Hachette Boardgames USA is offering Celestia from French publisher BLAM!, an updated version of 1999’s Cloud 9, designed by Aaron Weissblum (San Marco, 10 Days in Europe). Celestia is set to release in late July.

In Celestia, the players are the crew of a fantastical airship on the hunt for treasures in the cloud-cities of Celestia, each hoping to become the wealthiest adventurer.  Over a series of rounds, the ship’s captain of the moment rolls dice to determine what challenges will confront the airship, from bad weather to pirates.  The rest of the crew must then decide whether to tough it out to get more treasure or bail out and avoid the risks before the captain uses their equipment to overcome the obstacles or crashes the airship

Celestia includes a model airship, 6 adventurer pawns, 15 tiles, 4 dice, and 162 cards.  The game is intended for 1 to 6 players, ages 8 and up, and takes about half an hour to play. MSRP is $28.99.

Next month, Hachette will offer Grrre Games’ Strange World Above the Clouds (see “Hachette Will Release ‘Strange World Above the Clouds’”) and the Torii Pack expansion for Unfriendly Games’ Nekojima (see “Add a Torii Gate to ‘Nekojima’ Cat Island”), followed in September by Scorpion Masque’s Tag Team (see “Hachette Boardgames Announces ‘Tag Team’”).