September: Free Cloud Empress Adventure
Survive the Last Voyage of the Bean Barge and learn about product design echolocation
Free Cloud Empress introductory adventure
Announcing a free twelve-page Cloud Empress introductory adventure, Last Voyage of the Bean Barge! Last Voyage of the Bean Barge is a system-neutral adventure for the Cloud Empress Mothership RPG setting and other science-fantasy games like Vaults of Vaarn and the Electrum Archive.
In the adventure, you will make your way through a curtain of clouds while a swarm of Imago (giant cicadas) attack your ship’s engines. As disaster looms outside the bean barge, several plots hatch equally threatening the crew and its passengers' onboard.
Download a copy of Last Voyage of the Bean Barge on the Cloud Empress itch.io page. Share your feedback and suggestions with met at worldsbywatt@gmail.com
Product design echolocation
I've been trying to use human-centered design principles in the product development of Cloud Empress, let me explain. I cherish the ability to express my creativity in the world of RPG writing. Writing alone at my computer is a solitary endeavor that gives me complete control over my work, but I am also designing games for other people. I want you to engage, enjoy, and use the settings, adventures, and characters I create. What good is an RPG adventure that never gets played (more on that in the next newsletter)?
How can I balance the isolation necessary to write with the community I want to connect with? I've begun to think about RPG product design as echolocation. Bats send out a high pitch signal that bounces off of nearby objects. They listen for the echo of that auditory contact and make adjustments to their flight according to the path ahead. Here's where the game design metaphor comes in. I am becoming more reliant on sharing my work early, often, and adjusting based on the feedback I receive. Here are three ways I increasingly gather early insight into what may or may not be working in a design:
Playtesting
Twitter engagement
Twitter polls
Itch.io metrics
Substack newsletter comments
A Twitter poll this week helped me determine how many horror elements I should include in Cloud Empress, with a majority of participants indicating they wanted some horror elements (but not have a horror focus).
Statisticians among you realize that the levels of engagement are not large enough to be statistically significant, but I think they point to the interests of the core audience I am trying to reach. So, what would you like to see in Cloud Empress? (and follow me on twitter @worldsbywatt if you would like to participate in future polls!)
Cloud Empress roadmap
Finally, here's a brief roadmap for the development of Cloud Empress:
September to October 2022 - Complete and release the free Cloud Empress Mothership rules hack SRD (system reference document)
October to November 2022 - Complete the bulk of the writing for Cloud Empress
December 2022 - Release a free Cloud Empress hex map location
January 2023 - Prep for the crowdfunding launch
Spring 2023 - Launch the Cloud Empress crowdfunding campaign and bring this book to life!