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brainstorming & development / Re: All The Pretty Little Horses Adventures (in playtesting)
« on: February 08, 2016, 08:27:22 PM »Okay, first a disclaimer. Now that I'm reading through the document for the purpose of finding "offenses", I may be overly critical. I'm pointing out anything that draws my attention.
Except for a few strong examples, a lot of it might also be that I'm a brony myself. So I recognize some of the shoutouts. Stuff like "The story you tell is explicitly a fantasy or faerie tale (you can call it a pony tale if you’d like, but your friends will probably throw things at you)", which seems like a reference to MLP punning. And the name of the Charity move "The Pony Everybody Should Know" is just gratuitous :).
That's a useful disclaimer.
Especially because I'm keeping the horse puns. That's an MLP thing, but it's an all-ages MLP thing.
The Charity move name is indeed gratuitously referential, although I'm surprised you haven't also taken issue with Redemption's blurb for the same reason. Mind, I also need to make Charity a lot less 'this is how you play as Rarity' and a lot more of it's own thing, like I've arguably succeeded with with most of the other playbooks...
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The strong examples are mostly stuff that ties to closely to the Apocalypse Engine. This stuff seems either target at adults, or inappropriate for minors.
- You might want to find another name for the GM than Master of Ceremonies. Or at least drop the MC moniker.
- The entire section "This game is Powered by the Apocalypse!" You mention a long list of games, and then say "but these are for adults".
Yeah, no, I kind of need to do that. Part of this is me working out my own amazement that a very simple and flexible engine has so few kids games attached to it; out it goes.
That chapter was a VERY early pass to begin with.
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Stuff with overt brony feel
- I might just be overly critical, now that I'm reading stuff with this in mind, but the title "All The Pretty Little Horses" seems a bit like the faux-cutesy-girlyness that a brony might take on, to show he isn't afraid of girly stuff. At least, the title doesn't make me think of ponies going on adventures, defending the world against evil.
I'm on the fence about it, and have been slapping an '...Adventures' at the end of the title. Frankly, I chose that name partly from growing up with the lullabye, and partially because I'm beyond astounded no one else has used that for a line bootleg pony toys yet.
It has been a problem, but I don't have a better name for it.
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- This is echoed in the line "You should play this game because all the pretty little horses are awesome, simple as that." in the "But why should we play?" section
- The paragraph about the Handsome Haunchmark kinda have the "boys who don't like girly things are stupid" smell as well.
Agreed on the last part. I was editorializing that day.
I AM trying to make another pass at this in time for BABSCon, so I can have it at the kid's tent.
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Something else I noticed, not related to the target audience thing:
Instead of explaining how the ponies look in the "On The Humble Race of Ponies" section, you might want to simply let your pictures talk. I'm not sure if it adds anything to explain in words that unicorns have "split hooves like a goat’s, and a thin tail ending with a tuft of soft, mane-like hair". I don't think everyone will be imagining the ponies correctly from being read the description. But if all the pictures show of the ponies, then you can see what they look like.
That will await my actually having better art, but it's a good idea. I should probably do something more like like the henge introductions in Golden Sky Stories, from the point of view of a typical unicorn, pegasus, and earthtamer (which also means that I can introduce goats and deer and things as well, something I eventually want to do).