Sweetie Belle: We have her surrounded!
Scootaloo: Woot! Whose turn is it now?
DM: The Druid's.
Sweetie Belle: Pfft, is she gonna summon a tree to hug?
DM: No, she's going to summon the full wrath of nature.
Sweetie Belle: Wait... Can she do that?
DM: She's a 15th level Druid. So yes. Yes, she can.
Sweetie Belle: We're toast.
SFX: (TPK'D!!)
DM: So, what did we learn?
Scootaloo: Pegasi have anger issues?
Apple Bloom: Her Cutie Mark is how many ponies she's scorched?
Sweetie Belle: Uh, I really like my mane?
DM: Sigh...
"I view experience points as what a character learned in an adventure. In this regard, even failure is a lesson that earns some experience points."
That ends this guest arc! Once again, big thanks to this week-and-a-half's guest author. We're almost through the sabbatical - just one or two more pages to go.
Notice: Guest comic submissions are open! Guidelines here. Deadline: February 20th.
Love these fillies. Always learning every valuable lesson they can except the intended one. Also like Sweetie Bell's oh crap moment in the sixth panel.
I bet the DM *really* misses her WoW guild now. XD
And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why you must Beware the Quiet Ones. You never know which one might unleash the full unbridled (pun intended) fury of Mother Earth upon you.
I for one find it unlikely that this group is going to learn that for a while, though, considering they just essentially picked a fight over a bunch of chickens.
I bet that they'd get along with Sally fairly well, though. They could bond over derailing the GM's plot. XD
Anyone know if the rulebook for the Unknown Ponies game has been finished up yet? I always wanted to create a character and play it, but have no idea how.
Now I have the urge to imagine each pony as a potential GM.
Twilight Sparkle:
Pros - Absolute knowledge of every rule in the game (even grappling), as well as a library full of sourcebooks. Creative use of traps, monsters, and general good balance of combat encounters. Lenient to the players depending on the mood.
Cons - Relies heavily on railroading and rules enforcing due to lack of improvisational skills. Stay on the rails, or the next dungeon your PCs visit will suddenly turn into the Tomb of Horrors.
Favorite module: GURPS
***
Rainbow Dash:
Pros - Good at improvising, doesn't railroad much, emphasis on fun and coolness. Lenient on rules and gives bonuses/rewards when something cool is being attempted. Heavily oriented around monster combat.
Cons - Killer GM: Monster Combat edition. Min-Max your characters and abuse the combat system, or die trying. Rainbow Dash is after the players blood.
Favorite modules: Rifts, Exalted, Shadowrun
***
Rarity:
Pros - Epic-sized backstories for nearly every NPC, fully detailed maps and descriptions of every dungeon and area, lots of roleplaying / social encounters. Adept at subtly manipulating the players without their knowledge.
Cons - Very boring campaigns if your not into roleplaying, as well as overly restrictive as far realism goes.
Favorite module: Exalted
***
Fluttershy:
Pros - Most lenient on the players, especially new ones. Good balance of storytelling and action. Never gives unfair situations and always provides an alternate route for the clever and cunning players.
Cons - Players eventually get pampered with too much money, magic items and exp, causing them to break the game and run out of challenges. TPKs will never happen, unless your PCs go out of your way to be evil (like burning down orphanages), in which case you might as well reroll new characters.
Favorite modules: D&D 3.5e,4e
***
Pinkie Pie:
Pros - Campaigns centered solely on fun, nonsense and wacky hijinxs of the players. Enforces "rule of funny" as a mechanic. Expect cool and unusual stuff to happen constantly and be prepared to laugh a lot.
Cons - Abandon all logic, ye who enters here. Nonsense plots with no connections with anything! Exploding tree forests! Raving zombie pony ambushes! And in the rare cases of player misbehavior, players get to suffer the wrath of the d1000 random event table, a personal creation of Pinkie Pie herself. Rules lawyers and diplomancers will cry themselves to sleep.
Favorite modules: Paranoia, Toon
***
Applejack:
Pros - Uses pre-made adventure books for almost all of her campaigns, due to general lack of creativity.
