At the back of the Omen Of The Stars series, you can play RPG games based on the books. I don't really have anyone to play these adventure games with so I wondered if we could do them online. Here are the basic, but very long, introductory rules.
Welcome, Warrior!
Welcome to the Warriors Adventure Game!
In this game, you and your friends will create cat
characters of your own and lead them through exciting
adventures. Along the way, your characters may bump
into familiar faces, and visit some of the same places as
the warrior cats. You’ll also meet new characters and
experience adventures no warrior cat has ever dreamed of.
What’s more, you won’t just read about these situations;
you will control what your characters do and how the
problems they face get resolved.
What Is an Adventure Game?
In an adventure game, you and your friends each will
create a character in a story—in this case, cats from the
warrior Clans. Your cats will find themselves involved
in adventures and mysteries, just like the characters in
the novels.
At its heart the Warriors Adventure Game is a kind
of group storytelling event. As a group, you and your
friends will create tales about your cats’ adventures. You
get to decide what your character thinks and says and
does based on what his or her individual goals are. While
you’ll keep track of different scores, the game itself
mostly involves talking about and imagining what your
cat characters would do in certain situations.
Are There Rules?
Like any game, this one has rules. Some of them are
rules about how to create your cat, while others are about
how to tell whether or not your cat is successful at the
things he or she tries to do.
At first glance it might seem as if there are an awful
lot of rules—so many that it may be a bit intimidating.
Don’t worry. First of all, you don’t have to learn every
rule to play. There are just a few basic rules that you’ll
need during most of the game. The rest of them will only
come up in certain situations.
Secondly, and best of all, you can always look up the
rules when they do come into play. There is no need for
you to memorize anything.
The Warriors Adventure Game is a cooperative game.
You and your friends work together to tell your characters’
tales. Storytelling is the most basic action in this game,
and the only thing you ever really need to know is the
answer to one simple question: What would your cat
do next?
Who Wins?
There are no winners and losers in the Warriors
Adventure Game. The goal is not to win or beat the other
players; the goal is to have a good time playing and to
successfully complete each adventure.
In fact, you can consider Rule #1 to be:
Having fun is more important than following the
rules as written.
That’s not to say that you should just throw out these
rules. They have been designed to help make the game
more fun for everyone involved. However, because
a storytelling game has almost limitless possibilities,
there may be times where following the rules leads to
confusion or even arguments. At those times remember
Rule #1.
As long as everyone playing the game is having fun,
then you’re definitely doing it right.
What You’ll Need
The best way to learn the Warriors Adventure Game is
to jump right in and make a cat character for yourself.
It will get you familiar with the rules and will teach you
a lot about what the game will be like. In order to do that
and begin playing, you’ll need the following things.
These Rules: Since you’re reading this sentence, you’ve
already got your first need covered.
Imagination: This really is the most important thing
every player must bring to the table. The whole premise of
the Warriors Adventure Game is that you and your friends
are able to imagine your cats, their personalities, and the
world around them.
That’s It for Now: Eventually, you’ll need a few more
items—in particular, you’ll need three different kinds
of chips (colored stones, coins, etc.)—but not until you
start playing the game. During the game you may also
find it useful to keep a map of the Lake region handy
so you can track where your cats are going. A full-color
copy of the map has been specially made for the game
(you can find it on the reverse side of the jacket for
Omen of the Stars #1: The Fourth Apprentice, or as a
download on warriorcats.com). For now, though, as
long as you have the items listed above, you’re ready to
create a cat.
What Makes a Warrior?
Muddypaw, a young apprentice from WindClan.
Muddypaw
Although Muddypaw wants to help his Clan,
fighting makes him nervous. He’s physically small,
but he’s very clever and makes friends easily.
In this example, Erica and Bill are playing a short
session of the Warriors Adventure Game. Bill is the
Narrator, and he has an adventure printed out and
sitting in front of him on the table. Erica is playing. Her
character is Muddypaw, so she has the character sheet
you just saw printed out and sitting in front of her. She
also has one red chip, two blue chips, and two green
chips. These chips are based on Muddypaw’s Ability
scores: the red chip is for the one Strength point, blue
for Intelligence, and green for Spirit. (When you play,
the chips can be any colors you like as long as they are
easy to tell apart.)
