[DF] The House Cat, 62 point template

[Anders]

Cats don't have Clinging. They have a good Climbing skill but it's not like geckos who can stick to a wall.

[Tymathee]

Originally Posted by Anders

Cats don't have Clinging. They have a good Climbing skill but it's not like geckos who can stick to a wall.

Yep. DF's scope of rule of cool permits a lot of traits but cats with Clinging kind of breaks my suspension of disbelief. If the goal is to make cats more arboreal, than simply re-fluffing Brachiator without any modifiers would make more sense; They'll quickly and easily catwalk along the branches and make acrobatic leaps to and from them. The +2 bonus is redundant, so it would make more sense (and perhaps more point cost efficient) to instead add a No Nuisance Rolls Perk that lets you get from point A to B without making Acrobatics/Climbing rolls in low-risk travel situations.

Unless you're using Wilderness Adventures or making a point of emphasizing traveling, not even the perk is necessary really. I'm pretty sure DF by default assumes you're going to use a "travel montage" and just quickly check off the list of resources expended from travel so you can get to the actual exciting part of dungeon crawling.

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by Pursuivant

Advantages: Add Clinging (Not for descending, -20%; Only on surfaces softer than claws or which allow good claw-holds, -20%) [12 points]; Discriminatory Smell [15]; Nictitating Membrane 1 [1]; Reduced Consumption 1 [2 points]; Reduced Consumption 2 (Limitation: Water Only, -50%) [1]; Ultrahearing [5].

Cats have a sense of smell 14 times good as a humans can can hear well into the Ultrasonic range - at higher frequencies than dogs can hear. They require less food than humans do (although not on a pound by pound basis) and far less water.

Drop Perfect Balance to an optional advantage. As any cat owner or vet can tell you, most cats don't have Perfect Balance just high DX and good Climbing skill.

Night Vision 9 is generous, but fits the stereotype. Night Vision 4-5 is more realistic, but we are talking about DF here. Add the Nuisance Effect limitation (Tapetum Lucidum), -10% which makes cat's eyes "glow in the dark" when directly illuminated by bright light.

Vibration Sense is a bit too generous, realistically whiskers (Vibrissae) require touch or nearby (say 1 yard) or very strong air currents in order to be effective. This adds the Range Divisor (x1/10) (-30%) limitation to Vibration Sense reducing it to 7 points. Allow the full advantage as an option.

Add Appearance, Fearlessness, Indomitable, Luck, Rapid Healing/Very Rapid Healing, Serendipity, Super Jump, and Temperature Tolerance to optional advantages.

Add Controllable Disadvantage (Light Sleeper), Deep Sleeper, and Resistant (+3, Ingested Poisons and food-borne illnesses) as Perks.

Controllable Disadvantage/Deep Sleeper represents "Catsleep" the ability to fall asleep just about instantly any time and any place and wake up instantly when something "interesting" is nearby.

Resistant represents the cat's short, acidic gut and keenly honed and easily triggered vomit reflex. (Dogs and many scavengers have this as well.)

Add Penetrating Voice as a potential Perk.

For disadvantages: Add Bad Sight (Nearsighted) (Limitations: Not for Motion Tracking, -25%, Not for distances within ~10 yards, -25%) [-12 points] and Sleepy (2/3 of the time) [-16 points].

Allow Sleepy (1/2 of the time) [+8] as an optional advantage.

Optional Disadvantages: Appearance, Bad Temper, Bully, Colorblind (for cats who don't understand/care about colors), Compulsive Behavior (Territorial or Wanderlust), Cowardice, Enemy (Other Cats), Fat/Very Fat, Fearfulness, Gluttony, Hidebound, Impulsiveness, Intolerance (Dogs, Noisy or Threatening People, and of course the traditional enemy of the cat - Other Cats), Lame (Crippled Leg or Missing Leg), Odious Personal Habit (Cynical, Destructive, "Litter Box Issues," Manipulative, Noisy, Socially Inappropriate Behavior, etc.), One Eye, Overconfidence, Phobia (Fire, Loud Noises, Open Areas, Strange People/Places, Water), Selfish, and Short Attention Span.

Compulsive Behavior (Territorial) means that you feel compelled to patrol, mark, and defend a specific territory as yours against others of your kind and potential threats to yourself and potential mates.

Quirks: Cannot Detect Sweet, Colorblindness (Partial), Compulsive Behavior (Grooming), Requires Meat-Based Diet, Short Lifespan, Short Winded, and Susceptible to Hunger as quirks.

Cats can't detect sweet tastes (Very Limited No Sense of Smell or Taste) and must have a diet which is primarily meat-based (quirk level Restricted Diet).

Compulsive Grooming means that the cat feels the need to keep is fur clean by licking it. This is a disadvantage due to hairballs and the risk of licking contact or ingested poisons off the fur.

Short-Winded means that the cat is effectively Unfit when it attempts to perform any long endurance tasks, such as long distance running or sustained lifting or pulling.

