My Little Pony LXXXIX: Ponythread Perfect! Yaks no Smash!

[Balmas]

Spoiler: I love this crossover

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Spoiler: Then again, they already did it in canon...

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Spoiler: Twice

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Spoiler: Er... Three times.

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[One Tin Soldier]

Wow, the discussion on the thread has really taken off. I'm really enjoying all this d&d setting stuff (and I'm glad that I sorta kicked off this particular bit of discussion). I don't have any additional thoughts at 4 am, unfortunately.

[Forum Explorer]

It does, but I've managed to get mostly over it by now. I remember the good times and keep that in the spot light. Try to move on with just the happy memories and I think the desire to want to GM a full-fledged campaign online here is part of that moving on piece. I think. Well, it feels like the right steps anyway.



So... gotta do The Sending or you get a Final Fantasy X situation?
(But with better voice acting)

*Looks at McNum's post* Haha, so it's not just me thinking that. :3 Not saying it's a bad idea. Just thought there was similarities to those ideas.


Friendship Games stuff

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I know Flash doesn't get much mileage out of this, but it takes a while for personality to show up and he gets like... 2 minutes per movie to do anything? The CMC took a few dedicated episodes to warm up. I did like Flash's snarky remark to the principals about what the school's good at. XD

Glad to hear it. And of course, I'd love to get in on whatever game you end up making.


More like you have to get an eulogy. Or perhaps the ancient greek version of you have to be properly sent off, but it's not exactly a mystical ceremony.

Spoiler: Friendship stuff/Flash stuff

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The problem with Flash isn't his lack of personality, or rather underdeveloped personality. It's Twilight's inexplicable attraction to said personality. Now it's a well established part of Rarity's personality to fall in love at the drop of a fashionable hat, but Twilight? Not so much.

So her attraction to Flash is just...weird. It feels out of character because as far as I know/can tell (I still haven't watched the first movie, I have no desire to do so either) is there isn't really a good reason for it. It just sorta happens. And then it just sort of lingers on.

The relationship itself is underdeveloped, and Flash has received next to zero character development. And honestly, it seems that he's an entirely superfluous character. His role could have easily been dropped in the first one/folded into an expy from Equestria (from what I've heard), and in the second one, I really don't see why he was in the film at all. He could have been removed entirely and the story would have stayed exactly the same.

[Pendulous]

Spoiler: Friendship stuff/Flash stuff

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The problem with Flash isn't his lack of personality, or rather underdeveloped personality. It's Twilight's inexplicable attraction to said personality. Now it's a well established part of Rarity's personality to fall in love at the drop of a fashionable hat, but Twilight? Not so much.

So her attraction to Flash is just...weird. It feels out of character because as far as I know/can tell (I still haven't watched the first movie, I have no desire to do so either) is there isn't really a good reason for it. It just sorta happens. And then it just sort of lingers on.

The relationship itself is underdeveloped, and Flash has received next to zero character development. And honestly, it seems that he's an entirely superfluous character. His role could have easily been dropped in the first one/folded into an expy from Equestria (from what I've heard), and in the second one, I really don't see why he was in the film at all. He could have been removed entirely and the story would have stayed exactly the same.

Spoiler: Not even spoilers at this point

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The only thing Flash and Twilight have ever done is bump into each other, in both movies. No other conversation, no nothing. So yes, what you said is all correct.

"It's not right! It's not a good canon shipping! Twilight's supposed to be dating MY OC!"

[MLai]

So her attraction to Flash is just...weird. It feels out of character because as far as I know/can tell (I still haven't watched the first movie, I have no desire to do so either) is there isn't really a good reason for it. It just sorta happens. And then it just sort of lingers on.

That's not the only regrettable legacy from movie #1, which objectively isn't very good. Sunset's heel-face turn also just sorta happens, and then it also just sort of lingers on. Few ppl question it simply because her new waifu personality is more preferable, and movie #2 was simply better.

[McNum]

PbP are posts on a forum. On the upside, it helps enable roleplaying, as players can take as much time as they need to write out their posts and thoughts. On the downside, it makes things move at a glacial pace, especially combat, and it is a large time commitment to maintain over weeks, months, or years. VTTs mean you schedule a morning/night every week, get together with friends, and game over the internet, much closer to a regular game. Combat is still slower than in person, but it's much quicker than PbP.

