Scimitar Cats in GURPS

Scimitar cats were large prehistoric cats that lived in Asia, Europe, Africa, and North America during the Miocene, Pliocene, and Pleistocene. They were powerfully built, narrow bodied, with long front limbs and relatively short hind limbs and lynx-like bob tails. These cats likely hunted in groups, and there is evidence that they primarily targeted large prey.

Scimitar cats are famous for their large canine teeth, which give them their common name. Unlike the related saber tooth cats, the teeth of scimitar cats were made for cutting rather than stabbing. They were likely more robust than the teeth of saber tooths, but were still likely only used against soft targets like the throat and abdomen. In game terms, they have an armor divisor of 0.5 which is ignored if the only armor is skin - but not if the cat bites against a bony part of the body such as the skull, face, chest, or vitals.

There were several species and genera of scimitar cats.

• Homotherium was a lion-sized cat from the Pliocene and Pleistocene of Africa, Eurasia, and North America. It is commonly associated with the remains of juvenile mammoths, perhaps indicating that these made up much of its diet.
• Machairodus is a genus from the late Miocene of Africa, Eurasia, and North America.
• Miomachairodus lived in the mid Miocene of Africa and Asia.

Back to Felines