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Post by citricacid on Aug 10, 2013 19:10:05 GMT -8
Game Master - CitricAcid
Players Characters Race
Manda Ace Constabulary Unicorn
Dan Yedrilla Ponica IV Earth
Alex Short Circuit Pegasus
(aka Shorty, aka Faceplant)
Charlie Théku Zebra
Time and place
I've set it in "present-day Equestria," intentionally leaving it a bit vague. The location is arbitrarily far away from the familiar Canterlot and Ponyville; I estimate 1000 miles to the west. So it is conceivable that characters from the show could make an appearance, but I haven't made any plans for it. My players are playing as if they are the heroic "Mane 6" of their particular region of the continent.
Campaign intro teaser
The entire town of Hoofington has inexplicably and unanimously left their homes and migrated to the Manticore Mountains! What can they be thinking? Those mountains are filled with creatures that could eat a pony whole! Somepony has to stop them!
Our heroes form a rescue party who leave for the mountains posthaste, aiming to intercept them and prevent them from marching onward to their inevitable doom.
Play method/schedule
We meet in person Saturday afternoons in my apartment near Detroit.
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Post by citricacid on Aug 10, 2013 19:43:37 GMT -8
Just finished playing our first session this afternoon. I've been blessed to have enough bronies who live within reasonable driving distance of me to have these campaign sessions in person. I'll send my players a link to these forums if they want to discuss it at all.
A brief rundown of session 1:
After receiving word that the entire town of Hoofington vanished, our heroes left to investigate. By way of investigation, examining a glassy-eyed straggler who was left behind, interrogating a cheerful resident who was mysteriously unaffected, and good old fashioned tripping over stuff, they discovered that a magical artifact must have been used to cause the denizens to leave all at once.
Shorty, by way of sheer bad luck, found himself ensnared by a residual effect of the spell, causing him to become angry and hateful, believing that no love exists in this world, the same outlook which the glassy-eyed straggler had. Since he was still partially in control of his own actions, he and the party members set off to find the townsfolk, who had apparently set off towards the mountains.
Upon arriving, they found that the mountain pass was guarded by yet more ponies who had been affected by the spell. Cruel and hateful, yet deeply saddened by their own feelings about the world. They intended to do battle with our heroes and prevent them from finding where all the townsfolk had gone to. Since Shorty was under the same spell as the blockers, he was easily swayed to fight for their side, tipping the odds in their favor. Then, again by sheer bad (good?) luck, Shorty failed miserably to land his first blow against his own friends. Losing his balance, a strike at the jaw turned into an unexpected embrace of the neck.
The embrace was the key to discovering that somehow outward expressions of love toward the enchanted ponies seemed to break the spell put upon them. Shorty was returned to his natural mental state thanks to the hug received from [unnamed zebra] (who ironically is the cynic of the group and least likely to engage in such an act normally). Seeing the effects that it had, the party used this new information to handily subdue the rest of the ponies blocking the way into the mountain pass.
Very much hugging took place.
***
I realized after I was 90% done writing this part of the story that it seemed a little sappy. But I guess that's excusable in an MLP campaign, right? I mean hugging wasn't the only thing that would have worked, but it was certainly used most often. And it got a few laughs, so I guess it's alright. Don't worry, this won't be the only way problems are solved in this campaign.
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Post by Rodger Phillips Marsh on Aug 10, 2013 23:45:53 GMT -8
Good to see this thread up! Though I know you are playing in person, I will be following this game closely, and I hope that your players might sign up here as well eventually. Looking forward to hearing more from you guys  |
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Warp
Administrator 
Forums Secretary
Posts: 49 
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Post by Warp on Aug 11, 2013 0:27:32 GMT -8
Yo tell Charlie some random nerd girl from the internet thinks he's fresh to death for having a zebra character, and that it instantly makes him raw as hell, even if he doesn't have a name yet. (Your game sounds awesome, hugs are awesome  ) |
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Post by citricacid on Sept 3, 2013 15:51:34 GMT -8
Here's the update from session two. We actually had the session the week following the previous session, but we had to cancel the following two due to conflicting plans, illness, and Labor Day weekend. And I was lazy about getting around to writing the update. Now I'm writing it to help me remember what went on.
***
Our party entered the mountains and found the citizens of Hoofington in a large half hemisphere shaped cave in a mountainside filled with many smaller cliff dwellings. (Its appearance was likened to an inverted quarter golf ball.) The townsfolk all seemed to be living as if they had lived there their entire lives, speaking about it as if it were Hoofington itself. They were being ruled over by a unicorn named Crimson whose throne room was inset in the rear of the cavern.
In parallel with examining the town, Théku, our newly named zebra party member, and Ace investigated the origin of a large colorful bird that they encountered while on watch. The investigations led them to discover that the entire colony of these birds were relocated from their home in the cave, thanks to the info from a blind zebra named Lebohang whom they met in the region. He cared greatly about the birds and gave Théku a musical instrument which could be used to call the birds home.
Despite having a unicorn ruler, all of the unicorn residents of Hoofington had been arrested and imprisoned for oppressing non-unicorns through unnatural manipulation or some nonsense and that the usage of magic was condemnable. When Crimson's own magical capability was questioned, her cohort was quick to tell them that she had been Stilled and that there was no magic left in her.
