Cloud Empress streamlines the Ennie-winning rules-lite Mothership 1E tabletop roleplaying system into a stand-alone Nausicaa-inspired ecological science fantasy setting.
This is a world where we are small things, where we are cursed, where reality is slippery, and we survive in beauty and 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.
Cloud Empress returns to Kickstarter! Our last campaign delivered successfully to backers in under a year. Now you'll journey into lands of ash and spore with two new setting books, Land of the Living and Land of the Dead, along with the release of hardcover box sets.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
September update and project timeline adjustments
about 2 months ago
– Fri, Sep 27, 2024 at 05:24:26 AM
Happy September, for a few more days at least. I've got a lot of info to share so let's get into it.
Free Cloud Empress biome expansions
I've posted updated tables for the last two months to increase replayability in the Breadbasket and The Weeds biomes. These terrain/encounter tables are particularly useful when PCs travel to a hex they've previously visited. If you'd like to get the PDFs for the new encounter tables and upcoming Cloud Empress expansion content, subscribe to the Cloud Empress newsletter.
Order locks in November
I've gotten a few questions about how much time folks have before pledges become locked and charged. I plan to close the pledge manager and charge payment on pledge upgrades in mid-November.
Life & Death project updates
Now for the meat of this Kickstarter update. Work on Cloud Empress Life & Death has been going great. Just last month I turned in the Land of the Dead manuscript, development editing started, we more or less completed copyediting the Land of the Living, I finished the design work for the Rivals Protocol solo pamphlet, and we completed sensitivity editing for both Land of the Living and Land of the Dead! It certainly felt like a sprint, and we got a lot done. Over the next few months, we'll be finishing the final pieces of art and getting everything into layout.
Meeting with my manufacturer's rep I unfortunately have to share another delay in expected fulfillment and the causes for the delay. Our current project fulfillment completion has moved to September 2025, putting the total expected project duration a little under a year and a half. September completion is a conservative estimate, building the schedule using the longest estimates from both the manufacturer and a fulfillment company. I hope we wrap up a month or two earlier, but no promises.Where did the increased time come from?
The largest reason for the projected delay is the Chinese New Year. For those not familiar, Chinese factories take about a month off to celebrate across the country and often travel back to their rural communities. Chinese New Year and the winter holidays will slow us down by about 6 weeks. My original plan was to complete all the digital files in the Fall to prevent this delay, but both the Land of the Living and the Land of the Dead manuscripts took an additional month or two to complete. Come December 15th, the near-final files will be sent to the printer for production proofs. I'll release the first round of all the digital files to you in late December.
Let's talk a bit about why a manuscript might take more time than anticipated and what types of decisions I've been making in the design and writing process. Some Land of the Dead spoilers ahead -- With Land of the Dead, there's always been a secret force driving Magicians and chalk eaters to travel into the Deadlands to discover what's underneath Bravo City. I had an initial plan for what force that might be, but in the writing process the mystery grew and became a lot more interesting. What if the center of Bravo City was a machine imprisoning an otherworldy Angel? What if Prince Bug and a cadre of master Magicians planned to travel down to meet the Angel and use the machine? What if the machine allowed users to travel through timespace using the Angel's memories. The machine can then send the PCs to Bravo City before it fell -- when the city was a giant prison for political dissidents.
I hope this sounds interesting, because the more I wrote and thought about Bravo City the stranger and more magical things became. Following the cool ideas has a real cost though - time. Suddenly, I found myself in a position where I needed to write Bravo City and its locations twice, after Calamity and when the city operated as the Emperor's prison. I'm proud of the result though. I can't wait for you and your group to discover the mysteries of both versions of Bravo City.
tl;dr I hate extending timelines, but I think the wait will be well worth it.
Bravo City political prisoners feeding chalk into the city's forges
That's it for this month. I try and build my campaigns around thorough communication and transparency. If you have questions, please post them in the comments below and I'll get them answered!
August Update and Cloud Empress wins an Ennie!
3 months ago
– Fri, Aug 23, 2024 at 08:16:37 AM
CE wins Silver Ennie for best writing
Cloud Empress: Land of Cicadas won a silver Ennie for best writing! I could not have done this without your support. Thanks so much to everyone who voted to help the game receive this recognition. For those less familiar, the Ennies are the ttrpg world’s Oscars and Kids Choice Awards wrapped into one. The final stage of the awards requires fan voting. For perspective, Chaosium took the gold prize in the same category with a 24-employee staff and a reported revenue of about 25 million a year. As a micro publisher, I expected very little out of the fan-voting portion, but you all blew me away! Thank you for drawing new eyes to Cloud Empress and putting a particularly shiny feather in my cap.
worlds by watt joins 1% for the Planet
In other exciting news, I’ve joined 1% for the Planet. Since the start, I’ve wanted to make worlds by watt a values-driven publisher. Writing games that create settings instilled with themes of climate restoration, anti-racism, and highlighting LGBTQIA and trans experiences have made me particularly thoughtful about how I could put my money where my mouth is. I’ve worked hard to give artists and contractors bonuses and equity in Cloud Empress’ success. Now I’m happy to expand the company’s efforts to give back. 1% for the Planet is a charity that companies join to commit to donating 1% of their total revenue to pre-vetted environmental charities. 1% for the Planet conducts yearly audits of members to ensure these contributions are made. worlds by watt will be donating to a combination of local, national, and international charities to address climate change and food insecurity. I’ll share more once those donations occur. You’ll also start seeing a 1% for the Planet logo on the back of upcoming Cloud Empress materials to encourage other companies to join the program and highlight my commitment to saving the planet from climate catastrophe.
