Mario | La esquina del rol: Spicy Tuna RPG, welcome to La esquina del rol! I am very happy to have you here, I think your projects are really spectacular and the way you resignify elements of Mexican culture in your work is really beautiful. But first of all, how are you?
Marco Serrano | Spicy Tuna RPG: Hi, Mario!! Thanks for having me, and thank you for the kind words. Today is a great day! I'm doing well. How are you?
Mario: Not bad, not bad. The rains are starting where I live in Yucatan and the smell of humidity is reviving me. But let's talk about you.
When I first heard about you, you were working with A Butterfly Dies, and then you started funding some amazing projects of really impressive quality. But for people who still don't know who you are, I'd like you to introduce yourself and tell us how you got into tabletop roleplaying games?
I'm Marco Serrano and I publish under the Spicy Tuna RPG imprint. I'm a father of four, I'm a graphic designer with a horrible work flow, I like to write worlds that are surprising to explore, and I'm trying to learn how to draw well again.
I got into the hobby by watching friends play dnd, and finally "finding the time" to run a game after 7 or 8 years. The first game I ran was Feng Shui 2, then Dredd, until I finally landed on Mothership as a mainstay in 2021 maybe... Now I read a bunch of indie games, and am starting to write them.
Mario: That's great. Hey Marco, how do you approach your creative process when you're writing about these worlds and these adventures?
Marco: My creative process is all over the place currently. It's something I'm trying to be more mindful and deliberate with because I struggle to stay focused and avoid creative block when writing larger interconnected areas.
For instance, I think my best creative work comes when I'm working within certain constraints. When I was writing Constant Downpour I had a single reference piece, "The Long Rain" by Ray Bradbury. So it was a psychological thriller set in rainforest and high prairies split by a latticework of rivers caused by relentless rain.
I divided up the areas and the unique location types (sun domes, bunkers, landmarks). I wrote random tables for the different environments, and I wrote all the like areas together so they would be unique from each other while sharing familiar elements.
I've been going through a similar process when writing the planet layers for Greenhorns. I write several random spark tables that associate with the planet layer and use them as inspiration (sometimes randomly rolling) for each threat, area, loot, etc you'd find in the layer.
I'm also a daydreamer. I think about a particular world or area or adventure repeatedly in short spurts, shower thoughts etc., until I finally write it down.
Mario: Before the interview, we talked about your Mexican heritage. I really think it's great what you are doing with your art and that Mexican artistic legacy. Tell me a little bit about the ways you have represented Mexican culture in your creations and why you decided to do it?
Marco: Honestly, I have a crap memory so I might be missing some stuff. But here's a bullet point list, maybe most significant to least:
A Butterfly Dies is inspired by the Orozco's mural "El Hombre de Fuego" as well as the Mexican myths about butterflies. It takes place in a mythical and prehistoric Michoacan, Mexico/Sierra Madres. I have an introduction in the book that includes core concepts for readers to understand and a a bit about how the adventure itself and the writings are an alternative mythos, rather than actual Mexican beliefs. The whole story is about how the chaos and destruction of fire can cause amazing rebirth, an important part of the cycle for harmonization. Of course humans are threatening it.
Cocoxoca is the pamphlet adventure I wrote and released with A Butterfly Dies. This one I didn't really have the room to write an intro, but is inspired by Mexican myths of crocodiles, being tied to fertility, the rain and the land. There is both Xa, The Crocodile Lord (Good, provider of knowledge, but ruthless) and Char, The Caimankin Wizard (Arguably bad). Cocoxoca is also a Nahuatl word meaning to make a sloshing sound / for water to be shaken. Which is appropriate because it takes place in the wetlands and the current conflict threatens to shake up the status quo.
In Greenhorns: A Weird Space RPG the three NPCs in the Malls of Humanities are based on, and named after Rufino Tamayo, Jose Clemente Orozco, and Frida Kahlo. They are each artists and have wants related to the factions threatening the status quo on Kruxor (their home planet), which may lead to a possible uprising.
Yucatan Tech Co is the weapons manufacturer in the Mothership universe all of my 3pp modules make together. They focus on weapons and gadgets that increase survivability so they are all equivalent to starter weapons but have specific features that may become useful in life-threatening situations. Of course, they are a weapons manufacturer, and have a long write up in the upcoming The Hands That Feed hardcover, and are bad overall, but kind of ambiguously so.
Other than that, especially in scifi modules, I include a mixture of worldly names, including pre-hispanic Mexican names, to represent a more diverse humanity in the future.
As far as the why, I include it primarily because it's interesting and worth referencing. It's an amazing part of history, and art, not often seen or talked about across the world. It's part of my heritage and something I wish to and continue to explore more of.
