TEXT: Pony Tales
  A Role�Playing Game for Ages Twelve and Older
  WRITTEN BY DAVE BRYANT ✶ THIRD EDITION, VERSION ONE: 30 APRIL 2013
  
  � Preface �
  T
  he first role-playing game appeared in the late 1970s, 
  after the designer of a miniatures wargame about the 
  Middle Ages discovered that his friends were more willing to 
  play if he included fantasy elements, such as magic, mythical 
  creatures, and individual heroes with special abilities and per-
  sonalities. Through the 1980s and 1990s, hundreds of other 
  role-playing games, or RPGs, were published on all kinds of 
  subjects — science ﬁ ction and space opera, pulp adventure and 
  modern-day super-spies, cowboys, superheroes, and just about 
  anything else that would be fun and exciting for a group of 
  friends to pretend to be for an afternoon.
  There aren’t quite as many RPGs nowadays; like a lot of 
  other activities, they were sort of a fad. A lot of games from 
  small publishers disappeared, and other hobbies, including 
  computer and video games, became the new and exciting 
  things to do. RPGs haven’t gone away completely, though, be-
  cause it’s still fun for people to get together and play the old-
  fashioned way, with a book of rules, a bunch of dice, maybe 
  a few maps, and some time to sit around a table and visit an 
  imaginary world for adventure and entertainment.
  About This Rulebook
  Pony Tales is based on an open-source set of rules called Open 
  D6, but stripped down to the bare essentials in an eﬀ ort to 
  make it easy to play while still covering as many situations as 
  possible. One reason is to keep the game moving quickly, with-
  out bogging down in little details. Another is make the game 
  playable by anyone old enough to understand the rules.
  That’s also why the rules are written in a conversational 
  style. The simple, informal language also seems to ﬁ t the fairy-
  tale feeling of the magical land and the stories that happen 
  there, which may help the narrator and players get into the 
  right frame of mind for playing the game.
  The book is split into parts. Part one covers the basic 
  rules of the game. Part two adds information and extra rules 
  that are helpful but not absolutely or constantly necessary. Part 
  three discusses the setting of the television program, both as 
  the show’s creator originally imagined it and as it’s ended up in 
  actual episodes. Part four oﬀ ers suggestions and ideas for play-
  ing a fun and exciting game. At the end of the book is a quick 
  reference of tables to look up things during a game session.
  A Group of Friends
  Any role-playing game needs one person to “run the show”. 
  Other games may call this person the “game-master”, “refer-
  ee”, “umpire”, or some similar name. In Pony Tales, she’s called 
  the narrator. The narrator controls the world, kind of like a 
  movie or television director — ﬁ guring out what happens after 
  players’ ponies do things, playing the parts of other ponies or 
  creatures, and keeping the game’s story going.
  The rest of the group are players. Each one controls a charac-
  ter, playing the character’s part like an actor. If a player’s caught 
  up in the excitement, she might act out what her character’s 
  doing or saying, but usually it’s enough just to describe her 
  character’s words and actions. In Pony Tales, the players’ char-
  acters are brightly colored ponies who live in the magical land.
  If the group wants, a diﬀ erent person can be the narrator 
  for each story. When her story’s ﬁ nished, she can hand oﬀ  the 
  narrator’s duties to someone else and become a player for the 
  next few stories, until it’s her turn to be narrator again.
  What Kind of Game?
  Before starting, everyone should talk about what kind of game 
  they want to play. There’s a lot of room for everyone to be 
  creative, but one question does need to be answered: Will the 
  game be literal or ﬁ gurative?
  •  A literal game takes the show’s episodes at face value — no 
  matter how silly, illogical, or inconsistent they get. The idea 
  is simply to have fun and lots of laughs, paying attention only 
  to what’s happening at the moment. This doesn’t mean the 
  narrator and players can’t be serious, but they shouldn’t go 
  overboard about it, or it won’t feel like the show does.
  •  A ﬁ gurative game treats the show’s episodes as if they were 
  stories told by, or to, a little sister or brother — mostly right, 
  but with details mixed up, simpliﬁ ed, or exaggerated. It’s up 
  to the narrator and players to decide how the details are dif-
  ferent. Having fun and laughs still is important, but the nar-
  rator and players might be more adventurous and serious. 
  Keep in mind, though, that getting very dark will make the 
  game feel completely diﬀ erent from the show.
  Whatever the group decides, it’s important to have fun. 
  Some narrators might think they should make things tough for 
  the players, but a lot of players don’t like that, and it doesn’t 
  ﬁ t the tone of the show. The narrator should cooperate with the 
  players, and vice versa, in telling the story — that’s why she’s 
  called a “narrator” and why the rules talk a lot about “story”.
  How Do the Ponies Know Each Other?
  If the players are willing, they can create their ponies in such 
  a way that it makes sense they know each other. If the players 
  want to create ponies that are very diﬀ erent from each other, 
  it might be harder to explain how the group of ponies has got-
  ten together, and the narrator may have to work with the play-
  ers to come up with ways of doing it. Below are a couple of sug-
  gestions; the narrator may use one or both of them, or ﬁ gure 
  out something else. It’s best that the ponies live close together, 
  or the narrator can have a lot of trouble explaining why they 
  all happen to be in one place for the beginning of every story!
  •  The ﬁ rst story can be all about how the ponies are thrown 
  together, much like the ﬁ rst episodes of the show. It could 
  be that things just happen, or there could be some problem 
  that causes one or more of the ponies to look for others who 
  have useful talents or personalities to help solve it.
  •  The narrator can tell the players that each pony must be 
  friends with (or a relative of) at least two other ponies before 
  the game begins. The players then talk about which ponies 
  know each other, how, and why. That can help give ideas to 
  players who haven’t decided what their ponies are like. ✶
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Page ii 
  Third Edition � Version 0
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part One � Page 1 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  — OPEN GAME LICENSE Version 1.0a —
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  15. COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Open Game License v 1.0 Copyright 2000, Wizards of the Coast, Inc. My Little Pony Friendship is Magic is a 
  trademark of Hasbro, Inc.
  First Things First: Creating a Pony  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2–4
  Step 1: What Kind of Pony?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
  Step 2: Aptitudes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
  Step 3: Talents  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
  Step 4: Personal Weakness. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
  Step 5: Finishing Touches. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
  Checklist for Creating a Pony . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
  How Big is a Pony? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
  Creating Other Creatures  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
  Doing Things: Basic Task Resolution  . . . . . . . . . . . . 5–6
  Step 1: How Hard Is the Task?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
  Step 2: What Talent Does the Pony Use? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
  Step 3: What Aptitude Does the Pony Use?. . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
  Step 4: Roll! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
  Good Show: Experience and Rewards. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
  Judgment Call: Using the Rules. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
  Fast and Furious: Rounds and Actions  . . . . . . . . . . . 7–8
  Step 1: Initiative  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
  Step 2: Actions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
  Step 3: Is It Over?  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
  Plumb Tuckered: Fatigue and Rest  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
  Simplifying Fatigue During Rounds  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
  Sleeping and Waking. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
  Icky Stuﬀ : Injury, Illness, and Healing  . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
  Injury or Illness. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
  Healing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
  Weights and Measures: The Physical World  . . . . 11–12
  Size: How Big Is a Creature or Object?  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
  Visibility: How Far Can a Pony See? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
  Wind and Weather  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
  Doing More Things: Special Task Rules  . . . . . . . . 12–14
  Teamwork  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
  Using Magical Talents. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
  How Much Can a Pony Lift, Carry, and Pull?  . . . . . . . . . . 14
  Hooﬁ n’ It and Wingin’ It: Movement. . . . . . . . . . . 14–16
  Running, Swimming, Climbing, and Jumping  . . . . . . . . . . 14
  Flying . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
  Keeping Track of Everything . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
  Two Bits: Buying Things  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
  How Much Money?  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
  How Much Does Something Cost?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
  Spending Limits  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
  Them’s Fightin’ Words: Combat. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18–20
  Step 1: Defense  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
  Step 2: Attack  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
  Step 3: Range. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
  Step 4: Special Conditions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
  Step 5: Roll!  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
  Step 6: Injury or Eﬀ ect. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
  Pony Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21–24
  Earth Pony Form. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
  Pegasus Pony Form. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
  Unicorn Pony Form  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
  Pony Form (page 2). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
  � Part One of Four ✶ Playing the Game: Basic Rules �
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part One � Page 2 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  � First Things First: Creating a Pony �
  B
  efore the game starts, every player has to create a pony 
  she will play, like an actor plays a character — though it’s a 
  good idea to read and understand the rules ﬁ rst. A player can 
  start with a mental picture of a pony and create the pony to 
  match that picture, or can create a pony ﬁ rst, then decide what 
  she looks and acts like. Either way, the player should ﬁ ll out a 
  Pony Form as she goes through the creation steps, to keep track 
  of the pony’s information. The narrator can use the same steps 
  to create ponies who are important to the story for any reason.
  Every pony has Aptitudes and Talents. Aptitudes describe 
  what a pony’s naturally good at (and not good at) doing. Tal-
  ents are skills and abilities the pony’s learned. Both are given 
  numerical values to use with the rules, expressed in dice. The 
  more dice an Aptitude or Talent has, the better the pony is at it.
  A whole die’s a big jump, though, so to make small adjust-
  ments possible, a die is divided into thirds. The ﬁ rst adds one 
  pip to a die roll, the second adds two pips to a die roll, and the 
  third adds a whole die. There’s a little arithmetic in creating 
  a pony; since it’s easier to do that with whole numbers, the 
  pony’s creator may want to think of each die as three “points” 
  while going through the steps. A table of die (and point) values 
  is at the bottom of the page.
  An Aptitude’s or Talent’s value can be written down as the 
  number of whole dice, followed by the letter d, and ﬁ nishing 
  with any added pips. For example, the value of a Talent with 
  three and two-thirds dice in it can be written as 3d+2. During 
  the game, the narrator may ask the player to roll that 3d+2. If 
  the player rolls 11 on the three dice, then after adding the extra 
  +2, the total would be 13.
  Step 1: What Kind of Pony?
  First, decide whether the pony will be an earth pony, a pegasus 
  pony, or a unicorn pony. Earth ponies have a magical connection 
  to the land and living things. Pegasus ponies can ﬂ y, command 
  the winds and weather, and walk on clouds. Unicorn ponies 
  can levitate things, make balls of light, and cast magical spells.
  The princesses featured in the program look like unicorns 
  with wings, but they also have earth-pony strength and magi-
  cal connection to the land. Since they are very rare — and pow-
  erful — the rules aren’t set up for players to create them.
  Second, decide whether the pony will be female or male. 
  An adult female is a mare and an adult male is a stallion. A young 
  pony is a foal; a female foal is a ﬁ lly and a male foal is a colt. Most 
  player ponies probably will be adults, even if young adults, but 
  they may have to deal with foals during the course of some 
  stories, just as the characters on the television show often do.
  Step 2: Aptitudes
  There are eight Aptitudes. The physical Aptitudes are Muscle 
  and Hardiness. The motor Aptitudes are Reﬂ exes and Coordina-
  tion. The mental Aptitudes are Smarts and Senses. The magic 
  Aptitudes are Power and Finesse; a pegasus or unicorn pony has 
  both, while an earth pony has Power but not Finesse.
  • Muscle describes how large and strong a pony is. A pony 
  with a little Muscle is small and delicate. A pony with lots of 
  Muscle is big and brawny.
  • Hardiness describes how tough and healthy a pony is. A 
  pony with a little Hardiness catches sniﬄ  es easily and gets 
  tired quickly. A pony with lots of Hardiness is sturdy and ﬁ t.
  • Reﬂ exes describes how quick and limber a pony is. A pony 
  with a little Reﬂ exes is sluggish and clumsy. A pony with lots 
  of Reﬂ exes is quick and graceful.
  • Coordination describes a pony’s ﬁ ne motor control. A pony 
  with a little Coordination is awkward and heavy-hoofed. A 
  pony with lots of Coordination is deft and has a light touch.
  • Smarts describes how good a pony is at thinking, remem-
  bering, and planning. A pony with a little Smarts is slow and 
  simple. A pony with lots of Smarts is bright and clever.
  • Senses describes how well a pony notices things around 
  her. A pony with a little Senses isn’t very observant. A pony 
  with lots of Senses is good at spotting details.
  • Power describes how much magic a pony can work with. A 
  pony with a little Power can’t cast big spells, can’t work with 
  lots of weather, or doesn’t have a strong connection to the 
  land. A pony with lots of Power is very magical indeed.
  • Finesse describes how well a unicorn or pegasus can work 
  with her tribe’s magic. A pony with a little Finesse has trou-
  ble casting spells or weatherworking properly. A pony with a 
  lot of Finesse can cast spells or work with weather easily.
  Each Aptitude starts with a value of 1d (3 points). The pony’s 
  player — or the narrator, if creating a non-player pony — adds 
  12d (36 points) more to the pony’s Aptitudes, splitting them 
  up however she wants. The only limit is that no single Apti-
  tude can end up with a total of more than 5d (15 points) in 
  it. Remember that the creator of an earth pony only has to 
  worry about seven Aptitudes, while the creator of a pegasus or 
  unicorn has to spread those dice (points) over eight Aptitudes.
  Player ponies are supposed to be special, so they get more 
  Aptitude dice than “ordinary” ponies. If the narrator wants to 
  create such a pony-on-the-street, she can add 8d (24 points) to 
  that pony’s Aptitudes instead. A school-age foal may get only 
  4d (12 points) — more for an older foal, less for a younger one. 
  Of course, as a foal grows up, he or she gets more dice.
  Step 3: Talents
  There are two kinds of Talents. A Mundane Talent is an ordi-
  nary skill or ability that any pony can learn or have. A Magical 
  Talent normally can be learned only by a pony of the tribe that 
  is allowed to have that Talent, though there are exceptions.
  A list of Talents is in part two of the rulebook, but a player 
  can make up a Talent if the narrator agrees it’s a good one. The 
  new Talent should be named with no more than a couple of 
  words, followed by a sentence describing it so everyone has a 
  clear idea what it means. Describing a unicorn spell takes more 
  than a single sentence, so a unicorn’s player may need to keep a 
  separate sheet of spell descriptions. The narrator should keep 
  a list of Talents that everyone’s come up with. ➧
  Dice:
  +1
  +2
  1d
  1d+1
  1d+2
  2d
  2d+1 2d+2
  3d
  3d+1
  3d+2
  4d
  4d+1 4d+2
  5d
  5d+1 5d+2
  6d
  (and so on)
  Points:
  1
  2
  3
  4
  5
  6
  7
  8
  9
  10
  11
  12
  13
  14
  15
  16
  17
  18
  (and so on)
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part One � Page 3 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  A Talent’s value starts with the dice of the Aptitude it’s 
  based on; the player adds Talent dice to it and writes down the 
  total. A pony’s player can add 7d (21 points) to the pony’s Tal-
  ents, splitting them up as she wishes — but each Talent must 
  get at least +1 (1 point) and can’t get more than 3d (9 points). 
  There’s no other limit to how many Talents a pony can have.
  For example, a player wants to give her pony Lifting, a 
  Mundane Talent based on Muscle. The pony’s Muscle is 2d+2 (8 
  points). The player can’t add any less than +1 (1 point) or more 
  than 3d (9 points) of Talent dice to a single Talent. After think-
  ing about the other Talents she wants to give the pony, she 
  decides to use +2 (2 points) of Talent dice for Lifting. Adding 
  that to the pony’s Muscle of 2d+2 (8 points) means the pony’s 
  Lifting Talent is 3d+1 (2 + 8 = 10 points).
  A Mundane Talent has one value based on the physical, 
  motor, or mental Aptitude that’s most logical for it. For exam-
  ple, Lifting is based on Muscle, not Senses; Navigation is based 
  on Smarts, not Reﬂ exes. If a player isn’t sure which Aptitude to 
  use, she should talk it over with the narrator.
  The only exception is that an earth pony can base a Mun-
  dane Talent on Power, if the Talent deals with caring for the 
  land or for living things and the pony’s Power has more dice 
  than the Aptitude the Talent’s normally based on. Some ex-
  amples are Cooking, Farming, Husbandry (rearing and keeping 
  animals), Medicine, and Veterinary Medicine.
  A Magical Talent has two values. In addition to the nor-
  mal Talent value, which is based on Finesse, a Magical Talent 
  also has an Eﬀ ect value, which is based on Power. The normal 
  Talent value represents how well a unicorn or pegasus can use 
  the Talent; the Eﬀ ect value represents how much the pony can 
  do with the Talent. The pony’s creator can spend Talent points 
  on either or both of a Magical Talent’s values if she wants.
  • A pegasus pony can learn Magical Talents that deal with 
  ﬂ ight, air, and weather. Some examples are Cloudworking, 
  Flying, Boltworking, Rainworking, and Windworking.
  • A unicorn pony can learn spells, Magical Talents that act at 
  a distance. Some examples are Force Bubble (creating a pro-
  tective sphere), Pyrotechnics (creating a ﬁ reworks-like light 
  show), and Wink (moving instantly from place to place).
  Style of magic: A unicorn’s creator must decide on the 
  unicorn’s Style of magic. The unicorn can learn and cast spells 
  that ﬁ t within her Style, but can’t learn or cast spells that don’t 
  ﬁ t her Style. Some examples of Magical Styles are Pyroman-
  cy (ﬁ re spells), Thaumaturgy (showy, performance-oriented 
  spells), and Lapidurgy (spells involving gems and jewelry).
  There are two exceptions to this restriction. Any unicorn 
  can use Levitation to pick up objects and to carry or manipu-
  late them in mid-air without touching them, and can use Illu-
  mination to create glowing balls of light like will-o’-the-wisps.
  A player can make up a new Style, as long as the narrator 
  agrees it’s a good one and isn’t so powerful that it upsets the 
  game. The player should be able to name it with no more than 
  a couple of words, but it’s okay to follow that with a short de-
  scription so everyone has a clear idea what it means.
  A unicorn’s player may want to make her pony’s Style be 
  magic itself, but it probably isn’t wise to allow that. The show 
  makes a big deal about how special that Style is; only one pony 
  seems to have it. Everyone knows who that pony is, and she 
  isn’t the player’s pony. Besides, it wouldn’t be fair to the other 
  players, especially to players of other unicorn ponies.
  Wild Talent: With the narrator’s permission, a pony may 
  have one Wild Talent — a Talent that normally belongs to one 
  of the other tribes. The narrator probably should require the 
  player to put at least 1d (3 points) of Talent points into the Wild 
  Talent. Examples from the television show include an earth 
  pony who can make vague predictions about what will happen 
  soon, based on her body’s twitches and aches, a pegasus who’s 
  very good at understanding and taking care of animals, and a 
  unicorn who can create lightning.
  Step 4: Personal Weakness
  Decide on the pony’s personal Weakness — no pony’s perfect, 
  after all! A player needs to keep her pony’s Weakness in mind 
  when playing, and the narrator should remind the player if 
  she seems to be forgetting about it. A pony can overcome her 
  Weakness temporarily, but she has to have a good reason to try 
  and the narrator may ask for a Smarts roll. Some examples are 
  Brash, Fastidious (overly concerned with keeping clean), In-
  troverted (not very sociable), Random, Stubborn, and Timid.
  A player can make up a new one, as long as the narrator 
  agrees it’s appropriate. She should be able to name it in a cou-
  ple of words, but it’s okay to follow that with a short descrip-
  tion so everyone has a clear idea what it means.
  Step 5: Finishing Touches
  Describe what the pony looks and acts like and make a list of 
  things the pony owns. Use an extra page if it’s needed.
  Describe how the pony looks. Here are some suggestions: 
  Is the pony big or small, thin or heavy? What colors are the po-
  ny’s coat, mane, and tail? What color and shape are the pony’s 
  eyes? What is the pony’s cutie mark, and what does it have to 
  do with the pony’s Aptitudes, Talents, or personality?
  Name the pony and describe anything else about the pony 
  that seems important. Here are some suggestions: What does 
  the pony’s voice sound like? What kind of personality does the 
  pony have? Where does the pony come from? What was the 
  pony’s life like before the game?
  The pony’s creator may want to note down a few other 
  important numbers for use during play. Run Move, Swim Move, 
  Climb Move, Jump Move, and Flight Move are explained in “Hoo-
  ﬁ n’ It and Wingin’ It: Movement”. Strength Bonus is explained 
  in “Step 5: Injury or Eﬀ ect”, part of “Them’s Fightin’ Words: 
  Combat”. Short descriptions also are on the Pony Forms.
  List the pony’s important possessions. The pony may have 
  up to eight. A major possession is big, like a farm, a business, a 
  house, or lots of income, and counts as four. A medium possession 
  is something like a carriage, a wagon, a book collection, or a 
  good income and counts as two. A minor possession is something 
  like a set of tools or cookware, a musical instrument, a paint 
  set and easel, camping gear, or a small income. A player can 
  make up a possession, as long as the narrator agrees it’s appro-
  priate. Every pony also owns a pair of panniers (saddlebags). ➧
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part One � Page 4 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  Checklist for Creating a Pony
  A narrator or player can use this checklist to keep track of the 
  steps for creating a pony while ﬁ lling out a Pony Form.
  Step 1: What Kind of Pony?
  A.  Choose the pony’s tribe: earth pony, pegasus, or unicorn.
  B.  Choose whether the pony’s a mare (female) or stallion (male).
  Step 2: Aptitudes
  A.  List the starting Aptitudes of the tribe chosen for the pony.
  B.  Add 12d (36 points) to Aptitudes. They can be split up as 
  desired, but no Aptitude can be more than 5d (15 points).
  Step 3: Talents
  Choosing Talents and ﬁ guring out how many points to put into 
  each one can take some time and eﬀ ort, so it’s okay if these 
  steps get all mixed up. They’re listed separately just to make 
  explaining and remembering them easier.
  A.  Choose the pony’s Talents and describe them if necessary.
  B.  Decide whether each Talent is Mundane or Magical.
  C.  Decide for each Talent what Aptitude to base it on.
  D.  Add 7d (21 points) to Talents. They can be split up as de-
  sired, but each Talent must have at least +1 (1 point) and no 
  more than 3d (9 points) added to it.
  Step 4: Personal Weakness
  Decide on the pony’s Personal Weakness, name it, and de-
  scribe it. It can be made up, with the narrator’s approval.
  Step 5: Finishing Touches
  A.  Describe how the pony looks. That can include size and 
  build; colors of coat, mane, tail, and eyes; and the cutie 
  mark and its meaning. Use an extra sheet if it’s needed.
  B.  Name the pony and describe what else is important about 
  the pony. Some examples are personality, voice, birthplace, 
  and earlier life. Use an extra sheet if it’s needed.
  C. Note down the pony’s Moves and Strength Bonus.
  D.  Decide on the pony’s important possessions. The pony may 
  have up to eight. A major possession counts as four. A medi-
  um possession counts as two. A minor possession counts as 
  one. Every pony also owns a pair of panniers or saddlebags.
  How Big Is a Pony?
  The height of a pony (or any creature that mostly goes around 
  on all fours) is measured to the withers — the top of the back 
  just behind the neck. Since a pony’s head can go up and down, 
  measuring to the top of the head doesn’t work very well. Some 
  ponies may be a little taller or shorter, but most should be fair-
  ly close to the heights listed. A pony’s Muscle Aptitude can be 
  used as a guide when deciding how big or small that pony is.
  •  A young mare is around two and a half feet (75 cm) tall.
  • A young stallion is around three feet (90 cm) tall.
  • A very old pony may shrink some with age.
  •  A young foal, at the age he or she usually gets a cutie mark, 
  is about a foot and a half to two feet (45 to 60 cm) tall.
  •  A baby is much smaller, less than a foot (30 cm) tall.
  •  The sun princess is about ﬁ ve feet (1.5 m) tall and the moon 
  princess is about half that.
  Ponies are surprisingly heavy for their size, because even 
  small ponies have a lot of muscles. That muscle-power is why 
  ponies can kick trees hard enough to make ripe fruit fall out 
  of them (earth magic helps too), pull carts or plows, and push 
  snowplows. Some ponies may be a little lighter or heavier, but 
  most should be fairly close to the weights listed.
  •  A young stallion is around 150 pounds (a little under 70 kg).
  • A young mare is around 75 pounds (a little under 35 kg).
  •  A very old pony may be heavier if she’s run to fat, or lighter 
  if she’s gotten skinny.
  •  A young foal, at the age he or she usually gets a cutie mark, 
  isn’t more than about 50 pounds (between 20 and 25 kg), and 
  may be much smaller.
  •  A baby, especially a newborn, may be only a few pounds or 
  kilograms.
  •  The sun princess may be 400 to 600 pounds (180 to 270 kg) 
  and the moon princess may be 75 to 100 pounds (35 to 45 kg).
  Originally, the show’s creator wanted to use a lot of diﬀ er-
  ent models for the ponies, with diﬀ erent heights and weights. 
  The show’s art staﬀ  already was working hard, though, so to 
  save time and the staﬀ ’s sanity, most ponies at ﬁ rst were based 
  on a few models, with diﬀ erent colors, cutie marks, manes, and 
  tails. New models were added gradually as the show went on.
  Creating Other Creatures
  Ponies aren’t the only creatures, or even the only talking crea-
  tures, in the world. There are some examples of both later in 
  the book. A narrator who has other role-playing games might 
  be able to use them for ideas, too.
  A powerful and intelligent creature like a full-grown drag-
  on might have a lot of dice in Aptitudes and a lot of Talents. 
