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Yeah, yeah, ridiculous amount of time spent doing absolutely nothing here, but I've been in the middle of a veritable storm of stuff going wrong or demanding immediate attention, and so my ability to actually work on this has been somewhat low. I'm definitely still interested in finishing this up and getting the "Advanced Puzzles And Ponies" system out.

I will admit, part of the reasons I've been stalling is due to the difficulty of getting proper mechanical feedback. Most of my usual locations for "Hey, check out this homebrew!" seem to have an immense distaste for ponies, so I've been working on stripping the fluff from the mechanics and posting it at some point. Still, from the playtests (and near-weekly games) I've been able to take a look at what needs to be improved, changed, and otherwise messed with in order to make this a better game.

Which brings me to the final part; I could definitely use some help with this. I've gotten some resources half-done, but I'm beginning to realize that my initial goal (putting out a decent .pdf with the rules, character sheets, a couple scenarios, and a sample adventure) wasn't put in a proper timeline. So, if anyone wants to help, send me a message, or note, or whatever they're called. Right now, I can use anyone willing to do playtesting, generate new mechanical content, help with layout crap, or otherwise wants to help out making Puzzles and Ponies better.

So, let me know, and I'll keep things going!

Finally, Derpy is the best pony ever, and anyone who says otherwise is a cold-hearted fool incapable of feeling love or laughter in their hearts.
  • Listening to: Nordman
  • Reading: 2nd Edition Planescape
  • Watching: Archer/My Little Pony
  • Playing: Puzzles and Ponies
  • Eating: Kebab, again
  • Drinking: Coffee
Well, not too much to report over here. Playtests are going fairly well; I've run a couple more games with the intent of breaking the system and finding areas that need improvement. Things are holding up fairly well in the test games, surprisingly enough.

I'll be the first to admit it's rather easy to purposely break the game. Simply min-maxing your character for a specific situation is not only easy, it's what I've seen a lot of players do. At the moment, the advanced system is being built to deal with this; there's an actual HP system, as well as skills. Right now, my group is attempting to balance it, but this takes a lot more work than the simple rules-light system that we've got right now.

Character sheets are progressing nicely; I've got a vague template built at the moment, and I'm waiting for permission to use the art. They're not the best-designed things out there, but I figure the first release of the book won't be that impressive, as there's currently a one-person dev team with maybe six real playtesters.

Right now, I'm going to get back to smoking and trying to finish some of the location supplements. They won't be up any earlier than Monday due to travel times, but I figured you guys would like a bit of information on what's happened this week.

The new NPCs are up, including the remainder of the main caste as well as Spike, Big Macintosh, and the Great and Powerful Trixie, as those three were the most likely to be used in various games. As a note: there is no statistical difference between male and female ponies at the moment, although this may change depending on development.

As always, thanks for reading and I hope that you've managed to play a game or two.

Guild Pawn
  • Listening to: Alex Skolnick Trio
  • Reading: Paranoia sourcebooks
  • Watching: Ugly Americans
  • Playing: Puzzles and Ponies
  • Eating: Cigarettes (Smoking counts as eating, right?)
  • Drinking: Coffee
Well Puzzles and Ponies followers, this should be an interesting week.

As mentioned on /co/, I've already run the sample adventure that I've been working on writing for a while, and I've got a list of tweaks that need to be made to the writing, as well as complaints about the system so far. I'll be taking some time to actually work on this during the week, which should mean some useful new content before Friday.

Unfortunately, due to system troubles, I'll only be releasing these items as journal entries for the time being. Normally, I build the screen shots on my home system, but I'm stuck on my travel system at the moment, so there's not too much I can do. Hopefully, this will give me more time to actually kludge together a couple of .pdfs, however, so there may be even better content before too long.

As for the game test; it went rather well. My seven year old niece, whose English is best described as 'limited', seemed to understand things after they were explained, and had a lot of fun 'pretending ponies', as she called it. Children can get this game, so I'm assuming my average follower should have no illusions about the difficulty of play. Some basic addition, subtraction, and imagination are all you need at the moment.

Due to the filters in the area I'm accessing the internet from, I'm also unable to visit /co/ and post updates, so if someone is willing to link people to this page on occasion (usually whenever an update of consequence is posted), I'd be very grateful. I'm waiting to link from /tg/, simply because the culture there has turned rather hostile as of late, and I'm more likely to get "hurr durr ponies sage" than critiques of the actual system at the moment. Perhaps when the grimdark update is ready.

For current statuses:
- NPC listing is mostly done, to be updated in a journal post
- City detailing (Stalliongrad, Hestavik, Coltarado, and Detrot) are being worked on
- Character sheets are being designed
- Advanced Puzzles and Ponies (More complex combat, new statistics, equipment) is being playtested

As always, feedback and people willing to help with the design are always appreciated.

Stay classy,
Guild Pawn
  • Listening to: Nordman
  • Reading: Rules, over and over again
  • Watching: Computer screen
  • Playing: Puzzles and Ponies
  • Eating: Some sort of cheap pastry
  • Drinking: Cheap champagne
Seeing as some people might want a few ideas for what they can play in a game based around being ponies, here's a list that will likely make it into the final release of Puzzles and Ponies. Simply roll a 20-sided die and consult the table for your lovingly-crafted idea! Most of these ideas were made by me, but some of them are reworked suggestions from /co/.

