Topic: The Secrets of Cats (FATE Core world)

[wander]

Hello and thanks for looking in here!

I am currently looking for people to play with in a fun adventure game of The Secrets of Cats, which is a game of cats defending the humans close to them (which they call Burdens, lol) from the creepy monsters out there that humans can't see and must never know about. It is a system game that'll be using FATE Core.

At the same time the cats must watch over their territory, occasionally battle against other cats that encroach on their borders, look after their kittens and watch out for more mundane threats like cruel children and adults and angry dogs.

Luckily cats have special magic on their side to help them, such as warding areas (by sacrificing a small animal like a mouse or bird and placing it in the area needing the ward), true naming that allows a cat to control objects and others, shaping to make their bodies more adept to tasks (like making their claws sharper or their fur harder to spot in shadows) and seeking, where the cat may patrol dreams, astrally project and other psychic feats.

The cats will have to learn together when a larger threat looms on the horizon, for now things are manageable, but it might not always be that way!


So, I'm looking for people who know and would like to join in.

FATE Core and The Secrets of Cats are available both as 'pay what you want' pdfs if you don't own them. If you only own FATE Core, thats workable, as character generation is similar... Though in that case, I will random roll you a cat's stats using the tables included in The Secrets of Cats... However you can name that cat whatever you'd like, along with telling me what he looks like. 

If interested and you own both the books, then post me your Cat here!
Otherwise, let me know you're interested in joining and I will make a Cat up for you. :)

And here for your purview, is my own cat, Boots...

Boots

Boots is a long and slim but well muscled black cat with
noticeably long white whiskers, a fluffy plume of white fur
on his chest and four white paws. His face is completely black
in fur. He tends to have an expression of annoyance in his
big green eyes but is happiest running through the
gardens of his small bit of territory and he enjoys eating.

Aspects
High Concept: Tsundere Seeker
Trouble: Addicted to Scavenging
Burden: My Sleepy Guardian Wander
(Kitten Name -not an aspect-: Little Shadow)
True Name: Daytime Stalker
Free Aspect: Too Good Looking to Fight

Refresh: 3
Physical Stress Boxes: 3
Mental Stress Boxes: 3

Skills;
Stealth +4
Empathy +3, Seeking +3
Will +2, Rapport +2, Burglary +2
Warding +1, Provoke +1, Investigate +1, Physique +1

Magic Stunts:
Astral Projection, Invisibility, Psychometry

Normal Stunts:
Offensive Defence, Skittish, Stubborn

[Blythe]

I haven't gotten a chance to much play FATE yet--I do have both books, though, and would really love a chance to play. ^^

I might need a couple of days to stat out a cat character, but I'm contemplating a tough Siamese cat with some experience in Warding whose Burden is a local homeless person~

[wander]

Great stuff!
Let me know here when you've statted them up! 

Also as a reminder to anyone else who doesn't own the game, I can make cat stats for you and you make your own bio from them. :)

[Blythe]

Ah, got a rough draft up faster than I thought. I forgot how fast chargen is for FATE! Let me know if I need to fix anything~

Maske

Maske is a cat who is getting a little older, but he hasn't lost his spark. He got his name from the typical dark black-brown 'mask' like marking so typical to his breed, which is nearly all-black in his case. His eyes are a very bright blue. Maske doesn't like being cooped up in confined places; he enjoys having the run of the streets that his Burden, Mr. Bones, calls home and that Maske calls his territory. Maske is a bit stocky for a Siamese cat, and he is missing a bit of his tail due to an incident in his past with a rather vicious dog.

