jugado estas últimas semanas, les recomiendo:

• 👨🏽‍🚀The World We Left Behind por Samantha Leigh. Sam ha hecho algo realmente interesante con este juego de rol sobre astronautas explorando un planeta alienígena para descubrir que ha pasado con aquellos que alguna vez llamaron hogar a ese lugar. Básicamente el juego se trata de construir mundos y utiliza para ello una baraja de póker. El juego puede jugarse en solitario o con otras personas, no requiere GM.

  Calificación: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

• 🏴‍☠️ Cursed Captains of Cthulhu publicado por Black Cats Gaming (juego patrocinado). Este juego realmente no lo tenía en el radar, pero agradezco a su RP por ponerse en contacto conmigo y compartírmelo. La premisa es muy interesante: “Enfrenta a tu tripulación pirata contra las fuerzas sobrenaturales de Cthulhu en la edad de oro de la piratería”. Lo que me ha encantado es que la ambientación está ubicada en el Caribe en los siglos XVII y XVIII. El sistema que utiliza se llama Follow con tiradas de 4d6 a un numero objetivo, bastante fácil de aprender, incluso para novatos. Si les gusta el tema de piratas y Cthulhu, entonces seguramente este juego será de tu interés.

  Calificación: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

💰4. Mecenazgos en activo

• Clásicos del Mazmorreo: Reloaded por Other Selves. El juego de rol de los dados realmente raros, ahora mismo está financiándose para una nueva edición. Se puede apoyar adquiriendo el PDF y/o la versión física.

• Not Enough Scoundrels: a space trucker, smuggling & ships supplement for Mothership RPG por 5 Millions Worlds Press. Es un suplemento de contrabandistas, transportadores espaciales y las naves en las que viven y mueren, fue escrito por Chris Airiau para el juego de rol de horror y ciencia ficción Mothership.

• The Iron Hive: a space station setting for Mothership RPG por Wicked Oni Publishing. Nuestro amigo Abraham ha logrado financiación para que este módulo de Mothership se publique en inglés. Ahora, esta pidiendo apoyo para lograr una traducción al español de los materiales en PDF. ¡Apoyemos a #RPGlatam!

• The Smurfs: Roleplaying Game diseñado por Kevin Borrup. ¡Es un juego de los pitufos y realmente está genial la idea! El sistema pinta muy ligero e interesante. ¡A por ello, pitufines!

🎲5. La última tirada y nos vamos

Desde hace más de dos semanas estamos únicamente en Bluesky y la comunidad de juegos de rol está creciendo de manera increíble allí, puedes encontrarnos a nosotros con el handle: @laesquinadelrol.com

1d8 Starter packs/feeds para seguir

1. OSR Starter Pack #1 y #2 por Yochai Gal

2. Solo TTRPG Creators por Patrick Buechner (The Soloist)

3. RPGLATAM Starter Pack por Fernando Salvaterra

4. RP’s TTRPG Starter Pack por Rene-Pier Deshaies

5. Rol en español Starter Pack por Khulmani

6. Feed de rol en español por La esquina del rol

7. Feed de SoloRPG por La esquina del rol

8. Indie TTRPG Starter Pack por Jon Boyle

Mario | La esquina del rol: Antonio Ganfornina, welcome to La esquina del rol! I have the pleasure of knowing you for a couple of years ago, but we have never had the chance to talk about role playing games. Today, I think it's a great day to start. How is everything?!

Antonio Ganfornina | California Games: Hello Mario, thank you so much for your kind words and for having me around. The routine has been a bit of a slog lately. I'm trying to put the brakes on some creative endeavours to keep up with all the hustle and bustle within academic research and other aspects of my life. The dogtor (yes, for all of you that may not know, it is how Mario and I usually call to my canine companion) appreciates that decision (and so do I!), since it means longer walks for both of us. He seems very happy. But I'm trying to keep game design among my regular hobbies.

Mario: Glad to hear you're taking things slower. Real life is always complicated. Those times out and taking deep breaths always helps the ideas flow better.

