Puzzles and Ponies: Introduction and Basics

 
 
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Puzzles and Ponies role playing system
Fillydelphia Edition 1.5 Beta
 
 
What You'll Need:    
An original character concept already made.
You will be applying a stat sheet to said character.
 
Why:
This system is used to determine your characters abilities, ensure balance, and for Events which involve dice to determine the outcome of actions.
It might sound a little tricky but don’t worry, it’s very simple!
 
Remember: In normal roleplay you are not required to roll and no one can force you to do so. You do NOT have to use P&P to actually Role Play. We do not restrict personality of your characters. You are however still required to have stats present and accounted for on all your character profiles, regardless of how often they are used. It may also be required for some optional Events and games however, so make sure everything is correct!
 
Table of Contents
 
Making your character sheet:
When making a character sheet, you will need to decide their Stats, Race and Cutie-Mark.
You are given 13 points total to distribute between Stats. Stats must be at least 1, and cannot go higher than 6. (1 is minimum, 6 is maximum)
You may choose between the three standard pony types: Earth, Pegasus and Unicorn. (If you wish to make a character that is not the standard three pony types you must consult a moderator first.)
The cutie-mark and talent may be anything you wish as long as it adheres to the rules of the site and the style of the show. (Consult a moderator if in doubt.)
 
The Stats of a pony:
Characters have five Stats, which represent their innate abilities. These stats are Gumption, Quickness, Excitement, Smartness and Caring. Each of them determines how good your character is at certain tasks:
 
  • Gumption: Strength and physical endurance. Used for physical activities like lifting heavy objects or running for a long time.
 
  • Quickness: Speed and reflexes. Used for physical activities like sprinting or flying fast, or dodging incoming objects.
 
  • Excitement: Will, mental endurance, determination. Used for mental activities like staying awake or resisting mental influence.
 
  • Smartness: Intellect, creativity, memory. Used for mental activities such as solving logic puzzles, remembering information.
 
  • Caring: Kindness and empathy. Used for social activities such as understanding fellow ponies, caring for living creatures.
 
Reminder: You are given 13 points total to distribute between Stats. Stats must be at least 1, and cannot go higher than 6. (1 is minimum, 6 is maximum)


Example stats:
Gumption: 3
Quickness: 1
Excitement: 4
Smartness: 2
Caring: 3
 
Secondary Stats:
These are Secondary Stats, used to measure your reserves of health/endurance, your capacity for magic, and the limits of your personal ability, respectively. They are determined by adding together various main attributes.
 
Gumption + Excitement = HP.
HP means hitpoints. This is your total endurance, mental and physical. You will lose hitpoints by a margin of how much a roll beat you. If you roll a 5 to defend, and the attacker rolled a 7, you lose 2 hitpoints. When you are at zero this means your pony is too fatigued to continue and must rest. It takes one day to fully replenish these points.
 
Smartness + Caring = MP
MP means Mana Points. This is how much you can use your Racial Ability(e.g. Unicorn Spells or Earth Pony stability). Using Racial Abilities consumes MP. Once you are out of MP you cannot use these abilities. It takes one day to fully replenish these points.
 
Your Cutie Mark Related Stat + 1 = SP
SP are Special Points which may be used like MP, but can ONLY be used for cutie mark related skills. They can be used with your MP in the event that use has to do with your cutie mark, but cannot be used for anything that does NOT have to do with your cutie mark. (Your cutie mark related stat is one you choose yourself)
 
Example of secondary stats:
Gumption: 3
Quickness: 1
Excitement: 4 (Cutie Mark stat)
Smartness: 2
Caring: 3
HP: 7  (3 + 4)
MP: 5 (2 + 3)
SP: 5 (4 + 1)
 
Pony types and pony abilities:
There are three types of ponies,  and each has their own special Racial Ability.
 
Earth Ponies are usually the most well rounded ponies, having spent their lives learning how to do a career or provide for the ponies of Equestria. They may not have fancy magic or flying, but they know what they're doing when it comes to everyday work.
 
Earth Pony special ability: Stability
+2 points to result on rolling when the dice rolls a 1 or a 2. Costs 1 MP each.  Used automatically until MP runs out. Not an optional ability.
 
