Player Character Discussion & Help Thread: silly pones

[Rodger Phillips Marsh]

CHARACTERS! GOD I LOVE CHARACTERS!

Designing and building characters can be one of the toughest parts of being a player. As such, this thread is meant for people to post their characters for feedback and constructive criticisms on their character build or background. Feel free to comment on others' characters or post your own, whether they are currently being used in a game or merely a character you'd like to play at some point.

For starters, I maintain a Google Docs character register of all of my current/potential characters for SW:MLP that is available for anyone to look at, as many find it helpful to see how others have built their characters. You can find it here!

If you are going to post your characters here, please post them in text form only or as a link to a character sheet: do not post large pictures of your filled-out character sheets like the one in the back of the SW:MLP book directly in this thread. If you want an easy-to-use and browse digital character sheet, I recommend making a copy of the Google spreadsheet I have made for just this purpose.

Edit: This thread is for help with character building and development, it is not an "Introduce your character" thread.

[Toboe LoneWolf]

Some helpful tips:

1) Have at least one SW:MLP combat skill: Persuasion, Taunt, Grace, or Intimidate. Otherwise you'll be scrambling for something to do when combat occurs. Even if all you have is a d4 it's better than nothing.

2) Have at least one point in Notice. (Unless you have the Clueless Hindrance, I guess.) Use the skill everywhere, learn all of your GM's secrets, make your GM cry, go, confront the problem. Fight! Win!!!

There's also a GoogleScript application that people can use to help create their characters, although iirc it was still being worked on. Once I get back on my main laptop I can dig up the link.

EDIT: hm, well, the link I had for the GoogleScript SW:MLP builder isn't entirely functional anymore, so looks like it's just the good old paper method! Or GoogleSpreadsheet. ;D

[Warp]

May 28, 2013 8:21:30 GMT -8 Toboe LoneWolf said:

Some helpful tips:

1) Have at least one SW:MLP combat skill: Persuasion, Taunt, Grace, or Intimidate. Otherwise you'll be scrambling for something to do when combat occurs. Even if all you have is a d4 it's better than nothing.

2) Have at least one point in Notice. (Unless you have the Clueless Hindrance, I guess.) Use the skill everywhere, learn all of your GM's secrets, make your GM cry, go, confront the problem. Fight! Win!!!

This is A+ Good Advice 10/10 would recommend™

Also, after playing the SW:MLP system for going on 2 years or so at this point, I've definitely learned a few things myself about building a character. And I'm going to spew a bunch of it in this very thread now (seriously I think it's Celestial mandate that my posts must average 500+ words or something.)

I'll basically echo this advice, first off, and say that when making a character, you should, absolutely, have at least one CoW skill, and you should at least make it a d6 or d8 at character creation, if for no other reason than quality of life when combat turns up. Seriously, unless it's what your concept is centered around (and I would implore you to do otherwise, if it is), constantly getting your flank systematically kicked any time you ever try to resolve any sort of conflict absolutely blows. It actually can harm the game's pacing as well, as it tends to turn combat into a slog where everyone's just sort of spinning their wheels fruitlessly. Remember: If the heroes aren't making at least somewhat steady progress, then neither is the game!

Another good thing to take into account when building a character, is to try to go for synergy between attributes, edges and skills! For example: If you're starting with high smarts? Definitely don't neglect your spirit either! A high Smarts means you're probably going for Persuasion as your primary CoW skill, and a high spirit means you can also snag the Charismatic edge, which will give you a nice bonus to your Persuasion rolls, both in AND out of battle! It also allows you to take Taunt as a backup CoW skill, if you're so inclined (which also gets a boost from charisma, even!)

And finally, this is a big one, and probably what I'd harp on most to anyone who is new to the system and making a character: don't overemphasize your Knowledge skill(s). Especially at character creation.

Now, what I mean by that is, say you're making an artist pony. That's awesome! Artists are cool, and there's a lot of support for making a character like that, to boot! But, you have to remember, just like with every other skill you choose, your pony has a LONG time to get better at it. 20 advances worth of time, in fact. Instead of, at character creation, skyrocketing Knowledge: Painting to d12, and spending your free edge and 2 hindrance points on edges that boost it even further, maybe settle for a d8, or even a d6, and maybe ONE edge like Artist. I say this for a couple reasons:

First, spending such a hefty chunk of your resources on a single skill is going to leave the rest of your character's arsenal very deprived. Your character is more than their one talent, after all! They still have other facets to who they are, besides the art that they make or the music they play or the recipes they know, etc.

