Critique/Advise me on my first attempt at Love Letters

I’m running a game of Nahual for my crew and I’ve never written Love Letters before. I figured I’d throw them out to the hivemind here and see what you think of my first attempts. Some background first to help put them in context. The 3 PCs run a Cantina together (part of the setup in Nahual is to run a business). Recently the PCs managed to steal the enchanted whistle that Pancho (an adversary) uses to control Diablos. These Love Letters are intended to cover a couple of days worth of ingame time where each player decided on a small project.

Marco is the Tlacuache, a sneaky kleptomaniac. He stole the whistle and plans to ransom it back to Pancho.

Iktan is the Mono, an artist and craftsman. He is working to clone the whistle so they can subvert Pancho’s control of Diablos. Iktan also established at character creation that he overheard Mother Superior DeSantos was connected to the cartels, but she knows that someone knows and she is looking for that person.

Eloy is the Serpiente, a manipulative charmer. He is working on setting up a Lucha Libre night (there is a move for the Cantina, “Party Time!” that requires the PCs to host some big party at their Cantina).

The Love Letters follow, in italics.

Marco: over the last couple of days you have been stringing Pancho along until Iktan is finished with his project. It’s been a delicate dance of keeping him interested without giving away too much. Roll with Barrio to see how well you’ve done.

On a hit, you’ve found the right balance to keep Pancho on the hook. On a 7-9, however, a third party has gotten wise to your con, who is it? On a 6- you’ve accidentally given Pancho a clue to your identity, what is it?

Eloy: You have been working your charms to get a Lucha Libre night set up. But it never makes sense to do all the work yourself. Who have you roped into doing most of the grunt work?

Roll with Barrio to see how well they’ve done, and how they feel about you by the end. On a hit, they’ve done a good job helping you set up. On a 10+, they feel honored to have helped you out. On a 7-9, they are content, especially since you owe them a favour now. On a 6-, they are resentful and didn’t really come through for you, take -1 to the Party Time! Roll.

Iktan: While you have been busy at your workshop cloning Pancho’s Diablo Whistle, some young priest has been asking questions at Antifaz (the Cantina), looking for “a mural or graffiti artist” for a commissioned work of art.

On hearing this do you:

Avoid Antifaz like the plague for a while?
Trail the priest to learn more about him?
Confront him?
Ask around the barrio to get information on the priest?

I’m not familiar with the game, but these look pretty good to me, especially the first two. The third is a little unclear to me, and I’m not sure if that’s because I’m missing some context. Does the character have a reason to assume the priest is not acting in good faith? It seems like ‘meet with him to learn more about the commission’ should be an option, but if you include that alongside the others that suggest strongly the commission is a trap, I don’t know it works.

I also think it’s better to remove ‘avoid Antifaz’ as an option - that seems like it will remove opportunities for interesting play without adding much to the fiction. Confront the priest or try to learn more drive play much more effectively.

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Thanks Sandy! The missing context is that Iktan (in the third letter) knows that some folks in the Church are looking for him (not him per se, but someone… so him). This was set up in character creation and I’m trying to push this plot line a bit. I agree with what you mean about the avoid Antifaz option, looking at that again it does seem to provide a static option where nothing changes. Great advice!

I don’t know the specific game, but I know “downtime bridges” (my term) which is what love letters seem to be. I find all letters good, and Eloy’s letter especially strong.

The “avoid” option for Iktan is bland, like Sandy pointed out. You can spice up options like this by doing what you have done for Marco, ie. ask the player what it means.

E.g. Avoid Antifaz like the plague for a while? What do you do?