Well, for those who don't know you, I'd like you to introduce yourself and tell us how you started roleplaying and what you do in the indie roleplaying scene...?

Antonio: Is a long story to tell I would say, but essentially my foray into this hobby dates back to 2012, or maybe 2013.

In the 2000s, I played many story-driven games (Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Baldur's Gate, Arcanum, Vampire, Fallout 1 and 2, Planescape: Torment, etc.) and others that rewarded player creativity (Deus Ex, an usual representative of a genre called Immersive Simulators). They had a powerful effect in me, beyond keeping me glued to a screen; they had the ability to make me imagine those untold portions of their stories and want to explore their worlds more. Something that, due to the limitations of the format, wasn't possible in those days with video games, but rather in my imagination.

Curiously, I wasn't a stranger to tabletop role-playing games (pen & paper games). As a child, in the late '90s and early 2000s, I used to frequent a bookstore where I could read the Star Wars D20 saga edition (well, just the back cover), and I recall reading Dungeons & Dragons 3.0 on the library.

Years went by, and in 2012, one day, a mate mentioned they were playing a role-playing campaign (Vampire: The Masquerade), and my curiosity was piqued once again, this time with more intensity. The moment came to buy my first role-playing game manual. So, I did a Google search, read what I could, and based on my preferences, I bought my first role-playing game manual: Polaris: Chivalric Tragedy at Utmost North by Ben Lehman.

I was clear that if I wanted to delve into this hobby: 1) I wasn't going to spend a lot of money. The manual cost me 15€ ( approx. 15$) including shipping, by contacting the now-defunct spanish publisher ConBarba directly. 2) I wasn't going to dedicate myself to learn rules about things that I had already seen well implemented in video games. 3) Therefore, it had to be something more focused on the interactions between the main characters and the stories that form based on these. Polaris was the obligatory starting point for me.

On the topic of what I do in the indie roleplaying scene, I made a shift the last year, since my contributions have varied in terms of curiosities, design, layout notions, and so on, but I noticed a prevalence of certain constrains that, to be honest, only existed in my head, as it is said; the pressure of social media platforms (currently I almost use none of them) and a frenetic pace of creating over 200-page manuals for free, in a single year, even receiving recognition from videogame developers; the tragically hijacked ZAUM (owners of Disco Elysium).

Now, I like to describe my contributions as timid games that start from scratch, with a blank lead sheet, help sharpen the focus on game loops. As long as the mechanics lead somewhere new, they won’t let you fall into complacent during the gameplay. Yet, they also provide a balance with moments of relaxation, giving you time to contemplate the future of your game interactions along the way.

Mario: It is very interesting what you say. I have always thought of you as a shipwrecked person writing games on reusable paper and throwing them in bottles into the sea to find the hands of that person who really needs to play it. Poetically it is a beautiful scene. Your ideas and games seem to me to be cured of this vertiginous capitalist production that we live in these times that seems to be a mercenary of the moment of the game because it suffocates it with so many games available that it seems that the hobby is to buy and not to play, you know?

In this sense, I would like to ask you what is your design philosophy and what are those principles that give meaning to what you do as a TTRPG designer considering what you said before?

Antonio: And yet, I would add that, none of us is immune to internalising those dizzying production logics, whether as a workforce, or for recognition and social gain.

A beautiful analogy you’ve crafted, by the way. Not just for the prose, but for its validity and description of reality. Some of my games have reached others' hands years after being published. The response takes less time to come back than a message in a bottle; surprise, admiration, curiosity, unease, the conscious decision to dedicate part of your time to someone else's work.

Regarding my design philosophy, although always adapting in a always evolving manner, I would summarise them as it follows:

1) Use a CC license.

2) Cite your references.

- Do some research before starting to design something "new".

- Take care of others publishing as clear and accessible as possible.

3) All the rules must convey the aesthetics of the game.

- I think that the layout is part of not just the game text, but also the rules.

- Accessibility and aesthetics can, and should, coexist.

