Games with a good "CATS" one-pager?

[Jeremy_Strandberg]

Hey all! It’s been a while since I’ve played with the Gauntlet, but I recall a tradition of going over “CATS” before each game: Content, Aim, Tone, Subject matter. I’m wondering if there are any games that have a good, thematic one-pager that contains something similar. Something that would both pique curiosity and interest but also set expectations.

Bonus points if it’s something that can communicate…

• agenda, principles, and expectations for the players (and possibly for the GM)
• topics to consider for lines & veils
• topics to discuss regarding tone & theme

…and still be exciting and interesting and make we want to play the game, rather than coming across as, like, a parental warning.

I don’t really recall every seeing something quite like this for a game, but I feel like someone must have come up with this idea before.

Whatchya got?

[HorstWurst]

Not exactly what you are looking for but I quite like the one sentence description of the areas in Electric Bastionland in the very beginning of the book - although it is a bit misleading about the tone the author seems to be aiming for (which is much more whimsical than the intro implies). Sadly no bonus points but the intro definitely piqued my interest about the game.

[OnlyAnAlligator]

While I think it’s a bit of a mixed success in some areas, the playbook design of Fellowship does a lot to bake those questions into play, GM-side through the Overlord playbook of course, but also player-side through player agendas, which are largely there as a reminder of the story we want to tell.

PBTA, in general, tends to offer a CATS in its GM agendas, although some games, of course, make better use of them in that regard than others.

The setup of Microscope incorporates a lot of the question of a CATS discussion in the opening setup; the palette, the bookends, and the one-sentence pitch.

[GroupSoliloquy]

The most explicitly I’ve seen this called out is Brindlewood Bay and Girl Underground. I think most games have a C.A.T.S. section really, it’s just not structured as such. Its usually “What is this game?” section at the front of the book. I think of C.A.T.S. as just a framework to call out that information early in the writing and early at the table.

[Jeremy_Strandberg]

For what it’s worth, here’s what I settled on for Stonetop:

The “Getting Started” chapter then includes instructions to start “session 0” with players spending 10-15 minutes to review this document (and the more detailed setting notes that follow) and then discuss:

• Setting (open Q&A, talk about what excites/interests you)
• Expectations (specifically premise, agenda, and principles)
• Tone & content (including a procedure for establishing excluded, veiled, and specially handled content, and a place to record that on the “group” character sheet for the village)
• From there, make characters and introduce them

Initial feedback from new playtest groups has been very positive.

[APM]

I really liked the idea of the CATS model and adapted it straight on in Blood Feud. It’s more of a four-pager than one-pager, but the info could well fit on an regular sheet of paper if layouted that way

This is what it looks like:

I think bringing all these components into the game text is fairly common—but as previously mentioned, not structured in this particular way. The way you have done it seems like a good middle ground! The important thing after all is to make sure to include concept, aim, tone and safety/subject matter somewhere in the text. But if you have them early on, especially in lighter indie games, they also serve as a good intro to the game I think.

[Alun_R]

In Alien Dark ( https://gallusgames.itch.io/alien-dark). I included a fairly bald CATS as part of the intro:

[APM]

I just realised I did the exact same thing with another project I’ve been working on! And it fits on one page

[APM]

Happened upon another one in Girl Underground!

sorry for the half bad photo

[Deckard]

This last one is my favorite example and I’ve never seen anyone accidentally break the game intent or tone after this was read out of my 4 plays (2 with strangers and 2 with kids.)

[Rickard]

I think the book Transformative Counselling by Daniel Keeran is a really good example of how to write a game, if you read the text while thinking how a roleplaying text would be written if it followed the same formula.