CATaclysm: Surprise Gen Con hit appears on Kickstarter

CATaclysm: Surprise Gen Con hit appears on Kickstarter

Back in Gen Con 49, that’s two years ago, CATaclysm debuted as a oneshot game. The catch? Instant hit. Now the team behind it have formed up as Akinji Entertainment and are asking for CA$ 18,000 on Kickstarter to fund a quality publication. At the time of writing they have 25 days to go, nearly 200 backers and more than CA$ 14,000 in the pot. You can follow the progress on the campaign page.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2007660791/cataclysm-the-rpg-of-feline-proportions

Yeah. There’s no campaign video. A brave choice? Seems out of place these days. The free preview on DriveThruRPG is a btter way to discover the game.

The Kickstarter introduction to CATaclysm makes the point of saying you’re not playing a cat-person. You’re playing a cat. An evolved cat that walks on two legs and speaks.

Mankind is gone. A sinister force known as the Miasma rose up in the cities and corrupted or destroyed everything it touches. Now the cats look on from afar, unable to approach the former homes of humanity without protection. Most animals have evolved into intelligent beings but the Miasma has corrupted the Rats, Toads and Frogs into something evil and dangerous…

What makes the Cats special? Meowgic. This is a mystical force that the Cats draw their nine lives from and their power.

Akinji, rightly, pitch the game at both experienced gamers and those coming to the hobby for the first time. Their system is called Ph4se Lite (Phase 4 Lite) which is a simple d10 plus score vs challenge total. The main difference is that rather than counting points for health and the like the game uses colour status dials.

Despite the dials, you can pledge just CA$ 20 wallpaper and a PDF of the game. If you step up to CA$ 40 then you’ll get the game box, with the rules, 2 dice and 9 dials. They offer international shipping. I hope the Canadian postal system is pretty good or this might tax them.