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.
What do you think? Let us know in the comments below!
