Hey folks!

First of all, the changelog for 2.5: 

• The total stat block at character creation should now add up to +2 total, instead of +1 total.
• Motif advancements updated
• Witch's Egg section rewritten to be more clear.
• Starting advancement "Shade" added.
• Breakthrough advancement "Echo" added.
• Compassion renamed to Expression.

Second, I wanted to make a quick statement about general intent when playing Arcana Girls. First of all, player comfort comes before anything else. Make accommodations to the rules or language as freely as needed. If you make an accommodation to better suit your players, please, reach out and let me know through twitter, tumblr, or the itch.io page itself to let me know what you and your players found helpful.

On a related note, this game is written with some of the darker takes on Magical Girl media in mind, such as Puella Magi Madoka Magica, or Revolutionary Girl Utena, some of my personal favorites. As you play, you might find that certain concepts, such as Witches, Curses, or Magical Heroes have darker, more complicated implications. You may find yourself questioning whether or not Witches are truly evil creatures, or what a Hero should even look like. These questions are what Arcana Girls is all about, and was largely written to explore. The rulebook describes Witches are "creatures who spread ruin and despair", and this is certainly the initial premise for the campaign I'm running at the moment. However, you might start to question whether Witches should be considered "creatures" at all, or more rightly, "people". Please, be sure to question the assumptions implicit within the rulebook. Your interpretation should always be kinder, more empathetic, and more revolutionary than the assumptions you start with at the beginning of your campaign.

Finally, I'm working to flesh out the rulebook with more suggestions and resources for you to get started easily. However, Arcana Girls remains, at its core, a very simple set of rules and guidelines. My original intention when writing Arcana Girls was as a "micro-ttrpg". As a result, there's a lot of framework I'm using when I play my games that might not translate fully into this doc. I am looking to keep good records of these resources whenever possible, so that I can share them with you. However, your game might still look very different from mine. 

I think it's extremely cool that everyone who plays Arcana Girls might play it very differently, based on the group of players, context, and inspirations, and taste of all involved. I need to be able to trust you. There should be no room for bigotry, homophobia, transphobia, racism, or antisemitism in this game. Talk with your players frequently to ensure they're comfortable with all mechanics involved. If a certain player is precious about their character, and doesn't want them to die or become a witch, don't kill that character off. Talk with them, and figure out a better solution instead, for example. I can't be at your table with you when you play my game, so I need to be able to trust you to think critically about how you're playing this game instead. Magical girl shows can be as regressive, old-fashioned, or misogynistic as they can be revelatory, cathartic, and revolutionary. Be good to each other.

That's all, I don't mean to get on a soapbox. I hope you having a lot of fun playing this game. My other game, Tokushuffle is nearly finished, but I need to edit and format it before I publish the doc. I also want to make the cover and some art for the game before I publish it. I should be publishing a few more updates on Arcana Girls in the near future, since I'm currently playtesting it, so look forwards to that as well.