Cons - Unable to lie to the PCs. Possible overuse of cliche dungeon traps (pit traps), monsters (e.g. orcs) and generally being too predictable, allowing metagamers to break the campaign.
I think you missed something from rainbow dash's systems.
Paranoia is perfect for her - a hard-as-heck but relatively simple system that actually punishes rule-players and meta gamers, because the rules are ultraviolet clearance. And she can actually kill people more.
Dear lord, now I can't help but imagine a ponified Paranoia, with "The Computer" being a result of an attempt to fuse all of the Mane Six's (worst) personality traits into a perfect "harmony machine", with predictable results:
- Pinkie Pie's omniscience, chaos, "logic" and obsession with making everyone smile.
"YOU APPEAR TO BE DEPRESSED, TROUBLEBUCKER. DEPRESSION IS TREASONOUS."
- Twilight's cold logic, intellect, changeling paranoia, friendship reports and insane measures of dealing with problems.
"YOU APPEAR TO BE TARDY FOR THE POST-MISSION FRIENDSHIP REPORT, TROUBLEBUCKERS. PLEASE FILL OUT YOUR CHECKLISTS AND APPLY FOR TERMINATION."
- Fluttershy's stare, rage, and "care" for her subjects.
"I LOVE ALL MY SUBJECTS, AND ALL MY SUBJECTS LOVE ME. THOSE THAT DO NOT ARE TRAITOROUS CHANGELINGS AND SHALL BE SUBJECTED TO STARE TREATMENT."
- Rainbow's ego and sense of infallibility.
"IN MY INFINITE WISDOM, I HAVE DECREED THAT LIGHTNING CLOUDS BE PLACED INSIDE THE HYGIENIC WATER POOL CHAMBERS AS AN ALTERNATE SOURCE OF LIGHTING. YOU WILL TEST THESE OUT."
- Rarity's fixation on "fabulosity" as well as "generosity"(A.K.A. color code violations).
"YOU APPEAR TO BE WEARING GREEN, TROUBLESHOOTER. PREPARE FOR COLOR STERILISATION"
- Applejack's brutal honesty, "fancy mathematics" and tool provision.
"YOU WILL BE PROVIDED 4 LIVE GRENADES, 4 DUD GRENADES, ONE ATOMIC GRENADE, ONE EXPERIMENTAL CUPCAKE AND 10 GRENADE SAFTEY PINS FOR YOUR MISSION, DISTRIBUTED EVENLY AMONGST THE THREE OF YOU."
I'm a solid R.D. DM. I don't plan much more than 3 steps ahead, because I want the players to have fun. Furthermore, I did so enjoy the player's terror when they turned a corner and found a crypt full of lvl. 16 undead - at lvl. 2.
I find myself between Twilight Sparkle and Fluttershy here.
Stairc, you're a cross between Rarity and Pinkie Pie. Want a terrifying thought, readers? In this guy's Evertide campaign, it was implied that Pinkie Pie had taken over the Far Realm (plane of beholders, daelkyr, and other Eldritch abominations) and turned it into the Fun Realm. Yeah. Beholders with party hats.
God, you're right Newbie! I am *so* a cross of them, which is funny - since they're in many ways polar opposites. I try to season the logic and elegance of Rarity's world and plots with the zany characters and general fun of Pinkie Pie.
Yes, a pink pony did indeed do the things Newbiespud describes. If someone draws said picture, I would love to have a link to it.
I think I like Pinkie Pie's DM style the best. Next time I DM, I'm totally gonna steal the idea for a d1000 random event table! Sounds like a great way to inject something unexpected into the campaign and/or punish the problem players with absurd situations.
That's an awesome comment! If I were a DM I would try to create stable time loops and make my characters go on a universal scaled adventure that involves them doing activities that directly effect the present in the future. Unfortunately this would probably involve railroading of epic proportions, so it probably wouldn't work, but I definitely want to try at some point. I would basically use the Doctor Who model of fixed and changing points in time.