Life & Death artwork and hex map
Y'all, it's a blast commissioning new artwork and watching new areas of Cloud Empress come to life. Above you'll see the mysterious angel at the bottom of the Bravo City crash site and a Sliplander storyteller recounting ancient history and tales of modern bravery, both illustrated by lead artist pbbeta. Every week the art team finishes multiple pieces of artwork ensuring the new books will be brimming with fantastic visual representations of the Hereafter. I'll selectively share more, but I'm also trying to keep a lot of the art secret to avoid too many spoilers!
I also have an early draft of the combined Cloud Empress hex map in its new style. Expect more iconography and more information on the final version. For those familiar with the previous pixel art maps, I've gone for a simpler style for the revised hex maps to increase readability and better match the overall Cloud Empress aesthetic. This map combines the three smaller hex maps from the books Land of Cicadas, Land of the Living, and Land of the Dead into a single traversable world (the combined version will be available as a PDF). Printed maps in each box set will crop out and zoom in on book-specific biomes.
Astute viewers will notice fewer hexes in the new Land of the Living and Land of the Dead hexes areas than originally planned in the Kickstarter campaign. The books are still shaping up to be longer and bigger than the original printing of Land of Cicadas (about 76-80 pages each) because we've gone deeper into each hex description and made featured locations more robust. The hefty number of spores, spells, NPCs, and relics also increase the page count and are useful across Cloud Empress sessions. If you have questions about the hex map or specifics about the books, please post a comment below!
Life & Death project update
It's been pedal to the metal incorporating Christian Sorrell/Meatcastle's excellent development editing notes in the revised Land of the Living manuscript. We've done some significant reimaging and clarifying of the Valley (formerly known as the Garden) and Great Blue (formerly known as Big Blue) to make worldbuilding concepts consistent, clear, and evocative. Land of the Living was sent for copyediting and sensitivity editing this morning and I'll be finishing up Land of the Dead's manuscript for development editing in the next four weeks.
Here's a visual representation of the Cloud Empress Life & Death timeline.
That's August's Kickstarter update! Questions? Please post them in the comments below!
July update and Ennie best writing voting!
4 months ago
– Thu, Jul 18, 2024 at 09:06:22 AM
Hey all, I've got news to share along with your regular monthly update!
Vote Cloud Empress for best writing (Ennies 2024)
I am thrilled that Cloud Empress Land of Cicadas was nominated for best writing in the 2024 Ennies. Getting recognition for my work on the project feels humbling and gratifying.
Fan-voted awards often come down to community support. I’ve seen how even smaller games can take home prizes when people go out of their way to support them. Thanks so much for your support already!
Possibly my favorite part of creating Cloud Empress is commissioning amazing science fantasy artwork from amazing artists. Today, I'm pleased to share we've brought a new artist onto the Cloud Empress team, Sacred Field. Sacred Field will be helping us create amazing and evocative NPCs to meet. You can find their work on Instagram and take a look "Slim," a gondolier on a floating peat bog island in the Land of the Living.
Project timeline updates
Now for the project timeline update. Overall the project is progressing closely as expected. Land of the Living is just about finished with its development editing. The Land of the Dead manuscript should be complete in August, and the Almanac is pretty much complete. With all that said, I have moved the anticipated delivery date back about a month and a half to May 2025. Why did the expected physical fulfillment shift?
First, I like to be conservative in my estimates, so we may fulfill the project before May 2025. Second, Quartermaster Logistics let me know that one of my shipping estimates was about two weeks too short. Finally, I took a week off for a Summer vacation and got a new computer, which meant two weeks of significantly decreased productivity.
It's my priority to get you Cloud Empress: Life and Death as soon as possible. Much of project management is a series of educated guesses, and I'll continue to update you and the timeline as I have more information, and more of the creative work is complete.
Thanks so much and I hope you are having a great Summer. Feel free to ask questions in the comments below!
June Cloud Empress Project Update
5 months ago
– Thu, Jun 20, 2024 at 07:26:58 AM
Hello all, and happy first day of Summer for those of you in North America! I've got a few updates, but the project is in overall great shape, progressing fairly close to our anticipated timeline. Let's dive into a few updates!
Cloud Empress a Panic Engine game
The biggest news this month -- Cloud Empress is being rebranded as a "Panic Engine" game. What does this mean and how does it impact Cloud Empress? Mothership 1E is the first in the series of tabletop roleplaying games Tuesday Knight Games intends to publish using adapted versions of the Mothership ruleset. The "For use with the sci-fi horror RPG Mothership," branding will be reserved for games that more closely match Mothership's blue-collar space setting moving forward.
