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Cartel

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¿Plato o Plomo, Amigos?

It is 2007. The Sinaloa Cartel is the largest drug trafficking organization in the world, a vast network of narcos, halcones, y sicarias moving billions of dollars of drugs into Los Estados Unidos.

Take on the role of someone tied to the Sinaloa Cartel in Durango, Mexico, trying to stay alive in a dangerous game of drugs, money, and power. Navigate shifting alliances and deadly schemes, while desperately struggling to hold on to what’s yours.

Cartel contains:

  • Seven character archetypes, each tailored to help your group construct their very own tragic tale of Mexican narcofiction, including El Narco, El Cocinero, La Sicaria, La Rata, and more.
  • Summaries of the history and culture of the drug war, focusing on the setting for Cartel: The Free and Sovereign State of Durango, Mexico in 2007.
  • A full color map of Durango to use as a visual aide during your games. 
  • Detailed instructions for running the game, including tips on bringing Mexico to life at your table and working with players in short and long-term play.
  • Advice on how to bring your players into the world of Mexican narcofiction, including tools for portraying amigos y enemigos to antagonize and oppose the player characters. 

Cartel is a Mexican narcofiction tabletop roleplaying game that makes use of the same rules-light engine as Apocalypse World, Monsterhearts, and Urban Shadows. Cartel creates adult fiction in the vein of Breaking Bad, The Wire, and Once Upon a Time in Mexico, making it a perfect fit for lovers of crime fiction and Mexican melodramas alike. Cartel has the mechanical strength and narrative flexibility to create stories that are alternately tragic and darkly humorous, set against the backdrop of an eternal drug war.

3-5 players | 2-4 hour sessions | Rated Mature | Powered By the Apocalypse | 

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Discussions (4)
Customer avatar
Juan M July 17, 2023 6:12 pm UTC
"¿Plato o Plomo, Amigos?" translates into "Dish or lead, friends?". I sure hope that's a DTRPG error and not an indicator of the book's quality control.
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Customer avatar
Jared H August 15, 2023 8:02 am UTC
I'm sure they meant Plata, I hope
Customer avatar
George S May 02, 2023 11:32 pm UTC
PURCHASER
haha. On sale for $4.20. I see what you did there.
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Customer avatar
David J May 03, 2023 3:00 am UTC
Now that you've seen it, you're going to have to disappear.

No witnesses!

(in Ehrmantraut voice)
Customer avatar
Eric S May 02, 2023 8:34 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Bought in particular because this can be useful for my Savage Worlds - Daring Tales of the Sprawl campaign (Also because I saw someone had already called it "problematic" as expected).
Customer avatar
Adolfo B May 02, 2023 4:20 pm UTC
As a Mexican national, this seems... ill advised. Problematic at best. Hope you did your homework with this one.
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Customer avatar
David H May 02, 2023 10:08 pm UTC
The creator is himself Mexican-American and describes his take on the game on its old kickstarter page.

"I started working on Cartel around the same time that I wrapped up writing Urban Shadows. I was so proud of the urban politics and community realities that Andrew Medeiros and I had brought to the game, but I wanted to do more to connect my work with my culture.

But when I started working on my "Latino" game, I struggled to connect my distinct perspective to an experience players would love. I couldn't just set a game in Mexico; I had to find a time and a place that would evoke the pain and the promise of my culture while giving players an experience that was worth having again and again.

As I watched Breaking Bad, it clicked for me. Breaking Bad is set in my hometown, Albuquerque, NM, but it’s a story about white people. It explores themes and ideas that are central to my heritage…but with Latinos at the fringes. I realized that the game I wanted to...See more
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Customer avatar
George S May 03, 2023 12:47 am UTC
PURCHASER
Disclaimer: Please correct me if I am wrong, I am of mixed heritage but not Hispanic.
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TL:DR
Methinks there is a very good reason why Mexico and the year 2007 were chosen as a setting. Yes, there are definitely lots of potentially problematic elements inherent in these topics. I just bought it and I am looking forward to reading through it. However, there are very undeniable FACTS (not stereotypes) of the setting and time period that makes this a very good topic and setting for these kinds of stories.

2007 marked the beginning of an era of very high homocides. "Homicides beginning in 2008 [from 2007], rising to a peak in 2011 at the height of the so-called “drug war.” Homicides decreased slightly from 2012-2015 and then began to rise again in 2016. The total of 29,168 victims in 2017 was the highest number of homicides recorded during any year for which these data have been reported. During 2017, an average of 80 people per day were victims of homicide in Mexico....See more
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 Recent History















Product Information
Gold seller
Rule System(s)
Pages
162
Publisher Stock #
MPG028
File Size:
20.45 MB
Format
Original electronic Click for more information
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File Last Updated:
August 23, 2023
This title was added to our catalog on September 10, 2020.