#RPGaDay2025 - Day 2 - What Rule Excited Me?

Day 2 of #RPGaDay was the somewhat awkward "Prompt" and rather than discussing a statistical breakdown of pizza delivery time to the gaming tables, I gave the random tables at the bottom a roll (or three technically).

Effectively, the question became "What Rule Exited Me? " 

I've got to admit, there are far too many rules that have displeased me recently, so I'll continue the trend from years past and talk about the My Little Pony: Tails of Equestria Storytelling game.

Please note: I'm not talking about the Renegade Games My Little Pony RPG.  All the Hasbro RPG properties are bloated and overpriced. 

Tails of Equestria was the River Horse Productions licensed version.  It was 152-pages of concise perfection.  

I'll clarify that I'm not a brony.  Just happened to have two girls who were 5 and 7 who had already watched the modern show when the game came out... as well as sitting through my younger sister's 80's cartoons so I could get GI Joe and Transformers.  

The system is crisp, Savage Worlds-y, if you might.  The small book covers everything an 8-year old Pony fan, or some stumbling parent would need to know about the general rules of role-playing.  It covers the main characters from the show, your own ponies, epic play, and even "Level-0".  

My personal favorite are Tokens of Friendships.

Tokens, at a glance, are Bennies... rerolls.   But their acquisition and use is what won me over. 

• Each character starts with 1 Token of Friendship per person at the table, GM included.

Like a Bennie, it can be used to change the dice 

• Using one token is essentially a re-roll
• Using two tokens, re-roll, but use a d20 for the result (most basic stats are d6-d12)
• Using three tokens, you ignore the dice and pass the test or win the challenge automatically!

You earn tokens by levelling up or behaving as an excellent friend, or, even better, you invite a new player to the table for the first time, if you're playing over and over.

My favorite part, so fitting for the game?  You may share you tokens with other ponies, so that end game encounter/big-bad, when the group is down to the last die rolls and there's three Tokens of Friendship amongst all the ponies?   

Combine them all.  Automatically succeed. Win the day.  

I always mention my one game from Mepacon Fall 2017, because out of the a collection of kids, parents, one brony, and two random college bros who had time to kill?  That's exactly what happened, and it was the dudes enthusiastically tossing their last two Tokens of Friendship across the table to let the young girl staring down evil to win the day!   After all my years of GMing, it may have been the most perfect moment. 

Alas, a quick check with River Horse and the game is finally out of print, and even worse, the company is pretty close to being defunct. 

My girls are now teenagers, one still goes to conventions with me and just ran four events at Historicon.  

Both still paint up ponies when the get a chance to visit. 

Millie

Maja