Fluff mostly from Clinton’s book. Crunch partly from the Finnish edition of the same, partly original.
The ratkin are a new thing in Near, unknown to histories of Antiquity. They are intelligent like humans, but remain savage and primal like their rodent forebears. Ratkin are generally distrusted by humans who consider them filthy thieves – neither descriptor is completely misleading.
Chaotic collectives of ratkin make their nests in ruins of Maldor, doing their best to understand the civilization humans left behind. They can be fiercely avaricious, all the more so for the fact that they do not understand ownership; as far as the ratkin are concerned, you own only what you can defend.
Players who choose to play ratkin will do well to read the Beastkin material. All ratkin take the mandatory SECRET OF RATKIN as their first Secret.
Ratkin basically look like anthropomorphized rats, complete with tails and whiskers. The shared heritage is obvious to both the ratkin themselves and any outside observer: ratkin speak gutturally, sometimes run on all fours and in general act like overgrown, intelligent rats. About three to four feet tall, they have pointed button noses, whiskers, and are covered in either grey, brown, or black fur, with the occasional albino all-white ratkin.
Perhaps even more striking is the LITTER, the basic social group among ratkin, completely instinctual. A given litter consists of three or four ratkin and ten to twenty normal rats; the young ratkin are only distinguishable by their thumbs and size, being half again as large as their rat kin.
The young ratkin learn from an early age to fight vigorously for everything, starting with their mother’s teat that the rest of the litter would gladly hog if given a chance. The ratkin instinctively know to restrain themselves in their constant scrapping, avoiding serious injury. These instincts carry over to adulthood: ratkin generally own only what they can carry and do not hesitate to fight a bit for whatever they desire.
Even without intelligence acting into it, the litter is fiercely loyal to each other and quite able to engage in real violence against outside threats. A predator attacking a member of the litter is often an offense that is taken more seriously than threats against the individual ratkin himself.
This social structure remains the same for the HORDE, the larger community the litter is born into. The horde might consist of hundreds of ratkin and thousands of rats as long as it remains successful as a community.
Ratkin are most common in Maldor and usually only appear in the environs of the old empire. A partial reason for this is that Maldor is a fertile environment for the bestial creatures: the ancient walled cities that have long fallen into ruin provide an ideal environment for these new beings that thrive among the remains of the ancient culture that came before them. This might make such places dangerous to other people, as in the ruins the ratkin horde truly is at the top of the food chain.
Ratkin are social and curious creatures capable of modeling their life on human culture. Ownership is something they have a great difficulty understanding, however, so it is not uncommon for human societies to ostracize and marginalize ratkin, treating individuals as pests, pets, criminals or worse. This is not true of all human societies, certainly: the people of Khale accept ratkin as natural, and allow them to form tribes that interact with humans on equal footing.
While most ratkin belong in litter communities that have various relationships with humanity, some ratkin end up loners due to ill fate befalling their litter or simply because they like the new, civilized lifestyle promised by going after humans. Such ratkin prove adaptive, working actively to form bonds with any company they meet; a ratkin without a litter is often depressed and moody.
Wild rumors fly in Maldor of ratkin living in the old cities. Some stories elevate albino ratkin above their peers in respect and mysterious powers. It is even said by some adventurers that the Three- Corner Academy of old has fallen to the same sort of ruin, being a nest of pallid ratkin hostile to humans.
Ratkin are considered harbingers of disease by many. One particular disease at least is real, although the ratkin himself would probably not know of it: the SECRET OF TOXOPLASM is contracted by close relations with ratkin, such as drinking from a well they use. Most people of Near would not be equipped to even notice the parasite, but it is known that people who associate with ratkin sometimes turn… strange. Player characters in danger of contracting the toxoplasm might avoid it with an ENDURE (V) check, like any disease.
Should a Maldorite human get over his preconceptions and win the trust of a horde to his side, there are many things the beings breeding in the body of Old Maldor might be able to provide: nobody else knows the old cities as well as the ratkin living in them do – ratkin who gather, compulsively sort and even worship treasures of a civilization that is at this point starting to be as foreign to the modern Maldor as it is to the ratkin themselves.
My experience playing with ratkin was for the longest time that they are a problem, not a solution: it always seems that when you start playing TSoY with a new group, there is inevitably one player who gravitates towards a ratkin (or goblin for that matter) player character over any other option – this always seems to be because that player wants to avoid PROTAGONISM: his ratkin character is a hanger-on with no discernible issues of his own and seemingly no other function in the campaign than to attack squealing vigorously against whoever happens to threaten the real main characters. The ratkin with its humorous appearance and inhuman immunity to human issues is the perfect hanger-on character for the player who couldn’t care less about making a real effort in the game.
