The My Little Ponies RPG!
So it’s been almost 5 years since WotC released the My Little Pony RPG, and I’ve made it all the way to 17th level (my group usually only meets once a month or so).
I am not much of an artist, so I never bothered making a character portrait for my sweet bronie. Luckily, my friend Anna has stepped up to the plate, making character portraits for not only me but also the other PCs in the game! Check out the portraits in her blog for Rory (me), Scott, and Alison.
Notice her attention to detail with our cutie marks!
I dunno, I guess I’m more of a purist. I prefer first edition:
I prefer it because of its
emphasis on exploration. in MLP d20, virtually every room in the Midnight Castle is a combat encounter. In PonyLance, there are plenty of empty or puzzling rooms, such as the Giant Haystack or the room where humans ride ponies. Furthermore, there are robust wilderness rules for exploring Dream Valley.
open endedness. in d20, there are rules for EVERYTHING, so the PM has no real power. In 1e, if the party approaches a gate, the PM adjudicates whether or not they can jump over it. This means the PCs actually have to THINK.
maturity. When I was a young colt playing PonyLance, it seemed really magic and grown-up! The 2005 edition just seemed like designed for people much younger than me.
Most epic comment ever.
Well done.
Yeah ponylance is great if you don’t like having a character creation system! I hope you like Applejack, Spike, Minty, Pinky Pie, Rosedust and Moondancer because there is no way to play any other characters. And sure the RULES came with open ended exploration rules but the MODULES! They were such railroads they should have come with cow catchers. In “Flight to Cloud Castle” there is basically NO WAY to avoid flying to Cloud Castle. And in “Pinky Pie’s Special Day” encounters are keyed off time, not location, so there is no way to alter the order of events. LAME! You ALWAYS find the cake knife taped to the bottom of the cake plate right before the Rainbow of Darkness turns the villagers into Scuttlebugs.
Hi Paul,
Allow me to refute your points:
Emphasis on exploration: Sure, a lot of the modules for MLP d20 are focused on combat, but hardly anyone I know just uses the modules to run adventures. I have a rich homebrewed MLP universe filled with many exciting adventuring locales such as the Crab Apple Orchards, the Butternut Distillery, and the Rainbow Bridge (borrowed from Norse Mythology). It is not uncommon for 3/4 of an adventure to go by just chasing a kite or baking a pony-pie.
Also, in my opinion robust wilderness rules (i.e. charts) just get in the way of the fun of creating and describing your own world to the players.
Open Endedness: How does THINKING enter into some arbitrary ruling over whether the PCs can jump over a fence or not?
You know what’s real THINKING? The tactical decisions in combat and the nitty gritty of character optimization! I’m talking about positioning yourself for a charge with your unicorn horn while also ensuring you stay in range of the cloud you created to water your parched sunflowers. Or making the perfect Pegacorn (a unicorn with wings who can cast awesome spells AND fly).
Also, what the hell is PM supposed to stand for. If you knew anything about MLP you would know that they are called a Stable Master, not a Pony Master. It even says so in the original article: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dd/20060401a What are you, a former PURPS player or something?
Maturity: Dude, the intended age range is 3-7, so of course the writing is going to seem a bit simple. But like other great forms of children’s literature (like Pixar movies), MLP appeals to ALL ages! Also, I grew up on 2nd edition MLP, so I have no idea what you’re talking about.
Sure, the intended range is 3-7, but I never had any trouble reading the original books. I, for one, enjoyed the fact that First Edition was written in Middle English. But I was a bright kid and had memorized Chaucer’s “Almoner’s Tale” by the age of 2. And, to be fair, “Pony Master” and “Stable Master” are both dumbed down translations of the original PonyLance term, the Middle English “Mearhban.”
Furthermore, your optimization comments reveal you to be a roll-player, not a role-player. Maybe you should go back to the PonyOp boards where you belong.
Paul, we live in a postmodern age. The roll-play versus role-play debate is so 1990s.
You sound like you were a bright kid. It’s a shame you grew up to become such a pigheaded adult who can’t admit when he’s wrong and insists on going down with the old creaky sinking ship that is PonyLance (while noble MLP d20 sails on to bolder horizons!).
tl;dr
lol u mad?