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:
Addresses locking Thursday, August 14th
9 months ago
– Wed, Jul 30, 2025 at 02:04:24 PM
Addresses locking Thursday, August 14th
Print production is underway. We are finalizing shipping logistics with our fulfillment partner Quartermaster Logistics. Please make any changes to your shipping address (where you would like to receive your game) by the end of Thursday, August 14th. To review or update your shipping address, log in to the Backerkit crowdfunding site for backers below.
If you have any questions or issues, you can also email me at worldsbywatt (at) gmail (dot) com.
Project timeline updates
As mentioned above, progress on print production is moving forward. The full print production should take about 10 weeks, so we still have about two months to go until completion.
In this next phase, I will be making the new PDFs accessible and bookmarked. This should take up to a month. We will also start working on the Alchemy VTT in the near future. Here's a look at the overall timeline.
That's it for this month's update. If you have any questions, reach out in the comments and I'll try and get them answered.
Mass production starts July 20th
10 months ago
– Mon, Jun 30, 2025 at 11:03:01 AM
Mass production starts July 20th
After working through some truly horrendous issues with Affinity Publisher 2 (more on that below), we've got the files locked, order numbers in, and on the schedule for all of the Cloud Empress Life & Death materials for mass manufacturing starting July 20th with Panda Games. Mass production is set to take up to 10 weeks.
Even Affinity Publisher 2 was not correctly exporting color conversions, I ran into a horrible bug caused by a new 2025 Affinity Publisher 2 update. Images on most odd page numbers would not export. It took a full week of problem-solving and searching forums to find that this issue has been reported since February 2025 and is still affecting users. It also took a little bit of extra time to get here as I needed to increase the depth of the Cloud Empress Life & Death box by about 12mm to fit all of the hardcovers in it.
Expected fulfillment delay until January 2026
In talking with our fulfillment partner, Quartermaster Logistics, it looks like the project could be fulfilled (if everything goes correctly) in November 2025. HOWEVER, I'm very wary of everything going precisely on time. If we push past late October or early November, the project will start to incur significant holiday shipping surcharges and fulfillment scheduling conflicts.
What does this all mean? Conservatively, I'm moving the expected fulfillment timeline back two months from November 2025 to January 2026.
I hate when the projects I manage fall behind schedule. Every time it happens, I go back and look at what I could have done differently to prevent these issues in the future. Here's a quick rundown of some key lessons learned on Cloud Empress Life & Death:
Ditch Affinity/Affinity Publisher 2.
Triple time estimates for anything new you are trying (this project it was both international manufacturing, hardcovers, and boxes)
Pick one new thing per project to reduce unanticipated risks (see above)
Co-authoring something does not half the time; writing with another author doubles the time it takes (at least for me, so far)
Anyway, please accept my sincerest apologies for the delay in getting your games. The books are looking beautiful and will be well worth the wait.
Rust Wings demos at Convergence
Finally, on a positive note, I’ll be holding two open sessions of Rust Wings in Minneapolis during the Convergence Convention. I’ll be leading sessions of Rust Wings on:
Rust Wings is an adventure TTRPG inspired by Castle in the Sky, Arcane (League of Legends), and Mega Man (set to launch in 2026), where players take the role of a gang of youth exploring abandoned mega-cities swarming with malfunctioning robots. You can read the announcement and inspirations in the game announcement below: https://worldsbywatt.substack.com/p/lowland-festivals-rust-wings-announcement
That's it for this month. Thanks for your continued support! As always, I'll be sure to communicate about the timeline each month, and you can ask any questions in the comments.
Print production samples!, Pre-orders close 6/13, 109 copies left of Stories from the Slip, tariff news and project timeline!
11 months ago
– Tue, May 27, 2025 at 01:53:27 PM
Happy Tuesday, everyone! This month, I have several updates to share, so let's get into it.
Print production samples!
The big news—I received the print production samples about a week ago! I am excited, impressed, and happy to share pictures of Panda Manufacturing's pre-production samples. Let's take some of the quick photos I took on my phone today (apologies for the poor picture quality)!
