This is one serious milestone we've got here! Not only is this the 40th comic, this page represents the end of Friendship is Dragons' coverage of Season One, Episode One! Onward to Episode Two!
Fans of the show would have had to wait a week (If they actually watched the premiere... but would that make them fans?)
But the PCs wait 10 minutes and we wait 2 days. So they don't and we don't have to wait a week... but it's not a completely arbitrary number... well played...
Alright, end of first episode. So if one comic takes 40 episodes, then season 1 will be finished at...comic #1040, which will take... about 6 1/2 years to reach. Whatever, I'm willing to ride this train as far as it will go.
JOKE PREDICTION
Either Twilight or Applejack will at some point refer to the Elements of Harmony as "Macguffins". (Bonus points if Fluttershy asks what a Macguffin is.
I doubt that every episode will take this long. The first had a lot of setup to go through, and the second has all the adventury stuff (that I'm guessing will make it even longer), but most of them can probably move a bit more quickly.
Especially since not every episode plays out (or in my eyes, CAN play out) like an adventure.
Actually, now that I think about it, I'm curious to see how the DM (or our beloved author) will spin all episodes AFTER the season premiere as being part of a cohesive campaign. o_O
True, some episodes would be fairly difficult to portray as an adventure, especially with Rainbow Dash demanding more combat.
Still, I eagerly look forward to some of my favorite episodes, many would work in a roleplaying format. Dragon-shy with Fluttershy failing check after check and realizing at cave she doesn't have some essential feat, or Pinky Pie attempting to use diplomacy only for the GM to remind her of the penalty. Cutie Mark Cronicles about some new players and the GM making each of the Mane 6 improv their backgrounds.
Let's see:
1. RD is told that the young flier's comp. will cause her to experience a permanent bonus for success, or permanent penalty for failure (why else would she freak out?). Then, awesome happens.
2.Fluttershy goes off the rails when she steals Philomena, DM tries to nudge her into giving Philomena back by having nothing work, Twilight makes things worse, etc.
3.Rarity complains about the lack of social settings for her skills, gets kidnapped by Diamond dogs.
Rarity: A bunch of mutts with Diamonds...what's their sense motive skill?
DD:What? Um, 2, why?
Rarity: *evil smile*
Even better, both "Best Young Flier" and "Iron Pony" are boon gaining opportunites that result in penalties for the failing PC. (for those who don't know, boons are pretty much like magic items that you get for special occasions that don't take up an item slot and give a permanent bonus.)
I suspect some of the episodes, especially the more social ones, will come about as a result of some players not being able to make it. Applejack and Rarity's players seem like the types who could turn a simple hostile weather encounter into an entire night of IC banter and arguing. With the GM going "Uh, guys? I did have some monsters to... oh, you're having a pillow fight? Fine, let me know if you want me for plot or anything."
Ep 3: introduce the tickets and have the others use their skillset to win them from Twilight.
Ep 4: Applejack rolls poorly for a while, with hilarious consequences.
Ep 5: Pinkie Pie attempt di
Ep 3: introduce the tickets and have the others use their skillset to win them from Twilight.
Ep 4: Applejack rolls poorly for a while, with hilarious consequences.
Ep 5: Pinkie Pie attempts diplomacy on NPC Gilda.
Ep 6: NPC Trixie appears as a weak boss with the benefit that she cannot be hurt by a pony's attack. She can only be defeated by somepony one-upping her in a mutual endeavor.
Ep 7: This one writes itself.
Ep 8: A storm that does 1d4 damage each round forces everypony to find shelter, and the Rogue is trapped with the Businesspony. Their disagreements on how to proceed spill into their roleplaying.
Ep 9: NPC Zecora appears. But is she Good or Evil? Even Twilight cannot determine from the history.
Ep 10: This is where being a bard will come in handy. A swarm of parasprites (immune to attacks, 1+1d4 damage each round) invades.
Ep 11: I dunno about this one, you may want to skip it. Ponies cleaning up the snow? There's no D&D in that.
*I'll think of more, maybe.*
15,16,17,19,21 and 24 are pretty solid RPG material.
