Many years ago, I invented a character called Zimbar the Tashtoran raccoon. He was a
cute, fuzzy, highly-intelligent six-legged cat-sized avatar of chaos with an almost
prehensile tail. He had very high dexterity, and his skills were Climbing, Dodge, Get
Into Trouble and Get Out of Trouble. (No prizes for guessing his speciality.)
Unfortunately, back then I did not have a good handle on how to GM for such an animal,
and I didn't make nearly as much use of him as I would have liked. But nowadays I DO
have a handle on how make animals into entertaining characters, so I'm going to share
it.

This is a rule-agnostic system than can be readily adopted to any RPG that uses
character skills. It's not a formal system - it's a rule-lite abstraction that tries
to model the kinds of foolish things animals - especially pets - get up to without
taking up too much game time.

Here's how it works:

1. Whatever game statistics and rules animals already have in the game continue to
be used unaltered. These rules don't change anything, they just add some new options.

2. Wild animals' lives are mainly focused around food, mating, survival and guarding
their territories. While they may have the occasional frivolous skill such as Spooky
Eyes in the Dark, Steal Bedroll or Unearthly Shriek, their skills are usually things
like Build Dam, Build Bower, Seduce Mate, Make Honey, Hunt, Stalk, Ambush, Hide and
so on. But as a counterexample, these fozzy bois and gals from Canada have clearly
put a few points into Boogie: https://invidious.slipfox.xyz/watch?v=8CnFo7qinng
(invido.us link to BBC Planet Earth II video - Bears Dancing To 'Jungle Boogie' - click 'Select
another instance' if that link doesn't work for you).

3. Trained animals have skills such as Guard, Push, Pull, Track, Make Honey, Smell
Contraband, Lay Eggs and so on, depending on what they're used for.

4. Pet animals may have skills such as Steal Sock, Go Kerflump in the Night,
Assassinate Plant, Hunger Strike, Get the Zoomies, Shed Hair, Lose Toy, Forget Own
Name, Suspicious Silence, Brand New Smell and so on.

5. A typical animal has 1D6 skills. 2-5 seems to be a good number. Intelligent
animals have more skills at higher levels, stupid animals have fewer skills at lower
levels.

6. Skill levels and target difficulties are chosen by GM fiat.

7. When an animal successfully uses a skill, its skill may go up by a small amount.
If an animal fails at a skill, especially if it keeps failing, its skill may go down,
or it may stop using that skill and start using another.

How to use the rules:

8. GMs should treat the party animals as an ensemble cast, and make 1-2 skill rolls
between them to see what they do during an adventure. Between adventures, the GM
should make another 1-2 skill rolls to see what the critters get up to during the
downtime. PCs may then roleplay in response to the animals as they see fit.

For wild animals, the GM may roll shortly after the characters have encountered the
critter and the initial fight-or-flight response has had time to die down. Wild
animals will usually ignore or avoid sentient creatures, but there are exceptions.
Supernatural animals are likely to have a wider range of responses.

Why bother?

The basic problem these rules try to address is how to get animals, especially mundane
animals to behave more like animals, and actually add a bit of atmosphere to an adventure
when they show up. If an animal only has combat statistics, by the far the most obvious
way to interact with it is to fight it, so that's what most roleplaying groups will tend
to do. But if an animal has a skill such as Howl, or Steal Bedroll, suddenly there's a
broader selection of obviously available behaviours. They key issue is that the new
interactions are readily apparent, because they've got a skill code associated with them,
that the GM can roll and announce. It's totally true that GMs don't NEED to give an animal
skill codes to have it interact with a party in ways other than combat, but it's so much
easier to get a handle on them if they do have some additional means of interaction. I
always felt that animals rarely stand much chance in the face of a typical adventuring
party anyway. That's why mega-monsters like the Tarrasque show up in the first place. But
if there's other ways to interact with them than just combat, good players will relish
those chances, and suddenly even the non-Druids and Rangers have ways to deal with our
furry friends beyond treating them as little fuzzy bundles of XP.

Sample skills:

This skill table was generated as a D36 table (1d6*6 + 1d6-6) for the Star Wars RPG,
but there's easily enough here to make a percentile table instead. The skill names in
the table below should be self-descriptive enough that no further explanation is required.
Vaguely related skills are listed several to a line. This list is nowhere near
comprehensive; GMs are encouraged to invent and add their own new skills. Anyone who has
had a family pet should have a good idea of the kind of things animals are likely to get
up to. The list below was mainly based on the behavior of cats and dogs. Animals such as
birds, horses, insects, lizards, rabbits and rodents will have different behaviors that
aren’t as well-covered. Broader categories such as circus animals, farm animals and feral
critters might also be useful. Perhaps also familiars? Supernatural critters? Paladin's
mounts? Might be fun to have a bit of intra-party rivalry between the wizard's familiar
and the paladin's loyal steed, for example. Look at how Rich writes for Blackwing and Mr
Scruffy already. If Blackwing doesn't have a Covet Shiny Bauble skill or equivalent then
I'm a small off-duty Czechoslovakian taffic warden.

(The Zimbar Table is named in honour of Zimbar, the Tashtoran racoon, who would have
playtested almost all of these, given half a chance.)

