Hey, welcome back, or welcome if this is your first issue.
Quick reminder for anyone new: Porchirren: Crucible of Cards is a tactical, solo-first, card-driven tabletop RPG, no dice, no Game Master, resolved entirely with a standard pack of 54-playing cards.
Last issue I told you I'd rather show you this thing getting built than just tell you it's finished one day. So here's two real things that actually happened since then.
The Quick Start is live.
You can play it right now, pay what you want, including nothing, on RPG-Trader.com or itch.io. One pre-built character, one full Infiltration scene, five real Action Checks, played start to finish. Thanks to my child-like enthusiasm & excitement, there's a short trailer up now too.
The podcast is live too.
Episode one of Porchirren: Cards on the Tabletop Devlogs just went up on Spotify, and it's not a scripted pitch. It's a real, live-drawn playtest, the same alleyway scene from the Quick Start, played out card by card with nothing fudged. There's also a short trailer for the mailing list itself, if you want a quick look. And if someone forwarded you this and you're not actually on the list yet, that's the same place to fix that.
What's next: the Violence Ashcan.
Work's already underway on the next playable piece, and it's a genuinely different kind of thing from the Quick Start, not just more of it. Where the Quick Start gives you one pre-built character and one scene to get a feel for the game, the Ashcan is a complete, standalone dose of Violence specifically, three separate character builds to choose from, and a full, five-check scene with real opposition, positioning, and tactics behind it. It builds directly on everything the Quick Start already taught you, same core loop, same card pack, just with more depth to actually push against.
Projected for release the last week of October, on RPG-Trader.com and Itch.io, same as the Quick Start.
Here's the part I'm actually excited about. Starting next issue, this newsletter will centre on a real, weekly series pulling back the curtain on how the Ashcan actually gets built, and how it ends up genuinely different from the Quick Start.
First up: how a fight actually resolves differently once it's real combat, colour alone decides whether trauma lands on you or your target, not the floor-and-ceiling check everything else in this game runs on. Not a polished retrospective after the fact. The actual, real development record, mistakes included.
That's it for this one. If either the Quick Start or the episode landed for you, reply and tell me, I read every one.
If the cards you're dealt aren't kind, don't flip the table, have fun anyway.
Read me next Monday.