Timezones can be handled with a little bit of planning. If Digo started his game at 10am EST, for example, you'd be starting at 4PM or so. Can be awkward at times, but can work well in other cases for people in the other time zones.

Yeah, I was wondering how combat in a PbP game would work at anything but a continental drift pace. There has to be some way to pull that off. At least 5e is rather simple. You get one Action, one Move, and if you have anything that can do it, one Bonus Action, but otherwise not. And things like drawing or sheathing a weapon can be done virtually for free. So an advanced turn could be something like "I cast Thunderous Smite as my bonus, Move to the prone Orc, and use Attack at +5 with Advantage" Then you roll two d20 and if either hits, the weapon damage.

Apparently, 5e has very, very few modifiers. It's just Advantage (2d20 use the better one), Disadvantage (2d20 use the worse one), Weakness (x2 damage) and Resistance (x½ damage), meaning that a player will be able to act without everything needing DM approval beforehand or needing to keep track of a lot of little +1s and +2 here and there. So, basically, this doesn't happen.

And yeah, I'm +6 hours compared to US Eastern here in like Narnia or something. I'm just a night owl. Feels like whenever I'm allowed to my sleeping pattern drifts by two hours daily until I become nocturnal. It gets a bit annoying at times.

[b_jonas]

On S3 E7, Wonderbolts Academy training site:

What's so implausible about a Mesa?

Look at its shape right after the theme song. You only see its shape for a very short time, and it's partly covered by clouds, which is why I missed it before. It's just implausibly high with steep walls compared to its size.

I hear these are banned in the US?

And I hear Nutella is also banned in the US. Sounds like a strange alien land.

Honestly, I feel like it wouldn't need to be a full on ceremony, just the simple act of ponies remembering the deceased, and in their own way acknowledges them, then that's all it takes. A full on funeral, or a group of soldiers pouring out a drink in the memory of their fallen comrades, or even a foal shedding a tear over a lost family member. As long as the deceased is remembered in some way, and its death acknowledged, it will be able to acknowledge it as well and move on. It takes a lot for the ghost thing to happen.

On that note, a catastrophic disaster that wipes out a city would be a huge problem. So many "unsent" (that needs a different word...) ponies, and if a group of ponies affect the world... then a group of ghosts would likely as well. A pony necropolis. That's pretty creepy.

And that is exactly why archeologists like Daring Do and detectives are so important heros. They unearth information about the secret and undocumented lives of deceased ponies, until we know them so well that we can weep for their deaths. This may also be why Princess Celestia and Princess Luna write a diary, so that the part of their lives that the public doesn't know about would be remembered.

[Aotrs Commander]

Apparently, 5e has very, very few modifiers. It's just Advantage (2d20 use the better one), Disadvantage (2d20 use the worse one), Weakness (x2 damage) and Resistance (x½ damage), meaning that a player will be able to act without everything needing DM approval beforehand or needing to keep track of a lot of little +1s and +2 here and there. So, basically, this doesn't happen.

...

...

Yeah, I'm DEFINITELY never playing 5E. Getting rid of bonuses and replacing them with a method that adds more randomisation¹. Under the guise, one presumes, of "simplification." *sigh* You see this sort of thing in bad wargames rules all the time. The emphasis on "make the rules be simple" over "actually consider what the rules are going to do." Gamist over simulationist, too.




¹Yes, more randomisation. Two dice doesn't make it more likely as you're still WELL instead statistics of small numbers issues. Yes, it theorhetically statistically gives you twice as much chance to obtain a result. But as the degree of randomisation increases, the actual spread of obtained results drastically increases. The reason Accelerate & Attack has an average dice table (for 10 to 100) is that I ran an analysis and we discovered that taking the average of the tens and rolling the remainder actually gives you more randomisation than rolling all the dice. But in order to get to that point, you need a large sample size. Two dice is not it.

As a further example, in AccAtt, you can get Torpedoes in Class from 1 to 10. A Class 2 Torpedo does the same damage as two Class 1s, and has the same accuracy. But, in practise, the accuracy is of multiple class 1s in modally much more accurate, since you will roll a lot more dice per round. (Salvos of 3-4 per vessel and 2-3 vessels per squadron is not uncommon.) The same issue applies to Bolts (though they have some other advantages at higher classes). Whereas most other weapons roll one dice per class, Bolts roll one per weapon. Which means that a fleet armed with Bolt 6s is a lot less scary than one armed with Beam 6s, since the former is a very swingy weapon. Sure, it'll hit hard when it does hit... But the chances of you having a bad day and rolling low is much, much higher, since you're rolling six times less dice.

