TEXT: Cat
  A Little Game about Little Heroes
  
  “I Know I’m Dreaming”
  4
  Introduction
  8
  What You Need
  8
  Making a Cat Character
  8
  Step 1: The Traits
  8
  Step 2: Names
  9
  Step 3: Reputation
  9
  Step 4: Lives
  10
  Taking Risks
  10
  Easy
  10
  Moderate
  10
  Hard
  10
  Testing Fate
  10
  Advantage Dice
  11
  Scars
  11
  Healing
  12
  Fighting
  12
  Fighting Other Cats
  12
  Fighting Non-Cats
  13
  Dodging
  13
  Death
  13
  Reputation
  13
  Using Reputation
  13
  Losing Reputation
  13
  Getting a New Reputation
  13
  Lives
  14
  Style
  14
  Magic
  14
  Magic Points
  14
  The Bauble Curse
  15
  Getting Wet
  15
  No Tail
  15
  Using Magic
  15
  Fall on All Fours (Variable)
  16
  Hide in Plain Sight (Variable)
  16
  Sneak (Variable)
  16
  Doorslip (Good)
  16
  The Dinner Dance (Good)
  16
  Dream Bite (Good)
  16
  The Chase Your Tail Whammy
  16
  Fighting Frenzy (Good)
  16
  Storytelling
  17
  Advanced Rules
  17
  Increasing Your Traits
  17
  Legendary Traits
  17
  Experienced Cats
  17
  GM Advice
  17
  Step #1: Writing Stories
  17
  Step #2: Telling Stories
  18
  Step #3: Running the Game
  20
  Storytelling in 
  the Kingdom of Dreams
  22
  The Quality of Dreams
  22
  The Dreamer
  22
  Symbols and Absurdity
  22
  Exaggeration
  24
  Time
  24
  Jumping, Flying and Other Amazing
  Acts of Physical Impossibility
  24
  Nightmares
  24
  Dreaming Rules
  24
  Cat Adventures
  25
  A New Secret Name
  25
  Rescuing the King of the Cats
  26
  Good Dogs and Bad Cats
  26
  Cross-Genre Cat
  27
  Natural Enemies
  28
  A Note on Traits
  28
  Dogs
  28
  Rats
  29
  Mean People
  30
  Boggins
  30
  The Green-Eyed Monster
  31
  The Man under the Bed
  31
  Ghosts
  32
  Heavies
  32
  The Shoulda Brothers
  33
  Fictional Facts & Factual Folklores
  34
  Last Words
  42
  T
  Taabbllee  ooff  CCoonntteennttss
  Writing/Layout/Design
  John Wick
  Wicked Editrix
  Annie Rush
  Special Thanks
  to Jared Sorensen
  For helping me throw out the (litter) box.
  Extra Special Thanks 
  to Cobb Still
  Who protects little heroes.
  http://www.wicked-dead.com/cat
  Cat uses the Advantage System. 
  http://www.wicked-dead.com/advantage
  Cat: A Little Game about Little Heroes is © and ™ 2004 by John Wick. All rights reserved by
  the Author, published here under permission. Any mention of trademark or copyrighted
  material is not a challenge to those marks. The stories, characters and situations in this book
  are entirely fictional. Except boggins. Those are real. 
  Go give your cat a hug.
  CCrreeddiittss
  
  I know I’m dreaming. See, mummies usually
  don’t do their Wednesday wash at my
  laundromat.
  “You’re right,” says my cat, sitting beside me
  as I pile microwave dinners into the dryer.
  “You’re dreaming.”
  “How do you know?” I ask him, fumbling for
  quarters.
  “Because I’m dreaming, too.” He licks his
  chin and watches the dinners cooking in the
  dryer.
  The dryer buzzes and I pull out the tin plates
  filled with food. “So, why are you here?”
  He starts snacking on the Southern fried
  chicken. “It’s the only place you and I can
  really talk.”
  “We talk?”
  “Well, I talk all the time. Problem is, you
  don’t know how to listen.” He chews more
  chicken and I start with the cherry desert.
  “And you usually don’t remember when we’re
  done. Sometimes, things stick in that little
  brain of yours. The important things, at least.”
  “So you have something to tell me?”
  “Yup. A few things. But we don’t have a lot of
  time. It took me all night to find you, and it’s
  creeping up on dawn right quick.”
  I nod, and put the dinner back in the dryer.
  “Where are we off to?”
  “Anywhere. I just want to get away from
  those mummies. They give me the creeps.”
  * * *
  My cat and me, we walked through a city full
  of zombies. Not the flesh-eating, drooling,
  rotting kind of zombies, but the “Where the
  heck am I?” kind of zombies.
  I ask, “Where did all these zombies come
  from?”
  “They’re you. Well, most of you. You know
  when you can’t remember your dreams?” He
  shrugs at the zombies. “That’s you.”
  I’m only briefly aware that my cat just
  shrugged, almost get around to asking how he
  shrugged when a beautiful brunette walks by
  and my head turns all the way around my
  neck.
  “That’s your problem,” my cat tells me. “You
  men can’t keep focused. It’s why your dreams
  are filled with all this nonsense.”
  “Yeah,” I say, my voice as far away as my
  cat’s voice. “Whatever you say.”
  “Ugh,” he says. “This isn’t going to work.
  You’re just not concentrating.”
  I shake my head. “No, no. I’m back. I’m
  back.”
  “Good. Let’s get to work.”
  I look up and see us standing outside my
  house.
  “Our house,” my cat says. “Let’s go inside.”
  He opens the door and we go on in.
  “Hey, how did you…” I realize I don’t know
  whether to ask him how he read my mind or
  how he opened the door.
  “Never mind that,” he says. “Take a look
  around.”
  I look up and see my couch, my TV, my desk,
  my dining room table and… things. Black,
  inky things with eyes and pincers and
  mandibles and tentacles and mouths and teeth.
  So many mouths, so many teeth. They’re
  made of teeth. Little, sharp teeth that bleed
  when the things smile.
  “What are all those...” (I don’t know what to
  call them) “... crawling all over the place?”
  “That one over there,” he points at the one
  crawling all over my favorite chair. “That
  one’s a Lazy.” Then, he points at the phone. It
  looks like a blood-bloated tick. “That one’s a
  Fear. You made it real fat the last time you sat
  in front of the phone, trying to call the girl
  you met in class.”
  I nod. “I think I’m getting the idea. But what
  are they?”
  “The fewer names you give them the better,”
  my cat tells me, licking his paw, washing out
  his ear. “My grandpa called them ‘Boggins.’
  It’s a pretty harmless name. I’ve heard them
  called a lot worse.”
  I watch them oozing all over the furniture for
  another moment or so, then I ask him
  something. “These things are dangerous?”
  “Oh yeah. Mostly because you can’t see
  them.”
  “If they’re so dangerous,” I ask, “why are they
  all over there?”
  My cat smiles. “Because I’m over here.” He
  jumps up the stairs. “Come on. I’ve got more
  to show you.”
  * * *
  I’m gonna let you in on a little secret, he tells
  me. You aren’t in charge. Sure, I know you like
  to think you are, and with your guns and
  lights and cars, you can kill just about
  anything you want. But killing a thing with a
  gun or a car isn’t the same as killing it with
  your claws, and that’s where you all fall short.
  When it comes to fierce fighting, your kind are
  about as helpless as kittens.
  That’s why, every thousand years, we win the
  contest, and why, every thousand years, you
  all come in dead last. Your champion shows
  up all half-witted and naked, no more ready
  for battle than a white blister ready to be
  popped. You’ve got no teeth and you’ve got no
  claws, and you just don’t remember how to
  fight. It’s a shame, really. You know why?
  Because the less you know about protecting
  yourselves, the more we have to know about
  protecting you. That’s our job. Well, one of
  them, at least.
  * * *
  We get to the top of the stairs, and the door
  opens up on a sky full of stars. “Come on,” he
  says, and jumps on one of the stars. I give it a
  shot, only make it halfway. I nearly fall all the
  way through the sky to the water below – all
  full of sharks and telephone booths – when he
  catches me with his teeth.
  “You’re better at this than most,” he says
  through the grip he’s got on me, “but not by
  much.”
  He pulls me back up to the star. “Hold on to
  my tail, but don’t tug.” I do what he says. He
  keeps talking.
  * * *
  For as long as anyone can remember, he says,
  there’s been the Contest. Every thousand
  years, we all meet here in Dream and fight it
  out for the right to rule the world. Last time, it
  was us who won. The King of the Cats, he
  ““......  ddrreeaam
  miinngg””
  4
  5
  II  K
  Knnooww  II’’m
  m
  DDrreeaam
  miinngg......
  
  beat out the Bitch Queen for the rights, and
  her kind ain’t given us no quarter since.
  They’re a jealous breed, them dogs, and they
  don’t like being in second place.
  Now, us ruling the world is all well and good,
  but there’s a catch. The one who wins has to
  look out for the one who comes in last. We
  won, you lost. You lost big time. You trim off
  your claws, you dull down your teeth and you
  don’t pay attention to anything that’s
  important.
  That’s the difference between us and you. We
  know Dream is the “real” world, and this, the
  flesh and stuff, that’s nothing. We may be
  small there, but in here, we got it all over you.
  * * *
  “When did you get all mean?” I ask him.
  “Sorry. I get caught up in the bragging.” We’re
  not in the sea of stars anymore, but we are on
  a boat. The crew is all made of candy and
  we’re sailing over soda pop.
  “Don’t drink the water,” he tells me. Then, he
  tells me more.
  * * *
  So, anyway, you all came in dead last. That
  means you need protection. No, not from the
  dogs. You need protection from the Boggins.
  Yeah. Boggins. Monsters. Bogeymen. Those
  things.
  I know, you never seen them. You can’t. We
  can. That’s where the protection comes in.
  Boggins are bad. I mean real bad. They hook
  into your soul with those barbs of theirs and
  they hang on. They sink their teeth into you,
  and they drink, and they drink. Worst part is,
  you can’t see it. You can feel it, but you men
  come up with fancy explanations for some
  pretty simple stuff, all because you don’t want
  to look at the truth. You wake up one morning
  and you feel about as tall as a turnip and you
  call up your doctor and he gives you pills and
  you think you feel better.
  It’s the Boggins that do that to you. Drinking
  up your dreams. Soon, they get in there with
  you. I see it all the time. Some man walking
  around with his chin on his chest, walking like
  he’s got no tomorrow, and he’s got Boggins
  hanging on him like leeches, sucking and
  sucking. I hate the sound of it. Yeah, I can
  hear it. I hear it all the time. There’s Boggins
  everywhere you look. Everywhere but where
  there’s one of us, that is. There ain’t no
  Boggins where there’s one of us, because we
  kill ‘em, and we kill ‘em dead.
  * * *
  “If you’re doing such a good job, why are
  there so many Boggins in my house?”
  “You should have seen it before I got there,”
  he tells me. The crystal ship lands on the
  Moon and he starts chewing.
  “What?” he says, looking at me looking at
  him. “You didn’t think we came all the way
  up here because it’s made of rock and dust,
  did you?”
  I pick up a hunk of it and give it a taste. Now,
  I know why he wanted to come up here. I
  chew and listen, and he does his best not to
  talk with his mouth full.
  * * *
  There’s lots of kinds of Boggins, and if you’re
  good, you know all kinds of different ways to
  take care of ‘em. You know the saying,
  “There’s more than one way to butcher a
  Boggin.” But it’s dangerous work. Too many
  Boggins, and even the best of us winds up
  losing lives to ditch the bunch.
  Yeah, I said lives. We won the contest, we get
  nine of ‘em. Dogs say they get seven ‘cause
  they came in second, but who believes what a
  dog says? Now, go west – that’s right – for
  another mile or so. When you hit the Jewel
  Pool, let me know. I want to stop for a drink.
  Another thing you should know about
  Boggins. They’re contagious. Got them a
  system of dropping off eggs with a touch, and
  it’s bad. You gotta keep yourself clean of the
  eggs, or they hatch and dig right in. Damn
  hard to get out, too. I know you won’t
  remember much of this when you go back to
  the Wake, but if you remember one thing,
  remember this: them that smell bad, they’ve
  got the Boggin eggs all in ‘em and around
  ‘em. I know your nose is about as good as
  your teeth, but even the dullest man can smell
  a Boggin. You’ve just got to concentrate and
  not ignore the warning signs.
  Heh. That’s kind of funny. For all your lack of
  skill in other areas, there’s one thing you men
  are damn good at: ignoring things. You never
  see anything you don’t want to see.
