Whiskered Fiends

[Wordcraftian]

I want to talk about cats.

It's not easy to forget the silent ingenuity and mass coordination of the cats in Ulthar who judged, sentenced, and executed fully grown human beings. Or the single cat who can sense the unseen horrors lurking within the walls. There are few things more frightening, even in the real world, than when a cat walks into your room, stares at something you cannot see, then darts out in terror.

Cats are easily missed, they do not stick out in any scenario, and they are almost ALWAYS underestimated. As a keeper, our little whiskered friends (read: fiends) offer a lot of potential for atmospheric generation as well as posing a significant threat to the unwary player . And they are just so. damnably. Lovecraftian.

[Keeper Dan]

That's a great point. I've only used a cat once as a main NPC. I had the investigators find a kitten who became a fun companion in their adventures. When all your players miss their listen or spot hidden rolls, a furry companion can really save their bacon.

[Dr. Gerard]

I once used a cat with no nose in a scenario. The players broke into the apartment of an NPC that disappeared, and heard labored breathing under the guy's bed. It turned out to be the guy's pet, but I wanted to create something to put the players on edge during the break in. It worked, but the players basically adopted this nose-less (an idea I got from a friend who had mutant nose-less cats on his farm when he was growing up) animal. I was threatened with bodily harm if I dared to hurt their pet in-game. So it just remained their sad little mascot, but it was a memorable detail in the game.

[Silvester10596]

A cat with no nose??

How does it smell??

[Dr. Gerard]

A cat with no nose??

How does it smell??

It smells like they all do -- like cat food.

[Wordcraftian]

I really like the idea of giving your investigators a pet. It's like a double edged sword, you can comfort them with it, lull them into feeling safe and secure, and then BLAMO!... it's Ulthar all over again.

[fox01313]

Definitely agree with cats or other small pets being rather underrated in games that can be great ways of introducing drama/clues or removing clues from the scene as a fun way to add a little more color to a game with a small amount of effort/time.

Maybe time for the friendly felines to not be so overlooked with the Secrets of San Francisco book, with the scenario hook monster: Tamalpais Cat People. As these don't look like they appear in the larger scenarios in the book they're tied to some legends in the area, roughly like the werewolves in the core book but it doesn't go into a huge detail on them so can be up for anything as well as just being some servant of Baast or something more sorcery related on how they got around.