  Even a creature much larger or much smaller than a pony 
  should be limited to no more than 5d in each of its Aptitudes, 
  though; “How Big Is a Creature or Object?”, part of “Weights 
  & Measures: Special Task Rules”, and the Size rules in “Them’s 
  Fightin’ Words: Combat” talk about how to compare larger 
  and smaller creatures. Mostly it will aﬀ ect the use of Muscle 
  and Hardiness and sometimes certain kinds of magic, such as 
  how much ﬁ re a dragon can breathe out.
  An animal that isn’t intelligent, or at least isn’t as intelli-
  gent as a pony or other talking creatures, gets 1d of Smarts and 
  is very limited in what Talents it might have.
  A creature such as a zebra who can use magic actively has 
  both Power and Finesse. A creature such as a griﬃ  n who’s mag-
  ical but can’t use magic actively has Power but not Finesse. A 
  creature who has no magic won’t have either Aptitude.
  Some players may want to play other creatures than po-
  nies. It’s up to the narrator whether the players can, but any-
  thing she allows probably should get the same number of dice 
  that ponies do. Also remember that the show is mainly about 
  the ponies, so there isn’t a lot of information on other creatures 
  That means the narrator may have to do a lot more work in ﬁ g-
  uring out how she wants to handle those other creatures, such 
  as where they come from and how their societies work. ✶
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part One � Page 5 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  � Doing Things: Basic Task Resolution �
  S
  ooner or later, a pony will have to try doing something 
  hard, or something another pony or creature doesn’t want 
  that pony to do. What happens then?
  Anyone who played “let’s pretend” as a child knows it’s 
  easy just to start arguing, because there’s no good way to de-
  cide fairly who’s right. So, to keep the story moving and to 
  make it easy for every pony to have a fair chance, here are rules 
  for ﬁ nding out whether a pony succeeds at doing something.
  Step 1: How Hard Is the Task?
  Any one thing a pony tries to do is called a task. Most are pretty 
  short and have clear goals. Examples are jumping a fence, lift-
  ing a box, throwing an apple, or setting a table properly. Some 
  tasks are harder than others; it’s easy to walk on a paved road, 
  but walking up a steep slope covered with rocks is tougher.
  The narrator measures how hard a task is by giving it a 
  number, called a diﬃ  culty. The harder the task is, the greater 
  the diﬃ  culty will be. The narrator shouldn’t tell the player what 
  the diﬃ  culty is, but may give hints. For example, the narrator 
  might say to a player, “That fence looks awfully tall. Jumping 
  over it won’t be easy! Are you sure you want to try that?”
  If a player is really clever or is doing a very good job of 
  role-playing her pony, the narrator may reward the player by 
  reducing the diﬃ  culty a little. If the player tries to use a Tal-
  ent that only barely covers the task, the narrator may increase 
  the diﬃ  culty a little. If the diﬃ  culty depends on a measure-
  ment, like how heavy or far away something is, round up. For 
  example, a pony may try to carry a load of 50 pounds; that’s 
  between 40 pounds (which has a diﬃ  culty of 4) and 60 pounds 
  (a diﬃ  culty of 5), so round up to 60 pounds.
  •  A trivial task has a diﬃ  culty of 0 (or less). A pony can do 
  the task without thinking about it. The player doesn’t need 
  to roll any dice, and the narrator goes on with the story.
  •  A routine task has a diﬃ  culty of 1 to 5. A pony can do the 
  task without much thought or eﬀ ort. Make a roll only if the 
  task is very important to the story.
  •  An easy task has a diﬃ  culty of 6 to 10. A pony can do the 
  task without much thought or eﬀ ort unless she doesn’t have 
  a good Talent for it.
  •  A middling task has a diﬃ  culty of 11 to 15. A pony may have 
  trouble with it, and doing it right takes skill and eﬀ ort.
  •  A hard task has a diﬃ  culty of 16 to 20. A pony should be 
  well-trained in the kind of task being done, or she may not 
  be able to handle it.
  •  A very hard task has a diﬃ  culty of 21 to 25. Only the best-
  trained pony has a good chance at doing the task.
  •  An impossible task has a diﬃ  culty of 26 or more. A pony 
  who succeeds at a task this hard can tell her foals about it 
  someday, and other ponies may tell the story for many years.
  Diﬃ  culty modiﬁ ers: The narrator can add to or sub-
  tract from the diﬃ  culty to allow for things that make the task 
  easier or harder than it normally would be. The narrator may 
  want to keep track of reasons she’s added to or subtracted 
  from diﬃ  culties, if she thinks she might need them again later.
  Also, when planning a story, the narrator can list additions 
  and subtractions that might be needed, to help keep the story 
  moving at a good pace. (It’s always smart to be prepared, so 
  the narrator should make a habit of thinking things through in 
  advance. Don’t get too attached to a plan, though — players are 
  amazingly good at ﬁ nding unexpected ways of doing things.)
  •  A huge disadvantage adds 16 or more to the diﬃ  culty. An 
  example is trying to repair a complicated machine without 
  any proper tools.
  •  A big disadvantage adds 11 to 15 to the diﬃ  culty. An ex-
  ample is trying to ﬁ nd another pony in complete darkness.
  •  A fair disadvantage adds 6 to 10 to the diﬃ  culty. An ex-
  ample is trying to track another pony in heavy rain or snow.
  •  A small disadvantage adds 1 to 5 to the diﬃ  culty. An ex-
  ample is trying to ﬁ x something small and complicated, like 
  a pocket-watch, by candle-light.
  •  A small advantage subtracts 1 to 5 from the diﬃ  culty. An 
  example is something handy like a springy board the pony 
  can use to jump farther.
  •  A fair advantage subtracts 6 to 10 from the diﬃ  culty. An 
  example is a rough-and-ready tool, such as making the end of 
  a rope into a sling to lift a pony stuck at the bottom of a cliﬀ .
  •  A big advantage subtracts 11 to 15 from the diﬃ  culty. An 
  example is having good tools for the job, such as an emer-
  gency medical kit to help a pony who’s hurt.
  •  A huge advantage subtracts 16 or more from the diﬃ  culty. 
  An example is having the best tools for the job, such as a 
  clinic or a hospital to help a pony who’s hurt.
  Extra care: A pony can spend more time on a task to 
  double-check her work, but she can’t do anything else or get 
  distracted, or she doesn’t get the bonus.
  •  A pony who’s spending twice as long on the task gets +1d.
  •  A pony who’s spending 4 times as long on the task gets +2d.
  •  A pony who’s spending 8 times as long on the task gets +3d.
  Rushing: A pony can spend less time on a task than it 
  normally takes if she’s in a hurry, but it’ll make the task harder. 
  Not every task can be rushed; if in doubt, the narrator may ask 
  a player to explain how she thinks the task can be rushed, and 
  may not allow it if the player can’t come up with a good reason.
  •  Add 5 to the diﬃ  culty for a pony who’s spending three-
  fourths as long on the task.
  •  Add 10 to the diﬃ  culty for a pony who’s spending half as 
  long as long on the task.
  •  Add 20 to the diﬃ  culty for a pony who’s spending one-
  fourth as long on the task.
  Contest: If another pony or creature works against the 
  pony — for example, in a tug-of-war or arm-wrestling — they 
  have a contest. The referee doesn’t use a diﬃ  culty number; in-
  stead, both ponies or creatures roll their dice and the greater 
  number rolled wins the contest. Just as with a normal task, the 
  narrator can add to or subtract from one side or both sides of 
  the contest and can use the contest’s result in storytelling. ➧
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part One � Page 6 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  Project: If a pony needs to do something long and com-
  plicated, it may not be a single task — instead, it’s probably a 
  project made up of a bunch of tasks. The narrator should break 
  a project into a series of tasks for the pony to do. That way, 
  even if the pony doesn’t succeed at every task, she still might 
  be able to ﬁ nish the project. Also, the narrator can use the 
  results as part of the storytelling, or let other ponies help out. 
  Ponies might team up on some tasks, or diﬀ erent ponies might 
  work on diﬀ erent tasks.
  Step 2: What Talent Does the Pony Use?
  See if the pony doing the task has a Talent that makes her good 
  at that task. For instance, a pony trying to harvest apples from 
  a tree could use Farming or a similar Talent. Any pony can use 
  a Mundane Talent if the narrator agrees that it covers the task. 
  For the right kind of task, a pegasus or unicorn pony might be 
  able to use a Magical Talent instead. If the pony doesn’t have a 
  good Talent to use for the task, but can try to do it anyway, skip 
  this step and go on to the next step.
  The narrator sometimes may decide a task just can’t be 
  done by a pony who doesn’t have the right Talent; this is called 
  an esoteric task. For example, building a very complicated ma-
  chine like a water wheel or a windmill, or giving another pony 
  a complicated medical treatment, takes a lot of special knowl-
  edge most ponies haven’t learned. In such a case, the pony 
  probably knows she can’t do it even if she tries.
  Step 3: What Aptitude Does the Pony Use?
  If the pony doesn’t have a good Talent to use for the task, but 
  the narrator thinks she should be able to try anyway, the pony 
  can use an Aptitude instead. Usually it should be pretty obvi-
  ous which Aptitude ﬁ ts best, but if it isn’t, the narrator may 
  have to decide on which one to use.
  Use Muscle when a pony needs to be strong. A few ex-
  amples would be pushing, pulling, lifting, carrying, holding on 
  to something (especially if it’s moving), or bucking a tree to get 
  fruit to fall.
  Use Hardiness when a pony’s trying not to get tired, 
  hurt, or sick. A few examples would be galloping or ﬂ ying a 
  long time, falling, breathing smoke from a ﬁ re, or being around 
  creatures who are ill with something the pony might catch.
  Use Reﬂ exes when a pony needs to be quick or nimble. A 
  few examples would be doing something before another pony 
  or creature can do it (or stop the pony from doing it), galloping 
  or ﬂ ying quickly, or doing a trick like pulling a tablecloth oﬀ  
  without causing the dishes on the table to fall.
  Use Coordination when a pony is doing something 
  tricky. A few examples would be stacking things that might fall 
  over or using tools or tableware.
  Use Smarts when a pony is thinking or remembering. A 
  few examples would be solving a puzzle, making a plan, using 
  something taught in school, or remembering something from 
  a long time ago or that the pony only heard once.
  Use Senses when a pony may notice something unusual, 
  hidden, or not very obvious. This includes all the other sens-
  es — hearing, touch, smell, and taste — as well as sight.
  Use Power instead of another Aptitude for a magical task 
  that needs brute force rather than ﬁ ne control. An earth pony 
  may be able to use Power for a task involving earth or rock, or 
  creatures or plants, especially if it’s about taking care of them 
  in some way. A unicorn pony may be able to use Power instead 
  of Muscle, since she can levitate heavy objects.
  Use Finesse instead of another Aptitude for a magical 
  task that needs ﬁ ne control rather than brute force. A pegasus 
  pony may be able to use Finesse for a task that involves or can 
  use ﬂ ying, or wind or weather. A unicorn pony may be able to 
  use Finesse for a task instead of Coordination, since she can 
  levitate tools or other objects.
  Step 4: Roll!
  The player whose pony is trying to do the task rolls the dice in 
  the Talent or Aptitude that the pony is using. Total the num-
  bers that are rolled, and if it is equal to or greater than the 
  diﬃ  culty, the pony succeeds at the task! Otherwise, the pony 
  fails. The narrator can use the result in storytelling.
  Pips per whole die: Some rules only allow a pony “one 
  pip (or yard or other unit) per whole die”, or something similar; 
  some examples are Moves, Strength Bonus, and very small spells. 
  In that case, instead of rolling, drop the +1 or +2 if the pony has 
  that and count the number of dice. For instance, for a pony 
  with 6d+2, drop the +2 and count only the 6 dice, so if the rule 
  says the pony gets “1 pip per whole die”, she’d get 6 pips.
  •  If the die roll equals the diﬃ  culty, the pony barely succeeded. 
  The task may take longer or the pony doesn’t get as much.
  •  If the die roll is greater than the diﬃ  culty by 1–4, the pony 
  succeeded, but didn’t do anything special.
  •  If the die roll is greater than the diﬃ  culty by 5–8, the pony 
  did well and may get something extra out of it. Maybe the 
  task went quickly or the pony got more than she expected.
  •  If the die roll is greater than the diﬃ  culty by 9–12, the pony 
  did very well and should get something extra out of it. The 
  task may have gone quickly and the pony got extra out of it.
  •  If the die roll is greater than the diﬃ  culty by 13–16, the pony 
  did so well that other ponies watching would notice. The 
  pony deﬁ nitely should be rewarded by the narrator.
  •  If the die roll is greater than the diﬃ  culty by 17 or more, the 
  pony did well enough that other ponies will talk about it; she 
  should get a really good result.
  If the pony fails, the narrator likewise can use the result 
  in storytelling and for other things. For instance, if a pony just 
  misses succeeding, the narrator can let her try again, but with 
  a harder diﬃ  culty — if the task is something she can try again. 
  A pony who misses by a lot might have had a mishap and made 
  things worse than before, or done something else that can’t be 
  ﬁ xed easily or at all. The narrator can use a table of failure results 
  like the one for success, but in reverse, grading down to worse 
  results for every four points by which a pony fails a roll. ✶
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part One � Page 7 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  � Good Show: Experience and Rewards �
  A
  s the game goes on, the narrator can reward players with 
  experience points or possession points. These should be doled 
  out carefully, or ponies will end up super-powered very quickly, 
  but the narrator shouldn’t be too stingy, either. A good time to 
  give out points is at the end of a story; a player who role-played 
  really well or was especially clever might deserve a little extra.
  Experience points can improve a pony’s Talents or add 
  new Talents. A Talent being improved or added should be one 
  the pony’s had a chance to practice or learn. Improving a Tal-
  ent by 1 pip costs as many experience points as the skill has in 
  whole dice. For example, if a Talent has 3d+2, it would cost 3 
  experience points to add a pip, improving it to 4d. Adding an-
  other pip after that would cost 4 experience points. The total 
  number of experience points that have been added to a Talent 
  can be listed on a Pony Form in the column labeled “Exp.”, part 
  of the “Talents and Specialties” section of the Form. Aptitudes 
  can’t be improved except under special circumstances — usu-
  ally magical and rare — with the narrator’s permission.
  Possession points can be consumable or permanent. A con-
  sumable point represents something temporary, and once it’s 
  spent, it’s gone. A permanent point can be used to improve 
  one of a pony’s possessions (making a minor possession into 
  a medium possession, for instance) or to get the pony a new 
  one — or it can be saved for later (maybe to put together sev-
  eral points for a bigger possession).
  Be imaginative when using possession points! They can be 
  all sorts of other things besides belongings or money. For in-
  stance, a consumable point could mean another pony owes the 
  player’s pony a small favor. Permanent points could represent 
  special privileges or legal powers, or friends in high places. ✶
  � Judgment Call: Using the Rules �
  T
  he narrator should use her imagination to think up 
  exactly what happens when a pony succeeds or fails at a 
  task or other die roll. Otherwise a game can turn into a dry, 
  boring series of die rolls and rules references. Of course, the 
  references are needed so everyone understands how the rules 
  handle the results of die rolls, but the narrator and players can 
  and should add colorful storytelling to them.
  Fair play’s important to make sure players have fun and 
  aren’t too disappointed when their ponies can’t seem to get 
  something right. Humor’s important too, because the game’s 
  based on a show with a lot of comedy. Besides, some of the 
  funniest moments in role-playing can happen when a roll fails 
  spectacularly at just the wrong (or right) moment.
  The narrator doesn’t have to stick to the rules when doing 
  so is more bother than it’s worth, seems unfair, or dampens the 
  fun. They’re just tools to help decide things fairly. A light com-
  edy game — or any kind of literal game — may not use all the 
  detailed rules, but a ﬁ gurative game with a more serious tone 
  such as high adventure often can’t get along without them. The 
  real goal is to tell a thrilling, or funny, or dramatic story, and if 
  the moment seems right for something to happen in some par-
  ticular way, the narrator’s free to fudge things creatively. ✶
  � Fast and Furious: Rounds and Actions �
  M
  ost of the time, the narrator and players can use the 
  same tricks that writers do when it comes to telling the 
  story. If a pony spends hours doing something tedious like 
  searching through a library, it’s enough to spend only a few 
  real minutes covering that. On the other hand, sometimes it’s 
  important to keep track of exactly what’s happening when, and 
  what order that ponies or creatures are doing things. Fighting’s 
  a big reason for that, but it isn’t the only one.
  To help the narrator and players keep track when things 
  get fast and complicated, time is broken down into ﬁ ve-second 
  periods called rounds. Once every pony or creature that’s in-
  volved has had a turn to do things in the round, it’s over, and a 
  new round starts if the narrator thinks it’s needed. When the 
  narrator decides the ﬁ ght, or whatever reason it’s important to 
  use rounds, is over, everyone can go back to the normal way of 
  handling time.
  Step 1: Initiative
  The narrator has a choice of ways to ﬁ gure out initiative, the 
  order that ponies and other creatures take their turns in a 
  round. This doesn’t count as an action. Of course, a pony or 
  creature who’s unconscious, can’t move, or otherwise isn’t able 
  to do anything doesn’t get a turn in a round, if she hasn’t taken 
  it already.
  •  The narrator and players make rolls for all the ponies and 
  creatures who are involved, using Alertness or Reﬂ exes dice. 
  The highest roll goes ﬁ rst, the next highest roll goes sec-
  ond, and so on, until all the ponies and creatures are listed 
  in order. (The narrator should keep track on scratch paper.) 
  Either everyone rolls once at the start of the ﬁ rst round and 
  acts in the same order until the rounds are over, which is 
  faster and easier, or rolls at the beginning of every round, 
  which is slower but makes things more interesting.
  •  The pony or creature who does the ﬁ rst thing that matters 
  acts ﬁ rst, and all ponies and creatures act in the same order 
  until the rounds end. An example would be a pony or crea-
  ture going ﬁ rst because she surprises others in an ambush. 
  The narrator can decide to do this just for the ﬁ rst round, 
  then switch to Alertness and Reﬂ exes rolls.
  If the narrator decides not to use die rolls, or if die rolls 
  are tied, the narrator can decide the order of initiative by com-
  paring the number of dice the tied ponies or creatures have 
  in something. The highest number of dice goes ﬁ rst, the next 
  highest goes second, and so on. Once a pony or creature is on 
  the list, the narrator doesn’t need to compare her any more. 
  The tie-breaking order is: a Talent that lets a pony or creature 
  go ﬁ rst, Reﬂ exes, Smarts, then special equipment or a situation 
  that lets a pony or creature go ﬁ rst. If the narrator prefers, the 
  tied ponies and creatures instead can roll again to break ties. ➧
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part One � Page 8 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  Step 2: Actions
  When it’s a pony’s or creature’s turn in a round, the narrator 
  or player controlling that pony or creature decides what she 
  will do. First, the narrator or player must decide how many full 
  actions the pony or creature will take in the round. Any pony or 
  creature can take one full action in a round without a problem, 
  but trying to take more than one in a round is harder. For every 
  extra full action, subtract 1d from all task rolls (but not rolls 
  for injury, resisting injury, or initiative) the pony or creature 
  makes in that round; this is a multi-action penalty.
  For example, a pony trying to take three full actions in a 
  round subtracts 2d from all three of them. If the penalty sub-
  tracts all the dice a pony or creature can roll for an action, the 
  roll fails automatically. The narrator or player doesn’t have to 
  say right away what all the actions will be; instead, each action 
  can be described one at a time, as it happens.
  If the narrator wants to keep things moving quickly, she 
  can limit the number of full actions a pony or creature can take 
  in a round. This limit probably should be three to ﬁ ve actions, 
  depending on what kind of game is being played. A serious ad-
  venture game with experienced players may call for a higher 
  limit than a lighter, faster-moving game, for instance.
  A full action is anything a pony or creature does that 
  takes eﬀ ort or concentration. Most of the time, a full action 
  needs a task roll of some kind. Some full actions do special 
  things, add to or subtract from the diﬃ  culties of other rolls, 
  or need the ponies or creatures to do certain things. A pony or 
  creature can use only one full action in a round to move. Here 
  are some examples of full actions; the narrator has to decide if 
  an action that isn’t on the list is a full action.
  •  Attacking in any way, as explained in “Them’s Fightin’ 
  Words: Combat”. Besides using hooves, head, wings, or 
  teeth, this includes using a weapon or wrestling.
  •  Using an active defense (full or normal defense, blocking, or 
  parrying), also explained in “Them’s Fightin’ Words: Combat”.
  •  Moving, in good conditions, more than half a Run, Swim, or 
  Climb Move, more than 1 Flight Move, by jumping several times 
  in a row, by jumping over another pony or creature, or by jump-
  ing onto a table (or other raised area). Roll only for trying to 
  do something tricky or for trying to ﬂ ee (run away). Moves 
  are explained in “Hooﬁ n’ It and Wingin’ It: Movement”.
  •  Moving, in bad conditions, more than 1 yard (0.9 m) walk-
  ing, swimming, or climbing, or more than half a Flight Move. 
  A roll probably will be needed. If conditions are very bad, 
  the narrator may decide any movement at all is a full action.
  • Taking oﬀ  or landing by a ﬂ yer.
  •  Getting up again after falling or being knocked or thrown 
  to the ground.
  •  Trying a stunt with a moving vehicle, such as a cart, wagon, 
  or carriage.
  •  Throwing something at or to another pony or creature.
  •  Catching a thrown or dropped object or creature. The 
  catcher can take this action right after the throwing or drop-
  ping action. This is one of the few times a pony or creature 
  can take an action before her initiative.
  •  Carrying something heavy and doing anything else at the 
  same time other than walking or talking.
  •  Speaking more than a few words or a sentence, such as ex-
  plaining a plan or talking about complicated ideas or infor-
  mation, to nearby ponies or creatures.
  •  Readying a weapon or device, including drawing or reload-
  ing a bow or ﬁ rearm, sheathing or unsheathing a blade, or a 
  similar action. Usually a task roll isn’t needed, but the narra-
  tor may ask for one if there’s a lot of stress or confusion.
  •  Doing a quick task that takes a few seconds. The pony or 
  creature may try to rush the task, if she’s in a hurry and the 
  task normally takes longer than a round.
  •  Starting or continuing a task that takes longer than a 
  single round to ﬁ nish.
  •  Waiting before taking more actions, as explained below.
  A pony or creature can use a full action to wait for some-
  thing else to happen before taking more actions. (This is why 
  the narrator or player doesn’t have to describe all a pony’s or 
  creature’s actions up front.) The narrator or player can say why 
  the pony or creature is waiting — “I’ll wait for him to attack,” 
  for example — or say just that the pony or creature is wait-
  ing — for instance, “I’m not sure what’s going on, so I’ll wait to 
  see what happens before I do anything else.”
  If a pony or creature is waiting for something in particular, 
  the narrator can let her take an action if or when that some-
  thing happens, after any task roll is made but before the die 
  roll’s eﬀ ect. Using the example of the pony waiting for a crea-
  ture to attack, when the creature attacks, that pony would be 
  able to take another action after the attack die roll but before 
  anything else happens.
  A pony or creature can take a few actions, wait (another 
  action), take some more actions, wait again (another action), 
  and so on, as long as she has enough actions in the round to 
  do everything. If the pony or creature hasn’t used up all her 
  actions by the end of the round, she loses any she hasn’t taken.
  A free action is anything a pony or creature can do auto-
  matically except under the worst conditions. Free actions don’t 
  count when ﬁ guring out a multi-action penalty. If the narrator 
  thinks a task needs concentration, and therefore a die roll, to 
  do right, it usually isn’t a free action. Here are some examples.
  • Speaking a few words to another pony or creature nearby. 
  •  Glancing around a room (maybe with a Senses roll to notice 
  something). 
  •  Moving a short distance. Under good conditions, this can 
  be up to half of a walk, swim, or Climb Move, a single jump, 
  or 1 Flight Move. (Round up.) Under bad conditions, this is 
  limited to walking, swimming, or climbing no more than 1 
  yard (0.9 m) or ﬂ ying no more than half a Flight Move.
  •  Dropping prone (lying belly-down) on purpose or getting 
  up from doing so.
  •  Deciding initiative, rolling to resist injury or illness, and roll-
  ing to resist shock or surprise count as “free actions”.
  Step 3: Is It Over?
  The narrator decides whether to go on to a new round, or that 
  there’s no need to do so. For a new round, go back to step one 
  and start again. ✶
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part One � Page 9 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  � Plumb Tuckered: Fatigue and Rest �
  P
  onies who exert themselves get tired and must rest. 
  When a pony exerts herself, including using magic, the 
  pony’s player makes a fatigue roll using the pony’s Stamina or 
  Hardiness dice, every so often, depending on how hard the 
  pony is working. If a pony’s exertion is shorter than one full 
  time interval, just make one roll. The basic diﬃ  culty of the 
  ﬁ rst roll is 0; add 3 to the diﬃ  culty for every roll after that. (So 
  the second roll’s diﬃ  culty is 3, the third one’s diﬃ  culty is 6, 
  and so on.) An earth pony can add 1 to her roll for each whole 
  die in her Power Aptitude. For example, an earth pony with 
  3d+1 in Power can add 3 to her fatigue roll.
  •  A pony doing light work rolls every hour. Examples are 
  walking, slow ﬂ ight, or carrying a light load.
  •  A pony doing moderate work rolls every 10 minutes. Ex-
  amples are trotting, jumping a few times a minute, hovering 
  or moderate ﬂ ight, or carrying a medium load.