  Some Boggins you got to kill with teeth and
  claws, but others are less tough and a whole
  lot more stupid, and you can use tricks.
  Sometimes they sneak into the house in
  disguise. That’s the worst. Them we call
  “changelings.” Most of the time, you can
  smell a changeling right out, but other times,
  they use Boggin tricks to sneak by you. Worst
  kind is the ones posing as kids. Had to kill one
  in the crib, once. That lost me my man. Nearly
  lost me a life. His woman was one mean
  woman, so covered in Boggins, you couldn’t
  even see her face. Just her eyes, shining in
  that bright light. I’ll never forget that.
  * * *
  “Is that why you were in the adoption
  agency?”
  He nods. “Let’s not talk about that, okay?” We
  catch a moonbeam back down to the street.
  “See, I make sure you don’t have to worry
  about the Boggins. I’ll take care of them. As
  soon as we don’t have a Boggin problem
  anymore, and I go somewhere else, and help
  somebody who needs me.”
  There’s a bit of sun on the horizon as we step
  back into the house. The Boggins scatter under
  the furniture when they see him, but he
  doesn’t seem to notice.
  “You came all this way through Dream to tell
  me about all this?”
  “That was a secondary goal,” he tells me. “I
  tell you about the Boggins every night.
  Sometimes you remember, as best as a man
  can, that is. Most of the time you don’t.”
  “So,” I ask, giving my squirming couch the
  evil eye. “What did you want to tell me?”
  He looks up at me with his big green eyes.
  “Not so much ‘tell’ you, as ‘ask’ you. See, I
  need a favor.”
  I looked over at the things staying far away
  from me and my little friend, and I nod.
  “What is it?”
  “Something you can do that I can’t. And, after
  seeing the Boggins, I hope it isn’t too much to
  ask…”
  “Anything you want.”
  He smiles and gives me a wink. “Glad you
  said it that way.” Then, he walks away and
  stops in front of that big tan litter box.
  CCaatt
  ““......  ddrreeaam
  miinngg””
  6
  7
  
  Cat is a game for telling stories about cats
  protecting people from Things they can’t see,
  both in the real world and in the Kingdom of
  Dreams. 
  Storytelling games are the oldest kind of
  games in the world (despite what fans of Go
  think). People have been telling stories since
  they first wondered what the stars were and
  what made those scary sounds in the dark of
  night. Cat is a game in the tradition of those
  stories, where players explain just why cats
  always jump at things that aren’t there, refuse
  affection one moment, then rub up against
  your hand the next, and otherwise act in
  completely irrational ways. The easiest answer
  to these questions is: cats see things we can’t.
  WWhhaatt  YYoouu  NNeeeedd
  In order to play Cat, you need some pencils,
  photocopies of the Catsheet, and a copy of this
  book. One copy will do the trick, but the
  Author encourages you to purchase as many
  copies as you like, including copies you don’t
  need, to share with friends.
  Before you play the game, you must first have
  a cat character. Photocopy the Catsheet at the
  end of this book for each player in the game.
  Next, look at the sheet. You’ll see a list of
  physical descriptions: Face, Tail, Legs, Claws,
  etc. These are called “Traits,” and they
  describe your cat’s abilities. Now, proceed
  step-by-step below.
  MMaakkiinngg  aa  CCaatt  CChhaarraacctteerr
  Step 1: The Traits
  A cat’s Traits represent his physical and
  magical prowess. Each Trait is important to a
  cat in specific ways. Your cat has a total of six
  Traits. Let’s take a look at them and see how
  they help your cat.
  A cat’s CLAWS are important for fighting and
  climbing.
  A cat’s COAT shows off his colors and
  protects him from claws and teeth and helps
  him persuade others.
  A cat’s FACE is his sensory center. It contains
  his eyes, nose, ears, tongue and whiskers, all
  of which help him sense the world. 
  A cat’s FANGS are important for fighting and
  carrying things around.
  A cat’s LEGS are used for jumping, balance
  and other quick movements.
  A cat’s TAIL is important for using Magic.
  Picking Traits
  Now you know what the Traits do, it is time to
  figure out which Trait is his BEST TRAIT and
  which of his Traits are his three STRONG
  TRAITS. The remaining Traits you don’t make
  his Best and Strong Traits are GOOD.
  First, take a look at the Traits, and think about
  which one is the most important to you. This
  is your BEST TRAIT. This is your cat’s shining,
  defining Trait, used for the actions he is
  known for. Write “Best” in the Rank space
  next to the Trait. Notice that under your Best
  Trait is a space “Bonus.” Write 5 in that space.
  Second, pick three other Traits that you like
  more than the rest. These are your cat’s
  STRONG TRAITS. These Traits aren’t as good as
  his Best Trait, but they’re better than average.
  Write “Strong” in the Rank space next to these
  Traits. Again, with each there is a space for
  “Bonus.” Write 4 in this space for all your
  STRONG Traits.
  Finally, all the other Traits on your Catsheet
  are GOOD. These Traits are no better or worse
  than any other cat’s Good Traits. Write
  “Good” in the Rank space next to those Traits
  and 3 under “Bonus” for all your GOOD Traits.
  For example, look at the Catsheet on the next
  page. This is Roland, my cat character.
  Claws = Strong (4)
  Coat  = Best (5)
  Face = Good (3)
  Fangs = Good (3)
  Legs = Strong (4)
  Tail = Strong (4)
  Roland’s BEST TRAIT is his COAT, which helps
  in his attempts to persuade other cats and
  keeps him warm at night. His three STRONG
  TRAITS are his CLAWS (for fighting and
  climbing), his LEGS (for jumping, running and
  balance) and his TAIL (useful for Magic, which
  we’ll talk about in a minute).
  As I do this, I write “5” for my Best Trait
  (Coat), “4” for my three Strong Traits (Claws,
  Legs and Tail) and “3” for the remaining two
  Good Traits (Face and Fangs).
  Step 2: Names
  One for a secret, one for a riddle, name puss
  twice and befuddle the devil.
  – Folk Saying
  Once you finish assigning your Traits, it’s
  time to give your cat his names. As T.S. Eliot
  suggested in his Old Possum's Book of
  Practical Cats, cats have many names. 
  Your cat has three names. His first name, or
  given name, is the name men know him by.
  His second name, or cat name, is the name
  other cats, mostly trusted friends, know him
  by. Finally, a cat has a secret name, one that
  no-one knows, not even trusted friends. To
  know a cat’s full name is a powerful secret,
  one that opens up many forbidden magics. If a
  Boggin ever discovered a cat’s secret name –
  well, let’s just leave that thought alone.
  Step 3: Reputation
  While Mr. Eliot knew about names, he failed
  to learn from his feline friends that each cat
  also has a number of titles, also known as
  Reputations. A Reputation is something a cat
  is known for, a particular skill, knack, or
  quirk. If you’re good at catching rats, you
  might have the Reputation “Rat-catcher.” If
  you’re good at hiding, you may have the
  Reputation “the Unseen.”
  Like Traits, a cat’s Reputations have Bonuses.
  Beginning cats (like yours) start with 7 points
  of Reputations (and no beginning Reputation
  should be higher than 3).
  CCaatt  CChhaarraacctteerrss
  8
  9
  11::  CCaatt  CChhaarraacctteerrss
  
  Step 4: Lives
  A cat has nine lives. For three he plays, for
  three he strays, and for the last three he stays.
  - Another Folk Saying
  Because the King of the Cats won The
  Contest, every cat is blessed with nine Lives.
  A cat’s Lives are very valuable to him,
  something to be cherished and protected.
  Some cats are reckless with their Lives, but
  most protect them. Write down “9” in this
  space on the Catsheet. You don’t need to know
  how to use your Lives yet; we’ll talk about
  that soon enough. Perhaps too soon…
  All Done!
  That’s it! Your cat character is all set to
  protect his family from Boggins. Now, all you
  have to do is learn how and that takes just a
  second.
  TTaakkiinngg  RRiisskkss
  When your cat tries to do something feline
  during the story, he usually succeeds (he’s a
  cat, after all). But, there are times when the
  task is difficult, and the success of a cat’s
  action is questionable. In these times, chance
  has as much to do with his success as his skill
  does. In Cat, we call this a “risk.” To sort
  things out, we use your cat’s Traits to
  determine the outcome of a chancy action.
  Use this simple system to determine if his
  action is successful or not.
  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 ledge
  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). 
  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, your cat beats the
  odds and succeeds. However, if you less than
  the required evens, fate gets the better of him,
  and your cat’s action fails.
  For example, Roland wants to jump from the
  kitchen floor to the kitchen table. The
  storyteller determines this is an Easy Risk for
  Roland. I take a look at his Catsheet and see
  Roland’s LEGS are Strong, so he can do that
  with ease. I roll four dice (for my Strong Legs)
  and roll:
  q w r t
  That’s two evens. Because I only needed one, I
  succeed in my Risk.
  Next, I decide I want Roland to jump from the
  kitchen table to the top of the refrigerator. The
  GM decides that’s a bit more difficult of a
  jump because the top of the ‘fridge is quite a
  way up. The storyteller decides this is a
  Moderate Risk. Again, Roland’s Legs are
  Strong, so he gets four dice to roll. But the
  storyteller lets me know that the top of the
  ‘fridge is covered with empty Tupperware
  bowls, and if I do make the jump, I’ll cause
  most – if not all of them – to fall to the
  ground, making an awful racket. He says,
  “Making it to the top of the ‘fridge without
  dropping the bowls is a Hard Risk.” 
  I roll four dice:
  q w r t
  This time, I roll two evens again. Because I
  needed three evens, the GM decides whether
  Roland falls down to the kitchen floor or
  makes a noise when he lands on top of the
  ‘fridge.
  Advantage Dice
  One of the most important elements of Cat
  system is Advantage Dice. These are dice the
  GM 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. GMs should not be shy
  about giving Advantage Dice; they are here to
  reward good roleplaying, planning, and
  innovative thinking. 
  A cat tries to hide from a dog. The player
  says, “I have three advantages. First, it’s dark,
  lending to my hiding skills. Second, it’s
  raining, which makes it hard for the dog to
  catch my scent. Finally, I’m up high, hiding on
  a dumpster. High above the dog’s head.”
  The GM agrees and says, “Okay. You have
  three advantages. You can roll three additional
  dice to hide.”
  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 rooftop 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
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  have to explain to the GM 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 a Hurt Trait. Hurt traits have a bonus of 2. 
  If you earn three Scars in a Hurt Trait, it drops
  to Crippled. You may not takeRisks with a
  Crippled Trait.
  Healing
  A cat heals one Wound at the beginning of
  each game session. Cats also heal one Wound
  per week (if time passes quickly in a game
  session).
  FFiigghhttiinngg
  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 nubmer 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 (see
  below) 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.
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  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 at the fight, do it now.
  Dodging
  During a fight, you 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, of if he
  uses his last Life, he dies.
  RReeppuuttaattiioonn
  Your cat can have up to five Reputations, and
  each Reputation has both a Trait and a Rank.
  A Reputation’s maximum Rank is 5. As an
  example, Roland has the following
  Reputations:
  Boggin Killer 3
  Rat Catcher 2
  Good Kisser 2
  Using Reputation
  Whenever your cat takes a Risk, look at your
  Reputations. If the GM 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 GM 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
  R
  Reeppuuttaattiioonn
  Advantage Dice
  Hey, Mr. and Mrs. GM! Don’t skimp
  on the Advantage Dice! They’re what
  make the world go ‘round.
  Advantage Dice came out of a
  response to watching another system
  in action. (The system shall remain
  nameless, but its initials are DAD.) In
  that system, all the advantages a
  character could have were pre-
  loaded: right there on his sheet. The
  player didn’t have to think about how
  to gain bonuses because all his
  bonuses were already in front of him.
  Besides, the wimpy circumstantial
  bonus (+2) didn’t match the Feats he
  had on his sheet.
  This led to the classic “I roll to hit”
  syndrome that drives me crazy. So, I
  decided to come up with something I
  liked more.
  Advantage Dice make the player
  engage the world around him, make
  him look for any advantage his
  character can get. Rather than rely on
  his sheet, the player has to think
  outside his sheet and think of ways to
  gain advantages. The advantages
  aren’t front loaded and calculated
  ahead of time.
  When all the thinking is already done
  for the player, he resorts to “I roll to
  hit.” He doesn’t even address the
  situation with an in-character voice.
  “I roll to hit.”