Bill: Muddypaw’s training assignment today is to go
out alone and catch some fresh-kill for the Clan.
So where do you go after you leave the WindClan
camp?
Erica: I’m not sure. Where would be a good place to
hunt?
Bill: To figure that out, you’ll have to make a Ponder
Check.
Erica: Ponder—that Skill is based on Intelligence,
right?
Bill: Right.
Erica: Okay. Muddypaw has a score of 2 in Intelligence.
Bill: And is he trained in the Ponder Skill?
Erica: Yeah. He has a +1 in Ponder. So 2 plus 1 is 3.
Bill: So you have a Ponder Check of 3.
Bill looks at the adventure to see what that result means.
Bill: Okay, you remember a spot where there are a lot of vole burrows.
Erica: Voles? They’re easy to catch! Muddypaw is going
there!
Bill: Okay. You get there. Now make a See Check to
find out if you can see any voles running around.
Erica: That’s also based on Intelligence, but I don’t
have any training in the See Skill. So I just get a
2 from my Intelligence score.
Bill: With a See Check of 2, you don’t notice
anything.
Erica: How about if I try to hear the voles scurrying
around?
Bill: That’s a good idea. Make a Listen Check.
Erica: Listen is also based on Spirit, but I AM trained
in it. In fact, Muddypaw gets +2 to Listen
Checks because he’s from WindClan, so my
total is 4. But I really want to listen hard, so
I’m going to spend one of my green chips to
get a bonus point.
Erica takes a green chip and sets it aside.
Erica: That gives me 1 bonus point, so my total is 5.
Bill: Great! With a 5 you definitely hear the voles.
They’re scurrying all around here, and you can
tell that one is right near you!
Erica: I want to get it!
Bill: How do you want to do that?
Erica: Well, I’m hunting, so I want to chomp on it.
Bill: Doing that requires a Bite Check. That’s based on
Strength.
Erica: Oh. Muddypaw’s Strength is only 1, and he’s not
trained in Bite.
Bill: Sorry, a 1 isn’t good enough. You miss and the
vole scurries away. But you hear another one
nearby.
Erica: This time I’m going to get it. I’m going to spend one of my green chips to
get a bonus point.
Erica takes a green chip and sets it aside.
Erica: That gives me 1 bonus point, so my total is 5.
Bill: Great! With a 5 you definitely hear the voles.
They’re scurrying all around here, and you can
tell that one is right near you!
Erica: I want to get it!
Bill: How do you want to do that?
Erica: Well, I’m hunting, so I want to chomp on it.
Bill: Doing that requires a Bite Check. That’s based on
Strength.
Erica: Oh. Muddypaw’s Strength is only 1, and he’s not
trained in Bite.
Bill: Sorry, a 1 isn’t good enough. You miss and the
vole scurries away. But you hear another one
nearby.
Erica: This time I’m going to get it. I’m going to spend
my Strength chip.
Erica takes the red chip and sets it aside.
Erica: That gives me 1 bonus point to my Strength
Check, so the total is now 2.
Bill: That’s still not very high, but it’s enough to get the
vole. Now figure out how much damage you do.
Erica: Okay, Muddypaw’s Strength is 1, so he’s only
going to do 1 point of damage . . . but I do get an
extra +1 because he’s biting. That’s a total of 2.
Bill: More than enough to kill a vole.
Erica: Great! I can’t wait to add my vole to the fresh-kill
pile!
Bill: But one vole won’t feed many cats. What are you going to do now?
Erica: Hunt some more, of course!
As the game continues, Bill will use the adventure to
describe more things that happen to Muddypaw, and
Erica will continue to tell him how her cat reacts. That’s
pretty much how every session of the Warriors Adventure
Game will go, except that you’ll be playing with a
group of friends who each have a cat character, and you’ll
all be making the decisions together. The adventures
your cats go on will be more detailed than just hunting
for voles, but the basics of the game will remain the
same.
Just the Beginning
Now that you know what a character sheet in the
Warriors Adventure Game looks like and have a basic idea
of how the game mechanics work, it’s time for you to
begin creating your own cat character.
In Chapter Two you will pull together the basic
information that defines your cat as he or she starts down
the road to being a warrior. You will create your cat as an apprentice just entering training. When
you’re done with this first part of creating your
cat, you’ll have a character that is in the same
stage of life as Muddypaw.