- As a designer, I have to provide a framework. As a game designer, I have to provide a framework to play with. As a game designer concerned about aesthetics, in an academic sense, I have to provide a thematic framework to play with.

In other words, I like to approach to game-design considering games as:

1) A work of art with a properly conveying aesthetics (in a academic sense of the word) through their pages.

2) A design document where each content has a reason to be there to translate not only instructions but ideas to the reader.

3) A playable experience that asks a question. A decision is an answered question. Here I fully agree with Sid Meier's dictum: "a game is a series of interesting decisions".

Mario: I really like what you say. I agree that the roleplaying game is more than a consumer product, you know? although it still one. It also seems to me that the aesthetic intent, the layout design, the art and the gameplay experience are all intertwined and fundamental to the design process of a roleplaying game. It's not just about coming up with a setting and writing some cool rolls. I got that very clear from my conversation with Johan Nohr, the intention is fundamental to what we create, nothing is there in a decorative way. As you say, what game designers give us are frames of reference that more or less define a game experience. For me, role-playing games have to be understood as cultural products, because there are too many aesthetic, symbolic, social, etc. values involved.

In this sense Antonio, in the day-to-day life of TTRPGs there is always this dichotomy about whether it is possible to play a role-playing game good or bad. What is your opinion?

Antonio: I think you've hit the nail on the head, despite these terms often slipping by unnoticed in conversation; role-playing games are "cultural products." They don't exist in a vacuum separate from the culture surrounding them, nor is the surrounding culture unaffected by the author's intent. Since childhood, I've been fascinated by "interaction" within complex systems, and I believe the term "cultural products" captures this interaction in our complex system, simplified into three parts:

(1) the author, (2) their audience, and (3) the interaction between both through the game. It is in this interaction where I believe the most interesting information as "cultural products" resides.

This ties into your question, which is rather thorny and demands a commitment in my response. Without mincing words, I believe it is possible to play a role-playing game extremely bad—especially when playing with a group—when the respect of other participants is undermined, with open displays of any form of hatred (insults, aporophobia, transphobia, racism, ableism, etc.).

Mario: It really is a thorny question, but it is a question that is avoided in many circles because of the idea that role-playing is played the way you want it to be. But, it does raise doubts in my mind when we talk about there being an authorial intention about the game experience. So, in terms of design it seems to me that it is possible to determine whether the experience is right or wrong in terms of the decisions the author made about how they wanted something to be played. This is not to say that playing what you want to play is wrong, it's just stating that according to the author's intended experience you are not playing the way he expected you to play. At that point I don't know if it's a design flaw, it's actually a very complex thing to think about in rational terms hahahaha

Antonio: Yes, I fully agree with you in that is a thorny question. That said, I also believe it’s possible to play a role-playing game bad, especially when the author isn’t explicit about their intent. This has nothing to do with our personal preferences as players, which I wholeheartedly celebrate. What I’m saying has nothing to do with whether we’re dealing with a rules-light or rules-heavy game, whether it rewards player creativity or or the rules admirably constrain the course of the players' actions, or whether it expects the game master to prepare vast amounts of content (or not) for each session, and so on.

As one of my favourite childhood characters said, Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jurassic Park), "everything is chaos." Interactions are widely chaotic, specially in a kinda of niche culture. I think that gameplay culture and game text are colliding constantly, and that's great! In those moments of collisions, sometimes we can spoil bad terms of play, eventually leading to better terms of play, for both players and game-designers.

I really love that we can play roleplaying games badly (in the sense of their rules and intentionality). That means that There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom to learn and discuss about them.

Mario: Of course, it couldn't be said better. And I always get to that point, it's not bad to play badly when playing a role-playing game. On the contrary, it brings more life to the discussion and creation of role-playing games in terms of design. At least I think so.

Well, moving on to more creative topics. I would like to know how you approach the creative process when creating your own role-playing games?

Antonio: That's a jolly good question, one to which I sometimes wish I had a clear and definitive answer. So, the most honest thing for me would be to talk about how I've tackled the design of the games I've published so far. But I reckon I'd sum it up with other questions that I try to answer when designing a game:

1) What's my game about?