  With advantage dice, he must think
  about the fight in-character. He must
  address the situation going on. If he
  just “rolls to hit,” he’s missing out on
  all the goodies. As the GM, it is your
  job to reward his creativity. Do it. You
  might be surprised at the response.
  
  “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. Here’s
  how it works.
  Roland saves another cat from a nasty dog
  (using some good ol’ fasioned cat magic). The
  other cat – Sylvia – decided Roland needs a
  reward, so she decides to give him a new
  Reputation.
  Sylvia has a Reputation for outsmarting dogs:
  Hound Huckster 3. She “spends” her
  Reputation to give Roland the same
  Reputation at half her Rank (rounded up). This
  means she can’t rely on her Reputation for the
  rest of the game.
  So, Roland now has a new Reputation: Hound
  Huckster 2.
  LLiivveess
  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… although
  nobody’s actually met a cat who has.
  SSttyyllee
  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; write them down on your cat sheet.
  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 GM 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. 
  For example, while running away from a dog,
  Roland makes his way across a busy street.
  The GM tells me I have to make a Hard Legs
  roll to not get hit by the cars. I roll and get:
  w w r y
  Four evens! Because I only needed three, I
  have one additional even to use for Style. I tell
  the GM that one of the cars spins out of the
  way, cutting me off from the dog; he’s gonna
  have to wait a few moments while I continue
  darting down a dark alley, clear out of sight.
  MMaaggiicc
  A cat’s Tail is his soul, his source of power
  and magic. And while it is called “cat magic,”
  cats don’t cast spells... they play Tricks.
  The stronger a cat’s Tail, the mightier his
  magic and the more clever his Tricks. We’ll
  learn more about Tricks in a moment. First,
  let’s talk a little bit about the limits of cat
  magic.
  Magic Points
  Tricks don’t happen all by themselves; a cat
  has to make a Trick work. He does this by
  using Magic Points and rolling dice. The
  harder the Trick, the more magic it requires,
  the more evens you have to roll to make it
  work.
  Each cat has five Magic Points, plus one
  Magic Point per Tail Rank. In order to use any
  magic at all, a cat has to spend at least one
  Magic Point which gives him a number of
  dice to roll equal to his Tail. Each additioanl
  Magic Point gives you an Advantage Die to
  roll.
  The Bauble Curse
  Long, long ago, a sorcerer dog tricked the
  King of the Cats, putting a curse on him and
  all his kind. Known by cats as “the Bauble
  Curse,” it is one of the more humiliating
  aspects of cat nature. If you’ve ever seen a cat
  chase a ball of twine or a feather on a long
  piece of string, you’re familiar with the Curse.
  As long as the object is in his sight (and
  active), a cat is under the thrall of the curse.
  He remains under the thrall of the Curse until
  hemakes three Hard Risks with his Tail. Until
  he does that, the Curse holds him tight,
  making him completely helpless and under the
  thrall of the Curse. If he fails all three Risks,
  he is suddenly free from the Curse. A cat
  cannot take any Risk while under the effects
  of the Bauble Curse.
  Getting Wet
  If a cat gets wet – and we’re not talking about
  drops, we’re talking about the drowned rat
  kind of wet – he can’t use his magic for the
  rest of the day, even if he gets himself dry
  again.
  No Tail
  Some species of cat have no Tail. While they
  may have no physical tail, they still have a
  Tail Trait, just like other cats.
  Using Magic
  Listed below are the many Tricks cats use to
  befuddle their enemies. Each Trick has a Tail
  Rank indicating how strong your cat’s Tail
  needs to be to use the Trick. If your cat’s Tail
  is equal to or greater than the listed Rank, you
  may use the Trick. If the Trick’s Rank is
  greater than your Tail Rank, you cannot use
  the Trick.
  Some Tricks have a “Variable” Tail Rank; this
  means the Trick has a number of effects based
  on your cat’s Tail Rank. You can pull off the
  effects equal to or lesser than your Tail Rank
  but not those greater than your Tail Rank.
  For example, Roland wants to use a Trick. His
  Tail is Strong, so he can use any Trick in the
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  book that requires a Poor, Good, or Strong
  Tail. He cannot use any Trick that requires a
  Best Tail.
  Fall on All Fours (Variable)
  Whenever scientists study how cats fall, they
  always get very strange results. That’s because
  cats are using magic to keep themselves safe
  during the fall and some cats are just better at
  magic than others.
  Good: A cat with a Good Tail can fall twenty
  feet and take no Scars. 
  Strong: A cat with a Strong Tail can fall forty
  feet and suffer no Scars. 
  Best: A cat with a Best Tail can fall seventy
  feet and suffer no scars.
  Hide in Plain Sight (Variable)
  Cats have an amazing ability to disappear
  almost before your very eyes. Once a cat
  disappears, he remains hidden as long as he
  remains still.
  Good: A cat with a Good Tail can disappear if
  everyone in the room has their back turned to
  him.
  Strong: A cat with a Strong Tail can disappear
  if no-one is looking directly at him (i.e. he’s in
  the corner of your eye).
  Best: A cat with a Best Tail can disappear,
  quite literally, “in the blink of an eye,” even if
  you’re looking straight at him.
  Sneak (Variable)
  Cats are sneaky; they move very quietly
  without drawing any attention to themselves.
  Good: A cat with a Good Tail can move
  through a darkened area (room, alleyway, etc.)
  without being seen by anyone.
  Strong: A cat with a Strong Tail can move
  through a room full of people without being
  seen.
  Best: A cat with a Best Tail can pass over
  sleeping people (and other creatures) without
  disturbing them from their rest.
  Doorslip (Good)
  A cat must have a Strong Tail to perform the
  Doorslip Trick. It allows a cat to slip by a
  locked door. It requires a small sacrifice (a rat,
  mouse or rabbit) to be placed before the door.
  Once the Ritual is complete, the cat slips by
  the door as if it were open.
  The Dinner Dance Ritual (Good)
  The Dinner Dance Ritual (some precocious
  cats call this the “DDR”) is a favorite of toms
  and requires little preparation. All you need do
  is walk around a human three times and he’ll
  grant a single request (bring me food, give me
  shelter, etc.). The request must have
  something to do with fulfilling a basic need.
  Dream Bite (Good)
  It’s hard to find humans in the Dream,
  especially the ones who don’t pay attention. A
  few bites (just two or three) mark a human
  with your scent (clawing works as well),
  making the human easy to find in the Dream.
  Dream Bite also works on Boggins, making
  them easy to find (and kill).
  The Chase Your Tail Whammy (Best)
  A not-very-nice Ritual that befuddles dogs. If
  you can jump over a dog – head to tail – he
  gets confused and starts chasing his tail. This
  lasts for 1, 2 or 3 minutes (roll a 6-sided die
  and divide the result).
  Fighting Frenzy (Good)
  When a cat needs it, he can enter a kind of
  wild frenzy of claws and teeth. The price is
  high, but sometimes, a cat needs it to survive.
  By spending one Life, a cat may gain a
  number of actions in a fight equal to his Tail
  bonus. This means a cat with a Good Tail (3)
  can take three actions during a round. He can
  attack three opponents, attack an opponent
  three times, or whatever else he needs to do.
  This particular trick has a high price, however:
  it costs the cat one of his Lives.
  This is the Game Master’s part of the book. It
  contains Advanced Rules to help the GM
  tailor the game to his liking, advice on making
  and telling stories, running the game,
  storytelling in the Kingdom of Dreams, a
  whole bunch of Enemies and a few other
  helpful hints.
  AAddvvaanncceedd  RRuulleess
  Below are a few extra rules you can put in
  your game. You don’t have to use all of them,
  you can pick and choose. If you feel more
  rules get in the way of enjoying the game,
  leave them alone.
  Increasing Your Traits
  At the end of the game, each cat gains a Trait
  Point to allocate to one of his Traits (plus one
  or two for good roleplaying).
  You can increase a Trait with Trait Points. You
  must invest three Trait Points in a Trait to
  increase it one Rank.
  Experienced Cats
  You may want to play a more experienced cat
  at the beginning of the game. Before you even
  begin the story, you can spend one Life to
  increase a Good Trait to Strong or two Lives
  to increase a Strong Trait to Best. You can
  spend up to three Lives this way.
  Legendary Traits
  Some cats have “Legendary Traits” (6). To
  increase a Trait from Best to Legendary, you
  must spend 6 Trait Points. Remember, a Trait
  cannot increase if it has any Scars.
  GGMM  AAddvviiccee
  Storytelling is not an easy job, but it’s a very
  rewarding one. This chapter is dedicated to
  making his job easy and fun. In order to do
  that, I’ve divided storytelling up into three
  simple steps: #1 Writing Stories, #2 Telling
  Stories, and #3 Running the Game.
  Step #1: Writing Stories
  Before we get too far into how you write
  stories for Cat, we should stop a moment to
  consider a question: what kind of stories do
  you want to tell? Problem is, that’s a trick
  question. As GM, you don’t tell the players
  stories, you help them tell stories to each
  other.
  Storytelling is a lot like being a tour guide for
  a group of people going to an amusement
  park. They’re all eager to play your brand new
  storytelling game, but the problem is, they all
  like different kinds of stories. Some folks like
  horror stories, some like romance, and others
  like action. 
  Some people like to be scared. They enjoy
  stories of ghosts, bogeymen and other things
  that bump your bed in the night. Others can’t
  stand scary stories, and want to stay as far
  away from them as possible. Some folks like
  stories with a lot of action, suspense and
  drama. Others like softer, quieter stories,
  where there’s no doubt the hero wins in the
  end. Your job as a GM is to make sure
  everybody has fun, so you have to figure out
  what kind of stories they like. Now that may
  sound hard, but a couple of tricks make it
  easier than it sounds.
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  Trick 1: Ask Your Players
  It’s so simple, you’d never think of it, but
  actually sitting down and asking your players
  what kind of story they’d like to tell is a really
  good way of making sure everybody in your
  game is happy.
  Trick 2: Look at their Catsheets
  Another good trick is taking a peek at their
  Catsheets. Players looking for an action-filled
  fight fest make their Claws and Fangs their
  Best and Strong Traits. Folks who want a little
  romance make their Coat their Best Trait.
  Players looking to use Magic and wander
  through the Dream have a thick, bushy Best
  Tail. Take a peek at those Catsheets, figure out
  what your players want and give it to them.
  It’s All About Drama
  When writing a story, it’s important to include
  an element of drama. Now, this little word
  gets tossed around a lot (like its cousin
  “irony”) but what exactly does it mean? Well,
  drama is conflict. Without conflict, cats sit
  around all day and get very little done.
  However, when you give a protagonist a goal,
  then put something between him and that goal,
  you have drama.
  For example, let’s say there’s a little boy
  haunted by a very exotic Boggin nobody’s
  ever seen before. It’s mean and ruthless and
  sends all the neighborhood cats away licking
  scars. The boy is dying and the Boggin is
  laughing. The cats have to do something
  before its too late.
  Here you have goal (“protect the boy”) and
  obstacle (“Boggin is too tough to beat up
  alone”). The heroes of the story have to find a
  way to save the boy, but in order to do that,
  they must defeat the Boggin. Now that you
  know the goal, you set up complications and
  smaller obstacles the players must overcome
  on their way to the big goal. They hear a
  rumor of an old cat who lives across town
  who knows all sorts of things about Boggins.
  Maybe if they get to him, he can tell them
  how to defeat the Boggin?
  This sets up all sorts of obstacles for the
  heroes. First, they have to discover where the
  old ratter lives. Second, they have to get out of
  the neighborhood and across town. That
  means a whole city of dogs, mean people,
  stray Boggins and animal control people to
  dodge. That city’s worth three nights of
  adventures all by itself. Then, once they’ve
  found the old cat, they have to convince him
  to pass on his knowledge. Finally, once they
  know the method for dealing with the Big Bad
  Boggin, they have to get back across town and
  deal with it.
  Another example: Your child goes off to
  summer camp with a fat Boggin sitting on his
  back. You have to find a way to smuggle
  yourself on that bus and make sure that thing
  doesn’t spread Boggin eggs all over the camp.
  You know, most summer camps have dogs...
  But even simple circumstances can inspire
  epic adventures. Fleas, disease, ticks, even a
  messy house can inspire cats to incredible
  methods to get their people to pay attention to
  their actions. As the opening story suggests,
  just getting them to clean out the litter box can
  be a challenge.
  Step #2: Telling Stories
  Some people say the oldest rule in storytelling
  is: “Show, don’t tell.” They’re probably right,
  but in my head, it isn’t the most important. It’s
  more important to keep your audience
  entertained at all times. 