12... Apple Bloom could be like in Darths and Droids, how Ben had to babysit his younger sister, and she ended up becoming a member of the campaign.
14 and 20 tie into Rarity's whole "social rogue" roleplay, and how she keeps failing comically at it.
I don't even know where to file 25...
And of course the season finale, which is set up to be the combo culmination of their individual backstory quests. XP and loot abound, for those who can succeed... >:)
It's railroading because you know that no matter how many you succeed at he'll just come up with more, and at the first failure he takes it as an excuse to shut you down.
The athletics check was already kind of sketchy, and the perception check was silly. Was she really *hiding* while flying at apparently full speed?
It's only seen as railroading because we can see the rails the comic is travelling on. From the player's (and most likely the DM's) perspective it was just a bad roll.
Agreed. The Strength check was situational to begin with, and two skill checks makes for a reasonable solo "skill challenge," as opposed to the 7 that an average one would take for a party. That, and the DM not-so-subtly keeps RB put to avoid cardinal sin #1 of Dungeons and Dragons - splitting the party.
Well the first was a opposing strength check to break free from Applejack. Now that RD was free, she had to use an athletics check to fly fast enough to keep up with NMM. She succeeded at being fast enough to follow, but she initially lost sight of NMM as she was breaking free. If RD had succeeded at seeing a wisp of starry smoke against a starry night sky, she would have been able to follow. Then maybe an endurance check would be required to fly for who knows how long until NMM stopped somewhere.
And if she managed all of that, it would be something to brag about.
Much like my character's short moment of glory saving a teammate who had 1 hp from death. Not KO. Death. -9.
She jumped a pit (Jump-Check), slid across 15 feet of ice (Balance-Check), made an immediate left turn (Balance-Check), dodged an attack of opportunity (Opponents roll), and stabilized the teammate (-Heal). Said teammate was still rather useless the rest of that day, but he's still alive. XD
....you just pulled off a 'Jehovah's Australia'. Named in my group for the time my character mimed a Jehovah's witness and unleashed the full power of the Australian military, the A-team, and the Mage Supreme on a fifty foot tall demonic wrestler. With a series of about twenty bluff checks. The lowest I rolled was a 27.
She didn't cheat check the stats Applejack's only gets plus one more to strength checks than rainbow dash so it isn't unreasonable for Rainbow Dash to beat Apple jack at strength checks, I would point out that this would count as a grab so Rainbow Dash could have called for a Dexterity check which would give her a plus 4 advantage to break free that way instead but Rainbow's the one that called the check so it's more her player being a little unfamiliar with the rules.
Rainbow Dash does beat Applejack at an arm-wrestle in Fall Weather Friends, so I'd imagine they're fairly evenly match in terms of strength. Plus Applejack is holding onto slippery tail hairs with her mouth.
Now, Applejack is shown to be clearly stronger when it comes to kicking things, but otherwise they seem to be pretty close.
In-comic it's easily explained away as just good/bad luck for the players involved plus it's unlikely that you could stay grabbed on to someone for long that way.
Also, as much as I will occasionally bend rules to reward a good backstory and make sure people feel like their stories are being fairly represented, I would NEVER give a free +10 to Strength checks to a level 1 character. I don't care how compelling their backstory is, how much sense it would make in context, or any other valid reasons. I'm not going to outright break the game just so one player can represent their character with 100% accuracy instead of 75% accuracy.
Now that I think about it, this would usually be EXACTLY the part where I end the encounter, to be picked up next week, same time. The villain has slunk off to parts unknown (or known, but too difficult to reach), the party is sufficiently spooked, and there's natural dramatic tension in ending the session for the day at a point where things don't look that good. Either this DM runs much longer sessions than I do (probably, since I run them on Wednesday evenings, which means people need to be home at reasonable times and we can't start until around 7-ish without leaving people behind and an average game as far as I know is usually played on a weekend or other vacation where people have time to kill) or there was no RP happening off camera.
Also I try to avoid taking breaks unless I really, really, REALLY have to use the bathroom.