As you probably can tell, the pre-production print samples look fantastic. Getting these boxes in my hand has doubled my excitement for the project, and I can't wait to get them to you. I'm especially thrilled with the gold foiling on the 'skull box.'
The point of pre-production copies is to make final modifications to the product before mass production starts. So, what, if anything, will I be changing based on the pre-production copies?
First, I was a little off in my measurements, and the 'skull box' needs about another inch of depth to fit all four hardcovers, the hex map, Almanac Vol. 1, Rivals Protocol pamphlet, and character sheets pad. This means that the Life & Death exclusive skull box will be about an inch deeper than the Starter Box (cicada version).
I'll be changing the color of the cloth ribbon bookmarks to a darker orange and some other images' colors to have increased contrast.
Finally, the Rivals Protocol pamphlet's paper weight was not thick enough in the sample.
Life & Death pre-orders close 6/13
This is a final reminder that preorders for Cloud Empress Life & Death will close on June 13th. Due to the uncertainty of tariffs, Cloud Empress Life & Death will have a very limited retail release with prices higher than the preorder price.
There are just two days left back Cloud Empress: Stories from the Slip! This project will help offset unpredictable tariff expenses. We’re down to 109 copies left, and pledges tend to pick up on the last two days. Stories from the Slip will not be released at retail, so grab your copies today.
We are continuing to monitor the US's trade war with China (and the rest of the world). There has been a 90-day pause on the triple-digit tariffs on Chinese imported goods to America, but according to our current predictions, fulfillment will begin after this pause. The plan is to continue to move forward with production despite the uncertainty and make more tactical decisions about fulfillment as the situation develops.
Project timeline
In the month of May, we approved and implemented all relevant fan-suggested edits. Thanks so much to everyone who submitted revisions! In the future, I'll be including an attribution field so we can properly thank you in the credits of the book (unfortunately, we don't have time for something like this in the current project).
It should take about two weeks to update the digital files with the manufacturer based on changes to the pre-production print copy. After that, mass production should begin in June or early July at the latest! I'm still hopeful we can fulfill at the latest, by mid-November.
That's it for this month! If you have any questions, post them in the comments and I'll get them answered!
Cloud Empress: Stories of the Slip crowdfunding now!
12 months ago
– Tue, May 06, 2025 at 08:38:16 AM
Three new Cloud Empress expansions live on Backerkit!
Today, I’m proud to expand the world of Cloud Empress with Ballad of the Blooming Blade, Bodyhopping in Polite Society, and Cloud Empress Almanac Vol. 2.
These new zines are some of the most adventurous and creative writing I’ve done to date. I can’t wait to share it with you!
Stories from the Slip's print run will be a crowdfunding exclusive limited to 1000 physical copies and will not be available at retail. Keeping our print run low will also ensure a quick turnaround from campaign completion to final fulfillment.
I'm so appreciative of your support on Cloud Empress Life & Death, I want to dive deeper into why I chose to crowdfund new Cloud Empress expansions and alleviate some fears about running multiple campaigns simultaneously. Let me start by saying, I’m averse to creators running multiple crowdfunding campaigns. It can lead to all sorts of unfortunate situations where a publisher (intentionally or accidentally) robs Peter to pay Paul. Let me explain why I’m running another crowdfunding campaign while Cloud Empress: Life & Death is still being printed.
I’m running this campaign lean. No stretch goals. One pledge level. Printed in the US and shipped out of my basement (like the first Cloud Empress campaign). The number of pledges will be limited to 1000 to keep turnaround reasonable.
I’m afraid of tariffs. The United States has been ramping up an international trade war. Recent tariffs on Chinese goods will cut into the first campaign funds, and having a buffer from another campaign will help offset unpredictable costs.
I’m paying artists to create great stuff for 2026. I have two art teams working on monthly commissions for future projects (I can’t wait to tell you more about them). Keeping a steady stream of income means I can keep my art teams paid and working.