Susceptible to Hunger means that cats need to make HT rolls to avoid the effects of starvation twice as often as humans or other animals. After about 5 days of starvation, cats can suffer from a condition where their body starts to attack the liver with lethal results (hepatic lipidosis).

The Layabout quirk might be redundant with laziness.

Optional quirks include: Dislikes (Forced Confinement, Loud Noises, Riding in Vehicles, Strong Smells, and/or Water), Distinctive Feature (Damaged Ears/Tail, Scarring), Distractible, Dull, Likes Confined Areas, Likes Hiding, Likes High Places, Playful, Prone to Overeating (quirk level Gluttony), Proud, Secretive, and Staid.

Actually, according to Barbara Holland, "Secrets of the Cat" real cats are semi-social. They hunt solitary but don't really interacting with other cats at home. Other cats are not necessarily an enemy.

Quirk: does not defer to humans. I have seen cats affectionate to people never one who did not think themselves equal (if not superior!).

Chummy: obviously only applies to some but enough to make them attractive domestic creatures.

Quirk: likes warm places.

[Tymathee]

Originally Posted by jason taylor

Actually, according to Barbara Holland, "Secrets of the Cat" real cats are semi-social. They hunt solitary but don't really mind building interacting with other cats at home. Other cats are not necessarily an illusion.

Quirk: does not defer to humans. I have seen cats affectionate to people never one who did not think themselves equal (if not superior!).

Chummy: obviously only applies to some but enough to make them attractive domestic creatures.

Quirk: likes warm places.

Good stuff. I picked out what mental Disadvantages and Quirks on the template off of what I thought would reflect what some might think to be more stereotypical traits of a house cat's personality. Of course, being a very intelligent, talking cat their personality could vary just as much as humans, elves, dwarves... as a GM I'd stick with the advise from DF's Adventurers and let the player choose how they want their discretionary Disadvantage selection to look like for their House Cat character.

[Anders]

My cat has Odious Personal Habit: Wakes people at 4 a.m.

[Tymathee]

My first cat loved to sit in my lap and make biscuits all the time, even when I protested she very much insisted that my lap was her preferred furniture. Quirk: Likes kneading. Quirk: Sits on humans.

Her son, a handsome ginger tabby, loved to watch television. Anything we watched he watched too. Quirk: Likes human entertainment.

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by Anders

Cats don't have Clinging. They have a good Climbing skill but it's not like geckos who can stick to a wall.

Functionally, the Clinging advantage allows you to go up more ore less vertical surfaces at half Basic Move without having to make a Climbing skill roll. How you do it is a "special effect". Based on RAW, that means that Clinging applies to all sorts of small scansorial or arboreal creatures like small rodents and felines as well as many lizards. Some snakes are excellent climbers because the scales on their belly provide the same sort of "hooks" that claws or electroattractive foot pads provide.

Arguably, felines have limited Clinging Linked to Claws. That is, not only do they have Clinging, but they can (All-Out) Attack with their claws and then "dig in" to hang on once they've achieved a hold, giving them a bonus to avoid being dislodged by attempts to Break Free. You sometimes see big cats "riding" a prey animal that they've tackled while they maneuver for the lethal bite to the spine or throat or a suffocating and sustained bite to the muzzle.

In non-combat situations, smaller feline and similar creatures use a running jump, dig in with the claws, and an upward vault as a sort of "jungle parkour" maneuver to scale vertical surfaces like trees or fences.

[Tymathee]

Originally Posted by Pursuivant

Functionally, the Clinging advantage allows you to go up more ore less vertical surfaces at half Basic Move without having to make a Climbing skill roll. How you do it is a "special effect". Based on RAW, that means that Clinging applies to all sorts of small scansorial or arboreal creatures like small rodents and felines as well as many lizards. Some snakes are excellent climbers because the scales on their belly provide the same sort of "hooks" that claws or electroattractive foot pads provide.

Arguably, felines have limited Clinging Linked to Claws. That is, not only do they have Clinging, but they can (All-Out) Attack with their claws and then "dig in" to hang on once they've achieved a hold, giving them a bonus to avoid being dislodged by attempts to Break Free. You sometimes see big cats "riding" a prey animal that they've tackled while they maneuver for the lethal bite to the spine or throat or a suffocating and sustained bite to the muzzle.

In non-combat situations, smaller feline and similar creatures use a running jump, dig in with the claws, and an upward vault as a sort of "jungle parkour" maneuver to scale vertical surfaces like trees or fences.

While its inclusion might better simulate what a cat is capable of, I'm hesitant to force the player to spend points on something that will have limited application in the typical dungeon crawl. For my future campaign, the most I see this getting used is during the eventual excursion into Dungeonland (of the Dungeonland and The Land Beyond the Magic Mirror modules from DnD) which features a fair amount of trees... but otherwise, I'll be downplaying wilderness exploration in favor of the dungeons.