One of my old DMs ran a campaign with a D1000 reincarnation table. It was right around when Savage Species had just come out and he overhauled every monster into a monster class so that you could come back as quite literally anything. Much hilarity ensued.
I'm somewhere between Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie personally, I will let the dwarf be used as an improvised mace as it amuses me. How ever I do only have the Encounters to run so...
GM:"As you all exit the portal, you realize that the place looks... Odd. In addition to the horrific landscapes typical to the Far Realm, there now also appear to be colorful streamers hung all over the place, confetti litters the floor, balloons with smiley faces randomly fly all around, kept afloat with what appears to be evil eldritch energies and souls. In your immediate vicinity is what appears to be a cannon, pointed straight at you, as well as an ancient looking beholder and a Daelkyr, both wearing a party hat with a look of humiliation on their faces. Roll perception.
*Rolls*
GM:"As you gaze at your incredible surroundings, one of you notices that a pink colored pony with a poofy mane is suddenly standing in between you. Before any of you can react, she starts talking with a hyperactive voice."
Pinkie Pie:"Hi! My name is Pinkie Pie! Sorry about the ooky mess, were still working on livening this place up a bit. Also, you might want to stay away from the balloons for now, they like to bite. Anyway, welcome to the new and improved Far Realm, or as I like to call it, the Fun Realm!"
GM:"As she finishes talking, the cannon suddenly fires straight at you. Confetti and streamers fly all over the room, as well as a half-rotten corpse of a humanoid, filled with what appears to be candy and streamers. The corpse lands several feet away from you, exploding in a shower of limbs and wrapped candies."
Pinkie Pie:"Whoops! I forgot this wasn't that grumpy-guy-with-icky-weird-body's centennial birthday party anymore. Oh well! Anyways, welcome to the Fun Realms! Your our first non-native visitor ever since that cranky mage sent me here to lighten things up! Isn't that right fellas?"
GM:"The Beholder grunts in pitiful manner. The Daelkyr says what appears to be the phrase "Please kill me." in the Daelkyr language."
And now I'm thinking about all the crazy hijinks that could come from mortal realm summoners who didn't get the 'Under New Management' memo. Just imagine trying to summon some monster to smite your enemies and ending up with a Mindflayer in clown makeup and holding a pie.
... Oh dear Alicorn, I just invented the Joker Mindflayer.
This all sounds like the making of a good campaign plot actually...
- Pinkie Pie enters Far Realms, proceeds to turn it into Fun Realms
- As a result of the invasive presence, the evil and chaotic essence of the Far Realms begins to flee into the PC's world/dimension, slowly transforming it.
- The monsters, evils, abominations and sentient beings within notice this, and form into three factions.
- One faction wants to abandon the "Fun Realms", considering it "too far gone" and take over the PC's world/dimension, so that it can be transformed into a new Far Realm.
- The second faction want's to restore the Far Realms to it's original form. They will resort to ANY means to do this, good or evil, as long as things are returned to their status quo. They might even work with the PC's or be the ones that warn them of the danger to their world, or their employers.
- The third faction considers Pinkie Pie a godess (due to her chaotic nature) and have willingly warped their very evil natures to fit her new image of the world. They want Pinkie Pie to fully transform the Far Realms into the Fun Realms. They obey Pinkie Pie without question, however they also don't want her to leave. They will often act behind her back, killing anyone who doesn't adhere to their new ideology.
- Ultimately, the PCs will either have to:
- Convince Pinkie to leave (Allowing the Far Realms to be restored, saving their world),
- OR help Pinkie fully transform the Far Realm into the Fun Realm. This will doom the PC's world and anyone still on it, but create a incorruptible paradise-like world for the PC's to rule over.
- The PCs can also try to evacuate everyone from their world to the Fun Realm, "Noah's Ark" style. The success of this relies on the PC's abilities.
Joker Mindflayer sounds like he could be the ultimate BBEG, switching factions as he sees fit :p
Fun Fact: For the Random Encounter table for the newly-improved Fun Realm, the PCs had a 95% chance of encountering a 'party'. They'd be forced to play party games there, like 'pin the eye-stalk on the beholder'.