Pegasus Ponies are the fliers of the Equestria, tasked with keeping the weather in line. They're usually fast, and can fly using their quickness.
 
Pegasus Pony special ability: Flying
Performing special flying stunt will cost MP.  (e.g. Creating weather effect, flying faster than normal.) Amount of MP used is determined by difficulty of trick, or time spent flying.
 
Unicorn Ponies are the most magical type of pony. They have magical powers based on their talents. They cannot start off with spells unrelated to their talents, but can learn them later with great difficulty.
 
Unicorn Pony special ability: Magic
Performing magic will cost MP. (e.g. any spell that are more difficult than a very minor telekinesis or illumination spell.) Amount used is determined by the strength of the spell, as well as the amount of time the spell is active.

 
Cutie Mark:
A cutie mark is the most important part of your pony. When a pony discovers their talent at a young age, a cutie mark appears upon their flank, representing that talent.

Once you know what your pony’s talent and cutie mark is, you need to assign it a single Stat. (Gumption, Quickness, Excitement, Smartness or Caring.)

Each type of pony benefits from their Cutie Mark in their own way:
 
Earth Ponies get a skill related to their cutie mark. Whenever they are doing something related to that skill, their stats are considered to be one point higher when rolling. Skills are generally a broad category.
Example: Pinkie Pie has Party related skills, which she can use for making up songs, cooking delicious party foods, and playing pranks.
 
Pegasus Ponies get a more limited bonus. They are allowed to use their cutie mark to cancel one failed roll per scene, so long as it is related to their cutie mark.
Example: Fluttershy, who has an animal-related cutie mark, can re-roll a failed attempt to calm down a rampaging emu.
 
Unicorn Ponies get magic spells related to their talents. To cast a spell they roll and add their cutie mark related stat value. When using Telekinesis on heavy objects, roll for Gumption instead. Casting spells unrelated to talent get no bonus from cutie mark stat and is done at -3.
Example: Rarity has a "Fashion" cutie mark. She decides to create a beautiful saddle for a pony heading off to Canterlot, and so rolls a six-sided die + Caring.

 
Example Character:
Let's go through all this, just to clear up any confusion. Here’s an example character to help you finish yours.
 
Sprinkles: A unicorn pony who just loves baked goods and works at a fancy bakery.
Cutie Mark: A doughnut covered in sprinkles. His talent is decorative confectionary. His spells involve making doughnut holes and sprinkling doughtnuts in a balanced fashion.
Cutie Mark stat: Excitement
Gumption: 3 - Despite his round appearance he’s pretty strong!
Quickness: 1 - Not very fast though. All those bagels.
Excitement: 4 - He’s very enthusiastic about his job AND his food.
Smartness: 2 - Not the brightest bulb.
Caring: 3 - It’s important to him that ponies enjoy their meal.
HP: 7
MP: 5
SP: 5

 
Game Mechanics:
Here’s how to play using Puzzles and Ponies! While not required at all, it can be used to settle disputes and provide fun mini-games within roleplay. It can also be used to set challenges for your own characters to see if they succeed or not at things.


How to Roll Dice: In our chat rooms we have an inbuilt dice-rolling system.
To roll dice type in !#d#, where # is a number you choose.
e.g. !1d6 rolls one, six-sided die. !2d4 rolls two, three-sided dice. !1d10 rolls a ten-sided die.
 
One pony contest:
All contests are decided through six-sided dice. (!1d6) The pony rolls a six sided die, adds the relevant stats, and see if it either beats the set challenge. If it is a simple thing (like climbing a mountain or finding a rare book), either yourself, or the event host(provided you’re in an event), sets a number you have to beat (Also known as the difficulty class).
 
Here is the basic Difficulty Class chart:
1. A Foal could do this.
    2. A Filly/Colt could do this
    3. A Young Pony Could do this.
    4. An Average Pony Could do this.
    5. An above Average Pony could do this.
    6. A significantly above Average Pony could do this.
    7. A highly capable Pony can do this.
    8. An extremely capable Pony can do this.
    9. A Pony who is best in the region can manage this.
    10. A Pony who is best in the country can manage this.
    11. World-Class skills are required.
    12. Maximum Pony Potential Required.
    13+. Friendship required.
 
