Taking Risks
All risks can be classified in three categories: Easy, Moderate, and Hard.
Easy: An Easy Risk is something nearly any healthy cat can pull off without any degree of difficulty. Swatting a ball of string across the room, jumping over a low wall, or climbing on the back of the couch are all good examples of Easy Actions.
Moderate: A Moderate Risk requires a bit more finesse. Catching a clever mouse, jumping up to the top of the refrigerator from the kitchen table, or climbing a sheer wall are all good examples of Moderate Risks.
Hard: Hard Risks are those that truly test a cat’s skills. Jumping up to the top of a high shelf without making a sound or toppling the Tupperware, catching two mice with one strike, and sneaking by a sleeping dog to steal his bone are all good examples of Hard Risks.
Testing Fate
There is a way for a cat to perform Risks that are beyond his capabilities… but it’s uncertain. Whenever a cat takes a chance, it is said he “tests fate.”
Whenever you Test Fate, roll a number of six-sided dice equal to the appropriate Trait. Count each die that rolls an even number (2, 4, or 6) as a success.
- To beat an Easy Risk, you have to roll at least one even.
- To beat a Moderate Risk, you have to roll at least two evens.
- To beat a Hard Risk, you have to roll at least three evens.
If the number of evens is equal to or greater than the Risk’s difficulty, you can narrate the outcome of your cat’s risk. However, if you less than the required evens, Fate intervenes and the Narrator narrates the outcome of your cat’s risk.
Advantage Dice
Advantage Dice are dice the Narrator hands out to players for showing initiative and for good roleplaying. Each Advantage Die is another die the player can roll for a chance of rolling another success.
Advantage Dice represent advantages your cat has in any given Risk. A reward good roleplaying, planning, and innovative thinking.
Scars
Despite their natural graces, cats get hurt. When they do, they sometimes walk away with a Scar or two. Whenever your cat tests Fate while doing something dangerous, there’s a chance he will fail and get Scars.
For example, jumping from one rooft op to another is “dangerous.” Catching a fly with your paw is not, so you can fail that Risk without taking any Scars.
When your cat fails a particularly dangerous Risk, check your dice. The lowest odd you rolled is the number of scars your cat gets for failing his Risk.
When you get Scars, you choose where they go. You can apply all your Scars to a single Trait or divide them up as you see fit. You have to explain to the Narrator why you got a Scar in a particular Trait. If you can’t come up with a compelling reason, he’ll tell you where to put the Scar (usually in the Trait you tried to use).
- If you get three Scars in one Trait, that Trait drops down to the next Rank.
- If you get three Scars in a Good Trait, it drops to Hurt. Hurt Traits have a bonus of 2.
- If you earn three Scars in a Hurt Trait, it drops to Crippled. You may not take further Risks with a Crippled Trait.
Healing
A cat heals one Scar per week of game time.
Fighting
Cats fight. They fight each other, they fight Boggins, they fight lots of things. There are two circumstances under which cats fight: they fight other cats or they fight non-cats. The rules for each are as follows.
Fighting Other Cats
Cats do not fight to kill each other: just to prove who the better fighter is. Cats only fight for one round; one quick scuffle to prove dominance.
Both players roll either their Fangs or Claws (cat’s choice). Compare the number of evens. Both cats take a number of Scars equal to the other cat’s evens. Whoever got the most evens (took the least number of Scars) wins the fight.
You may use Lives or Fighting Magic to dodge Scars as usual, which means cats may get into a fight and lose but take no Scars. However, the winner of the fight is always the cat who rolled the most evens.
Fighting Non-Cats
When fighting dogs, rats, or Boggins, the system is a little different. Cats only fight each other to prove dominance; when fighting a Boggin, your cat is fighting for his life.
Use the same system as above with each throw of the dice representing one round of fighting. At the end of each round, each combatant takes a number of Scars equal to the number of evens his opponent rolled.
At the end of each round, check your Scars. If you have to adjust Traits because of Scars you’ve earned in the fight, do it now.
Dodging
During a fight, your cat may try to dodge instead of scoring a hit on his opponent. Note that if you dodge in a fight with another cat, you inflict no Scars at all and you are automatically considered the loser of the fight.
To dodge, roll your Legs instead of rolling your Claws or Fangs dice. This way, your cat tries to dodge the hits rather than deliver one of his own.
You may also dodge a Boggin’s hits in the same way. Remember, you deliver no hits at all when dodging.
Death
A cat can only take so much damage before he loses his grip on life. When three of a cat’s Traits are crippled, he’s in real danger. When four of his Traits become Crippled, or if he uses his last Life, he dies.
Reputation
Your cat can have up to five Reputations, and each Reputation has both a a Rank. A Reputation’s maximum Rank is 5.
Using Reputation
Whenever your cat takes a Risk, look at your Reputations. If the Narrator agrees that one of your Reputations is appropriate to the Risk, you can add your Reputation in dice to your roll. This gives you more dice for a better chance at more evens.
Losing Reputation
If your cat ever takes an action that goes against his Reputation, he stands a chance of losing it. If he doesn’t fix the problem in the very same session, taking an action that would restore his Reputation, he loses a point of that Reputation.
The Narrator is the final judge of when a cat may lose or restore his Reputation.
Getting a New Reputation
Cats can earn new Reputations by doing things other cats hold in high esteem. If another cat sees your act he can declare that you deserve a new Reputation. The cat “spends” one of his own Reputations to give you a new Reputation at half the value of his own. He must spend a Reputation that’s appropriate to your new Reputation.
Lives
A cat has nine Lives and may use them in two ways:
- First, you may spend a cat’s Life to succeed in any Risk, regardless of your Trait or the difficulty.
- Second, you can use a Life to dodge any Scars gained from a single round.
Once your cat runs out of Lives, he’s out for good. Although, there are rumors of cats who find a way to refresh a Life, though nobody’s actually met a cat who has.
Style
Finally, cats have Style.
A cat’s Style comes from his confidence (some say his cockiness) and assuredness in his manner and physical prowess.
In other words, dogs just get the job done and cats do things with panache.
Whenever you make a roll and have more evens than you need, the evens become Style Points. You can use Style in one of two ways:
- First, you can keep them to use later. Each even kept in this way counts as an automatic even you can use later in the game. You may use your Style Point whenever you like and you may use as many Style Points on any roll you like — you are a cat, after all.
- Second, you can use extra evens you just rolled to creatively edit the that particular moment of the scene. In other words, you can use your Style to put yourself in a better position, becoming the Narrator for a moment to add some zest to the scene. While you cannot subtract anything that already exists from the scene, you can alter established facts (such as having a closed gate actually turn out to be open, or there is a crate conveniently positioned for the cat to leap up to a high window).