Cloud Empress is a tabletop RPG by watt that’s smashed Kickstarter goals and takes a far future world inspired by the likes of Dune and the manga Nausicaa and applies it to the sci-fi horror of Mothership.
The Kickstarter asked for $2,500 to fund, but with nearly three weeks left for people to join in, the tally is close to $45,000. You can find out more on the pitch page.
Wondering how Hayao Miyazaki’s story might be woven with sci-fi horror rules? There’s currently a free-to-download works-in-progress from watt’s itch.io page.
The world of Cloud Empress is a cursed but beautiful existence. We’re told character generation is super quick because PCs die frequently. That’s more in line with the Alien inspiration of Mothership than a traditional Miyazaki. Although, Nausicaa was pretty brutal at times.
The system uses a stress mechanic. When a player fails a dice roll, and one is needed whenever the outcome of a task is uncertain and important, their character gains stress. This is a cycle of doom as stress makes it harder to succeed, making failure more common and pushing stress higher and higher.
The funded project will produce a rules-light story-driven system about big dramatic moments.
While Cloud Empresses leans into the elegance of the Mothership system (1st edition), it is a standalone product. You don’t need Mothership.
Cloud Empresses comes with an open-world hex map for sandbox play.
This is a world where we are small things, where we are cursed, where reality is slippery, and we survive in beauty and in terror. Welcome to the Hereafter.
Explore a land governed by the patterns of giant psychic cicadas – the Imago. When the Cloud Empress goes missing, glory-hungry soldiers from royal lands above the clouds threaten the balance. The fields below will burn without your help.
You can support the indie RPG in the usual ways; telling people about it, trying something new, trying the work in progress and offering constructive insight or pledging money.
Backers who commit to $20 or more will get a digital world bundle as a thank-you. That’s the PDF of the core rules, the setting book, five pamphlet adventures and digital stretch goals.
At $31, backers will get the physical core world bundle of the core rules and setting book, with all stretch goals that unlock and worldwide shipping on offer.
The $48 tier adds back in the pamphlet adventures as five print tri-folds. Lastly, there’s a $58 tier for a deluxe bundle with a patch, art postcards and one large foldable poster of the world.
The digital world bundle is due in August, estimates watt, and the physical deliveries are in October.
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