I don’t know about friends with them, but I highly doubt you could turn evil.
Of course there will be other cats, you cant expect one to take on everyone else
I don’t know about friends with them, but I highly doubt you could turn evil.
Of course there will be other cats, you cant expect one to take on everyone else
Reading back through, if you do add a “solitary” vs “pride/pack/we” stat, it could be useful in encounters. If your more of an isolationist (jaguar) you would feel more comfortable doing things on your own, and if your put in a team for some mission, you would be more likely to go off on your own. Compare that to a lioness (lions are lazy) in which they work in groups, and might feel less comfortable on their own.
Of course, there are special circumstances. I watched a thing about cheetahs, and there were three brother cheetahs, and they would all hunt together. One would *distract* the target (in this case an ostrich) and the other two would sneak up on it and take it down.
I was thinking of having other Werecats for you to possibly run into and team up with. If that suits your character, I mean. Like you said, it would probably be a solitary/team player stat that would decide how well you would work alone vs in a group. Do you think it would be a good idea to have a character for every cat type, and then depending on what you get you run into every type that is different from you? (Like if you where a lynx, you could possibly run into a lion, tiger, jaguar, and cheetah.)
So you mean you wont run into your own kind? e.g. if your cheetah you wont see another cheetah?
That depends on how many werecats/wolves there will be, how many are in your area, etc.
Personally, I think the characters should have a set form. e.g. Jenny is a lynx no matter you choose.
I think that will help give them a better, consistent personality, as well as be a lot easier to keep track of in terms of variables.
Will the powers of have in cat from also be somewhat present in human form? e.g. if your a cheetah, you move slightly faster in human form. AND, you will have better vision, hearing, etc regardless?
That sounds like a good way to handle the other people, I’ll start writing up the characters and their personalities as well.
I was also planning on having some amount of powers while in human form. So I’ll be sure to put them in.
First I love the idea of playing a were-tiger. Given my login name, that shouldn’t be all that surprising. I’m also not going to complain that 3 of the 4 initial possibilities are in the panthera genus, since that’s what the p in my name represents. So kudos to @VampiricPotato for such a great game idea. =D>
Secondly, I’m with @FairyGodfeather regarding the lynx/bobcat. That’s a very distinctive genus of medium-sized long-haired cats with quite inquisitive personalities. Another intersting possibility would be the Puma/Mountain Lion. As both the largest American cat, and the largest purring cat in the world, this agile mountain climber has been known to take down the occasional jogger in California.
It would also be cool to have a representative of one of the smaller cat breeds, like the African wild cat from which domestic cats have primarily descended, or maybe its more skittish European or Asian wild cat cousins. Given its proven skill at domesticating humans, and at taking advantage of the comforts of civilization, that cat would probably win the charm, luck, or maybe intelligence contest. The so-called “domesticated” subspecies of the wild cat now outnumbers all the other species of felids combined. So its strategy for world domination has been magnificently successful. :-))
Back to the big cats, for stealth I would definitely go leopard/panther. They’re the only species of big cat that managed to hold its own in the face of human poaching, mostly because of their stealthiness. In Africa they far outnumber the population of lions and cheetahs combined.
@FairyGodfeather: Cats aren’t lazy, they’re just extremely efficient. B-) Why waste energy on frivolus stuff when you don’t have to? Cats subject everything to a cost-benefit analysis, and if the costs appear higher than the benefits, they don’t bother. Even energy spent on “play” isn’t wasted, play trains and maintains hunting skills.
BTW, Has anyone here ever read White Wolf’s old book on playing “Bastet”, ie. were-cats? It was a supplement to their old Werewolf:the Apocalypse game.
@P_Tigras I stand corrected.
And yes, I’ve read both the old Bastet book and the new Changing Breeds one. Lynx shapeshifters are my favourite, tricksy riddlers. I was also fond of the Ceilican fairy-cats, and the Egyptian magic-using Bubasti.
I never liked werewolf though. Werecats are better.
@FairyGodfeather Here here!
@FairyGodfeather I haven’t read the new Changing Breeds book, but I loved the old Bastest book which I thought was pretty neat since it captured felid individualism quite well. How does the new compare to the old? I was rather fond of the Bubasti (small spell-casting black cats of egyptian heritage) and the Qualmi (Lynx) as well. The Ceilican fairy cats were a really interesting idea, but one I never really had the opportunity to play with. They were supposed to be extinct after all, and their yawa (weaknesses) were pretty harsh.
