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Adventures in Equestria
An MLP:FIM RPG
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Welcome to the magical land of Equestria, where ponies are the dominant species, and love and friendship thrive. In this game, you will take on the role of a pony (or some other species if you see fit) and explore the world that holds as much excitement as it does danger.
 This game is inspired by RoyGBiv's 'Little Ponies from Equestria', itself inspired by 'Teenagers from Outer Space', and as such falls squarely in the 'Beer and Pretzels' genre of RPGs. The players and GM should treat this game with all the seriousness that it gives itself... which is to say, not very much.
 Equestria is a silly setting, full of colorful ponies (and boy howdy do we mean COLORFUL), but it also has some pretty good themes, most importantly, the underlying foundations of friendship. Loyalty, Honesty, Generosity, Laughter, and Kindness can bring you only so far, for true friendship, there has to be an element of Magic.
 So grab your favorite snacks, pull up a chair, and leave your reservations at the door. It's time to love and tolerate like you've never done before. Oh hey... I'm a Zebra!
 
===Character Creation===
The most important thing you need to do when making a character is ask youself 'Who do I want to be'. A character sheet with stats and abilities written on it is just that, numbers and words. For those to mean anything you have to think about who your character is. What's their name, where did they grow up, what did they want to do? These questions and more define the type of pony your character is.
 That being said, if you want to hold off on those questions until later, that is perfectly acceptable. Just remember to keep them in mind as you go through the other steps of character creation.
 After coming up with who you want you character to be, you then need to go through the steps of assigning their Abilities, defining their Skills, and choosing their Talents. Choosing a Species for your character can come at any stage, though it may be wise to identify your Species at the same time you choose their Talents.
 With all that said and done, and with your pony's personality defined, you should have a complete character within only a few minutes. Reading this introduction will probably take longer than that!
 
===Abilities===
Ponies have abilities that determine their inherent strengths and weaknesses. These are by no means limitations, but rather tools. There are four Abilities.
 Strength represents a pony's physical might and resilience.
 Speed represents a pony's reaction and coordination.
 Knowledge represents a pony's mental might and resilience.
 Personality represents a pony's social prowess and force of will.
Starting characters roll four six-sided dice and assign each die to one of the four Abilities. If a pony's Ability total is less than 12, they may choose an extra Talent. A character of a non-pony race may have certain adjustments to these Abilities as defined in the Species section.
 
===Skills===
Skills represent training the pony has picked up through their lives. Skills are too varied to make an accurate list, but the following skills represent a good foundation to start from and expand.
 Art is the foundation for a pony concerned with creation lasting and aesthetically pleasing works.
 Athletics works for any test of strength or endurance. It may also represent gymnastic ability.
 Combat is good for ponies as both an offensive and defensive skill.
 Cooking may seem like a less than useful skill, but can almost always break the ice.
 Deception is the skill to use if you are hoping to hide the truth from somepony.
 Labor shows a pony's skill with physical work and willingness to earn their keep.
 Lore can aid a pony who seeks to understand the world around them.
 Magic is useful for all races as it can add extra 'umph' to a pony's Gifts.
 Music might be appealing to a pony who wishes to sing or play an instrument.
 Perception works for ponies hoping to notice something others might have missed.
 Stealth is a useful skill for ponies who wish to remain unnoticed.
 Technology seems odd in a world so reliant on magic, but new advances are always on the horizon.
 Treatment represents a degree of skill with medical care.
Ponies roll two six-sided dice and can assign any number of the total to any skill they wish, though they are limited to a maximum of 3 in any skill at character creation.
 