Secondly, making your knowledge skill such a gargantuan part of your character's repertoire, more often than not I've noticed, adds this pressure onto the player to attempt to utilize it far more often than they should, in situations where it really doesn't accomplish much. Honestly, the (sorta sad, but understandable) truth is, your knowledge skill is going to be your LEAST utilized skill in 95% of the games you play in, simply by virtue of how specific and often-times esoteric it is. I mean, let's face it, in most campaigns you simply aren't going to run into many places where you can regularly utilize Knowledge: Zebra Culture or what have you without it being incredibly shoehorned in.

Of course, having it remain a facet of your character is fine, though, don't get me wrong! It SHOULD be part of your character! And most GMs will totally throw you a bone once in a while and put your character in a situation where they can totally strut their stuff and display their talent. But, I can guarantee you Notice or Persuasion is going to get rolled a LOT more often. Especially notice. Always notice. Notice is awesome.

I GOT A LOTTA OPINIONS ABOUT CHARACTER CREATION, ALRIGHT?!

[Equestrian Wyvern]

Jun 4, 2013 1:30:39 GMT -8 Warp said:

May 28, 2013 8:21:30 GMT -8 Toboe LoneWolf said:

Some helpful tips:

1) Have at least one SW:MLP combat skill: Persuasion, Taunt, Grace, or Intimidate. Otherwise you'll be scrambling for something to do when combat occurs. Even if all you have is a d4 it's better than nothing.

2) Have at least one point in Notice. (Unless you have the Clueless Hindrance, I guess.) Use the skill everywhere, learn all of your GM's secrets, make your GM cry, go, confront the problem. Fight! Win!!!

This is A+ Good Advice 10/10 would recommend™

Also, after playing the SW:MLP system for going on 2 years or so at this point, I've definitely learned a few things myself about building a character. And I'm going to spew a bunch of it in this very thread now (seriously I think it's Celestial mandate that my posts must average 500+ words or something.)

I'll basically echo this advice, first off, and say that when making a character, you should, absolutely, have at least one CoW skill, and you should at least make it a d6 or d8 at character creation, if for no other reason than quality of life when combat turns up. Seriously, unless it's what your concept is centered around (and I would implore you to do otherwise, if it is), constantly getting your flank systematically kicked any time you ever try to resolve any sort of conflict absolutely blows. It actually can harm the game's pacing as well, as it tends to turn combat into a slog where everyone's just sort of spinning their wheels fruitlessly. Remember: If the heroes aren't making at least somewhat steady progress, then neither is the game!

Another good thing to take into account when building a character, is to try to go for synergy between attributes, edges and skills! For example: If you're starting with high smarts? Definitely don't neglect your spirit either! A high Smarts means you're probably going for Persuasion as your primary CoW skill, and a high spirit means you can also snag the Charismatic edge, which will give you a nice bonus to your Persuasion rolls, both in AND out of battle! It also allows you to take Taunt as a backup CoW skill, if you're so inclined (which also gets a boost from charisma, even!)

And finally, this is a big one, and probably what I'd harp on most to anyone who is new to the system and making a character: don't overemphasize your Knowledge skill(s). Especially at character creation.

Now, what I mean by that is, say you're making an artist pony. That's awesome! Artists are cool, and there's a lot of support for making a character like that, to boot! But, you have to remember, just like with every other skill you choose, your pony has a LONG time to get better at it. 20 advances worth of time, in fact. Instead of, at character creation, skyrocketing Knowledge: Painting to d12, and spending your free edge and 2 hindrance points on edges that boost it even further, maybe settle for a d8, or even a d6, and maybe ONE edge like Artist. I say this for a couple reasons:

First, spending such a hefty chunk of your resources on a single skill is going to leave the rest of your character's arsenal very deprived. Your character is more than their one talent, after all! They still have other facets to who they are, besides the art that they make or the music they play or the recipes they know, etc.