Rules-wise, there won't be any changes to Cloud Empress because of the rebranding. Sean McCoy and I have been in conversation over the last two years about when and how Cloud Empress would become a Panic Engine game and Tuesday Knight Games feels like now is the time to move Cloud Empress over to the new branding. Sean is allwoing me to print the Cloud Empress Life & Death project as the last Cloud Empress project with Mothership branding, but I feel it doesn't make sense to have a lot of starter boxes out there with the Mothership logo if future projects will have a Panic Engine label on the cover. This was not something I anticipated happening during this project. I continue to appreciate Sean's support of Cloud Empress and open communication. Long-term, I see the Panic Engine Branding as an opportunity to more clearly explain Cloud Empress to new fans. You can read more about Sean's plans for the Panic Engine in his most recent blog post.
tl;dr Cloud Empress products will have a "Panic Engine" logo on the cover instead of a "Mothership" logo to comply with TKG licensing.
Over the last year, we've built a friendly and helpful Cloud Empress Discord community. I just about had a heart attack this week when my Discord account was mistakenly caught in a spam filter and my account was disabled for a few days. Thankfully the Discord team quickly restored my access.
Finally, let's dive into project development updates and the project timeline.
Over the last month, the focus has been on Land of the Living manuscript. I'm happy to say Land of the Living moved into development editing last week! Each week I'm also receiving 1-2 pieces of project artwork. Next on this list is diving deeper into the Land of the Dead manuscript, expecting its development editing to start in August. With my current information, I believe we are on track for a late March 2025 delivery.
That's it for this month, let me know what questions you have in the comments!
May Update: Pledge Manager Incoming, Alchemy VTT, and Announcing Rust Wings!
6 months ago
– Thu, May 23, 2024 at 09:12:15 AM
Backerkit pledge manager incoming
While it's only been a month since the Cloud Empress Life & Death campaign closed, I've been busy over here. The Backerkit pledge manager and preorder store are currently in review with the Backerkit Team. After that, I'll send out a test to 5% of backers to ensure everything is working properly, before sending out the pledge manager to all backers.
Expect a link to the pledge manager sent to your Kickstarter account email no later than early June. In the pledge manager, you'll have the opportunity to change your pledge level and you will need to confirm your order and enter a shipping address.
Shipping will be calculated and charged closer to project fulfillment in early 2025. Backerkit will list the shipping cost to your Backerkit account once shipping costs are calculated. I wait to calculate shipping until closer to fulfillment because these prices can vary widely over-time, and routinely sink crowdfunding businesses when not accounted for carefully. No charges for shipping will be made without about two weeks of notifications from me. Refunds are available at any time during this project minus Kickstarter fees. I'll share more information about the pledge manager once it's live!
Cloud Empress coming to Alchemy VTT
I'm happy to announce that I've signed a contract to bring Cloud Empress to Alchemy Virtual Tabletop. If you're not familiar, Alchemy is a relatively new VTT focused on theatre of the mind gameplay - perfect for Cloud Empress' play style. It has a stunning UI and is quick to start, learn and play. All backers of this project will receive free copies of Alchemy VTT Cloud Empress assets that match the books in their PDF bundle. Depending on when the Cloud Empress Life & Death files are finalized on my end, the VTT implementation should be completed before print fulfillment. Alchemy accounts (for both players and GMs) are totally free -- there is a premium subscription that allows for playing in more concurrent games on the platform.
While I’m still focused on the current Cloud Empress Life & Death project, I’ve started the early stages of testing my next tabletop roleplaying game setting called Rust Wings: Wrench and Propeller Roleplaying!
After a widespread Robot Rebellion 50 years earlier, now the planet is overrun with abandoned mechanical crabs, robot monkeys, and free-spirited automatons. Players form seaplane salvage crews exploring the Endless Ocean for valuable treasure and to uncover the past’s buried secrets. Rust wing crews must navigate collapsed massive moving structures while avoiding the Royal Navy, Air Pirates, Corporation agents, and the remaining robotic inhabitants of abandoned human cities.
Key inspirations include Hayao Miyazaki’s Castle in the Sky, Legend of Zelda Wind Waker, Nier Automata, Mega Man 8/Mega Man Legends, One Piece, and Dragon Ball. Think bright skies, big blue waters, pirates with hearts of gold, and dangerous mysteries to unravel.
How does Rust Wings work? I'm testing a hacked Mausritter ruleset to create adventure gameplay on the open waters that powers interesting sneaking, climbing, and chase sequences.
I’ll be playtesting Rust Wings at the Minneapolis gaming convention Convergence!
Finally, let's talk about the Cloud Empress Life & Death project's timeline.
Over the last month we've sent the 2024 Cloud Empress Almanac through most of the editing process so it's nearly complete.
I'm currently jamming away at filling the last gaps in the Land of the Living manuscript and hope to have it over to development editing in the next two weeks.
Then it will be on to Land of the Dead, which will be a bigger lift to complete, but one I've budgeted most of the Summer for. All told, we have not experienced any delays that would impact a March 2025 deadline.
Question about Rust Wings, the project timeline, or anything else? Leave them in the comments below!
