By Nichodemus Style
Cats, or the Hengeyokai as they are generally called, are less than natural felines with the ability to change their form at will. The process seems to be similar to that used by the lupines, but as yet I have received no indication that there is a link between the two species. I have as yet been unable to approach any of them. They seem to be highly sensitive to our kind, and the presence of the Gaki has somewhat curtailed my evening excursions as well. Stories which I have been able to gather seem to indicate that there is a fair amount of variety among the animals. Much in the same way as we kindred are divided into clans. Of course, I am beginning to get ahead of myself. I should get proof before I begin to make such comparissons. Their political organization seems to be very similar to our own as well. Each city has a King and Queen who hold a court on each night that the moon can be seen. What and where these conclaves might be held is still beyond me. I am hoping that you might be persuaded to send me some assistance. Gitane would not be pleased if my report is not ready on time. We both know what that leads to.
Respectfully,
Trinagael
...Christ what a pissy little bit that was, oh well. anyway I'll briefly summarize what is mentioned of the Hengeyokai in WoD. Cats, like Cainites, feed off of blood. However, they need for the vitae to be charged with sexual energy. As a result they can not feed off of virgins, children (hopefully), or vampires... animals are possible. Cats do not suffer from the hunger as badly as the kindred; on each night that there is a moon, they gain 1d10 blood points. Their maximum blood pool is 10. So, barring long periods of cloudy weather, they do not technically need to feed... but what fun would that be. However like vampires, they are immortal. Unless the neighborhood Lupine comes visiting, they will not die.
Eastern vampires, the Gaki, are unable to enter holy shrines. The Cats do not share this restriction. It is possible that they are not affected by Faith... they may take on the form of any human they have seen (in reality or in a picture, it doesn't matter) and they may also invent people to look like. The transformation requires two rolls. Willpower (failure indicating that the human form has whiskers, a tail... whatever) and wits (failure indicating a fondness for catnip and a dislike for water... up to the fiendish imagination of the storyteller). They commonly take the abilities of dodge, animal ken and stealth.
My modifications are as follows...
Attributes: 7/5/3 (0 appearance, unless in human form, then its players choice... subject to the success of the willpower role)
Abilities: 13/9/5 (with a new specialization in brawl And melee-attack against dodge)
Backgrounds: 2
Virtues: 5 (They do not have humanity - use willpower instead, but failing a virtue role could lead to a loss of willpower... so don't ignore self-control and conscience)
Disciplines: They start out with one dot in Auspex, Presence and a third from the list below. these may be raised with the same costs as caitiff kindred. others may be bought as if they vampiric non-clan disciplines.
Geomancy (World of Darkness p99), Animalism, Celerity, Obfuscate, Weather Control, Necromancy, Chimerstry, Obeah, Corruption, Spirit Thaumaturgy, Neptune's Might and the Gift of Morpheus.
None of these may be raise above five. The choice of the third discipline should reflect the concept of the cat. An evil Morris isn't any more likely to take Obeah than a sweet lil' Garfield would take the Path of Corruption.
Cats may not be Dominated, but they are affected by Animalism. Usually, the younger cats are darker in color. The older they get, the whiter they become. The king and queen of a city are usually the heads of the city's blood line (almost all cats in a city will be related). As Japanese cities began to grow larger and larger, they could support larger populations of cats. Not normally given to birth control methods, the cat population has exploded in recent decades. This has created problems as the cat populations of cities grow too large for the local monarchs to effectively control. Part of the pressure has been relieved by delegating authority to favored offspring and emmigration to mainland Asia. But the damage has been done. Now, even as the population of Japan is starting to shrink (if i remember correctly, but hey its a game...) the population of cats has continued to rise. Their kin on the mainland have not welcomed new arrivals as of late and the cats of Japan have had to look elsewhere... Australia for a start. even now some are beginning to wnader into what was once the eastern soviet union, and who knows how many are wandering the islands of hawaii or the streets of LA?
None of this has been signifigantly playtested. My charcter has only been used twice so far. Anyone who uses this and has comments, corrections or whatevr please let me know so I can polish this puppy (perhaps a bad choice of words) up.