For context, and a little bit more about me. It's kind of weird because I didn't grow up with this, the study and interest came in my later teens probably starting with the Mexican Muralist Movement (I studied studio art at university and promptly stopped making art for a decade after my final year in 2014). My dad immigrated here when he young and is, in a lot of ways, a stereotypical immigrant father. He started a business (a bakery) and worked excessive hours so my mother could stay at home. We rarely saw him, and what I learned of being Mexican has more to do with traits than stories and cultural beliefs. We were one of a few Mexican families in a small Catholic school growing up and my parents used Spanish to have discussions we couldn't understand, so the language bit was not really taught or pushed on us as hard as I wish jaja. I have a very American accent because I was not wise enough as a kid to learn earlier.
I write scifi horror and fantasy modules, and in general the types of roleplaying games I play there is reason for taking sides, joining forces, becoming adversaries, probable combat etc. It's important to me to treat any Mexican influence respectfully, to be direct with communicating that these are reimaginings, alternative mythos, and sources of inspiration, rather than direct implants of historic or current beliefs. Part of that respect is not to default every Mexican or Mexican-inspired piece or NPC as good. There is good and bad, and in betweens just as there is when I might include any other part or NPC from a different culture.
Just as important to the why, is I want my adventures and games to be approachable and inclusive to players and GMs regardless of their heritage, and avoid as much of the hesitations they may have regarding that aspect. Rather than tiptoe, just know these are settings inspired by these tellings just as most fantasy, and often scifi, has roots in other peoples' cultures and myths. I hope the adventures create incredible memories, something worthy of remarking on, and knowing it has roots in Mexican myth it might make it into the conversation or interest.
Mario: I really like what you have said. I think the way you portray those Mexican traits and the heritage of Mexican culture in your adventures and supplements is really very appropriate. I have never liked the traditional mode of reproduction, I think that cultures are in movement and it is important to glimpse from a perspective of change and transformation those "Mexican heritage traits". You know?
I know Mothership means a lot to you. You had already told us that it was a turning point when you found it as a role-player. But, tell us what it has meant to you as a designer and why it has obsessed you so much? why do you like that setting and the game in general so much? Well, I'm talking about a good obsession, of course. hahahaha!
Marco: My publishing journey started with a system agnostic zine called Constant Downpour which is inspired by Ray Bradbury’s short story “The Long Rain” – a psychological thriller where the relentless rains of Venus slowly whittle away the characters' sanity. Constant Downpour used this as a single source of inspiration and reimagined the setting and various ways the environment and experience would dilute the characters moral. If you know anything about Mothership, you know this fits pretty damn well.
For me, Mothership was an a-ha moment of dice mechanics cinching in the emotions of an adventure. The Panic Engine does a wonderful job ramping up the disparity of situations while the lethal combat are a reminder to play cleverly. It fits my interest in play a lot, which is why it fits my interest in writing.
Mario: Nice! Mothership is so rad! I love the community that keeps it so alive and dedicates all their efforts to publish so many supplements. It's a marvel what you can find written for this game. Sadly it's not in Spanish yet and it hasn't finished permeating all the Spanish space.
Back to you. I see that your adventure writing is one of the areas you've been working on the most and where you're really doing amazing work both in stories and in how beautiful the modules are.
For our readers who want to start writing adventures for Mothership, from your experience, what advice or recommendations can you give them about how to build modules for this game and how to make them real in a publication?
Marco: It really can't be overstated how great the community has been in my experience. Sean and Alan at Tuesday Knight Games and the 3pp publishers are incredibly kind and helpful. That'd be really cool for it to get a good Spanish treatment.
I appreciate the kindness about my adventures! I've had a lot of fun exploring different spaces for adventures in Mothership. If you're considering writing adventures for any system I think the easiest way to get into it is to use your favorite adventures as templates. Same goes for layout as far as making the publication real. For writing, abstract it into parts. So you might look at a pamphlet adventure and "frame out" the places for the map and room descriptions, NPCs, introduction, random tables, etc.
If you've ran it, or played it, you might realize - hey each room works well with just 3 or 5 sentences, NPCs worked well with just a few, etc. Then frame your adventure out in the parts your interested in writing, the ones essential for making your adventure interesting, and fill them in using your template as guidance.
For layout, it's quite literally placing a two-page spread you like into Indesign or Affinity Publisher, and remaking the elements so you have a base to work off of. If you watch a good video about grids you might integrate that into the document to better guide your placement, but it's not necessary. You probably want to bring out a guide to mark margins though (the space between the edge of the page and what's being printed). Then delete the reference image and move the pieces around and make it your own with different fonts, weights, new elements, etc. Eventually, when you've done enough you'll start developing a feel for how to start from scratch, but learning from the best is a great way to start. Also use references from all kinds of media, cookbooks, design books, Art of books, etc. Not just ttrpgs.
