My Little Pony LI: FE

[SiuiS]

And if narrative casualities always says "screw you" then nothing you ever do ever matters in the first place, so why bother?

If nothing matters but how you acts nd who you are, then who you'd re and how you act matters. Saying there are no rules so bad stuff isn't bad any more is just proof you're not on my team in the zombie apocalypse. All things being equal, do the right thing is a much better way to go about it.

But I, personally, don't believe that, anymore than I believe that all the preportedly unkillable concept personifications (e.g. Unicron, Galactus, most demon lords blahblahblah...) that continuously spout off about how they can't be defeated are really unkillable.

Yeah, those are a matter of interpretation. I'm "unkillable", in the same way the doctor is. Each time I am destroyed, I come back. Or something comes back that is A) similar enough to think it is and register as me, and B) remembers enough to be sad about the transition.

I've actually "died" a lot recently... It's terrifying. You wake up stronger, better, and no longer fully yourself. I used to be a paladin. Lawful, good, naive, small world view. State-scale power at most. Then a high Archon, basically a solar Exalt. Then an archmage. Then... Well, on down the line. The amount of time I spend sadly pining for what I once was, the values I once held is staggering. Downsides to eternity, I suppose. First world problems.

It's my signature because I know how important proofreading is

And a Darn sight dissapointing it was that you know this.

OK, first of all I'll accept your premise that power = magical death beams, even though other forms of power (political, economic, etc) are often more interesting to write about although not germane to this particular topic.

I agree completely. My statement was that the universal understanding Of power was expressed in laser, not that it's accurate. I hate the concept. But seriously, show me an example.

It's a bias I am aware of but cannot truly shake.

The idea that the pony with less power can never win a fight is over-simplistic

And wasn't mentioned, actually. It was a more drastic "the pony who picks flowers wot win against the pony who emanates a lethal lightning aura". A purposeful exaggeration.

as if the two combatants were just comparing a single factor and the one with more of it wins automatically.*

Who wins depends on tactics, psychology, discipline, and even what "winning" means to each combatant. So if even if Celestia is 50% stronger or whatever than Luna, if Luna can goad her into a running battle that takes her away from something Celestia is supposed to be guarding while an Earth pony with a power level of 0.2 sneaks in and hits the self-destruct button, Luna wins.

Even in a toe to toe fight, two fighters can have different criteria for what they call a win. See: Rocky.

I agree. That's why my "power base" is about knowledge, and using it. There's always a way to outsmart someone, make them look bad and lose their cool. My thus-far final evolution has even as an internet troll >_<

What do you mean not that kind of-


Ooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Hehe.

If that's your response, I'll have the guild leave you be.

I see the "FE" on the title name, and I think it means "Friendship Express". *I don't know. *I hate, hate, hate acronyms, so one that's never used becomes my ultimate pet peeve.

I have no news really, except that a fellow MMOC brony and awesome artist Valcron/Dreatos(I think is his name on DA) has a new Tumblr. Fans of Calvin and Hobbes should enjoy it

http://twilightandsmarty.tumblr.com/

LI:FE. Love interests: for Everypony!

wait, that's an acronym?
what in equestria for?

Well, it's not a word.
You young'ns and your skimming.

Me too. I... ummm... *Ninja Vanish*

I never got the the whole "ashamed o myself" thing that's jokingly thrown around here. Hel, I want to draw what amounts to pony smut, I just don't have the refined sense of composition yet. And I feel it being a family legacy is sufficient reason.

Actually for some reason I think Flix (or maybe Flick) would be a really cool name for somepony, though probably not the Shadowbolts. I might have a different use for it

we learned at bronycon that "flick" is a swear in the same way most people use "buck", because having some pony flick your horn is flicking annoying!

Aaaaanyway, I just got out of a livestream with my friend Angie Cakes, and she drew some great stuff that I feel like sharing :3

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And this one is based on my own oc!

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Speaking of which, here he is! My alchemist pony! Two versions because I'm still not sure which colour scheme I prefer.

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And I can't think of a good name for him, so he is currently just Dr. Havoc. Anyone got any good names for an alchemist? :I

Love the art style! What tools and program does she use? Could you bother her about brush settings for me?