  How do you do this? Well, the Japanese
  swordsman-scholar Miyamoto Musashi once
  suggested that swordfighting had a lot to do
  with carpentry. I think its safe to say that
  storytelling does, too. After all, both of them
  employ toolboxes...
  The Two Toolboxes
  A storyteller has two toolboxes: his Voice
  Toolbox and his Body Toolbox. Let’s look at
  each in turn.
  Using Your Voice
  The human voice is a powerful tool. Like a
  musical instrument, it’s capable of all kinds of
  sounds. However, no instrument in the world
  is as versatile as your voice. With it, you can
  create lightning, thunder, dogs barking or
  howling at the moon. You can create
  characters, each with their own unique voice
  and mannerisms. Use funny voices, scary
  voices, gutteral voices, high pitched voices,
  ticks, stutters, slurs and anything else you can
  think of.
  Spend one day, just one day, listening to the
  world around you and pay close attention to
  how things sound. Then, try mimicking those
  sounds. You may be amazed at how close you
  get. Or, just sit in your kitchen for ten
  minutes. Turn the TV and music off, and just
  sit and listen. Listen to the hum of the
  refrigerator, the sound of neighbors outside,
  cars starting and driving by, water flowing
  through the walls as someone turns on the
  shower, a distant phone ringing, and pets
  running around downstairs. The world is
  seldom, if ever, silent. Cats know this. So
  should your players.
  Using Your Body
  The Body Toolbox is just as powerful,
  although not as subtle as the Voice Toolbox.
  The easiest example of using your body to
  help communicate information to your players
  is through the body language of non-player
  characters. Each character should hold himself
  differently. Like the exercise I mentioned
  above, go the mall or some other place were
  people congregate, and watch them. Just over
  lunch, sit for an hour with a sandwich and
  watch as people walk by. Note where they
  hold their hands, how they hold their heads,
  how they dodge the glances of strangers, how
  they get out of the way, how they drop eye
  contact to the floor, how they recover from a
  stumble, how they hold themselves in a large
  group of friends, how they hold themselves in
  lines and how their entire body language
  changes when they need to apologize. It’s
  amazing to watch, it really is. 
  And you can learn so much from just an hour
  of paying attention. And don’t spend all your
  time watching people; spend some time
  watching cats, too. The more you know about
  our feline friends, the more you can
  communicate their actions and voices to your
  players.
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  Step #3: Running the
  Game
  Finally, a quick discussion on how to run the
  game. First, a look at the rules. Second, a
  discussion of one of the oldest storytelling
  tricks in the world. Finally, a chat on how to
  reward your players.
  The Rules
  As was stated at the beginning of this book,
  the only rule you really have to follow is
  HAVE FUN! Now, that’s easy for me to say: I
  wrote the rules, I know how they work and I
  know which rules to ditch when I need to,
  right?
  Well, frankly, so do you. I have a lot of faith
  in you. I designed the rules to be simple and
  easy to fudge with so you could do just that.
  Everybody’s got their own house rules for
  MONOPOLY, and there’s no reason why
  everyone who owns a copy of this game
  shouldn’t have their own set of house rules for
  it as well.
  Yes, dropping and changing rules changes
  how the game works, but that’s the point of
  dropping and changing rules: to make the
  game work differently. I don’t expect
  everyone to like every rule I’ve written in the
  book. I expect people to change them, tweak
  them or just ditch them all together and create
  an entirely new rule set. That’s half the fun of
  a roleplaying game: watching how other
  people play the same game with different sets
  of rules.
  In fact, while running Cat, I found myself
  changing the rules every session or so. One
  player had to make a jump and failed it by one
  even (he needed 3 and rolled 2), but he said,
  “My cat just landed on the other side, just a
  paw short, right?” I nodded. “So, he could use
  his Claws to climb the rest of the way?” I
  nodded again. “You can make a test with your
  Claws to try climbing up the rest of the way.”
  Nowhere in the rules does it say a player can
  do that, but his solution to the failure was so
  cool (it made everybody’s eyes shine – he
  really needed to make that jump), I let him get
  away with it. And just like that BANG! a new
  rule. If I played the rules hard and fast, he
  wouldn’t have made the roll and fell for some
  Scars. Instead, because I was willing to bend
  the rules for a creative player, the game
  proceeded and he managed to save a mommy
  from a nasty Boggin.
  So, if you don’t like how Lives work and
  think they should have a more important role
  in the game, make them more important.
  Don’t worry about “game balance” or any of
  that nonsense. The only “game balance” to
  worry about is when one player takes
  advantage of the rules and exploits them at the
  expense of other players. It doesn’t matter
  what rule set you put in front of him, he’ll
  ruin any game he can get his hands on. That’s
  his brand of fun: enjoying himself at the
  expense of others. That’s why other games
  have “game balance”: to ensure the rules
  monkey doesn’t “abuse” the game system.
  I want you to abuse the game system. Make it
  work the way you want it to work. But if one
  player spoils everybody else’s good time,
  don’t blame the game system, blame the
  player.
  And don’t invite him back next time.
  Let Them Do All the Work
  This is a trick the best storytellers know:
  there’s a lot more of “them” (the players) than
  there are of “us” Fortunately, they haven’t
  figured that out just yet, and you can use it to
  your advantage.
  In a movie or a book, the author has complete
  control over every aspect of the story. He
  controls the thoughts, actions and dialogue of
  all the characters, but more importantly, he
  also controls the setting, scenery and props.
  Most roleplaying games use the premise “the
  storyteller is the author and the players are the
  main characters.” We’re not gonna go in that
  direction. I suggest to you the players are
  authors as well. Your chief role as GM (a
  purposefully misguiding title) is to help the
  players tell their own stories. 
  When their cats enter a room, tell them to
  describe it. Let them fill it with props. Fill in
  the blanks as you see fit, but otherwise, let
  them do all the work. Let them describe the
  family they live with, the house they live in
  and the surrounding neighborhood. Let them
  name the dog next door. Let them name and
  describe the hawk that lives just up the way in
  the forest off the main road. Let them come up
  with the backstory of how they found that
  hawk with a broken wing and brought mice
  and rats to it and nursed it back to heath, thus
  making an ally for life. Let them detail their
  own past adventures, but when you do, listen
  closely and keep notes. You’ll find all sorts of
  adventure seeds in their descriptions, as well
  as possible future allies and enemies.
  The more control you give your players over
  their own characters’ destinies, the more
  they’ll invest into not only their own
  characters, but the world surrounding them. If
  you introduce a secondary character, they
  decide whether or not they want to invest any
  time with him. If they create the character,
  they’ve already got a say in his look, his
  mannerisms, his habits and flaws. In other
  words, they’ll create characters they want to
  interact with.
  In other words, they’re doing all the work.
  CCaatt
  R
  Ruunnnniinngg  tthhee  G
  Gaam
  mee
  20
  21
  
  SSttoorryytteelllliinngg  iinn  tthhee
  KKiinnggddoomm  ooff  DDrreeaammss
  When your characters enter the Kingdom of
  Dreams, you have many challenges before
  you. Dreams aren’t like the real world, they
  have qualities that make them distinct. In this
  section of the book, we’ll talk about dreams
  and how to invoke their unique atmosphere.
  The Quality of Dreams
  The most important thing to remember about
  telling stories in the Kingdom of Dreams is
  atmosphere. Dreams feel a certain way, and if
  you can invoke that sensation, you can make it
  really feel like your players are walking
  through a dreamscape.
  The Dreamer
  The first thing to consider when describing
  Dream is the environment of the dreamer. If a
  dreamer is snuggled up in a cozy blanket with
  his favorite pillow, the Dream is a friendly,
  warm place.
  The sun is high in the sky, sending delicate
  drops of warmth down on your head. It’s not
  too hot because a cool breeze keeps you
  company. The tall grasses wave, the trees
  sway and the air is fresh and cool. And you’re
  pretty sure if you jump hard enough, you can
  fly off into that beautiful sky…
  On the other hand, if the dreamer falls asleep
  in a cardboard box with rain pelting through
  his makeshift home while sirens blare and the
  growl of a dog can be heard somewhere in the
  darkness, a dreamer’s experience is very
  different.
  It is dark. And wet. Lightning flashes, but
  gives no illumination. The drooping limbs
  claw the earth below them, hoping to dig up
  something buried long ago. You think you
  hear screaming, perhaps below those trees.
  And now a sucking sound, perhaps at the
  roots. You are cold, alone and in the dark.
  You’re pretty sure if you don’t keep walking,
  the mud will suck you down. Maybe that’s
  where the screams are coming from. Someone
  who couldn’t keep walking. And your feet are
  so heavy…
  Details are important. Use colors to
  communicate mood. Use sounds, use smells.
  Use everything at your disposal to invoke the
  atmosphere of dream.
  Symbols and Absurdity
  Yes, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, but that
  means other times, it isn’t. Symbols are an
  important element of Dream, although the
  symbolic world doesn’t always make sense.
  That’s probably because it isn’t supposed to
  make sense.
  Symbols communicate information to us, but
  sometimes that information isn’t supposed to
  be interpreted in a logical way (the surreal
  films of David Lynch are called “dream-like”
  for a reason). Sometimes, dreams present
  images that don’t “mean” anything, but
  communicate a sensation or an emotion.
  A strange man approaches you. His eyes are
  black, his hair is blond and his fingernails are
  made of alabaster. “There is something I need
  to do,” he says, and he reaches forward and
  kisses you with his corpse-cold lips. His
  breath smells like burned rubber. When he’s
  done, he whispers, “Thank you,” and walks
  away. Roses drop from his trousers as he
  leaves, filling the room with their scent.
  The above paragraph could very well be a
  dream, and there are a dozen different ways to
  interpret the experience. However, what is
  more important is the emotion you get from
  the experience. When describing dreams, use
  surreal experiences to elicit response from the
  dreamers, rather than fill their heads with
  “What did that mean?”
  We almost never understand our dreams, but
  we always remember the way they made us
  feel.
  CCaatt
  K
  Kiinnggddoom
  m  ooff  DDrreeaam
  mss
  22
  23
  
  Exaggeration
  In the Kingdom of Dreams, everything is
  bigger than it should be. Or, if you like,
  everything is much, much smaller. Either way,
  exaggeration is a great tool for invoking the
  atmosphere of dream.
  You approach Charlie’s house. You remember
  you owe him that ten bucks you borrowed for
  lunch the other day. The windows open wide,
  staring down at you. The drapes curl into
  smiles. The wooden fence twists into an iron
  gate as you pass through, slamming shut when
  it is behind you. The grass murmurs. The trees
  chortle. The door swings open by itself as you
  approach. You want to stop; turn back and run,
  but your feet keep carrying you forward…
  So much of the geography and architecture of
  Dream is exaggeration, reflecting the mood of
  the dreamer, or the subject of his dream. If
  he’s facing his fears, everything is dark,
  gloomy and sharp. If he’s comfortable,
  everything is soft, warm and inviting.
  Time
  In the Kingdom of Dreams, time only exists as
  a variable, an elastic element. There is no
  consistency to its passing. A journey that
  should take weeks lasts mere moments, with
  no recollection at all of the events between
  Point A and Point B. A second can take hours
  to pass, especially when running away from a
  nightmare. Things speed up and slow down
  when they feel like it.
  Jumping, Flying and Other Amazing Acts
  of Physical Impossibility
  Anything is possible in dream, but most of it
  is unintentional. Some dreamers can control
  their actions, flying when they feel like it.
  Others stumble on minor miracles and enjoy
  them while they last.
  Cats can control the landscape of dream (see
  Dreaming Rules, below), but humans make
  everything difficult. Because they can’t
  control their dreams – only a few, very
  talented humans can – their psyches
  manipulate and warp the dreamscape beyond
  any hope of repair. In other words, cats have
  to make do with the world humans make.
  Nightmares
  As if Boggins weren’t enough.
  In the Kingdom of Dreams, cats have to look
  out for nightmares. Like Boggins, nightmares
  can do little to danger cats… unless they’re
  powered by the fears of dreamers, that is.
  Nightmares feed on human fear, and seek out
  dreaming humans to quench their hunger.
  Many nightmares even collect human
  dreamers, keeping them trapped within cages
  made from their own phobias and insecurities.
  Dreaming Rules
  Cats have great power in the Kingdom of
  Dreams. Because they won the Contest, they
  have the ability to alter and manipulate the
  Dreamscape. However, because mankind’s
  control over the Dreamscape is random at
  best, they have a lot to do when looking out
  for their people while they dream.
