My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

Ok, yes, I seriously think a MLP:FiM game could be done right by an AW hack. A pretty deep hack, but a hack nonetheless. For those going "wha?!"

Look, you have 6 playbooks:

-Twilight Sparkle
-Pinkie Pie
-Rainbow Dash
-Apple Jack
-Rareity
-Fluttershy

The GM in this game is Princess Celestia, since she controls pretty much everything in Equestria. But when the ponies enter the Everfree Forest...control leaves Princess Celestia's hands real quick. That's an aside, though!

There's not much advancement: cartoon characters don't change their inherent natures or abilities much. I still want to keep the experience system, though, because it works well, is fun, and goads players into action. One choice for an advancement is to switch characters next session (episode). I imagine a lot of character switching, with not every pony in every episode. Maybe some small advancements as well, like stat boosts or one new move.

Princess Celestia's prep is pretty different. Maybe organized like a front, but a whole new one every episode. This will probably be where the hardest design work is done.

I also think: less stats. Maybe three per character (+ Friendship/Hx), with five total stats, so each character is missing two core stats and thus some core Moves. My instinct is to simplify, and make the characters very distinct to reward switching characters and trying out new things.

Obviously, stats will be renamed, basic moves will be retooled/changed, and new playbooks written up.

This is simply a post of curiosity. I want to know what you all think about this (you'll probably have to know MLP:FiM to parse this post, but hopefully not the game. Ideally it'll be playable by young girls, and aimed at family play and pony geek play). I'm going to give it my best shot, anyway, until I decide AW isn't the right engine and do something else, or give up on it, or playtest the hell out of it and make it a real thing.

Not a lot I can add, especially over what was posted in the Story Games thread, but I think you're on the right track. (Though I'd totally want an expansion for playing the Cutie Mark Crusaders... though it occurs to me they might count as one character.)

I think the trick is going to be coming up with a reliable way to set up sessions based around a misunderstanding between friends. There are cases when the ponies have to deal with some outside problem, but they're the exception to the rule, and the solution is always found in their friendship and uniqueness.

Also, although they don't grow more powerful, they do develop quite a bit over the course of the series. I know my view of Rarity completely changed from the first episode to the last, and Pinkie Pie just kept having more stuff to uncover every time she was in the spotlight.

Yeah, good stuff Ewen.

Just wanted to pop in and say that Pony World (heh...working title) is being worked on. It's pretty well hacked up and pared down AW, with some inspiration from Mouse Guard thrown in. I'm very excited about it. My goals, for an alpha draft:

-feel like an episode of the show, or at least like a cool cartoon show aimed at girls.
-play fast, like 30 minutes or an hour, max
-have fun, fast situation generation for the MC/GM/Pony Princess role
-distinct, playable pre-gen characters, and maybe rules for character creation. If it were just a MLP:FiM game, it wouldn't even need chargen rules, but if I actually want to release it ever, it can't be called MLP, y'know? And then it probably needs rules for chargen.

(but I need to finish the series first! boo hiss, I know. I couldn't help starting to design halfway through the series, and then I got sidetracked by other things.)