I love Cat people!

No, not that crappy Stephen King movie. I’m talking about the long tradition in Sci Fi of having feline-esque alien races. I have to admit, I have a soft spot for these kinds of species. After a quick internet search, I found a really cool article on this subject over at Tor.com. So, I won’t bother re-listing the ones I know of.

Ok, I will mention David Gerrold’s Morthans (as in “more than human”) from his most excellent novel, Voyage of the Star Wolf, and sequels. Probably among my favorite cat-races.

So, if I’m not going to list them, why bring them up? Because I am making my own, of course! Not that this is something new. I’ve actually made or played cat-races in numerous RPG’s. I remember my very first superhero was for the old DC Heroes RPG back in the 80’s. I made Feline, a dude whose genes were accidentally mixed with his pet cat’s in a freak science accident (pretty standard fare for comics, no?). Feline has been made for every Supers RPG I have ever played to date since then. I’ve also made cat-races for different editions of D&D, and even adapted one from a 3rd party company for use in the Farscape RPG.

And now I am creating one for a Sword & Planet story I am working on. This one is inspired by the cover of the April 1985 issue of Epic Illustrated magazine (which I plan to acquire a copy of ASAP). Cat dudes fencing in John Carter fashion, with a hot, mostly naked princess in the foreground. That’s just freaking cool! Weird alien races are a staple of S&P, and its sister genre, Space Opera (Star Wars, anyone?). And I plan to embrace that tradition.

Speaking of Star Wars, in SW: The Old Republic, if you play a Trooper, your first companion is a Cathar soldier.  He's very cool.  And if you play an Empire character, you eventually go to that planet and get to fight a bunch of them.

Anyways, just thought I‘d throw that out there. So, do you have a favorite alien type? What are they?