2) What do I expect people playing to DO, generally?

3) What sorts of fiction should happen in this game?

4) What sorts of things shouldn’t happen in this game?

5) What do my rules do to support ALL of the above?

I would say my first step when thinking about a new game is to offer a reference framework for codify the interactions between the players' characters and the fiction that arise from them.

This can be seen, for example, in the games I made about Star Wars, where character creation explicitly declares to establish emotional bounds between characters; that is, they are not created in isolation but, beyond group intention, the character creation process indicates that their lives are bound in misery. Similarly, in Route 65, the game resides in the conflict of interests of the characters when visiting the setting of The Zone (based on the novel Roadside Picnic, the film Stalker, and the video game of the same name).

Checking my games published on itch.io, I think this is a common starting point in all my designs. In fact, in Glossolalia, where I take the reference framework from the philosophy of Jason Tocci's 24XX games, I give great weight not to what can keep a group cohesive, but to those factors that can completely derail the course of a mission due to opposing stances on the question that guides the playable experience: How would you proceed in a First Contact situation with an alien species indifferent to any human interaction (a theoretical scenario known as the Dark Forest theory)?

When I have those questions mentally visualised, I proceed on a quest for visual sense that will permeate every page of the manual. I know there may be disagreements at this point, but I'm part of that strange group you want to keep at a separate table for your own good and theirs (I am joking at these, but who knows), who first lays out (no pun intended) the layout, and then, with those constrains, proceeds to write the text.

This has an advantage, at least for me—you know the explanation must fit into a specific space. However, this poses a serious problem: reshaping the text and layout as a whole can be a real headache. Moreover, as if that weren't enough, this constitutes a HUGE challenge; you might end up falling in love with a complete composition, but here comes a small jewel of wisdom from another video game character (Kreia/Darth Traya) who precisely inspired me for Star Wars Betrayal: "to believe in an ideal, is to be willing to betray it."

Mario: I find your approach to writing your games very interesting. I'm one of those who first start with illustrations of what I want and from there I start to build. That creates other problems for me, I have paid art waiting in the drawer because the idea didn't work out or it's in the other drawer of pending projects. But, having the layout design ready and filling it in, as you do, is a really important challenge for me. I don't know if I would be able to do it that way.

But now I understand why your layout design flows beautifully with the writing in your games. It's really a very particular characteristic that I've found in you. You've made games that aesthetically are really beautiful, but mostly you've made games with an intention. How do you decide on that art direction or what inspires you to approach each project aesthetically in a certain way?

Antonio: For me, there's no reason beyond seizing the motivation of the moment and giving it direction. I'm not a huge fan of persevering in the search for a source of inspiration. In this, I believe I align with my work routine as an academic researcher. When I design a game, the process is similar but not identical. Most of the time, I'm accumulating information; reading books (academic works, role-playing games, novels, poems, etc.), articles on Reddit (there are some truly astonishing threads there, in some of which I've even become quite radicalised as a designer, in the sense of getting to the root of game design aspects), and listening to very contrasting opinions.

Eventually, the most complicated part is resolved: posing THE question. And when I pose the question, what follows is a murky, artistic quest filled with trial and error among compositions of tones, colours, shapes, and especially, fonts. It’s astonishing how much our impression and understanding of a game can change from one typeface to another (so much so that some are dreadfully inaccessible for many people).

To give a concrete example, in Una sola y triste Isola, the question was: How would it be to tell everyday local stories that are easily distorted? That was the question I posed, and of course, there could have been several answers. At that particular time, I was motivated by a series of Italian neorealism films that had been recommended to me. And so, I remembered a common childhood scene in Mediterranean areas where grandmothers would take their chairs out onto the street on summer nights to chat about the divine and the mundane. Naturally, the divine and the mundane are the primordial clay of any good gossip. That was the purpose once I found it.