Now, if 5E's system was to give you additional extra D20s instead of modifiers, I could see the point, maybe. (By the time you get to rolling four of five D20, you're actually be making something of a difference.)

But it's a silly trade-off to avoid using basic maths otherwise for "playability."

[Manga Shoggoth]

Don't really pay much attention to cosplaying, but I haven't seen any Sunset before now

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Perhaps it's because I am more used to seeing Sunset as a human, but she really nailed that one. I'm not usually that impresed with MLP cosplay.

...That was me typing the wrong number into the calculator, actually.

Well, that's how I do my timesheet.

[McNum]

...

...

Yeah, I'm DEFINITELY never playing 5E. Getting rid of bonuses and replacing them with a method that adds more randomisation¹. Under the guise, one presumes, of "simplification." *sigh* You see this sort of thing in bad wargames rules all the time. The emphasis on "make the rules be simple" over "actually consider what the rules are going to do." Gamist over simulationist, too.




¹Yes, more randomisation. Two dice doesn't make it more likely as you're still WELL instead statistics of small numbers issues. Yes, it theorhetically statistically gives you twice as much chance to obtain a result. But as the degree of randomisation increases, the actual spread of obtained results drastically increases. The reason Accelerate & Attack has an average dice table (for 10 to 100) is that I ran an analysis and we discovered that taking the average of the tens and rolling the remainder actually gives you more randomisation than rolling all the dice. But in order to get to that point, you need a large sample size. Two dice is not it.

As a further example, in AccAtt, you can get Torpedoes in Class from 1 to 10. A Class 2 Torpedo does the same damage as two Class 1s, and has the same accuracy. But, in practise, the accuracy is of multiple class 1s in modally much more accurate, since you will roll a lot more dice per round. (Salvos of 3-4 per vessel and 2-3 vessels per squadron is not uncommon.) The same issue applies to Bolts (though they have some other advantages at higher classes). Whereas most other weapons roll one dice per class, Bolts roll one per weapon. Which means that a fleet armed with Bolt 6s is a lot less scary than one armed with Beam 6s, since the former is a very swingy weapon. Sure, it'll hit hard when it does hit... But the chances of you having a bad day and rolling low is much, much higher, since you're rolling six times less dice.

Now, if 5E's system was to give you additional extra D20s instead of modifiers, I could see the point, maybe. (By the time you get to rolling four of five D20, you're actually be making something of a difference.)

But it's a silly trade-off to avoid using basic maths otherwise for "playability."

I'm still reading up on it, but it seems that 5e has been designed with speed in mind, over granularity. For instance, there are no degrees of advantage, it is wholly binary. If you have Advantage, you have Advantage, no matter if it's from one or multiple sources, it's 2d20b1. Same with Disadvantage. And they cancel each other out. Even if you have 5 sources of Advantage and one source of Disadvantage, you end up at neutral.

There's also only one score you need to use, your Proficiency Score. If you're +3, your attack bonus is Ability+3, your chosen skills are Ability+3, your magic effect DC is Ability+3, and each of your abilities have their own saving throw, with Ability+3 on the ones you are proficient with. And that score ranges from +2 at first level to +6 at 20th.

It is most likely the exact opposite kind of game from the type you'd like, in other words.

For a PbP game, though, it just might work.

And that is exactly why archeologists like Daring Do and detectives are so important heros. They unearth information about the secret and undocumented lives of deceased ponies, until we know them so well that we can weep for their deaths. This may also be why Princess Celestia and Princess Luna write a diary, so that the part of their lives that the public doesn't know about would be remembered.

Oh, I like that. Not exploring ruins and the past for your own glory and gain, but to put the forgotten souls that reside there at rest. Of course that makes villains like Ahuizotl somewhat more sinister, as they're not just looting ruins, but potentially robbing souls of their rest. That... is kind of a dark turn, but one that actually fits in with Equestria as-is.

[Jurai]

...And I hear Nutella is also banned in the US. Sounds like a strange alien land.