  A cat uses his Tail to manipulate dream.
  Unlike Tricks, however, he can only alter the
  dreamscape by taking Risks. Listed below are
  the ways cats can change the Dreamscape
  alonw with the Difficulties.
  Change Yourself (1 Even)
  With a Good Tail you can jump a mile into the
  sky, grow wings and fly, grow gills and swim,
  and anything else that affects you, only you,
  and nothing else.
  Change Something Else (2 Evens)
  Your cat can make an alarm clock ring, a
  computer shut down, a wound stop bleeding
  and a mean lady fart in a public place. You
  can change any object as long as it is not
  permanently destroyed by the change and it is
  something it can do.
  Alter Something Else (3 Evens)
  If your cat’s Tail is his Best Trait, your cat can
  make something (not a person) do something
  it can’t do. You can make a clock face laugh
  or a pig fly or a candy bar turn into a flower.
  Create or Destroy Something (4 Evens)
  If your cat’s Tail is Legendary, he can
  completely destroy one thing. It can’t be
  something made out of more than one part like
  a gun or a clock, but you can destroy a part of
  that clock, so it doesn’t work anymore.
  Completely Change One Place (5 Evens)
  Finally, a cat can completely change his
  surroundings into something else. He can’t
  predict what it will be, but the entire situation
  changes. This is an act of incredible will,
  demanding every bit of magic a cat’s got. It is
  no ordinary feat, but it can be accomplished.
  CCaatt  AAddvveennttuurreess
  Listed below are a few story hooks for you to
  incorporate into full blown stories. Make sure
  each fits your own group’s style of play and
  use the tricks you learned in the previous
  section.
  A New Secret Name
  If Boggins ever discover a cat’s secret name,
  they become invisible to him, just as they’re
  invisible to humans. It also means Boggins
  can haunt the poor cat and steal his magic
  from him.
  If a cat ever “loses” his secret name this way,
  he must find another one. The only way to do
  that is in Dream. The Well of Names is hidden
  (to keep Boggins and Nightmares from
  discovering it) and only the most
  knowledgeable creatures in the world know
  where it is. But getting that knowledge isn’t
  easy and probably requires a quest. 
  Once the knowledge is gained, the journey is
  only half done. Journeying through Dream to
  the Well of Names requires cunning, courage
  and stealth (to make sure no Boggins or
  Nightmares follow you). It rests in a hidden
  valley just off the shores of the Sea of Flame.
  Once there, the cat whispers into the Well and
  the echo tells him his new name – depending
  on what he whispered into the Well. What
  should he whisper? That’s up to the cat.
  CCaatt
  CCaatt
  24
  25
  
  Rescuing the King 
  of the Cats
  A witch (typically a mean old lady, but there’s
  nothing wrong with flying in the face of
  cliché) has captured the King of the Cats and
  plans on skinning him for his magic and
  knowledge. Of course, its up to you to
  organize and direct a rescue plan.
  The witch has all kinds of tricks and traps set
  up for cats who hope to rescue their King (just
  think of what the traps in Home Alone would
  really do to a cat and you’ve got the right
  idea). She also has twin Dobermans (named
  “Tooth” and “Claw”) and a pit bull (“Esau”)
  who have free run of the house. She also has a
  flock of crows who sit on the roof looking for
  cats. They’re not really crows, but nightmares
  she pulled out of Dream. The other birds in
  the area don’t like them and would be willing
  to help out a group of cats to get rid of them.
  Finally, she has a little black cat she calls
  Circe. This cat has been possessed by a
  Boggin and has Boggin Points (see Boggins,
  below). It has a Best Tail and the rest of her
  Traits are Strong. She’s always on the lookout
  for other cats and will kill them for their
  magic. She can use cat magic and has set up a
  ritual to warn her when cats enter the house.
  Circe is clever and knows she probably can’t
  take on a group of cats by herself, but she can
  warn the dogs and isolate less clever cats with
  her magic, taking them out one-by-one.
  The player cats may be armed with an army of
  neighbors (what cat in his right mind wouldn’t
  want to have “saved the King of the Cats” on
  his name?) but they have very little time to get
  help and even less time to plan. They discover
  he’s been captured one morning and they have
  until midnight to save him (that’s when she
  plans doing the sacrifice).
  Give the witch the same traits as a Mean
  Person, but also give her some Boggin Points
  (depending on how many cats you have and
  how tough you think they are). She can do
  everything a witch should be able to with her
  Magic Points:
  Flight: She can fly for 3 BP – no matter the
  distance – but she needs her broom to do it.
  Curses: For 2 BP she can cause a cat to fail at
  a specific action (climbing, sneaking,
  fighting). The curse only lasts until the cat
  tries that action, then he fails and the curse is
  off his coat. She must point at the cat with her
  magic chicken leg (taken from a black
  feathered chicken) to cast a curse.
  Potions: She has potions that stink (causing –1
  die to all actions) and stick (3 dice of
  Advantage to keep a cat held). She also has a
  potion that makes her invisible (until she
  stands in sunlight). She also needs a potion to
  see and talk to Boggins. This potion lasts for
  ten minutes.
  By the way, the witch is trying to become a
  Boggin. She wins their faith and trust until
  one of them possesses her, giving her exactly
  what she thought she wanted. Saving the
  witch from herself may be a secondary task
  here, but it is still a noble one.
  Good Dogs and Bad Cats
  As suggested above, there are “bad cats,” but
  it have to take a Boggin to make a cat go bad.
  Like people, some cats are just born bad. Also
  like people, ambition, heartbreak, trauma, and
  other emotional landmines can turn a cat
  against its people.
  Imagine a cardboard box full of abandoned
  kittens sitting in the August heat, left to die of
  exposure. Imagine a kitten with a rope and
  rock tied to its neck, thrown into a river.
  People are notorious for their treatment of
  cats, and there are those out there who feel
  people just don’t deserve protection. What
  they do deserve is the same pain they give
  cats.
  “Bad cats” go out of their way to bring misery
  to humans, including one trick that no honest
  cat ever uses: stealing breath. It’s an old ritual
  that’s forbidden by the King of the Cats, but
  that doesn’t mean his subjects never use it. If a
  cat sits on a sleeping person, he can steal the
  breath right out of them. The ritual takes 1
  hour per Magic Point the person has, and at
  the end of the night, the person is one Magic
  Point less and the cat has three more. When a
  cat steals a person’s last Magic Point, the
  person dies. An adult has only 3 Magic Points,
  teens have 4, adolescents have 5, toddlers
  have 6 and infants have 7.
  For example, a bad cat named Klytemnestra is
  stealing a little boy’s breath. The boy has 5
  Magic Points, so the ritual takes 5 hours a
  night to complete. In the morning,
  Klytemnestra has 3 extra Magic Points and
  the boy has 1 less. That means the next night,
  the ritual only takes 4 hours to complete.
  On the other hand, there is such a thing as a
  “good dog.” Many canines resent cats for
  winning the Contest, but not all of them. A
  few – just a few – recognize a cat’s duty to
  protect people and actually assist them in their
  duties. After all, nothing on Earth knows duty
  better than a dog; it’s just that duty sometimes
  turns into jealousy...
  Often times, a puppy gets raised in a
  household of cats, learns how to see Boggins
  (not all dogs can see them) and helps out his
  feline fellows. He uses his own magic (see
  Dogs, below) to hunt down and kill Boggins,
  thus earning friendship and trust.
  Now, with all that in mind, consider an
  adventure with a good dog and a bad cat. The
  cat is trying to get revenge on a family for
  giving away her kittens while the dog – a
  puppy named “Hijinx” – tries to get the help
  of his cat neighbors. The cats have never
  heard of a dog trying to talk with cats, so they
  have no need to trust him. Hijinx does his best
  to win them over, trying to show evidence of
  the bad cat’s treachery. However, this bad cat
  is clever and uses tricks of his own to
  sabotage any trust Hijinx earns. Nobody
  listens to poor Hijinx and every night, the
  little baby in his care wakes with less breath...
  CCrroossss--GGeennrree  CCaatt
  Nearly every roleplaying game in existence
  has rules for cats. If you’d like to play a cat
  from this game in another roleplaying game,
  it’s pretty easy.
  All you do is use the traits from the other
  game for your physical actions. Then, assume
  your cat’s tail is his Best Trait (you need all
  the advantages you can get) and use the magic
  system in this book as is. If you use a Magic
  Point to disappear between the blink of an
  eye, that’s exactly what you do. Assume cat
  magic always works and its stronger than any
  magic (or technology) humans have. After all,
  we’re protecting them – whether they know it
  or not – and their little attempts at magic
  won’t get in our way of doing our job.
  CCaatt
  K
  Kiinnggddoom
  m  ooff  DDrreeaam
  mss
  26
  27
  
  Don’t feel you have to stop at transplanting
  cat magic, however. Move over the Boggins as
  well. Humans can’t see Boggins (most
  humans, anyway), and even if they do have a
  magic sword, magic armor and holy hand
  grenades, they still need protection from
  things they can’t see. Nearly every hero of
  fantastic fiction and mythology has gone
  through long periods of melancholy. Ever stop
  to consider that may be a big, fat Heavy
  sitting on them, sucking their dreams dry?
  People need cats, no matter the time or the
  place. And just because your Strength or
  Dexterity isn’t 18 don’t mean you can’t be a
  hero.
  (A quick aside: I remember watching Alien
  with friends during the writing of this book,
  thinking how little Jones the Cat using every
  last Magic Point he had trying to lead
  everyone away from the monster. Just imagine
  his consternation at the end: locked in a box,
  completely unable to help out his human
  friends. Now that’s drama.)
  NNaattuurraall  EEnneemmiieess
  Cats have a lot of enemies – most of them you
  and I can’t even see. We’ll talk about those
  later. First, lets talk about the kind of enemies
  you and I can see.
  A Note on Traits
  Not all Enemies have the same Traits as cats,
  and cats don’t always have the same Traits as
  their Enemies. In a nutshell, this is how it
  works.
  If a cat has a Trait an enemy doesn’t have,
  there’s no competition; the cat wins any
  contest involving that Trait. The same is true
  for the reverse: if an enemy has a Trait a cat
  doesn’t have, the cat loses the contest. In other
  words, if a human tries to pick up a cat with
  his Thumbs, and a cat doesn’t have any
  Thumbs to counter the action, there’s very
  little he can do. On the other hand, people
  don’t have Claws...
  Also, as a last ditch resort, cats can always try
  to run away with their Legs.
  Some enemies have “Extra Scars” and “Less
  Scars.”  Extra Scars are deducted from a fight
  before any Scars go to Traits. Enemies with
  Less Scars can only take the listed number of
  Scars before they can’t fight anymore.
  Dogs
  Traits
  Jaws (for carrying and fighting)
  Legs (for running and jumping)
  Eyes (seeing)
  Ears (hearing)
  Nose (smelling)
  Coat (for impressing other dogs and taking
  Scars)
  Paws (for digging)
  Dogs are very similar to cats, but with little
  differences in Traits. They usually rush
  headfirst into an attack, and they don’t use
  their Claws, they use Jaws. 
  A dog’s Jaws are just like a cat’s Fangs, only
  they do a lot more damage. In a fight, if a dog
  wins a test with his Jaws, he’s grabbed hold of
  the cat and can crush him. A dog’s Jaws inflict
  a number of Scars equal to his Jaws Bonus
  each round. He doesn’t need to roll any dice to
  do so. A cat’s only hope is to spend Lives
  every round to avoid gaining Scars.
  Every round, the cat gains one chance to
  escape the dog’s Jaws. He cannot spend a Life
  to automatically succeed, he must Test Fate,
  and he may only use his Claws to do so. 
  Dogs also have their own kind of magic. It’s
  less powerful because they didn’t win The
  Contest, but it is still there. A dog’s magic is
  based on loyalty to one person and he earns
  Loyalty Points as long as his bond with that
  person remains intact. Assume a dog has 3
  Loyalty Points per year he’s spent with a
  single owner (or family). A dog’s magic can
  be spent in the following ways:
  Find (1 Point): The dog can find his owner –
  no matter where he is.
  Speak (3 Points): The dog can communicate a
  single word to his owner using non-verbal
  communication.
  Defend (any Points): A dog can spend a
  Loyalty Point when defending his owner,
  adding 3 to any roll.
  Smell Boggin (1 Point): Dogs can’t see
  Boggins, but some of them can smell them.
