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

• 🏁 Stories from the Slip closes Thurs. May 29th

• 💀 Life & Death preorders close Fri. June 13th

• 🥐 Order of the Broken Bread encounters expansion

• 📖 What I’m reading and playing

🏁 Stories from the Slip closes Thurs. May 29th

There are just six days to back Cloud Empress: Stories from the Slip! I’ve been thrilled with the community’s response. On the creator side, the simple pledge levels and lack of stretch goals have made this campaign much more enjoyable to run. We’re down to 141 copies left, and pledges tend to pick up on the last two or three days. Stories from the Slip will not be released at retail, so grab your copies today.

Back Stories from the Slip now!

💀 Life & Death preorders close Fri. June 13th

I received pre-production copies of Cloud Empress Life and Death last week (pictures coming in the next Kickstarter update early next week). On June 13th I’ll be closing the preorders as mass production begins. Due to the uncertainty of tariffs, Cloud Empress Life & Death will have a very limited retail release for prices higher than the preorder price.

Preorder Cloud Empress Life & Death

🥐 Order of the Broken Bread encounters expansion

My fellow Farmerlings, do you feel the emperor’s heel upon your throat? Do you feel the emperor’s fingers clawing for the seeds in your pockets? I ask you, what has royalty in the cloud ever done for the poor who live in the dirt?

I tell you now—a Cloudling is no better than a Torturer—they also strip the land and our people of treasures without a second thought. Let us not lose the old ways for a rich man’s chalk. Siblings, grow your hair long like our ancestors. Let each inch of hair celebrate another season of survival against our adversaries.

I bring with me loaves of bread to feed the hungry stomachs among you. Take what you need and pass the rest on to the sick, tired, and downtrodden in your homes. We Farmerlings have always lived in such fashion—passing the bounty of the land from hand to hand until its sustenance found the hungriest belly—finding the cleanest stream and carrying the cool water to the driest mouth in the village.

I ask you, what do the weakest among us need now? Is it chalk, jewelry, and crests? Of course not! What this young child by my legs needs most of all are courageous souls willing to hold a rifle. What a Farmerling needs is land free of Cloudling occupation from the Emperor’s 29^th Expedition.

I ask you, are there eight steady hands among me ready to join the Order of the Broken Bread?

Order of the Broken Bread Encounters

1–2. Three O.B.B. militia members stand at the edge of the Thickwood. They hope to arouse the anger of the Imago and draw the bugs to assault a nearby Cloudling encampment [W17].

They ask naïve-looking travelers to head deep into the Thickwood. Throw 5 hand bombs (1d10 Damage, nearby) (Rulebook, pg. 78) towards the Imago seen in the forest, and flee towards the Cloudling encampment [W17].

3–4. Gaspar the Hungry (Land of the Dead, pg. 26) and three O.B.B. militia members sit on a pile of provisions in the center of a Farmerling villager. A dozen Farmerlings (and counting), queue to beseech Gaspar for aid. Gaspar instinctively pulls over a case of food to a hungry mother, he sends two armed guards to fix a rotten fence post, and interrogates an unfamiliar traveler. Gaspar sends liars away without hesitation.

5–6. Cries for help echo in the woods. A bruised Cloudling soldier, named Icicle, begs for release, surrounded by several other Cloudling corpses. O.B.B. militia members attacked her regiment and tied her to a pine tree for the Imago.

7–8. An unassuming man covered in mud flags Farmerlings before they enter a nearby meadow. “Go no further. Broken Bread snipers hunt Cloudlings in these fields.” Those who ignore the man’s warnings must avoid shots from 2 O.B.B. militia members hidden in the tree line with long rifles (4d10 Damage, extreme range).

9–10. Cloudling soldiers ransack a small village, pulling Farmerlings from their domiciles. Those who provide information about the whereabouts of the Order of the Broken Bread may stay, all others will be sent off possessionless into Wastes. Silence is as good as treason. Two O.B.B. militia members hide in plainclothes among the Farmerling crowd–each palms a hand bomb (1d10 Damage, nearby) (Rulebook, pg. 78), ready to fight if cornered.

You can download a PDF copy of the Order of the Broken Bread encounters expansion, and all previous newsletter expansions here.

📖 What I’m reading, watching and playing

• Confessions of a Yakuza by Junichi Saga

• What we owe the future by William MacAskill

• Final Fantasy 12

• Magic the Gathering Commander (brewing up Final Fantasy decks)

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For all things Cloud Empress go to CloudEmpress.com.

-watt