What time is it? It's quotepost time!

Woo!

I agree with everything you say here. But I also don't think that magical beam wattage alone is a valid metric for power-in-general.

I whole-heatedly agree and would assign you right this instant as Prime Minister if you could possibly show me a valid counter-metric that is not Bigger Beams or a poorly established notion of difficulty.

It's a good metric for blowing-you-up-with-magical-lasers-power, but power comes in many forms that are difficult to compare to each other. A strait up fight only measures combat prowess.

And the childrens all think that's what power is.

Depends on the kind of magic. In the kind I prefer, the scope and power of magic is limited not by physical restraints, but narrative ones. Narrative Causality, conceptual proximity, that sort of stuff.

That's motto say finding a Discord-in-space is easy, though. No. The effor is monumental. But it won't take a bajillion years if at all, which is where the assumed sense of relative ease comes from.

And maybe I came off a little hard there. Sorry.*

But I do think it's a little unfair to call it OOC when many authors (I at least) put a lot of effort into staying true to the characters and the setting, to specifically not be OOC even if it's a different genre and different tone than the show.

This is unfortunately one of those topics where I sound like a sociopath if I get into it deep enough.

You tried. Good! One gets credit for trying. you do not get credit for succeeding just by tryin though. Oh no. You get that by succeeding. That's the only way.

Effort put in is not always important, and when we are measuring the success of the end result (which we are), then it doesn't matter if you bent over backwards, got divorced and lost your job in the process or if you sneezed and it was accidentally a masterpiece.

Now, if you work against type, and you do succeed, you get bonus points for overcoming the handicap of making something that, by formula should be OOC, actually work As IC. Credit where it's due.

Quaver's story is getting told in the Bridle Shores RP (or at least, I started telling it ... or rather, it was getting told, until I put everything on hold to work on the RiM RPG)

Stars an Fire!
Ah well. Bridle shores eludes me. I do not have a character who could interact with them, except in the grimdark parts and then it would just be a contest of egos between me and the other self-styled gods quad members.

One of these days, one of my plans to strip myself of power an start anew will succeed, Damn it.

Painting a symbol on a changeling's butt does not a true cutie mark make. Even if the paint is magic.

You just couldn't get it to work, huh?

"Just once I'd like to be kidnapped by something that doesn't have a crush on me."

As you wish.
Eventually.

"WHAT, CANTERLOT IN RUINS!?" Luchadore Mask raises a hoof to the sky, "I SWEAR UPON MY SECRET TECHNIQUE TO FIND THE ONE RESPONSIBLE BOFFINSPARK AND HEADLOCK HIM INTO SUBMISSION!"

You will work this into the ATG somehow or I shall be cross with you.

Err, what year is it? I am utterly sure I saw repairs going on last time I was here.

I'm pretty sure by now they have Royal Capitals stashed all around Equestia, in case of Royal Capital emergencies.

Back to the part where I ask everyone for GMing tips; I know Thanqol's mantra that successful RP's are made or broken during the character creation stage. I'm thinking of starting recruitment soon, even though the RP is at least two months off, just so we can have a bit of a discussion around character types and how the group may work together.

Am I jumping the gun here? (Also, is anyone else interested? )

I'm not having much luck identifying potential quests and things. I keep tossing around ideas but just thinking "Well, it really depends on what kind of ponies these are"

As food for thought, have a poem I found that I think I'll use as part of the OP for the game;

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I read within a poet's book
A word that starred the page,
"Stone walls do not a prison make,
Nor iron bars a cage."
Yes, that is true, and something more:
You'll find, where'er you roam,
That marble floors and gilded walls
Can never make a home.

Your poem honestly made me tear up. Good show, wee beetle.

I'm*Having a slow time making it through the rules, because doing ANYTHING ELSE resets the app to page one.

THANQOL. PAGE 2 OF THIS THREAD, POST 39, TOPAZ'S TARDY GAME POST. IT IS LISTED THERE.

I have Starry Notions worked out, kind of. Enchantment doesn't seem to be a viable pony thing, nor the usual techniques he uses.

