Be Like a Cat | Review

Before starting this review, I would like to thank the publisher, Mana Project Studio, for sending us a copy of Tim Roberts’s solo role-playing game Be Like a Cat.

If you want to buy the game after hearing about it, you can find the physical version directly on the publisher’s site for 29.90 euros. Please note that the price does not include the digital copy, which you can find in the same store for 12.90 euros. To enjoy the game freely, you can download your feline card and the game maps in PDF format free of charge from the same page.

Review of Be Like a Cat‘s Aesthetics

Be Like a Cat is a beautiful manual to browse through. The hardcover is solid and the wire binding makes it a top quality product. The A5 format ensures that it is practical and compact to carry and consult. Paper, thick and matt is extremely pleasant to leaf through, and the full-page printing, gracefully decorated with leaf motifs and interspersed with illustrations by Silvia De Stefanis, Artem Asteroth, Vincenzo Igenito and Khius, embellishes a product that is already captivating from the looks of it.

If I have to find a fault with this product, it is the choice of colours for the pages with tables. The contrast between the pastel green colour and the darker grey-green makes it a little difficult to read, especially in the physical version of the product.

Be Like a Cat: a Feline Protagonist for Great Adventures

Be Like a Cat comes from the prolific pen of Tim Roberts, founder of the Critical Kit publishing house. It follows the path already traced by Be Like a Crow, which we have already covered. It is a journaling game, a solo (or two-person maximum) game that offers players the chance to be a cat. Forget all those anthropomorphic creatures you have already seen in other journaling games, in Be Like a Cat you will be a real feline, a bit like in the video game Stray.

The game aims to explore new territories and take control of them by tracking them while exploring. This journaling game conveys all the charm of the magic and cunning of the feline world, providing an intimate and personal experience.

Creation of the Cat

To play Be Like a Cat, you, first of all, must create a kitten, the protagonist. The latter will have various attributes and abilities. His story begins in his youth and continues into old age. In the manual, there are three backgrounds to choose from for your feline: wild, stray and domestic. Each of them presents several precise characteristics, starting with the appearance of our feline, his behaviour, the place from which he will start his adventure, and his advantages and weaknesses.

All cat skills have a score between 1 and 6. The higher the score the better the cat will be at that skill. In the creation phase, all skills start with a value of 1. In the transition from kitten to young cat the value of the cat’s skills increases in two possible ways. The first is to choose two skills to develop, the second is to roll a 6-sided die for each skill and if the result is 4 or higher a tick must be made for that skill.

The protagonist of Be Like a Cat has 16 feline skills divided into four broad categories: Survival, Sociality, Travel and Fighting.

Review of the Be Like a Cat‘s Game Rules

We assume that the aim of Be Like a Cat is to offer an experience that is not only playful, but also transversal and related to writing (and, why not, illustration). In any case, the mechanical system for dealing with the trials in this journaling game is extremely simple and straightforward.

Let us start by emphasising that the game system is designed in turns that move the narrative forward. Certain mechanics will allow the world to be generated as our protagonist explores it.

I will summarise the stages of the shift for convenience. First, the cat will move to a location or stay where it is. If it has moved and is not in a territory under its control, a dice roll must be made and the result checked on the scenario encounter table to resolve it. At this point, you must roll 2 6-sided dice and read the result on the ‘Yes and…’ table to resolve the event. Finally, when applicable, the feline protagonist can try to take control of the location by rolling some dice equal to the value of the ‘marking’ skill. Each result equal to 4 counts as 1 success and with 2 or more successes that area will be under his control.

Tests of Skill and Combat

To pass a test, you have to roll a number of 6-sided dice equal to the score of the skill involved, and all results equal to or greater than 4 equals one success. A natural 6 counts as two successes, while a result equal to 1 subtracts one success from the overall result.

Sooner or later our protagonist will have to fight to conquer a territory or to defend one he already dominates. And while the characters in Be Like a Cat are unlikely to fight to the death, they can certainly injure themselves severely. So let’s see together how the combat unfolds in this journaling game.

The eventual clash is resolved in a series of rounds. In each round, each creature involved must make one offensive and one defensive move. Any wounds are then subtracted from the target’s health. Again, you always roll 6-sided dice equal to the value of the skill and any result equal to or greater than 4 equals one wound inflicted on the opponent.

The fight ends when one of the two contenders surrenders.

FRAPS

Whenever a young or adult cat performing a skill test or during a fight gets two 6s on the dice, it will trigger a FRAP (Frenetic Random Activity Period). These are impetuous and sudden bursts of energy. At such times the cat will appear to have little control over its actions and will feel the urge to run frantically.

Mechanically speaking, the feline protagonist must immediately move two squares in any direction. A FRAP ends once the second square is reached.

Five Intriguing Scenarios

In the Be Like a Cat handbook, there are five scenarios to tackle your life as a cat. The versatility of these possible worlds to explore ranges from historical to cyberpunk to fantasy, passing through the urban context.

You can then choose to be a cat in 13th century BC Ancient Egypt during the reign of Ramses II, or play the familiar of a wise witch living in the middle of a forest. Possibilities also include being a digital feline avatar uploaded into cyberspace by a group of hackers to fulfil a mission, or simply being an urban cat in the contemporary city context. I found the possibility of being the cat in the pay of a notorious buccaneer in a swashbuckling pirate world setting wonderful.

Game Maps

Each proposed setting is accompanied by a specific map, divided into grids to indicate the movements of the character within the territory to be explored.

The maps of Be Like a Cat, as I said at the beginning of my review, are not included in the manual but are easily downloadable from the publisher’s website. The basic idea is simple and makes good use of practicality without overdoing a particularly striking aesthetic.

Conclusions of the Be Like a Cat Review

As can be seen from this review, Be Like a Cat is an excellent confirmation. First of all, the author’s ability to create a true strand within a category of GdR. Secondly, Mana Project Studio’s great professionalism in giving the Italian public a product that is beautiful, solid and extremely satisfying not only from a purely ludic point of view.

The structure of this journaling game makes it perfect as a starting point for writing a short story (if not a comic book) and has the potential to allow for a narrative of almost unlimited duration.

So sharpen your claws, smooth your whiskers and, why not, purr for your next great adventure!

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