  Just smelling a Boggin isn’t enough; the dog
  has to pinpoint it before he can attack. A dog
  can spend a Loyalty Point to smell a Boggin
  haunting his owner. He can attack the Boggin
  after he’s spent a Loyalty to find him.
  Track (2 Points): A dog can spend 2 Loyalty
  to remember any creature’s scent. Once he’s
  spent the Loyalty, he can always follow that
  creature’s trail.
  Banish Boggin (3 Points): Dogs know a ritual
  that gets rid of Boggins. The ritual is
  complicated, but allows the dog to get rid of a
  Boggin forever. It requires an item and some
  (unknowing) participation by the owner. First,
  the dog chews on the item, spending 1
  Loyalty. Second, the dog must get the owner
  to throw the item at the Boggin. (This usually
  requires several throwing attempts.) Once the
  item hits the Boggin in question, the dog
  spends 2 Loyalty, takes the item away from
  the owner and buries it. If it remains in the
  ground until the next dawn, the Boggin is
  banished.
  Rats
  Traits
  Face (whiskers, eyes, ears, nose)
  Legs (for running and jumping)
  Teeth (for biting and carrying)
  Tail (not an advantage; see below)
  Swarm (a big advantage; see below)
  Nails (for clawing, digging)
  While one rat isn’t much of a threat to a cat,
  many of them all at once can be a problem,
  even for the best ratter. Rats work well
  together, and when they do, they use their
  Swarm Trait. If a swarm of rats attacks a cat,
  they add their Swarm Traits together for any
  Risks against the cat.
  Individually, if a cat wants to do anything to a
  rat, he always makes a test against the rat’s
  Tail: a rat’s Tail is always Poor (Bonus 1) and
  cannot be improved. 
  CCaatt
  EEnneem
  miieess
  28
  29
  
  Mean People
  Traits
  Face (eyes, ears, nose)
  Legs (for running and jumping)
  Thumbs (for picking things up)
  Tools (see below)
  Mean People do mean things to cats. This is
  usually predicated by use of Thumbs. In order
  for a mean person to get hold of a cat, make a
  test between the mean person’s Thumbs and
  the cat’s Legs. Once he’s in the Mean Person’s
  grip, there’s little he can do to get away –
  other than claw the Mean Person’s eyes out. A
  successful use of Claws against the Mean
  Person’s Face means the cat has scratched
  hard enough to escape the Mean Person’s grip.
  Tools give Mean People additional
  advantages. Small tools like hammers and
  knives give a Mean Person 2 Advantage Dice
  on all rolls. Larger tools like shovels, brooms
  and other two-handed implements give them 4
  Advantage Dice. Guns, cars and other large
  and deadly weapons give Mean People 10 AD
  on all rolls.
  BBooggggiinnss
  There are many different kinds of Boggins,
  but they all want one thing: physical form.
  Boggins don’t cause fear and anger and other
  negative emotions for the fun of it. They have
  goals; notably to possess a mortal shell.
  Boggins can possess any living creature –
  including cats – but the process requires
  specific steps. Once the process is completed,
  the Boggin is in control of the body, with the
  thoughts and memories of the host shunted
  aside.
  How do Boggins gain control of a host? There
  are many methods, but the most popular are
  listed below.
  Note that all Boggins begin the same:
  formless, skittering shadow-like creatures. The
  first step in the process of possessing a host is
  finding that host’s potential weaknesses and
  exploiting them. The shape of the Boggin is
  dependent on those weaknesses. In other
  words, it is the host who gives a Boggin its
  shape and power.
  For game purposes, we call that power
  “Boggin Points.” The more Points a Boggin
  has, the more potent a foe it is, and the more
  difficult it is to defeat. Each Boggin has
  different abilities, all requiring the use of
  Boggin Points.
  Defeating a Boggin before it possesses a host
  is pretty straightforward. If a Boggin runs out
  of Boggin Points, it reverts back to its natural
  shape – a formless blob – and skitters back to
  wherever it came. But once it gets its hooks
  into a host, driving it away is next to
  impossible. Each is different, requiring a ritual
  known only to the oldest most experienced
  Boggin hunters. You’ll learn all those tricks
  below.
  The Green-Eyed Monster
  “The Green-Eyed Monster, as you may guess,
  sits on your shoulder, whispering all sorts of
  things into your ear. Most of them involve
  things that other people have and you don’t.”
  Traits
  Claws, Hide (Coat), Face, Fangs, Legs, Nose,
  Wings
  Green-Eyed Monsters – otherwise known as
  “Greenies” – aren’t very tough Boggins, nor
  are they as dangerous as Men Under the Bed
  or Heavies, but they are industrious and about
  as assiduous as Boggins come. Not content to
  work alone, Greenies work in groups, ensuring
  the host hears nothing but their own little
  wicked whispers.
  When they first take shape, Greenies appear as
  tiny devils, complete with horns and tails.
  They have talons and teeth and tiny wings
  they use to fly about. Their skin is like
  hardened leather (thus, the “Hide” Trait),
  making them highly resistant to injury. They
  latch on to the host’s shoulder, whispering into
  the host’s ear all sorts of nonsense about
  everything he doesn’t have. Soon, the host
  becomes completely distracted from his own
  life, losing his own identity in an obsessive
  lust for other people’s belongings.
  Greenies work together in small groups. Every
  day a host is infected with Greenies, the little
  beasts all gain a Boggin Point. Like other
  Boggins, when Greenies first take shape, all
  their Traits begin at Poor, but they can spend
  Boggin Points (one-per-one) to increase their
  Traits.
  The Man under the Bed
  “He’s a nasty one. We called him ‘The One
  Who Lurks.’ I had to find my Tommy in
  Dreaming and have a long chat with him
  about it. Then, I had to do some fighting of my
  own. When my Tommy saw me standing up to
  it, he knew he could, too. And when he did,
  The One Who Lurks became The One Who
  Runs Away.”
  Traits
  Claws, Face, Fangs, Legs, Nose, Thumbs
  He’s also known as The Man in the Closet,
  and The Man at the Window, but his purpose
  is always the same: to scare the wits out of
  children everywhere. The Boggin gains
  strength from children’s fears, especially
  hopeless fear. They know parents don’t
  believe in the Man under the Bed (despite
  their own childhood memories), and when a
  parent gives the “There’s no such thing as
  monsters” speech, that’s when the Boggin
  starts acting in full force.
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  The Man under the Bed gains one Boggin
  Point every night it spends under a child’s bed
  (in his closet, behind the drapes, etc.). It gains
  two Boggin Points every night after the
  “There’s no such thing as monsters” speech.
  The Man Under the Bed has the same Traits as
  Mean People, but when it first takes shape, all
  Traits are Crippled. The Man can take form,
  but it can only frighten the child by moving
  between shadows, giving the child a hint at
  danger. As it gains Boggin Points, it increases
  each Trait on a Point-per-Point basis. When all
  its Traits reach Good, it begins physically
  terrorizing the child. When all its Traits reach
  Strong, it possesses the child.
  The best way to battle the Man is to help the
  child beat his own fear. If he isn’t afraid of the
  Man under the Bed, the Boggin gains no
  power (Boggin Points). Encouraging the child
  in his dreams (children remember dreams
  much better than adults do) and fighting the
  Boggin while the child watches are both ways
  of showing him how to overcome his fears
  Ghosts
  “They think they’re especially ‘sensitive’
  because they can see these things. Truth is,
  what they are is vulnerable. The Boggin
  wouldn’t be there if they weren’t.”
  Traits
  Claws, Face, Fangs, Legs, Thumbs
  Ghosts are actually Boggins feeding on the
  regret of not saying or doing things before it’s
  too late.
  Ghosts feed on regret, taking the shape of lost
  loved ones to invoke feelings of helplessness
  and ennui (which are equally tasty). They
  want the future host to feel helpless, hopeless
  and pointless. Every day a ghost successfully
  haunt a host, it gains one Boggin Point. As
  soon as the host begins talking to the ghost (or
  acknowledges it in some other way), it gains
  two Boggin Points per day. Like the Man
  under the Bed, Ghosts have the same Traits as
  a Mean Person. When it first takes form, a
  Ghost’s Traits are all Crippled, and it is
  incapable of interacting with the physical
  world. However, it increases its Traits by
  spending Boggin Points on a one-per-one
  basis. When its Traits reach Good, it can lift
  small, hand-held objects – including cats.
  When its Traits reach Strong, it can possess a
  human’s body, thus making it nearly
  impossible to remove.
  Heavies
  “It’s a sick sight. Watching that thing sit on
  your man, keeping him all wrapped up in a
  web that he can’t see, but he can sure feel….”
  Traits
  Coat, Eyes, Fangs, Hairs (Ears), Legs, Web
  Sitting on the couch, eating potato chips,
  sipping soda and watching a TV show that
  you just hate is the perfect way to spend the
  afternoon. But if you knew why you were
  sitting there, you’d get off your… backside
  and go for a walk. Your cat can see why
  you’re there, and the longer you sit, the harder
  it is for him to get you up.
  Heavies are Boggins who feed on sloth. Ever
  try to get up from the couch and feel a heavy,
  warm weight just keeping you down? That’s a
  Heavy. It takes the shape of a giant, furry
  spider, and it spends its day spinning a web,
  sticking you right where you are so it can dine
  on all that lovely apathy you’re making.
  When a Heavy first takes form, it’s a tiny
  spider crawling over the host’s body, feeding
  on little idleness. Then, as the Heavy’s poison
  fills his veins, the host spends more time
  sitting down, doing as little as possible. That’s
  when the webs begin. The spider gets larger,
  using the webs and its weight to hold the host
  down. Finally, when the host is nearly covered
  in webs, the Heavy lays eggs. Those eggs
  eventually hatch and the host has even more
  Heavies keeping him idle, feeding off his
  laziness.
  When it first takes its shape, a Heavy’s Traits
  are all Crippled. Every day it feeds off the
  host, it gains one Boggin Point. As soon as the
  host spends a night on the couch in front of
  the TV, it gains two Boggin Points a day.
  When its other Traits reach Good, it begins
  weaving its web. The web itself is like a Trait;
  it begins at Crippled and gains strength with
  each day. A Heavy must either spend Boggin
  Points on its own Traits or on its Web, not
  both. As soon as all the Heavy’s Traits
  (including Web) reach Strong, the Heavy lays
  its eggs. Once that happens, its only a matter
  of days (usually two) before the eggs hatch
  and the host is covered with tiny Heavies, all
  eager to keep the host on that couch.
  The Shoulda Brothers
  “These guys... what I wouldn’t give to see
  them get a taste of their own medicine. Sitting
  around, wondering who to infect next,
  worrying about the person they infected last
  time, afraid to take even a single step just in
  case it’s the wrong thing to do.”
  Traits
  Claws, Hide (Coat), Face, Fangs, Legs, Nose,
  Wings
  Tree brother Boggins – the Shoulda, the
  Coulda and the Woulda – are very industrious.
  Similar to the Green-Eyed Monster, they sit on
  a host’s shoulder and whisper in his ears all
  the things he should have done, could have
  done and would have done... if only he knew
  better.
  The Shoulda Brothers create self-doubt in
  their victims until all his confidence is lost to
  hesitation. They sit and whisper, sit and
  whisper, sit and whisper until the host begins
  saying the words himself. Like other Boggins,
  the Shoulda Brothers gain a Boggin Point
  every day they infect the host. As soon as the
  host says “I should have,” “I would have,” or
  “I could have” three times in one day, they
  gain two Boggin Points per day. And, like
  other Boggins, their Traits begin at Crippled,
  but can be increased with Boggin Points.
  (A strange cousin of the Shoulda Brothers is
  “the Gotta” which appears as a big bundle of
  threads and hairs; a twitching, nervous thing
  full of static electricity. As its name suggests,
  the Gotta keeps its host on its toes, running
  back and forth, making sure everything gets
  done on time...)
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  PPaarrtt  99::  FFiiccttiioonnaall  FFaaccttss  
  &&  FFaaccttuuaall  FFoollkklloorreess
  Because of The Contest, a cat’s reputation has
  greatly fluctuated through history. Sometimes
  worshiped as gods, sometimes reviled as
  devils, cats have always been associated with
  magic, the diabolical, and the divine. In this
  section is just some the knowledge men have
  on cats. Some of it may be true, but only cats
  know for certain, and like their names, they
  just ain’t tellin’.
  “You’ve got that right.”
  “Roland?”
  “Yeah. Did you think I was going to let this be
  a one-sided discussion? I can’t say much, but
  I’ll add what I can.”
