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Post by Deleted on Apr 30, 2012 18:46:48 GMT -8
I've committed myself to run a con game using Savage Worlds in the Universe of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic... I"m a 42 year married male with two kids, one of which is a 9 year old daughter. This is the reason I agreed. I wan to get her involved in the hobby.
I have some great ideas to make it kid friendly; e.g. Gum drops for "Edible Bennies", Pink Glitter RPG dice, and adventure decks....
What I'm having problems with is the Magic System and Combat Systems! Please help! I need the combat to be non-violent, or at least cartoon violent. Magic in the show is innate... more cantrapie? I would like to have some edges that help the player characters break the 4th wall and manage all of this with minimal bookkeeping.
Any suggestions?
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Post by jazzisblues on May 1, 2012 6:47:39 GMT -8
First off take out the concept of wounds altogether ... Any attack can at most shake an opponent and if an npc is shaken make it comical. Also make the descriptions of combat kid friendly. One does not slash an enemy's arm off, one bonks the enemy on the head with their sword making the enemy's eyes cross and making them fall down (mimicking this is wonderful in kid friendly games).
With magic in SW it's all about the trappings. Use the bolt and burst powers but make them kid friendly ... A burst of purple sparkles instead of a fireball ...
Good luck with the game and the gaggle of little girls.
Cheers,
JiB
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Post by ironnikki on May 1, 2012 6:55:44 GMT -8
I'm not terribly familiar with MLP, so I may not be of much help, but I'll give it a shot anyway!
If you mean for the characters to each have a single, dedicated power, use the Super Power rules in SWD. That is, each character has a skill that has the title of their magic (i.e: Sparkle, Create Cream Puff, etc.) and has 20 power points to use that skill as they like. You can make the powers be anything you'd like, especially if you're going for a less violent scenario.
One of the great things about RPG's in general is that the GM is the final arbiter about what everything means. If you still want to include combat, but make it more cartoony, you don't necessarily have to change the system to do that: just describe in a more cartoony manner! Rolling a 12 on a shooting die could mean someone taking a bullet to the gut, or it could mean a pony getting conked by an acorn from a slingshot (again, total shot in the dark here, I've no experience with the world of MLP!) I think that the key to establishing that cartoony feel is the description, and of course, the delivery. Gumdrop bennies and pink glitter dice are great ideas for setting the mood, but you'll have to keep it up with lavish descriptions and high energy.
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clanhanna
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Post by clanhanna on May 1, 2012 12:01:41 GMT -8
Are you already set in stone with Savage Worlds? Steve Jackson's "Toon" might work more easily.
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HyveMynd
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Post by HyveMynd on May 1, 2012 17:23:42 GMT -8
Are you already set in stone with Savage Worlds? clanhanna beat me to it. I know this is the Savage Worlds subforum and all, but I'm wondering if that is really the best choice of system here. I think SW might be a bit complex for a 9 year old. I don't have kids mind you, nor have I ever attempted to run or play RPGs with kids, so take everything I say with a grain of salt. JiB probably has some useful practical experience with this sort of thing. Anyway, people say SW is "simple and easy", and it is. For adults and other younger people who are already familiar with RPG systems, that is. For young kids it's still a pretty complex system with lots of moving parts. Yes, you can strip out all the rules you don't need to make it a more kid friendly game, but that could end up being a lot of work. I haven't played Toon, but I would recommend using... wait for it... Yeah, that's right. Cosmic Patrol. It's like Savage Worlds lite. Characters have five stats (Brawn, Brains, Charisma, Combat, and 1 Speciality), each rated in a die type. That's it. No Skills or Edges or Feats to complicate things at all. Task resolution is just Stat Die + d12 vs. d20. Players get Plot Points (gumdrops in this case), which they can use to do anything. Anything. Reroll a die? Sure. Take an action before the bad guy goes? Sure. Say your pony has a magical key that will open the lock of the door you're trying to get through? Sure. Anything. To convert CP into MLP:FiM, just have each player choose one magical power their character is good at (invisibility cloud, blinding sparkles, solar-powered laser beam from their horn, whatever) and make that the Special Die Stat. There's no spell list to worry about, no power points to track, and no "right way" to use your power other than what the player