Death to all Cat People!!

[GoodKingJayIII]

Anthropomorphic animals used to bug the hell outta me. They just never fit in with my vision of RPGs. Then Arcana Unearthed came along; maybe it was the racial levels, the classes, spellcasting, or the system itself, but I fell in love with the whole shabang. Even the cat-folk.* So while I can empathize with your feelings, I simply can't revel in them. One or two races I don't like, or a class I can't enjoy, or something minor like that, aren't enough reason for me to throw out an entire system.




* to be fair, litorians, aren't really cats. They're much more like lion- and tiger-folk.

 

[MavrickWeirdo]

If you want a negative "cat people" sterotype, check out the film Cat People (1942)

 

[Dr Simon]

The Tlaxu (http://www.splendour.freeservers.com/tlaxumain.html) aren't cutesy cat-girl anime types - the Plains Tlaxu marry their own daughters for the prestige and the Mopendine Tlaxu like hunting 'inferior' races (i.e. everyone else) for entertainment and are obsessed by life after death.

And they most emphatically *don't* get +2 Dex!

 

[Nomad4life]

Cat-people don’t bother me.

It’s the players who only want to play as cat-people I find disturbing.

Or, perhaps I should say “disturrrrrrrrbing.”

 

[Voadam]

Twin Crowns has a created cat race.
Oathbound/Complete Minions has frey, wild frey, and four armed Knuck cat people.
Mini handbook/Races of wild have catfolk
AE/AU/ Path of Sword has Littorian lion folk
MM has weretigers and the lycanthrope template could work on a cat
Mythic races has a werejaguar type race, a set of big cat men, and animal head planetouched.
Everquest has a cat type race
Prime Directive has Kzintti tiger men
Rakasta from Mystara/Red Steel/Isle of Terror
Its been a while but I think the Nyambe elves have cat like tails or some such.
Probably others.

 

[Wil]

I don't know if this has been brought up, but the tendency of (for example) Japanese to put cat ears and a tail on a girl is grounded in their mythology, where there are numerous demons and spirits that can shift shapes between human and cat (or fox or whatever) form. Many of these demons will often try to seduce or trick unsuspecting people - and one of the few ways to tell is the ears and tail (at least in anime, it's been a while and I don't recall if this is the case in the legends themselves). In fact, in a way this made it into Exalted, where Lunar Exalted have a Tell which is a distinguishing feature that does not go away (such as ears or a tail) even when they are in human form. That also has a grounding in Celtic and other European mythologies where there is a sign - horns, tail, cloven hooves - that a person is actually a demon or one of the fey.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that there are precedents for having cat people (or fox people or whatever) beyond "I saw it in a videogame and thought it was cool." I'm personally neutral towards them, but I thought I'd point out that modern RPG designers did not invent the cat person by any means.

 

[The_Gneech]

Sour grapes, monkey boy!

Although I'd like to point out that the Kilrathi in Wing Commander are not a playable race, nor are they particularly noble. They're pretty much big, vicious brutes. (Think spacefaring ogres with tiger stripes.)

-The Gneech

 

[kenobi65]

There was also a novel describing the Kzin, who are space traveling cat folk (heck, what was the name of that novel ??).

Whole series of novels and stories, mostly by Larry Niven, who created the race. While it's been a long time since I've read any, they're definitely not "cute widdle kitties." Physically they kind of resemble the Kilrathi (big, tough, tiger-like).

 

[DMH]

There was also a novel describing the Kzin, who are space traveling cat folk (heck, what was the name of that novel ??).

IIRC the first ones were the Man-Kzin Wars I (through VIII ?).

Furries and scalies really don't do it for me, though I wish there were more insect people.

 

[Voadam]

IIRC the first ones were the Man-Kzin Wars I (through VIII ?).

Furries and scalies really don't do it for me, though I wish there were more insect people.

I think it starts in Ringworld.