Today, Black Book Editions launched Cats! The Conspurracy. There’s an early bird bonus of free PDF books for those who pledge enough in the first 72 hours (until Friday morning).
We’ve got a Q&A with the team, in which we ask about who these secret psionic cats are facing off against, and we have extra art to show after the Kickstarter video but you can skip straight to pitch page.
In Cats! The Conspurracy cats are secretly intelligent and psychic. It’s a conspiracy, as our feline masters would rather we dumb simians not find out.
Cats are lucky and have nine lives. The game already has 16 different types of cats for players to select from, such as The Angora and The European.
A hardcover version of the book is available, with a ribbon bookmark (cats love those) and spot UV cover art.
Cats! The Conspurracy exclusive art
Black Book Editions have kindly given us some exclusive first look at pieces of art from the TTRPG.
Cats! The Conspurracy Q&A
In Cats! The Conspurracy characters have to keep the great secret but where does the danger come from? Who’s going to find out the truth?
Our cats will face many dangers, but we’ll focus on two of them. After centuries of successfully manipulating humans, you’d think our feline friends would know how to stay out of harm’s way… but the truth is that humans are extremely creative when it comes to endangering cats (not to mention themselves, of course).
These pesky simians have come up with tons of weird and foul-smelling tech that’s extremely dangerous to cats, like cars or various deadly weapons that could destroy the entire world several times over. But the most dreaded monster cats will encounter is a legendary demonic mechanical entity that seemingly invaded human homes in the second half of the past century. It is believed to exert a powerful form of mind control over humans, as it needs one to move around… simians call these terrible creatures “vacuum cleaners”, and they are not to be underestimated.
But the real danger is way scarier: with the advent of ubiquitous communication technologies, the chance that a cat will get caught on camera while using its psychic powers is much higher. And whenever such a breach in the Conspurracy takes place, the Rosicrucians are never far behind, ready to jump at the opportunity to take on the evil forces they believe are behind these incidents.
They are a centuries-old secret order of people who have figured out something is up but have not (yet) narrowed it down to the fact that cats are running the show, pegging it instead on some sort of mystical satanic conspiracy. Over time, they have amassed considerable wealth, information and influence, and are capable of fielding highly-trained special agents with top-of-the-line gear and weaponry they will not hesitate to use in case things get out of hand. They are definitely the Conspurracy’s archnemesis.
They’re a pretty cool antagonist since they’re both an in-game faction and gameplay tool GMs can use to prevent the players from derailing the game and unbalancing the world if they use their powers too often or too blatantly!
Lastly, cats are a risk to themselves: true to their playful and chaotic nature, they hold one principle true: it’s okay to break the rules, including those of cat society… as long as you don’t get caught. And sometimes, let’s say curiosity kills the cat…
In the pitch video, two cats face off before engaging in clawed combat. Are they political creatures with warring factions?
Oh, they most certainly are! Although most cats consider themselves too smart and sophisticated for war in the traditional sense, fights do take place on the political level, with various factions vying for power: the mainstream Conspurracists want to enforce the status quo, whereas the Pawgressists are in favor of finding common ground with the humans in the long run – just not right now: humans are not ready to accept the truth yet, but Internet cat memes and cats now being rightfully entitled to the best place on the couch in every human house mean we should get there eventually. The Extremewists just want to remove the threat posed by humans by taking drastic measures, while the Eclawlogists are trying to make them change their ways before they ruin the planet. Others, like the Fursakers, are just looking for ways to leave it and reach for the stars before it’s too late. You can thank them for the whole Roswell mess back in the forties, by the way.
You can find out more about the factions in the actual play series we produced for the game, featuring Devora Wilde (the voice of Lae’zel in Baldur’s Gate 3!) along with a clowder of cats from various factions!
Physical and psychic combat between cats does occur, though, first of all because not all cats are awakened and a high percentage of their population is actually regressed.
Another cause for combat is the custom of duelling, where scores get settled through a form of ritualized one-on-one confrontation involving intimidation, possible claw combat and a lot of hissing, spitting and bristled fur.