comes up with. I've never watched MLP:FiM so I'm just making stuff up here, but a character with, say, the Sunbeam Horn power could use it to blind bad guys, light up a room, melt ice, warm someone up, start a fire, make a weapon hot so the bad guy drops it, or knock someone over (possibly). All of that is handled by Special Die + d12 vs. d20; score higher than the d20 and the thing you described happens. Rules aside, JiB and ironnikki are spot on. Don't worry about how the system handles damage and combat. Throw that all out. Follow the source material you're trying to emulate. Again, having never seen MLP:FiM I don't know what happens when a bad guys gets defeated. Maybe they cry and run away. Maybe they stop being bad and turn good. If they're a robot, maybe they break or fall apart. Perhaps they turn to stone, or get sucked back to their own dimension. Maybe they just disappear in a puff of smoke and laugh about how "I'll get you lousy ponies next time!" I wouldn't even worry about hit points either. Little guys take one hit, bigger guys take two, and the big bad takes more. If the players roll really well or describe an action that is super effective or creative, it counts as two or more hits. Also, as JiB said, it's all about how you, the GM, describe things. No one (living) is going to get decapitated; a sword blow to the head just makes stars pop out for a bit and then they're fine. I'll have to see if I can watch a couple of episodes...
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Post by Deleted on May 11, 2012 12:42:14 GMT -8
The only thing I can add is this - sit down with your daughter and watch 4 or 5 episodes to see what sort of situations the characters find themselves in and how they get out of them. Usually there is a slight moral lesson, often about friendship and teamwork (so it almost always takes three or more characters to solve the problem). The "bad" guys are typically dopey and more mischeivious or misguided than actually "evil". More often than not they are just being mean spirited and selfish than overtly aggressive or out for a fight. I just spent a few minutes on Wikipedia, there is an entire page for just this series: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Little_Pony:_Friendship_Is_Magic you might want to check it out... You might also try to contact Lauren Faust (the designer) through her Deviant Art page: fyre-flye.deviantart.com/She might be willing to write something up just for the situation - how awesome would THAT be??
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HyveMynd
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Post by HyveMynd on May 17, 2012 19:54:01 GMT -8
Though I fully expect to lose some "Man Points" for admitting this, I tried to sit down and watch My Little Pony: FiM a few nights back to see what kind of game you could make from it. I couldn't go longer than 10 minutes. I liked the visual design and style of everything, but I felt like I was overdosing on sugar through my eyeballs.
Have you had a chance to run the game yet, frankenspine69?
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Post by ironnikki on May 23, 2012 6:20:10 GMT -8
My roommate put me through it a month or so ago. I think the only reason my teeth didn't fall out was because I diluted the sweetness by picking up a video game at some point. I don't really remember, it all just kind of fades to black after a point...
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Post by savagedaddy on Oct 28, 2012 10:12:33 GMT -8
I've committed myself to run a con game using Savage Worlds in the Universe of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic... I"m a 42 year married male with two kids, one of which is a 9 year old daughter. This is the reason I agreed. I wan to get her involved in the hobby. I have some great ideas to make it kid friendly; e.g. Gum drops for "Edible Bennies", Pink Glitter RPG dice, and adventure decks.... What I'm having problems with is the Magic System and Combat Systems! Please help! I need the combat to be non-violent, or at least cartoon violent. Magic in the show is innate... more cantrapie? I would like to have some edges that help the player characters break the 4th wall and manage all of this with minimal bookkeeping. Any suggestions? Here's a confession: I originally wrote this post for advice with my First Savage Worlds GM experience at our local mini con. I wrote it as Frankenspine69. After running Savage Worlds exclusively at my monthly local mini-con, my moniker has changed to Savage Daddy here on the forums; as a result of running MLP FiM and one of the player saying "Aw... you're a Savage Daddy'. At any rate, after running a number of original Savage Worlds one-shots over the last six months our con organizer has begged me to run Savage My Little Pony exclusively in the day session to grow the hobby with younger players. So expect, more posts in this thread starting after Halloween 2012. I eventually plan to create fan setting book for My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic for anyone who wants to run it for their kids.
