Like most gaming parents I have introduced my child to role playing games. I have always modified the rules and play style for my child’s age. Most of our adventures are more cooperative storytelling than traditional GM and player. I started with Tunnels and Trolls and then moved to Pathfinder with the Ponyfinder sourcebook. I decided to ask my daughter what type of game she would like to play. My original thought was to use the FUDGE rules to build a system around whatever genre or characters she told me that she wanted to play. She informed me that if she could play any game, it would be one where she could be a wild cat that went on adventures. I replied, “I have seen a game where you can do that.”
That game is the Warriors Adventure Game. The Warriors Adventure Game is based on the Warriors YA book series by Erin Hunter. In the Warriors books clans of wild cats run around and have adventures. I have never read one of the books but I was familiar with the game, which I found while browsing a listing of free rpgs.
The Warriors Adventure Game is a diceless system that is available as a free pdf from the Warriors website. The rules were also published in the back of The Warriors Guide. The system is simple. Your cat has three abilities scores; strength, intelligence, and spirit. Your cat also has skills with each skill being associated with an ability. For example the bite skill is associated with strength. Cats also have knacks, which are special things they can do that are similar to feats from D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder.
Characters have three colors of chips which correspond to each of their abilities. If a cat has three strength, two intelligence, and two spirit then they begin the game with three strength chips, two intelligence chips, and two spirit chips. When a character takes an action, they make a check based on an ability or skill+ability. They can use chips from their abilities to increase their check. For example, my cat might be sneaking up on a bird. He has +1 in the sneak skill, and sneak is related to spirit. My cat has a spirit of 2, so 2+1 would give him a 3. I could spend some spirit chips, with each chip spent increasing the check by 1.
Combat is done through a series of checks, and damage is afflicted by losing chips. A players chips refresh at certain points, except for chips lost from combat damage which need to be healed. There is a choose your own adventure style module in the back of the rules to walk players through how the game works. The system works and an experienced game master can use it well, but I think the system is a little too sophisticated for its target audience. I could be wrong as my daughter loves the game and begs me to play it. She even loves just hunting with her cat and figuring out how many chips she will need to spend to catch a rabbit vs. to catch a sparrow. I even came home the other day to find her GMing for my wife.
If you know any fans of the Warriors series this would be a good game to try out with them. I would make sure that the GM is experienced with role-playing. The rules are fairly short and well-done. Check it out at:
Warriors Adventure Game