The art, of course, couldn’t be just a disjointed collection of illustrations. It had to be something that could almost be visualised as the menu of a seaside restaurant or a tavern on a pier, complete with a chequered tablecloth, blue and white, or red and white, I’m not too fussed about that, but there definitely had to be a glass vase with a flower on the table... and a menu... and that menu was what I wanted the manual of Una Sola y triste Isola to be. For this, the best representation I found was in black and white illustrations on Pixabay, and it seems to have worked quite well.

As you can see, despite all the -maybe- abstract and -definitely, too much- elaborated explanation of my approach, I tend to work in a very concrete visual plane. That solves your first question. For the second one, I think it is a mix of both current motivation and a coherent purpose.

Mario: It is very interesting what you share with us, very illustrative of your whole visual process of composition. I have an interesting question. Of all your published RPGs, which page or spread layout is your favorite and why?!

Antonio: I would argue that the podium is shared between three of them: Una Sola y triste Isola, The Furiae, and Of Whites & Reds. The first one due to the reasons I have mentioned previously. It is a simple, clean, and yet well delivered sense of the a la carte menu. The second one, in its first edition, it has a composition that involves a personal quest of finding those draws that match the intention and the texts on their corresponding pages. In its second edition, the purpose is crafted beyond, since the original 60 pages horizontal zine is distributed among 4 booklets (the rules, the game itself, a full game-play example, and a booklet of art analysis of all the draws in the game-book). The latter one, I think is my finest composition since it is simultaneously three things: a game to be played, a game design document, and a delivered aesthetic based on a concrete style. Those three are intertwined: rules, texts, and illustrations. But you have asked me for my favourite one. Thus, I have to make a choice... I would say Of Whites & Reds

Of Whites & Reds is a narrative competitive game where the players who portray the Characters (using the instructions on The Reds Manifesto, the player's pamphlet) must seize the means of narrative production, finally overthrowing the Storyteller (the player who dictates the game-plot as it was a script, and who follows the instructions of the Psalm of the Whites, the storyteller rules). It is all about class-struggle, and dialectical materialism.

The main inspirations of this game draw on the videogame The Stanley Parable (by Davey Wreden and William Pugh), where the Narrator tell us (both the character and the player) what we must do to in order to end the game, but as soon as we refuse to follow its guided narrative, the plot crumbles into interesting ramifications, while the Narrator establishes a desperate dialogue with us.

Of Whites & Reds uses Character moves (you can see them on the picture I attach) and Storyteller moves [Mitchell, A., & McGee, K. (2009). Designing storytelling games that encourage narrative play] which are heavily based on the videogame The Bookwalker: Thief of Tales (by Oleg Sergeev). In this videogame we are a book-walker, a wanderer among fictional tales, and we can inject our ink to overcome some objectives, and also interfere with the adversities of the unfolding, yet scripted plot.

Finally, Of Whites & Reds cannot be stripped of its political perspective. Well, of course someone can ignore this, but that statement is far away to be the point of anything to be said. As anyone can see on this work (since I also explicitly state that on its pages), the illustrations and some of the texts I made are heavily inspired by Vladimir Mayakovsky and El Lisitski, who merged their works together in 1923, with the publication of the former's poems interspersed with the latter's illustrations, giving shape to For the Voice (Для голоса).

This text, for example, was purely written on a pamphleteer format, along most of the others that conform The Reds Manifesto. In contrast, since I consider the Psalm of The Whites as a "set-in-stone commandments", I wrote those pages as Psalms of the Bible, but instead of religious topics, they contain information to the Storyteller.

Mario: I love Of Whites & Reds, I think the premise of that game is really cool and the composition you share with us is very interesting for me. Thank you very much for sharing with us all this.

Well, Antonio I know you are currently working on a new game, where did the idea of writing Do not go gentle into the American Dream come from?

Antonio: So, the curtain has fallen. Truth be told, I hadn't mentioned this via developer blogs, neither to anyone else, with the exception of you and a friend of mine…

X/Twitter sucks! We are now on bluesky (@laesquinadelrol.com).