===Talents===
Everypony has a talent, and this represents something innate that a pony just knows. Like skills, these can be widely varied, and the ones listed here are mostly examples. Unlike Abilities and Skills however, a Talent is not a flat number, but is something much more unique.
 Changeling - Whether you're actually a Changeling or not, you at least have the abilities of one. With this Talent, you are able to assume any shape you wish, even creating a new identity with minimal effort.
 Engineer - With wrench in hand and blueprints in your head you can build darn near anything you put your mind to, even if it doesn't exist. All you need is some basic materials and you'll have a steam engine in no time.
 Fire Breath - Fun fact, Dragons breath fire. Funner fact, so do you. With this Talent you've somehow figured out how to produce gouts of flame from your mouth. No, we aren't going to ask HOW you did it.
 Flight - Many creatures possess the gift of flight, but for ponies, this is the most obvious benefit granted to the pegasi. This allows a creature to fly as well as walk on clouds as if they were solid ground.
 Growth - The pony's connection to the land allows them to grow plantlife even in the most barren of soil. They can also hasten the growth of plantlife with enough effort.
 Hammerspace - Nopony knows HOW you do it, but you've ALWAYS got everything you need for any occasion. Beyond this, it's not even obvious you have it. It's as if you carry around an invisible arsenal that only reveals itself when absolutely needed (or insanely hilarious).
 Magic (Specialization) - Unlike the Magic Skill, this Talent represents the ability to perform impressive and showy feats. This is the bread and butter of Unicorns, and they often have some key field of study that they just cannot fail at.
 Speed - You're the fastest thing of four legs (or on two wings depending on your Species). You can push the speed barrier beyond what others are capable of. You will never lose in a race, unless contested by someone else with this Talent, and even then you'll still beat everypony else.
 Tame - Animals instinctively react to this pony, cowing to their will. This pony is able to communicate with any creature, mundane or magical, even through language barriers.
 Telekinesis - With absolutely no physical effort, this pony can lift objects with only their mind. Small objects are easy, and sometimes even great weights can be held aloft by a strong willed pony. Carrying multiple objects can get tiresome, but unless a burden is truly massive, this pony can generally shoulder it... figuratively speaking.
Ponies being with two Talents, one specified by their Species, the other chosen by the player. As stated above, if a character has less than 12 Abilities total, they get an additional Talent.
 
===Species (Pony)===
At first glance, choosing a Species would seem simple. You've got Earth Ponies, Unicorns, and Pegasi. There are also Alicorns, but they are much more rare and it requires insane effort to Ascend to that level of power (you can find this information under Ascension). In this section we will introduce the three Pony types that a player can begin play as.
 Earth Pony - Ponies without wings or horns, but still magical in their own right. With their Gift of the Land, Earth Ponies form connections much easier than others, with plants, animals, even other ponies. Earth Ponies may choose Growth or Tame for their Species chosen Talent.
 Unicorn - Unicorns represent the overtly magical side of ponykind. With a single horn adorning their head, they weave magic like no other creature in the land. Unicorns tend toward more mental and social pursuits, but no one would look twice at one in a foot race. Unicorns may choose Telekinesis or Magic (Specialization) as their Species chosen Talent.
 Pegasus - Wings for flight and nerves of steel, the pegasi of the past were a great military force. Even today the E.U.P. Guard has more pegasi in its ranks than any other pony species. Pegasi characters may choose Flight or Speed as their Species chosen Talent.
 
===Species (Other)===
Remember how in the last section we talked about there being more Species than the simple Earth Ponies, Unicorns, and Pegasi? Well, here is where we prove it. It's not time to break out the lesser known, but still just as viable, alternate Species. While it may seem that these options are more powerful than regular Ponies, it pays to be aware that this gain is only in the short term.
 Changeling: Changelings are a strange hybrid of insect and pony that feed off of emotions. Their ability to shapeshift and infiltrate pony society without notice leads to much fear and superstition, and their hive mind ensures they are not easily found out. Changeling players begin with +1 Personality, their Deception Skill at +3 and have the Changeling Talent.
 Dragon: Dragons are fire-breathing reptilian creatures with the ability to fly. They are most often found wild, though occasionally one may be raised in pony society. Dragons get stronger as they grow older, and begin growing wings in their 'teenage' years. A Dragon begins play with +1 Strength, +1 Knowledge, and the Fire Breath Talent.
 Griffon: Griffons hail from the lands of Griffonstone. They have the body of a lion, with the head, wings, and fore-claws of an eagle. Griffons are exceptionally proud and slow to change, but this is through generations of hardship rather than an innate racial trait. Griffons begin play with +1 Speed, their Combat Skill at +3, and the Flight Talent.
 