Note that most simians are not that strong as opponents because awakened cats can usually easily fool them, as opposed to other awakened cats…
What’s the tone of the game? Fun feline antics or sombre commentary on the state of humankind?
It can be both! It’s really up to you how you want to approach the game: while the game setting and lore as written features some pretty dark undertones (we’re talking about humans being but mere pawns, manipulated during their own entire history), with a lot a somber dealing and wheeling, groups who play at conventions, at home or online often naturally tend to do so in a fun and light-hearted way. You can totally play Cats! The Conspurracy without drawing heavily from the deep lore to keep a lighter touch, or you can do an entire campaign with high stakes. In the actual play series, A, our gamemaster, strikes a really good balance between the backstory (the plot’s implications and consequences are pretty heavy) and a fun, humorous tone. The players’ delivery is fantastical in that regard, with a lot of fun (and puns) around the table.
That’s a balance we’ve also strived to find in Maxime Teppe’s beautiful art throughout the book, as well as in the 8 adventures written by author Vincent Mathieu in the core book. It was important to us to provide players and GMs alike with a broad available spectrum from which to set their game’s tone!
The core rules come with three Councils of cats: Paris, Los Angeles and Plymouth. I have friends in Plymouth, so with respect to the city, why did you pick two great cities like Paris and Los Angeles and partner them up with the quaint English seaside settlement?
Eheh… :) There is a very good reason for that!
Paris is the default setting for Cats! The Conspurracy, which initially came out to critical acclaim and commercial success in 2022 as a French game. While designing the English version of the game, we wanted to not only translate it but also adapt it for an international audience. Los Angeles was a natural choice for a West Coast setting, but Plymouth on the East Coast certainly is a more surprising choice. Plymouth, MA happens to be where the Mayflower pilgrims who later founded what would become the United States established themselves, and that is where the cats who came with them ended up founding their first American Council as well.
While the humans eventually moved their economic and political power centers to over metropolises on the East Coast, the cats remained because eh, it’s comfy up in the attic of the Harlow Old Fort House!
From a game designer’s perspective, it also made sense for us to provide the players and GMs with two distinctive settings with different flavors: a bustling, modern big city on the one hand, and a more traditional, quieter seaside resort on the other.
(Editor’s note – I was wrong. It’s not Plymouth, England, but Plymouth, USA. That makes sense!)
How long do you think it’ll take to hear rumours of psychic cat conspiracies being discussed on real-life social media?
That has already happened, as you can imagine! But the Council dispatched some of their best feline agents to make sure the truth does not surface…
During the various promotion campaigns we had for the game’s French version and sourcebooks, we did rely on the fun and viral factors of combined cat memes and crackpot conspiracy theories, but we did not expect those to be THAT efficient… with waaaaaay too many people taking things waaaaaaay too seriously.
It was like we’d unleashed some unsuspected force hidden deep within the algorithms. It was somewhat fun to experience, and a bit scary at times… just like a game of Cats! The Conspurracy!
Cats! The Conspurracy Kickstarter
The first 72 hours get backers some bonus Cats PDFs, but the campaign will run all the way up to Valentine’s Day on February 14th. The goal of €10,000 has already been made, and Cats! looks to be a success!

Backers can support the project Outside the early bird tiers by sharing it on social media or pledging money. Those who pledge €25 or more, about £21, get a PDF copy of the game as a reward.
We won’t see what replaces the early bird tiers until later, but the early bird €45 is enough for the print standard edition, stretch goals and access to both add-ons and the pledge manager.
At €70, backers get the Collector’s Edition of the hardback, plus the PDF and the stretch goals as before.
Alternatively, the €80 tier gets backers the GM Screen and standard edition of Cats! The Conspurracy! plus the access and digital bonuses.
That means the €115 tier, which is about £97, unlocks a print copy of every available book and includes the GM Screen, Favor Card Deck and Paws and Effect: The Tail Continues. There’s a retailer tier; otherwise, the current top of the scratching pole is the €265 tier, which adds the Collector’s Edition as a bonus to the tier before. It also adds the official Cats! The Conspurracy dice, dice tower and dice tray.
The expected delivery of physic cats is in June this year.
Quick Links
- Kickstarter: Cats! The Conspurracy
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