When the party found themselves being interrogated and searched for suspicious activity, the two unicorns (Ace and Pema who was one of those released from the spell last session), were uncovered and arrested. The others were arrested as well for fraternizing. When placed in prison deep in the winding recesses of the cave, they found that all the unicorns of Hoofington, while in their prison cells, were under the same spell as the ponies had been last session and that their magic appeared to be "stuck in the on position."
Various escape tactics ensued, ultimately resulting in a close-quarters combat between guards and the party. As unicorns were freed and more guards arrived, a bottleneck occurred resulting in an apparent stalemate. One guard left and returned with Crimson and her cohort who began preaching the evils of unicorn magic, striking up a debate with Ace. This also seemed to be a stalemate, at which point the party decided to rally the collective of unicorns behind them to run down Crimson. As the stampede began, Crimson's black amulet (which the party has been aware of, though not entirely sure of its use) began to function, and it appeared the Crimson was using magic with it. An explosion of power ripped through the prison block, causing all the unicorns who were freed to revert back to their trancelike state. Yed also found himself hypnotized. The others who managed to resist its effects attempted to feign hypnosis, however all wound up being imprisoned in the end.
***
And so ended the session. Personally, I remember leaving the session rather unhappy with how I had planned it and played it out. Now that I have written it out, I guess it wasn't that bad. The debate at the end ran longer than it should have, though. Unless something else comes up, we should be meeting again this Saturday.
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Post by devilkitty on Sept 4, 2013 4:04:23 GMT -8
The others who managed to resist its effects attempted to feign hypnosis, however all wound up being imprisoned in the end. I recall that Théku successfully feigned hypnosis and headed deeper into the cave with the mass of ponies (the only success). How he's going to get out of the cave -- and what he's going to do when he does -- remains to be seen. |
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Post by citricacid on Sept 4, 2013 13:42:26 GMT -8
Crud. This is why I shouldn't have waited so long to write the synopsis. And I already sent that update email too. Oh well, we can still make it work. Either Théku overheard the guards' conversation in the update from a different location in the cave or he ventured deeper after having heard it. Whichever you prefer.
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Post by shortcircuit on Sept 11, 2013 14:08:42 GMT -8
As much as it might not seem, I have a ton of fun at our sessions. You do a great job as a DM citric, especially at our last session, considering you had to figure out what to do with me and split the party since I was late ^^;
I'm looking forward to this weekend's session!
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Post by citricacid on Sept 21, 2013 10:10:09 GMT -8
Alrighty, I've got two sessions to sum up now. This week, due to absences, I'll be running a one-shot with the same characters (minus 2) having an adventure that happened previous to the current storyline.
***
Needless to say, the two of our heroes who were in prison got out with the help of a unicorn whose magic was super powerful, but only when she was happy. Thanks to a hilarious joke told by Shorty, she was cheered up enough to break the lock as well as the locks on the nearest dozen cells. Our heroes did some exploring of the cave system and found a machine whose purpose seems to be to transfer magical energy between items, ponies, and as discovered through experimentation, zebras. Seeing the machine as too dangerous to leave in working order, Shorty removed its Magic Flux Transference Conduit and they continued on their way.
Before they could safely exit the cave, they had to cross a pit of white, cloudlike, puffball creatures who would attach themselves to passers by and suck the happiness out of them. (It is worth mentioning at this point that the party also has a contingent of freed unicorns that they are escorting from the caves.) The course of action chosen was to push through them, using rope to keep everyone together, with Shorty as their guide flying up above. Things didn't turn out so well and could have been worse had I not forgotten the rules for incapacitation. Théku, Yed, and a few other unicorns had the happiness sucked from them and slowed the party down as they trudged through the cloud of creatures. They made it, though.
Next, after escaping the cave and resting up, they found Crimson, trapped in a cage of tree branches and surrounded by a swarm of the colorful birds which had been encountered earlier. Some of the party left to find Lebohang, the blind zebra they had encountered earlier, to inquire about why this was. Apparently the birds, who are quite intelligent, meant to bring Crimson to justice for causing them to leave their homes. They held her cage over the edge of a cliff while a trial was held.
Ace jumped in to defend her, claiming that the ponies were controlled against their will to take their home from them. Yed demonstrated that the Crimson's amulet--found at the site of Crimson's capture by the birds--was capable of allowing non-unicorns to perform magic and to control others when sufficiently fueled by the anger and hatred of those nearby. Ace and Théku had to get riled up in order to power it so Yed could use it. Having seen this, the birds decided to adjourn for 24 hours so that some of the pony peers could come and testify that they were indeed controlled against their will.
During the adjournment, conversations were had with Crimson, and a few things were discovered: 1) she's a jerk, 2) having magical ability is more important to her than her life is, and 3) um, she's a jerk. They told her about the machine they found and that it could potentially give her magic back to her, she demanded to be taken to it, she was persuaded to risk using it, and they demonstrated that the machine could work a smaller device of similar function that they found on a workbench near the machine. This device, powered by a magical mineral stone of unknown properties, was used on Crimson and it temporarily restored her magic to her with the ability to perform one transmutation spell. Crimson used it to free herself from the cage and turn the birds into stone. Upon seeing this blatant disregard for justice, Ace hoofcuffed her and arrested her. There was a brief struggle where she snatched her amulet back from Yed and attempted to use it, but Théku quickly put an end to that. And so with Crimson's (re)capture, we closed the session.
***
I'm glad I wrote all that down. It's easier now for me to see which parts made sense and which parts didn't. There was a LOT of winging it happening on my part. I didn't have as much time to prepare for that last session as I would have liked to have.
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