Pick my next game + donkey-crab expansion

Nov 19, 2024

Welcome to the worlds by watt newsletter. I’m watt, creator of the ecological science fantasy tabletop roleplaying game Cloud Empress. You can preorder the new Cloud Empress box on Backerkit. You can find worlds by watt digital products at DriveThruRPG. For all things Cloud Empress go to CloudEmpress.com.

TL;DR Summary

🥇 Cloud Empress wins in 2024 Awards
📝 Cloud Empress winter game jam starts Jan. 6th
🆚 Pick my next game
🦀 Donkey-crab expansion
📖 What I’m reading and playing

🥇 Cloud Empress wins in 2024 Awards

Cloud Empress was selected by a panel of ttrpg judges as a 2024 Awards winner. The The Awards has been a personal favorite ttrpg awards list for me due to the high level of thought and time spent by the selection committee to select the approximately 20 winners each year. Peer recognition feels humbling and inspires me to keep on writing!

📝 Cloud Empress winter game jam starts Jan. 6th

I’ve always wanted to create a Cloud Empress game jam, but have never found the time. This winter the idea becomes a reality. Peter, with the help of the folks who play in the distributed Cloud Empress campaign, will be launching a Cloud Empress Game Jam on January 6th. We’re still working through all the details, but we’ll be encouraging new and experienced creators to make short Cloud Empress adventures or setting expansions during January 2025. I’m supporting the game jam with resources, CE goodies, and tips for how to write a CE adventure. Next month I’ll share more details, but mark your calendars now!

🆚 Pick my next game

I’m nearing the end of the work on Cloud Empress: Life & Death (about four more weeks of graphic design and layout), which means I’ve been working on Cloud Empress for about two years straight. I have a lot more planned for the series, but my next goal will be to release two new settings using other popular ttrpg systems through 2025 and 2026. These new settings will likely be paired with ongoing Cloud Empress support in adventure zines, newsletter expansions, and in-world setting materials. For the first new setting, I’ll be working on an all-ages Mausritter hack called Rust Wings, but I have one more project slot I’d like to fill.

That’s where I need your help! Help me decide what my next ttrpg project should be. I’ve drafted two short pitches for each game idea. Please vote at the end for the game world you’d most like to play.

Project “WYRM”

“WYRM” would be a Mork Borg-compatible fantasy ttrpg inspired by Princess Mononoke. Players travel to the desert to exploit or defend the valley’s last Wyrms in a desert consumed by imperial gunfire.

WYRM would use a d20 system with some combination of Mork Borg, Cy_Borg, Pirate Borg, and Frontier Scum’s rules or Shadowdark.

WYRM key inspirations:

Princess Mononoke
Final Fantasy 12
Panzer Dragoon
Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask
Tales from Earthsea
Dune
Monster Hunter

WYRM setting description:

The Wyrms are dying. Their magic feathers fall from the skin and blackpowder bullets pierce thick hides poisoning the hearts inside. In an unforgiving desert between great nations, the rising Northern Empire pledges to clear the valley of its rampaging Wyrms. Wyrms are huge intelligent bird-like dragons known for plucking unwitting travelers into the sky with razor claws and casting powerful spells from the magic in their black feathers.

A treaty keeps a tenuous peace between the air superiority of the incoming Northern troops and the retreating Southern Empire’s caravans. At the center of the conflict is Oasis, a huge city carved into the side of a desert mountain, and the source of the region's water and prosperity.

WYRM gameplay:

PCs endure brutal and dangerous combat challenging the immense powers of the desert Wyrms, the Southern Empire’s magic, and the Northern Empire’s gunpowder weapons. Players choose sides between killing the Wyrms for their magic or serving an ancient mission to save the valley’s creatures. Tragedy compounds as an adaptation of Cy_Borg’s ‘miserable headlines’ table models the cascading build-up of Northern troops and the elimination of the valley’s Wyrms.

