DM: The Princess leads you all to a restricted high tower of the castle.
Princess Celestia: I've called you all here for a matter of great importance. It seems an old foe of mine – someone I thought I had defeated long ago – has returned.
Rainbow Dash: Someone opened the ol' Sealed Ancient Evil in a Can, huh?
Rarity: I'm a little worried it might have been us, somehow.
Pinkie Pie: It can't be THAT evil, right? Chocolate rain!
Fluttershy: So, is this a person, or a creature, or…?
Princess Celestia: It's more of a spirit. A concept given thought and flesh. And his name… is Discord.
Twilight Sparkle: Ahh, I get it. As in the opposite of Harmony.
Princess Celestia: Yes. He is the Spirit of Chaos and Disharmony. Please take this seriously.
Fluttershy: So it's a "he"…?
Applejack: And "he" is what's wreakin' havoc on mah farm and all the land of Equestria right now. All Ah need to hear.
Pinkie Pie: But if we could reform him… Chocolate rain on demand...
I had always wondered about the "Pinkie's fixation on chocolate rain" gag from the outside (especially because there was the faint whiff of meme about it), but now that I'm sitting in the writer's chair it makes perfect sense.
At this moment in time, Pinkie's worldview has just been dramatically expanded. For somepony who has a shall-we-say tenuous relationship with reality in the first place, that's no small feat. But nevertheless: This is now a universe where chocolate milk can rain from the sky. Pinkie's reeling mind is still processing the implications at this moment, weighing the pros and cons. We can't act too rashly, because what if it never rains chocolate milk ever again?? What will we lose in the process just to restore the status quo? What else can we get from this? This is a profound moral and ethical conundrum in Pinkie-think, which is why I think she comes across as so fixated on that one idea.
Or maybe I'm taking the opportunity to indulge in some fanfic on the side because I have no idea what else to put in this Author's Note.
Notice: Guest comic submissions are open! Guidelines here. Deadline: February 20th.
While Pinkie's focus on chocolate rain is understandable -- that /she's/ the one to suggest reforming Discord and not Fluttershy (though one has to wonder about Fluttershy's focus on gender -- foreshadowing of the later relationship?)
Ah, but the fact that no one would expect the embodiment of chaos to have a gender means he's all the more likely to have one, all the better to defy expectations with.
Not courtesy of any D&D style game, but one guy (who was a notorious lightweight) that I was playing Cutthroat Caverns one time with defeated a dragon enemy and declared himself 'Two-Sips the Dragonslayer'. None of us took it seriously.
None of my playgroups ever seemed to appreciate Nounverb Thingdoer, Gnome of Action! (Yes, "Gnome of Action!" is part of his name, including the exclamation point.)
We had an NPC who was never supposed to survive beyond the first encounter and whose origins lay shrouded in mundanity (he was a soldier whose job was cleaning out the dog kennels). He eventually became the MVP and the legend of "Convert the Unlikely" began.
I admit to having once played a rifle wielder whose first name roughly translated as "Holy Mother Bazooka", but at least I dressed the name up: Basokoholamo Boomsmithson.
(An explosives-focused goblin alchemist from a family of such, the Boomsmithsons. For many generations they had made their living manufacturing bombs, ammunition, fireworks, and everything else gunpowder-related. Basokoholamo was branching out into other alchemy - leaving his sister to inherit the main store and family legacy, though seeking new formulas he could get back to her to bolster the business - and thus became the group's medic as much as the primary burst damage dealer. He was arguably the most pious of the group - his mother was a priestess - though his god was decidedly pro-industrial, a "the way the universe works is my holy guidance, so learning and discovery is worshiping me" type. He also claimed to have hired the rest of the party as loot carriers and bodyguards in furtherance of his house's mercantile affairs, when we needed an air of business legitimacy to disguise being random do-gooders. But all of this flowed from justifying that name.)
I joined a campaign where the original PCs had retired and become major NPCs. They were the survivors of a meatgrinder dungeon (DM was apparently testing out the Grimtooth series of books). Since two of the players had gotten tired of thinking up new character names (why bother if they die in a hour anyway), the names were somewhat... uninspired.