===Gameplay===
Well, took us long enough to get here, now didn't it. Now, lets get into the nitty-gritty. How do you resolve conflicts in this game? A single roll of the dice. Whenever a player wants to do something that the GM deems is of sufficient difficulty, they will call for a Test. A Test is resolved with a roll of a six-sided die added to the character's called for Ability. The player can try to weasel in a bonus from a skill they think is applicable if they aren't sure they can do it with Ability alone. Or they can attempt to convince the GM to let them automatically succeed with the use of a talent.
 For example: Apple Bloom wants to try her hoof at building a float for the parade (it doesn't matter what parade, just go with it). The GM asks her to make a Knowledge Test. Applebloom reasons that since this requires not only Knowledge, but also hooves-on labor, she asks if she can add her Labor Skill to the Test. The GM agrees and Apple Bloom rolls a 3 on the die, getting a result of 9 (3 + 4 + 2). The GM determines that this is more than enough for her to successfully build a float in the span of a night. If Apple Bloom had been thinking though, she could've just said she uses the Engineer Talent and not have had to make the roll at all. Such is the life of forgetful players though.
 Now, that's all well and good for a solitary Test, where it's the player rolling alone against some number the GM chooses. There are also two more types of test. A Team Test is when multiple characters come together to try and achieve a favored result, while an Opposed Test is when a Player is rolling against a GM Character, or another party member.
 With a Team Test, the Leading player in the Test makes the roll as normal, while their allies roll a similar Test. If the allies get a number over half of the Target Number, they add their own Ability or Skill (Whichever is greater) as a bonus to the Leading Character's roll.
 When an Opposed Test is called for, the Player will make the appropriate Test as called for, however, instead of rolling against a static number chosen by the GM, they will be rolling against a random number determined by another Character's roll. In an Opposed Test, the character who rolled the highest total wins.
 With the idea of Opposed Tests though, we now get into another gameplay mechanic. While traditional RPGs will have a seperate Hit Point Ability or somesuch, this game makes your Abilities pull double duty. When an Opposed Test is rolled against a certain ability, the loser of the Test has that Ability temporarily lowered by 1. If an Ability hits 0, the character is no longer able to make Tests of that ability. Kind of hard to win a hoof-wrestling contest when you've pulled a muscle, you know. In most cases, a character will recover in a Scene or two, though if they wish, they can play up the injury to try for extra Element of Harmony points at the end of the session.
 Now, we've gone over the basics of rolling Tests and determining Health, but one thing we never got into was what Target Numbers are. Well, you can guess they're meant to be some invisible obstacle that a player must overcome, but how should they be determined? Well, in theory, anything below a 2 is trivial, literally ANYPONY could do it. When you get to 5, that's going to be something considered Easy for an average character. 7 is purely Average, if you have a decent head on your shoulders, you can succeed on that. 10 is considered Hard, especially if you aren't well trained. 12 is Very Hard, do not attempt this unless you have a great amount of Ability and Skill. 15 is Nearly Impossible, as it requires a great deal of Ability, Skill, and luck. 20+ is Impossible, not impossible-impossible, just the kind of impossible that Evil Knievel attempts. How's THAT for a dated reference.
 One final thing to touch upon is the idea of Advantage and Disadvantage. These are modifications to a Test. If a player has the proper set-up and a Test has next to no reason to fail, they gain advantage, which allows them to roll two dice and keep the better result. If all the odds are stacked against the player and they're racing against the clock, they have disadvantage and must roll two dice and take the worse result.
 
