Tales of Equestria - Thoughts

Last week, I created Icewind, a Pony Character for the Tails of Equestria, the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic RPG.  I have a few thoughts about the game as a result.

First, character creation is quick.  It took longer to write the explanation for my decisions that to actually make Icewind.  Considering that the game is aimed for the target audience of /MLP:FIS/, this is a plus.  It lets new players created a character and get right to playing.  The language is direct but still fits the source material.  Players who want to start at the level of the Cutie Mark Crusaders have that option, too.

While the mechanics are simple, they are flexible.  I could easily hack the system for a fantasy setting in at least two ways.  The first would have the different pony types changed to different fantasy races.  Earth ponies become dwarves, unicorns become elves, and pegasi become humans.  The other option is to map classes to the pony types, with earth ponies becoming warriors, unicorns becoming spell casters, and pegasi becoming rogues.  The only fix I need to make is changing the pegasus' inate ability from Fly.  Humans would get Adaptable instead while rogues would get Sneak.  Everything else in the game remains the same.

Tails of Equestria also encourages team work.  Tokens of friendship are the game's drama point mechanic, but other players can toss in theirs to help out.  After all, everything is easier when friends pitch in to help.  Even when a task looks impossible, enough friends helping gets the job done.  The message isn't quite heavy handed, but it comes close, but, again, it mirrors the source material.

I am impressed by Tails of Equestria.  The mechanics are easy enough for a young gamer to learn and robust enough to cover a wide ranger of actions.  It wouldn't be difficult to give Icewind a magical snowball attack; the Stun Ray talent can easily be renamed and given a new special effect without having to change what it does.  The game also includes stats for the Mane Six, so players can take on their roles if they want.  Not every creature that has appeared in the series is in the book, just enough for the introductory adventure, but the Beastiary of Equestriawill have more.  /Tails of Equestria/ is a good introduction to tabletop role-playing games.

Friday, the serial hiatus continues with a Project Natasha entry.
Also Friday, over at Psycho Drive-In, Thunderbirds.
Saturday, over at The Seventh Sanctum, Rocky & Bullwinkle.