Thistle Ponisdottr is slated for a creation, but she shares traits with both Pegasus and Earth ponies.

Starry has been considered just for completeness, but likely wouldn't see play.

The Pony PbP game I've been wanting to participate in for so long that I got fed up and decided to try running it

As for the pitch, it comes in varying levels of cheesy depending on your appetite. From least silly to most;

• It's an adventure/journey trip about trying to find your way home set in the wider MLP verse and tone of fics such as "Dangerous Business", "Off the Edge of the Map" and "One Last Quest". Making liberal use of the Where the World Ends wiki.
  
  
• It's a story about the small decisions that, thanks to simple fate, sometimes have an impact that vastly dwarfs our expectations.
  
  
• It's a story about four ponies, stranded on the far side of the world, who might find that getting home is very different from going home.*
  
  
• Travel the world, meet interesting people, save and/or destroy Equestria in the process.

That last one sounds about right in the immediate future. The first and second form Starry Notion's zeitgeist.

I'm actually interested, particularly if it's a more serious take. Depends on a number of things, particularly other players, but put me down as interested.

Serious, RiM might not quite be. It's possible to be sidelined by no health, but it's also possible to be sidelined by running out of courage or energy - passing out or putzing out. It's more narrative, with a trend towards episodic feel (complete with Letters to Celestia as it's XP mechanic) and a dice system designed to be fairly easy to learn with fascinating permutations.

What would lithium friendship look like? What would iron friendship look like, for that matter?

Iron friendship? *points at Luchadora Mask*

Huh, well, sign me up!


.....Or not. Err, RisM is not realy the bestist system for high adventure. I (enter opinon here) would suggest this as the better system to use in the creation of the adventure's of colorful equines in interesting enviroments. Simple but efficant mechanics are better than barely and mechanics at all.
(end opinon here)*
"cue cheezy smile here"

While Pony Tales would do much better at handling dark or gritty games, as is one I want to try at some point (it exists in my mind as an unapologetic, uncompromising and sharp granite grey, etched with enameled purple and soft red-pink ponies in the fresco style of the storybook, a thing from another age), it is not necessarily better. The rules system in RiM lens themselves more to an easy access game on PbP, faster, looser. I actually thought it would have made a better chassis for your dragon game, just yesterday.

And given how your dragon game has gone, I don't think I want suggestions from ya on a more realistic and "adventurous" system. I'd like one bright, shiny game in my PbP roster!

I'll state ahead of time I've got no interest in any system derived directly off dungeons and dragons.

It's not, aside from*Using a d20. Neither is Ponytales, actually. Ponytales struck me as much more a Exalted style of game, without the stunts and awesomeness. It's wait every Lowe magic, gritty medieval game I've ever seen tried for.

Looking over RiM, goodness, they made everything insanely wordy and completely overlooked summaries and examples. I'm trying to pull out enough numbers to make a balance assessment and it's taking ages. Can you give me the short, no words version of character creation and XP costs?

Blastech covered it, but basically it's
"develop concept. Design job and skills to fit concept.

Pick pony type. If earth, pick these abilities. If Pegasus, pick these abilities. If unicorn, see form 32-A sections alpha, gamma an epsilon. Cross reference with Rgng99."

Unicorn magic works pretty much exactly like the arcana, except you don't get much for just one arcanum. You have to combine them. You can also pick Rotes at creation which are independent of your arcana; a forces/prime Mage could start with one mind spell they knew by heart, for example.

The general concept of dice rolling is stat + skill + job + cutie mark + friends + tool for your die bonus. I'm... Not sure what the differences would be if that were changed, honestly. On the one hoof, the designers are familiar with other systems. D&D never benefited from a build-your-own-character (players option being close), an they use willpower with the Hunter add-ons.

But on the other hoof, it's a d20 game, which makes me think it's either geared to be easy or they didn't actually crunch the numbers. It's a system that doesn't benefit from breaking. Or requires breaking, depending on where you set your benchmark.

Other than that, it doesn't seem to be hitting my panic buttons.

May have an idea. Will get back to you.

Heh. Ah well. What we lose in player base we gain in brains for Blastech to pick?