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Cloud Empress: Rulebook

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Start your journey into an expansive, Nausicaa-inspired fantasy campaign setting ruled by giant Magic Cicadas, for the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG 1E. Unleash imaginative magic spells and harness ancient relics to survive the summer of the Century Brood. 

"Cloud Empress is a startling vision bursting with imagination and wonder. watt has pulled off something truly unique - both familiar and unsettling."

  • Sean McCoy, creator of Mothership
"Cloud Empress is unafraid to be subtle and quiet. Filled with fresh ideas and rooted in play, it is a deeply human work."
  • Luke Gearing, author of Hull Breach and Pound of Flesh

Cloud Empress is an expansive, Nausicaa-inspired fantasy campaign setting for the Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG. Cloud Empress places you in a world ruled by the patterns of giant magical cicadas. Cloud Empress creates a new Earth, thousands of years in the future inspired by Hayao Miyazaki’s Nausicaa in the Valley of the Wind, Frank Herbert’s Dune, and Hiromu Arakawa’s Full Metal Alchemist.

Prince Bug

What's Inside

  • 4 evocative jobs: Sellsword, Lordling, Magician, and Courier
  • 30 unique science fantasy skills
  • 30 magical spells each with amazing effects and dangerous consequences
  • 30 chalk crests capable of unleashing ancient powers
  • 20 new science fantasy tools of violence 
  • 10 strange utility spores 
  • 7 animals, friends, and foes
  • 26 illustrations 
  • And much more!

Specifications

  • 58 page, Digest size, full color saddle-stitched.
  • Printed in the United States.
  • Fully hyperlinked and bookmarked.
  • Compatible with Mothership 1st Edition.
  • Made by entirely by humans.

PHYSICAL COPIES COMING TO RETAIL DEC. 2023!

Credits

Game, graphic design and layout by watt
Illustrations by pbbeta, Garin, imogen, and Juan Gee
Editing and development by Roz Leahy
Additional game development by Christian Sorrell
Sensitivity editing by Monroe Soto
Playtesting by Mary Helen Inskeep, Erica Young, Patrick Frazier, Noel Miller, Kat Miller-Frazier, Dan Frazier, Ashley Nolan, Anna Frazier, Zobot257, Zoe R., Other Jim, ChrisAir, Terry Herc, and Jet McFin.
Special thanks to A & D, Sean McCoy and Luke Gearing



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Reviews (6)
Discussions (7)
Customer avatar
Spencer F April 16, 2024 2:39 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Beautiful game, I love the art and the setting, and the tone is so perfect , can't wait to play it.

Minor comment in case it was on accident, but the name tables on page 47 and 48 are missing the die result for #19
Customer avatar
isaac R March 05, 2024 8:19 pm UTC
PURCHASER
First off, want to say this is probably the best tabletop setting I've read, the art is phenomenal, adore the classes & magic system & the whole flavour.

However, I'm wondering if any of the supplements have any GM tools for creating your own take on the setting, your own adventures & hexcrawls etc. within this flavour of fantasy? The joy of GMing for me, personally, is in worldbuilding and letting my players have ownership over small pockets of worldbuilding too. I'm wondering about stuff related to creating your own takes on the setting pillars within the wonderful flavour presented (i.e. Imago, Crests etc.), but also as mentioned, for creating hexcrawls & adventures; the book explains what the game wasn't built for, but not what kind of adventures (I've been solo playing bean barge, and while it's wonderful, it doesn't seem to give much indication either) I realise this seems like it may undermine the model of selling adventures and setting books, but that's not...See more
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Customer avatar
watt W March 20, 2024 8:33 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Thanks so much for the kind words and high praise!

I'll have to think about worldbuilding, GM empowerment tools. Something like a worldbuilding guide would be really neat, explaining the design philosophy and essential ingredients could be something I'd enjoy writing.

I totally agree about vehicles. There's a very small summary of vehicle rules on page 57, but we were very limited on space in the book because the first printing was staple bound. The reprint will be printed hardcover giving us additional space for content. I think a spread on land vehicles would be a wonderful stretch goal in the next campaign (live on Kickstarter April 2nd 2024).

For aircraft, the next major part of the setting takes place in the sky and expect a lot more love devoted to airships and thopters (not to delay too long). I also release monthly expansion content on the Cloud Empress newsletter, so there might be intermediate content releases (like character growth in the meantime).
...See more
Customer avatar
Brandon M February 23, 2024 11:33 am UTC
PURCHASER
Is there a place to get the solo rules from the Kickstarter campaign if we missed it?
Reply
Customer avatar
watt W March 04, 2024 5:44 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Yes! You can grab the solo rules and other downloads on the Cloud Empress website: https://cloudempress.com/downloads-2/
Customer avatar
Thomas G September 30, 2023 8:56 am UTC
PURCHASER
This is an awesome book, the art is gorgeous and I love the setting!
Customer avatar
Eric M September 29, 2023 9:25 pm UTC
PURCHASER
I don't know of a more imaginative, engrossing and thoughtful approach to a RPG. Ecological. Science. Fantasy. What else do you need to know? I mean, look at the art!
Customer avatar
Chris A September 29, 2023 7:51 pm UTC
PURCHASER
I enjoyed the six month campaign based just on the already fun early version. This final version is so gorgeous and even more complete, so excited to try and get another Cloud Empress game going soon, :)
Customer avatar
Nicholas A September 27, 2023 1:33 am UTC
PURCHASER
Does this require a copy of Mothership 1st Edition to play?
Reply
Customer avatar
Matt H September 27, 2023 10:55 am UTC
I hear you can get away with just this (pwyw):
https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/245017/Mothership-Players-Survival-Guide?affiliate_id=31065
Reply
Customer avatar
watt W September 29, 2023 3:26 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Hey Nicholas, Cloud Empress is entirely stand-alone using this rulebook. A free introductory adventure, setting book and more will be released over the next two months to use with the Rulebook.
Reply
Customer avatar
Michael L October 02, 2023 3:45 am UTC
PURCHASER
That's,super convenient!
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Product Information
Author(s)
Rule System(s)
Pages
58
ISBN
979-8-9891507-0-0
File Size:
49.22 MB
Format
Original electronic Click for more information
Scanned image
These products were created by scanning an original printed edition. Most older books are in scanned image format because original digital layout files never existed or were no longer available from the publisher.

For PDF download editions, each page has been run through Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software to attempt to decipher the printed text. The result of this OCR process is placed invisibly behind the picture of each scanned page, to allow for text searching. However, any text in a given book set on a graphical background or in handwritten fonts would most likely not be picked up by the OCR software, and is therefore not searchable. Also, a few larger books may be resampled to fit into the system, and may not have this searchable text background.

For printed books, we have performed high-resolution scans of an original hardcopy of the book. We essentially digitally re-master the book. Unfortunately, the resulting quality of these books is not as high. It's the problem of making a copy of a copy. The text is fine for reading, but illustration work starts to run dark, pixellating and/or losing shades of grey. Moiré patterns may develop in photos. We mark clearly which print titles come from scanned image books so that you can make an informed purchase decision about the quality of what you will receive.
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Original electronic format
These ebooks were created from the original electronic layout files, and therefore are fully text searchable. Also, their file size tends to be smaller than scanned image books. Most newer books are in the original electronic format. Both download and print editions of such books should be high quality.
File Last Updated:
October 06, 2023
This title was added to our catalog on September 26, 2023.
Publisher
worlds by watt
Publisher Average Rating