So, obviously you need to create a character. Let me explain.
First simply think about your apprentice. Do not create a perfect character with no flaws, or a power character, because it is simply not natural. Your character will not always be the hero, and Warrior Cats was never a fairytale, so perhaps your character is quite grumpy or gets over excited too easily. Next, choose your Clan that you want to be in. You get special bonuses depending on which Clan you are in, but those will be explained later. There are three different main groups of ability in the game. The first is strength. Pretty self explanatory, how powerful or strong a cat is. The second is intelligence. This represents how clever a cat is, and how good they are at solving problems. The third is spirit. These cats tend to be understanding and insightful, and they make perfect leaders and medicine cats. You have 5 points to spread between these groups, the higher the number in each group, the better that cat is at that particular ability. However, there must be 1 point in each level at least. You can either make the scores fairly even, but then your cat will not be very good in any of the skills, or, your cat can be particularly talented in one special area, but then your cat will have a weakness in the other two. It mainly depends on what sort of character you want your cat to grow up to be. More specific abilities that fit into the three groups are listed below. You can choose three of them, and your cat will be more talented in those areas... but they won't be perfect or anything! Also, you can also choose for you to choose only two special areas and the third be the special one that your Clan is good at, and make the level on that one one to two. It's very confusing, but if you would prefer to just have four skills that you are equally good at, just choose three skills that you want.
ThunderClan's special skill is Ponder
RiverClan's special skill is Swim
ShadowClan's special skill is Sneak
WindClan's special skill is Listen
Here are all the skills listed with their descriptions.
Arch
(Strength)—This Skill represents a cat’s ability to arch its
back, strike an aggressive pose, or otherwise look mean
and intimidating. This can be used to frighten away an
enemy or, more commonly, as a way to show a Clanmate
just how serious you are about a subject. A contest of
arching is sometimes used by two or more cats who find
themselves in a confrontation but want to resolve the
matter without actually fighting.
Bite
(Strength)—This is a measure of how much damage
a cat can do when Biting an opponent. Because Bites
cause so much damage, they are generally only used
when hunting for fresh-kill or fighting against wild
animals. Even when Clans are in serious battles,
warriors usually only fight using Swats and Wrestling.
The warrior code makes it clear that Biting is reserved
for prey and attacking animals who are outside the
warrior code.
Climb
(Strength)—The Climb Skill determines how quickly
and skillfully a cat can go up a tree, fence, or other
obstacle. It also represents how securely a cat can hang
on to a branch, tree trunk, or other perch when the wind
or an enemy is trying to shake him or her loose. In most
cases, cats do not Climb down objects (their claws are not
built for that sort of thing). Instead, they usually use the
Jump Skill to get down.
Focus
(Spirit)—There are many distractions in the world,
be they strange noises, pain, other cats, Twolegs, or
simply boredom. Focus represents a cat’s ability
to concentrate on a certain task and ignore other
distractions. Often, a successful use of the
Focus Skill will be required before a cat can use
another particularly useful Skill under difficult
conditions.
Hiss
(Spirit)—This represents a cat’s ability to hiss, yowl,
and otherwise give voice to his or her anger and other
aggressive feelings. It is often used in conjunction with
the Arch Skill but can also be used on its own. Hissing
is a way of warning nearby cats of approaching danger,
or of telling dogs or other animals that you have no
intention of running away and that they should only
come closer if they truly want a fight.
Jump
(Spirit)—Jumping has several uses, but all of them
are defensive in nature. When a cat is surprised by
something that presents some kind of danger, his or
her first reaction is to Jump. A cat will also Jump during
battle in an effort to avoid an enemy’s attacks. As
mentioned in the description of the Climb Skill, cats
generally use the Jump Skill to get down from high
places safely. And, finally, in cases where a cat is knocked
off or falls from a high place accidentally, the Jump
Skill allows him or her to land safely on all four feet
rather than uncontrollably crash to the ground and risk
a serious injury.
Listen
(Spirit)—This skill represents two things. First, the
Listen Skill is used to tell if a cat notices a certain sound
or noise. This is a crucial part of hunting, not to mention
noticing the approach of any unexpected visitors (be
they other cats, animals, or Twolegs). Second, because
cats’ ears are so sharp, the Listen Skill can also be used to
tell them exactly where a sound is coming from and who
or what it is (if the sound is familiar).
