Storytelling Equestria

Simple Version

1. 1: This is fantasy. This isn't about ponies going to high school or braiding each others' hair. There are lava monsters, trolls, goblins, and other assorted fantasy paraphanalia. Magical crystals, magical creatures...

1. 2: This is fairly nonviolent. Resolution should be more about the players' ability to solve puzzles, learn moral lessons, and be lucky, less about squishing the bad guys. Obstacles need to be negoatiated, dangers need to be overcome, and friends need to be helped out.

1. 3: This is often about getting the MacGuffin. The ponies have to go to dangerous places to get items that they need. This is the reason for adventure, the core story of the game: Ponies leave home, brave dangers, get thing, come back home, repeat next week.

1. 4: This is about Teamwork!. The ponies should depend on each other for success. Let them talk with each other about how to cross the river of lava. The chance of success is mostly luck (that's where the dice come in!), but if you don't make it, a friend can help you out. If your friend helps you out, they get a bonus for the adventure. The same thing happens if you help a friend out. The individual path may fail -- maybe you can't cross the lava -- but success becomes more likely for it. There could easily be roles for the ponies -- the adventurous leader (who gets in over her head), the good-hearted trickster (who sometimes hurts others when she makes fun of them), the steadfast friend (who maybe is a little cowardly)...

1. 5: Encourage creativity and out-of-the-box thinking. Don't give them options to select from, ask them what they do about it. If they can't cross the lava, ask them what they try next. And it should almost always have a chance of working. Perhaps cleave to the "lessons learned" Saturday Morning Cartoon format by making those plans which focus on friendship, generosity, kindness, etc. to work better than the totally random stuff, but give the totally random stuff a shot, too. The worst that can happen is that a friend helps them out and they get a bonus for it!

by Kamikaze Midget from [[1]]

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Complex Version

The thing to keep in mind about MLP d20 is that, if you want to be true to the spirit of the cartoon, you need to realize there is a distinct difference between conflict and combat. Out of the 26 episodes of the first season, only a quarter of those had any sort of physical altercation at all, and in only one episode did that actually advance the plot. In fact, rushing headlong into battle actually makes things worse in the series!

Now I realize that a lot of gamers are looking at this and rolling their eyes. "No combat?" I hear you scoff. "What is the point?"

Cuteness is in the eye of....

The point is that My Little Pony is cartoon for children, and you want to play MLP D&D, you're doing one of two things: you're introducing a small child to role-playing, or you're a hard-core brony and want to role-play in Equestria. Either way, you must observe the genre conventions.

You don't out-fight your opponents in MLP. To steal a phrase from the reality TV series Survivor, you outwit, outplay, or outlast your opponents. Maybe, sometimes, a fight is necessary, but that really should be the path of last resort. If it truly bothers you, reverse one of Carl von Clausewitz' famous sayings and you get "Diplomacy is simply war by other means."

To this end, instead of having adventures that are variations upon "Go to this place, kill things, and grab the loot," the Ponymaster is encouraged to build adventures which utilize the 7 Basic Conflicts:

Pony vs. Self      Example: Sonic Rainboom
Pony vs. Pony    Example: Look Before You Sleep
Pony vs. Society  Example: Winter Wrap-Up
Pony vs. Nature   Example: Swarm of the Century
Pony vs. Supernatural  Example: Feeling Pinkie Keen
Pony vs. the Other  Example: Bridle Gossip
Pony vs. Destiny  Example: The Show Stoppers 

While Georges Polti's 36 Dramatic Situations are probably too "adult" for MLP D&D, Ronald Tobias' 20 Master Plots will serve a Ponymaster quite well:

Quest 
Adventure 
Pursuit 
Rescue 
Escape 
Revenge 
The Riddle 
Rivalry 
Underdog 
Temptation 
Metamorphosis 
Transformation 
Maturation 
Love 
Forbidden Love 
Sacrifice 
Discovery 
Wretched Excess 
Ascension 
Descension 

Find a plot you like, combine it with one (or more!) of the basic conflicts, and et voila, you have an MLP D&D adventure ready to go.

There's a reason I mentioned the episode Dragonshy in every singly MLP D&D character writeup, because not only is it a great episode, but it's classic D&D: a quest to defeat a dragon, complete with overland perils. You will note that the dragon was not defeated by force of arms -- in fact, that only made it angry. Likewise the Manticore in Elements of Harmony, the Parasprites in Swarm of the Century or the Hydra in Feeling Pinkie Keen.

Remember, when in doubt, Love and Tolerate the heck out of them !

by Cyber from [[2]]