WYRM example adventures:

An accomplished out-of-town big game hunter intent on killing an elder Wyrm for the Southern Empire must be killed, delayed, or convinced to stop.
Northern Empire spies disguise themselves as mummers and actors to cause chaos in a seasonal Oasis festival.
A Southern Empire Wyrm butcher workshop experiments on captured Wyrms, to extract fertilized Wyrm eggs back home.
A temple monk commissions the party to guard Southern pilgrims outside the walls from Northern soldiers and hungry Wyrms
A rogue Wyrm hunts and kills other Wyrms, devouring their hearts to become immortal and destroy the residents of Oasis.

PROJECT “BEASTS”

BEASTS would be a Studio Ghibli-inspired magical realism mystery horror tabletop roleplaying game. Players navigate a remote town on the brink of collapse attempting to cure a disease that turns humans into beasts.

BEASTS would use a d6 dice pool with either the Year Zero Engine (Mutant Year Zero, Dragonbane, Vaesen) or the Havok System (Eat the Reich).

BEASTS Key inspirations:

Boy and the Heron
Bloodborne
Annihilation/Southern Reach Trilogy
Fullmetal Alchemist
Stalker
Pathologic 2
Dr Zhivago

BEASTS setting description:

In the endless empire, fruit rots on the vine. People sprout horns, fangs, and fur. The afflicted take to all fours and attack their neighbors, or drift into the woods never to be seen again. In hopes of curing an afflicted daughter, the Prime Minister of a provisional government sends her to the Old Capital for treatment. There, physicians work around the clock to study and treat the Beast’s Disease. Meanwhile, military conflict grows nearer and nearer to an all-out war. Military generals with armored vehicles blockage the Old Capital to stop the spread of the beasts. Discontent revolutionaries attempt to topple the provisional government and capture the Prime Minister’s daughter from within the city walls. Meanwhile, the Old Capital’s citizens try to cherish small joys and prepare for evacuation amidst the foreboding crisis.

BEASTS gameplay description:

PCs take the role of normal people working to understand the cause and cure for the Beast’s Disease. As current residents of the Old Capital, players must escape or confront rampaging beasts, support community members in a crumbling city, or protect the Prime Minister’s daughter Daphne. Players take on the role of archetypes such as The Tutor, The Soldier, The Physician, The Orphan, The Jester, The Actor, The Spy, The Revolutionary, etc. using an upgrade tree to increase skills and abilities over time, but at the cost of slowly turning the PCs into beasts.

BEASTS example adventures:

Disorganized revolutionaries kidnap the Prime Minister’s daughter, sending a string of conflicting ransom notes.
A neighbor works to secure exit passes for her and her children from the black market.
Local Old Capital cavalry plan to break the military blockade in a daring (but likely doomed charge).
A relative asks you to check on their Uncle on the outskirts of town, who has not been heard from for weeks.
Revolutionaries plan a prison break for trapped friends who will be killed if the General’s forces claim the city

Okay, that was a lot of writing, thanks for sticking with it! Now most importantly…

🦀 Donkey-crab expansion

You can download a PDF of all Cloud Empress newsletter expansions here.

How oversized crustaceans became humanity’s workhorses proves theories that one day all life will take the form of a crab. Donkeycrabs endlessly scuttle the Lowland Wastes burdened with camp supplies, rigid tents, provisions, oversized technology, and rare relics. Couriers who feed themselves through trade prefer a donkey-crab to a packsquab as the crabs rarely tip or displace their cargo. The donkey-crab’s independently moving legs also prove invaluable when climbing rocky surfaces or navigating steep hills.

Taking traits from their namesake, donkey-crabs’ stubborn personalities spark moments of frustration for single-minded human owners. It’s common for a donkeycrab to pester their companions for scraps of meat at all hours. Donkeycrabs notoriously shirk human riders or lie flat when mounted in mouthclicking protest.

📖 What I’m reading and playing

Vaesen by Free League Publishing
Legenda of Zelda Ocarina of Time (First playthrough b/c I couldn’t find the sword and shield as a kid and sold my copy)
Swyvers by Luke Gearing
Songs of a Lost World by The Cure

Thanks for subscribing to the worlds by watt newsletter!

For all things Cloud Empress go to CloudEmpress.com.

-watt

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