You are Cute. You are Cunning. You are Fierce. You are Magical Kitties, and it’s time to Save the Day!
Magical Kitties Save the Day is the new RPG from Atlas Games. Designed by Matthew J. Hanson, I’ve spent the last few months heavily developing the game and outfitting it with a bunch of new, awesome content.
Every Magical Kitty has a human. Every human has a Problem. In Magical Kitties Save the Day, you need to use your magical powers to solve problems and save the day!
But kitties live in Hometowns that are filled with Troubles like witches, aliens, and hyper-intelligent raccoons. Troubles make Problems worse, so the kitties need to go on adventures to take care of the Troubles before that can happen.
“It’s exciting, fun, cool… It makes me want to do more of it over and over because every time is unique. You can fly. You can do the impossible… nothing is impossible!” – Emma Nephew, Age 9
Magical Kitties Save the Day is designed for all-ages. Older players — whether they’re parents, babysitters, teachers, or older siblings — can be the Game Master for kids as young as six-years-old and everyone else who loves kitties. If you’ve been looking for a way to introduce your friends and family to roleplaying games, Magical Kitties is the perfect game to do it!
You’ve never played a roleplaying game, either? (That seems unlikely here on the Alexandrian, but…) Purr-fect! Magical Kitties includes a lot of tools — including a solo play module so that you can start playing within moments of opening the box! — and guidance for both first-time roleplayers and first-time GMs. Whether you’ve played board games with roleplaying elements like Mice & Mystics or T.I.M.E. Stories, watched actual play videos, or just think roleplaying games sound like a lot of fun and you want to give them a try, Magical Kitties can be your first step into a larger world.
In addition to Matthew and myself, our creative team includes Paul Dean (formerly of Shut Up & Sit Down), Clio Yun-su Davis (winner of the Golden Cobra Challenge award), Jeremy Tuohy, Chris Costello, Anthony Cournoyer, Ekaterina Kazartseva, Garth Graham, Brigette Indelicato, Joseph Siemsen, Colleen Riley, and Thomas Denagh.
Check out Michelle Nephew’s post about running a three-year-long campaign of Magical Kitties for her daughters.
Or sign-up for sneak peeks and an e-mail notification when the campaign launches on July 16th!
Or RSVP for our virtual launch day party, which will include a Q&A with Matthew and I!
So, I see that there is a Magical Kitties Save the Day pdf for sale on Drivethrurpg. What is the kickstarter doing that is different from what’s already for sale?
Glad you asked! The new edition will:
(a) Be available in print, featuring all-new art;
(b) Triple the number of magical powers, talents, and flaws used to create kitties;
(c) Feature a cool new scenario structure I’ve developed based around the Hometowns of the kitties: Hometowns have Troubles that get pointed at the Problems of the kitties’ humans to generate adventures. The default mode of play becomes dealing with a Trouble to solve a Problem. (Although, like any good sandbox the kitty krew is free to pursue any number of agendas.)
(d) A ton of new fodder for GMs: A whole slew of Foes and Troubles. New Hometowns (two out of the gate and hopefully more like Mars Colony and Old West and Transylvania unlocked as stretch goals), each of which is ALSO stocked with more plug ‘n play material and scenarios.
The PDF version available on DriveThru right now is a great way to get a taste for the game. But it’s going to be just one tiny sliver of what the new edition has to offer.
(Putting hard numbers on this: The existing edition is 15,000 words. If all our stretch goals fund, the new edition will have 150,000 words. And virtually all of that additional content will be in the form of use-it-at-the-table tools for the GM.)
Oh! Also a really cool solo play adventure in the form of a graphic novel with illustrations by Garth Graham.
Thanks for the info. That sounds pretty fantastic 🙂
I especially like the idea of a scenario structure with examples. I have found that a lot of kid games and entry level games turn out to be harder than they should be because the kids have a difficult time creating appropriate adventures. Sometimes it works to have adults GM for kids, but often they want to play with their peers without the influence of adults.
That’s my mileage, too.
Something I really like from the first edition of the game is that characters can be GENERATED. We’re hoping to add a full set of cards, so that kids can literally generate characters by drawing three cards: Here’s your kitty. Let’s get playing. It’s so powerful at the actual table, because as each card is drawn (or result is generated from the alternative table) you can see the creative ideas getting sparked.
Another thing we’re including is Magical Kitties & The GM’s First Scenario. This is still in final development and will also go through more playtesting, but the goal is to have a good, strong scenario that walks the first time GM (of any age) through their first session.
The trick to this, however, is to avoid the linear railroad experience that introductory scenarios like this usually take: It doesn’t do any good to give the new GM a guided tour if what you’re teaching them is a fistful of bad habits.
One of our stretch goals (spoilers!) is to super-size this into a stand-alone 32 page book packed with even more guidance for the first time GM.
Hi Justin! Just writing in to say, this game is wonderful. My 5yo daughter and me are enjoying it very, very much! It’s a shame I don’t see any talk about it anywhere on the net, including your blog…
@Simone: It’s great to hear that you and your daughter are enjoying the game! The PDFs just dropped for the public in the last couple of days, so I’m hoping to have some posts discussing the design of the game and maybe some original adventures here on the Alexandrian in the near future. Possibly later this week!