Say hello to (translated from German):
- Sam O'Lina Poo-Ding, The Barbarian King
- Penny Cakes, the Archwizard
One of the DMs in my 5e group has come up with some rather... pedestrian names for NPCs. A Lawful Evil Warlock (an allied NPC and rebuilder of the ruined capitol of the human lands) was named Levi. A Paladin and the brother of one of the PCs is named Ken. Another Paladin (who ended up becoming a revenant) was named Sparkles. And there was a particular city guard who we called "That Guy," in-character.
Somehow, the names seem charming rather than stupid.
Pinkie's relationship with reality isn't tenuous...she has it in a full on choke-hold up close and personal and makes it it her B!$%&. REALITY BENDS TO THE POWERS OF THE GREAT PINKAMENA DIANE PIE!
...seriously though, I never questioned why Pinkie wanted chocolate rain. It's CHOCOLATE!
Ever notice how Discord seems slightly afraid of Pinkie Pie on occasion? I have a hypothesis that she's got a little bit of chaos magic in her, without her knowledge. It would explain a lot about her otherwise inexplicable abilities.
This is played with in the comics where she briefly takes over Discord's realm. She complains about his lack of imagination... though she doesn't do much better. Option overload I suppose: when you can do anything, what do you do first?
I am reminded of the time in Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality when Harry considers researching if there’s a spell that will make him find only one thing funny so that when he combines it with Comed-Tea he’d become essentially omnipotent.
I feel for you, fellow DM. Many a times I've had great dramatic moments thrown out the window by players who couldn't keep a straight face for the scene.
Yeah! A party full of murderhobos? Obviously, that's their PTSD kicking in, forcing them to act savvy to the genre they think they are in.
Maybe give extra RP XP (so as to get those characters through to maximum level and have an excuse to end - not just abandon - the campaign that much sooner, so you can then start a new one and reject murderhobos during character creation).
Are you sure that having this group "take it seriously" is a good idea? Remember that these are players who've managed to burn the DMs plans to the ground twice by taking things seriously...
I discovered Mlp a few weeks ago (thanks to this webcomic).
When I saw that episode, at the moment when the Mane 6 (minus Pinkie Pie) are ready to use the elements. I really though Discord would try one last trick :
"Pinkie Pie, if you refuse to use the Element against me, I'll give you your personnal cloud that can rain choclate on demand. What do you choose ?"
Yup, if Discord used his ability to only corrupt Pinkie Pie and make her join him, Equestria would have been a very very different place. (Maybe it's what happenend in the future ruled by Discord ...)
Reading Pinkie comment... Any story about how a player silly commentary was in reality a spoiler of something that the GM had in mind and somehow the player managed to guess or how that commentary give the GM a idea that is going to use against the players?
I've always felt like Discord has been a bit of a missed opportunity in that while he acts as a big friend for Flutters and a foil to Twi, he could react with the other mane 6 in various ways. While I do worry about the kind of damage he and Pinkie with their reality warping could pull off, I do feel that they would have fun nonetheless. Also, while he does play that foil, I do feel like he would do well as a mentor to a whole new circle of magic for Twilight.
Personally, I think AJ would be a good foil, what with her down-to-earth stubborn personality versus Discord's whimsical yet stubborn personality. Rarity could be an interesting game of who is actually manipulating whom and how much "I know you know I know" plays between them. RD, I don't know, maybe have competitions of some sort? Maybe continue more with the rpg she and PP joined in with?
It's just... his character arc has been about learning how to make friends, and we really don't see him interact much with the others, you get my point?
Having Discord interact with the rest of the cast is beside the point. He's a set of keys dangled in front of the audience, and we, obedient children that we are, lap up his every line with a giggle and mashing-together of chubby hands.
At this moment in time, Pinkie's worldview has just been dramatically expanded. For somepony who has a shall-we-say tenuous relationship with reality in the first place, that's no small feat. But nevertheless: This is now a universe where chocolate milk can rain from the sky. Pinkie's reeling mind is still processing the implications at this moment, weighing the pros and cons. We can't act too rashly, because what if it never rains chocolate milk ever again?? What will we lose in the process just to restore the status quo? What else can we get from this? This is a profound moral and ethical conundrum in Pinkie-think, which is why I think she comes across as so fixated on that one idea.
Or maybe I'm taking the opportunity to indulge in some fanfic on the side because I have no idea what else to put in this Author's Note.