Domesticat

What is Domesticat?

This cute solo journal RPG was created by Midlifedices where you, the player, become a housecat for a day. This game you will need five d4's (four sided dice), a writing utensil and the cards/chart that come in the document. This game is currently name your own price off of Midlifedice's itch.io page. The doucment is 7 pages long and includes a journaling page to keep track of how your life as a cat is going. There are also two pages of cards that need to be cut out with "meowvelous" and "catastrophe" pieces that effect your over all rolls. This game is all based on four sided dice built on Caltrop Core.

As you can see from the picture, our dear familiar Molly was very upset that I wanted to bring a new cat into our life so of course we had to make a Molly sheet as well. The first time I played this solo I made Beans McGee, a fluffy orange purr ball who loves windowsills and only eats wet food. Beans ended up having a Purrfect day.

Let's Get Started

This game is a journaling game, meaning that it is a solo experience without the need of a dm. In this game you portray a cat. As stated in page one of the document there are some things you will need to play, including 5 d4s (either digital or physical), something to write with, and the cards & chart provided at the end of the document. The first round I did (Beans McGee) I just journaled on the chart page but realized that it got messy and I did not fully take advantage of the journaling aspect; for that reason I also suggest adding a notebook/journal/paper to you list of items needed so you can fully write down your life as a cat.

After cutting your cards make sure you separate them from catastrophe and meowvelous, shuffle them and then set them where you can reach them (make sure you know which pile is which so you grab the appropriate cards).

The Game

The first step is thinking about what cat you are going to play. Are you embodying your own furry familiar? Do you look like an internet cat? Describing what you are and your kitty’s personality is the first part of the character sheet. Under “My human calls me:” and “A little bit about me:” you get to describe your own kitty. There are prompt questions to help as well on pg. 2 if you need some ideas of what to write.


Part of the rule set that your human has to sleep and work, and page 2 tells you what to roll for and how much sleep and work your human does. When your human is doing these two actions the lovey caticity is unavailable. I personally write an S for sleep and W for work on my chart page to know when these two situations occur next to all the times (rounds) that they are happening. Sleeping for 12 hours is another thing that needs to happen each day of play as well.

This is a caltrop game meaning that d4’s are the way of life. For the four “catistics” you need to decide how many d’4s are rolled for each characteristic to see if they were successful or not. There are four characteristics in which you place a 4, 3, 2, or 1 on each line. This number determines how many dice you get to roll for that catistic to see whether it was a fantastic or awful round in your kitty’s day. When you roll a 4 you get to pick up a meowvelous card to help boost an upcoming activity. Rolling a 1 means that round was awful and there is a catastrophe afoot. These cards let you know if you roll an additional d4 or take away a d4 from your rolls.

Thoughts from the Fox

This was such a fun experience! The mechanics are relatively easy to learn and a story was built. Love that there was rules around "your human" as well. I recommend this game for all ttrpg cat lovers. I love the cat art work that is in the game, along with the cute cat paw prints that border the pages. The font was large and easy to read, and each page was neatly organized.

I very much enjoyed this adorable cat based caltrop game. This was the first ‘caltrop core’ game that I played and I was impressed. The game play was fast, but depending on how much journaling you put into it you can get quite detailed and make it a lengthier game. Bork and I were able to see that Molly had a purrfect day with about 20 mins of gameplay. I really enjoy the adorable cat artwork that appears on the cards, manual and chart page. It was fun for me to play a RPG game without the need of a DM. It was easy after a read through of the directions to understand how to play a caltrop based game and understand the rules. The dice tell the story but I enjoyed the chance of needing to pick up a card for 1’s or 4’s with such great cat themed bonuses and challenges.

The classroom also enjoyed playing this rpg as a group where we worked together to see how the cat’s day was. Each kid got to draw a picture on a journal page about their kitty, name it and tell me about it. We then took turns going around the circle with figuring out which cativity was being done for the round and how many dice were rolled. 5 year olds really enjoyed the litter box but they had a good time and since it is a narrative story piece each had time to share thoughts to our class sized board of what happened each round. My kids were too little to be able to write on their own or copy from the big page onto their laminated sheets. Letting them still talk through each round was great and they got excited for the fours and hated seeing the ones.

Do you want to get your own copy? You can get your own copy from Midlifedice’s itch.io here. It is currently listed at name your own price.