Secondly, making your knowledge skill such a gargantuan part of your character's repertoire, more often than not I've noticed, adds this pressure onto the player to attempt to utilize it far more often than they should, in situations where it really doesn't accomplish much. Honestly, the (sorta sad, but understandable) truth is, your knowledge skill is going to be your LEAST utilized skill in 95% of the games you play in, simply by virtue of how specific and often-times esoteric it is. I mean, let's face it, in most campaigns you simply aren't going to run into many places where you can regularly utilize Knowledge: Zebra Culture or what have you without it being incredibly shoehorned in.

Of course, having it remain a facet of your character is fine, though, don't get me wrong! It SHOULD be part of your character! And most GMs will totally throw you a bone once in a while and put your character in a situation where they can totally strut their stuff and display their talent. But, I can guarantee you Notice or Persuasion is going to get rolled a LOT more often. Especially notice. Always notice. Notice is awesome.

I GOT A LOTTA OPINIONS ABOUT CHARACTER CREATION, ALRIGHT?!

Maybe I will post up more advice when I get time, but a very important correction is that Charisma bonuses do not directly apply to CoW rolls (Its specifically mentioned under the Charisma rules in bold, pretty sure it exists for balancing reasons as it is actually really easy to stack up a 4-5 Charisma Bonus allowing you to steamroller anything with persuasion or taunt CoW), On the other hand they do translate to a +1 bonus on Taunt and Persuasion CoW rolls if you have the higher value

[Warp]

Jun 4, 2013 7:44:34 GMT -8 Equestrian Wyvern said:

Maybe I will post up more advice when I get time, but a very important correction is that Charisma bonuses do not directly apply to CoW rolls (Its specifically mentioned under the Charisma rules in bold, pretty sure it exists for balancing reasons as it is actually really easy to stack up a 4-5 Charisma Bonus allowing you to steamroller anything with persuasion or taunt CoW), On the other hand they do translate to a +1 bonus on Taunt and Persuasion CoW rolls if you have the higher value

Aha, yes, I should have made that more clear; I was indeed referring to the +1 bump you get during Taunt and Persuasion CoW rolls for having a higher charisma than your target. Thank you for catching that!

Fun fact, it actually DID used to be a straight +cha mod bonus to even CoW rolls back in 1st edition. Shit was crazy, lemme tell you. The first campaign ever run with the system had a character with like, +6 or something. It was nutso.

[Rodger Phillips Marsh]

Jun 4, 2013 8:32:54 GMT -8 Warp said:

Fun fact, it actually DID used to be a straight +cha mod bonus to even CoW rolls back in 1st edition. Shit was crazy, lemme tell you. The first campaign ever run with the system had a character with like, +6 or something. It was nutso.

We don't talk about those dark days of wonky game design anymore Charisma-stacking is for Nazis.

To add to the discussion though, I've found this to be a good rule of thumb when creating a character: it is better to start with more skills at a d4+ rather than a few at larger die sizes. Because of the way advances work, it is much easier to improve skills you already have rather than add new ones, and even a d4 in a skill is leaps and bounds better than trying it untrained. In general, a good character should have about 7 to 9 different skills at start, with a d8 in their most important ones (typically their primary CoW skills and things like Spellcraft for unicorns). Certain skills are basically never rolled opposed, and for the most part you'll do fine with a d6 for most of your character's career, as they rarely need more than a basic TN 4 success (Athletics, Intuition, Nature, etc). Statistically, the payoff from increasing a trait's die size above d6 becomes an increasingly diminishing return. Also, having at least a d4 in Fighting can be immeasurably useful, not just for bumping your Parry from 2 to 4, but also because of the usefulness of touch attacks, being able to disarm, or fending off an opponent trying to grapple you.

[Toboe LoneWolf]

To bounce off, remember that unless a character's cutie mark talent fits in already with one or more of SW:MLP's skills, a character gets a +2 to any roll relevant to their cutie mark talent, at least once per session. This pretty much guarantees a basic success even with a d4. So unless a character's talent involves an actual SW:MLP skill (Healing for a medic pony, or Athletics for a racer pony, etc), or is intended to be a Crafting skill (in which case Raises have a definite benefit), a basic d4-d6 in whatever Knowledge(skill) is more than enough.

