Alpha Release and Forking Idea

So, we've finally gotten to the point where we feel that the rule set was worthy of releasing to /tg/ and /co/ to see if anyone would be interested in a My Little Pony RPG and if we could get some feedback on the rules. The response was rather...mixed. The /tg/ thread was flooded with sages trying to kill the thread (in actuality, it helped keep the thread alive) along with a boat load of spam calling for me to be banned. Although, overall there were some good comments and a few heartwarming ones as well.

One pony presented a really good argument on making combat a less viable option and instead make it so the players would be constantly trying to find ways around straight combat because it puts them at a huge disadvantage. We liked this idea, although that doesn't exactly fit in the grimdark setting we were working with, which spurred the initial development of this RPG. Tossing around a few ideas, we've begun to look into the idea of forkink the project into My Little Pony: Grimdark edition and My Little Pony: Happylight edition, with the first being focused on darker, roll-playing experience and the latter being more consistent with show plot and social interaction.

Thus far, we think that for Happylight will be using another free and lightweight RPG which focuses more on the social aspects of RPGs and would lend itself pretty well to an RPG about ponies having sleepovers and the like. Although we need to work through a group of rule sets to see what we could make work and what'll lend itself most to making the Happylight version of My Little Pony. If you know of an RPG which you think will work well for this, then tell us in a comment!

Cleric and Paladin Fluff!

One of the core classes available to Unicorns is the Cleric, who in generic RPGs is a person of faith who follows the rules of their faith and tries to further their Deity's goals. In the My Little Pony universe, there aren't a large host of Deities to pull from, so instead we decided that Clerics would be dedicated to the concept of harmony and friendship and attempt to spread that where ever they travel. We've been debating if the clerics are loyal or worship the Princess, but paladins are looking like a strong class to have loyal to the Princess.

Not much thought has been given to evil clerics, as evil clerics aren't available in Microlite 20. More accurately, there aren't shadow spells which would distinguish the two. Although their faith would consist of strife and selfishness and their alignment and actions would reflect that. Maybe at one point or another we'll write up an addon rule set that'll bring more distinction to evil clerics.

Paladin fluff is a bit different from clerics, both from being a mix of cleric and fighter and being available to ponies instead of unicorns. My personal favorite bit of fluff deals with how a paladin draws their power from their dedication to the Princess and the State instead of harmony and friendship specifically. The conflicts and interesting scenarios available from this fluff are numerous, although I can't wait for my group to see a paladin regiment marching from the capitol in all their shiny gold plate armor, with shined hoofs striking the ground in a precise, rhythmic march.

On the progress of editing: PDFs still suck to edit and we've been working on fleshing out the crunch and fluff before we'll release the system.

The Beginning of Ponydom! The RPG!

With the debut of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic, a couple interesting ideas for RPG campaigns were tossed around. The most amusing being a hardcore grimdark campaign, which I pitched to a few friends of mine and we decided to play it out. The setting: A month and a half after Nightmare Moon has interrupted the Sun Celebration and Twilight Sparkle and her friends left Ponyville to try and stop her. The never-ending night has not yet let up and Equestria was not prepared for the loss. Without sunshine, crops quickly died off and almost all food production has stopped and marshal law went into effect with heavy rationing of all food supplies. Rumors of sunshine and food being present at nearly all distant areas and whispers of the tension between gryphons and ponies rising. Some say that the Princess' adviser, and acting ruler, has begun to assemble a standing army, although to what end?

This setting has a lot of potential and also spreads out the original conflict from the first two episodes. The main modification to the show is lengthening the time it takes for Twilight Sparkle and her friends to reach the elements of harmony (travel distance greatly increased and potentially harder to track down? )

Doing a bit of research, we found a free and simple d20 system that we've begun to modify to fit into the Friendship is Magic universe, and it feels like it has a lot of potential. The first brief session went pretty decently, all of it was role playing with no combat, as the setting was introduced and the party got together and pretty much started to set out on their adventures. Our party consists of two pony fighters and a unicorn cleric from Ponyville. All of the advice I have ever gotten on DMPCs is to not do it, but two pony fighters alone in a party would probably be a bad idea, so I whipped up a unicorn cleric to help keep them alive.

Hopefully within the next few days we'll be able to release the first iteration of the rule set. We have the fluff mostly nailed down, although several core concepts are being batted around. That and we haven't dealt with any of the crunch in game yet. Although right now I'm learning how much I hate PDFs and attempting to edit them.