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Post by jazzisblues on Oct 28, 2012 11:48:40 GMT -8
I've committed myself to run a con game using Savage Worlds in the Universe of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic... I"m a 42 year married male with two kids, one of which is a 9 year old daughter. This is the reason I agreed. I wan to get her involved in the hobby. I have some great ideas to make it kid friendly; e.g. Gum drops for "Edible Bennies", Pink Glitter RPG dice, and adventure decks.... What I'm having problems with is the Magic System and Combat Systems! Please help! I need the combat to be non-violent, or at least cartoon violent. Magic in the show is innate... more cantrapie? I would like to have some edges that help the player characters break the 4th wall and manage all of this with minimal bookkeeping. Any suggestions? Here's a confession: I originally wrote this post for advice with my First Savage Worlds GM experience at our local mini con. I wrote it as Frankenspine69. After running Savage Worlds exclusively at my monthly local mini-con, my moniker has changed to Savage Daddy here on the forums; as a result of running MLP FiM and one of the player saying "Aw... you're a Savage Daddy'. At any rate, after running a number of original Savage Worlds one-shots over the last six months our con organizer has begged me to run Savage My Little Pony exclusively in the day session to grow the hobby with younger players. So expect, more posts in this thread starting after Halloween 2012. I eventually plan to create fan setting book for My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic for anyone who wants to run it for their kids. SAVAGE SOCK PUPPET !!!! Heh heh heh ... just teasing ... I am very glad that the game(s) went well for you. As everyone knows I am a huge fan of the system and really enjoy getting to see more people playing it. Cheers, JiB
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Post by savagedaddy on Dec 2, 2012 18:47:31 GMT -8
Friendship Reports.
Dear Princess Celestia,
I am happy to report that the dragon has departed our fair country, and that it was my good friend Fluttershy who convinced him to go. This adventure has taught me to never lose faith in your friends. They can be an amazing source of strength, and can help you overcome even your greatest fears.
Always your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.
One of the things I'm considering making a permanent part of my Savage Worlds MLP: FiM is a 'Moral for the story". At the beginning of each session, I intend to hand the players a scroll with a portion of the report per-written. My hope is this will give them a compass for plot hooks in the adventure....
Dear Princess Celestia,
I am happy to report that __________________________ and ____ ________________ ___. I learned that you should never lose faith in your friends. They can be an amazing source of strength, and can help you overcome even your greatest fears.
Always your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.
The particulars are left open to player action. As the last action of an adventure, the players can work on filling in the blanks together, thus creating an adventure log.
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Post by savagedaddy on Dec 10, 2012 15:41:24 GMT -8
Well the heat is on. My monthly con-organizer pleaded with me to run My Little Pony; Friendship is Magic in Savage Worlds exclusively for the next six months. They have changed the scheduled play from 2pm - 12am (2 4-hour blocks) to 10am - 7 pm. He wants to parlay the FFF of Savage Worlds and the immense popularity of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic in to larger family-friendly attendance, in hopes to grow the hobby...
So I'm raking my brain to come up with a mlp story line that runs smoothly with 1 player and/or up to 8. He wants my blurb my this Friday. Argh... LoL
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HyveMynd
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Post by HyveMynd on Dec 10, 2012 16:54:28 GMT -8
Holy shit dude. I hope you're charging this guy for all the work you're putting into this thing. Jeeze.
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Post by savagedaddy on Dec 11, 2012 8:16:39 GMT -8
Nah. I do it for the Love of The Game
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Post by savagedaddy on Dec 13, 2012 13:30:22 GMT -8
I just sent the blurb for my January 2013 My Little Pony con game. Thought I'd share it with the community....
Return of the Changeling Queen! by Jerrod ‘Savage Daddy’ Gunning
Darkness has returned to Ponyville! Princess Celestia is nowhere to be found! The Mane Six must gallop off to the heart of the Changeling Kingdom to rescue the Cutie Mark Crusaders from the vile clutches of Queen Chrysalis! An original Savage Worlds adventure for 1 – 8 players set in the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic universe. Pre-generated cannon characters provided.
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