  •  A pony doing heavy work rolls every minute. Some exam-
  ples are cantering, swimming, climbing, jumping constantly, 
  fast ﬂ ight, ﬁ ghting, or carrying a heavy load.
  •  A pony making a maximum eﬀ ort rolls every round. Some 
  examples are galloping, very fast (or faster) ﬂ ight, or carrying 
  a load that is at least very heavy.
  Modiﬁ ers can be applied in special situations. Here are a 
  few examples, but the narrator can make up more if she thinks 
  they might be needed.
  •  Add 5 to the diﬃ  culty for hot weather; add 10 for very hot 
  weather.
  •  A pony exerting herself more than one way rolls for the 
  heaviest work and adds 5 to the diﬃ  culty for each extra exer-
  tion. For example, a pony cantering while carrying a medium 
  load is doing heavy work and adds 5 to the diﬃ  culty.
  •  A pony doing only light work, even multiple things, can skip 
  fatigue rolls if the narrator agrees she’s pacing herself; treat 
  it as a “routine task”. An example would be a pony who’s 
  strolling — half walking speed — while carrying a light load.
  •  Add 5 to diﬃ  culty for casting a ranged spell at medium range; 
  add 10 to diﬃ  culty for casting one at long range.
  •  Add 5 to diﬃ  culty for heroic ﬂ ight.
  Any time a pony fails a fatigue roll, she gets more tired 
  and has a harder time doing things, until she takes a break and 
  gets some rest. Once the pony has rested, the diﬃ  culty for her 
  fatigue rolls starts over again at 0.
  •  A pony who fails one fatigue roll is winded. She subtracts 1d 
  from all task rolls and fatigue rolls until she’s rested for half 
  as long as the exertion lasted.
  •  A pony who fails two fatigue rolls is tired. She subtracts 2d 
  from all task rolls and fatigue rolls until she’s rested for as 
  long as the exertion lasted.
  •  A pony who fails three fatigue rolls is exhausted. She sub-
  tracts 3d from all task rolls and can’t exert herself any more 
  until she’s rested for twice as long as the exertion lasted.
  Simplifying Fatigue During Rounds
  Normally the narrators and players would keep track of each 
  creature’s fatigue as it happens, noting what kind of eﬀ ort she’s 
  exerting and rolling for fatigue when it’s time. That can get 
  tedious during rounds, so here’s an easier way to do it.
  •  Fighting or otherwise being active most of the time is heavy 
  work; just roll for fatigue once a minute, or every 12 rounds.
  •  Being less active — such as hiding, thinking, or freeing prison-
  ers — is medium work; that means rolling after 10 minutes or 
  120 rounds, so one roll when rounds are over may be enough.
  Anyone in or near a ﬁ ght probably is under a lot of stress. 
  That’s why even a creature who isn’t doing much still is con-
  sidered to be doing “medium work”. If nothing else, her heart-
  beat’s racing and her breathing’s fast!
  Sleeping and Waking
  A pony staying up longer than she should makes a fatigue roll 
  every day with a diﬃ  culty equal to the total hours of missed 
  sleep. The narrator can modify the diﬃ  culty depending on 
  what’s going on around the pony. If it’s peaceful and quiet, or 
  the pony’s really comfortable, that increases the diﬃ  culty. If 
  it’s loud or uncomfortable, or the pony’s trying to stay active 
  (walking around, say), that decreases the diﬃ  culty.
  This is treated just like a normal fatigue roll. After the 
  third failed sleep-fatigue roll, the pony falls asleep no matter 
  what. Other ponies trying to keep her awake must keep doing 
  it constantly or the sleepy pony will drift oﬀ  again. A pony 
  stays sleepy, with the penalty for being “winded”, “tired”, or 
  “exhausted”, until she makes up the lost sleep. A pony can be 
  sleepy and tired, combining both penalties.
  Normally, trying to fall asleep is routine, but if conditions 
  are bad, like being cold, wet, hungry, or surrounded by loud 
  noise, the pony makes a Hardiness roll every ten minutes, with 
  a diﬃ  culty of 5 for each bad condition. If the pony’s awake long 
  enough, the narrator may give the pony a penalty for lost sleep.
  A pony who’s trying to wake up or who’s being waked 
  makes a Hardiness roll each round with a diﬃ  culty of 5. If it’s 
  too early (less than a full night’s sleep), add to the diﬃ  culty. 
  Loud noises or other disturbances decrease the diﬃ  culty. A big 
  success means the pony wakes up alert. A small success means 
  the pony wakes up groggy and disoriented. A small failure 
  means the pony doesn’t quite wake up, but is dozing. A mishap 
  means the pony stays fast asleep. ✶
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part One � Page 10 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  � Icky Stuﬀ : Injury, Illness, and Healing �
  T
  he show doesn’t talk much about them directly, but it’s 
  clear that birth and death are part of life for the ponies. 
  Getting hurt, getting sick, and getting better are things any 
  pony will do, especially one who goes on adventures.
  Sometimes the show does something pretty terrible to a 
  pony — say, squishing her under a falling piano or smacking 
  her into a cliﬀ  — but she’s ﬁ ne later in the episode or even in 
  the next scene! Other times, though, a plot depends on (for 
  example) a pony being rescued from, or trying to avoid, going 
  splat after a good long fall. As a result, this is where the diﬀ er-
  ence between a literal game and a ﬁ gurative game may be most 
  noticeable. Along with the rules are suggestions for handling 
  them depending on which kind of game is being played.
  Injury or Illness
  The narrator and players need to keep track of how hurt or 
  sick ponies or creatures get when bad things happen to them. 
  It matters more in a ﬁ gurative game, but even in a literal game 
  they should suﬀ er penalties to their rolls for a while.
  When a pony may get hurt or sick, roll dice to see how 
  badly. The worse the injury or illness can be, the more dice are 
  rolled. The pony’s player rolls the pony’s Hardiness dice plus 
  the dice for any protection (for example, armor); subtract that 
  from the injury or illness roll. An earth pony can add 1 to her 
  Hardiness roll for each whole die in Power. A pegasus can roll 
  Power instead if she’s ﬂ ying. A unicorn can roll Power instead 
  if a spell’s causing the injury or illness.
  If the result’s zero or less, the pony only gets a few bruises 
  or sniﬄ  es. If the result is more than zero, the pony gets hurt or 
  sick. The pony’s player checks oﬀ , on her Pony Form, the level 
  that matches the ﬁ nal result.
  •  A pony’s bruised by a result of 0 or less, but there’s no ef-
  fect in the game.
  •   A pony’s stunned by a result of 1 to 3. A stunned pony sub-
  tracts 1d from all task rolls this round and next round. A 
  pony can be stunned and injured or ill at the same time.
  •  A pony suﬀ ers minor injury or illness from a result of 
  4 to 6. A pony with a minor injury or illness subtracts 1d 
  from all task rolls until healed.
  •  A pony suﬀ ers serious injury or illness from a result of 
  7 to 9. A pony with a serious injury or illness subtracts 2d 
  from all task rolls until healed.
  •  A pony suﬀ ers major injury or illness from a result of 
  10 to 12 and must make a Hardiness roll with a diﬃ  culty of 
  15. If the roll is successful, the pony stays conscious. Failure 
  means the pony is unconscious for 10d minutes. (In a literal 
  game, this can be 10d rounds instead.) A pony with a major 
  injury or illness subtracts 3d from all task rolls until healed.
  •  A pony suﬀ ers mortal injury or illness from a result of 
  13 to 15, falls over unconscious, and stays that way until 
  healed. Each minute, make a Hardiness roll for the pony; if 
  the result’s less than the number of minutes since the pony 
  suﬀ ered mortal injury or illness, the pony dies. (A literal 
  game can ignore the last part.)
  • A pony dies immediately from a result of 16 or greater.
  If the group thinks it’s too easy for ponies to get hurt, sick, 
  or worse, the narrator can adjust illness and injury levels. A 
  quick and easy change is to make each level one point bigger, 
  so that stunned is 1 to 4 points, minor is 5 to 8 points, serious is 9 
  to 12 points, and so on. Another option is to adjust the nastier 
  levels more than the lesser ones — for instance, making minor 1 
  point bigger, serious 2 points bigger, major 3 points, and so on.
  Increasing injury or illness: If a pony gets sick or hurt 
  again, worse than she already is, check oﬀ  the new level. If the 
  new injury or illness isn’t worse, increase the pony’s injury or 
  illness by one level unless the new result is stunned. That may 
  sound complicated, but once everyone gets used to it, keeping 
  track should be pretty easy. Here are examples, using a pony 
  with a serious injury:
  •  If the new injury’s a major injury, mortal injury, or death, check 
  oﬀ  that level of injury, whichever one it is.
  •  If the new injury’s a minor injury or serious injury, increase the 
  injury by one level, checking oﬀ  major injury.
  • If the new injury’s stunned, don’t increase the main injury level.
  Healing
  Natural healing in a ﬁ gurative game takes rest. After a pony 
  spends enough time resting — not exerting herself — make a 
  Hardiness roll. Subtract 1d from the roll for a pony who doesn’t 
  rest and instead is active (for instance, working or adventur-
  ing). Add 1d to the roll for a pony who rests twice as long as the 
  injury level needs. If the roll’s successful, reduce the pony’s in-
  jury level by one (for instance, from “serious injury” to “minor 
  injury”). If the roll fails, the injury level stays the same.
  • A stunned pony recovers automatically.
  •  For minor or serious, roll after 3 days with a diﬃ  culty of 6.
  •  For major injury or illness, roll after 2 weeks with diﬃ  culty 6.
  •  For mortal injury or illness, roll after 5 weeks with diﬃ  culty 8.
  In a literal game, anything short of the biggest threats to 
  life and limb just knocks around a pony for comedic eﬀ ect; the 
  narrator can ignore injury eﬀ ects. If she wants to pay some at-
  tention to boo-boos — especially on ponies who get in trouble 
  when they should know better — she can use minutes instead 
  of days and hours instead of weeks for healing. That lets ponies 
  recover from injuries quickly, but doesn’t remove mortal peril, 
  for last-minute rescues and other dramatic moments.
  Medical treatment: Only a pony with the Medicine Tal-
  ent can give a hurt or sick pony medical treatment to speed 
  up healing. The pony giving medical treatment rolls her Talent 
  dice once per day. If the roll’s successful, reduce injury level 
  by one — for instance, from “serious injury” to “minor injury”. 
  Failure means the injury level stays the same. If the pony in 
  charge of treatment has the right tools, such as medicines, 
  bandages, surgical instruments, healing magic, or whatever the 
  narrator thinks is needed, reduce the diﬃ  culty. Treating the 
  patient in a clinic or hospital reduces the diﬃ  culty even more.
  •  For a pony with a minor injury or illness, the diﬃ  culty is 10.
  •  For a pony with a serious injury or illness, the diﬃ  culty is 15.
  •  For a pony with a major injury or illness, the diﬃ  culty is 20.
  •  For a pony with a mortal injury or illness, diﬃ  culty is 25. ✶
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part One � Page 11 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  � Weights and Measures: The Physical World �
  N
  ot only will the players’ ponies deal with other ponies 
  or creatures, they also have to face what the world itself 
  might throw at them. A few common and important things 
  that affect adventuring ponies are size, visibility, and weather.
  Size: How Big Is a Creature or Object?
  Not everything in the world is the same size as a pony, and 
  even ponies can vary in size depending on age. Any time a pony 
  or creature has to deal with someone or something much big-
  ger or smaller, the narrator can use these rules for Size.
  Subtract the Size of the smaller creature or object from 
  the Size of the larger one. Remember that subtracting a nega-
  tive number is like adding a positive number; 6 minus –3 is the 
  same as 6 plus 3. The result is the Size diﬀ erence.
  If being bigger makes things easier, then the Size diﬀ er-
  ence should be subtracted from the diﬃ  culty of the bigger 
  creature’s task, added to the diﬃ  culty of the smaller creature’s 
  task, or both. If being smaller makes things easier, then the 
  modiﬁ er should be applied the other way. The same principles 
  can be applied to numbers other than diﬃ  culty modiﬁ ers, if 
  the narrator thinks the Size diﬀ erence would matter.
  Since a Size number is fairly loose, most adult ponies will 
  be Size 0 (zero). A stallion or mare would have to be especially 
  big or little to have a diﬀ erent Size. If a player wants her pony 
  to have an exceptional Size — probably 1 for a huge stallion or 
  –1 for a tiny mare — she should ask the narrator’s permission 
  and write it down as part of the pony’s description. The pony’s 
  Muscle also should be very large or small, to explain why she 
  (or he) has such an unusual Size.
  • A full-grown dragon is Size 40 
  • An adult pony is Size 0
  • An 8-story building is Size 24 
  • A foal is Size –3
  • A 4-story building is Size 20 
  • A medium dog is Size –3
  • A 2-story building is Size 14 
  • A house cat is Size –6
  • A train car is Size 10 
  • A breadbox is Size –6
  • An elephant is Size 8 
  • A rat is Size –9
  • A large wagon is Size 6 
  • A mouse is Size –12
  • A small cart is Size 3 
  • A coin is Size –15
  • The sun princess is Size 3 
  • An ant is Size –21
  • The moon princess is Size 2
  Visibility: How Far Can a Pony See?
  Visibility is how far and how well a pony or other creature with 
  good eyes can see. The diﬃ  culty of a Notice or Senses roll will 
  be higher for looking at, or for, something far away than for 
  looking at, or for, something that’s close by. Anything that’s 
  beyond the range of visibility can’t be seen at all.
  •  Ideal visibility, such as in clear, clean arctic or mountain air, 
  can be as much as 45 to 60 miles. (72–91 km)
  •  Typical visibility, such as in sea-level air near a town or city, 
  may be about half that — 20 to 30 miles. (32–48 km)
  •  Visibility in haze is about 1.25 to 3 miles. (2–5 km).
  •  Visibility in mist is about 0.625 (⁵⁄₈) to 1.2 miles. (1.1–1.9 km).
  •  Visibility in fog or clouds is 0.62 miles. (1 km) or less.
  •  “Zero” visibility often is deﬁ ned as 110 yards (100 m) or less.
  Fog, smoke, clouds, and distance make it harder to 
  see, which in turn makes most things — including working 
  magic — harder to do. The narrator can add to diﬃ  culty with a 
  ﬂ at number or with a die roll.
  •  Add 3 (or 1d) for light smoke or fog, or for middle distance.
  •  Add 6 (or 2d) for thick smoke or fog, or for long distance.
  •  Add 12 (or 4d) for very thick smoke or fog, very long dis-
  tance, complete darkness, or not being able to see at all.
  After dark: It’s harder to see during twilight or at night 
  than during daylight, and a pony can’t see as far. Morning twi-
  light is between dawn and sunrise; evening twilight is between 
  sunset and dusk. The deﬁ nition of dawn and dusk, by the way, 
  is when the center of the sun is six degrees below the horizon.
  •  During twilight, add 5 to the diﬃ  culty of spotting some-
  thing and divide visibility by two.
  •  At night, add 10 to the diﬃ  culty of spotting something and 
  divide visibility by four.
  Using a light: A match or candle casts light in a circle. 
  A ﬂ ashlight (electric torch) casts light in a 30° arc in front of 
  the light. A lantern might do either one, depending on how it’s 
  designed; if it casts light in an arc instead of all around, double 
  the distances listed for it. A pony can’t see at all past the maxi-
  mum “night” distances listed, because her eyes are adjusted to 
  the light she’s using.
  The ﬁ rst ﬂ ashlights, invented in the 1890s, were big and 
  heavy, and batteries lasted only a few minutes. They were used 
  only in short “ﬂ ashes”, then turned oﬀ  to save power. Treat an 
  early ﬂ ashlight as if it were a lantern that casts light in an arc.
  •  Matchlight is like twilight at 0 to 1 yard (0.9 m) or hex and 
  night at 2 yards (1.8 m) or hexes. The ﬂ ame lasts 4 rounds.
  •  Candlelight is like twilight at 0 to 1 yard (0.9 m) and night 
  at 2 to 3 yards (1.8–2.7 m). The ﬂ ame lasts 1 hour.
  •  Lantern-light is like daylight at 0 to 1 yard (0.9 m) or hex, 
  twilight at 2 yards (1.8 m) or hexes, and night at 3 to 5 yards 
  (2.7–4.5 m) or hexes. The ﬂ ame lasts about 6 hours.
  •  A modern ﬂ ashlight is like day at 0–5 yards (4.5 m), twilight 
  at 6–10 yards (5.4–9 m), and night at 11–30 yards (11–27 m).
  Wind and Weather
  Because they’re so closely tied to the pegasus tribe, wind and 
  weather are important enough to need more detailed informa-
  tion than most games use. Still, these rules are streamlined to 
  keep things moving, and the narrator’s encouraged to ﬁ nd a 
  good introductory book on weather for reference.
  Precipitation is water falling from the sky, usually from 
  certain kinds of clouds. Rain and drizzle are liquid or freezing, 
  but snow, hail, sleet, and a few lesser-known kinds are frozen. 
  Virga is precipitation that evaporates before it hits the ground.
  Raindrops usually are bigger than 0.02 inch (0.5 mm) in di-
  ameter, but they may be smaller if they’re widely scattered. 
  Drizzle drops are smaller and lighter, so they follow air currents 
  more, seem to ﬂ oat, and are more tightly packed. Drizzle is like 
  very light or light rain, except that visibility is cut in half. ➧
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part One � Page 12 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  Rain or drizzle is measured, in inches or millimeters, by 
  how deep it ﬁ lls special cups set out to catch it. How hard it’s 
  raining or drizzling is measured by how much falls in an hour, 
  or would fall in an hour if it lasted that long. The record in the 
  real world is 12 inches (305 mm) in 42 minutes (0.7 hour), which 
  works out to about 17 inches (435 mm) per hour.
  Snow is white or translucent ice crystals in complicated, 
  branched hexagonal shapes, bunched together into snow-
  ﬂ akes. Snowfall is measured by how much it interferes with 
  visibility, because it’s harder to measure with instruments: As 
  a rule of thumb, 10 inches or millimeters of snow is equivalent 
  to 1 inch or millimeter of rain — but warm, wet snow is denser 
  and cold, dry snow is lighter, so it can range from 6 to 11 inches 
  or millimeters of snow to 1 of rain. In really extreme conditions 
  it can range from 4 to 50 units of snow to 1 unit of rain!
  To keep things simple, use the list of rain levels, but divide 
  visibility in half and multiply the amount by 10 (or whatever 
  number seems right for the temperature and humidity). The 
  narrator can treat other frozen precipitation the same way, al-
  though strong hail or sleet can hit hard enough to injure crea-
  tures or damage things caught out in it.
  •  Very light rain is 0.01 inch (0.25 mm) per hour or less; vis-
  ibility’s about 4 to 8 mi. (6.4–13 km).
  •  Light rain is more than 0.01 inch (0.25 mm) but no more than 
  0.04 inch (1 mm); visibility’s about 2 to 4 mi. (3.2–6.4 km).
  •  Moderate rain is more than 0.04 inch (1 mm) but no more 
  than 0.16 inch (4 mm); visibility’s about 1 to 2 mi. (1.6–3.2 km).
  •  Heavy rain is more than 0.16 inch (4 mm) but no more than 
  0.64 inch (16 mm); visibility’s about ¹⁄₂ to 1 mi. (0.8–1.6 km).
  •  Very heavy rain is more than 0.64 inch (16 mm) but no more 
  than 2 inches (50 mm); visibility’s ¹⁄₄ to ¹⁄₂ mi. (0.4–0.8 km).
  •  Extreme rain is more than 2 inches (50 mm) but no more 
  than 8 inches (203 mm); visibility’s ¹⁄₈ to ¹⁄₄ mi. (0.2–0.4 km).
  •  Maximum rain is more than 8 inches (203 mm) per hour; 
  visibility’s about ¹⁄₁₆ to ¹⁄₈ mi. (0.1–0.2 km).
  Wind: The Beaufort scale was created in the nineteenth 
  century to classify winds, using speed in knots, traditional for 
  sailing; 1 knot is about 1.15 mph or 1.85 km/h. Today weather 
  agencies work with diﬀ erent scales, but the Beaufort scale still 
  is useful for the game. Keep in mind that hurricanes and torna-
  does may have wind speeds higher than those listed!
  •  Calm is little or no wind, too light to feel on the skin.
  •  Light air is 1–2 knots (1 to 3 mph or 1–5.5 km/h).
  •  Light breeze is 3–6 knots (4 to 7 mph or 5.6–11 km/h).
  •  Gentle breeze is 7–10 knots (8 to 12 mph or 12–19 km/h).
  •  Moderate breeze is 11–15 knots (13–17 mph or 20–28 km/h).
  •  Fresh breeze is 16–20 knots (18 to 24 mph or 29–38 km/h).
  •  Strong breeze is 21–26 knots (25 to 30 mph or 39–49 km/h).
  •  Near gale is 27–33 knots (31 to 38 mph or 50–61 km/h).
  •  Fresh gale is 34–40 knots (39 to 46 mph or 62–74 km/h).
  •  Strong gale is 41–47 knots (47 to 54 mph or 75–88 km/h).
  •  Whole gale is 48–55 knots (55 to 63 mph or 89–102 km/h).
  •  Violent storm is 56–63 knots (64 to 72 mph or 103–117 km/h).
  •  Hurricane force is 64 knots (73 mph or 118 km/h) or more.
  •  An ef5 tornado may exceed 174 knots (200 mph/322 km/h). ✶
  � Doing More Things: Special Task Rules �
  T
  he basic task rules are pretty general. They’ll do for 
  simple cases, but a lot of tasks or situations call for more 
  detail or additional information. Some common examples are 
  teamwork, using Magical Talents, and carrying heavy loads.
  Teamwork
  Some tasks are too big for one pony, such as pulling a canal 
  barge, pushing a rain cloud into place, or levitating a roof onto 
  a house. In that case, several ponies may team up to work on 
  it. One pony should be the team’s leader; she ﬁ rst makes a roll 
  using Leadership, Smarts, or (if the narrator thinks it applies) 
  the task Talent. The roll’s diﬃ  culty depends on what kinds 
  of orders or directions the leader has to give, and can involve 
  role-playing. Raising a barn wall isn’t very complex, but medi-
  cal treatment may need more speciﬁ c instructions.
  • Simple or general commands are diﬃ  culty 3.
  • Easy or speciﬁ c commands are diﬃ  culty 7.
  • Diﬃ  cult or very speciﬁ c commands are diﬃ  culty 12.
  • Very diﬃ  cult or precise commands are diﬃ  culty 17.
  • Extremely diﬃ  cult or very precise commands are diﬀ . 22.
  • Exacting commands are diﬃ  culty 28.
  How well the group works together also aﬀ ects the dif-
  ﬁ culty of the leader’s roll. This could involve role-playing too.
  •  If the group’s members will follow the group’s leader no mat-
  ter what, subtract 20.
  •  If group members will sacriﬁ ce for each other, subtract 15.
  •  If the group’s trained a lot to work together, subtract 10.
  •  If the group’s trained a little to work together, subtract 5.
  •  If the group’s worked together a lot or is willing to, there’s no 
  modiﬁ er.
  •  If the group’s worked together several times, add 5.
  •  If the group’s worked together only a few times, add 10.
  •  If the group’s never worked together or most of the group 
  hates each other, add 15.
  •  If the group isn’t interested in working together, all of the 
  group hates each other, or the group’s members can’t com-
  municate with each other, add 20.
  If the leader’s doing a good job, subtract from the task’s 
  overall diﬃ  culty, especially if the leader has a good task Talent 
  and Leadership. If the leader isn’t doing a good job, leave the 
  diﬃ  culty as it is or change it a little either way. If there’s no 
  leader at all, add to the diﬃ  culty of the task.
  If the leader’s roll succeeds, the group can add together 
  their task dice for one great big roll against the task’s total diﬃ  -
  culty, and the narrator can give the group any other beneﬁ ts that 
  seem logical for the situation. If the roll fails, members of the 
  group may have to roll separately against pieces of the task, and 
  the narrator can give the group any other problems that seem 
  logical for the situation. If some ponies succeed but others fail, 
  that could cause even bigger problems. (Imagine what happens 
  to that roof or cloud when only parts of it are moved.) ➧
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part One � Page 13 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  Using Magical Talents
  There’s no visible sign when an earth pony’s or pegasus pony’s 
  magic is working, but when a unicorn casts a spell, a sparkling 
  glow shows up around her alicorn (the historical name for a uni-
  corn horn and what it’s made of) and anything the spell’s used 
  on, and there’s a faint sound of chiming and humming. A small 
  spell may glow white, maybe with a little color; a more power-
  ful spell takes on the color of the pony’s coat, mark, or eyes. A 
  very powerful spell also may radiate a bright white ﬂ ash.
  A pony using a Magical Talent ﬁ rst makes a Talent roll with 
  a diﬃ  culty based on how big the weatherworking or spell is; 
  this roll can be skipped if the pony isn’t in a hurry or stressed 
  and the diﬃ  culty’s 5 or less. If the pony succeeds at the Talent 
  roll or is allowed to skip it, she then makes an Eﬀ ect roll to see 
  how much the magic does, rounding up if needed.
  Weatherworking: Weather’s created by humidity (mois-
  ture in the air), air pressure, and temperature. The show hints 
  that pegasus magic controls the ﬁ rst two, but temperature’s 
  controlled by the rising and setting of the sun. In ancient times 
  the unicorns controlled the sun and moon, but more recent-
  ly the sun and moon princesses took over that duty. For the 
  game’s purposes, weather magic changes local conditions of 
  humidity or pressure over time.
