Campus Cats

Original concept was merely an absurd off-the-cuff example during a class presentation on the essentials of role-playing. Students were asked to act as a cat on the college campus where 3160 was originally taught. This turned into a fully realized showcase as some of the principles of telling a 3 act story through a barebones improv-style RPG. Special thanks to Emmy for making her cat have fire magic on a whim. It is now essential to the experience.

"You’re a feral kitty living among the bushes and overgrown perimeters of a metro college campus, and have decided to venture forth in a quest of discovery with the potential for mayhem. Your fellow cat friends have decided to join you on this stroll, and while your overall goal is to bring devilish fun to the haggard humans around you, some may wish for the warmth of being adopted into the dorms, while others may desire to continue with their life of freedom and bush-living. Problem: you each have one magic power that you can barely control. Acquire your favorite treats and decide your life."

The entire game is designed to be printable on a single US Letter 8.5x11 sheet, front and back. Scale to your needs. You'll also need a standard European 52 card deck of playing cards with four suits, and a 6 sided die per player.

Gameplay requires one game master role called "Campus Life" and one to four cats.  This could work with more cat players, but hasn't been tested with larger groups just yet. Mechanics are lite, and role-play is heavy with a focus on absurdist improv and a simple fail/succeed mechanic available at the discretion of the GM.

While this game is light-hearted in design, groups may find themselves in a position where the cats are narratively in a position of physical risk or distress. From this side of the document the decision was made to leave this open for storybuilding, but ultimately the preference towards having cats simply run away in a situation of failure vs the remote possibility of animal harm will save much crying.

For folks new and versed in role playing: discuss available safety tools before playing the game. These may help your group engage successfully with the improv scenarios that may come up. See the TTRPG Safety Toolkit by Kienna Shaw & Lauren Bryant-Monk for a thorough survey of commonly used safety tools and consent mechanics.