This post is in solidarity with the Valencian community, please read the message below and if you can help, join us or promote the solidarity bundle. Spread the word! - Mario | La esquina del rol

On October 28th, a DANA storm devastated much of the towns in Valencia, resulting in an as-yet-undetermined number of victims and causing substantial material damage. At Roleros no Representativos, we want to appeal to the community’s solidarity by creating a bundle of tabletop RPG materials to help mitigate this tragedy. You can submit your games to the Jam until 15-11-2024, after which we will create a charity bundle directed to an organization we have yet to select, but which will be clearly specified in the Jam details.

You are welcome to contribute any material you like: RPGs, game aids, video games, interactive fiction games. All contributions will be appreciated.
This is not a creation jam, but a data collection of the items jam: we will transfer these contributions to a bundle, and you will have to validate the contribution.

We will keep updating this post as plans solidify; we prioritized moving quickly to spread the word as soon as possible while carefully considering the best options. The bundle price will be $5 to make it accessible to everyone, with the option to contribute more voluntarily.

If you would like to contribute external material to itchio, please contact us to look for alternatives.

Affected area:

add my games

------------

If you would like to promote the solidarity bundle, please use the links below:

https://itch.io/jam/solidaridad-con-valencia

https://x.com/RolerosNoRep/status/1851931650617135448

https://bsky.app/profile/rolerosnorep.bsky.social/post/3l7sgw4lq6e23

Lo que leerás a continuación son extractos de una increíble charla que tuvieron Iko y Mario hace un par de meses atrás durante el Kickstarter de The Lost Bay RPG. Originalmente fue planeada para publicarse antes como parte de la promoción del KS, pero por diferentes motivos de ambos participantes esto se pospuso. Ahora, hemos decidido publicarla para promover el lanzamiento de la Guía de inicio rápido de La bahía olvidada publicada en español gracias a la editorial El Refugio de Ryhope.

¡Esperemos la disfruten!

Mario | La esquina del rol: Iko, ¡bienvenido a La esquina del rol! Me gustaría indagar un poco sobre tu opinión acerca de la escena internacional de juegos de rol indie. Ya hemos platicado un poco sobre ello de manera privada, pero me gustaría ampliar tus respuestas. Sobre todo desde la pandemia hasta el día de hoy, ¿qué tanto sientes que nuestra escena indie  ha evolucionado? y sobre todo ¿en dónde ves a nuestra escena en los próximos cinco años?

Iko | The Lost Bay Studio: Muchas gracias por la invitación Mario. Respondiendo a tu pregunta: me topé con la escena al azar. Ya había jugado a algunos juegos indie, pero sin saber que existía una «escena». O más bien varias «escenas». Tengo la sensación de que el mundo de los juegos indie es una congregación de islas, un vasto archipiélago, más que una entidad única. Y probablemente eso es exactamente lo que es ser indie. Escapar de las estructuras definitivas. Creo que hay belleza en esta fragmentación. Dicho esto, conlleva desafíos. Especialmente en lo que se refiere a interactuar entre nosotros y entrar en contacto con nuevos grupos. Tengo la sensación de que esto se ha vuelto aún más difícil desde que el panorama de las redes sociales se ha visto afectado por varias decisiones de gestión poco acertadas, por no decir ninguna. Es como si el archipiélago se hubiera extendido aún más.

No se me da bien hacer predicciones. Los últimos años me han enseñado que a veces es difícil prever los acontecimientos del futuro próximo. Entre los posibles retos, aparte de una situación internacional angustiosa e inestable, está el auge de los contenidos generados por IA y de las grandes franquicias voraces. Lo que más curiosidad me despierta es cómo van a reaccionar y adaptarse a esto los indie. Sinceramente, soy relativamente optimista. A veces me pregunto si la presión de las grandes corporaciones no hará que la escena indie desarrolle «herramientas» más fuertes de apoyo mutuo. Esas «herramientas» pueden ser espacios seguros para conocer a otros aficionados y diseñadores, como muchos servidores de discord (yo tengo la suerte de formar parte de una comunidad genial en el servidor de discord de The Lost Bay), herramientas reales que faciliten la accesibilidad, como la plantilla de diseño Classic Explorer de Clayton Nolestine, o editores y tiendas que sigan apoyando y ayudando a los diseñadores. Necesitamos más herramientas de este tipo, más tejido conectivo. Me encantaría ver más convenciones en línea, sea cual sea el significado de esta palabra. Como puntos de encuentro temporales para jugar, debatir, crear relaciones más allá de fronteras e idiomas. Intento contribuir a ello a mi propia escala con diversas iniciativas relacionadas con TLB. Sobre todo, apoyo activamente las traducciones de las reglas básicas del juego e intento apoyar a los creadores que utilizan otros idiomas distintos del inglés. La accesibilidad lingüística es una gran preocupación para mí, y como editor me parece importante intentar derribar las barreras lingüísticas.

