Review of CATS by Minakie Games
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CATS is great for any age! (recognition of numbers up to 6 and minimal reading required)
CATS has a very all-ages friendly setting, character set up, and mechanic system that focuses more on exploration and creativity. This is a system and story frame that lets you create the story details (with some help from roll tables and tips), so you can modulate content based on you and your player’s comfort levels.
With regards to the mechanics, they require players to be able to recognize up to the number 6 (no addition, subtraction, etc required) and the character sheet is easy to track (fits on 1/4 page, uses a few key word descriptors, and has visual representation with dots for stats). This should fit with skills sets for a lot of kids over the age of 5, maybe with some help from a facilitator on remembering the words, if necessary. Players who can read and remember a dozen or so words should be able to follow along without much assistance.
CATS is set in the world of a very important cat
CATS is set in the domain of the most important cat on the block… YOU!
Your story will take place in your house (it’s really yours, not the humans’) and in the vast world outside of your primary abode (i.e. the neighborhood). Through these areas, you’ll meet challenges, make new discoveries, and pursue your main goal.
Your goal is something that you choose during character creation and can range from personal goals, like laying, undistrubed, all day in the sun to competitive goals, like making sure that YOU are the humans’ favorite pet (that was the one we picked).
Within your world, you’ll also have a hideout that you can sneak away to outside of the house – this is your personal escape where you hang out, plan, and venture forth on your task. You’ll pick a couple strengths and weaknesses of your particular home-away-from-home, and your world is made!
In CATS, you play as…. A CAT!
In CATS, your character is a spoiled cat who sneaks out when the humans aren’t paying attention so they can go do more cat things and pursue their cat plans.
During character creation, you’ll choose your cat’s name, age, personality, job, and physical appearance (which can all play into mechanics later) along with your skills. Your skills are: Carefree, Adorable, Tenacious, and Sly, and they not only help give your cat a bit more personality, but are also going to be use later for dice rolls. Your skills are maked on your character sheet using bubbles to fill in, so it’s easy to compare skills (particular for young kids) when using them later.
Mechanics in CATS
CATS primarily operates on a d6 dicepool mechanic where you take the highest number and compare it to a success criteria. You generate your dicepool based on the total between your skills, preparations you’ve made, the descriptors on your character sheet, and any help you may be getting. You’ll then ROLL ALL THE DICE(!!) and see if you can get at least one success out of the whole pool.
Now, if you succeed, you did the thing! If you did not succeed… your action gets interrupted with your cat hacking up a hairball on the spot. This failure happened when we played, and it was hillarious; it was like the scene in Shrek 2 when they met Puss in Boots, and my kid could not stop laughing. I love this as a way of turning a failure into a silly situation and showing how it can make the story more fun!
You can also get a special success if you roll A LOT of 6’s AND you can choose to help a fellow player (however, you will succeed or fail together… so you could end up with a DOUBLE HAIRBALL).
The mechanics were super easy to pick up, but they had enough going on that they kept the game lively and entertaining. The mechanics supported the story, drove the narrative forward, and allowed for enough customization during character creation to make them unique for each player – all this is about what I look for in a game that I want to run with kiddo.
Overall thoughts on CATS
CATS is a fun, quick to learn, and effective system that gives lots of opportunities for creating a great story together. It also has great tips for narrators on how to structure the story while giving creative freedom to your players, and the art is very cute. My kid LOVES our cat, and he’s a big fan of any TTRPGs that we find with cats in them, so this was a massive hit with him, and I think it would be a great game to try out with any players who like cats and other small fluffy critters.
Find a copy of CATS!
You can find a copy of CATS on the Minakie Games itchio page here!
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