As somepony in America, we do indeed have Nutella, as well as several competitors that just miss the mark. Though I have yet to try Hershey's attempt, and they make GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO*GASP !*OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO*HUFF, PUFF*OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD chocolate products.

Also, the fic was sweet and adorable, though I'm AppleDash to the core. Blame Fall Weather Friends.

[DigoDragon]

Okay, that got my day. It's a shame that Nickelodeon won't touch Zim with a ten foot pole for reruns.

Zim was a weird show, but I used to watch it often through streams because I like weird. Tak's episode was by far my favorite one. Lots of good character interactions in that one.

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LOL! +200 xp for the PERFECT series of image responses. XD

Boots's voice in the Dora the Explorer pilot. They recast the part before the show started to air, though.

Huh, I didn't know that. Wow, we got a lot of threaders who've done big things. I'm standing among giants. o.o
In the playground.

Much wow. So jealous.

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I know that feeling. XD

...That was me typing the wrong number into the calculator, actually.
I do know people who have been working on it for longer than 3600 hours. I worked on it for about 750. Thank you for calling me out, edited my post.

Aww, but you could have totally pretended it was 3600 anyway and I wouldn't think any less of you. Still don't, but I like the idea of 3600 hours put into testing a game. Well, dunno if I'd do that personally...

I love this crossover
Then again, they already did it in canon...
Twice
Er... Three times.

And now, a moment of heretical evil: I've never heard of Kill La Kill before.

Glad to hear it. And of course, I'd love to get in on whatever game you end up making.

Oh snap, I have to put effort into this game too, don't I? XD
Better find my folder of "Campaign Ideas" and see if there's anything in there. Probably is, given the folder still exists.

So her attraction to Flash is just...weird. It feels out of character because as far as I know/can tell (I still haven't watched the first movie, I have no desire to do so either) is there isn't really a good reason for it. It just sorta happens. And then it just sort of lingers on.

It's like internet character attraction... but Equestria has no internet...

Yeah, I was wondering how combat in a PbP game would work at anything but a continental drift pace. There has to be some way to pull that off. At least 5e is rather simple.

The simplicity helps speed things along I think. I tried a 3.5 game online and it died on the first combat because modifiers could not be straightened out between posts. Bonuses Fall, Everyone Died.

And yeah, I'm +6 hours compared to US Eastern here in like Narnia or something.

Errr... ^^;
I was only kidding, but to be fair I sometimes am that kind of person that needs to look these things up.

And I hear Nutella is also banned in the US. Sounds like a strange alien land.

Oh we have Nutella in the USA. I can buy it by the Quart.

Yeah, I'm DEFINITELY never playing 5E. Getting rid of bonuses and replacing them with a method that adds more randomisation¹. Under the guise, one presumes, of "simplification."

Simplicity in that there are fewer variables to keep track of. Useful in my opinion for a PbP, but overall the best way to run PbP is to cut back on combats and run things more in the RP category. Not saying it's objectively better than other systems, just that for its own merits it is good for what I want to do with it in this instance. :3

Well, that's how I do my timesheet.

Wrong?

And they cancel each other out. Even if you have 5 sources of Advantage and one source of Disadvantage, you end up at neutral.

Which is a little odd in my opinion. Going by the binary comment, I would see it like +1s and -1s. Add them all together and you should still net an advantage out of that example with four net Advantages.

Oh, I like that. Not exploring ruins and the past for your own glory and gain, but to put the forgotten souls that reside there at rest. Of course that makes villains like Ahuizotl somewhat more sinister, as they're not just looting ruins, but potentially robbing souls of their rest. That... is kind of a dark turn, but one that actually fits in with Equestria as-is.

At this point I think my notes look less like notes and more like the framework for a Fanfic.

[McNum]

The simplicity helps speed things along I think. I tried a 3.5 game online and it died on the first combat because modifiers could not be straightened out between posts. Bonuses Fall, Everyone Died.

I can see that happening, when I played locally, even then a full round of battle could take a while, mostly because few of us actually knew the rules. We had a lot of takebacks, including weapons magically becoming a different one as we realized that we built the characters wrong and they could only wield a shortbow, not a longbow... And then the dwarf got mauled by a bear. To death.

Errr... ^^;
I was only kidding, but to be fair I sometimes am that kind of person that needs to look these things up.

