So I tried hacking Spookybeans for My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, but a friend pointed out that the Stash mechanic, while on its face an appropriate enough idea for a FiM adaptation, was not ideal considering the gravity that getting and receiving help is given in the show.
And at that moment this Monterhearts hack sprung forth from my brow partially formed, wriggling, and full of juice. So here you go. These are my notes so far. It probably won't be called Pony Hearts in the end. I just needed something to call the thread.
Gifts are my replacement for sex moves. The big mechanical difference is that they are focused toward the other party and not yourself. This is the Offering Help mechanic: "When you Give Generously...." Strings are less powerful than they are in Monsterhearts, but more generalized and have their own uses that the Gift moves don't. The way you get Strings is by using moves that would make receiving Gifts from certain people nonviable in the fiction (basically being catty). But you are going to need Gifts sometime.
I don't know what I'm renaming Darkest Self to, but this is basically what led to Fluttershy's "YOU ARE GOING TO LOVE ME!" in Best Night Ever and Pinkie's Pinkamina episode in Party of One. Just the Monsterhearts thing with a fresh coat of pastel paint.
Stats are...
- Bold (for feats of physicality and bravery. If you're bold you do things that would make other ponies faint)
- Bright (being smart, beautiful, savvy. If you're bright, you're dazzling. You make impressions and use things to their full advantage)
- Cool (spurning others, acting cool under pressure. If you're cool you're unflappable, cold, and maybe even distant)
- Warm (Making connections, healing hurts, bringing ponies together. If you're warm then you're the one that everybody comes to with their problems and for good reason)
Harm is now Hurts (because it's cuter), and represents emotional hurting rather than physical. Each instance of Hurt gets a statement telling the players what it represents. Nobody really gets hurt in the cartoons so the hurt is more internal than external. Conditions are the domain of external consequences, rumors, and the occasional singed tail.
The big rules change behind the MC's curtain is the way that Threats are handled. I wanted to find a compromise between Monsterhearts's season-long serial progression and the episodic problems of the cartoon. Basically there's a shorter wait until something BLOWS UP. I'm not sure how may advances this will be though. Maybe two. A season would be three of these climaxes.
That's about all I have so far.