Example of a challenge: TwilightSparkle accidently created a plant monster in her library! She feels this isn’t conducive to her studies so quickly starts casting a spell to get rid of the monster!. Since this is a challenge she’s setting for herself, she sets it at 7. (If it is an event the pony running the event would set the number) She rolls a !1d6 and gets a 2. She then adds her smartness of 6, totalling her roll at 8. She only just manages to turn the plant monster back into the potted plant Spike bought to decorate the library with. She also expended 3 MP in the process.
 
Friendship is used for very big problems. A pony using friendship rolls as usual, but then adds it to another pony's roll, while describing how they are helping the other pony out. You can use friendship once a day, as it is a powerful ability. Multiple ponies can help out to defeat especially scary foes, leading to truly enormous totals.
  • For the first helper, simply add your roll
  • Second helper, add to the total minus one (-1)
  • Third helper, add to the total minus two (-2)
  • Fourth helper (-3) and this continues for each extra helper, going down -1 more. it can never be drop below one, though, every pony can still help!
 
Two pony contest:
Ponies do not die in our chat, but they can be injured. In an opposed contest between two ponies where one is trying to fight the other, both roll their attack (!1d6). If the defender rolls higher; then nothing happens. If the attacker rolls higher, then you subtract the difference between the two rolls from and deduct it from the HP of the defender. You may add stats if they are relevant to the action you are performing. Otherwise you do not need to add stats at all.


Remember: You are still expected to Role Play conflicts. The dice cannot RP for you! Contests between ponies aren’t limited to combat, it can also be encounters of multiple aspects, such as strength in a hoof wrestling match.
 
Example of conflict: Pinkie Pie giggles and throws a pie at RainbowDash “Food fight!”. She rolls a !1d6 and gets a 3. She adds her Excitement of 6 to the 3 she rolled, resulting in 9.
RainbowDash yelps and tries to fly out of the way quickly, flapping her wings madly. She rolles a !1d6 and gets a 5. She then adds her Quickness of 6 to the 5, and gets 11.
Pinkie Pie’s pie, completely misses! If Rainbow had rolled lower than a 3 she might have been in trouble.

 
Extra information and tips:
 
Things to remember:
  • PnP should be fully optional outside of events. No pony should be forced to roll unless it is an event, EVER.
  • PnP is only used to settle dispute or adding randomness when desired. Before you roll against somepony, whisper them first to make sure they are okay with rolling. Respect them if they do not wish to roll and play free form.
  • However, it is still mandatory to have stats in profile for character even if you never uses it. At it's core, PnP in Fillydelphia.com is used for ponies to understand how your pony is and how they compare with each other.
  • Last but not least, this is meant to be a light, funny game. Don't require tons of rolling, and make sure that everypony has a good time!
 
Alternate species:
If you want to play something that’s NOT one of the three standard ponies you must consult a moderator.
  • Baby Dragons do not get cutie marks, they get a flame ability. Works similar to a single unicorn spell.
  • Breezies work the same as Pegasus ponies but they cannot manipulate weather and their Gumption cannot be higher than 2.
  • Flutterponies work same as Pegasus ponies, but they cannot manipulate weather.
  • Griffins can fly like pegasus ponies. They do not get cutie marks and cannot use Friendship. They  have 15 points rather than 13 to spend.
  • Zebras are essentially the same as Earth Ponies.
 
Playing a Foal:
Consult a moderator as usual.
All Foals have 2 less points to spend on attributes and do not have cutie-marks.
  • Earth pony foals still get a skill bonus of +1 to whatever their future talent is, but if they only JUST succeed at a roll with this bonus included. (Getting a 6 on a challenge of 6) then it fails badly, instead of simply not succeeding.
  • Pegasus foals have a -1 Quickness when flying. Failing flight means crashing.
  • Unicorn foals can only cast spells of simple Levitation and Light. While they can attempt other spells at -1, failing the roll means the spell backfires or fails dramatically.

 

Written by: Guild Pawn Revision by Fillydelphia.com
Further butchered by Barbarella and Shinula (Version 1.5) Any questions, please ask!
Basic Ideas Stolen From: Drunken Bear Fighter, MLP:FiM, and /co/.