I kind of guess you were, I just liked the idea of Denmark being "like Narnia or something". We don't have divine lions here, but we might be able to deliver on the snow queen part.

Oh we have Nutella in the USA. I can buy it by the Quart.

Awesome. I don't buy Nutella anymore. It has a habit of disappearing. With a spoon at times. So I removed the temptation.

Simplicity in that there are fewer variables to keep track of. Useful in my opinion for a PbP, but overall the best way to run PbP is to cut back on combats and run things more in the RP category. Not saying it's objectively better than other systems, just that for its own merits it is good for what I want to do with it in this instance. :3

Yeah, the right tool for the right job. Some systems lend themselves well to PbP, some don't.

Which is a little odd in my opinion. Going by the binary comment, I would see it like +1s and -1s. Add them all together and you should still net an advantage out of that example with four net Advantages.

Yeah, I get why they want to make it yes or no, and not adding it up, just for simplicity. But it does create some amusing edge cases. Take an invisible man, you cannot see him, but you know he's right next to you, so you swing a sword in his general direction. You have Disadvantage on that swing, for obvious reasons. The invisible man drops prone. You have Advantage on prone enemies in melee, so they cancel out. Conclusion, it is easier to hit an invisible man when he is sneaking around on the floor than when standing perfectly still next to you.

This is where the game needs a DM to go "No. Just no."

At this point I think my notes look less like notes and more like the framework for a Fanfic.

Ah, I have George Lucas syndrome at times. I can spin up details for worldbuilding at the drop of a hat, and will keep doing so if encouraged... but I cannot tell a story well. I'm good with why, not so good with what.

The alicorn issue stands unresolved, though. It's difficult to come up with a good way of doing them so they make sense in an RPG setting while still keeping it Noblebright as My Little Pony leans that way.

It's not the usual "Darkness with specks of light" setting, it's "Light with specks of darkness". And that darkness can be terribly dark at times, with children lost in the woods with a literal monster, sibling rivalries threatening the apocalypse, and of course there are ponies who become evil and genuine threats to the world as well. And of course that detail that ponies are not always the most mentally stable creatures. They might not be evil, but they sure can cause trouble.

[DigoDragon]

And then the dwarf got mauled by a bear. To death.

Can bears maul you any other way?
Florida bears don't seem to have any other mode.

Awesome. I don't buy Nutella anymore. It has a habit of disappearing. With a spoon at times. So I removed the temptation.

I stopped because I made the mistake of looking at the Nutrition Information chart.

Take an invisible man, you cannot see him, but you know he's right next to you, so you swing a sword in his general direction. You have Disadvantage on that swing, for obvious reasons. The invisible man drops prone. You have Advantage on prone enemies in melee, so they cancel out. Conclusion, it is easier to hit an invisible man when he is sneaking around on the floor than when standing perfectly still next to you.

Hilarious!

The alicorn issue stands unresolved, though. It's difficult to come up with a good way of doing them so they make sense in an RPG setting while still keeping it Noblebright as My Little Pony leans that way.

I dunno... guess some kind of uplifiting... or evolution... something something a wizard did it... I dunno.
Having it as a mystery is nice though.

[Manga Shoggoth]

Wrong?

According to my management, at any rate. You's think they've never seen random numbers before...

[Aotrs Commander]

I'm still reading up on it, but it seems that 5e has been designed with speed in mind, over granularity. For instance, there are no degrees of advantage, it is wholly binary. If you have Advantage, you have Advantage, no matter if it's from one or multiple sources, it's 2d20b1. Same with Disadvantage. And they cancel each other out. Even if you have 5 sources of Advantage and one source of Disadvantage, you end up at neutral.

There's also only one score you need to use, your Proficiency Score. If you're +3, your attack bonus is Ability+3, your chosen skills are Ability+3, your magic effect DC is Ability+3, and each of your abilities have their own saving throw, with Ability+3 on the ones you are proficient with. And that score ranges from +2 at first level to +6 at 20th.

It is most likely the exact opposite kind of game from the type you'd like, in other words.

*skulldesk*

And I thought 4E was subpar...!

[Madcrafter]

*skulldesk*

And I thought 4E was subpar...!

4e wasn't bad because the numbers though, it was dull because everything was the same. Having played 5e, it runs smooth, very smooth, while still keeping the variety and flavour of older editions.

