The Gaming Den

So Hasbro is backing an official MLP tabletop RPG. It's being developed by people at River Horse. I do wonder what this says about the company's trust in Mearls+ when, at the decision to release an RPG when they have a dedicated roleplaying branch, they look to another company that's only tangentially worked with TTRPGs. That's like seeing Mattel deciding to outsource a Barbie card game.

There's not much in the way of information for mechanics yet, and it has a release date of this Winter. We do know the primary designer is Alessio Cavatore, who looks to have been the primary rules designer for Games Workshop over the last decade.

I'm surprised to see a company recognizes and even commercially exploits the adult fanbase of one of their kids products.
I have nothing against bronies but is it really a smart move ? public image and all that.

PS : What kind of uniform Discord is wearing in your avatar, virgil, some kind of russian guard ?

There is a Ponyfinder already out, so it's a present market.

As for my avatar, that is the outfit Q wore in the first episode of TNG where he was judging humanity.

Okay, thanks

There's a joke about outsourcing a MLP game to a company named River Horse here, and I'm pretty sure the punchline is Mike Mearls.

Remember that, as far as WotC is concerned, the Magic division is Hasbro's darling, but they outsourced the MLP card game to Enterplay.

It doesn't necessarily say anything about their faith in Mearls (bad or good)

Well, the RPG has finally been released and I got a chance to read it. It's essentially Baby's First RPG. Lots of art, splash pages, etc.

The actual rules, once you include equipment lists and such, can be condensed down to two or three pages. You have three stats; Mind, Body, Charm. Each one starts at a die size from d4 to d8. Resolution is "DM gives a target number, roll equal to or higher with the appropriate die." DCs have a chart of descriptors of how difficult something is; 2 is very easy, 3 is easy, etc. There are no modifiers. Combat is equally simplistic; opposed die rolls, winner deals its roll in damage.

Honestly, I'd rather they used FATE/FUDGE with a whiff of self-control on the fluff text to keep the pagecount low.

Ugggggghhhhhh. I hate systems that rate skill by die size. Not that I was ever likely to play this, but still.

OMG... I was THIS close to use THAT VERY SAME mechanic for a homebrew I'm working on.

I'm so glad I backpedaled on that idea. I mean, nothing against MLP, but I'm not sure I could endure being told "I ripped MLP."

...I guess I'm not as open a person as I fancied myself to be.

It's not like MLP used it first. The original (non-d20) Deadlands did that.

deaddmwalking wrote:It's not like MLP used it first. The original (non-d20) Deadlands did that.

and earth dawn before that.

A bunch of more recent games use it too. Danger Patrol does something similar to this, and I think Savage Worlds(?) does as well.

Doesn't mean it's the greatest arbitration mechanic however. It's really unpredictable; and people with lower capability are more likely to have maxed/exploding results. While those with higher capability are very likely to underperform.

Good for a comedy game I guess.

Am I the only one who thinks "jesus fuck a ponies game for grown ass men?"

Then again, targeting it to young girls would grow the hobby, which in the long run is a good thing.

Heaven's Thunder Hammer wrote:Am I the only one who thinks "jesus fuck a ponies game for grown ass men?"

One can only hope.

I'm still sore that MLP got an official RPG, but Transformers didn't. It's just as popular! Maybe even more.

Fucking Hasbro.

Shrapnel wrote:I'm still sore that MLP got an official RPG, but Transformers didn't. It's just as popular! Maybe even more.

Fucking Hasbro.

Yep, all you have right now is

Battlechangers, written/designed by our Skortched Urf' Studios's Chris A. Field who may know as the writer/designer/sometimes artist of Black Tokyo and Otherverse America (which I need to finish). This time it is a custom system...so maybe it won't be bad.

And

Mechamorphosis by Fantasy Flight, which uses the d20 system. I haven't read it yet so who knows.

Or

D20 Mecha if you are really desperate.

So it's out, reviews are published... Any takers?

https://www.google.com/search?q=mlp+tab ... bletop+RPG