My daughter and I have been enjoying a long-running campaign of Magical Kitties, but we have a few questions about the rules:
Can cats and other animals (without telekinesis etc.) carry things? If so, what are good guidelines for that?
How do you handle cooperative tasks? That is, if two or more characters are working together, do you combine dice, add one or two, or take some other approach?
How should repeated attempts be handled? That is, if kitties are not under time pressure and fails at a task, can they just keep rolling until they get it or something else intervenes?
I am sorry if these questions are covered in the rulebooks or online fora. If so, please just refer me to the proper source. Thanks!
I assume for my game that even a small, weak animal like a mouse can probably carry or drag anything about their own weight, or way more if the animal is a very strong animal like a horse or tiger or unicorn. I just kind of wing it. I imagine it would look like when a rather realistic cartoon animal does the same, like you would see in The Lion King or The Jungle Book. An animal may not have hands but could get a shoulder under a friend to get them to their feet, push something with their paws, and so on.
There is apparently a rule in Power Up! for cooperation, but I just have the player with the best relevant score make the roll, with an additional die for every other kitty who helps somehow. The players just need to describe how they're contributing and working together.
For repeated attempts with no time limit or pressure and a task that IS theoretically possible with the right rolls, I often just let them do it, but I might ask them to describe what they're saying or doing while they try several times, and always add some detail to make it more interesting than "You succeed." "You really have to work to get that ancient door open, and your repeated tries dislodge a lot of dust and cobwebs that get on your fur." Some players don't mind rolling over and over again (it gives them a sense of control and they feel like they are "doing something" or "getting it right") but I never MAKE them, since numbers and dice really aren't the point of the game, but are a way to introduce chance into a game of collaborative storytelling.