The Zimbar Table

1 Adore Item, Fear Item, Hate Item, Romance Item
2 Ambush, Escape, Hide
3 Assassinate Ornament, Destroy Item, Kill Plant, Persecute Droid
4 Be Awesome, Display Butt
5 Beg, Look Pathetic, Excess Melodrama
6 Blackmail Owner, Disapprove of Owner, Distract Owner, Embarrass Owner
7 Block Passageway, Block Vent
8 Burrow, Climb, Dig Hole, Get Muddy
9 Caterwaul, Go Kerflump in the Night, Howl, Make Noise, Sing, Suspicious Silence
10 Cause Noise, Mimic, Cause Smell
11 Claim Ownership, Guard Location
12 Demand Ear Skritches, Demand Food, Lick People, Occupy Lap
13 Eat Inedible Object, Feign Starvation, Gnaw Object, Hunger Strike
14 Escape, Open Door, Operate Mechanism, Trigger Alarm
15 Excrete, Pee, Puke, Sonorous Fart
16 Fight Inanimate Object, Fight Own Leg, Fight Reflection
17 Find New Toy, Lose Toy
18 Forget Name, Ignore Command, Refuse Jump
19 Get Into Trouble, Get Out Of Trouble
20 Get Stuck, Get the Zoomies
21 Hide Badly, Make Nest
22 Hoard Items, Hunt Object
23 Health Scare, Imagine Supernatural, Irrational Fear
24 Lay Egg, Incubate Egg, Reproduce
25 Make a Mess, Make Sticky
26 Midnight Toe Attack!, Steal Sock
27 Release Prey, Sniff Things
28 Sabotage, Throw Rider
29 Shed Collar, Shed Hair, Shed Skin
30 Sleep, Sleep Dangerously, Snore
31 Stare Accusingly, Stare Blankly, Stare Incuriously, Stare Suspiciously
32 Invent New Skill
33 Old Skill Reawakens
34 Roll Twice, Add Both
35 GM Chooses
36 Choose Two Skills and Combine

Sample animals:

(These have Star Wars D6 stats, but honestly, it really doesn't matter.
Skill codes listed happen to be low-medium, generally less than an NPC
professional who would have a value of 4D in their best skill and 2D
in a typical attribute. I still say you could readily adapt this idea
to almost any RPG.)

Cave snapper

Cave snappers are crab-like scavengers found in the caves, cracks and
crevices of Atofor II in Ofita Sector. They are dog-sized critters with
six legs and four vicious pincers which make highly effective weapons.
They are omnivorous, and they’re not above a bit of cannibalism either,
should the opportunity arise. While a couple of cave snappers are not
too dangerous, they become more aggressive in groups, and a pack of a
dozen snappers is a real menace.
Attributes: Dexterity 2D+2, perception 2D, strength 2D+1.
Traits: Orneriness 2D+2 (3D+2 in large numbers), speed 2D+2.
Damage: Pincers 2D+2.
Sample Skills: Call others, creepy echoes, scavenge, scuttle, stalk.

These next three are all tame animals, and are unlikely to bite anybody
unless greatly provoked.

Lt. Commander Lizard – Lantillian pygmy monitor lizard

Lieutenant Commander Lizard (who has recently been promoted) is a pretty
good spacer’s pet. He mostly sits about doing nothing, which is what you
want, really, on a cramped starship. He’s about 60cm long. His
‘orneriness’ is not because he’s bad-tempered; on the contrary, he’s
extremely laid-back, and it’s a challenge to get him to do anything.
Attributes: Dexterity 2D+1, perception 2D+1, strength 1D+1.
Traits: Orneriness 3D+1, speed 2D.
Skills:
Sing War Song: 3D – This is his only skill, and he uses it whenever the
ship is under attack. He plants himself firmly in the middle of the ship
and sings to keep the gunners’ morale up. Perhaps he was a bagpiper in a
past life. The lyrics of the War Song are basically the word ‘Eeeeeeeeee’
stretched out for several seconds at a time, sung in a variable tempo at
medium pitch, with added vibrato whenever the ship makes a sharp turn.

Marnie the Mynock

Mynocks make good pets when they’re small, because they grow very, very
slowly, and it may take 20–30 years before they get big enough to become
troublesome. Marnie has just celebrated her 13th birthday and is about
chicken-sized.
Attributes: Dexterity 3D, perception 2D, strength 1D.
Traits: Orneriness 2D, speed 3D.
Skills:
Gnaw Cable: 3D – Oops, bad Marnie!
Health Scare: 1D+1 – Obviously she’s picked the wrong thing to gnaw more
than once now.
Irrational Fear, Green Things: 3D+2.
Lay Egg: 2D – Technically they’re cysts, if you’re a mynock.

Sample skills for wild mynocks include:
Bask, cause strange ship noises, gnaw cable, lay eggs, lurk. There were
some mynocks in the sample adventure later in the rulebook, and I gave them
skills in Ambush (3D) and Flap Blindly (2D).

Othar – Twi’lek tunnel dog

Tunnel dogs are big animals, resembling a pony-sized cross between a pug
and a Chinese dragon. They have very thick shaggy gray fur and a mostly
friendly demeanor. However, they are highly territorial, and make the most
astounding amount of noise if an unknown interloper intrudes into their
space. Twi’leks have used them as guard dogs for many thousands of years,
and recently some dwarf breeds have appeared that can more practicably be
treated like pet dogs.
Attributes: Dexterity 2D+1, perception 3D+1, strength 3D+2.
Traits: Orneriness 2D+1, speed 3D+1.
Damage: Bite 3D.
Skills:
Block Passageway: 5D – He’s the size of a pony, but he thinks he’s only
the size of a Saint Bernard. He regularly gets stuck trying to turn round
after a snooze.
Hoard Squeaky Toys: 3D – Squeaky toys last about a week before disappearing.
He must have dozens stashed somewhere.
Trigger Alarm: 3D+2 – His constant shedding regularly triggers the low
air flow warning on the ship’s filters.