*cough*
Fans of the show would have had to wait a week (If they actually watched the premiere... but would that make them fans?)
But the PCs wait 10 minutes and we wait 2 days. So they don't and we don't have to wait a week... but it's not a completely arbitrary number... well played...
This is gonna be a LONG comic. Which I'm not seeing as a bad thing right now!
JOKE PREDICTION
Either Twilight or Applejack will at some point refer to the Elements of Harmony as "Macguffins". (Bonus points if Fluttershy asks what a Macguffin is.
Actually, now that I think about it, I'm curious to see how the DM (or our beloved author) will spin all episodes AFTER the season premiere as being part of a cohesive campaign. o_O
Still, I eagerly look forward to some of my favorite episodes, many would work in a roleplaying format. Dragon-shy with Fluttershy failing check after check and realizing at cave she doesn't have some essential feat, or Pinky Pie attempting to use diplomacy only for the GM to remind her of the penalty. Cutie Mark Cronicles about some new players and the GM making each of the Mane 6 improv their backgrounds.
Anyone else have some ideas?
1. RD is told that the young flier's comp. will cause her to experience a permanent bonus for success, or permanent penalty for failure (why else would she freak out?). Then, awesome happens.
2.Fluttershy goes off the rails when she steals Philomena, DM tries to nudge her into giving Philomena back by having nothing work, Twilight makes things worse, etc.
3.Rarity complains about the lack of social settings for her skills, gets kidnapped by Diamond dogs.
Rarity: A bunch of mutts with Diamonds...what's their sense motive skill?
DD:What? Um, 2, why?
Rarity: *evil smile*
Ep 4: Applejack rolls poorly for a while, with hilarious consequences.
Ep 5: Pinkie Pie attempt di
Ep 4: Applejack rolls poorly for a while, with hilarious consequences.
Ep 5: Pinkie Pie attempts diplomacy on NPC Gilda.
Ep 6: NPC Trixie appears as a weak boss with the benefit that she cannot be hurt by a pony's attack. She can only be defeated by somepony one-upping her in a mutual endeavor.
Ep 7: This one writes itself.
Ep 8: A storm that does 1d4 damage each round forces everypony to find shelter, and the Rogue is trapped with the Businesspony. Their disagreements on how to proceed spill into their roleplaying.
Ep 9: NPC Zecora appears. But is she Good or Evil? Even Twilight cannot determine from the history.
Ep 10: This is where being a bard will come in handy. A swarm of parasprites (immune to attacks, 1+1d4 damage each round) invades.
Ep 11: I dunno about this one, you may want to skip it. Ponies cleaning up the snow? There's no D&D in that.
*I'll think of more, maybe.*
12... Apple Bloom could be like in Darths and Droids, how Ben had to babysit his younger sister, and she ended up becoming a member of the campaign.
14 and 20 tie into Rarity's whole "social rogue" roleplay, and how she keeps failing comically at it.
I don't even know where to file 25...
And of course the season finale, which is set up to be the combo culmination of their individual backstory quests. XP and loot abound, for those who can succeed... >:)
The athletics check was already kind of sketchy, and the perception check was silly. Was she really *hiding* while flying at apparently full speed?
And if she managed all of that, it would be something to brag about.
She jumped a pit (Jump-Check), slid across 15 feet of ice (Balance-Check), made an immediate left turn (Balance-Check), dodged an attack of opportunity (Opponents roll), and stabilized the teammate (-Heal). Said teammate was still rather useless the rest of that day, but he's still alive. XD
Now, Applejack is shown to be clearly stronger when it comes to kicking things, but otherwise they seem to be pretty close.
Also, as much as I will occasionally bend rules to reward a good backstory and make sure people feel like their stories are being fairly represented, I would NEVER give a free +10 to Strength checks to a level 1 character. I don't care how compelling their backstory is, how much sense it would make in context, or any other valid reasons. I'm not going to outright break the game just so one player can represent their character with 100% accuracy instead of 75% accuracy.
Also I try to avoid taking breaks unless I really, really, REALLY have to use the bathroom.