Gaming with Cats: A Guide to Life with Furry Dice-Thieves

If you are a cat owner and a gamer, you know that the fuzzy bundles of purr that we so enjoy can suddenly become agents of chaos on the tabletop. Whether they are playfully batting your dice away, chewing the sword arms off your minis, or sneaking a bite of pizza while everyone is distracted, cats can be a real nuisance at the tabletop. But they don't have to be!

Today is the five year anniversary of d20 Despot, and to celebrate it, I'll be co-writing this post with my lovely cat, Ishtar. Aside from stealing my dice and destroying my minis, she also loves to walk across my keyboard while I type and fall asleep on my reference books when I'm statting up monsters. Together, we will share some tips and tricks for keeping your cat at bay while your game is in session, and - if worse comes to worse - even integrating the cat's interference into the game with a new set of rigorously playtested rules for feline intervention.

Keeping Your Cat Away

One trick I've found for keebmn hbjk j sjabfgisk mnod

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k,hjmkmkn fkiuo[jty'kmx l,;oi897y79 l,l;,.ping the cat away from my keyboard is equally useful at the gaming table. If you simply make sure thasdfgibshtoilm nj lcm., xf g; "lop9i0;po;mfinuyfrddxcdcxxdxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxt there is always something more interesting to play with off the table than whatever is going on on the table, your cat will usually be distracted enough to let you issssssssssssssssssudt9y7ruo  ii

                                                               /////////..../ll/,;/feather toys work best, but Ishtar also responds well to bouncy balls because they act unpredictably - just like her! If your cat does end up on the table;sss df43DSCDSCFDVVVVVFFFFFFFFF 

Which brings me to my next point:

Cat-Disaster Management

When the cat does end up interfering, you often find yourself scrambling to fix your elaborate miniatures layout and recover scattered dsniflgfcdxxzhmjujkmmnioplo09p/ /////////ice. Now, the players should trust you to be able to set things back to rights, but at times, you may not remember where a given mini was situated, and this can have a real impact on the course of a fight. That leads me to these new rules for feline intervention that should keep the encounter going withouetuhp.56 7eyp;u79 ?IO

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e battle. If the cat messes up an important dice roll, consult the following table:

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Km;/’ Kl;mn	02-06
The dice is knocked off the table	07-12
The diczsdbhbhhbhbhbhbkj,;/ ]	13-16
E collides with a miniaturelelllllkj,m	17-``18
1w1	19
en you will probably need to just make something up. If the players object to the placement of the miniatures, they can just	20

And speaking of that...

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