Name: Maske
Kitten Name: Yowl
True Name: Shield-Under-Stars

Aspects
High Concept: Stubborn Street-Alley Warden
Trouble: Magnet for Street Dogs
Burden: Mr. Bones, the old vagrant
Free Aspect: Good at Herding Humans

Refresh: 2
Physical Stress Boxes:  4
Mental Stress Boxes: 3

Skills
Warding +4
Physique +3, Territory +3
Burglary +2, Fight +2, Stealth +2
Naming +1, Deceive +1, Notice +1, Will +1

Magic Stunts: Cat Walk, Shadow Armor, Harm,
Normal Stunts: Preternatural Awareness, It's Not What You Know, Cat Burglar, Dangerous Moves

Notes: Leaving the Free Aspect open to create connections with PCs

Edited: Added Free Aspect~

[Sain]

Damn just when I thought I shouldn't join more. Was seeing if there were people up for this gem some time ago, would totally be up for it if we'd get a group for it now

Do have the books, might get up a cat today

[wander]

Great work Blythe! Hope we get some more cats in so we can sort out your free aspect! :)

More the merrier, Sain!

 

[Sain]

You can have him be friends/enemies with Peps if you want an aspect.

Peps

Peps is a big and fat persian cat with soft grey fur, he has a thoroughly bored and tired look in his eyes at all times. Peps has a very carefree and lazy attitude, rarely regarding any endeavour as worthy to really get worried about. He loves watching other creatures play and move about as his favorite past time is just sitting in a warm spot and observing the little burdens dance their silly dances or other cats chase birds and imagine stories behind their battles. He is unexpectedly furious when roused by insult or harm to one of his friendly cats.

Name: Peps
Kitten Name: Big Whiskers
True Name: Fence Walker

Aspects
High Concept: Namer Content with Observing
Trouble: Seemingly Useless Glutton
Burden: Family Of Lively Kids
Free Aspect: Makes Imaginary Friends

Refresh: 3
Physical Stress Boxes:  4
Mental Stress Boxes: 2

Skills
Naming +4
Physique +3, Notice +3
Territory +2, Warding +2, Lore +2
Stealth +1, Empathy +1, Investigate +1, Fight +1

Magic Stunts: Harm, Control, Animate
Normal Stunts: Look Before You Leap, Not Skin and Bones, Surprise!

[Zeth]

I'll submit a character later if you are still taking cats.

[wander]

Yep, I am still taking cats. Come join in Zeth! :)

[Blythe]

I'll try to think of a good Free Aspect in the next few days--I'm assuming I still have some time since the game hasn't started? ^^;

[wander]

Yeah, there's time... ^^

I'd like to keep things open a little longer, though we have three cats if you count my GMPC. Eventually, I'll get to posting about what we want to do with the game and build up a plot to push along with. :)

[Sain]

What kind of ideas for plot/premise did you have in mind, or were we gonna use the one provided in the book?

[wander]

I figured we'd discuss it together, so we all have a say and make it the game we want. Cats games tend to be small-scale, so we can skip debate on that unless you like the idea of cats going about like cosmic heroes, dealing with epic scale events out of the sight of their owners...

We can use the Issues from the book, though I'd like to hear you say on this. Depending on what's said, I'll craft something that everyone feels they can get behind before we begin. These can be linked to important locations or organizations (such as the local Parliament of Cats or perhaps some outside force) if wanted.

Once we're on the same page, we can know more about what Faces and Places we'll use for the game. As a base though we can use the setting from the book and change what we feel might be a better fit from what we all want from the game. So if you have a preference for something and it's not mentioned in the book, let me know! :)

[Zeth]

Can two cats favor the same magic? Or should we each try a different style?

[wander]

Up to you on that one really. Whilst it would be nice to have a Cat cover each magical base, if other Cats join at a later date, some doubling up is going to occur, so really you just make the Cat you want to. As long as you consider what you do with your other Aspects and Skills to be different to the Cat you're doubling up with (so you're not stealing their thunder and have something unique to bring to the table) then thats fine. :)

[Blythe]

Sorry for the wait posting again! I reread Peps' sheet, and I figured I might go with a tie between them that is more of an alliance rather than enemy--I was thinking since Maske is on the streets a lot and Peps' burden is the family of lively kids, Maske's Free Aspect could be something like "Good at Herding Humans." Possibly because occasionally he might lead a Burden back home to Peps if one of the kids gets too far astray?