This all changed when I figured out that I should not be moaning the fact that some of my friends wanted to play sidekicks; I should embrace it. When you have something like four players in the game, where’s the problem in allowing one or even two to play unabashed sidekicks? Removing ratkin wouldn’t remove this need, and why would we need more than a couple of heroic leads, anyway? Looking at it this way, ratkin are perfect: they’re comedic and sympathetic, can be completely inefficient in messing up the game, and suitably compact to fit in the hero’s backpack. The KEY OF CHEESE is an example of this shift in my strategy: I can support the comedic role actively, and I should.
This is not to say that ratkin can’t be used seriously; they do certainly have many fascinating and serious aspects. I am personally especially fond of their nature as genuinely non-human people in Near, outside the Human Equation and one of the beastkin. I consider it a fully valid thematic challenge to ask a ratkin character to prove that he is actually people and not just an animal, in whatever manner a given campaign would consider such an issue.
I personally like to think that ratkin have spread out from Maldor and mostly appear in there and the surrounding lands, such as Ammeni and Khale. They are a versatile lot, of course, and breed fast, so no place is inconceivable.
However, Maldor and ratkin go together like bread and butter for me simply because the ratkin are such a perfect foil for a campaign situated in Maldor. Players of WARHAMMER of course know what I’m about here: in the world of that game the human Empire (quite reminiscent of Maldor) is being besieged by evil ratkin called Skaven, monsters that come at night from under the floorboards. The ratkin in TSoY are not such a clear-cut evil, but the principle is the same: rigid civilization is being challenged by unbridled savagery that breeds under the very noses of the Lords of Maldor.
A Story Guide can get quite a lot of mileage out of ratkin in Maldor even if no player character initially has anything to do with them: ratkin can feature as members of a revolutionary movement, as barbarians at the gates, as inhuman pests carrying pestilence, as assassins or spies and many other things besides. If nothing else, Maldorian Lords have been known to pay an extermination fee for the pesky critters, which is sure to make for passionate inter-species relations.
I’ve never gotten much out of ratkin in Ammeni; the thing with seemingly sub-human creatures in Ammeni is that they can be enslaved and exploited, but goblins are so much better for that that ratkin are mostly left as pests to be exterminated. This of course makes them natural allies to the slave class of the society, but that’s true of goblins as well. I’ve been told that ratkin with their litter bond make for a reliable slave species naturally inclined to be vulnerable to threats towards their litter-mates, so who knows.
Khaleans, on the other hand, have some resonance with ratkin, as their communal, ancestryfocused culture harmonizes with ratkin nature. A whole Khalean tribe made of ratkin makes perfect sense, insofar as they can adapt to living in the wilderness.
Gorenite highlands, the eastern archipelago and the whole southern continent are relatively inhospitable to the natural strengths of the ratkin. I might have some appear anywhere humans live, but they could hardly be numerous.
The TSoY theory is that non-humans are just as likely to share the mainstream culture as they are to develop their own, depending on conditions. Consequently we get ratkin adopting human names, which might seem funny to humans. A civilized ratkin might well use the second name of their human best friend, for example.
In practice I often find myself using the sort of animal-sounding guttural, punchy names we’ve all learned from Disney and whatnot. Or purely descriptive primitivist names, “Black Paw” and such. Not an issue as far as I’m considered. Sometimes low-Reason ratkin of mine don’t even have a spoken name, as they don’t strictly speaking need it with their litter.
Typical Ability SPECIALIZATIONS for ratkin include climbing, fitting in tight places, wading in filth, practical wits, figuring out strange appliances, pretending servility, empathy, accounting wealth, fighting larger opponents, skulking.
Typical Pool CONDITIONING for ratkin comes from living close to others in trash-heaps, making Vigor and Instinct conditioning natural.
Typical Ability ENHANCEMENTS for ratkin include natural athletism, mysterious moon-blessings, albino weird, adventurous experiences, brutal life.
Typical Ability SYNERGIES for ratkin include their beastly nature to physical skills, litter bond to social skills, hunting with local knowledge.
Typical Ability RETRAINING for ratkin is to make everything instinctual, such as storytelling, speaking, sports and so on. Typical EQUIPMENT for ratkin includes spears, rags, trash, old artifacts, cult implements, animals.