If people actually DO use this in your own games, I'm really looking forward to hearing about it!
Maybe. Since the rest of my normal group will be gone over the summer, along with our most recent DM, I'll see about getting together a group to practice with. This sounds like a good campaign to try.
I like Fluttershy in the third panel. She's about to SUmmon the wrath of nature and thoroughly wreck these kids, and her face is just like "oh, how disappointing".
Though based on their faces, it seems to have the desired effect regardless.
A taste of whats to happen? More like a taste of Sweetie Belle, assuming she has a bite attack as a natural weapon.
Sweetie Belle:"What the hay! I thought druids don't eat other animals because of their respect for nature or something!"
Fluttershy:"We respect nature by acting in a way that supports it, including a thing called 'Survival of the fittest'. You know how hamsters sometimes eat their young to survive?"
It's true - not all druids are your stereotypical peace-loving vegetarian hippie.
Heck, the druid I'm playing successfully got the rest of the party (which includes a large horde of NPCs) to cook their fallen. In his mind, it was either use the fallen as food, or hunt more owlbears.
Sadly, he wasn't able to use people as food after they went catatonic, due to the paladin drawing the line SOMEwhere.
Well, in actuality vegetarianism didn't really start until sometime in the 20th century, when shipping food became easier with the common use of trains and automobiles. Until that time a pure vegetarian would starve to death without some sort of meat in his diet. So it's less realistic for a druid to be a vegetarian in a middle age setting.
Now if you excuse me, I'm going to figure out whether my illusionist mage should pick enchantment or evocation as his secondary school of magic.
Kind of playing devil's advocate against Izandai, but alternatively, evocation could be quite the nice complement as well. Always keep the enemy guessing if that Wall of Fire is an illusion, or actually there. (+1 muffin to those who get the reference.)
Actually that was just a throwaway joke but the advice does help. I'm leaning more towards evocation simply because both illusion and enchantment attack will but evocation attacks reflex. I figure it will be better to use evocation simply because if I'm having a harder time getting past someone's will defense, then I can try their reflex. Though you guys are free to argue why I'm wrong.
There was true vegetarianism in the Buddhist countries, and there were similar sect practices by other religions in India and elsewhere. (Pythagoras and his followers were notorious for not just being vegetarians, but refusing to eat beans because they had "spirit" in them, as was manifested by their tendency to create farting.) And of course, there were ascetic Christian monks who lived all year on bread and water.
However, most places where vegetarianism appeared either had climates with great natural variety of fruits and vegetables during most of the year, or a few very nutritious high protein foods, like Egyptian wheat or soybeans, or they had a lot of eggs or dairy products in their diets.
ironic, considering your avatar is twi eating a book.
now imagine it was twilight instead of fluttershy.
it's not nature's wrath, it's the arcane wrath or maybe a super sayain/ponyta (See "feeling pinkie keen") form that basically end up witht the same results, except instead of a chimney it's a vortex with fireworks, laser beams, ad unicorn horn swords.
Say, once the new arc starts, will you be adding the leveled up character sheets to the cast page, or have a second page on the cast page for the updated sheets?
This is a bit unrelated to anything, but would anyone mind/want me to post a "D&D transcript" of the Mane Six vs Changelings battle, or Pinkie Pie's insane party?
The CMCF chronicles don't have the actual party though, just up to the chase, prior to the barn (Unless I missed a post, feel free to correct me). I was thinking a continuation to the interrogation/party, unless I happen to end up spoiling the ideas of the comic author or something.
Ah, the CMC just learned true fear at the hand (hoof?) of semi-divine druid Fluttershy. I hope they like being crushed underneath the Fist (Hoof?) Of Gaia!
"I view experience points as what a character learned in an adventure. In this regard, even failure is a lesson that earns some experience points."
That ends this guest arc! Once again, big thanks to this week-and-a-half's guest author. We're almost through the sabbatical - just one or two more pages to go.