Ponder
(Intelligence)—Cats use this Skill to figure out things
they have never encountered or been taught before.
This can be as straightforward as trying to figure out a
way to get past a sleeping dog or over a fence or hedge.
It can also be as complex as trying to determine what
a new sound or smell means and whether or not it
presents a danger. Even when successful, the Ponder
Skill only provides a cat with an idea. Making the idea
work will often involve some other Skill entirely.
Pounce
(Intelligence)—Pouncing is similar to Jumping but,
rather than being defensive in nature, a Pounce is always
aggressive or offensive. This Skill is most often used in
hunting: to land on and quickly kill prey. However, in
a fight a cat may also use it to leap onto an opponent
and begin Wrestling. Pounce is also the Skill used when
a cat wants to go over or across a space and land on an
object without Climbing. A cat can Pounce on something
that is up to two body lengths away or above him or
her (there is no limit to how far a cat can Pounce
downward, but really that’s more like falling and may
be risky based on the situation).
See
(Intelligence)—This is the Skill used to determine if a
cat can notice something using only his or her eyes.
Usually this is easier if the thing is moving. See is one
of the Skills used during hunting and while patrolling,
but because cats also have such sharp senses of hearing
and smell, it is not as crucial a Skill as it is for Twolegs.
Cats also use their See Skill to tell if anything has changed
about a place, thing, or other cat since the last time they
encountered it.
Smell
(Intelligence)—There are two common uses for the
Smell Skill. First, like the See and Listen Skills, a cat can
use the Smell Skill to tell if someone or something else
is nearby. Because cats’ noses are so sensitive, Smell can
identify exactly where the thing is, even if the cat can’t
see it. In addition, cats can use the Smell Skill to follow
the scent trails that all living creatures leave wherever
they go. In this way, the Skill can be used to follow
someone who passed by hours or possibly even days
ago. However, the older a scent trail is, the harder it is to
follow.
Sneak
(Spirit)—Many situations call for a cat to move
undetected: hunting, moving through another Clan’s
territory, going past a dog or group of Twolegs. Sneak
is the Skill that governs such movements. More than just
being quiet or stealthy, the Sneak Skill is a combination
of those plus an element of timing and anticipating
where your quarry will be looking at any moment.
Swat
(Intelligence)—This is the general-purpose Skill used
to see if a cat can hit something with his or her paw. In
training and roughhouse play, this is done with claws
retracted, but in a fight it is done with claws extended
in hopes of causing injury. The difference between an
ordinary blow and an especially effective one is not a
matter of having a higher Strength score, though; it’s
one of timing and placement (which is why Swat is an
Intelligence-based Skill).
Swim
(Strength)—Although most cats are not fond of the
water (except those in RiverClan, of course), being able
to Swim long enough to safely reach dry land is definitely
a useful Skill. While Swimming is not something a cat
is likely to do often, when the need arises, it is handy to
have trained in this Skill.
Wrestle
(Strength)—Wrestling is a catch-all phrase for the kind
of fighting cats do once they are directly on top of each
other and too close to rear back and Swat. It is a good
way for a larger cat to immobilize a smaller opponent,
and also probably the best way for a smaller cat to hurt
a larger opponent (since it brings them close enough to
use sharp rear claws or, in extreme cases, even to Bite).
Sneak
(Spirit)—Many situations call for a cat to move
undetected: hunting, moving through another Clan’s
territory, going past a dog or group of Twolegs. Sneak
is the Skill that governs such movements. More than just
being quiet or stealthy, the Sneak Skill is a combination
of those plus an element of timing and anticipating
where your quarry will be looking at any moment.
This is the information I need:
Cat's Name: Remember, the cat is an apprentice!
Cat's Gender:
Cat's Clan:
Cat's Fur Colour:
Cat's levels in Spirit Intelligence and Strength:
Cat's skills:
Cat's knacks:
My cat
Cat's Name: Timberpaw
Cat's Gender: She cat
Cat's Clan: ShadowClan
Cat's Fur Colour: Ginger and white
Cat's levels in Spirit Intelligence and Strength: Intelligence, 3, Strength, 1 and Spirit 1
Cat's skills: Arch, +1, Ponder, +1, Swat, +1, Sneak, +1