Mario: Me encanta la idea de fragmentación. Justo tengo una charla en los próximos días con de Role Per Second sobre el tema y que bien lo has dicho (Puedes ver esta charla aquí). Y, claro. Te entiendo perfectamente, esta accesibilidad lingüística es una preocupación que compartimos y nos ha acercado de alguna manera. Es algo que de verdad reconozco en ti y en otros autores.

Pero, bueno, hablemos un poco sobre La Bahía Olvidada. ¿De dónde te surge la idea de un juego gótico suburbano ambientado en una bahía durante unos noventas alternativos?

Iko: The Lost Bay/La bahía olvidada nació hacia 2017, como una serie de notas de audio sobre el pequeño pueblo costero rural-urbano donde crecí, en la isla mediterránea de Córcega. Solía grabarlas mientras paseaba por un parque, hablando en primera persona, como si fueran el diario de un chico de 14 años que lucha con los aspectos extraños y horrorosos de su tierra natal. Paralelamente a esas notas de audio estaba haciendo algo de worldbuilding, dibujando mapas, escribiendo facciones, cronología, una religión sin dios basada en el culto a los Santos Vivientes.

También empecé a jugar de nuevo a juegos de rol, tras un parón de dos décadas, y no tardé en correr aventuras ambientadas en ese lugar imaginario. Todo esto sucedía en París, Francia. Escribía y jugaba en francés. La Bahía Olvidada tenía un fuerte sabor corso que suponía que los jugadores conocían al menos un poco la isla, como es el caso de la mayoría de los franceses. Después, cuando la pandemia me obligó a encerrarme, me topé con la escena de los juegos de rol indie, sobre todo gracias a Yochai Gal, a quien conocí en Internet. Empecé a conocer a gente de todo el mundo, y poco a poco fui retocando La Bahía Olvidada para eliminar, o adaptar, sus referencias corsas y regionales. Quería que cualquiera pudiera jugarlo, conociera o no el lugar que lo inspiró. Se convirtió en un mundo de ficción, autocontenido, un suburbio gótico y salvaje, donde la gente podía proyectarse independientemente de su bagaje cultural. Al menos este ha sido uno de los principales objetivos de diseño. Me llevó tres años, y sólo fue posible gracias al apoyo y los comentarios de la comunidad.

Mario: Yochai Gal ha sido un referente para la comunidad indie, pero no sé si es consciente de cuántas veces lo han citado en estas charlas en mi blog jajaja… (y ya se lo he dicho un par de veces). Pero, regresando a ti, es muy interesante tu flexibilidad para crear contenido como escritor y diseñador de juegos de rol. En muy poco tiempo te vi transitar desde Skyrealms hasta La Bahía Olvidada, que en términos de ambientación y tono son dos cosas completamente diferentes. En este sentido, me gustaría saber: ¿Cómo enfocas tu proceso creativo cuando creas juegos de rol y ambientaciones?

Iko: Yo diría que hay dos partes. El mundo y la mecánica. En algún momento del desarrollo se vuelven indistinguibles, y creo que la mecánica en cierto modo es lore, pero hasta ahora siempre he empezado por esbozar primero el mundo.

