Attributes

"Cats are the runes of beauty, invincibility, wonder, pride, freedom, coldness, self-sufficiency, and dainty individuality—the qualities of sensitive, enlightened, mentally developed, pagan, cynical, poetic, philosophic, dispassionate, reserved, independent, Nietzschean, unbroken, civilized, master-class men. The dog is a peasant and the cat is a gentleman.” — Cats and Dogs, H.P. Lovecraft

Feline and Canine character creation follows these steps:

1. Roll attributes.
2. Choose breed.
3. Choose tricks.
4. Choose spells (optional)
5. Pick or roll Personality Type
6. Spend skill points.
7. Name the character.
8. Flesh out character.

Attributes

Cat and Dog characters possess the same Attributes as human characters, only rolled differently.

Rolled Attributes:

	CATS	DOGS
STR (Strength)	1D4	2D6
CON (Constitution)	2D6	3D6
SIZ (Size)	1D2	1D6
INT (Intelligence)	2D6+6	1D6+6
POW (Power)	2D6+6	3D6
DEX (Dexterity)	2D6+14	2D6+6
APP (Appearance)	3D6	3D6
EDU (Education)	3D6+3	3D6
If you wish, redistribute up to 3 points between your characteristics.

Calculated Attributes:

• Effort: STRx5
• Stamina: CONx5
• Idea: INT×5
• Luck: POW×5
• Agility: DEX×5
• Charisma: APP×5
• Know: EDU×5
• Sentience (SEN): POW×5

Derived Attributes:

• Movement rate: 12 (6 swim)
• Age in Months: Cats EDU+5 / Dogs EDU+8

Sentience (SEN).

Sentience (SEN) replaces the Sanity (SAN) stat. SEN represents the degree to which the character is an intelligent being capable of purposeful actions comparable to a human, rather than simply an animal ruled by instinct. A low SEN has the consequence that some actions (e.g., reading human writing) cannot be completed if a SEN roll fails. A character who experiences something horrible (a confrontation with monsters, the sight of their mistress dead, etc.) must make a SEN roll and lose a certain amount of Sentience Points—exactly like a human SAN roll.
The effects are somewhat different, however, as a cat or dog character will not collapse into catatonia or the like. Given sufficient loss of SEN, the character will temporarily lapse into feral behaviors, incapable of carrying out any intelligent, intentional actions. He will chase small animals instead of monsters, seek out a neighborhood female in heat, or flee up a tree or down a hole from the monster in a panic, remaining there until firemen come to get him down or out. See the Cats and Dogs and Insanity section for more details.

Intelligence and Education

Yes, cats and dogs have high Intelligence. And yes, they also have Education. This “education” is of course not any sort of diploma or course of study; it generally has to do with “cat things” or “dog things ” like knowledge about nature, other animals, humans and their behaviors, etc. A cat or dog can, however, possess knowledge of a scientific field like biology, astronomy, physics, or the like—in any case at a lower level than a human character with an equal amount of the skill. At night, housecats and lapdogs have a lot of time to dig their way through the libraries of their masters and mistresses instead of garbage cans.
Once the Attributes are rolled, they provide a general idea of the character. A low STR may indicate a young cat or dog or a particularly spoiled housecat or lapdog. A high EDU is typical for purebred cats and dogs that have access to a library, living in wealthy households or with scientists or professors. A lower value probably indicates a stray cat or dog, though they are by no means necessarily less intelligent! A higher APP yields advantages in getting humans to do things for you, like sneaking food or the like; it can be a curse, however, if a beautiful queen or bitch wants to keep lascivious toms and hounds at bay.