(I've been a bit under the weather lately and haven't gotten to much play FATE, so give me a holler if I need to change that Aspect!)

[Zeth]

I'm not sure I understand this whole Aspect thing FATE uses. Wander can you help me make a character?

[wander]

Sorry about the gap gang, its been a few days so I thought this may have died, glad to see we got something still!

@Blythe; Looks fine to me and thats a great idea! :)

@Zeth; Sure thing, PM me tomorrow and I'll talk you through it. I'm out tonight so if you PM me now, you'll likely get a drunken reply, give it 12 hours+ and I'll be in a better state to help out.

Remember to let me know what you'd like for Issues! I'd rather make the game more personalised to our group in that regard, along with any other ideas or thoughts for customisation of setting. I'm a big fan of Dungeon World (do check it out if you can, it's a great game), which works as a collaborative story, so expect me asking you guys alot of questions as we build things up! ^^

[Sain]

Died? I think this just adapted a good leisure pace :)

How about some fun immigration issues like spirits or the like fleeing some other area and beginning to inhabit the town and causing various mischief

[Blythe]

How about some fun immigration issues like spirits or the like fleeing some other area and beginning to inhabit the town and causing various mischief

I quite like this idea.


As for another Issue, I was wondering if we could play up a bit of the Parliament of Cats--maybe have an antagonist cat who has turned against the others and using the Parliament to further their own goals? Maybe directing certain threats to the territories of some cats to weaken competitors and expand its own territory?

[Cassandra LeMay]

Would there be room for one more? I admit I never played FATE (but read the rulebook) and never played a cat (but am reading through Secrets of Cats right now), but this sounds like an interesting challenge and change from my usual roleplaying.

Also I have a question and an idea. Even if there is no room for another character at present, perhaps this could be useful for someone else:

Question: How viable would a character be who isn't yet a master of any magic school? Do you imagine there might be an opportunity during gameplay, at some point, to gain mastery of a school? Since there are already several masters in the group I was wondering if a character with good skills in two magic schools who still has to find his/her way and pick a specialty would make sense.

Idea: This could be combined with Sain's idea or played as something separate. How about some construction work changing territories? Maybe some old industrial site is being turned into flats, some wood is being uprooted to make way for a new road, and so on? Suddenly a lot of animals find themselves without a territory and that causes trouble. Perhaps everyone has come to terms with a higher population density, and perhaps some territory held by a powerful entity (spirit, animal, whatever) could be conquered to provide some living space for the displaced animals?

[Sain]

Maybe I can answer for character progression. I've gotten quite familiar of fate after a few campaigns.

Should be rather viable to start as a newbie in something. You can switch any skills at certain milestones so it is easy mechanics wise to tie in your IC practice into actual progression. How fast you want your character to learn things is pretty much up to you and you can even play out setbacks and times of negative progression as you like. In a way fate is one of my favorite systems for playing out character development especially when it comes to learning new stuff as the only limit is how fluent the player can write it :)

I would like if we can have some cat parlament action too yeah. Politics of these creatures should be quite fun to play out.

I quite like Cassandra's idea too. Human advance pushing back other more nature connected beings is always kind of fun to play out, especially from a perspective like this.

[Cassandra LeMay]

Okay, since you seem pretty familiar with the FATE system, perhaps you can clarify something for me. As a cat I would get 3 magic stunts, but every magic skill seems to have only 1 non-exclusive stunt. So if I focus on two magic skills I can only take two magic stunts, leaving one undefined at character creation. Is that something that I'd just have to leave open till character development allows me to pick an exclusive stunt, or is there some mechanism in the system that allows me to trade a stunt from one category (magic) for another (normal)?

[Sain]

You can leave stunts open if you please or just come up with another stunt of your own. The list are just examples, just as usually in Fate you are always encouraged to come up with supplementary mechanics of your own I don't see why you couldn't take a mundane stunt instead too though as they seem in comparison a bit weaker than the magical ones.

[Zeth]

Could some one give me a finished Cat Character sheet as an example? I tend to work better with examples.