(click for PDF)

I usually prep these cheat sheets for RPGs that I play or run, and I’ve shared many of them here on the Alexandrian in the past. This one is for a game that I was the Project Developer and co-designer for: The second edition of Magical Kitties Save the Day!

In Magical Kitties Save the Day, you are a magical kitty who owns a human. (Some humans believe that they own the kitties… This is clearly ridiculous.) Your human has a Problem, and you need to use your magical powers to solve their Problems and save the day! This system cheat sheet, like the others I’ve posted here at the Alexandrian, neatly summarizes all of the rules from the game — from basic action resolution to the mechanics for foes and disasters. It won’t teach you how to create a character, but it’s a great way to get a grip on a new system and, of course, extremely valuable during actual play for introducing new players to the game.

Another cool thing about the game which is not touched on in these cheat sheets are the tools we developed for prepping adventures. If you like the adventure design advice and scenario structures I talk about here on the Alexandrian, I think you’ll find this stuff right up your alley: The core structure is that, in addition to their humans having Problems, the hometowns where kitties live also have Problems. Take a hometown Problem and aim it at the human Problem. As the hometown Problem — things like dinosaurs and hyper-intelligent raccoons and fairy feuds — complicates the kitty’s human Problem, you’ll generate the seed for your adventure.

I then present several adventure recipes: Boss Rush, Five Scenes, A Simple Mystery, The Raid, and Rescue Operation. (In the supplements you’ll find additional adventure recipes. For example, in Magical Kitties & the Mars Colony, Clio Yun-Su Davis created the incredibly clever Double Trouble and Triple Trouble structures.) Each recipe has certain “slots” in it where you can plug in adventure “ingredients.” Simply plug ingredients into the rights lots and — presto! — you’ve got a cool new adventure. (We then present stuff like Foes, Disasters, and Locations with pre-baked ingredients, so if you’re a brand new GM you can basically just plug ‘n play elements.)

HOW I USE THEM

As I’ve described in the past, I keep a copy of the system cheat sheet behind my GM screen for quick reference and also provide copies for all of the players. Of course, I also keep at least one copy of the rulebook available, too. But my goal with the cheat sheets is to consolidate information and eliminate book look-ups: Finding something in a couple of pages is a much faster process than paging through hundreds of pages in the rulebook.

Magical Kitties is a fairly streamlined system, so the cheat sheet is just two pages long and the organization of material should (hopefully!) be pretty self-evident.

WHAT’S NOT INCLUDED

These cheat sheets are not designed to be a quick start packet: They’re designed to be a comprehensive reference for someone who has read the rulebook and will probably prove woefully inadequate if you try to learn the game from them. (On the other hand, they can definitely assist experienced players who are teaching the game to new players.)

The cheat sheets also don’t include what I refer to as “character option chunks” (for reasons discussed here). In other words, you won’t find the rules for character creation here.

MAKING A GM SCREEN

These cheat sheets can also be used in conjunction with a modular, landscape-oriented GM screen (like the ones you can buy here or here).

Personally, I use a four-panel screen. With larger cheat sheets, I’ll use reverse-duplex printing and create sheets that I can tape together and “flip up” to reveal additional information behind them. Since the Magical Kitties sheet is only two pages long, that’s not necessary: In fact, you’ll have a couple spare slots to drop in information on your hometown. (Which, if you’re using Magical Kitties in River City — the hometown I designed for the boxed set — could include a miniature version of the stunningly beautiful poster map by Jason Bradley Thompson.)

On Friday I looked at how, with a minimal application of system mastery by the DM, a completely new player who had never even played a roleplaying game before could create a character in just five sentences.

Magical Kitties Save the Day is the newest RPG from Atlas Games: You are a magical kitty. You have a human. Your human has a Problem. You need you use your magical powers to solve their Problems and save the day! The trick is that the Hometown where you live also has Problems, and when those Problems – witches, aliens, hyperintelligent raccoons – are aimed at your human’s Problems, they make those Problems so much worse!

Created by Matthew J. Hanson, the first edition was a PDF-only rulebook designed to be enjoyed by all ages. At Atlas, we believed we could take this hidden gem and bring it to the masses: After an extremely successful Kickstarter last year, we’ve created a boxed set that is chock full of material not only to make the game the perfect introduction for young new players – making it ideal for parents wanting to roleplay with their kids, for example – but also to teach new GMs of any age how to master the game.

That’s why, for example, the first thing you’ll find in the game is Magical Kitties & the Big Adventure: A choose-your-path graphic novel adventure, so that new players can get a taste of how the game is played within seconds of opening the box.

It’s also why, as I looked to develop and expand the 2^nd Edition of the game, that I focused very carefully on character creation with an eye on the principles of fast, accessible character creation I had learned from years of experimenting with open tables. Not because Magical Kitties Save the Day is necessarily designed for open table play (although it can very easily be adapted for it), but because those same principles apply to any game that you want to be friendly for brand new players:

• You want them to be able to start playing quickly, particularly if they’re young players who may have a shorter attention span.
• You want the decisions to be comprehensible without any system mastery, because not only will these players not have mastery of the specific mechanics of Magical Kitties; they may not even have an understanding of how any roleplaying game is played.

(As an unexpected benefit, simple and clear choices also allowed me to repackage character creation into the graphic novel experience, when it otherwise would have proven difficult.)

The first edition of Magical Kitties was already really good at this. So my design focus was on targeting the handful of steps in character creation that still had any lingering friction and figuring out how to ruthlessly restructure them or supplement them in order to eliminate that friction.

The result was the seven sentences of Magical Kitties character creation:

1. You have two Kitty Treats and an Owie Limit of 2.
2. Roll 1d6 to determine your Cute, Cunning, and Fierce attributes. (Table on p. 10.)
3. Roll 2d6 and read them as a two-digit number to generate your Talent (p. 13).
4. Roll 2d6 to generate your Flaw (p. 14).
5. Roll 2d6 to generate your Magical Power (p. 15).
6. What does your kitty look like and what is their name?
7. Determine your human’s Problem by rolling a Problem Source and an Emotion associated with that problem (p. 12), then name and describe your human.

This character creation is lightning fast. I can actually run 20-30 minute micro-scenarios of Magical Kitties (as convention demos, for younger kids, or as quick pick-up games) in which new players can learn the rules, create their characters, and complete the adventure.

…AND NOW FOR THE BUILD

In looking at our seven sentences for Magical Kitties, you might notice how many of those involving dice to randomly generate the character. This, of course, is intentional: In our discussion of OD&D, you may recall, I mentioned how players new RPGs associate “rolling dice” with “playing the game,” and that having them roll dice during character creation makes them feel as if they’re already playing the game (instead of still waiting for it to start). It headlines the fun, and this is even more true for young players.

(Everyone loves rolling dice. Kids just love rolling dice more.)

But you may also recall that random generation is a trade-off: You’re trading speed for the appeal of a carefully crafted character that you can fine tune to be exactly what you imagined playing.

Magical Kitties Save the Day, though, is also designed to be a game that can grow and mature with new players over time. Which is why every single one of those steps in which we use random generation – attributes, talents, flaws, magical powers, your human’s Problem – is designed so that an experienced player can swap it out: They can skip the random generation and instead have complete control over the creation of their character.

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!