| Litter Bond (I) |
|---|
| All ratkin are highly empathetic towards their litter. This Ability is useful for predicting the actions of the litter and for acting seamlessly to cooperate with it. It may also be used as a social or communicative Ability towards litter-mates. |
| Secret of Ratkin |
|---|
| The character gains a bonus die to any ANIMAL HANDLING (I) checks involving rats. He is also able to communicate with rodents in their own language. His thick fur and claws mean that he takes no circumstance penalties for BRAWLING (V) against an armed opponent. |
| Secret of Rat Companions |
| Ratkin often carry a few friendly rats with them, perhaps members of their litter. The rats in toto are a secondary character EXPERT (2) with stealthy rat-type things. They have one Pool-point, or three if the player has named individual rats or otherwise focused play on them. The rats usually follow instructions, but they scatter immediately under violent attack and only return in the next scene. |
| Secret of Sibling Rivalry |
| Fighting with a member of his litter refreshes the character’s INSTINCT Pool. Any Harm caused by the litter-mates to each other is reduced by the value of the attacker’s LITTER BOND (I). |
| Secret of Curiosity |
| The character can use tools and equipment he found with SCROUNGING (I) instead of the proper Ability, but only as long as he hasn’t figured out the proper use of the tool. |
| Cost: 1 REASON, cumulative per tool. |
| Secret of Resistance |
| The character is highly resistant to toxins and disease. When succumbing to such is at issue, the player may opt to pay VIGOR to turn a failed ENDURE (V) check inconclusive; the character has a slight fever and does not develop a resistance to the disease, but does not suffer any ill effects, either. |
| Cost: VIGOR equal to check difference for opposed checks, 1 VIGOR otherwise. |
| Secret of Rat-Stealth |
| The character has learned to avoid human attention. As long as he stays in hiding and does nothing to attract attention, he has SUPERIOR LEVERAGE against humans in skulking. Doesn’t work against dogs and other creatures more aware of their environs. |
| Cost: 1 INSTINCT per human present. |
| Secret of Bond-Speech |
| The character can communicate with members of his litter with a successful LITTER BOND (I) check (made by both for twoway communication). The communication is incomprehensible or even invisible to outsiders, consisting of small signals. The player may spend Instinct to allow the character to communicate over distance and through obstacles, using a means mysterious to non-ratkin. |
| Cost: 1 INSTINCT per obstacle and 3 for a long distance. |
| Secret of Mind-Speech |
| The character can use BOND-SPEECH with other ratkin and rodents aside from his own litter. Doing so at distance pretty much requires knowing the scent of the target. |
| uirement: SECRET OF BOND-SPEECH. |
| Cost: 1 REASON per target. |
| Secret of Rule-Speech |
| The character can try to force a target of BOND-SPEECH to act against its will. |
| Requirement: SECRET OF BOND-SPEECH. |
| Cost: 1 VIGOR per target. |
| Secret of Toxoplasm |
| The toxoplasm is a parasite living inside a host brain, most likely a human. A character with the toxoplasm is considered ratkin for the purposes of BOND-SPEECH. In addition, the character suffers a penalty die against ratkin in social conflicts. The character might be able to use LITTER BOND (I) after living among ratkin for a long while. |
| Requirement: The character is human. |
| Secret of Albino Weird (Secret) |
| The character is an albino, with white fur and red eyes. He suffers a penalty die for everything he does in direct daylight, due to his sensitiveness. The character also has a weird: in times of stress the character manifests a culture-appropriate magical Secret of the player’s choice; if the Secret requires the use of an Ability, the Ability can be substituted by BESTIALITY (V). If the character learns the Secret in question, swap the weird to a different Secret. The Secret may also be swapped prematurely in a life-threatening situation. |
| Cost: 1 REASON to use, 3 INSTINCT to force the Secret to swap to another one. |
| Key of the Precious |
|---|
| The character is jealous of his possessions, afraid that others will take them at first opportunity. |
| 1xp: Gain a new thing by your skills. |
| 2xp: Fight to gain a new possession. |
| 5xp: Defend your property against theft successfully. |
| Buyoff: Give your possessions away. |
| Key of the Rat King |
| The character’s litter has a very close relationship, to such a degree that they rarely disagree or do anything alone. Their combined force of will makes them natural leaders of the horde. |
| 1xp: Act together with your litter. |
| 3xp: Force others to obey your litter. |
| Buyoff: Break up the rat king. Requirement: KEY OF THE LITTER |
| Key of the Cargo Cult |
| The character lives in a puzzle of a world, trying to figure out what it all means. |
| 1xp: Handle cultural remains. |
| 2xp: Offer a theory for who the people that came before you were. |
| 5xp: Institute a practice emulating the civilization you perceive. |
| Buyoff: Have humans explain it all to you. |
| Key of Cheese |
| The character is something of a comical interlude in the campaign, with considerably less drama to his content than other characters. |
| 1xp: Obsess over or gobble cheese. |
| 2xp: Have funny antics. |
| 5xp: Impress the rest of the group with the poignancy of your comedy. |
| Buyoff: Choose to act humanely. |
| Key of the Litter (specify) |
| The character has a litter, and a litter-bond. |
| 1xp: Disagree with your litter. |
| 3xp: Defend your litter-mate from harm. |
| Buyoff: Leave your litter. |