===Advancement===
So, you've completed the adventure, the snacks are all gone, and your taking your last swig of... whatever it is you're drinking. What now? Well, now you recieve your Elements of Harmony. Not the in-game artifacts mind you, these are just advancement points that you use to make your character better, stronger, faster, yadda-yadda-yadda.
 Now, you know the Elements of Harmony in the show. What do they do here? Well, each character has a Pool of the five Elements of Harmony that they can get points for. Yes, I know there are six Elements, just bear with me until we get to that point. When the session is over, the GM will give one Element of Harmony point to each player, maybe two if they think the players did well. Then, going clockwise from the GM, the players give each other player an additional Element of Harmony point. Following is a simple idea of how points might be awarded after a session.
 Honesty - Owning up to the truth even when it hurts represents Honesty.
 Kindness - Showing compassion to others, especially if they have not earned it, respresents Kindness.
 Laugher - Being able to bring joy to others at their darkest hour represents of Laughter.
 Generosity - Willingly giving up something you want to make another happy represents Generosity.
 Loyalty - Standing next to your friends when an opportunity gives you the chance to leave represents Loyalty.
 
Advancement is based on these five point pools instead of a single point pool to curb rampant advancement. But once you have enough Elements, you may begin to spend them in certain ways. Unless otherwise stated, all points must be drawn from the same pool.
* Advancing an Ability requires twice as many Element points as your current Ability.
* Advancing a Skill requires a number of points equal to the Skill plus 1.
* Gaining an Element of Magic point requires 1 point from each of the five Elements of Harmony, or 6 points from a single Element of Harmony.
* Gaining a new Talent requires 2 Element of Magic points.
 Non-Pony species (Changelings, Dragons, and Griffons) have a a harder time when it comes to advancement, as they are required to pay an additional point of whatever Element is required. For an Element of Magic using 1 point of each Element, this only requires they pay one additional point from whichever Element they choose.
 
Element of Magic points are special, they are the only Element of Harmony points that can be spent in game, and they have a few unique uses when spent in such a way.
* Edit a Scene - Spending an Element of Magic to edit the scene allows the player to dictate certain details that may be present if a GM has not stated whether or not they are there. The GM has full veto power on these details, so it's best to keep any changes minor.
* Hidden Talent - You may spend an Element of Magic to temporarily gain a new Talent. This Talent goes away at the end of the scene it was used, but it can be any Talent you wish to possess for that moment.
* Gain Advantage/Force Disadvantage - An Element of Magic spent this way can give you or an ally advantage on a Test, or it can force an adversary to have disadvantage.
* Narrative Guidance - Spending an Element of Magic for this will allow you to gain some insight that will lead you to your objective. The GM gives a hint, clue, or other bit of help to guide to towards the proper conclussions.
* Second Wind - When your Ability has been reduced to 0, you can spend an Element of Magic to instantly return to normal without having to wait a scene.
 
===Ascension===
The Princesses of Sun and Moon, The Princess of Love, The Princess of the Magic of Friendship. These four ponies represent the potential all ponies have within themselves. There may be rumors that all Alicorns are born into their roles, but Princess Mi Amore Cadenza and Princess Twilight Sparkle are proof that Ascension is possible.
 For a Pony to Ascend, they must naturally be of one of the three pony species (Earth Pony, Unicorn, or Pegasus), they must have an artifact of power (a Spectrum Crystal, an Element of Magic, the Alicorn Amulet, etc), and they must perform an act that goes above and beyond the limits of their unique talent.
 What this means in game terms is that they need to acquire an artifact, perform an in-game action normally outside their means, and have all six Elements of Harmony at 6. In return for this incredible investment of time and energy, they can Ascended to Alicornhood, gaining +1 to all their Abilities, +3 Skills, and a Talent each from the two pony species they did not choose at character creation. In addition to this, the newly Ascended Alicorn's allies (though not the Alicorn themself) gain double the Element of Harmony points they would've normally gained at the end of each session.