  Weather is very powerful, with lots of energy, so teams 
  of pegasus ponies work together in controlling it over even a 
  small area. Notice that when one pegasus works with a cloud, 
  it usually is only a few times her own size. That may be partly 
  so it ﬁ ts in the television picture, but it also may be how much 
  a single pegasus can work with comfortably.
  A pegasus can stop an active weatherworking she’s cast 
  any time she wants, even if she hasn’t used up all its Eﬀ ect. 
  Make a fatigue roll when a weatherworking ends or is stopped.
  •  A very small weatherworking is diﬃ  culty 0 and the result 
  is 1 pip for each whole die of Eﬀ ect.
  •  A small weatherworking is diﬃ  culty 5; roll half Eﬀ ect dice.
  •  A moderate weatherworking is diﬃ  culty 10; roll Eﬀ ect dice.
  •  A large working is diﬃ  culty 15; roll half again (1 ¹⁄₂ times as 
  many) Eﬀ ect dice.
  •  A very large working is diﬃ  culty 20; roll double Eﬀ ect dice.
  Casting a spell: A unicorn’s spell may last for a period of 
  time, called duration, or it may be instant, happening in a frac-
  tion of a second. A unicorn can stop an active spell she’s cast 
  any time she wants, even if she hasn’t used up all its duration. 
  For anything other than a very small spell, make a fatigue roll 
  when the spell ends or is stopped.
  •  A very small spell is diﬃ  culty 0. No fatigue roll is needed. 
  Eﬀ ect is 1 pip per whole die. Duration is up to 1 hour.
  •  A small spell is diﬃ  culty 5. Roll half Eﬀ ect dice. Duration is 
  up to 1 hour.
  •  A moderate spell is diﬃ  culty 10. Roll Eﬀ ect dice. Duration 
  is up to 10 minutes.
  •  A large spell is diﬃ  culty 15. Roll half again (1 ¹⁄₂ times as 
  many) Eﬀ ect dice. Duration is up to 1 minute.
  •  A very large spell is diﬃ  culty 20. Roll double Eﬀ ect dice. 
  Duration is 1 round.
  Rounding oﬀ : The same system of three points per die 
  that’s described in “First Things First: Creating a Pony” can be 
  used to ﬁ gure out how many Eﬀ ect dice are rolled. For exam-
  ple, a pegasus or unicorn with 3d+1 (10 points) of Eﬀ ect who’s 
  casting a small spell or weatherworking (half Eﬀ ect dice) would 
  roll 1d+2 (5 points). Round up to the next point if needed.
  Since using a Magical Talent means making two die 
  rolls — a Talent roll and an Eﬀ ect roll — instead of just one, it 
  can be a bit of a hassle. To help make up for that, the narrator 
  and players can use the “Too Many Dice!” optional rule or sim-
  ply use a ﬂ at 3 pips per Eﬀ ect die instead of making Eﬀ ect rolls.
  Casting distance: Most Magical Talents can’t reach very 
  far away from a pony using them. When using such a Talent up 
  to 1 yard away, a pegasus or unicorn can roll her full Talent dice. 
  For every yard farther away the pony tries to use the Talent, 
  subtract 1d. A pony can’t use the Talent so far away that her 
  Talent roll would be less than 1d. For example, a unicorn with 
  4d+2 in her Illumination Talent who tries to cast an Illumina-
  tion spell 3 yards away subtracts 2d, and so would roll 2d+2. She 
  can’t cast Illumination 5 (or more) yards away, since 4d would be 
  subtracted, which leaves less than 1d.
  Ranged magic: Some Magical Talents can be “thrown” or 
  “ﬁ red” at more distant targets. This is similar to the “Range” 
  rule in “Them’s Fightin’ Words: Combat”, except there’s no close 
  range. The narrator can add a very long range that’s 10 times long 
  range (and adds 15 to the Talent roll’s diﬃ  culty), but she should 
  be cautious about doing so, since that can be very powerful, and 
  deﬁ nitely should include visibility modiﬁ ers.
  •  Short range, in yards, is equal to the number of whole Ef-
  fect dice in the Magical Talent.
  •  Medium range is beyond short range, up to 10 times short 
  range; add 5 to the diﬃ  culty of the Talent roll.
  •  Long range is beyond medium range, up to 100 times short 
  range; add 10 to the diﬃ  culty of the Talent roll.
  A Magic Talent may have a casting distance and is ranged, 
  which can seem a bit confusing. An example is Wink — the abil-
  ity to move creatures or things instantly across distances. Cast-
  ing distance is how far away the caster can reach a creature or 
  object she wants to Wink; range is how far she Winks it.
  Consider a unicorn who tries to Wink away a changeling 
  that’s about to attack her. The casting distance from her to the 
  changeling is 2 yards, so she subtracts 1d from her Wink Tal-
  ent dice. She decides to Wink the changeling away to medium 
  range, which adds 5 to the diﬃ  culty of the Wink Talent roll.
  Levitation: Make a Talent roll each time a unicorn levi-
  tates more objects, manipulates an object, moves an object far-
  ther away by at least 1 yard, or sets down an object. No roll’s 
  needed if the unicorn just drops things. Add 1 to diﬃ  culty for 
  each object after the ﬁ rst the unicorn levitates; a failure means 
  the unicorn drops some or all of the objects. The Eﬀ ect roll is 
  the equivalent of a Lifting or Muscle roll for carrying.
  Bonk! All of a pony’s active weatherworkings or spells 
  stop immediately if she’s hit on the head, especially on a uni-
  corn’s alicorn (horn), hard enough to cause injury — including 
  being stunned — or if getting hit takes her by surprise or breaks 
  her concentration. ✶
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part One � Page 14 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  How Much Can a Pony Lift, Carry, and Pull?
  When a pony picks up something, roll the pony’s Lifting Tal-
  ent or Muscle dice; an earth pony can add 1 to her roll for each 
  whole die in her Power Aptitude. The narrator can say it’s a 
  “routine task” and skip die rolls if the pony isn’t in a hurry or 
  stressed, or if the diﬃ  culty equals, or is less than, the number 
  of whole dice that would be rolled. If the weight’s between 
  two values, round up to the next value. For example, a load of 
  50 pounds is between 40 pounds (diﬃ  culty 4) and 60 pounds 
  (diﬃ  culty 5); round up to 60 pounds.
  If it matters to the story, roll every round a pony carries or 
  pulls a big load. If the roll succeeds, the pony keeps carrying it. 
  If the roll fails, the pony has to put it down and take a break 
  for a round before lifting it again. If there’s a mishap, the pony 
  drops it or collapses on the ground instead. Lifting, pushing, or 
  pulling a load with only one hoof, two hooves, head, mouth, or 
  a wing adds 5 to the diﬃ  culty.
  •  A light load is up to 20 pounds (9 kg); 2 pounds (0.9 kg) has 
  a diﬃ  culty of 1, 10 pounds (4.5 kg) has a diﬃ  culty of 2, and 
  20 pounds (9 kg) has a diﬃ  culty of 3.
  •  A medium load is 40 to 200 pounds (18–91 kg); add 1 to 
  the diﬃ  culty per 20 pounds (9 kg). The diﬃ  culty range for a 
  medium load is 4 to 12.
  •  A heavy load is 240 to 400 pounds (109–181 kg); add 1 to 
  the diﬃ  culty per 40 pounds (18 kg). The diﬃ  culty range for 
  a heavy load is 13 to 17.
  •  A very heavy load is 500 to 2000 pounds or 1 ton (227–907 
  kg); add 1 to the diﬃ  culty per 100 pounds (45 kg). The diﬃ  -
  culty range for a very heavy load is 18 to 33.
  •  An extra-heavy load is 1.1 to 2 tons (1.1–1.8 tonnes); add 1 to 
  the diﬃ  culty per 0.1 ton (0.1 tonne). The diﬃ  culty range for 
  an extra-heavy load is 34 to 43.
  •  A super-heavy load is 2.5 to 10 tons (2.3–9 tonnes); add 1 to 
  the diﬃ  culty per 0.5 ton (0.5 tonne). The diﬃ  culty range for 
  a super-heavy load is 44 to 59.
  •  A gigantic load is 15 to 100 tons (14–91 tonnes); add 1 to the 
  diﬃ  culty per 5 tons (4.5 tonnes). The diﬃ  culty range for a 
  gigantic load is 60 to 77.
  Pulling a load: Pulling a load on skids (ski-like boards) or 
  wheels is easier than carrying it, so the weight of a pulled load 
  is reduced before ﬁ nding the diﬃ  culty. Include the weight of 
  the cart, wagon, or rolling stock (railroad cars) the load’s on.
  •  Divide weight by 2 when dragging a load on skids or across a 
  smooth, level surface, or when carrying it in carefully packed 
  panniers that are worn properly.
  •  Divide by 10 when pulling a load on a primitive cart or wagon.
  •  Divide by 20 when pulling a load on a modern cart or wagon.
  •  Divide by 100 when pulling a load on a train or canal barge. ✶
  � Hooﬁ n’ It and Wingin’ It: Movement �
  M
  ovement of ponies, creatures, and vehicles in the game 
  is measured in yards per round. Every 5 yards (4.5 m) per 
  round is equal to about 2 miles (3.3 km) per hour.
  Running, Swimming, Climbing, and Jumping
  How far a pony can run in one round is based on her Run Move, 
  which is 5 yards plus 1 for each whole die of Muscle. An earth 
  pony can use Power instead if it’s more than her Muscle. That’s 
  6 yards (5.5 m) for 1d of Muscle, 7 yards (6.4 m) for 2d, 8 yards 
  (7.3 m) for 3d, 9 yards (8.2 m) for 4d, and 10 yards (9.1 m) for 5d. 
  A pony’s Swim Move and Climb Move are half of her Run Move, 
  and she can jump up or forward one-fourth of her Run Move; 
  round up if needed.
  A pony can make up to 8 Run Moves or 4 Swim, Climb, or 
  Jump Moves in a round, and she can make partial moves (for 
  example, 3 Run Moves plus a couple of yards). After moving, 
  make a movement roll using a Talent if she has one for the way 
  she’s moving or Reﬂ exes if she doesn’t; diﬃ  culty’s based on 
  how many Moves the pony makes. The narrator can skip rolls 
  for a pony who’s walking or trotting under good conditions.
  •  Walk as far as 1 Run Move with a diﬃ  culty of 0.
  •  Trot (slow run or jog) farther than 1 Run Move but no far-
  ther than 2 Run Moves with a diﬃ  culty of 5.
  •  Canter (medium run) farther than 2 Run Moves but no far-
  ther than 4 Run Moves with a diﬃ  culty of 10.
  •  Gallop (fast run or sprint) farther than 4 Run Moves but no 
  farther than 8 Run Moves with a diﬃ  culty of 15.
  •  Swim as far as 1 Swim Move with a diﬃ  culty of 5; add 5 to 
  diﬃ  culty for every extra Swim Move the pony tries to make.
  •  Climb up or down (a cliﬀ , tree, ladder, or anything steep) as 
  far as 1 Climb Move, or 2 Climb Moves if the pony has the 
  Climbing Talent, with a diﬃ  culty of 5. Add 10 to diﬃ  culty 
  for every extra Climb Move the pony tries to make.
  •  Jump with a diﬃ  culty of 5; add 5 to diﬃ  culty for every extra 
  yard (0.9 m) the pony tries to jump. A pony can gallop for 
  up to two rounds before jumping to get a running start, but 
  the galloping roll(s) must be successful. Subtract 5 from the 
  jump’s diﬃ  culty for galloping one round; subtract 10 from 
  the jump’s diﬃ  culty for galloping two rounds.
  Bad conditions: Use normal diﬃ  culties for running on 
  a hard, even surface like a road, swimming in still water, or 
  climbing a ladder. Obstacles or problems add to the diﬃ  culty.
  •  An uneven surface, small obstacles, choppy water, or climb-
  ing a tree adds 5.
  •  Big obstacles, strong current, or climbing a rough wall adds 10.
  •  Lots of big, close obstacles or stormy weather adds 15.
  •  A narrow or shaky path (such as a cliﬀ  trail or a rope bridge), 
  big waves, or climbing a smooth wall adds 20.
  •  A collapsing hall or swimming in a hurricane adds 25 or more.
  A pony who fails a movement roll automatically slows 
  down in her next round by 2 moves. If she slows down to zero 
  yards, she stops. If it would make her movement less than zero, 
  if she fails a jump roll, or if a mishap is rolled, she stumbles. ➧
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part One � Page 15 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  •  A running or jumping pony falls and may be hurt.
  • A swimming pony may start to drown.
  •  A climbing pony falls and may be hurt; how far she falls 
  depends on how steep the climb is and how high up she is.
  A pony can maneuver, or change movement, several ways.
  •  Speed up or slow down by as much as 2 Run Moves or 1 
  Swim or Climb Move.
  • Walk backward (but not run) with a diﬃ  culty of 5.
  •  Turn or sidle (move 1 yard sideways instead of forward); a 
  turn doesn’t count as movement, but a sidle does. A pony or 
  creature can turn or sidle more than once in a round.
  Flying
  Flying speed also is measured in yards per round. How far a 
  pegasus pony can ﬂ y in one round is based on her Flight Move, 
  which is 5 yards plus 1 for each whole die of Power. That’s 6 
  yards (5.5 m) for 1d of Power, 7 yards (6.4 m) for 2d, 8 yards (7.3 
  m) for 3d, 9 yards (8.2 m) for 4d, and 10 yards (9.1 m) for 5d.
  After moving, make a movement roll using the ﬂ yer’s Fly-
  ing Talent or Finesse. The roll’s diﬃ  culty is based on how many 
  Flight Moves the ﬂ yer makes. The narrator can skip rolls for a 
  ﬂ yer who’s in slow or moderate ﬂ ight under good conditions.
  • Hover (stay in the same place) with a diﬃ  culty of 3.
  •  Slow ﬂ ight is as far as 1 Flight Move and has a diﬃ  culty of 0.
  •  Moderate ﬂ ight is farther than 1 Flight Move but no far-
  ther than 2 Flight Moves and has a diﬃ  culty of 5.
  •  Fast ﬂ ight is farther than 2 Flight Moves but no farther 
  than 4 Flight Moves and has a diﬃ  culty of 10.
  •  Very fast ﬂ ight is farther than 4 Flight Moves but no far-
  ther than 8 Flight Moves and has a diﬃ  culty of 15.
  •  Heroic ﬂ ight is farther than 8 Flight Moves; add 5 to diﬃ  -
  culty for each doubling of Moves. (Up to 16 Moves, diﬃ  culty 
  is 20; up to 32 Moves, diﬃ  culty is 25; and so on.) A pegasus 
  must have the Flying Talent to ﬂ y this fast.
  Bad conditions: Use normal diﬃ  culties for ﬂ ying in 
  calm air. Obstacles or problems add to the diﬃ  culty.
  • Add 5 for strong winds.
  • Add 10 for big obstacles or rough air.
  • Add 15 for stormy weather or a few hazards in the air.
  • Add 20 for lots of hazards in the air.
  • Add 25 or more for ﬂ ying in a hurricane.
  A ﬂ yer who fails a roll automatically slows down in the 
  next round by 8 Flight Moves. If she slows down to zero yards, 
  she hovers. If it would make her movement less than zero 
  yards or a mishap is rolled, she loses control.
  •  If she’s ﬂ ying low, she crashes and may get hurt.
  •  If she’s ﬂ ying high, she falls; next round she can try to regain 
  control with a diﬃ  culty of 15, if she hasn’t hit the ground yet.
  Since a ﬂ yer moves in all three dimensions and has to deal 
  with ærodynamics and winds, her ability to maneuver is a lot 
  more complicated than other kinds of movement. There are 
  two types of ﬂ ying maneuvers. Basic maneuvers are simple 
  enough that most ﬂ yers can master them fairly easily. Advanced 
  maneuvers are diﬃ  cult ærobatic (ærial acrobatic) stunts.
  Basic maneuvers are similar to running maneuvers, with 
  the addition of altitude (height above ground or sea level).
  • Speed up or slow down by no more than 8 Flight Moves.
  •  Fly low enough, during part or all of a round, that it’s pos-
  sible to crash into an obstacle; add 5 to ﬂ ying diﬃ  culty.
  •  Gain or lose altitude by no more than 4 Flight Moves. (Be 
  sure to keep track of the flyer’s altitude.)
  •  Glide instead of fly to save energy. Add 5 to difficulty, but 
  reduce the level of exertion for the number of Flight Moves 
  by one (for example, from heavy work to moderate work).
  •  Turn or slip (move sideways instead of forward); a turn 
  doesn’t count as movement, but a slip does. A ﬂ yer can turn 
  or slip more than once in a round. How far she slips depends 
  on how many Flight Moves she makes.
  •  A ﬂ yer making 3 or 4 Flight Moves slips 1 yard.
  •  A ﬂ yer making 5 or 6 Flight Moves slips half a Flight Move.
  •  A ﬂ yer making 7 or 8 Flight Moves slips 1 Flight Move.
  •  Heroic ﬂ ight allows only one turn or slip, at the end of move-
  ment; a slip is one-fourth of the Flight Moves being made.
  Advanced maneuvers can be tricky or even dangerous.
  •  Fly backward (in slow ﬂ ight only); add 5 to ﬂ ying diﬃ  culty.
  •  Rotate from right-side up to upside-down or vice versa; add 
  1 to ﬂ ying diﬃ  culty.
  •  Add 5 to ﬂ ying diﬃ  culty for each half-loop or half-roll.
  •  A power-dive or zoom-climb turns horizontal movement 
  into vertical movement; diﬃ  culty is based on how much alti-
  tude is lost or gained.
  •  A ﬂ yer in heroic ﬂ ight who reaches 1877 yards (1716 m) per 
  round adds 10 to ﬂ ying diﬃ  culty for that round; if the roll’s 
  successful, she will break the sound barrier.
  A half-loop is a vertical half-circle that ends with the ﬂ yer 
  heading the opposite way (180°) from her direction before the 
  half-loop. How much altitude she gains (in a climbing half-
  loop) or loses (in a diving half-loop) depends on how many 
  Flight Moves she’s making. Since it’s a half-circle, she also goes 
  half as far over the ground during the ﬁ rst part of the half-loop, 
  then comes back the same distance during the last part of the 
  half-loop. A ﬂ yer can, but doesn’t have to, make one more half-
  loop right after the ﬁ rst, to make a full loop or a big S-shape.
  A half-roll is a helical (spiraling in three dimensions) half-
  circle that ends with the ﬂ yer heading the same direction, but 
  some distance sideways, in the same manner as a slip. How far 
  sideways a half-roll goes depends on how many Flight Moves 
  the ﬂ yer’s making; she also goes up half as far, then down again, 
  or vice versa. A ﬂ yer can, but doesn’t have to, make one more 
  half-roll in the opposite direction right after the ﬁ rst. (This is 
  called a barrel roll.) For example, an upward right half-roll can 
  be followed by a downward left half-roll.
  •  If making 2 Flight Moves, a half-loop or half-roll is 1 yard.
  •  If making 3 or 4 Moves, a half-loop or half-roll is half a Move.
  •  If making 5 or 6 Moves, a half-loop or half-roll is 1 Move.
  •  If making 7 or 8 Moves, a half-loop or half-roll is 2 Moves. ➧
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part One � Page 16 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  Half-loops and half-rolls count as movement and aren’t 
  allowed in hovering, slow, or heroic ﬂ ight. If a ﬂ yer starts a 
  half-loop or half-roll right-side up, she ends it upside-down, 
  or vice versa.
  A power-dive turns forward movement into lost altitude. 
  (For example, a ﬂ yer who moved 100 yards in the last round 
  now moves zero yards and loses 100 yards of altitude instead.) 
  The only other maneuver allowed is gain or lose altitude.
  A zoom-climb is the opposite; the ﬂ yer turns forward speed 
  into gained altitude. The only other maneuver allowed is gain 
  or lose altitude. A zoom-climb ends when the ﬂ yer stops it or 
  gains zero or less altitude. A ﬂ yer can’t zoom-climb right after 
  a power-dive — she has to ﬂ y level at least 1 round ﬁ rst — but 
  she can power-dive right after a zoom-climb.
  Gravity and falling: The real reason for power-diving or 
  zoom-climbing is to take advantage of gravity, letting it help 
  pull the ﬂ yer downward — speeding up a power-dive or slow-
  ing down a zoom-climb. In the ﬁ rst round of a power-dive or 
  zoom-climb, gravity subtracts 140 yards (123 m) from altitude. 
  Every round after that, it subtracts 500 yards (457 m), because 
  at that point air resistance stops the process of speeding up 
  from gravity. A ﬂ yer (or anyone else) who’s falling out of con-
  trol or just wants to fall as slowly as possible — and so is spread 
  out like a skydiver — instead subtracts 300 yards (274 m) every 
  round after the ﬁ rst.
  Taking oﬀ  or landing is a separate full action from ﬂ ying. 
  A ﬂ yer can take oﬀ  and ﬂ y, or ﬂ y and land, in a round, but that 
  would be two full actions.
  •  Take oﬀ  with a jump of up to 2 yards (1.8 m). A ﬂ yer who 
  wants an easier take-oﬀ  can try a galloping start to the jump.
  •  Land with a jump from the ﬂ yer’s height above the landing 
  spot. Add 5 to landing diﬃ  culty for ﬂ ying at trotting speed 
  (relative to the landing spot) before landing. Add 10 for ﬂ y-
  ing at cantering speed. Add 15 for ﬂ ying at galloping speed. 
  Add 20 for ﬂ ying faster than a gallop. The ﬂ yer runs at the 
  same speed and direction she was ﬂ ying until she’s able to 
  slow down; she may have to make a running roll for that.
  Keeping Track of Everything
  Moving around doesn’t mean much if no one can visualize what 
  the area looks like or where ponies, creatures, and obstacles 
  are. For a simple situation — say, one pony chasing another on 
  a road, or some ﬂ yers high in the air —  the narrator can keep 
  track of basic information like how far apart they are, and take 
  care of the rest with normal role-playing. For something more 
  complicated, such as ponies running or ﬂ ying around in a town 
  or forest, the narrator may want to use a map.
  Many games use maps overlaid with grids of hexagons (or 
  hexes) to help everyone understand the lay of the land and how 
  characters or creatures are moving. Blank sheets printed with 
  hex-grids are available for drawing on, both paper and bigger 
  plastic “mats” for use with wet-erase markers. A narrator who 
  has drawing or painting software may be able to make her own 
  maps and hex-grids, and some Web-searching should turn up 
  downloadable tools, grids, symbols, and images.
  Small pewter ﬁ gures, often painted, are popular for mark-
  ing where characters and creatures are on a map — but there 
  aren’t any for magical cartoon ponies. Cardboard stand-ups 
  with art are one solution. A group who’s willing to use maps 
  with big (1 1⁄₄-inch or 32-mm) hexes can try molded pony toys. 
  Otherwise, the narrator and players may have to use any pieces 
  they can ﬁ nd, as long as everyone can tell which way they’re 
  facing, so it’s easy to ﬁ gure out what direction each pony’s going.
  Below are some diagrams of maneuvers to help visualize 
  how they can work on hex-grids. Maneuvering can get a bit 
  trickier if a pony or creature isn’t going straight down a row of 
  hexes, but the narrator and players should be able to use com-
  mon sense to ﬁ gure out where a ﬁ gure should end up.
  Scale is the other problem to solve. When the narrator 
  needs ﬁ ne detail and doesn’t expect movement to be very fast, 
  she can use a small scale of 1 yard per hex. A full-grown pony 
  ﬁ ts, nose to tail, in one hex, though the sun princess or other 
  large creature may need two hexes (or even more, if very large).
  Galloping or very fast ﬂ ying can cover a lot of territory in 
  a hurry, though. For that the narrator may want to move up to 
  a medium scale of 4 yards per hex and divide all distances given 
  in the movement rules by 4, rounding up where needed. Much 
  of the time this should be open or mostly open ground or sky; 
  zipping around where there are lots of buildings, trees, rocks, 
  or other solid objects to smack into often doesn’t end well.
  If a daring — or crazy — pegasus tries heroic ﬂ ight, and the 
  narrator decides to use a map for it (which isn’t recommended), 
  she can use a large scale. It can vary, depending on just how fast 
  the pegasus wants to go, but a good rule of thumb is to start at 
  a scale of 16 yards per hex and keep doubling from there until 
  the narrator reaches a scale that can manage the movement 
  conveniently. That means only the biggest objects will take up 
  much space on the map, but if a pegasus pulls a stunt like this 
  at low altitude, she’s likely to learn a very painful lesson. ✶
  turn
  sidle or slip
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  U
  loop
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  U
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  ���������������
  U
  U
  barrel roll
  U
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  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part One � Page 17 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  � Two Bits: Buying Things �
  T
  he show’s writers are vague about how much a bit, or coin, 
  is worth. It’s not important to the story; what matters is 
  the buying, not the amount. These rules let the narrator and 
  players take a similar approach using task rolls and diﬃ  culties.
  How Much Money?
  The more money a pony has, the more dice her player can roll 
  when making a purchase. If the roll succeeds, the pony buys 
  the item. If the roll fails, the pony doesn’t have enough mon-
  ey for some reason, such as leaving her cash or checkbook at 
  home, or forgetting to put money in the right account. Unless 
  there’s a mishap, she can roll again after ﬁ xing the problem.
  • A pony with a major possession of money rolls 6d.
  •  A pony with a medium possession of money rolls 4d.
