James Bell

CREATOR

9 months ago

Project Update: Stretch Goals & The Stories You Can Tell

Hi Curious Cats,

I've got a two-part update for you today. At the top, I wanna share our latest Stretch Goal success and set up our next targets. After that, I want to share a recent article from the Onyx Path website about the different kinds of stories you can tell with Curious Cats of Mau (and the Realms of Pugmire).

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Once we'd funded, we had announced a trio of Stretch Goals to take us through the first half of this 30-day campaign. Well, we're a little ahead of schedule because we've already unlocked all three!

ACHIEVED! - At $22,000 in Funding – REDBUBBLE BACKER T-SHIRT – A Curious Cats-themed Crwodfunding Backer shirt will be hosted on Onyx Path’s Redbubble store for a limited time. Only backers will be notified when the shirt becomes available for purchase.

ACHIEVED! - At $25,000 in Funding – DIGITAL WALLPAPER – Cool Curious Cat artwork will be used to create a wallpaper for your computer desktop. This digital wallpaper will be added to the rewards list of all backers supporting this project.

ACHIEVED! - At $28,000 in Funding – REDBUBBLE PET DESIGNS – A Curious Cats design will be hosted on Onyx Path’s Redbubble store and made available on pet merchandise, including pet mats, pet blankets, and pet bandanas. Backers will be notified when these options become available.

So, let's see if we can set up a couple more to get us through the next few weeks!

At $30,000 in Funding - NEW ADD ON: CAT ARTWORK GUIDE SCREEN - A three-panel Guide Reference Screen with charts and information for running a Realms of Pugmire game will be created and offered as an Add On to the hardcover reward tiers for +$25. This screen will have the same interior contents as the Realms of Pugmire screen, but the outside artwork will be changed to be cat-focused!

At $32,000 in Funding - MOBILE WALLPAPER – Curious Cats artwork will be used to create a wallpaper for your mobile device lockscreen. This mobile wallpaper will be added to the rewards list of all backers supporting this project.

As mentioned, if we unlock the new Guide Screen for Curious Cats of Mau, it'll have the same interior charts and references as the dog-themed Realms of Pugmire screen already available as an Add On, just with cat-themed artwork instead. Two reasons - firstly, it's the same game! Curious Cats of Mau is a setting and character expansion for Realms of Pugmire; unlike in earlier editions, it's all the same game (under the Realms of Pugmire umbrella).

Secondly, who wants to have a bunch of pictures of dog characters when you're playing cats all around the table? Right?! So, same inside, different outside. Another option for our Storyguides at the table.

And speaking of Storyguides and running games in the Realms of Pugmire, I wanted to re-post an article that was recently shared on the Onyx Path website, covering the different kinds of stories and chronicles you can run with this game.

CHRONICLE STYLES

There are lots of ways to run just about any tabletop game. Small changes to the rules and setting can have an additive effect on creating a particular mood or style, which either emphasize certain parts of the game’s setting or wildly change it from its original intentions. But sometimes it can be a bit unclear what changes are useful for what styles, or even how those changes might modify things.

Both the original edition of Pugmire and the upcoming edition Realms of Pugmire have advice on how to “hack” a game into a different shape. But I thought I’d use Realms of Pugmire (which you can still pre-order!) as a good example of what kinds of chronicle styles you can get for the game, and what kinds of changes will help bring those styles around.

Silly

Silly chronicles are more than just light-hearted games. They’re explicitly comedic, and intentionally funny with low-stakes consequences for player actions. Realms of Pugmire starts off as light-hearted, but here are a few ways you can amp things up to be explicitly silly.

Shorter Game Sessions: In my experience, players work their way past the gags and jokes about 1 to 2 hours in. So cut the session down to that length. Comedic television shows tend to be shorter as well, so the short, punchy length can reinforce to players that you’re here for a laugh before things get too deep.
Funny Fortune: A new rule could be that players will always get a Fortune if the entire table breaks out in laughter at a joke (or groan audibly at a terrible pun). This will encourage players to keep the punchlines rolling, because everyone loves getting a reward for doing something that contributes to the game.
No Death: You can even take death off the table entirely. Simply ignore any reference to dying, and assume instead that anyone with zero stamina points is just knocked out. It’s a simple change, but it does have knock-on effects to consider. For example, the shepherd spell “Spare the Dying” isn’t as useful when death isn’t an option, so you might want to rework it to be a simple healing spell that grants 1d4 stamina points, or something similar, to solve the problem.

Gritty

On the other hand, you can go the other direction and make things a bit darker and grittier. The original pitch for the game was called “Fall of Pugmire,” and you can channel that Gothic, elegiac feel if you want.

No Rucksack Test: In Realms of Pugmire, players can make a Cunning test to see if characters pack something in their rucksack that isn’t listed on their character sheet. By getting rid of that test, characters have only what they have, which means that every item counts.
Tougher Enemies: The enemies in the book are calibrated to be a challenging fight for equivalent character levels, but characters will generally win those fights. Using enemies that are a level or two higher than normal, as well as not using any characters with the Minion tag, can give characters tougher combats that require them to use every resource available.
Political Animals: While the upcoming Curious Cats of Mau will have more focus on intrigue, it’s still intentionally shoved a bit into the background, making it something groups can opt into if they like. You can make that more of the focus of the game, putting characters as the focus of several intrigues. Muddy the waters between “good” and “bad” dogs and cats. Push the monarchies closer to all-out war between the city-states or the kingdom of Pugmire. Make it feel like everything can fall apart with a hasty word or an errant punch.

Epic

Epic is all about bigger-than-life storytelling, where everything feels like a legend in the making. Realms of Pugmire already draws on this epic fantasy tradition on some level, but you can really emphasize it with a few simple tweaks.

Minions and Legendary Enemies: Emphasize both minions and legendary characters for epic-style play. Mobs of creatures defending a powerful warlord or a conniving necromancer are exactly the kinds of characters players love to hate. Speaking of which…
Returning Enemies: Find ways to bring old enemies back. Maybe the characters keep running into Rondo Border-Collie, the Rat King, or Kibu the Red. Then add some more levels to them each time they return. Seeing old enemies come back more powerful than before definitely feels epic. (And remember those legendary rules!)
Starting Artifacts: Give each player an artifact they can improve, right out of the gate. Attach a story to each: “This is my mother’s battleaxe” or “I stole this cloak from a noble’s castle the night she died.” Then, allow the character to improve the item every two levels, without spending an improvement. For those curious cats, instead give them a “family secret power” they can improve in the same way.

What are some other ways to make a chronicle feel different?

Tomorrow, I'm going to have a sneak peek at Cat Culture ahead of our next draft manuscript chapter! Let's keep up the good work and see if we can't unlock these next two Stretch Goals before we hit the end!

#CuriousCats

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