Tanto para Skyrealms como para La Bahía Olvidada, la principal fuente de inspiración ha sido la pequeña y extraña isla antigua y ultramoderna, casi fuera de la realidad, en la que crecí. Trabajo en la industria cinematográfica y antes de la pandemia dirigí tres documentales sobre esa isla y, en concreto, sobre cómo es ser adolescente allí. Ha sido una fuente de inspiración recurrente a lo largo de los años. Para ser totalmente sincero, de niño tenía una relación visceral con este lugar. Estaba enamorado de él, de sus playas, bosques y aparcamientos. Luego, cuando tenía poco más de veinte años, tuve que dejarlo sin avisar, sin decírselo a nadie, sin mirar atrás. Ni siquiera pude decírselo a mis amigos. Corté todos los lazos, olvidé caras y nombres, y mi mundo natal empezó a crecer en mí como un recuerdo distorsionado, casi como un lugar ficticio, extremadamente familiar y totalmente ajeno, hermoso y aterrador. Volví al cabo de quince años, y fue entonces cuando empecé a fabricar la arcilla de la que están hechas básicamente todas mis obras.

Los dos juegos tienen un toque realmente diferente, Skyrealms es casi fantasioso, probablemente enternecedor, casi caricaturesco, mientras que TLB es un juego mucho más oscuro. Pero sus mundos comparten características comunes. Los jugadores pueden sentir la mirada amenazadora de los poderes superiores y la amenaza constante de un peligro inminente. Y los personajes comparten la singularidad del mundo en el que viven, en realidad contribuyen a él.

Para ambos juegos (o mundos) empecé dibujando un mapa detallado, en realidad adaptando mapas reales de mi mundo natal, y escribiendo pequeñas piezas de ficción narrativa que me ayudaron a establecer los principios básicos del mundo. Básicamente esbocé un documento similar a una biblia televisiva, detallando lugares, facciones, nombres. Para TLB incluso escribí algunas oraciones a los inmortales, pronunciadas en un dialecto inventado pero comprensible (nota: un ejemplo de estas oraciones se comparte más adelante)

Cuando terminé ese documento, ya estaba organizando muchas partidas de La Bahía Olvidada en Francia, utilizando una versión ligeramente modificada de Tales From the Loop. El escenario era una versión ficticia de la isla francesa de Córcega, repleta de referencias a la cultura local y a la historia contemporánea.

Luego, durante la pandemia, me topé con la escena indie internacional, y poco a poco fui trabajando para adaptar la ambientación al público internacional. La despojé de sus referencias regionales y locales, o más bien hice abstracciones, la transforme en algo más abierto, intentando al mismo tiempo permanecer fiel a su intención inicial. Empecé a verter en ella referencias de los medios de comunicación, películas sobre todo de los años 80, 90, películas de terror u oscuras películas de arte y ensayo. Este proceso de adaptación aún no ha terminado. Tengo docenas de páginas, referencias, lore, que poco a poco estoy convirtiendo y adaptando en tablas, módulos. Probablemente esto me llevará años, e implicará la publicación de futuros libros. Y esta adaptación también está ocurriendo gracias al extraordinario apoyo y feedback de la comunidad TLB. Estoy inmensamente agradecido a diseñadores, jugadores y amigos que empezaron a hacer suyo TLB incluso antes de que estuviera terminado.

Esto cubre la mitad del trabajo. La otra mitad, igual de importante, es la parte mecánica. Y, bueno, eso ha sido otro viaje impresionante…

Oración a Santo Apolo

Sant’o Apollu

Chicu Perfetu

Critura Tu’penda

Ichu d’azzucar

Sant’o Apollu

Toche divinu

Cabelli d’llama d’fuegi

Alabastri

Sant’Apollu

no’comprendio chicu

strella umilliada

sacrificata

Sant’Apollu

Infant tracionatu

Corazi detrozatu

Sangrientu

Sant’Apollu

Soteni mia manu

Descansi quietu

No tará ma’tiempi solu

Sant’Apollus

Peqenu ninu

Dividu tua’dolenchi

No me’rendí contichi

Sant’Apollus

Diamanti rojus

Cucha mio llanti

Mio lamenti.

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