  •  A pony with a minor possession of money rolls 2d.
  • A pony with no possession of money rolls 1d.
  How Much Does Something Cost?
  The diﬃ  culty of a purchase roll is based on how expensive 
  the item is. The list of diﬃ  culties only goes so far, but the 
  narrator can add to it for even higher prices. That probably 
  won’t happen often, though, unless something really big is in-
  volved — such as a steamship or airship, a big farm or noble’s 
  manor, or a public works project.
  •  No more than 20 bits is cheap; the diﬃ  culty is 1 to 5, or 
  multiply 3d by 1 bit.
  •  More than 20 bits, but no more than 200 bits, is inexpen-
  sive; the diﬃ  culty is 6 to 10, or multiply 3d by 10 bits.
  •  Hundreds of bits is a little expensive; the diﬃ  culty is 11 to 
  15, or multiply 3d by 100 bits.
  •  A few thousand bits is kind of expensive; the diﬃ  culty is 
  16 to 20, or multiply 3d by 500 bits.
  •  Several thousand bits is expensive; the diﬃ  culty is 21 to 25, 
  or multiply 3d by 1000 bits.
  •  Tens of thousands of bits is very expensive; the diﬃ  culty’ 
  is 26 to 30, or multiply 3d by 10,000 bits.
  •  Hundreds of thousands of bits is costly; the diﬃ  culty is 31 
  to 35, or multiply 3d by 100,000 bits.
  A lot of diﬀ erent things can aﬀ ect the price of an item; dif-
  ﬁ culty modiﬁ ers for some of them are listed below. The narra-
  tor also may want to think about how hard it is to get the item, 
  how hard it is to ship that item to where the buyer is, and other 
  things that can make something more or less expensive. Some-
  times a buyer can try to reduce the price, such as haggling, in a 
  contest with the seller, using Smarts or an appropriate Talent.
  How well-made is the item? (No modiﬁ er if it’s average quality.)
  • If it’s of low quality, –5 or less
  •  If it’s of high quality, +5 or more
  What shape is the item in? (No modiﬁ er if it’s in good shape but 
  not special.)
  • If it’s damaged, –5 or less 
  •  If it’s in very good shape or heavily decorated, +5 or more
  How common is the item? (No modiﬁ er for a common, easily 
  available item.)
  • If it’s very common or the local market’s ﬂ ooded, –5 or less
  •  If it’s uncommon or not readily available, or is in big de-
  mand, +5 or more
  •  If it’s not available to the public, out of season, or from far 
  away, +15 or more
  How advanced is the item’s technology? (No modiﬁ er for common-
  ly available technology.)
  •  If it’s simpler than what’s commonly available, –5 or less
  •  If it’s a little more advanced than what’s commonly available, 
  +5 or more
  •  If it’s a lot more advanced than what’s commonly available, 
  +15 or more
  How well does the seller know the customer? (No modiﬁ er if the 
  customer’s new or almost new to the seller.)
  •  If customer pays on time, shops there a lot, or seller has no 
  complaints, –1 or less
  •  If the customer doesn’t pay on time or is a problem to the 
  seller, +1 or more
  Spending Limits
  The narrator can limit purchases, based on how much a pony’s 
  can spend, to keep shopping sprees from going too far.
  •  The diﬃ  culty of a casual purchase is equal to or less than 
  the number of dice the buyer rolls; she can make several ca-
  sual purchases a day.
  •  The diﬃ  culty of a normal purchase is greater than the 
  number of dice, but no greater than 3 times the number of 
  dice, the buyer rolls; she can make 1 normal purchase a day.
  •  The diﬃ  culty of a luxury purchase is greater than 3 times 
  the number of dice the buyer rolls; she can make 1 luxury 
  purchase every 7 days.
  For example, a pony with a medium possession of money 
  rolls 4 dice. For her, a casual purchase would be diﬃ  culty 4 or 
  less, a normal purchase would be diﬃ  culty 5 to 12, and a luxury 
  purchase would be diﬃ  culty 13 or greater. If a pony wants to 
  buy something really big for the kind of money she has, the 
  narrator can decide she has to give up some or all of her money 
  possession to get it. For instance, a pony with a major posses-
  sion of money who buys a big farm might have to reduce her 
  money to a medium or even a minor possession. As a rough 
  guide, most minor possessions are “a little expensive”, most 
  medium possessions are “kind of expensive” or “expensive”, 
  and most major possessions are “very expensive” or “costly”.
  Prices in bits: If everyone’s willing to keep track of bits 
  they’re spending, the narrator can use the level of cost for a 
  purchase to help decide on a price, or she can roll 3d and multi-
  ply by the bits listed. For example, if a pony wants to buy some-
  thing that’s “kind of expensive”, the narrator can roll 3d and 
  multiply by 500 to ﬁ nd the price in bits. Open D6 rulebooks 
  list prices for things in dollars, gold coins, or other units; the 
  narrator may have to decide how much that is in bits, but these 
  rules assume the prices can be translated one-for-one. ✶
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part One � Page 18 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  � Them’s Fightin’ Words: Combat �
  T
  here is a little fighting on the show — usually when 
  the main characters are on an adventure. Besides, ﬁ ght-
  ing’s a staple of adventure stories in general, so if the narrator 
  and players want to play that kind of game, it probably is going 
  to be very important. Most ﬁ ghting will happen during rounds.
  Step 1: Defense
  The diﬃ  culty of an attack depends on what the defender, or 
  target of the attack, is doing. A defender who isn’t doing any-
  thing to avoid attacks is using a passive defense, which gives the 
  attack a diﬃ  culty of 10 and doesn’t count as an action. A de-
  fender who is trying to stop or avoid attacks is using an active 
  defense, which does count as an action, so the penalty for mul-
  tiple actions may apply! There are four kinds of active defense.
  •  All-out defense means the defender isn’t doing anything 
  except avoiding attacks. The defender can’t take any other 
  actions, but gets to roll her dice for Dodge, or Reﬂ exes if she 
  doesn’t have that Talent, plus 10.
  •  Normal defense means the defender’s avoiding attacks 
  and trying to do other things at the same time. The defender 
  rolls her dice for Dodge, or Reﬂ exes if she doesn’t have that 
  Talent. The narrator may let a pony or creature who has 
  some idea an attack’s coming, but can’t do much about it, to 
  roll a normal defense as a free action.
  •  Block means the defender’s trying to stop attacks. The 
  defender rolls her dice for Brawling (if she doesn’t have a 
  weapon to block with), Mêlée (if she does), or Reﬂ exes if 
  she doesn’t have the ﬁ ghting Talent. If the defender uses 
  any part of the body to block a bladed weapon (instead of a 
  weapon or object), the weapon automatically injures the de-
  fender, unless she’s wearing armor or has a Talent that covers 
  blocking. Don’t add the attacker’s Strength Bonus (explained 
  later) if the block is successful; do add it if the block fails.
  •  Parry means the defender’s trying to deﬂ ect, or push aside, 
  attacks. The defender rolls her dice for Brawling (if she 
  doesn’t have a weapon to block with), Mêlée (if she does), or 
  Reﬂ exes if she doesn’t have the ﬁ ghting Talent. A defender 
  who succeeds with a parry using a sharp weapon injures the 
  attacker, but doesn’t add her Strength Bonus.
  A pony or creature can choose an active defense only on 
  her turn during a round, and that choice of defense lasts until 
  the pony’s or creature’s turn in the next round. As the narrator 
  calls for each player’s turn in a round, she may want to ask that 
  player right away what defense she’s choosing and how many 
  actions she’ll take. That’ll help keep everyone on track and get 
  the players used to thinking about their defense and actions.
  The player only needs to roll for defense once; the result is 
  used against all attacks on the pony or creature that it can be. 
  If the pony or creature is attacked in a round before her turn, 
  she can’t change her defense against it, because she can’t react 
  quickly enough. If an active defense roll is lower than a passive 
  defense of 10, the pony or creature just isn’t doing a good job of 
  defending — misjudging attacks, dodging the wrong way, not 
  keeping good track of attackers, and so on.
  Step 2: Attack
  What kind of attack a pony or creature makes may add to or 
  subtract from the diﬃ  culty of the attack. The attacker can use 
  either a ﬂ at number or a die value for the modiﬁ er, or the nar-
  rator may decide that only one or the other can be used in all 
  cases; both are listed in each attack description. An attack also 
  may have some sort of extra eﬀ ect, which also is described. A 
  pony without the appropriate ﬁ ghting Talent attacks with Re-
  ﬂ exes (if ﬁ ghting without weapons or with close-up weapons) 
  or Coordination (if shooting a distance weapon) instead.
  Strike: The attacker tries to hit the target and cause in-
  jury. An attacker using her own body or a weapon powered by 
  her own muscles adds her Strength Bonus to the body part’s or 
  weapon’s injury dice. An attacker using a weapon like a ﬁ rearm 
  that isn’t powered by her own muscles doesn’t add her Strength 
  Bonus. A pony can attack only in the direction the part of her 
  body she’s attacking with is facing.
  •  Punching with a front hoof or butting with the head 
  doesn’t add to diﬃ  culty, but is worth +1 injury. A unicorn’s 
  alicorn (horn) is worth +2 injury instead.
  •  Boxing with both front hooves or clipping with a wing 
  adds 3 (or 1d) to diﬃ  culty and is worth +2 injury. A wing clips 
  outward from a pegasus pony’s side.
  •  Kicking with a rear hoof adds 6 (or 2d) to diﬃ  culty and is 
  worth 1d injury.
  •  Bucking with both rear hooves adds 9 (or 3d) to diﬃ  culty and 
  is worth 2d injury.
  •  Biting doesn’t add to injury, but adds 3 (or 1d) to diﬃ  culty 
  unless attacker and target are very close, such as in a grab or 
  tackle; then, subtract 3 (or 1d) instead.
  Grab: The attacker gets a grip on some part of the target. 
  Diﬀ erent kinds of grab have diﬀ erent eﬀ ects. Add 6 (or 2d) to 
  the attack’s diﬃ  culty. Trying to escape from a grab is an action; 
  to succeed, the grabbed target must win a Muscle dice contest 
  against the attacker. Every round that a target stays grabbed, 
  the attacker can use her Strength Bonus to injure the target.
  •  Choke: The attacker cuts oﬀ  the target’s air by pressing a 
  limb, rope, or some kind of rod or pole against the target’s 
  windpipe. On the ﬁ rst round, use the attacker’s Strength Bo-
  nus for injury dice; after that, use the general Grab rules.
  •  Flip: The attacker grabs one of the target’s limbs and yanks 
  her over to fall on the ground. A ﬂ ipped target suﬀ ers 3d 
  of injury from hitting the ground and must spend the next 
  round getting back up, if she can.
  •  Hold: The attacker gets hold of a target with a successful 
  attack and does less injury, subtracting 3d or more from the 
  injury roll — however much the attacker decides.
  •  Slam or throw: The attacker picks up and throws the tar-
  get at the ground, a wall, or anything solid nearby. Picking up 
  the target with a Lifting, Muscle, or Levitation roll is an ac-
  tion. Slamming or throwing the target with a second, similar 
  roll is another action. ➧
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part One � Page 19 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  The injury suﬀ ered by a slammed or thrown target is equal 
  to the toughness dice of the object she was slammed or thrown 
  against plus the attacker’s Strength Bonus. The attacker’s 
  Strength Bonus also is rolled against the object to see if it’s 
  damaged; it can resist the damage with its toughness dice. To 
  save time, the narrator can use the same toughness roll for in-
  juring the thrown target and for resisting damage. If the tar-
  get’s thrown at other creatures, roll 3d injury for each, but sub-
  tract 1 pip for each creature more than two.
  • Something ﬂ imsy like a plywood door has 1d of toughness.
  • Something tough like a hardwood door or a weapon has 2d.
  • Something sturdy like a bolted steel door or ﬂ oor safe has 3d.
  • Something very sturdy like a few layers of steel has 4d.
  • Something reinforced like many layers of steel has 6d.
  Tackle: What makes this diﬀ erent from grabbing is that 
  the attacker’s trying to hang on to the target’s whole body. Add 
  3 (or 1d) to the diﬃ  culty of the attack. If the tackle succeeds 
  or the target isn’t struggling, the attacker captures the target 
  and can do normal injury dice if she wants. Each round the at-
  tacker keeps the target tackled, she can use (only) her Strength 
  Bonus to injure the target. The target can’t take any actions 
  except trying to escape, using the rule under Grab.
  Trip, knockdown, or push: The attacker forces the tar-
  get to stumble; the target isn’t injured, but she subtracts 2d 
  from her next Coordination roll. An attacker can knock down 
  or push a target if her Muscle or ﬁ ghting Talent roll is greater 
  than the target’s Muscle or Talent roll.
  • For a push, add 3 (or 1d) to the diﬃ  culty of the attack.
  •  For a knockdown or trip, add 6 (or 2d) to the diﬃ  culty 
  of the attack. A knocked-down or tripped target falls to the 
  ground; standing up takes an action.
  Magic: The attacker uses a Magical Talent against a tar-
  get, usually Boltworking or a spell. The diﬃ  culty of a magical 
  attack is based on the size of the weatherworking or spell or 
  the target’s defense, whichever is greater.
  Step 3: Range
  It’s easier to hit a target that’s nearby than a target that’s far 
  away. There are four basic ranges: close, short, medium, and long.
  •  For an attack at close range, subtract 5 from diﬃ  culty. A 
  target no more than 3 yards (2.7 m) away is at close range.
  •  For an attack at short range, there’s no diﬃ  culty modiﬁ er. 
  An example is shooting a riﬂ e across a big ballroom.
  •  For an attack at medium range, add 5 to diﬃ  culty. Examples 
  are shooting a pistol across the ballroom or shooting a riﬂ e 
  across a small farm ﬁ eld. (Riﬂ es shoot farther than pistols.)
  •  For an attack at long range, add 10 to diﬃ  culty. Examples 
  are shooting a handgun across the farm ﬁ eld or shooting a 
  riﬂ e the long way across a sports ﬁ eld (or farther).
  Attacking without a weapon, using a part of the body 
  such as hooves or teeth, is limited to the attacker’s reach — which 
  is in close range — so it always gets the –5 diﬃ  culty modiﬁ er.
  A weapon for ﬁ ghting close up — for instance, a sword 
  or club — usually is limited to close range. A very long weapon 
  may reach to short range, but it would be harder to use; an 
  example would be a really big polearm such as a pike.
  A weapon that shoots has short, medium, and long 
  ranges listed for it. Short range is farther than 3 yards (2.7 m) 
  but no farther than the weapon’s ﬁ rst range listing. Medium 
  range is farther than the ﬁ rst range listing but no farther than 
  the second range listing. Long range is farther than the second 
  range listing but no farther than the third range listing. A nar-
  rator who doesn’t want to count out distances in hexes all the 
  time can estimate what modiﬁ er to use.
  Magic, like a shooting weapon, uses short, medium, and 
  long ranges — but it doesn’t use close range. Mostly that’s be-
  cause short range for a “thrown” magical spell generally isn’t 
  much farther than close range would be — and may be shorter!
  Step 4: Special Conditions
  A lot of other choices or circumstances can aﬀ ect the diﬃ  culty 
  of an attack. The attacker can use either a ﬂ at number or a die 
  value for the modiﬁ er, or the narrator may decide that only 
  one or the other can be used in all cases; both are listed in each 
  of the descriptions. In a lot of cases, a special condition also 
  may have some sort of extra eﬀ ect, which also is described.
  All-out attack: The attacker puts everything into hitting 
  the target, and can’t take any other actions at all, including us-
  ing an active defense. Subtract 6 (or 2d) from the diﬃ  culty of 
  the attack, and if it hits, add 1d to injury.
  Body position: Attacking a target that’s crouched on the 
  ground adds 3 (or 1d) to the diﬃ  culty of the attack. If the tar-
  get’s moving as well, add another 3 (or 1d); a crouching target 
  can move only half as far as normal, rounding up.
  Attacking a prone target (lying face-down) subtracts 6 (or 
  2d) from the diﬃ  culty of the attack at point-blank or short 
  range but adds 6 (or 2d) at medium or long range.
  Cover is anything in the way that prevents a pony or crea-
  ture from attacking a target. Smoke, fog, dim light, obstacles, 
  or an attacker who can’t see make an attack harder; a target 
  who can’t see makes an attack easier.
  •  Subtract 12 (or 4d) from diﬃ  culty if the target can’t see at all.
  •  Add 3 (or 1d) to diﬃ  culty for light smoke or fog, dim light, 
  twilight, or cover that hides about a quarter of the target.
  •  Add 6 (or 2d) to the diﬃ  culty for thick smoke or fog, a 
  moonlit night, or cover that hides about half the target.
  •  Add 12 (or 4d) for very thick smoke or fog, complete dark-
  ness, cover that hides about three-quarters of the target, or 
  an attacking or acting pony or creature who can’t see at all.
  •  If cover completely hides the target, the attacker can’t hit 
  the target directly, but if an attack does more damage than 
  the amount of armor the cover is worth, what’s left may hit 
  the target. Most of the time, the cover will have to be de-
  stroyed before the attacker can hit the target. ➧
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part One � Page 20 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  Ready a weapon: Doing something like drawing or re-
  loading a weapon normally takes one action. This doesn’t need 
  a task roll unless things are unusually stressful or confusing for 
  the pony or creature doing it. The narrator may add to the dif-
  ﬁ culty if there isn’t much room to move or the weapon is un-
  wieldy. Drawing or reloading and attacking in the same round 
  causes a multi-action penalty, since they’re two actions.
  Size: Sometimes creatures of diﬀ erent Sizes may ﬁ ght. 
  Bigger creatures or things are easier to hit, and usually can 
  take more punishment, than smaller creatures or things. The 
  list of examples in “How Big Is a Creature or Object?”, part 
  of “Weights & Measures: Special Task Rules”, can guide a nar-
  rator who needs a Size number for a creature or object. The 
  narrator can apply Size to a weapon if the attacker using it is 
  bigger or smaller than the target. If an attacker wants to hit an 
  object being held or carried, use the Size of the object.
  An attacker who’s bigger than the target would add the 
  Size diﬀ erence to the diﬃ  culty for attacking and to the in-
  jury; an attacker who’s smaller than the target would subtract 
  the Size diﬀ erence from the diﬃ  culty for attacking and from 
  the injury. Sometimes a big object might not be very sturdy or 
  heavy for its Size — for instance, a hot-air balloon or a cloud. In 
  that case, don’t add the Size modiﬁ er to the injury from such 
  an object or attacker.
  For example: A pony farmer ﬁ nds a rat in her grain silo. 
  The pony is size 0; the rat is size –9; 0 minus –9 is 9. The pony 
  adds 9 to the diﬃ  culty of attacking the rat and adds 9 to injury 
  if she does hit it. The rat subtracts 9 from the diﬃ  culty of at-
  tacking the pony and subtracts 9 from the injury if it succeeds.
  Surprise: An attacker who gets the drop on others acts 
  before them in the ﬁ rst round or, if the narrator prefers, can 
  add 1d (or more) to her actions in the ﬁ rst round. Examples 
  include attacking from behind, ambushes, or unexpected at-
  tacks, such as from a hypnotized friend or companion.
  Step 5: Roll!
  An attack’s diﬃ  culty can’t be less than 3, no matter how much 
  was subtracted because of the kind of attack or special condi-
  tions. Once the ﬁ nal diﬃ  culty’s been ﬁ gured out, the attacker 
  makes the attack roll. If the die roll’s equal to or greater than 
  the diﬃ  culty, the attack hits the target; if it’s less than the diﬃ  -
  culty, the attack misses. A successful attack may injure the tar-
  get or have whatever eﬀ ect the attacker was trying to pull oﬀ .
  Step 6: Injury or Eﬀ ect
  An attack that hits a target may injure that target. Use the 
  injury rules to ﬁ nd out whether or how much the target’s 
  hurt, rolling the injury dice for the weapon, plus the attacker’s 
  Strength Bonus if that applies, and the target gets to make a 
  roll to resist the injury dice, of course. If the narrator wants 
  them, there are lists of example weapons later in the book.
  A pony’s or creature’s Strength Bonus is based on her 
  Lifting Talent or Muscle. Drop the +1 or +2, if the creature has 
  that, and divide whole dice in half, rounding up. For example, 
  a pony with 3d in Muscle (who doesn’t have the Lifting Talent) 
  has a Strength Bonus of 2d; half of 3 is 1 ¹⁄₂, which rounds up to 
  2. A pony with 6d+2 in Lifting has a Strength Bonus of 3d; drop 
  the +2, leaving 6d, and half of 6 is 3. An earth pony doesn’t add 
  to her Strength Bounus for Power.
  Protective Armor: Barding (equine armor) adds dice to a 
  pony’s Hardiness roll to resist injury from attacks. A pony can 
  wear only one kind of barding at a time. It’s heavy and clumsy; 
  for each die of protection, add 1 to the diﬃ  culty of any task 
  that uses Reﬂ exes, Coordination, or a Talent based on them. 
  Wearing barding can get hot even in mild weather, but metal 
  armor isn’t much protection against cold either. Barding won’t 
  protect against certain other things, such as falls, poisons, and 
  diseases. If there’s any doubt, the narrator has to decide.
  • Leather barding adds 1d to the Hardiness roll.
  • Mail (chainmail) barding adds 2d to the Hardiness roll.
  • Plate barding adds 3d to the Hardiness roll. ✶
  
  � Earth Pony Form �
  Player’s
  name
  Pony’s
  name
  This earth
  pony is a:
  � Mare
  � Filly
  � Stallion
  � Colt
  Illness or Injury
  � Bruised
  ≤ 0
  � Stunned   1 –
  � Minor
  –
  � Serious
  –
  � Major
  –
  � Mortal
  –
  � Death
  ≥
  Fatigue (Tiredness)
  � Winded: –1d
  � Tired: –2d
  � Exhausted: –3d
  Fatigue (Sleepiness)
  � Sleepy: –1d
  � Tired: –2d
  � Exhausted: –3d
  Size &
  build
  Coat
  Mane
  Tail
  Eyes
  Experience
  points:
  Unused
  Spent
  Important possessions (every pony gets panniers/saddlebags) Major Med. Minor
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  Talents and Specialties
  Based on
  Add Up Points
  Exp.
  Dice
  +
  =
  d
  +
  =
  d
  +
  =
  d
  +
  =
  d
  +
  =
  d
  +
  =
  d
  +
  =
  d
  +
  =
  d
  +
  =
  d
  +
  =
  d
  +
  =
  d
  +
  =
  d
  +
  =
  d
  +
  =
  d
  +
  =
  d
  +
  =
  d
  Aptitude
  Add up points
  Dice
  Muscle
  3 +
  =
  d
  Hardiness
  3 +
  =
  d
  Reﬂ exes
  3 +
  =
  d
  Coordination
  3 +
  =
  d
  Smarts
  3 +
  =
  d
  Senses
  3 +
  =
  d
  Power
  3 +
  =
  d
  Total points:
  Run Move (5 yards + 1 per 
  whole die in Muscle or Power)
  yards
  Swim Move ( ¹⁄₂ Run Move*)
  yards
  Climb Move ( ¹⁄₂ Run Move*)
  yards
  Jump ( ¹⁄₄ of Run Move*)
  yards
  Strength Bonus ( ¹⁄₂ of whole 
  dice in Lifting or Muscle*)
  d
  * Round up to next yard or die if needed
  Luck points
  �����
  �����
  �����
  Harmony points
  �����
  �����
  �����
  Personal Weakness
  Cutie mark (sketch or description)
  
  � Pegasus Pony Form �
  Player’s
  name
  Pony’s
  name
  This pegasus
  pony is a:
  � Mare
  � Filly
  � Stallion
  � Colt
  Aptitude
  Add up points
  Dice
  Muscle
  3 +
  =
  d
  Hardiness
  3 +
  =
  d
  Reﬂ exes
  3 +
  =
  d
  Coordination
  3 +
  =
  d
  Smarts
  3 +
  =
  d
  Senses
  3 +
  =
  d
  Power
  3 +
  =
  d
  Finesse
  3 +
  =
  d
  Total points:
  Run Move (5 yards + 1
  per whole die in Muscle)
  yards
  Swim Move ( ¹⁄₂ Run Move*)
  yards
  Climb Move ( ¹⁄₂ Run Move*)
  yards
  Jump ( ¹⁄₄ of Run Move*)
  yards
  Flight Move (5 yards + 1
  per whole die in Power)
  yards
  Strength Bonus ( ¹⁄₂ of whole 
  dice in Lifting or Muscle*)
  d
  * Round up to next yard or die if needed
  Personal Weakness
  Cutie mark (sketch or description)
  Illness or Injury
  � Bruised
  ≤ 0
  � Stunned   1 –
  � Minor
  –
  � Serious
  –
  � Major
  –
  � Mortal
  –
  � Death
  ≥
  Fatigue (Tiredness)
  � Winded: –1d
  � Tired: –2d
  � Exhausted: –3d
  Fatigue (Sleepiness)
  � Sleepy: –1d
  � Tired: –2d
  � Exhausted: –3d
  Luck points
  �����
  �����
  �����
  Harmony points
  �����
  �����
  �����
  Size &
  build
  Coat
  Mane
  Tail
  Eyes
  Experience
  points:
  Unused
  Spent
  Important possessions (every pony gets panniers/saddlebags) Major Med. Minor
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  Talents and Specialties
  Based on
  Add Up Points
  Exp.