  With as much knowledge we do have on cats,
  there is still so much we don’t know. 
  “You said that already”.
  (Let me finish the thought, okay?)
  Even the things we do know, we don’t always
  understand. For example, we know that cats
  purr, but exactly how they do it is still a
  mystery. However, we do know people have
  been keeping cats for a very long time. The
  earliest evidence of “domestic cats” comes
  from ruins in Jericho from approximately
  6,700 B.C. Yes, we know cats have been
  protecting us from Boggins for the almost nine
  thousand years.
  “This is because claw marks don’t show up
  very well on stone sofas. Also, it took you
  humans a few hundred years to develop art
  that could withstand the test of time. It has
  been more than nine thousand.”
  Let’s take a look at what man knew, knows
  and thinks he knows about cats.
  “And what cat thinks about what man thinks
  he knows.”
  Facts
  What we know about cats can be found in
  thousands of books, most of which can be
  picked up in the bargain bin section of your
  local bookstore (trust me, I know this first
  hand).
  “And did you get me out of a bargain bin,
  too?”
  (No, I got you from a little girl giving away
  kittens in front of the grocery store.)
  As far as his biology goes, a cat really is an
  amazing creature. To begin with, he smells
  with over 200 million olfactory mucosa cells;
  twice as many as humans (but not as many as
  dogs). However, a cat doesn’t just smell with
  his nose. His “Jacobson’s Organ,” located in
  the upper surface of the mouth, provides
  additional olfactory information. His hearing
  is also pretty amazing. His ears have 40,000
  nerve fibers (the human ear has 30,000) and
  can distinguish between sound sources 3
  inches apart from up to 7 feet away or those
  from 1 inches apart from up to 70 feet away.
  One study showed three-week-old kittens hear
  twice as well as adult cats.
  “What?”
  (Nothing.)
  “But can kittens read?”
  (Ugh.)
  A cat’s night vision – thanks to his famous
  pupil and a reflective layer in the back of his
  eyes – is fifty percent better than a human’s.
  However, he has one-sixth the number of
  cones (the color sensitive cells in the eye) and
  can only see some blue and green, but are not
  sensitive at all to the red spectrum. 
  “I have a cousin who lives with a bullfigher.
  She can’t understand what the fuss is about.”
  A cat’s eyes are also especially sensitive to
  movement, activating a “predator behavior”
  especially keen in the cat’s brain. The parts of
  a cat’s brain that control hunger are separate
  from the parts of the brain that control the
  hunting instinct. Therefore, a cat’s desire to
  hunt can be triggered independent of its desire
  for food. The hunting instinct also has a
  connection to the pleasure centers in a cat’s
  brain. In other words, kitty hunts because it
  makes him feel good, not because he’s hungry.
  “If you don’t believe this, remember those gifts
  we leave you don’t usually have bite marks
  beyond the mortal wounds.”
  Incidentally, a typical meal of dry or wet cat
  food is the approximate equivalent of five
  mice.
  “Less fur in the canned food, unless the can
  opener is shedding. Or balding.”
  A cat’s whiskers are more important than his
  eyes or ears, sensing changes in air movement,
  helping him navigate through the dark. Even
  blind cats can make their way around
  obstacles, thanks to the sensitivity of their
  whiskers. Also, when he’s trying to get
  through a small opening, he uses his whiskers
  to judge the size. Because your cat lacks a true
  collarbone, he can generally squeeze his body
  through any space he can get his head into.
  “Your cat lacks a true collarbone, too.”
  (True, but he really has a huge head.)
  “Touche.”
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  A cat’s cerebellum, the part of the brain
  controlling physical coordination, is
  proportionally larger than in most other
  mammals. Cats jump far enough above their
  target to gain a hold with their back claws,
  then fall forward and balance on their front
  legs. Your average housecat can jump seven
  times his own height. 
  “That would be like you jumping up a five
  story building.”
  (But if I was on all fours like a cat, my height
  would be under three feet. Pole vaulters jump
  almost 21 feet.)
  “I could jump 21 feet with rocket shoes.”
  The tail, an organ with more bones than the
  human spine, also helps for balance. And
  while cats may be fast, they aren’t built for
  speed. A cat’s anatomy is built for quick
  jumps and short runs. After a few moments,
  they burn out their batteries and have to stop
  to recharge.
  “And most cats will have put their batteries to
  good use so they have a snack while waiting
  to recharge.”
  (Food helps to speed up the recovery process,
  anyways.)
  Speaking of agility… 
  “We were?”
  (Hush.)
  Why does a cat always land on his feet? Well,
  he doesn’t always, but he’s got a pretty good
  chance of making it nearly every time. Within
  70 milliseconds of the beginning of a fall, a
  cat’s biology is in action. An automatic
  sequence of responses begins with the eyes
  sending information to the brain and the
  vestibular system takes over. The cat first
  turns its head so it is upright. Then, the front
  half of its body flips 180 degrees. Nerves in
  the spine turn the rest of the body. A fact most
  people miss: it isn’t really amazing the cat
  turns so quickly to put its feet under its body.
  What’s really amazing is that it never turns too
  far, but always turns precisely the necessary
  distance to get its feet under it.
  “‘The whole process is as natural as
  breathing.’ I don’t think I could land wrong if I
  wanted to. But why would I want to?”
  A cat’s skin is thinner than most mammals,
  but it is also more flexible. It also contains
  sebaceous glands which secret sebum, an oily
  substance that waterproofs the cat’s fur and
  makes it shine. Apocrine sweat glands secrete
  a fluid that lets other cats know when he’s “in
  the mood for love.” 
  “Before you say anything, John, I’ll have you
  know that my sweat glands do not
  hyperfunction. The ladies love me for my
  charm.”
  (Of course they do.)
  A cat’s skin contains 130,000 hairs per square
  inch. They actually have two kinds of hairs:
  overfur and underfur. Overfur is coarse and
  protects the undefur which is finer and grows
  in clusters, providing a cat with insulation.
  There are even different kinds of underfur, all
  of which have their own functions. But not all
  cats have the same kind of fur. There are
  dozens of different hair types, making each cat
  breed unique. Finally, a cat’s hairs are part of
  a complicated sensory system including its
  paws, whiskers, eyes and ears. Hairs,
  penetrating three times deeper into the skin
  than human hairs, can sense particle changes
  in air density.
  “And we more than feel it when your pet a cat
  from back to front.”
  (Is it really that bad?)
  “Sometimes it feels like a splinter being bent
  the wrong way when it is pulled out. Or an ear
  being tugged in the wrong direction.”
  Like dogs, cats mark their territory with scent,
  but do so in a very social way. When a cat
  rubs against you, he’s not only passing his
  scent on to you, but he’s also getting your
  scent on him. Cats create a complicated
  “family scent” that includes all members of
  his family (including the dog). Thus, when he
  goes out on the town, he carries your scent
  along with him, to show others he belongs to a
  family. When a stranger comes into the house,
  a cat smells him out to determine if he wants
  the stranger’s scent to become part of the
  family scent. It may take a while for the cat to
  accept a new scent into the family, but when
  he does, expect him to get snuggly. It’s also
  the reason cats claw furniture: a cat’s claws
  carry a lot of his scent. So, when kitty claws
  the furniture, he’s marking it as part of the
  family. Self-cleaning is also a way of
  spreading his scent. Your cat’s saliva is rich
  with scent, and by constantly cleaning himself,
  he’s spreading that scent over his fur. 
  Also, when a cat picks a fight, he scratches in
  front of another cat, kind of drawing a line in
  the sand saying, “This ground right here
  belongs to me. Cross it if you dare.” Finally, a
  cat’s scent communicates how old the cat is,
  his sexual status and what mood he was in
  when he made the mark.
  “I personally feel this is a mark of a highly
  evolved species. Noses don’t lie. Neither do
  cats, really. We’re an open book. If you know
  how to read, what the language is, and how to
  open the book.”
  (Yeah. You and women.)
  “What’s that...”
  (Nevermind. I’d better stop while I’m behind.)
  When cats communicate with each other, they
  do so with a silent body language that
  involves dozens of different signals. The
  position of the body, ears, tail and whiskers all
  go into this elaborate communication process.
  “I dance with my face and my feet. But when
  a cat is clumsy with it, do you say he has eight
  left whiskers? Or two left ears?”
  Cats seldom, if ever, communicate verbally to
  other cats and only in times of great emotion.
  It is believed (but not proven) that cats
  communicate verbally to humans because they
  perceive us as parents, or caregivers. 
  “That’s mostly untrue. Humans never seemed
  to catch on to the nonverbal cues. So we’re
  left with the blunt and inefficient ‘meyow’
  noises. And dreams, of course.”
  (I’m getting to that.)
  Kittens communicate verbally to their mother,
  and thus, if cats do indeed perceive us as
  caregivers, they may feel the need to
  communicate to us verbally. Some scientists
  believe that cats save verbally because we’re
  too dumb to understand the non-verbal talk
  they’re trying to tell us. But that’s just a
  theory…
  “And for those of you who cling to the belief
  that cats think they are little people: you’ve
  got it backwards. People are big cats.”
  A cat’s paws are also versatile tools. They are
  padded for silent movement, have hooks for
  climbing, and talons for clawing and fighting.
  They even act as sponges for cleaning. 
  “And you say that thumbs are versitile. I’d
  like to see your thumb kill dinner and wash it
  in the same movement.”
  (Touche to you.)
  A cat’s paws are also part of their sensory
  system, capable of detecting the smallest
  vibrations in the Earth. A cat can feel the
  vibrations from a mouse moving its tiny feet
  across the floor from up to sixty feet away. 
  “Keep this in mind, kids, when your kitten is
  up a tree. Shaking it will scare her out of her
  wits. Then I’ll have to come console her.”
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  Also, cats walk on tippie-toe. The back legs
  are used for jumping and power pushes, the
  front legs for catching prey. When stalking
  mice, a cat catches its prey nearly 75% of the
  time. When stalking birds, only 10%. 
  “Hey, John, did you know that 90% of
  statistics are made up on the spot?”
  (Including that one? Why would I make up a
  number to make you guys look bad? If I made
  it up, I’d say you catch birds 60% of the time.
  But this is the ‘Facts’ part, not ‘Folklore’.)
  “What do you expect? We don’t have wings.
  Often.”
  While hunting the cat is nearly silent; the tuffs
  of hair between its paws muffle most of its
  sound. Because cats are long-sighted, they rely
  on their whiskers rather than their eyes to
  sense prey close-up.
  Cats are also true carnivores; one of the few
  species on Earth that can survive solely on
  meat. Unfortunately, this specialized digestive
  system means they can’t detoxify certain
  chemicals, making creosote, paracetamol, and
  organophosphates deadly poisons in their
  bodies. 
  “What?”
  (Don’t eat anything in the medicine cabinet or
  chew on wood, and be careful what kind of
  flea medicine you let someone use on you.)
  A cat’s must have fat in his diet because he
  can’t produce it on his own and he’ll die
  without it. Cats can taste salt, sour and bitter,
  but not sweet. It is possible that certain amino
  acids give a cat the same pleasurable sensation
  we associate with sweet, but when you
  consider the fact that chocolate is poisonous to
  kitty (as well as Tylenol, English ivy, iris,
  mistletoe, philodendrons, and yew), it’s not as
  sad as it initially sounds. 
  “Chocolate is poisonous to mistletoe?”
  (... Yes.)
  “Too bad. At least I can get my sweets from a
  lady friend.”
  If all this information on a cat’s senses isn’t
  enough to impress you, consider this. A cat’s
  senses are “always on,” even when he’s
  asleep. Snoozing on your lap, with his
  consciousness buried deep in the Land of
  Dreams, he can hear the rats scampering in the
  walls, smell the food you’re cooking in the
  kitchen, and sense the vibrations in the air
  from the dog walking by. Oh, and by the way,
  kittens begin dreaming before they are old
  enough to open their eyes.
  “Hey, I’ve got one for you.”
  (Go ahead.)
  “We cats have a homing ability that uses a
  biological clock, the angle of the sun and the
  Earth’s magnetic field. I can almost always
  find somewhere I’ve been before. Try throwing
  yourself in the middle of nowhere and find
  your way home by instinct some day.”
  (Show off.)
  Folklores
  Let’s start at the beginning. Well, what a lot of
  people consider the beginning. The word “cat”
  never appears once in the Bible. Not once.