Now if you're a fan of Super-Simulationist Number Cruncher 9000, then it might not be for you, it has been streamlined and things have been sacrificed for that. But overall it works pretty well I think.

[DigoDragon]

According to my management, at any rate. You's think they've never seen random numbers before...

I'm salary so I just copy the same timesheet week after week.

And I thought 4E was subpar...!

Ah, but that's the beauty. It subs so deep that it pops out on the other side of the globe!

[b_jonas]

Jurai, DigoDragon: thanks, than at least that rumour about the strange new world was false.

Question. Angel combs Fluttershy's mane in Equestria Girls and in a dream in S5 E13. Did she do that any other time in the show that these are trying to call back?

[zimmerwald1915]

Question. Angel combs Fluttershy's mane in Equestria Girls and in a dream in S5 E13. Did she do that any other time in the show that these are trying to call back?

This moment from Hurricane Fluttershy might be the reference. It's kinda hard to see the comb, since it's pink, but it's there.

[McNum]

I stopped because I made the mistake of looking at the Nutrition Information chart.

Yes, the other curse of Nutella. It tastes good, and it bad for you, relatively speaking. That combination is all too popular these days.

I dunno... guess some kind of uplifiting... or evolution... something something a wizard did it... I dunno.
Having it as a mystery is nice though.

There is value in explicitly not explaining it. Maybe it's unique from alicorn to alicorn. A journey of self-discovery, long and hard studying and training, gaining the favor of an existing Alicorn. Point is, it's very special and something that can only happen if the DM and player think it's something that should happen to their character. Then work out the details.

Mechanically, it makes the Alicorn an acquired template, much like Vampires and Were-whatevers, at least in 3.5. Gain the special traits of the other races, and boost your original trait seems like it might work. A unicorn gets even better at magic, a Pegasus becomes even better at flying, an Earth Pony grows in size, or something like that. And yes, I just head-canon'd Celestia as an Earth Pony before becoming an Alicorn. Maybe Luna was a Pegasus, like Cadance.

Totally baseless speculation, but it would be nice if the pony kept some dominant traits of the original race.

*skulldesk*

And I thought 4E was subpar...!

I haven't actually played 4E, but yeah. 5E definitely took a step away from simulationism compared to 3.5, which also abstracted things quite a bit. I still kind of wish that the basic Attack action had some variants to it, you can only swing a sword at a basic opponent so many times before it becomes a little stale.

[DigoDragon]

Never fails-- start mopping the floors, and every sedentary organism in a city block starts wandering the halls constantly.

Jurai, DigoDragon: thanks, than at least that rumour about the strange new world was false.

We got plenty of rumors as is.

There is value in explicitly not explaining it. Maybe it's unique from alicorn to alicorn. A journey of self-discovery, long and hard studying and training, gaining the favor of an existing Alicorn. Point is, it's very special and something that can only happen if the DM and player think it's something that should happen to their character. Then work out the details.

And it's probably something that occurs at higher levels as well. After much experience and learning, and journeying and murder-hoboing friendship-making. Which ties nicely into it being about plot points than just handing over 96k in gold bits for a magic spell cast or finding magic item #1701 in the dungeon. :3

an Earth Pony grows in size

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[b_jonas]

This moment from Hurricane Fluttershy might be the reference. It's kinda hard to see the comb, since it's pink, but it's there.

Wow, that's right. In S2 E22, Angel is combing her hair. Thank you!

Ok, so I know it's been months since I sort of paused re-watching old episodes in sequence, but here I've been watching S2 E8: The Mysterious Mare Do Well, so here are my observations.

• In the opening, I thought Rainbow Dash was only observing the fan club meeting in secret. She's not: she actually speaks up and tells what they should call her.
• My favourite background pony, Tornado Bolt is not in the fan club, but she's there at the well and when Rainbow Dash stops the baby carriage.
• It's not clear whether Rainbow Dash could have saved the balloon if Mare Do Well hadn't come. She flies into the fabric of the punctured balloon, but maybe she could have been able to hold up the whole balloon by that.
• The part where Rainbow Dash is looking for ponies in danger, but can't find anything, is a bit similar to the one in S2 E3 when Twilight is looking for friendship problems.
• Mare Do Well not only fixes the dam, but also apparently helps Rainbow out of the river by holding a log? I didn't notice that before.
• I wonder if the Mayor, or someone else organizing the thank you parade, knew the identity of the Mysterious Mare Do Well.
• Mysterious Mare Do Well's costume completely cover her mane and tail and eye all the time. After the dam is fixed, you can even see that the tail isn't just covered by the cape. I agree that it's a great costume.
• This is one of those episodes that are really hard to follow from just the sound. All the heroic acts happen only on the screen, with nobody explaining them.