  Dice
  +
  =
  d
  +
  =
  d
  +
  =
  d
  +
  =
  d
  +
  =
  d
  +
  =
  d
  +
  =
  d
  +
  =
  d
  +
  =
  d
  +
  =
  d
  +
  =
  d
  +
  =
  d
  +
  =
  d
  +
  =
  d
  +
  =
  d
  +
  =
  d
  
  � Unicorn Pony Form �
  Player’s
  name
  Pony’s
  name
  This unicorn
  pony is a:
  � Mare
  � Filly
  � Stallion
  � Colt
  Aptitude
  Add up points
  Dice
  Muscle
  3 +
  =
  d
  Hardiness
  3 +
  =
  d
  Reﬂ exes
  3 +
  =
  d
  Coordination
  3 +
  =
  d
  Smarts
  3 +
  =
  d
  Senses
  3 +
  =
  d
  Power
  3 +
  =
  d
  Finesse
  3 +
  =
  d
  Total points:
  Run Move (5 yards + 1
  per whole die in Muscle)
  yards
  Swim Move ( ¹⁄₂ Run Move*)
  yards
  Climb Move ( ¹⁄₂ Run Move*)
  yards
  Jump ( ¹⁄₄ of Run Move*)
  yards
  Strength Bonus ( ¹⁄₂ of whole 
  dice in Lifting or Muscle*)
  d
  * Round up to next yard or die if needed
  Personal Weakness
  Cutie mark (sketch or description)
  Magical Style
  Illness or Injury
  � Bruised
  ≤ 0
  � Stunned   1 –
  � Minor
  –
  � Serious
  –
  � Major
  –
  � Mortal
  –
  � Death
  ≥
  Fatigue (Tiredness)
  � Winded: –1d
  � Tired: –2d
  � Exhausted: –3d
  Fatigue (Sleepiness)
  � Sleepy: –1d
  � Tired: –2d
  � Exhausted: –3d
  Luck points
  �����
  �����
  �����
  Harmony points
  �����
  �����
  �����
  Size &
  build
  Coat
  Mane
  Tail
  Eyes
  Experience
  points:
  Unused
  Spent
  Important possessions (every pony gets panniers/saddlebags) Major Med. Minor
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  Talents and Specialties
  Based on
  Add Up Points
  Exp.
  Dice
  +
  =
  d
  +
  =
  d
  +
  =
  d
  +
  =
  d
  +
  =
  d
  +
  =
  d
  +
  =
  d
  +
  =
  d
  +
  =
  d
  +
  =
  d
  +
  =
  d
  +
  =
  d
  +
  =
  d
  +
  =
  d
  +
  =
  d
  +
  =
  d
  
  � Pony Form (page 2) �
  Player’s
  name
  Pony’s
  name
  Talent descriptions
  Detailed description of pony
  Size and build
  Coat
  Mane
  Tail
  Eyes
  Voice
  Other information
  More possessions
  Major Med. Minor
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  More Talents and Specialties
  Based on
  Add Up Points
  Exp.
  Dice
  +
  =
  d
  +
  =
  d
  +
  =
  d
  +
  =
  d
  +
  =
  d
  +
  =
  d
  +
  =
  d
  +
  =
  d
  +
  =
  d
  +
  =
  d
  +
  =
  d
  +
  =
  d
  +
  =
  d
  +
  =
  d
  +
  =
  d
  +
  =
  d
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part Two � Page 1 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  � Part Two of Four ✶ Gussy It Up: Lists and Extra Rules �
  List of Talents. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2–4
  Muscle Talents. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
  Hardiness Talents  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
  Reﬂ exes Talents. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
  Coordination Talents  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
  Smarts Talents. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
  Senses Talents  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
  Pegasus Magical Talents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
  Unicorn Magical (Spell) Talents. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
  Optional Rules  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5–9
  The Wild Die  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
  Luck Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
  Harmony Points  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
  Too Many Dice!  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
  Specialties  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
  Extra Eﬀ ort . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
  Natural Dangers  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
  First Aid. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
  Movement Details  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
  Additional Attacks  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
  Additional Special Fighting Conditions  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
  Romany: Example Earth Pony  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10–11
  Earth Pony Form (Example)  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
  Name: Example Pegasus Pony  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12–13
  Pegasus Pony Form (Example). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
  Glitch: Example Unicorn Pony (guest contribution)  . . 14–15
  Unicorn Pony Form (Example)  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
  Equipment and Belongings  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16–17
  Available Almost Anywhere. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
  Available in Cities or by Mail-Order. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
  Unusual or Rare. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
  Useful Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
  The Best Things in Life Are Free  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
  Muscle-Powered Weapons. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17–18
  Attacking Without Weapons. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
  Mêlée Weapons. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
  Missile and Thrown Weapons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
  Improvised Weapons  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
  Mechanical Weapons, Firearms, and Explosives  19–21
  Mechanical Weapons  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
  Firearms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
  Explosives  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
  A Last Word  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
  Creatures. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22–24
  Talking Creatures  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
  Dumb Creatures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
  T
  o make the rules section small and friendly, a lot was 
  left out. Rules from Open D6 that don’t apply to a game 
  like this were removed. Other rules that may be useful, but 
  aren’t absolutely necessary, can make the game more compli-
  cated. Long, dull lists in the middle of the rules break the ﬂ ow 
  of reading. Those extra rules and lists are gathered in this part, 
  where they’re out of the way when they’re not needed, but are 
  easy to ﬁ nd when someone needs to look them up.
  The list of Talents covers skills and abilities for both ad-
  venturers and more ordinary folks and shows by example how 
  new Talents created by the narrator and players should look. 
  Experienced groups playing serious high-adventure games 
  can add optional rules for more detail or spectacle.
  Pony-creation checklists and ﬁ lled-out Pony Forms are 
  provided for three example ponies, one from each tribe, to 
  show how the process works.
  The lists of equipment and weapons are based on what 
  shows up in other Open D6 rulebooks, so they mostly are about 
  what adventurers are likely to use. Other good sources are vin-
  tage mail-order catalogs, illustrated books, or magazines.
  A lot of creatures shown in episodes are unique or treat-
  ed diﬀ erently from similar ones in the real world or legends. 
  Most only show up once each! As a result, they aren’t easy to 
  nail down in nice, neat numbers, but best guesses are listed. Of 
  course, a narrator’s free to come up with her own ideas of how 
  to make them work, or even to invent new ones.
  “Should Something Like That Be in This Game?”
  Parents might be a little uneasy with some of the material in 
  this rulebook. After all, it’s based on a television program for 
  little girls about brightly colored magical ponies!
  True, the stories are funny and charming, and avoid get-
  ting deeply into things that younger viewers might have a hard 
  time with. Part of what made the show such a surprise hit with 
  all sorts of people, though, is that it isn’t all sweetness and light.
  The show's creator and writers have gone out of their way 
  to treat the audience with respect. Bullies, conﬂ icts with fam-
  ily or friends, even bigger issues such as starting a family or 
  settling matters with neighbors — whether they live next door 
  or across a border — are treated in ways that people really can, 
  or do, see in their lives. The lessons aren’t pasted on as after-
  thoughts; they grow out of the stories, following the adage that 
  an author should show what’s happening, not just tell about it.
  An older viewer may notice little background details of 
  the ponies’ world, things that say “this is a real world, with real 
  joys and real problems.” The depth and unspoken acknowl-
  edgement of these elements make it ring true.
  The game is meant to be playable by both teens and adults, 
  and it needs to treat them all with the same respect the show 
  does. Besides, the show originally was supposed to be one-
  third adventure and two-thirds slice of life. The game wouldn’t 
  be complete if it couldn’t handle both, and it’s intended to al-
  low narrators and players the same kind of ﬂ exibility. ✶
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part Two � Page 2 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  � Talents �
  D
  ozens of Talents are described on the next couple of 
  pages, but they certainly don’t cover every possible skill 
  or ability. The narrator and players can add more as they’re 
  needed, especially for a literal game or for a ﬁ gurative game 
  that includes modern technology, outside the nineteenth-cen-
  tury time frame the show’s creator used as inspiration for the 
  ponies’ world. Every new Talent should be given a name, prob-
  ably no more than a couple of words, and a short description.
  Other Open D6 rulebooks are good sources for additional 
  Talents, which generally are called “skills” or “abilities” de-
  pending on whether they can be learned by any character or 
  are inherent traits. Since most other games don’t handle magic 
  the same way Pony Tales does, however, their spells and magical 
  abilities may not be as useful. A really adventurous group can 
  look into the Open D6 rules for disadvantages, which are weak-
  nesses that compensate a character with bonus creation dice.
  Some of the listed Talents are unsavory or even unpleas-
  ant, but many are staples of adventure ﬁ ction and, for the same 
  reasons, adventure games. A narrator and players who want 
  that kind of game will need those Talents along with the more 
  everyday ones. Also, even if the players don’t use them when 
  creating ponies, the narrator may need them when creating 
  villains or minions that the players’ ponies may have to face.
  Any Mundane Talent marked with an * (asterisk) can be a 
  Magical Talent for an earth pony. Generally these are Talents 
  that are all about taking care of the land or of living things.
  Magical talents: The program’s writers often change 
  how magic (and anything else about the ponies’ world) seems 
  to work in order to ﬁ t the scripts they’re working on. A role-
  playing game, though, needs fair and consistent rules so play-
  ers know what their characters can and can’t do and to be sure 
  those characters are at least roughly equal in overall ability.
  Because of that need, the example Magical Talents may 
  not look exactly the way they are on the show. Instead, they’re 
  written to match the spirit of the series and to be useful and 
  balanced for the game. New Magical Talents created by the 
  narrator or players should follow the same guidelines.
  Pegasus cloudwalking: Any pegasus can stand on 
  clouds as if they were solid, or ﬂ y through them, without a 
  die roll except under very stressful conditions. If a pegasus 
  is greatly distracted or otherwise not thinking straight, the 
  narrator may require a Cloudworking (or Finesse) roll; failure 
  means the pegasus forgets to switch her cloudwalking “on” or 
  “oﬀ ”. Forgetting to turn it “on” before landing on a cloud is 
  awkward enough, but forgetting to turn it “oﬀ ” before ﬂ ying 
  into a cloud could be painful as well as embarrassing.
  Look, Ma, no hands: One thing even the show’s anima-
  tors have trouble with is how earth and pegasus ponies use 
  tools or carry things without levitation magic or hands. They 
  can use their mouths — which real horses do — for ﬁ ne tasks. 
  They seem to be able to make things magically stick to hooves, 
  frogs and soles (on the undersides of hooves), and other parts of 
  their bodies, including putting things on their backs or heads. 
  Sometimes careful camera angles hide the fact that there’s no 
  good solution. The narrator and players can use similar kinds 
  of tricks during play, and shouldn’t worry about the details.
  Muscle Talents
  Blacksmithing Working iron into useful artifacts or devices.
  Lifting Used instead of Muscle for hefting and carrying.
  Lumbering Harvesting wood from trees with minimal waste.
  Move Increase This is an ability instead of a skill. Add to Muscle 
  for the purpose of ﬁ guring out what the pony’s Run Move is; 
  the greatest Run Move a pony can have is 10. Swim, climb, 
  and Jump Moves are based on the increased Run Move.
  Plowing* Pulling, steering, and operating a plow or harvester.
  Teamster Loading, pulling, and unloading a van, wagon, or cart 
  eﬃ  ciently.
  Hardiness Talents
  Stamina Replaces Hardiness to resist fatigue, poison, illness.
  Reﬂ exes Talents
  Acrobatics Performing gymnastics and breaking falls.
  Alertness Replaces Reﬂ exes for rolling initiative; see the rules 
  in “Fast and Furious: Rounds and Actions” for details.
  Brawling Fighting without weapons (using hooves, teeth, or 
  other parts of the body).
  Climbing Scaling steep surfaces to move upward or downward.
  Contortion The ability to wiggle out of bonds or restrictions.
  Dodge Avoiding attacks or obstacles; see the rules in “Them’s 
  Fightin’ Words: Combat” for details.
  Jumping Leaping, including over obstacles, without falling.
  Mêlée Fighting with close-up weapons (clubs, blades, et cetera).
  Running Moving on one’s hooves (or paws or feet).
  Sneaking Moving silently, using cover and misdirection.
  Swimming Moving through the water and breathing properly.
  Coordination Talents
  Firearms Shooting pistols, riﬂ es, shotguns, and cannon.
  Legerdemain Fancy manipulation and misdirection, including 
  picking pockets, hiding small objects quickly, or stage magic.
  Lockpicking Opening mechanical locks without proper keys or 
  combinations and disarming simple mechanical traps.
  Masonry Building sturdy and useful brick and stone structures.
  Missile Weapons Shooting bows, crossbows, and slings.
  Performing This is a group of Talents. Any single kind of per-
  formance is a Talent, such as singing, playing a musical in-
  strument, or a style of dance.
  Piloting Steering or guiding mechanical vehicles.
  Throwing Flinging or catching objects accurately.
  Tinker Building, repairing small or simple mechanical devices.
  Smarts Talents
  Business Running an enterprise successfully and proﬁ tably.
  Charm Inﬂ uencing other ponies or creatures with charisma.
  Conﬁ dence Using bluﬀ s, lies, and trickery on others. (“Con”, as 
  in “con man” or “con game”, is short for “conﬁ dence”; this is 
  an old meaning of the word related to “conﬁ dential”.)
  Cosmopolitan General but not very detailed knowledge of cul-
  tures other than the pony’s or creature’s native one.
  Demolitions Using force to destroy structures or objects.
  Engineering Designing and building big, complicated devices.
  Farriery* Hoof care — trimming, balancing, rasping, shoeing.
  Farming* Planting, maintaining, harvesting, and processing. ➧
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part Two � Page 3 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  Forestry* Caring for forests and the lands where they grow.
  Forgery Creating or spotting fake documents, artworks, or 
  currency. Other Talents may be needed to help in making or 
  spotting a big or complicated fake such as a painting.
  Husbandry* Breeding, rearing, and caring for animals, espe-
  cially domestic ones.
  Intimidation Inﬂ uencing others through threats and fear.
  Languages This is a group of Talents. Each language is a Talent; 
  every talking creature knows one language for free.
  Leadership Directing groups of other ponies or creatures in 
  working or ﬁ ghting.
  Medicine* Treating sick or injured ponies.
  Navigation Using instruments, maps, stars, or landmarks to 
  avoid getting lost.
  Preserving* Using canning or any other method to prevent 
  food from spoiling.
  Repair Returning damaged or worn devices to good condition.
  Science This is a group of Talents. Any single science can be a 
  Talent, such as astronomy, biology, chemistry, meteorology, 
  even magic theory or alchemy.
  Telegraphy Operating and maintaining telegraph equipment.
  Veterinary Medicine* Treating sick or injured animals.
  Willpower Resisting stress or pain, or attempts to inﬂ uence.
  Senses Talents
  Acting Playing a ﬁ ctitious role, on the stage or anywhere else.
  Animal Training* Teaching animals to perform tasks and follow 
  commands.
  Art This is a group of Talents. Any single form of art is a 
  Talent, such as drawing, painting, photography, sculpting, 
  scrimshaw, or woodcarving.
  Cooking* Preparing foods that are safe, nutritious, and tasty.
  Craft This is a group of Talents. Any single craft is a Talent, 
  such as basket-weaving, carpentry, glass-blowing, pottery-
  throwing, or sewing.
  Disguise Changing appearance with make-up, costume, posture.
  Familiarity Knowledge of a speciﬁ c geographical area — a 
  neighborhood, a city, a region, or a country. The bigger the 
  area, the less detailed the knowledge is.
  Gambling Playing games of chance or skill, including cheating 
  or spotting cheats.
  Hiding Keeping still and avoiding notice, concealing objects.
  Investigation Gathering clues to solve puzzles or mysteries.
  Journalism Gathering and presenting information about news-
  worthy events.
  Notice Observing things or details with sight and other senses.
  Oratory Public speaking to inﬂ uence large audiences.
  Persuasion Inﬂ uencing small audiences with talk, gifts, or other 
  methods.
  Searching Canvassing an area systematically for hidden objects.
  Streetwise Finding information, goods, and contacts in an ur-
  ban environment.
  Survival* Techniques for living in wild conditions.
  Tracking Following a creature’s trail without being noticed.
  Writing Communicating eﬀ ectively using text rather than spo-
  ken language; it can be used for speeches, poetry, or stories 
  to be read aloud, but success also depends on how well the 
  speaker does with the material.
  Pegasus Magical Talents
  Any pegasus can weatherwork or Windwork, even if she hasn’t 
  spent points on the Talent she’s using — just roll her basic Fi-
  nesse for the Talent roll and basic Power for Eﬀ ect. See “Wind 
  and Weather” for details on precipitation and wind speeds. All 
  weather Talents are limited by casting distances. Boltworking 
  also is a ranged Talent, for how far a lightning bolt is thrown.
  Bump of Direction keeps a pegasus oriented even when 
  she can’t see. A successful roll means the pegasus knows rough-
  ly which way is up (or down) and where the cardinal directions 
  (north, south, east, west) are. The better the roll’s success, the 
  more exactly the pegasus knows where those directions are. 
  This works like a Mundane Talent; no Eﬀ ect roll’s needed.
  Flying is moving through the air without losing control 
  and falling; see “Hooﬁ n’ It and Wingin’ It: Movement”.
  Flight Increase adds to Power for the purpose of ﬁ gur-
  ing out what the pegasus pony’s Flight Move is; the greatest 
  Flight Move a pegasus can have is 10.
  Weatherworking is a group of Talents that control and 
  manipulate clouds. If there aren’t any clouds, especially rain 
  clouds, or the air’s very dry, the Talents may not work.
  The Boltworking Talent controls lightning. Eﬀ ect is the in-
  jury or damage dice a lightning bolt does; each bolt the pega-
  sus prevents, causes, or directs “uses up” dice of Eﬀ ect. Once 
  the Eﬀ ect dice are used up, that weatherworking ends, and the 
  pegasus must start another weatherworking if she wants to 
  control more lightning. A tiny cloud’s bolt may be 1d to 2d; a 
  huge storm cloud’s bolt may be 5d to 10d or more.
  The Cloudworking Talent controls clouds. Subtract the 
  Size of each cloud the pegasus works on from the Eﬀ ect 
  rolled by the pegasus. If a cloud is smaller than Size 1 (which 
  is very rare), count it as Size 1. Once the Eﬀ ect is “used up”, 
  that weatherworking ends, and the pegasus must start another 
  weatherworking if she wants to control more clouds. Note that 
  creating a cloud is harder in dry air; dissipating one is harder 
  in humid air. Moving or shaping a cloud in windy air is harder, 
  and so are complicated movements or shapes.
  The Rainworking Talent controls precipitation. Eﬀ ect is 
  the cloud Size the pegasus can work with; she can change the 
  precipitation falling from a cloud by one level for each Size in-
  terval. (No rain is one level less than very light rain.) The change 
  takes 1 round per Size-level, and can be rushed or take extra 
  time. If she’s working on a Size 20 cloud, she could change the 
  rain by one level for 20 pips of Eﬀ ect (taking 20 rounds), by 
  two levels for 40 pips of Eﬀ ect (taking 40 rounds), by three 
  levels for 60 pips of Eﬀ ect (taking 60 rounds), and so on. A 
  cloud smaller than Size 1 is counted as Size 1. The pegasus can 
  work on more than one cloud, but once the Eﬀ ect’s “used up”, 
  that weatherworking ends, and she must start another weath-
  erworking if she wants to control more precipitation. Precipi-
  tation can’t be thawed or frozen, but a pegasus can change it 
  from one kind of precipitation to another in the same state, 
  such as turning snow to hail or vice versa, with 1 cloud-Size 
  interval of Eﬀ ect per level of precipitation.
  Windworking is the controlling and directing of winds. 
  Each 5 pips of Eﬀ ect can increase or decrease, by one level, 
  the wind speed of the air around the pegasus. To change wind 
  direction by 30° takes 5 pips of Eﬀ ect per level of wind. ➧
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part Two � Page 4 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  Unicorn Magical (Spell) Talents
  The narrator and players probably will have to make up more 
  Spell Talents than any other kind of Talent. These examples, 
  based on spells in several episodes, only scratch the surface.
  Don’t be afraid to adjust a Spell Talent that, at ﬁ rst, is too 
  powerful — or not powerful enough. The narrator also should 
  be cautious about Spell Talents that allow players to gather and 
  study information more easily than normal senses and think-
  ing. Nothing spoils a story’s surprises like using divination 
  magic to ﬁ gure out too easily where ambushes or clues are!
  Force Blast shoots a beam of raw magical force at a tar-
  get — it isn’t fancy, but it packs a lot of punch. Casting distance: 
  none; the beam shoots from the alicorn (horn). Ranged spell: 
  use the range modiﬁ er for how far away the beam’s target is 
  and apply any other appropriate modiﬁ ers from the ﬁ ghting 
  rules. Failure: the beam misses the intended target and may hit 
  something or someone else instead. Mishap: the spell ﬁ zzles. 
  Duration: instant. Eﬀ ect: dice of injury or damage; may knock 
  target away as if slammed or thrown.
  Force Bubble creates a protective sphere of magical 
  force. Casting distance: measure from the caster to the bubble’s 
  center. Ranged spell: use the range modiﬁ er for the bubble’s ra-
  dius (the distance from the bubble’s center to its edge). Fail-
  ure or mishap: the spell ﬁ zzles. Duration: how long the bubble 
  lasts. Eﬀ ect: dice of armor/toughness; the bubble shatters if an 
  injury/damage roll’s greater than its armor/toughness roll. See 
  the rules on protective armor and on toughness in “Them’s 
  Fightin’ Words: Combat”. Special rule: Creating a temporary 
  opening in the bubble for 1 round is a full action of diﬃ  culty 5.
  Illumination creates a glow like a will-o’-the-wisp — see 
  “Visibility: How Far Can a Pony See?” for details. Casting dis-
  tance: the spell can light up the caster’s alicorn (horn) or can be 
  cast nearby as a ball of light. Ranged spell: this is not a ranged 
  spell. Failure or mishap: the spell ﬁ zzles. Duration: how long 
  the glow lasts. Eﬀ ect: the lit area’s radius in yards. The light is 
  similar to day out to one-fourth of the radius and similar to 
  twilight beyond that to half the radius. Round to the nearest 
  yard — that is, round down for a fourth of a yard and round up 
  for half or three-fourths of a yard. The light’s similar to night 
  beyond that out to the radius.
  Levitation lifts, carries, and manipulates objects using 
  magic. Casting distance: subtract the dice for the farthest ob-
  ject. Ranged spell: This is not a ranged spell. Failure or mishap: the 
  spell ﬁ zzles. Eﬀ ect: dice of “Lifting” or “Muscle”. Duration: how 
  long objects can be carried or manipulated.
  Prime Mover powers a mechanical device that’s de-
  signed for it, just as Muscle can be used to crank, turn, or move 
  a windlass, winch, or capstan. Casting distance: the spell can 
  power a device that’s nearby. Ranged spell: this is not a ranged 
  spell. Failure: misses the intended target and randomly goes 
  somewhere else, but no farther than it was supposed to go. 
  Mishap: the spell ﬁ zzles. Duration: how long the spell powers 
  the device. Eﬀ ect: how much energy is put into the device, but 
  be careful; too much energy might damage the device. Special 
  rule: It’s not quite the same as Levitation, since the magical 
  force is used more directly — like electricity, or heat in a steam 
  engine — but the narrator may decide to allow any unicorn to 
  use it rather than requiring it to be part of the unicorn’s Style.
  Pyrotechnics creates a ﬁ reworks-like display of ﬂ ashes, 
  starbursts, or simple images. Casting distance: none; pyrotech-
  nics shoot from the alicorn (horn). Ranged spell: use the range 
  modiﬁ er for how far away the caster wants the display to be. 
  Failure: misses the intended target and ends up somewhere ran-
  dom, but no farther away than it was supposed to go. Mishap: 
  the spell ﬁ zzles. Duration: how long the light show lasts. Eﬀ ect: 
  how complex or impressive the light show is; if it matters, a 
  watcher can roll Senses to resist being amazed or convinced. 
  Special rule: The spell can be used to attack instead. Duration 
  of an attack is instant. Potential victims of a pyrotechnics at-
  tack can try to get away using the “Explosives” rules later in 
  part two of the book.
  A dazzle attack creates a blinding ﬂ ash. Anyone at the tar-
  get spot or up to 2 yards away rolls Senses against the Eﬀ ect 
  roll, everyone 3 to 4 yards away rolls against half the Eﬀ ect roll, 
  and everyone 5 to 8 yards away rolls against one-fourth the Ef-
  fect roll. This includes the caster’s friends! If the Eﬀ ect roll’s greater, 
  the victim’s dazzled and treated as being stunned.
  An explosion attack adds 10 to spell-casting diﬃ  culty. Eﬀ ect 
  is real injury or damage, and it sets things on ﬁ re like a torch. 
  Roll Hardiness (instead of Senses) to resist being injured at the 
  same distances as for a dazzle attack. This also includes any 
  of the caster’s friends who are close enough to the explosion.
  Transformation is a class of Talents rather than a single 
  Talent. The Talent must specify, with the narrator’s approval, 
  what can be transformed, and what it can be transformed into. 
  (A good example from the show would be changing fabric di-
  rectly into clothing.) Casting distance: the caster can tranform 
  something nearby. Ranged spell: this is not a ranged spell. Failure: 
  the spell ﬁ zzles. Mishap: the spell ruins whatever is being trans-
  formed. Duration: how long the transformation lasts before the 
  object or material changes back to its original form. Eﬀ ect: how 
  much toughness, complexity, Size, and/or other appropriate at-
  tributes (as decided by the narrator) can be transformed.