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by jason taylor

Actually, according to Barbara Holland, "Secrets of the Cat" real cats are semi-social. They hunt solitary but don't really interacting with other cats at home. Other cats are not necessarily an enemy.

Wild or feral cats are largely solitary, but have the capacity to become social or semi-social when there is a shared resource (i.e., food source) which requires such behavior.

Intolerance (Other Cats) is a bit silly, but not out of line for cinematic cats like Greebo from the Discworld books. More realistically, cats have a Feature (Slow to Make Friends With Other Cats). They have to carefully test who's dominant and work out territories and "time shares" for shared spaces.

Sapient cats might have the equivalent of Brawling Culture Quirk from the GURPS Discworld book - disputes are resolved by posturing, growling, hissing, and screaming (i.e., Intimidation attempts) followed by teeth and claws if neither combatant backs down. (For ordinary cats, that's just part of the Bestial disadvantage.)

This sort of dominance display and brief clash might not normally be Quirk, but virtually all predators have septic attacks. While cats generally heal quickly and are resistant to scratches, deep bite wounds can easily develop abscesses. (Something like 80% of prey animals bitten by a cat which subsequently escape die due to their wounds or subsequent infection. For a predator with a high tolerance getting sick from eating sick or dying prey animals, this is a benefit. Sick prey animals are easier to catch and are less likely to fight back.)

Originally Posted by jason taylor

Quirk: does not defer to humans. I have seen cats affectionate to people never one who did not think themselves equal (if not superior!).

Actually, it's a bit more complicated. Domestic cats learn to retain, or never drop, kittenish behaviors which result in positive human attention. This means that adult domestic cats can easily switch from wild or adult cat behavior (not meowing, territoriality) to kittenish behavior (meowing, playing with other cats, imprinting on human caregivers).

If a human really wants to throw its weight around or behaves in a threatening manner, all but the bravest cats will back down or flee. Otherwise, the relationship varies from "human that's safe to be around and occasionally feeds me" to "MY human in the core of MY territory." The latter case means that many behavior issues in multi-cat households can be tracked to one or more cats feeling insecure in their attachment to their human caregiver or believing that other cats threaten that attachment.

There are also smart domestic cats who delve into human psychology in order to better manipulate their humans. I joke that "cats are tool-using animals, but that their preferred tool is the human." This dynamic is the basis for all the cute/annoying attention and food-seeking behaviors that cats use. "Food Lady always feeds me when she wakes up. I'm hungry now, so I'll wake up Food Lady." The fact that it's 4:30 a.m. on a Sunday never enters into the cat's fuzzy little brain. (Cats are impervious to the concept of "weekend.")

Related to this, add Quirk/Feature: Crepuscular.

Cats are most active around dusk and dawn, when their preferred prey is most active and when the light levels allow their vision to work at its best. For domestic cats and their owners, this results in the unfortunate situation where the cat is awake and hungry in the early dawn hours while the human is still trying to get a full night's sleep.

Originally Posted by jason taylor

Chummy: obviously only applies to some but enough to make them attractive domestic creatures.

Per RAW, Chummy indicates a strong preference for group rather than individual behavior as well as preference for the company of others. That's very rare cat behavior.

A more typical quirk is "Enjoys the company of (dogs, humans, other cats, etc.) Cats who appreciate human company might be domestic cats who have discovered all the perks of having a well-trained servant or more independent cats who've realized that when there are humans around, the bigger, fiercer cat-eating predators are likely to back off.

Originally Posted by jason taylor

Quirk: likes warm places.

Or, more generally "Comfort Analysis Technician" - if you want to find the softest, quietest, and warmest place in the house, look for the cat. On a stinking hot day, if you want to find the coolest and most pleasantly breezy place in the house look for the cat. Taken to silly extremes, these quirks justify the Connoisseur skill, at least for sapient cats.

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by Tymathee

While its inclusion might better simulate what a cat is capable of, I'm hesitant to force the player to spend points on something that will have limited application in the typical dungeon crawl. For my future campaign, the most I see this getting used is during the eventual excursion into Dungeonland (of the Dungeonland and The Land Beyond the Magic Mirror modules from DnD) which features a fair amount of trees... but otherwise, I'll be downplaying wilderness exploration in favor of the dungeons.

Understood, especially if you're trying to keep a DF template to a fixed point cost.

Any DF template has to be cinematic rather than strictly realistic. Move the hyper realistic but less genre-appropriate traits to the optional lists. That will keep the sticklers for realism happy enough.

That said, except for the getting wet, dirty, and possibly dead bits, a cat character would make an excellent low point value DF Scout, especially in the sort of cave-like dungeon where they could easily climb walls to observe events or to escape. Add a suitably compliant humanoid Ally to pick up the shiny, hard, round things the monsters leave behind and use them to make cat food happen back in town.

For a sillier campaign, channel the Puss In Boots Swashbuckler/Rogue character from the Shrek franchise.