Homebrew Rat Species Details

The door was the right size for Bruburs, who sashayed through it, black-barred wings tucked daintily against his sides. Little Pollendrop could have walked through with Cherrystone on her shoulders and they’d still have room for another mouse or two above them. Poor Longtail knew, even as she sidled up to the doorway, pulling her ears down and thinking small thoughts, that there wasn’t any chance she’d fit. It was a rat door and rats made things in rat sizes.

“Hold up there!” A rat with curly silver fur and deep red eyes held up a hand and Longtail stepped back from the door. “My most sincere apologies, ma’am, you’ll need to use the big animals entrance around the side.” They held out a neatly printed map with the directions marked in blue arrows. “Your friends can meet you there, I’ll have somebody escort them, since this is your first time here.” He laughed, pink nose crinkling. “Wouldn’t want the little ones lost on their first city visit.”

From the corner of her eye, Longtail saw Pollendrop, who had raised eight children and been a grandmother for years, fold her arms angrily. Longtail ignored her, the rats were nice and they did always seemed to do their best. She thanked the rat and took the map, heading off for the other entrance and marvelling at the height of the city walls.

    — Jackie Estrada, Kingdom of Sand

Although rats aren’t the only short-lived race in animal society it often seems to bear on them more heavily. Where mice find the limitation of their days an enjoyable challenge to see how much they can discover, and opossums cheerfully exist for each moment, rats work to be remembered. This determination drives their innovation and achievements, to the greater benefit of most of the animal world.

A Ratty Range

As with doves, rats have a wide breadth of variety in their colouration thanks to their long history with humans. Their fur ranges from blue-blacks to silvers, browns and even tawny gold and white, in textures from short and sleek to long and crimped. Their size ranges as well, with some weighing a bit more than most doves, or even crows, and others only reach half that size. Their capable hands and feet are bare of fur and almost as nimble as a racoon's. Their long, hairless tails are thick and don’t have the prehensile capability of the opossum or personality of the mouse, though they do add a distinguished air to their gestures, as do their emotive whiskers. Most rats have black or dark eyes, though some rats’ eyes are pink or even a red so dark it appears black. Like mice, rats have shorter lives than some animals but they seem to resent the limitation.

Something For Every Rat

Adaptable and ambitious, rats are driven by a need to make a mark in the world despite their short lives. Though they pour their energies into cities and towns, rats are just as ready to go adventuring. Their abundant nature and eagerness to be a part of things lead rats to a multitude of professions. On a quest or just on the road, a rat can find new ideas and techniques to bring home, while also spreading rat culture to others. Individually and as a group, rats are adaptable opportunists, and they stay alert to changing political and social dynamics to better take advantage of a situation. Whether by individual action by building and inventing, or through the preservation of family tradition, rat culture ensures its memory is long-lived, even if individuals are not.

AN OPINION FOR EVERYTHING

Naturally gregarious, rats have integrated themselves into almost every aspect of animal society. Their ability to squeeze their way into anything, either literally or through talk; combined with their capable hands and strong backs, has earned them places of surprising prominence. Although, as with all animals, behaviour varies by individual, there is a general rat opinion on other animal races, for whom they hold some pity for not being rats.

Crows. “They’re our eyes in the sky and can be relied on, thanks to those memories of theirs. They sure are mad for taking things apart and talk more than they get done, though.”

Doves. “Awful high and mighty birds, though I’m sure they’ve earned it and they certainly give good advice. What a weird lot, the prissy fancies with their dovecotes and the dirty pigeons, always in our way.”

Mice. “Such little cousins, not very sharp in the tooth when it comes to fighting, but it’s nice to know chaps with hands who couldn’t eat you if they wanted. Great at cooking, pity mice haven’t any real ambition in the lot.”

Family Is A Place And The Place Is Family

With family names synonymous with the places they live, rats tend to consider themselves the keepers and representatives of cities and towns. Doves and crows may watch a city rise and fall, but it’s the rats that bring prosperity or conflict. Even a single racoon, whose feet have walked the same roads for centuries, can’t know a place as well as the multitude of rats who have passed down the traditions and tenor from generation to generation. The possessive nature and pride of a rat in their family home can be off-putting to other animals who live in the same place, but they can’t deny that neighbourhood could hardly ask for better caretakers than rats.

Though rats consider themselves an ideal animal, in general, they are magnanimous creatures who welcome large numbers of non-rats compared to the proportion of rats who live in non-rat areas. That rats often feel isolated from their culture or attempt to project rat expectations onto other animal races when living among non-rats is not a point often raised when rats discuss the animal populations of their cities.

To Leave A Mark With Tooth And Action

Sometimes all too painfully aware of their comparatively short lives, rats are passionate, ambitious and daring. Many great rat works are the result of an attempt to be remembered or are dedicated to the memory of others. More than other animals, rats work for causes rather than territories or groups.

Rat Names

Although rats have family names, they’re often one and the same as the name of the town or city where that family resides. Due to the large size of rat families, it’s assumed the majority of a rat population in a town or city neighbourhood is one extended family. Most rats only use their given name or a nickname chosen later in life.

Similar to mice, rats use object-based names. Due to their integration into the larger parts of the human population, product names and manufactured objects are more commonly used than nature or incidental object words.

Given Names: Bitbat, Cola, Chancla, Duros, Hot Dog, Ginseng, Pipe Doctor, Queso, Rockwool, Ribbon, Snaptrap, Solo, Tape, Timbo

 

Rat Traits

As with all animals it is difficult to make generalisations about rats, but your rat character has these traits.

If You See One

You can melt into the shadows and hide in plain sight easily. In addition, attacks made with a ranged weapon don't reveal your position and dim light doesn't impose disadvantage on your Wisdom (Perception) checks relying on sight.

Ability Score Increase

 Your Strength, Dexterity, Constitution and Intelligence scores increase by 1.

Age

A rat reaches adulthood at the age of 15 and generally lives about 40 years, though their are tales of some rats reaching their 60s or even later.

Alignment

 Rats don't tend to any particular alignment, the individuals of the race ranging between the best and worst that can be found in animal society.

Size

Although rats vary in height and build, your size is Medium. Rats consider themselves the Most Medium of the animals and many contraptions and structures they've built reflect their assumption that their size is "normal," and smaller or larger animals are outliers.

Speed

Your base walking speed is 30 feet and your base burrowing speed is 25 feet. Rats are execptionally adept swimmers and your base swimming speed is 30 feet.

Languages

You can speak, read, and write Common and Rodentia. The Rodentia language is shared with other animals, such as mice, but is rarely shared with or learned by larger animals.