  The show’s writers are free to use Transformation spells as 
  a shortcut to keep a scene from running too long, but the nar-
  rator should keep in mind that this can be a very powerful Tal-
  ent. The duration limit is partly to keep the Talent from being 
  totally unreasonable, and partly to explain why unicorns don’t 
  use Transformation to create everything. On the other hand 
  (hoof?), it can be combined with more ordinary ways of doing 
  things — for example, when making a dress, Transformation 
  may change the fabric to the ﬁ nal shape, but sewing’s needed 
  to make sure it stays that way once the spell wears oﬀ .
  Wink moves creatures or things across distances “in the 
  wink of an eye”. Casting distance: the caster can move anything 
  nearby, including herself; subtract the dice for the farthest ob-
  ject the caster tries to move. Ranged spell: use the range modiﬁ -
  er for how far the caster wants to wink, and use diﬃ  culty mod-
  iﬁ ers for visibility; also, if the caster’s very familiar with where 
  she’s winking to, the narrator can subtract 5 to 10 from casting 
  diﬃ  culty. Failure: the spell ﬁ zzles. Mishap: the wink ends up 
  somewhere random (possibly including upward), but no far-
  ther away than it was supposed to go. Eﬀ ect: how much mass 
  can be teleported, similar to Levitation. Duration: instant. ✶
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part Two � Page 5 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  � Optional Rules �
  T
  hese aren’t included with the normal Pony Tales rules 
  because they add complexity. A narrator and group of 
  players who feel they’ve mastered the game and would like to 
  add some interesting eﬀ ects can include some or all of these 
  optional rules. In particular, the wild die, luck points, and 
  harmony points are ways of getting spectacular results that 
  wouldn’t be possible otherwise; a good example is the ﬂ ying 
  stunt that breaks the sound barrier.
  The Wild Die
  When rolling dice for any reason, a narrator or player should 
  make sure one of them is a diﬀ erent color than the others. The 
  diﬀ erently-colored one is called the wild die. (If rolling only 
  one die, it is the wild die.) The wild die represents spectacular 
  results that sometimes happen.
  If a six is rolled on the wild die, the six is counted into 
  the total, and the wild die can be rolled again. If another six is 
  rolled, the wild die can be rolled still again, and so on, as many 
  times as six is rolled on the wild die. Once anything other than 
  six is rolled on the wild die, the narrator or player stops rolling. 
  The wild die doesn’t have to be rolled again after a six, if the 
  person rolling doesn’t want to.
  If a one is rolled on the wild die — but only on the ﬁ rst 
  roll, not when re-rolling the wild die after a six — some kind of 
  mishap, or problem, may have turned up. The narrator can, but 
  doesn’t have to, subtract the highest-value die that’s been rolled, 
  or decide some kind of accident has happened along the way. It 
  should ﬁ t the situation and the die roll: for a low die-roll total, 
  it could be fairly serious; for a high total, it could be a funny 
  “whoops, nearly missed!” moment.
  If the wild die is too much hassle, here’s a diﬀ erent ap-
  proach that isn’t in Open D6. Instead of rolling the wild die, 
  just roll dice normally. If a six is rolled on every die, roll another 
  die; if the extra die is another six, keep rolling as long as more 
  sixes are rolled. If a one is rolled on every die, the narrator can 
  say there was a mishap.
  Luck Points
  A luck point (or “character point” as Open D6 calls it) allows a 
  player to add an extra wild die to her dice for one roll. Once 
  the luck point is used, it’s gone; the narrator can use new luck 
  points as a reward, just like experience or possession points.
  A pony starts the game with ﬁ ve luck points; if harmony 
  points aren’t used, each pony may start with six to eight. The 
  narrator can and should limit how many luck points a player 
  can spend at a time. In an easy adventure, the limit may be 
  two, but a bigger, splashier, more movie-like adventure may go 
  as high as ﬁ ve.
  A player can spend luck points before or after rolling, or 
  even both, but not after the narrator decides what the result of 
  the roll is. The narrator doesn’t have to tell the player whether 
  she needs to spend luck points to get a better result.
  Rolling a one on these extra wild dice doesn’t cause a mis-
  hap; it’s just a one. Because of that, the player may want to 
  roll them separately, or use diﬀ erently colored dice, from the 
  normal dice and wild die.
  Harmony Points
  A harmony point (or “fate point” as Open D6 calls it) allows a 
  player to double the dice she normally would roll for an Apti-
  tude or Talent. For example, if the player normally would roll 
  3d, she rolls 6d instead after spending the harmony point; a 
  player who normally would roll 3d+2 (11 points) instead rolls 
  7d+1 (22 points).
  One harmony point may be spent only before rolling the 
  dice, not after, and the doubling of dice is counted before add-
  ing or subtracting any modiﬁ ers. The player still rolls only one 
  wild die, and any dice that aren’t part of an Aptitude or Talent 
  aren’t doubled. A harmony point normally aﬀ ects only one die 
  roll, but the narrator can allow a player to use it on all her rolls 
  in a round, if it’s at the adventure’s climax, when things are 
  at their most exciting and important. That probably shouldn’t 
  happen more often than once per game meeting or session.
  A pony starts the game with one harmony point; if luck 
  points aren’t being used, each pony may start with two or 
  three. Once a harmony point’s used, it’s gone. The narrator 
  can reward a player with another harmony point if she does 
  a good job of playing her pony according to the pony’s code of 
  conduct — the rules the pony tries to live by. (That’s why, in Pony 
  Tales, they’re called harmony points; most ponies try to live 
  in harmony.) The narrator also can take away harmony points 
  from a pony who does things that are against the pony’s code.
  Another creature who lives by very diﬀ erent rules, such as 
  a changeling, might get disharmony points, or other kinds of 
  fate points, instead. However, the narrator should stick to the 
  same idea of rewarding the creature for living up to her code 
  and taking away points for doing things that are against it.
  Too Many Dice!
  Rolling a lot of dice can get annoying — it may not be easy for 
  smaller hands to do, and sometimes the results are really high 
  or really low. When someone has to roll more than ten dice, 
  the narrator can deal with it in a couple of ways.
  One method is to roll 5d (one of them a wild die), then 
  add 3 ¹⁄₂ to the total for every extra whole die, rounding up. 
  For example, for 12d, the player could roll 5d and add 25; if the 
  player rolls 18, after adding 25, the total would be 18 + 25 = 43.
  The other is to roll only the wild die and add 3 ¹⁄₂ for every 
  extra whole die. Rolling a one on the wild die means a mishap; 
  don’t subtract from the roll.
  Either way, don’t forget the +1 or +2 if the Aptitude or Tal-
  ent has it! ➧
  Whole
  Dice
  5d
  Wild
  Die
  Whole
  Dice
  5d
  Wild
  Die
  11d
  +21
  +35
  19d
  +49
  +63
  12d
  +25
  +39
  20d
  +53
  +67
  13d
  +28
  +42
  21d
  +56
  +70
  14d
  +32
  +46
  22d
  +60
  +74
  15d
  +35
  +49
  23d
  +63
  +77
  16d
  +39
  +53
  24d
  +67
  +81
  17d
  +42
  +56
  25d
  +70
  +84
  18d
  +46
  +60
  26d
  +74
  +88
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part Two � Page 6 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  Specialties
  Most Talents are pretty general. For instance, the Piloting Tal-
  ent allows a pony or creature to operate any kind of large me-
  chanical vehicle. That’s easy to understand and play, especially 
  in a cinematic (movie-like) game of adventure, but anyone who’s 
  piloted a sailboat, an airship, or a steamship will point out that 
  each of them needs diﬀ erent skills to guide properly!
  A Specialty is narrower than a Talent — to use the same ex-
  ample, a pony can have a Specialty in Airship Piloting — but it 
  doesn’t cost as much. One Talent or experience point is worth 
  three Specialty points. A player can’t spend a fraction of a Tal-
  ent or experience point, but once she’s spent a whole Talent 
  or experience point, she can do what she wants with the three 
  Specialty points she gets. She can spend them on Specialties 
  her pony already has, add new Specialties, or any combination.
  Adding to an existing Talent: A pony or creature who 
  already has a Talent related to the Specialty starts with the val-
  ue for that Talent, then adds the Specialty to it. For example, 
  if a pony has 2d+2 in the Piloting Talent, and adds another +2 
  for a Specialty in Airship Piloting, she would roll 3d+1 when pi-
  loting an airship, and would roll 2d+2 when piloting any other 
  kind of vehicle. She also has one point (+1) left over to add to 
  another Specialty, since she only put +2 into Airship Piloting.
  Adding experience points to a Talent also improves all the 
  Specialties related to it. If a pony’s Piloting Talent of 2d+2 is 
  improved by +1 to 3d and she has the Airship Piloting Specialty 
  at 3d+1, it also improves by +1 and becomes 3d+2.
  Without an existing Talent: A pony or creature who 
  doesn’t have a Talent related to the Specialty just adds the Spe-
  cialty to the base Aptitude. For instance, a pony without the 
  Piloting Talent who has a Coordination of 2d and adds +2 for a 
  Specialty in Airship Piloting would roll 2d+2 when piloting an 
  airship. She also has one point (+1) left over to add to another 
  Specialty, since she only put +2 into Airship Piloting.
  Using Specialties: In other ways Specialties follow the 
  same rules as Talents. New Specialties should be things the 
  pony’s had a chance to learn or practice. A narrator or player 
  can roll the dice for a Specialty only when a task falls within 
  it; a pony can’t use Airship Piloting to pilot a steamship on the 
  water, for instance. Also, a pony can’t start with more than 3d 
  in any single Specialty added to a Talent or Aptitude.
  The narrator should keep an eye on Specialties to make 
  sure they don’t get too powerful for what players are “paying” 
  in Talent or experience points. If a player tries to cram a lot 
  into a Specialty, it probably should be a Talent instead. A Spe-
  cialty shouldn’t be too narrow, either. An example would be a 
  Specialty for piloting a speciﬁ c model of railroad locomotive.
  Specialties can be complicated, which is why they’re an 
  optional rule. Still, if a narrator and group of players are willing 
  to put up with that, they can do some clever things. A unicorn 
  could have Magical Stamina — a Specialty of Stamina — which 
  gives her a better roll to resist getting tired, but only when 
  casting a spell. A pony who has a Familiarity Talent for a re-
  gion could have a Specialty for part of the region; she would 
  have some knowledge of the whole area, but would know more 
  about, say, her home town in the middle of that area. A Cosmo-
  politan Specialty in a speciﬁ c culture, for instance buﬀ alo or 
  griﬃ  ns, would be more detailed, but only about that culture.
  Extra Eﬀ ort
  During a round, a creature may exert maximum eﬀ ort — and roll 
  for fatigue immediately after — instead of hard or medium work, 
  for those dramatic moments that demand just a little bit more. 
  This extra eﬀ ort gives the creature +1d to all rolls for her ac-
  tions for the round, including attacking and causing injury. A 
  creature doing something that normally is maximum eﬀ ort, or 
  using luck or harmony points, can’t use extra eﬀ ort.
  When a creature uses maximum eﬀ ort in a round, but 
  does heavy work the rest of the time, the narrator can have 
  her roll for the heavy work with everyone else (after every 12 
  rounds). Of course, because of the extra roll for the round of 
  maximum eﬀ ort, her fatigue diﬃ  culty will be greater.
  Natural Hazards
  Accidents, horseplay (ahem!), and bad luck can happen even 
  to a pony who doesn’t go on adventures. The narrator can use 
  these rules to handle the dangers of the everyday world.
  Asphyxiation: Roll as long as a pony can’t breathe, start-
  ing with 1d and adding 1 “point” each round. (Roll 1d on the 
  ﬁ rst round, 1d+1 on the second, 1d+2 on the third, and so on.)
  Breath-holding: A pony who’s underwater or high in the 
  air may try to hold her breath. Roll the pony’s Hardiness dice; 
  the result is how many rounds she can hold her breath. If the 
  pony can take some deep breaths ﬁ rst, the narrator should give 
  the pony a bonus. A pony with the Stamina Talent can use it 
  instead, and the number of rounds is twice the total of the die 
  roll. Once the pony runs out of breath, she starts to asphyxiate.
  Cold: Roll after every hour of exposure to low tempera-
  tures. If it’s chilly, in the forties Fahrenheit (4.4 to 9.4° C), roll 
  1d; add 1 “point” for each 10° F (5.6° C) or so colder. (Roll 1d+1 
  for the thirties, 1d+2 for the twenties, 2d for the teens, and so 
  on.) Wearing warm clothing subtracts up to 1d from this roll, 
  depending on how good it is. Exercising to stay warm adds 1d 
  for each level of exertion to a Hardiness roll resisting cold in-
  jury, if the pony or creature can keep it up for most of the hour.
  Collision: If a pony smashes into something or vice versa, 
  roll 1d of injury at 26 to 30 yards (24–27 m) per round and add 1 
  “point” for each 5 yards (4.5 m) per round faster. For example, 
  roll 1d+1 for 31 to 35 yards (28–32 m) per round, 2d for 36 to 40 
  yards (33–37 m) per round, 2d+1 for 41 to 45 yards (37–41 m) per 
  round, and so on.
  Dehydration: Roll 1d injury after 24 hours that a pony 
  can’t get any water, adding 1 “point” each 12 hours after that. 
  (Roll 1d+1 after 36 hours, 1d+2 after 48 hours, 2d after 60 hours, 
  and so on.) If the temperature’s warm, in the eighties Fahren-
  heit (27–32° C), double the water needed and roll every 6 hours. 
  If it’s hot, in the nineties Fahrenheit (33–38° C), roll every 3 
  hours, and the pony needs 4 times as much water. If it’s very 
  hot, more than 100° F (38° C), roll every hour, and the pony 
  needs 8 times as much water. A pony recovers from dehydra-
  tion using normal healing rules, as long as there’s enough water 
  for the pony to drink.
  Drowning: When a pony fails a roll for swimming, roll 1d 
  injury; add 1 “point” for each failed swimming roll after that. 
  (Roll 1d+1 after the second failed roll, 1d+2 after the third, and 
  so on.) The failed swimming rolls don’t have to be in a row, but 
  they must be during the same time the pony’s in the water. ➧
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part Two � Page 7 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  Falling: Roll 1d injury for a fall of 6 to 10 feet (1.8–3 m); 
  add 1 “point” for every 5 feet (1.5 m) more. (Roll 1d+1 for 11 to 
  15 feet, 1d+2 for 16 to 20 feet, 2d for 21 to 25 feet, and so on.)
  Sleet or hail can be dangerous as well as cold. Roll for 
  injury each round a pony’s caught out in it.
  • Moderate sleet or hail causes 1d injury each round.
  •  Heavy sleet or hail causes 1d+1 injury each round.
  •  Very heavy sleet or hail causes 1d+2 injury each round.
  •  Extreme sleet or hail causes 2d injury each round.
  •  Maximum sleet or hail causes 3d injury each round.
  Starvation: Roll 1d injury after the second day that a 
  pony can’t get any food, adding 1 “point” each day after that. 
  (Roll 1d+1 injury on the third day, 1d+2 on the fourth, 2d on 
  the ﬁ fth, and so on.) A pony that eats a little food stretches 
  out the time. For example, a pony who eats half the food she 
  needs rolls every two days instead of every day. A pony recov-
  ers from starvation using the normal healing rules, as long as 
  there’s enough food for the pony to eat.
  Strange stuﬀ : A pony may come across something that 
  doesn’t hurt her, but might do something weird to her instead. 
  The narrator can use level of illness to judge how weird it gets. 
  An example is the blue plant that plays pranks on creatures 
  who touch it; a “major illness” could be a bigger prank than a 
  “minor illness”.
  First Aid
  The Medicine Talent can be used on a mortally ill or injured 
  pony to remove the danger of death; a pony can’t give ﬁ rst aid 
  unless she has Medicine. The diﬃ  culty is equal to the number 
  of minutes that the patient has been mortally injured. If the 
  roll succeeds, the patient no longer is in danger of dying. Fail-
  ure means the mortally injured pony still is in danger of dying. 
  If an attempt at ﬁ rst aid fails, the ﬁ rst-aid pony can try again, 
  making a new roll after another ﬁ ve minutes have passed.
  Narrators and players who want some added realism also 
  can use this extra rule on giving ﬁ rst aid quickly. If ﬁ rst aid 
  is successful within 5 minutes of the patient suﬀ ering mortal 
  injury, the patient will recover completely, with no permanent 
  damage. For every 5 minutes longer that it takes ﬁ rst aid to be 
  successful, the patient permanently loses 1d from every Talent. 
  (A Talent can’t be less than zero dice, though.) After 30 min-
  utes, ﬁ rst aid no longer does any good.
  It may be possible to revive a pony who died in the last few 
  minutes, as long as the pony’s body is still in good shape and 
  not horribly mangled. If a unicorn can use a spell for ﬁ rst aid, 
  treat the dead pony as if she’s mortally injured. If normal ﬁ rst 
  aid is used, a new roll must be made every ﬁ ve minutes until 
  the pony can be hospitalized; if any of the rolls fails, the pony 
  is really dead and can’t be revived. At the hospital, the dead 
  pony is treated as if she’s mortally injured.
  This rule’s useful mostly for ﬁ gurative games of high ad-
  venture that include lots of ﬁ ghting or combat. Occasionally 
  it might be needed after a disaster or other situation, maybe 
  set up as part of a story plot. One possibility is ﬁ nding a mys-
  terious victim lying somewhere who needs saving . . . and as a 
  result leads the heroes into trouble — that is, the next story
  Movement Details
  These rules add ﬂ avor and realism to movement, but they also 
  can add a lot of complications, so they’re recommended only 
  for serious and detailed ﬁ gurative games. A narrator and group 
  of players can pick and choose which of these rules to use.
  Sliding and rolling: A pony who hits the ground after 
  falling while running or ﬂ ying (unless she’s going straight or 
  almost straight down) slides or rolls along the ground half as 
  many yards, rounding down, as she was moving. On a slick sur-
  face she may go farther, but on a rough surface she may go a 
  shorter distance. A pony can slide or roll on purpose, but she 
  still can get hurt doing that. In a literal game, an out-of-control 
  ﬂ yer suddenly may fall straight down, but in a ﬁ gurative game 
  she’ll go ballistic, curving down like a cannonball from the di-
  rection she was going when she lost control. If she’s in forma-
  tion, as part of a ﬂ ying team, she may crash into a teammate!
  Running momentum: A walking pony can turn or sidle 
  as much as she wants, just as in the basic rules. A pony who’s 
  running or swimming, though, builds up momentum and has 
  to move in a straight line for a distance before turning or si-
  dling. If the pony tries to turn or sidle too soon, add 1 to move-
  ment diﬃ  culty for every yard less than the full distance.
  A trotting or swimming pony has to go straight at least 1 
  yard before turning or sidling. How far a cantering or galloping 
  pony has to go before turning or sidling depends on the num-
  ber of Moves she’s making; round up to the next whole Move.
  •  A pony making 3 Run Moves must go straight at least 2 yards.
  • A pony making 4 Run Moves must go straight at least 4 yards.
  •  A pony making 5 Run Moves must go straight at least 6 yards.
  • A pony making 6 Run Moves must go straight at least 8 yards.
  • A pony making 7 Run Moves must go straight at least 12 yards.
  • A pony making 8 Run Moves must go straight at least 16 yards.
  If the narrator likes the general idea of this rule, but doesn’t 
  want to make everyone count hexes all the time, she simply 
  can add 5 to 10 (or even more) to the movement diﬃ  culty for a 
  pony who obviously is trying to maneuver too tightly.
  Gliding: A gliding ﬂ yer can’t land or hover, and must go 
  faster than 2 Flight Moves. She can slow down, but can’t speed 
  up, and can make basic maneuvers but not advanced maneuvers.
  Trading speed and altitude: A flyer who gains altitude 
  slows down by as many yards as she gains in altitude; a flyer 
  who loses altitude speeds up by as many yards as she loses in 
  altitude. This is automatic and doesn’t count as a speed up or 
  slow down maneuver, but a flyer can use a speed up or slow down 
  maneuver to cancel out the speed change that gaining or losing 
  altitude would cause — or to change her speed even more. ➧
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part Two � Page 8 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  Inside and outside loops: For an upward half-loop, a 
  ﬂ yer usually starts right-side up and, at the end when she’s 
  upside-down, rotates back to right-side up. For a downward 
  half-loop, she usually rotates to upside-down, goes through 
  the half-loop, and ends right-side up. These are inside half-
  loops because the ﬂ yer’s head is toward the inside of the loop’s 
  curve. An outside half-loop, with the ﬂ yer’s head toward the 
  outside of the loop’s curve, is harder and makes the blood rush 
  to the head. That’s uncomfortable and it’s tougher to see, hear, 
  and think; the narrator can add 5 to 10 to the diﬃ  culty of the 
  ﬂ yer’s rolls in the round, depending on how fast she’s ﬂ ying.
  Speed is energy: Turning, slipping, half-looping, or half-
  rolling tends to slow down a ﬂ yer — these maneuvers take en-
  ergy, which comes out of speed. Each turn or slip subtracts half 
  a Flight Move, and each half-loop or half-roll subtracts 1 Flight 
  Move, from the ﬂ yer’s movement in her next round.
  Flying momentum: A flyer who’s hovering or in slow 
  flight can turn as much as she wants, but she can’t slip. A ﬂ yer 
  who’s moving faster builds up momentum and has to go in a 
  straight line for a distance before making a turn or a slip. If a 
  ﬂ yer tries to turn or slip too soon, add 1 to ﬂ ying diﬃ  culty for 
  every yard less than the full distance.
  A ﬂ yer in moderate ﬂ ight has to go straight at least 1 yard 
  before turning or slipping 1 yard. How far a ﬂ yer in fast or very 
  fast ﬂ ight has to go before turning or slipping, and how far she 
  can slip, depends on the number of Flight Moves she’s making. 
  At the end of a slip, a ﬂ yer can, but doesn’t have to, make up to 
  two 60° turns in the opposite direction (turn left after a right 
  slip or vice versa); she doesn’t need to go straight ﬁ rst.
  •  A ﬂ yer making 3 Flight Moves must go straight at least 
  2 yards before turning or slipping 1 yard.
  •  A ﬂ yer making 4 Flight Moves must go straight at least 
  4 yards before turning or slipping 1 yard.
  •  A ﬂ yer making 5 Flight Moves must go straight at least 
  6 yards before turning or slipping half a Flight Move.
  •  A ﬂ yer making 6 Flight Moves must go straight at least 
  8 yards before turning or slipping half a Flight Move.
  •  A ﬂ yer making 7 Flight Moves must go straight at least 
  12 yards before turning or slipping 1 Flight Move.
  •  A ﬂ yer making 8 Flight Moves must go straight at least 
  16 yards before turning or slipping 1 Flight Move.
  •  A ﬂ yer in heroic ﬂ ight can turn or slip once, at the end of her 
  moves; she slips one-fourth of the Flight Moves she’s making 
  and can’t make any turns after slipping.
  A ﬂ yer also has to go straight some distance before a half-
  loop or half-roll; if she tries to loop or roll too soon, add 1 to 
  ﬂ ying diﬃ  culty for every yard less than the full distance.
  •  A ﬂ yer making 2 Flight Moves must go straight at least
  2 yards before half-looping or half-rolling 1 yard.
  •  A ﬂ yer making 3 Flight Moves must go straight at least
  4 yards before half-looping or half-rolling half a Flight Move.
  •  A ﬂ yer making 4 Flight Moves must go straight at least
  8 yards before half-looping or half-rolling half a Flight Move.
  •  A ﬂ yer making 5 Flight Moves must go straight at least
  12 yards before half-looping or half-rolling 1 Flight Move.
  •  A ﬂ yer making 6 Flight Moves must go straight at least
  16 yards before half-looping or half-rolling 1 Flight Move.
  •  A ﬂ yer making 7 Flight Moves must go straight at least
  24 yards before half-looping or half-rolling 2 Flight Moves.
  •  A ﬂ yer making 8 Flight Moves must go straight at least
  32 yards before half-looping or half-rolling 2 Flight Moves.
  If the narrator likes the general idea of this rule, but 
  doesn’t want to make everyone count hexes all the time, she 
  simply can add 5 to 10 (or even more) to the ﬂ ying diﬃ  culty for 
  a ﬂ yer who obviously is trying to maneuver too tightly.
  Additional Attacks
  Fighting can get a lot fancier than just smacking, tripping, or 
  shooting at the other fellow. Here are some other possibilities 
  to go in step two of the ﬁ ghting rules for a narrator or player 
  who wants to try doing something out of the ordinary.
  Disarm: The attacker tries to knock a weapon or object 
  out of the target’s grip. If the attack succeeds and the tar-
  get hasn’t taken any actions yet, she can use an action to try 
  to keep her grip on the weapon or object, even if it’s before 
  her initiative. The target makes a Muscle (or Levitation) roll 
  against the attacker’s injury roll. If the target’s roll is greater 
  than the injury roll, the target keeps hold of the weapon or 
  object; if it’s less than or equal, she drops the weapon or object.
  Entangle: The attacker uses a lasso, net, whip, or other 
  ﬂ exible weapon to tangle up the target. If the attack succeeds, 
  the end of the lasso or whip or the weave of the net wraps 
  around the target. Unless it’s spiky or otherwise special, it 
  doesn’t hurt the target, but she can’t take any actions other 
  than trying to break free, which is a contest against the weap-
  on’s “injury” roll and counts as an action, or talking. To slip out 
  of the weapon, the target uses a Coordination roll in the con-
  test. To snap the weapon, the target uses a Muscle roll instead.