  Cats are native to the region where the Bible
  stories take place, but there’s no mention of
  them at all. (However, if you take a look in the
  Book of Kells, you’ll see illustrations of cats
  on many of its beautiful pages.) Keep that in
  mind as we begin our journey into the long,
  tangled and dark history of cats in the folklore
  of man.
  “To be fair, the Bible doesn’t mention pets in
  general. But a few lions do show up.”
  While the cat is never mentioned in the Bible,
  she’s a powerful symbol in nearly every other
  religion. Freya, the Norse goddess, owned a
  chariot pulled by cats (sometimes grey,
  sometimes black and varying in number).
  After serving the goddess for seven years, the
  cats were rewarded by being turned into
  witches, disguised as black cats. 
  “Sounds more like a curse to me, losing this
  fantastic form.”
  Cats were also sacred to Bast, the Egyptian
  goddess, daughter of Isis and Osiris. The cats
  in her temple in the city of Bubastis wore
  heavily jeweled collars and regarded as gods.
  Anyone who killed a cat in that city was put to
  death. (“I like that rule.”) Cats were believed
  to control the moon’s movement, protect the
  dead and had total authority over the royal
  houses at night because of their ability to see
  things in the dark that humans could not. Cats
  were so loved by the Egyptians they
  sometimes mummified a mouse to accompany
  the cat into the afterworld. During excavations
  in the ruins of Tell-Basta (the former
  Bubastis), the archaeologists discovered a
  graveyard with 300,000 mummified cats.
  “I’ve met some of those cats in Dream.
  They’re pretty boring.”
  Egyptians also believed in a creature called
  “The Great Cat...” 
  “Huh. And I’ve never even been to Egypt.”
  (ahem) ... who accompanied Ra on his nightly
  voyage around the world, protecting him in
  Apep – the World of the Dead – while he was
  weak. Every night, an evil serpent named Seth
  tried to devour the boat, and every night, the
  Great Cat sliced off the serpent’s head,
  allowing Ra’s magic boat to continue on its
  way around the world. Egyptians kept cats in
  their houses as protectors as well, keeping
  them safe as they slept just as the Great Cat
  protected Ra.
  Both Buddha and Mohammed have cats
  associated with them. It is said at the
  Buddha’s funeral, the cat was one of two
  creatures in the entire world who did not weep
  at the Master’s funeral (the other was the
  snake). A little further West, Mohammed cut
  the sleeve off his robe rather than disturb the
  cat sleeping there.
  “My grandfather told me that story. He said
  that the cat took the piece of cloth to her nest
  and kept it there. She lived to be one
  hundred.”
  (Really?)
  “That’s what he said.”
  CCaatt
  FFaaccttuuaall  FFoollkklloorreess
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  39
  
  In the West, cats have almost always been
  associated with magic, witches, and natural
  phenomenon. “When kitty washes behind her
  ears, we’ll soon be tasting Heaven’s tears” is a
  common English schoolyard rhyme. 
  “Puffah! The saying would be meaningful if it
  came out of Egypt. Cats wash like it rains in
  England. All the time!”
  According to British folklore, if a cat sat with
  her back to the fireplace, you should expect a
  cold night. In France, dropping a cat at a
  crossroads and following her would lead you
  to treasure, while in Germany, tortoiseshell
  cats were believed to see into the future and
  give the gift to a lucky child in the household
  through a scratch or a kiss. Also, if a cat
  washes your face and turns to the East, you
  can expect company from that direction by the
  end of the week. Also, if you carry a cat bone
  in your right pocket, you’ll have good luck all
  day long.
  “That ‘turn and face East’ one was especially
  popular in northern Europe where the
  coastline faced East. Wives and mothers
  blessed the cats wth large gifts of meat and
  milk when they believed their husbands and
  fathers would be home soon.”
  And, despite his lack of mention in the Bible,
  Christian folklore tells us the cat is the only
  creature who remembered the passage from
  Eden when Adam and Eve got themselves
  kicked out. Therefore, a cat is the only
  creature who knows how to get back.
  “Yes, another secret we’re not telling. Yet.”
  Cats and dogs have often been called
  “guardians of the hearth,” chiefly because
  ancient peoples believes pritis – both good and
  evil – came into the house through the
  fireplace (remember old St. Nick?). Thus, if
  you bring a cat into the house, you must place
  it by the hearth. If you do, she’ll never leave,
  and ensure only good spirits enter the house.
  “If you no longer have a hearth, try placing
  the cat near an open can of tuna.”
  A cat’s “household magic” was very important
  to medieval Europe. But before you can keep
  a cat in your house, you have to make sure he
  doesn’t leave. In order to do that, carry him in
  through a window, not the front door. This
  ensures the cat will never leave the house (at
  least, he’ll always come back). If you place a
  cat in the crib of a newborn child, she’ll
  protect that child ‘till the day she dies (a
  common belief among the Pennsylvania Dutch
  tells placing a cat in the baby’s crib will make
  his dreams come true). Masons (guys who
  worked with mortar and built houses; not the
  conspiracy theory guys) put living cats in the
  foundation of a building to ensure good luck
  to the inhabitants. Driving away a cat who
  comes into your house voluntarily is bad luck,
  and finally, a visitor to the household should
  always kiss the cat to ensure good luck on his
  journey home.
  Sailors also put a lot of faith in the magical
  power of cats. Cats were often kept on board
  to bring good fortune. If a sailor was
  approached by the ship’s cat, it meant good
  luck, but if the cat only came halfway, it
  meant he would never see home again. A
  loudly mewing cat means a difficult voyage
  while a playful cat foretells a voyage with
  gusty winds. If a cat runs to the pier ahead of
  a sailor on his way to the voyage, it brings
  him good luck. But if the cat crosses his path,
  it means bad luck.
  “Sometimes they guess fortunes by a cat
  wandering aimlessly about the deck. The more
  wrong the sailors were, the more confused the
  cat was, and stranger their ‘fortunetelling’
  became.”
  In America, school girls have been known to
  use cat hairs to determine whether or not to
  accept a marriage proposal. Take three hairs
  from a cat’s tail and fold them in a paper.
  Place the paper under your doorstep (pillow,
  windowsill, etc.). Next morning, carefully
  unfold the paper to see if the three hairs
  formed themselves into a Y or N and reply to
  the suitor accordingly.
  “I did a couple of these. They always involve
  nasty Boggins fights. It’s a sad day when a girl
  wise enough to invoke the practice is not wise
  enough to follow the advice of her
  protectors.” 
  While sneezing has always been a sign of
  witchcraft (if you sneeze three times, it’s
  because you’re trying to “sneeze the witch
  out”), a cat’s sneeze is also indicative of good
  or bad luck. Also, if a cat sneezes three times
  in a row, it means you’ll catch a cold.
  Some Greek alchemists believed cats held the
  secret to the Philosopher’s Stone. The cat’s
  whiskers make an “X,” the first letter in the
  Greek words for “crucible,” “gold” and
  “time.” These words are also known as The
  Three Secrets. A cat has nine lives (3 x 3) and
  these Three Secrets multiplied create the
  Grand Design, also known as the
  Philosopher’s Stone (the material that changes
  base metals into gold).
  “A few recent humans have been deemed
  worthy of the secret, but the King of Cats
  decided that lumps of gold appearing would
  create more problems for those men than it
  could solve.” 
  Of course, in addition to storms and
  witchcraft, cats have also been associated with
  death. As mentioned above, in ancient Egypt,
  cats were considered the guardians of the
  dead, but that reputation was not isolated to
  Egypt. Early Christians believed if a cat sat on
  a grave, the buried person’s soul was in the
  devil’s power. In sixteenth century Italy, the
  same incident caused the corpse to rise again
  as a vampire. In America, Scottish immigrants
  brought with them the notion that if a cat
  entered a room where a dead body was lying
  in state, the next person to touch the cat would
  be blinded.
  Meanwhile, over in Japan, cats are believed to
  be some of the most advanced souls in
  Creation. The Buddhists believe cats turn into
  super souls when they die, for the body of a
  cat is only a resting place of a highly spiritual
  soul.
  “Children in Buddhist families have been
  known to say, ‘When I grow up, I want to be a
  cat!’”
  Of course, as long as people have been
  looking to cats for wisdom, they’ve been
  treating them with abject cruelty. In Europe it
  was believed a cat’s tail contains a worm, and
  if you don’t cut off the tail, the cat will die in
  fits. Also, if you tie paper around all four
  paws, the cat will dance herself to death, and
  it has been said you don’t speak secrets in
  front of a cat because she’ll carry them down
  to the devil. 
  CCaatt
  FFaaccttuuaall  FFoollkklloorreess
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  41
  
  Face
  Rank ____
  Tail
  Rank ____
  Coat Rank ____
  Legs Rank ____
  Claws Rank ____
  Fangs Rank ____
  Name__________________
  EASY 1
  MODERATE 2
  HARD 3
  LEGENDARY 4
  RISKS
  Reputations
  Lives _________________
  Cat
  A Little Game about Little Heroes
  Scars ___________________
  Style __________________
  Name__________________
  Name__________________
  It was Pope Gregory XI (born around 1145 and
  died August 22, 1241) who first declared cats
  in league with the Devil in the Vox in Rama
  Papal Bull, causing a vast massacre of feline
  life in Europe. 
  “Obviously, he was a dog person. And some
  bad cat sipped some of his breath while he was
  a baby. Spoiled things for the rest of us.”
  Ambrose Paré was a sixteenth century
  physician often regarded as “the father of
  modern surgery.” He made the revolutionary
  observation that the physician’s role was: “to
  cure, to relieve, to comfort, and always to
  prevent.” He also said the cat was “a venomous
  animal which infects through its hair, its breath
  and its brains” and encouraged mass killings of
  the creature. All of which shows even the most
  enlightened men in history could still be
  superstitious twits.
  On the other hand, Charles I, king of England,
  owned a lucky black cat he was terrified of
  losing. He even assigned guards to watch over
  it. As it happened, the day after the cat died, he
  was arrested and ended his reign six inches
  shorter than when he began it. 
  “Did he bleed to death when they chopped off
  his legs?”
  (No, the six inches were from the top. He was
  beheaded.)
  “How rude.”
  And, one last thought on historical figures and
  their associations with cats. Abraham Lincoln
  owned four cats. Napoleon had a near
  pathological fear of them and never let one
  near his person or in his sight. Take from that
  what you will.
  “Paranoia ain’t the only the inner demon
  humans need to be protected from.”
  * * *
  (Well, little guy, I’m all done.)
  “About time.”
  (Sorry it took so long.)
  “‘Sorry’ don’t clean the box, pal.”
  * * *
  I started this game two years ago. I was
  married then. I was living with two cats and a
  dog. I was working for a company that had
  nothing to do with what I loved to do: write
  and play games.
  Well, much has changed.
  I’m no longer married, I have no pets, and I’m
  working at a job I love: writing and designing
  games. In the meantime, I’m also writing and
  designing games as a hobby -- and that’s where
  The Brewery comes in.
  When Jared first suggested getting together for
  a mutual admiration club, he said, “You know,
  so you can finally release Cat.” Over the years,
  this has been the game everyone’s asked me
  about. Well, Cat and Elfworld. But for some
  reason, this game has really captured people’s
  imagination. Or, at least, their curiosity. And
  we all know about curiosity, now don’t we?
  I’d like to thank Jared for helping me
  remember why I love games. And Annie for the
  same reason (and for putting up with my overly
  defensive reaction to her very justified edits).
  Also a big thanks goes out to all of you who
  put your faith in The Brewery with our first
  round of brews. Enemy Gods, Lacuna, and Run
  Robot Red were smashing successes. We hope
  to continue impressing you.
  Finally, a little tip of the hat to the fellow who
  made this game possible. He died of feline
  leukemia when he was just a year and a half
  old. Hours after he was gone, the ideas started
  rushing into my head. It was like I was haunted
  by his ghost, telling me secrets. These are the
  secrets he told me. I share them now with you.
  Good night, little Roland. I’ll see you after
  sunset.
  “Heh. Not if I see you first.”
  CCaatt
  42
  Bonus ___
  Bonus ___
  Bonus ___
  Bonus ___
  Bonus ___
  Bonus ___
  
  “It’s about damn time!” 
  -- Yog Sothoth
  “Didn’t he announce this ten million years ago?” 
  -- Shub Niggurath
  “I thought he was dead!” 
  -- Herbert West, Re-Animator
  A Satirical Sanity Blasting Game of Real Estate Management!
  by John Wick
  Halloween
  2004
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Cat/Cat - A Little Game About Little Heroes.pdf