1 - Mysterious creatures are eating all of the apples during the night! You'd better stay up late and check out what's going on.

2 - Twilight Sparkle needs a book from an old library. The only problem is, the only map to the place is missing pieces!

3 - Somepony's been re-arranging the flowers in the town square. It's up to you to solve this mystery!

4 - Rarity needs someone to help organize a gala. Track down ponies for modeling work, arrange refreshments, and find a place to hold it.

5 - Princess Celestia is coming for a visit, and you need to think of something interesting to do for her

6 - Pinkie Pie has discovered caffeine. Solve this problem before she vibrates out of reality.

7 - Applejack needs help building a new barn.

8 - A plague of butterflies has settled on the town and has no intention of leaving. Convince Fluttershy to speak with Rodolfo, the Largest Butterfly

9 - Ponies have been turning invisible for some reason! Try and figure out why it's been happening

10 - A large diamond is in a museum nearby. A mysterious pony claims it was stolen from her, and the museum authorities won't give it back. Heist-like antics ensue!

11 - There's been an accident at a nearby diamond mine and several ponies are stuck below ground. The ponies must help rescue the trapped ponies, help heal the injured, and find out what caused the collapse.

12 - One of Celestia's cartographic expeditions has been lost in the nearby mountains. The ponies need to help find the lost expedition and figure out why they disappeared.

13 -  A Royal Envoy has come to town and requested a survey of the local plants and animals. The ponies need to find the reclusive plant specialist, Aloe Very, and get her to agree to help.

14 -  A recent flood has taken out the bridge into the village. The ponies need to help repair the bridge and figure out what caused the flood.

15 -  There has been a troll living along the path to the town who has been charging a toll for those who pass by. The ponies must convince or force the troll to stop before a big festival comes to town.

16 - A disease threatens to ruin the harvest this year. The ponies must find out what the blight is and how to cure it before the entire harvest is lost!

17 -  Ol' Scruffy, the manager of the Ponyville General Store, is about to retire. The poniess have been asked to plan a celebration for his retirement.

18 -  A pony has gottne very sick after wandering too far into the Everfree forest. The only pony that knows how to cure this rare illness is a long journey away, and the ponies must decide how best to get there before the sick pony expires.

19 – The Great and Powerful Trixie has come back to town, begging for some help in solving a crisis in a nearby town. Is she honestly looking for help, or is this just a trick where she can take all the credit!

20 – Derpy Hooves, the local mailmare, has approached the ponies with an unusual request; help her recover the mail from a mysterious creature that's stolen it. Prepare for an adventure beyond time and space as Derpy's strange directions remove the ponies from this dimension and on a bizarre psychedelic journey.
  • Listening to: Seinfeld
  • Reading: Rules, over and over again
  • Watching: Seinfeld
  • Playing: Puzzles and Ponies
  • Eating: Pyttipanna, as soon as I'm done with this
  • Drinking: Water
This whole idea started as a bit of a joke. Someone asked what a good system to play a tabletop game set in the world of Lauren Faust's new show "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic", and after a few joking suggestions, including Don't Rest Your Head and Dark Heresy (Because ponies need the critical hit tables!), a helpful man decided to write a short pony RPG based on the MicroLite system.

When I read it, I noticed that there was a pretty big emphasis on combat, as that's what MicroLite is designed to handle best. It felt a bit too much like D&D to me, so I decided to take a crack at it one night when I was sick and tired of working on a paper.

The system evolved out of Drunken Bear Fighter, an incredibly short and amusing game floating around on the internet. I expanded the rules a little bit, and started development. The initial version ended up being playable, but I quickly saw that players wanted a little bit more complexity than the simple, super-light version that I had created. I've been improving it ever since.

This account is meant to give a central place to store all the iterations of the game, and allow other people to look at it, critique it, and toss out ideas. It's also easier to have a nice, central place for everything.

It's not meant to be super-complicated. In its current incarnation, this game can be picked up by young kids and give them an introduction to role-playing. All the materials needed for a game can be harvested from existing boardgames and your imagination.

Updates on the Pony RPG:

There are now two distinct versions: the basic game, and ADVANCED PUZZLES AND PONIES. The basic game is just that; the original image released by me and in the gallery.

AP&P, however, adds a whole slew of new options. Included are:

- A newly-created combat system and a new stat, called Spirit, used like HP in other games
- Rules for playing Zebras, Griffins, and Young Dragons
- Rules for starting the game as fillies without cutie marks
- Re-written text and better explanations of how experience works

Items currently being considered and developed:
- Character sheets for AP&P
- Statistics for important items and bonuses
- A sample adventure that has you solving a mysterious mystery with the help of friendship
- Several sample NPCs

As soon as I've finished playtesting some more of this stuff with my regular group, I'll try and get things into a short pdf, as it's getting too long for a single image. If anyone wants to help with art or layout, it would be appreciated, as a blank pdf would be boring, and I would feel wrong pulling random art from the internet.
  • Listening to: Trance
  • Reading: Rules, over and over again
  • Playing: Puzzles and Ponies
  • Eating: Some sort of kebab I picked up earlier
  • Drinking: Water