I have little or no personal work left to complete on Cloud Empress: Life and Death. At this point, the Cloud Empress box set samples are being prepared, and production will start in late April or early May. I like making stuff and don’t want to sit on my hands for the six or so months it will take to ship Cloud Empress: Life and Death internationally.
Quite a lot of ‘Stories from the Slip’ is complete already. I’ve been commissioning artwork for the project for months and writing for just as long. I’ll share even more artwork and project details during the campaign!
Thanks for your continued support and please reach out with any questions in the comments!
Tariffs, Stories from the Slip, and returning supporter discounts
about 1 year ago
– Thu, Apr 10, 2025 at 08:02:07 AM
The impact and uncertainty of tariffs
A few people have contacted me to ask about the impact of "Liberation Day" tariffs on the Cloud Empress Life & Death campaign. If you're anything like me, you've been inundated by news about tariffs. Cloud Empress Life & Death is being printed in China by Panda Games very soon (I have already placed a $12,000 deposit on the games). First, I want to highlight some of the basics of tariffs for those unfamiliar. The current relevant US tariffs are a tax placed on goods imported from China. The importer (the publisher a.k.a. worlds by watt) pays a percentage-based tax (right now a whopping 125%) on the manufacturing price to have these goods enter the United States. For instance, if I imported $10,000 of Cloud Empress games, I'd owe the US government $12,500. You might be familiar with the basics at this point, but Jamey Stegmaier wrote two helpfulblog posts with the nitty-gritty details of how tariffs impact gaming publishers and why so many games are printed in China. For instance, the cicada and skull boxes would be nearly impossible to print in the USA and would cost a fortune to produce in the United States.
Okay, so what is the impact of tariffs on the Cloud Empress Life & Death campaign? I can only guess. I don't know because I don't know what's going to happen next--it seems like only a handful of people do. Will the US and China negotiate or continue to raise tariffs in retribution? No one knows. There's a lot of chaos, uncertainty, and risk at play and it's impossible to fully manage as a small single-person ttrpg publisher.
Currently, it appears that books are exempt from some or all of the recently levied Chinese tariffs in a document called Annex II. It's unclear whether Annex II only applies to the first 54% tariffs or all of the 125% tariffs. The Cloud Empress box sets should be categorized as books (I didn't include dice in the box for this reason), but I'm also told the decision will be made by a customs official upon arrival. Once the games get printed and loaded onto boats there will also be 2-3 months of freight shipping where US tariffs could be significantly raised or significantly lowered.
My current strategy to mitigate tariff-related costs will be a combination of the options below:
Reduce or eliminate the Cloud Empress Life & Death's retail release. I'm a crowdfunding-focused publisher, but retail releases create a steady stream of income and help build a wider Cloud Empress community through sales at local game stores. With tariffs, the margins to make a profit on retail releases will shrink (without marking up the product to rates I'm not sure people would buy the game for), and it increases the very real risk of not being able to pay the customs fees at the port of entry. Reducing or eliminating physical retail releases will be a major financial blow to worlds by watt's business model, but one that will be necessary in the current economic climate.
Include tariff-related fees in shipping charges.If US tariffs hit the Cloud Empress shipment some of these costs will likely need to be shared with US backers. I'm hoping a tariff fee would be something like $2-5 for each US backer receiving a physical product, but the calculation would be based on the tariff rates (if tariffs apply to books from China), and the tax would be split between you and me.
Design future releases without boxes. I'm already hard at work putting together my next setting, a Mausritter hack called Rust Wings. Originally I intended to crowdfund a Rust Wings starter box (like Cloud Empress's), but the campaign will need a new form factor to create more flexibility for where the game can be produced.
Allow for backers to waive their returning supporter discount. Waiving your thank-you discount is not necessary for the project to succeed. I'm happy to keep my promise to financially thank my previous backers for continuing to support Cloud Empress's success. I'm sharing this option because in other crowdfunding campaigns I've backed, fans have asked for additional ways to voluntarily help financially support the creators like during the COVID pandemic, and other global challenges. Instructions are listed in the 'returning supporter discount section' below. Again, this is totally optional and not expected (but appreciated for those willing).