[DigoDragon]

I just head-canon'd Celestia as an Earth Pony before becoming an Alicorn. Maybe Luna was a Pegasus, like Cadance.

Mmm, Celestia-as-Earth Pony headcanon. Delicious.

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[One Tin Soldier]

*skulldesk*

And I thought 4E was subpar...!

For the record, I love the simplicity of 5e. Trading off some of the simulationist abilities of the system are completely worth it to be able to make a character from scratch in less than 30 minutes (without encyclopedic knowledge of the system), and run 3 combat encounters in the time it would take to do 1 in 3.5.

[Manga Shoggoth]

Ok, so I know it's been months since I sort of paused re-watching old episodes in sequence, but here I've been watching S2 E8: The Mysterious Mare Do Well, so here are my observations.
...

• I wonder if the Mayor, or someone else organizing the thank you parade, knew the identity of the Mysterious Mare Do Well.

I got the impression that at the very least the Mayor was in on it, if not sizable chunk of the town. When you come down to it, the rest of the Main 6 are pranking Rainbow, and considering she is one of the biggest pranksters in town I think turnabout is fair play...

[Pilum]

I still kind of wish that the basic Attack action had some variants to it, you can only swing a sword at a basic opponent so many times before it becomes a little stale.

That's the curse of so many action games though. Looks awesome on the screen, not on the table. Every Star Wars game when it comes to the big lightsaber duel, every pirate scenario, Knights, Robin Hood, Highlander, samurai... You name it, all that flashy swordplay with the stirring music always plays out as "my attack roll is x, my parry is y".

I've tried doing some sort of action system off-and-on in the past, but it always either bogs down or still doesn't quite capture the flavour. Not long after Magic came out and all the me-too's appeared I did wonder if a 'sword duel' card game would emerge as on the face of it that could work... But it never did and again none of my old hacks worked!

I sometimes think going full Monkey Island and do insult fighting might work tge other option is to embrace cinematicism and hand out bonuses (or lower DC's) for 'cool' descriptions and actions (which I tend toward anyway in swashbuckling styles like WEG Star Wars) but it still lacks a certain satisfaction...

[Thanqol]

The new comics #33 and #34 were really good. But poor Applejack, though.

Spoiler: apples

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THE ONE TIME the town gets invaded by sentient, evil apples she does nothing at all to help stop them. It's all Twilight and Fluttershy and even Pinkie.

The most spectacular moment was where Applejack was all, "I need to go undercover and infiltrate the apples. It is the role I was born to play" and Twilight's like "Yeah, nah, we're sending Pinkie Pie instead".

It was hysterical but it just kind of summarises how no one seems to know how to, or want to, write Applejack.

Seriously. In an episode about the invasion of the apples how do you give the apple horse less dialogue than any other horse?

The comic was great though, I got some real laughs out of it. "Wouldn't want to overstep our authority. That way lies anarchy."

[DigoDragon]

The new comics #33 and #34 were really good. But poor Applejack, though.

Spoiler: apples

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It was hysterical but it just kind of summarises how no one seems to know how to, or want to, write Applejack.

Spoiler: *Flips a Table*

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How could they #$%@&*%$ when #$^%&$(*%# could %$%$#@$ for #$%%$%%?!

[Derjuin]

Spoiler: *Flips a Table*

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How could they #$%@&*%$ when #$^%&$(*%# could %$%$#@$ for #$%%$%%?!

Spoiler: ┬─┬ノ( º _ ºノ)

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Let's get you some soothing auditory therapy. Enjoy!

Applehorse needs more love. Like srsly.

Spoiler: Actually spoilery stuff regarding Season 5 Act 2

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The next 3 episodes are all Rarity episodes, which I am very happy with, especially because I love Rarity she is the best pony 5ever, and one of them is a Rarity/Applejack episode; but come on. Most AJ episodes aren't that great and even then I'm pretty sure she has the fewest episodes dedicated to just her or focusing largely on her.