Once you have writing and layout, scribble in drawings, surf the public domain to find some great images, or hire out some art and you have something real. You can sell PDFs on itch.io, drivethrurpg.com (drivethru seems to have better reach for Mothership modules), or your own site. I print zines with Printivity.com and highly recommend them for their customer service and return policies. Mixam is probably the most widely used service because of their price, but I've heard a lot of horror stories working with them. I've heard good things about UPrinting also.
For Mothership you need to submit your finished manuscript in order to receive permission to use any of the compatibility logos. And before you print with those logos you need final permission by submitting your ready to print files. Other licenses such as Primal Quest don't require any submissions.
Mario: Wow, everything you have shared with us is truly a gold mine for anyone who wants to get into writing. Thank you so much. Speaking of layout design, out of everything you've published, what are your 3 favorite two-page spreads you've done and why?
Marco: O geeze...that's tough. I have a special affinity to other people's wonderful layout and I'm constantly trying to experiment and get better in the area (I might actually, finally, start using grids soon!!).
As far as in print work goes I think my favorite work is in Outsourced (1), Constant Downpour (2), and A Butterfly Dies (3), so maybe I'll pick a spread from each, and since I usually commission full page illustrations from artists I'll omit those spreads and only include spreads I illustrated too - because let's face it, when you have a wonderful piece from Evangeline, David, or anyone else I've hired on it it's better.
Mario: Thank you for sharing your favourite layout designs with us. Well, it's time to talk about what's coming up. Tell me what the next Kickstarter you are launching is about?
Marco: The Hands That Feed is our next project funding on Kickstarter in October 1st. It's an anthology of powder keg missions and societal controllers for the Mothership RPG.
It's been in production for two years and is our biggest collaborative project yet. I got to hire some of the people I look up most to in the ttrpg scene and I'm stoked to share more of it with everyone.
The book structure is a modular campaign with several plug-n-play and long-lasting elements. In this case the core of the book is eight plug-n-play corporations written to act as recurring antagonists, short term allies, job providers, suppliers of goods and knowledge, etc.
Each of the major corporations have their own storylines for warden's to craft adventures out of, two of them have their own one shots, and two separate adventure writers took four corporations each and implemented them into two unique and quickly escalating alien horror missions.
Wardens can start with any mission or start implementing the corporations into their ongoing games.
The team is killer, and there's a ton of surprise to be experienced throughout.
Mario: It sounds really great. From the list you gave me of who's involved I can only think how awesome this anthology is going to be. What can you give us spoiler-free previews of these corporations and adventures that are about to make up the book?
Marco: Definitely! The corporations range from a worker-owned produce company that manufactures instability into megacorps to garner more dependence on the co-op, to cult of alien worshippers on the search for alien relics masquerading as a mining company. From a hypnotherapy and memory suppression corporation to a weapons manufacturer and arms dealer trying to maintain positive public perception.
Each corporation is written to have player- and public-facing activities and "behind-the-curtain" services that are far more sinister.
I'm especially excited about the missions Chris and Christian wrote because it glues together everything the corporation writers created. Their task was to create a scenario where four of the corporations are active, to provide escalating tension, and situations that offer interesting player-choice with who to side with, who to avoid, and places to go.
So Chris Airiau's adventure In Vino Captivitas centers around Nisei Pharmaceuticals (drug and genemodding corporation) and Juicy Family Co-op (produce corporation) vying for power over a vineyard for sale - which of course has some alien activity going on that makes the specific jerryvine desirable. Hypnaxus (hypnotherapy corporation) handlers are on the ground putting the vineyard workhands in hypnotic stupors to maintain secrecy of how nefarious the situation actually is, and a camera crew with The Slice News (news corporation) shoots an expose on the vineyard's current familial conflict.
The players can act as VIPs, part of The Slice News crew, recent vineyard harvesters, and more. Regardless of their starting professions they have to navigate the changes brought about by the corporate conflicts and from the progressing danger in the vineyard.
Christian's adventure Between a Corp and a Hard Place begins with a distress call. KV KORP (mining corporation) partners promise credits and an object of great value for immediate offworld rescue, while a second signal from a Yucatan Tech Co (weapons manufacturer) war frigate offers the crew significantly more for the retrieval of "technology of unknown origin" held by miners on planet. Once planetside, the crew may find the Oxygen-On-Demand installatin site and the Weevil (spy and intelligence corporation) camp.
Both missions pit the crew in the center of converging corporate and alien powers offering all the danger and surprise you want out of Mothership adventures.
Mario: Wow, You have really worked on a very interesting module. I invite our readers to back Marco Serrano's Kickstarter, and make this wonderful module for Mothership a reality!
Fascinating reading, as always!