Adding to that, in Savage Worlds we also have the Common Knowledge roll, so if your GM rules it a character should get +1 to +2 to subjects that are relevant to their backstory anyway.

[Rodger Phillips Marsh]

Jun 5, 2013 19:09:05 GMT -8 Toboe LoneWolf said:

To bounce off, remember that unless a character's cutie mark talent fits in already with one or more of SW:MLP's skills, a character gets a +2 to any roll relevant to their cutie mark talent, at least once per session. This pretty much guarantees a basic success even with a d4. So unless a character's talent involves an actual SW:MLP skill (Healing for a medic pony, or Athletics for a racer pony, etc), or is intended to be a Crafting skill (in which case Raises have a definite benefit), a basic d4-d6 in whatever Knowledge(skill) is more than enough.

Adding to that, in Savage Worlds we also have the Common Knowledge roll, so if your GM rules it a character should get +1 to +2 to subjects that are relevant to their backstory anyway.

Yeah, Cutie Mark Talents seem to be the most under-utilized facet of the game, when really they are absolutely fantastic to use once and a while. This is the benefit of defining your character's special talent, and that +2 can really help you out in a jam when push comes to shove.

[Warp]

So, a friend linked me a couple articles that I thought were pretty good food for thought. They don't pertain specifically to mechanically creating a character, but I still thought they fit within the spirit of this thread

11 ways to be a better roleplayer

and

Its followup article

[erris]

Don't know where to put this, but could somoene help me make a character for  this? I've just finished watching the Bronyville episode of "Spider Island" and I'm fascinated to give this a go. 

[Rodger Phillips Marsh]

Aug 2, 2013 16:28:56 GMT -8 erris said:

Don't know where to put this, but could somoene help me make a character for  this? I've just finished watching the Bronyville episode of "Spider Island" and I'm fascinated to give this a go. 

Of course always great to see people coming here from listening to the Bronyville games! Was there a specific part of character creation that confused you, or did you need help with just starting? You will need a copy of the Savage Worlds Deluxe Edition for the full scope of your character options, as well as The Savage World of My Little Pony 4th Edition which you can download here. This thread is also for tips and help designing your character.

[Equestrian Wyvern]

One pointer I have that hasn't been mentioned before here is, that unless you are taking part in a one shot game (Like Friday Night Dice) it tends to work best if you create a character specifically for a game you intend to join with the setting in mind, rather than trying to shove a predesigned character into a game they don't work in

[Toboe LoneWolf]

Aug 2, 2013 18:48:38 GMT -8 Equestrian Wyvern said:

One pointer I have that hasn't been mentioned before here is, that unless you are taking part in a one shot game (Like Friday Night Dice) it tends to work best if you create a character specifically for a game you intend to join with the setting in mind, rather than trying to shove a predesigned character into a game they don't work in

^^^ This

Amen and hallelujah

[gogglesparks]

docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AinGcgC9y0ShdHlEb0FWZmJ1UHRQTkM4YmFzdEpmaVE#gid=41

I'm trying to create campaign-oriented Goggle Sparks atm. Will this thread be the place to show my character and garner some suggestions?

[Hunterwolf]

Aug 17, 2013 7:19:48 GMT -8 gogglesparks said:

docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AinGcgC9y0ShdHlEb0FWZmJ1UHRQTkM4YmFzdEpmaVE#gid=41

I'm trying to create campaign-oriented Goggle Sparks atm. Will this thread be the place to show my character and garner some suggestions?

Why yes it is! Opinions(!): Upon looking over your character you seem to be going for a graceful/combat type of unicorn with a few spells which is pretty cool (and rocking those Abjuration goodies, brohoof!) as well as having some skills good for gathering information. I mean really, there's only one thing I would tell you to think twice on (again, this is my personal opinion) is the combination of quick and level headed. Both those edges are good for trying to get high on the initiative draw but it may be overkill unless starting first in combat is really important to you(which to me would only make sense if you'll be in a setting where you get wounded more then you get daunted). There's also that wildcard edge Doubletime which honestly has a very small chance of coming up often (unless you're lucky). 

Nevermind, I just realized those two edges were so the joker could come up more often. I haven't played for long but it seems like a solid character to me!