I of course was partial to the Khan (Tiger) myself, but I never actually had the opportunity to play one. I did play a mage with a rather inscrutable bubasti girlfriend at one point however. The cunning, and somewhat amoral little minx managed to manipulate my character as well as the rest of our group of Tradition mages into a war with a bunch of Settite vampires that nearly got us all killed in order to free some of her lost kinfolk. She could have just asked us straight out for help, but that would have been too easy and straightforward. Prying information from her was like trying to give a house cat a bath. No, she was too proud and enjoyed her aura of mystery way too much to come clean like that. Instead she had to be rather convoluted and complicated about the whole thing, making us all think raiding that Settite temple to save some humans and obtain a bit of forgotten lore was our idea, which in the end made her quite a bit more interesting. Now imagine our surprise when we discovered that most of the “prisoners” weren’t human at all, but ghouled cats…
All nine tribes of werecats were fun in their own way now that I think about it. And I have to agree, I have a preference for werecats over werewolves too. Werecats also tended to work better with cross-over campaigns, particularly with mages, since they didn’t share the prejudices of their canine cousins. Cats are presented as being more practical, more curious, and less “dogmatic” than dogs, and that makes them a lot easier to work with in mixed groups. The whole raging eco-terrorist defender of Gaia angle of the original Werewolf game never was a big draw for me.
@VampiricPotato Allow me to add that I have a strong aversion towards opposed stats. I wasn’t thrilled with them in Choice of the Vampire where seemingly innocuous decisions could sometimes take away unrelated choices later on down the road. Treasure-Seekers of Lady Luck was even worse with its opposed relationships. Uggh.
I skimmed the book and didn’t read it thoroughly. I think it lacked any sort of central focusing theme but I can’t really remember. All of the Changing Breeds were in one book and they were very customisable in the pick from a huge list of abilities instead of just getting pre-chosen ones. But the customisation wasn’t as good as that available in Changeling the Lost. I’ve never actually played one. I think the book is set up that you can play a were-anything but the various cats were detailed out.
I do like werecats, they should be tricksy. That bubasti girlfriend sounds fun and the perfect foil for mages. It’s easy enough to make them work well with Mages again (I dislike new Mage though) since they can actually learn an equivalent of mage magic.
I never liked the old werewolf either. I tried to play it a couple of times but it was just too much RARRR RARRR FIGHT FIGHT for me.
I may not even be able to have opposed stats, since I can’t figure them out coding-wise. xP I’m thinking I might have to stop working with them for a while and get back to the actual story.
@FairyGodfeather I played in a Werewolf campaign for over a year, and I enjoyed it, but it was always my least favorite of the original big three (Vampire, Mage, Werewolf). I liked both Mage and Vampire a lot more. Changeling was an intriguing idea, but the game rules were unplayable and the mood didn’t really match that of the rest of the series.
Of the new games, I like Changeling:the Lost the most. It’s far better than the original Changeling game. They made a big mistake when they didn’t publish a single campaign book for it on the scale of the Chicago by Night book for the original Vampire game. It would have been a huge hit. I detest the metaplots of the new Vampire and Mage games on the other hand and much preferred the originals. I haven’t really looked at the new Werewolf game.
Blowing up their old world in such a ham-fisted, sloppy manner backfired on White Wolf (the publisher) big time when they subsequently published the new rules editions in a completely new universe and very few people bought them. They lost most of their fans and are now down to only a small sliver of their old customer base. I don’t think they understood just how much their success was dependent on their wonderfully intricate meta-plots capable of generating an endless number of potential stories which countless players became heavily invested in. They took a very small number of whiners complaining about the world being too complex too seriously. The newer dumbed-down, and far shallower metaplots are a joke in comparison. They’ve belatedly realized what a disaster that decision was, and are now publishing 20th anniversary edition hodgepodges of the new and old stuff, but they’re a much, much smaller company these days with far less in the way of resources. It’s going to be very tough-going to recapture their old level of popularity.
@VampiricPotato No loss imho. The story is more important.
Actually, opposed stats with relationships are pretty easy. But I agree, I think I would like the story better.
@P_Tigras I liked Mage the most of old WoD. While I liked Changeling in theory, the whole book was just so broken it didn’t really work. I felt like they stole away all the creativity of mage and injected it into Changeling The Lost. I’m with you on new Mage and Vampire. I haven’t looked at werewolf either, since I don’t generally like Werewolf. Which I suppose makes it odd I’m writing a game with my own werewolves.
@VampiricPotato I do stats last, story first. I’m busy working on my story, I’ll add in the stats once it’s finished. Don’t let the stats distract you.
Alright, I’m about ready to release a (Kinda short.) demo, but I’ve run into an issue with making my changes actually appear through dropbox. I’ve used the enter + tab trick, but I’m thinking it might just be an issue with my coding. But I’ve gotten it to the point where you can pick your name and gender, and once I figure out getting it posted, I’ll be able to make a lot more progress.
@VampiricPotato Yaay! Demo time!
Demo!!! Huzzah!
Woooo Demo