Launch a new Cloud Empress crowdfunding campaign in May. As mentioned in a previous Kickstarter update, I'm launching three new Cloud Empress zines in a project called Stories from the Slip. The campaign will generate additional revenue to help me better weather the risks of Cloud Empress Life & Death sailing across the world in the middle of a trade war. I'm very averse to running simultaneous crowdfunding campaigns, but I've made several decisions that make Stories from the Slip a low-risk project. Read more about these production decisions in a recent newsletter post.
Stories from the Slip, launches Tuesday, May 6th
InBodyhopping in Polite Society, bodyhopping expert Tasha 'Sweet' Hart outlines the do's and don't's of donning human corpses. This supplement is perfect for players and Game Wardens looking to add flavor to the bodyhoppers in their campaigns.
In Ballad of the Blooming Blade, you'll learn of the fabled Sellsword, Boulder, information about the Frog Dog Company, and their rivals the equally infamous League of Death. This supplement adds numerous dangerous enemies and special chalk-powder sword-spells.
The Cloud Empress Almanac, Vol. 2, collects my second year's worth of newsletter expansions in physical form. Enrich your game with celebration foods (see the newest expansion below), descriptions and stats for many Cloud Empress's wildlife, and new Cloud Empress NPCs.
Finally, don't miss an adorable 3" embroidered patch of the shrimp-mouse, a pivotal critter featured in Ballad of the Blooming Blade.
These new zines are some of the most adventurous and creative writing I’ve done to date. I can’t wait to share it with you! To deliver the project within three months, production will be limited to a 1000-copy print run and will not be available at retail.
I'm starting to calculate returning supporter discounts. During the campaign, I promised that if you've previously bought a print copy of Cloud Empress you would receive a $5 discount on shipping when backing the Starter Box and an $8 discount on the All Books or All-in pledge.
If you backed the previous Cloud Empress Kickstarter campaign, I will locate and apply your discount based on matching your email addresses across campaigns.
If you bought a copy of Cloud Empress at retail. Send an image of your copy to worldsbywatt [at] gmail [dot] com by Friday, May 30th. Understanding the number of discounts I need to apply to shipping will be an important factor in the print run's calculations, and I may not be able to honor retail thank-you discounts sent to me after May 30th, 2025.
If you would like to waive your thank-you discount, you can email me at worldsbywatt [at] gmail [dot] com, using or listing your related Kickstarter email. Very much appreciated, but not necessary!
Project Timeline Update
It's been a tiresome month of exporting and re-exporting the Cloud Empress files, as the helpful folks at Panda Games worked with me to get the files ready to produce print samples. For some reason, despite Affinity Publisher (my layout software) saying it was converting RGB images into the print color profile CMYK, Panda's preflight error-checking tool kept finding many of the books' images listed as RGB. I've also (painstakingly) changed all of the text from rich black to pure black, and have to manually go through and turn overprint on. I'm a self-taught graphic designer so it's been an insightful process and the books should look quite good when printed.
I eventually resolved the RGB issue mentioned above (through weeks of back and forth), by converting the color space in Adobe Acrobat Pro after exporting the files from Affinity Publisher. I really like Affinity's software for many reasons, but this learning process ate up about 3-5 weeks of project time and there is much less troubleshooting support compared to Adobe software. I may switch over to Adobe InDesign for future releases. I also got the unfortunate news that the print sample production will take three weeks (previously quoted as a few days of setup), due to the complexity involved in the casebound binding process.
All told, I think we're about 4-7 weeks behind schedule pushing expected fulfillment into October or November 2025. I'm doing everything in my power to keep us from hitting holiday shipping surcharges added around Thanksgiving. There's still some flex in the shipping schedule I'm hoping we get back by smooth sailing ahead.
The very small silver lining to these delays is that it's given me more time to assess the tariff situation. Had I not struggled so long getting Affinity Publisher to export properly, I may have had considerably higher tariff risks right now. The delay is also giving our editor several additional weeks to do more intensive proofreading!
Okay, that was a lot! Post questions in the comments and I'll get them answered. Thanks again for your continued support.