  Lunge: The attacker rushes suddenly at a target, maybe 
  with an edged weapon. Lunging adds about half a yard (45 cm) 
  to the range of an attack, but adds 3 (or 1d) to the diﬃ  culty of 
  the attack and subtracts 1d from injury.
  Sweep: The attacker uses a roundhouse blow or a leg 
  sweep. Subtract 6 (or 2d) from the diﬃ  culty of the attack, but 
  subtract 3d from injury. ➧
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part Two � Page 9 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  Additional Special Fighting Conditions
  These aren’t attacks in themselves, but they can have a big 
  eﬀ ect on attacks and can give the narrator and players more 
  choices as part of step 3 in the ﬁ ghting rules.
  Aiming: An attacker using a weapon that shoots projec-
  tiles can track a target. Each round that an attacker takes no 
  other actions but aiming at a target, she can add 1d to the at-
  tack roll when she shoots at that target, but she can’t add more 
  than 3d. A moving target may add to the diﬃ  culty of the shot.
  Called shot: An attacker can try to attack a speciﬁ c part 
  of a target’s body. Trying to hit an arm (front limb) or leg (back 
  limb) causes less injury because the attacker took extra care to 
  hit an area that’s “less vital.” Trying to hit the chest or abdo-
  men doesn’t add to or subtract from the diﬃ  culty or injury.
  •  Trying for the head adds 3 (or 1d) to diﬃ  culty and 12 (or 4d) 
  to injury; if that seems too drastic, make it +6 or +2d injury.
  •  Trying for the heart adds 12 (or 4d) to diﬃ  culty and 12 (or 4d) 
  to injury; if that seems too drastic, make it +6 or +2d injury.
  •  Trying for an arm adds 3 (or 1d) to diﬃ  culty and subtracts 2 
  points from injury.
  •  Trying for a leg or wing adds 3 (or 1d) to the diﬃ  culty and 
  subtracts 1 point from injury.
  If a body part’s injured enough, the narrator may decide 
  the injury aﬀ ects how well the pony or creature can use it. Ex-
  cept for chest injuries, the penalty listed lasts until that part of 
  the body heals, which probably takes a few days. Medical treat-
  ment (including magic) can be applied to an injured location.
  •  A head injury subtracts an extra point from Smarts, Senses, 
  and initiative rolls.
  •  A chest injury means the target can’t take any actions in the 
  next round.
  •  An arm injury subtracts an extra point from any rolls involv-
  ing that arm.
  •  A leg injury subtracts an extra point from all Coordination, 
  Reﬂ exes, and initiative rolls.
  An attacker can use a called shot to knock out a target. The 
  attacker must succeed at hitting the target’s head and getting 
  at least a stunned result on the injury. Subtract the diﬃ  culty of 
  the attack from the successful attack roll; that’s the number of 
  hours the target’s unconscious, unless something or someone 
  else wakes her up before she regains consciousness on her own. 
  Divide the level of injury in half, rounding down, before check-
  ing it oﬀ  on the target. For example, reduce a mortal injury to a 
  minor injury; reduce a major injury to stunned.
  Group attack: A group of attackers like a gang or a unit 
  of the royal guard can combine attacks, similar to “Teamwork”, 
  part of “Doing More Things: Special Task Rules” — the nar-
  rator can use those modiﬁ ers. One attacker is the leader and 
  makes a Leadership or Smarts roll. If the roll succeeds, all the 
  attackers use the leader’s initiative and attack at once; they 
  use the hit-location modiﬁ er, and all the successful attacks add 
  their injury dice together. If the roll fails, the attackers use 
  their own initiatives and take their own actions as usual.
  Multiple weapons: A pony or creature using more than 
  one weapon can attack with each of them in a round, but re-
  member to apply the multi-action penalty to all the attacks.
  Quick draw: Instead of taking a separate action to ready 
  a weapon, an attacker can try to ready the weapon and attack 
  with it as one action. It must be a weapon that can be quick-
  drawn, such as a bow and arrow, a loaded pistol, or a dagger, 
  and the narrator or player must say, before initiative is ﬁ gured 
  out for the round, that the attacker will try a quick draw. The 
  attacker can add some of the dice she normally would use for 
  her attack to her initiative dice for that round, but she must 
  leave at least 1d in her attack. If she wants to attack more than 
  once with the quick-drawn weapon, she subtracts 1d for each 
  attack after the ﬁ rst before adding dice to initiative.
  For example, a unicorn royal guard wants to shoot a cross-
  bow at a manticore before it can pounce. He’s got a total of 6d 
  in his Missile Weapons Talent; normally he could add up to 5d 
  to his initiative, but he wants to shoot twice. After subtracting 
  1d for the extra attack, he’s got 5d left, so now he can add up 
  to 4d to his initiative. He decides instead to add only 1d to his 
  initiative, which leaves him with 3d for each of his attacks.
  Unwieldy weapons or objects are longer than 2 feet (60 
  cm), hard to grip or throw, or use technology or magic the user 
  doesn’t understand. Add 5 or more to attack diﬃ  culty for an 
  unwieldy object. If the narrator thinks other things make it 
  easier to use, such as experience, strength, or good design (say, 
  a well-balanced sword), she might add less to the diﬃ  culty. ✶
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part Two � Page 10 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  � Romany: Example Earth Pony �
  C
  hris is part of a group who’s new to role-playing games; 
  they’ve decided not to use most of the optional rules, at 
  least until they’re used to the basic rules. Chris wants to create 
  a character who isn’t complicated to set up or play, and decides 
  on a young “road pony”, loosely based on gypsies and other 
  traveling social groups, out on her own for the first time.
  Step 1: What Kind of Pony?
  A.  Choose the pony’s tribe. This’ll be an earth pony.
  B.  Choose whether the pony’s a mare or stallion. She’ll be a mare.
  Step 2: Aptitudes
  A.  List the starting Aptitudes of the pony’s tribe. An earth pony 
  starts with 1d (3 points) each in Muscle, Hardiness, Reﬂ ex-
  es, Coordination, Smarts, Senses, and Power.
  B.  Add 12d (36 points) to the pony’s Aptitudes. Second column shows 
  added dice/points; third column shows Aptitude totals.
  Muscle: 
  add 2d (6 points) to get 
  3d (9 points)
  Hardiness: 
  add 2d (6 points) to get 
  3d (9 points)
  Reﬂ exes: 
  add 2d (6 points) to get 
  3d (9 points)
  Coordination: add 2d (6 points) to get 
  3d (9 points)
  Smarts: 
  add 2d (6 points) to get 
  3d (9 points)
  Senses: 
  add 2d (6 points) to get 
  3d (9 points)
  Power: 
  add 0d (0 points) to get 
  1d (3 points)
  Step 3: Talents
  A.  Choose the pony’s Talents. The pony’s Talents are listed below.
  Familiarity, Medicine, Running, and Teamster are from the 
  standard Talents list.
  Carpentry is a Craft Talent: the construction and repair of 
  wooden items, including furniture and small buildings
  Tinker is a Craft Talent: the creation, repair, and mainte-
  nance of common items such as tools, simple mecha-
  nisms, and household goods.
  B.  Decide whether each Talent is Mundane or Magical. They’re all 
  Mundane Talents.
  C.  Decide for each Talent what Aptitude to base it on. Teamster is 
  based on Muscle. Running is based on Reﬂ exes. Familiarity 
  and Medicine are based on Smarts. Carpentry and Tinker 
  are based on Senses.
  D.  Add 7d (21 points) to the Talents. Talent dice/points are added 
  in the third column; ﬁ nal totals are in the last column.
  Tinker: 
  3d (9 pts.) 
  plus 2d (6 pts.) = 5d (15 pts.)
  Carpentry: 
  3d (9 pts.) 
  plus 1d (3 pts.) = 4d (12 pts.)
  Teamster: 
  3d (9 pts.) 
  plus 1d (3 pts.) = 4d (12 pts.)
  Running: 
  3d (9 pts.) 
  plus 1d (3 pts.) = 4d (12 pts.)
  Familiarity: 
  3d (9 pts.) 
  plus 1d (3 pts.) = 4d (12 pts.)
  Medicine: 
  3d (9 pts.) 
  plus 1d (3 pts.) = 4d (12 pts.)
  Step 4: Personal Weakness
  A.  Name and describe the pony’s Personal Weakness. Wary — she 
  doesn’t warm to strangers easily, especially “townies” (city 
  or town ponies), and tends to be a bit suspicious of them.
  Step 5: Finishing Touches
  A.  Describe how the pony looks. She’s compact but blocky and 
  well-muscled from hauling her caravan around. Her some-
  what rough coat is red-brown like road dust. Her mane and 
  tail are straight but cropped close to make them easier to 
  keep clean. Their salt-and-pepper look averages out to an 
  ash gray from a distance. Her eyes are hazel. Her cutie mark 
  is a section of macadam road curving into the distance, dis-
  appearing between a pair of hills.
  B.  Name the pony and describe what else is important about her. Ro-
  many is touring the country, learning its highways and by-
  ways and getting a feel for how diﬀ erent areas vary. Like 
  many nomads and wanderers in the real world, she tends 
  to distrust townies and regards them as a bit crazy; often 
  the townies in question feel the same way about road po-
  nies, viewing them as odd or possibly criminal. Still, she’s 
  a good friend once someone has won her over, even if she 
  can be a bit sharp-tempered, and she’s good at what she 
  does for a living. By necessity she’s learned a bit about be-
  ing an apothecary (an old term similar to the more modern 
  “pharmacist” or “druggist”) and dealing with aches, sprains, 
  and other injuries from an active life on the road. She may 
  rejoin her family and clan sometime in the future, but for 
  now she’s enjoying her independence and the area where 
  she’s stopped to rest and make some bits.
  C.  Note down the pony’s Moves and Strength Bonus. Her Run Move 
  is 8 yards, her Swim and Climb Move are 4 yards, and her 
  Jump is 2 yards. Her Strength Bonus is 2d.
  D.  Choose the pony’s important possessions. She has three medium 
  possessions: a colorfully painted road-pony caravan that 
  she pulls and lives in (the sides open up to form counters 
  and awnings for doing business), money from tinkering and 
  carpentry work, and an inventory of spare parts and small 
  ﬁ nished goods. She has two minor possessions: a toolkit of 
  tinker’s tools and highway maps of the pony nation. ➧
  
  � Earth Pony Form �
  Player’s
  name
  Chris
  Pony’s
  name
  Romany
  This earth
  pony is a:
  � Mare
  � Filly
  � Stallion
  � Colt
  Injury or illness
  � Bruised
  ≤ 0
  � Stunned   1 –
  � Minor
  –
  � Serious
  –
  � Major
  –
  � Mortal
  –
  � Death
  ≥
  Fatigue (Tiredness)
  � Winded: –1d
  � Tired: –2d
  � Exhausted: –3d
  Fatigue (Sleepiness)
  � Sleepy: –1d
  � Tired: –2d
  � Exhausted: –3d
  Size &
  build
  Compact but blocky 
  & well-muscled from 
  hauling her caravan
  Coat
  Somewhat rough, 
  road-dust red-brown
  Mane
  Straight and close-
  cropped; salt-and-
  Tail
  pepper averaging out 
  to ash gray
  Eyes
  Hazel
  Experience
  points:
  Unused
  Spent
  Important possessions (every pony gets panniers/saddlebags) Major Med. Minor
  Dwelling: colorful road-pony caravan she
  �
  �
  �
    pulls and lives in; sides open up to
  �
  �
  �
    form counters and awnings for business
  �
  �
  �
  Money: income from tinkering/carpentry
  �
  �
  �
  Inventory: spare parts, small ﬁ nished goods
  �
  �
  �
  Toolkit: tinker’s tools
  �
  �
  �
  Maps: highway maps of pony nation
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  Talents and Specialties
  Based on
  Add Up Points
  Exp.
  Dice
  Teamster
  Muscle 9 + 3 =12
  4 d
  Running
  Reﬂ exes 9 + 3 =12
  4 d
  Familiarity with pony
  Smarts 9 + 3 =12
  4 d
   nation’s highways
  +
  =
  d
  Medicine
  Smarts 9 + 3 =12
  4 d
  Carpentry (craft): construc-
  Senses 9 + 3 =12
  4 d
   tion and repair of wood items
  +
  =
  d
  Tinker (craft): creation, repair,
  Senses 9 + 6 =15
  5 d
   & maintenance of common
  +
  =
  d
   household items (e.g., tools)
  +
  =
  d
  +
  =
  d
  +
  =
  d
  +
  =
  d
  +
  =
  d
  +
  =
  d
  +
  =
  d
  Aptitude
  Add up points
  Dice
  Muscle
  3 + 6 = 9 3 d
  Hardiness
  3 + 6 = 9 3 d
  Reﬂ exes
  3 + 6 = 9 3 d
  Coordination
  3 + 6 = 9 3 d
  Smarts
  3 + 6 = 9 3 d
  Senses
  3 + 6 = 9 3 d
  Power
  3 + 0 = 3 1 d
  Total points: 36
  Run Move (5 yards + 1
  per whole die in Muscle)
  8
  yards
  Swim Move ( ¹⁄₂ Run Move*) 4 yards
  Climb Move ( ¹⁄₂ Run Move*) 4 yards
  Jump ( ¹⁄₄ of Run Move*)
  2 yards
  Strength Bonus ( ¹⁄₂ of whole 
  dice in Lifting or Muscle*)
  2
  d
  * Round up to next yard or die if needed
  Luck points
  �����
  �����
  �����
  �����
  Harmony points
  �����
  �����
  �����
  �����
  Personal Weakness
  Wary: she doesn’t warm to 
  strangers easily, especially 
  townies, and tends to be a bit 
  suspicious of them
  Cutie mark (sketch or description)
  A section of macadam road 
  curving into the distance and 
  disappearing between a pair of 
  hills
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part Two � Page 12 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  � Scirocco: Example Pegasus Pony �
  A
  lex is part of a group looking for high adventure with 
  lots of action — but not too heavy, so the game’s tone isn’t 
  much darker than the show is. Alex likes playing bold war-
  riors and decides a typically feisty, assertive pegasus with some 
  weather and ﬁ ghting skills is just the pony to be part of a group 
  of adventurers righting wrongs and seeking treasures.
  Step 1: What Kind of Pony?
  A.  Choose the pony’s tribe. This’ll be a pegasus pony.
  B.  Choose whether the pony’s a mare or stallion. She’ll be a mare.
  Step 2: Aptitudes
  A.  List the starting Aptitudes of the pony’s tribe. A pegasus pony 
  starts with 1d each in Muscle, Hardiness, Reﬂ exes, Coordi-
  nation, Smarts, Senses, Power, and Finesse.
  B.  Add 12d (36 points) to the pony’s Aptitudes. Second column shows 
  added dice/points; third column shows Aptitude totals.
  Muscle: 
  add 1d (3 points) to get 
  2d (6 points)
  Hardiness: 
  add 2d (6 points) to get 
  3d (9 points)
  Reﬂ exes: 
  add 2d (6 points) to get 
  3d (9 points)
  Coordination: add +2 (2 points) to get 
  1d+2 (5 points)
  Smarts: 
  add 1d+1 (4 points) to get 2d+1 (7 points)
  Senses: 
  add 1d+2 (5 points) to get 2d+2 (8 points)
  Power: 
  add 1d+1 (4 points) to get 2d+1 (7 points)
  Finesse: 
  add 2d (6 points) to get 
  3d (9 points)
  Step 3: Talents
  A.  Choose the pony’s Talents. The pony’s Talents are listed below.
  Brawling, Dodge, Firearms, Notice, Boltworking, Windworking, and 
  Flight Increase are from the standard Talents list.
  Hoofblade is a Specialty of Mêlée for attacking with war boots 
  ﬁ tted with short blades similar to daggers or knives.
  Riﬂ e is a Specialty of Firearms for attacking with riﬂ ed long-
  arms.
  Sharp Vision is a Specialty of Notice for using one’s eyes.
  B.  Decide whether each Talent is Mundane or Magical. Brawling, 
  Dodge, Hoofblade, Firearms, Riﬂ e, Gunsmithing, Notice, 
  and Sharp Vision are Mundane Talents or Specialties. Bolt-
  working, Windworking, and Flight Increase are Magical 
  Talents.
  C.  Decide for each Talent what Aptitude to base it on. Brawling, 
  Dodge, and Hoofblade are based on Reﬂ exes. Firearms is 
  based on Coordination and Riﬂ e is a Specialty of Firearms. 
  Gunsmithing and Notice are based on Senses, and Sharp Vi-
  sion is a Specialty of Notice. Boltworking and Windwork-
  ing Talents are based on Finesse; Boltworking and Wind-
  working Eﬀ ects and Flight Increase are based on Power.
  D.  Add 7d (21 points) to the Talents. Talent dice/points are added 
  in the third column; ﬁ nal totals are in the last column. An 
  asterisk (*) indicates a Specialty
  Brawling: 
  3d (9 pts.) 
  plus 1d (3 pts.) = 4d (12 pts.)
  Dodge: 
  3d (9 pts.) 
  plus 1d (3 pts.) = 4d (12 pts.)
  Hoofblade: 
  3d (9 pts.) 
  plus 1d (1 pt.*) = 4d (10 pts.)
  Firearms: 
  1d+2 (5 pts.) plus +1 (1 pt.) 
  = 2d (6 pts.)
  Riﬂ e: 
  2d (6 pts.) 
  plus 1d (1 pt.*) = 3d (7 pts.)
  Gunsmithing: 
  2d+2 (8 pts.) plus +1 (1 pt.) 
  = 3d (9 pts.)
  Notice: 
  2d+2 (8 pts.) plus +1 (1 pt.) 
  = 3d (9 pts.)
  Sharp Vision: 
  3d (9 pts.) 
  plus 1d (1 pt.*) = 4d (10 pts.)
  Boltworking T.: 3d (9 pts.) 
  plus 0 (0 pts.) = 3d (9 pts.)
  Boltworking Ef.: 2d+1 (7 pts.) plus +2 (2 pts.) = 3d (9 pts.)
  Windworking T.: 3d (9 pts.) 
  plus 1d (3 pts.) = 4d (12 pts.)
  Windworking E.: 2d+1 (7 pts.) plus +2 (2 pts.) = 3d (9 pts.)
  Flight Increase: 2d+1 (7 pts.) plus +2 (2 pts.) = 3d (9 pts.)
  Step 4: Personal Weakness
  A.  Name and describe the pony’s Personal Weakness. Impetuous: 
  She tends to rush into a situation without thinking about it 
  ﬁ rst, which can get her into a lot of trouble.
  Step 5: Finishing Touches
  A.  Describe how the pony looks. She’s sleek and sturdy rather than 
  big and muscular, and cuts an imposing ﬁ gure in her bard-
  ing and hoofblades. Her dark-red coat, and curly dark-gold 
  mane and tail, are surprisingly ﬁ ne, but they can get pretty 
  nussed after a long, hard day of traveling. Her dark eyes 
  usually are watchful and hard to read. Her cutie mark is a 
  gray-brown dust cloud with wind “speed lines” behind it.
  B.  Name the pony and describe what else is important about her. Sci-
  rocco always has been a rough-and-tumble sort, so falling in 
  with a band of roaming adventurers came naturally to her. 
  She doesn’t always look before she leaps, but she does try 
  to do the right thing, even if it means she and her friends 
  don’t always get all the treasure they’re looking for. She’s a 
  decent shot, especially with a riﬂ e, but it’s getting up close 
  and personal in a ﬁ ght that she’s really good at.
  C.  Note down the pony’s Moves and Strength Bonus. Her Run Move 
  is 7 yards, Swim and Climb Move are 4 yards, Jump is 2 
  yards, and Flight Move is 8 yards. Her Strength Bonus is 1d.
  D.  Choose the pony’s important possessions. She has two medium 
  possessions: a set of plate barding with helm and a pack 
  containing camping and survival gear, including a small tent. 
  She has four minor possessions: a small amount of money, 
  a pair of bladed war boots (light sharp weapons: 1d+1 injury 
  each, short length), a medium bolt-action metallic-cartridge 
  riﬂ e (6d injury, capacity 6 rounds, ranges 25/50/100 yards) 
  with ammunition, bandolier, bag, and stripper clips, and a 
  toolkit to clean and maintain her weapons and armor. ➧
  
  � Pegasus Pony Form �
  Player’s
  name
  Alex
  Pony’s
  name
  Scirocco
  This pegasus
  pony is a:
  � Mare
  � Filly
  � Stallion
  � Colt
  Aptitude
  Add up points
  Dice
  Muscle
  3 + 3 = 6 2 d
  Hardiness
  3 + 6 = 9 3 d
  Reﬂ exes
  3 + 6 = 9 3 d
  Coordination
  3 + 2 = 5 1 d+2
  Smarts
  3 + 4 = 7 2 d+1
  Senses
  3 + 5 = 8 2 d+2
  Power
  3 + 4 = 7 2 d+1
  Finesse
  3 + 6 = 9 3 d
  Total points: 36
  Run Move (5 yards + 1
  per whole die in Muscle)
  7 yards
  Swim Move ( ¹⁄₂ Run Move*)
  4 yards
  Climb Move ( ¹⁄₂ Run Move*) 4 yards
  Jump ( ¹⁄₄ of Run Move*)
  2 yards
  Flight Move (5 yards + 1
  per whole die in Power)
  8 yards
  Strength Bonus ( ¹⁄₂ of whole 
  dice in Lifting or Muscle*)
  1
  d
  * Round up to next yard or die if needed
  Personal Weakness
  Impetuous—she tends to rush 
  into a situation without 
  thinking about it first
  Cutie mark (sketch or description)
  A gray-brown dust cloud with 
  wind “speed lines” behind it
  Injury or illness
  � Bruised
  ≤ 0
  � Stunned   1 –
  � Minor
  –
  � Serious
  –
  � Major
  –
  � Mortal
  –
  � Death
  ≥
  Fatigue (Tiredness)
  � Winded: –1d
  � Tired: –2d
  � Exhausted: –3d
  Fatigue (Sleepiness)
  � Sleepy: –1d
  � Tired: –2d
  � Exhausted: –3d
  Luck points
  �����
  �����
  �����
  �����
  Harmony points
  �����
  �����
  �����
  �����
  Size &
  build
  Sleek and sturdy 
  rather than big 
  and muscular
  Coat
  Dark red and fine
  Mane
  Dark gold 
  and curly
  Tail
  Dark gold 
  and curly
  Eyes
  Dark and watchful
  Experience
  points:
  Unused
  Spent
  Important possessions (every pony gets panniers/saddlebags) Major Med. Minor
  Pack containing camping and survival gear
  �
  �
  �
  Armor: Plate barding (add 3d to Hardiness)
  �
  �
  �
  Money
  �
  �
  �
  Weapon: bladed war boots (1d+1 injury, short) �
  �
  �
  Weapon: bolt-action rifle (6d, 6 rounds)
  �
  �
  �
   plus ammo, bandolier, bag, stripper clips
  �
  �
  �
  Toolkit: clean & maintain armor & weapons
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  �
  Talents and Specialties
  Based on
  Add Up Points
  Exp.
  Dice
  Brawling
  Reflexes 9 + 3 =12
  4d
  Dodge
  Reflexes 9 + 3 =12
  4d
  Hoofblade (Mêlée Specialty)
  Reflexes 9 + 1 =10
  4d
  Firearms
  Coord.
  5 + 1 = 6
  2d
  Rifle (Firearms Specialty)
  Firearms 6 + 1 = 7
  3d
  Gunsmithing (Craft Talent)
  Senses
  8 + 1 = 9
  3d
  Notice
  Senses
  8 + 1 = 9
  3d
  Sharp Vision (Notice Spec.)
  Notice
  9 + 1 =10
  4d
  Boltworking (Talent)
  Finesse
  9 + 0 = 9
  3d
  Boltworking (Effect)
  Power
  7 + 2 = 9
  3d
  Windworking (Talent)
  Finesse
  9 + 3 =12
  4d
  Windworking (Effect)
  Power
  7 + 2 = 9
  3d
  Flight Increase
  Power
  7 + 2 = 9
  3d
  Total
  +21=
  d
  +
  =
  d
  +
  =
  d
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part Two � Page 14 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  � Glitch: Example Unicorn Pony (guest contrib.) �
  P
  at will be playing in a literal game that’s all about the 
  comedy, set in a small town not far from a big city. The 
  narrator’s willing to let this group of experienced players have 
  a lot of leeway, since the game will be fast and loose, with lots 
  of silliness and pratfalls. Pat decides to create a mad scientist, 
  just the sort of character who ﬁ ts well in madcap adventure.
  Step 1: What Kind of Pony?
  A.  Choose the pony’s tribe. This’ll be a unicorn pony.
  B.  Choose whether the pony’s a mare or stallion. He’ll be a stallion.
  Step 2: Aptitudes
  A.  List the starting Aptitudes of the pony’s tribe. A unicorn pony 
  starts with 1d (3 points) each in Muscle, Hardiness, Reﬂ ex-
  es, Coordination, Smarts, Senses, Power, and Finesse.
  B.  Add 12d (36 points) to the pony’s Aptitudes. Second column shows 
  added dice/points; third column shows Aptitude totals.
  Muscle: 
  add +2 (2 points) to get 
  1d+2 (5 points)
  Hardiness: 
  add 1d (3 points) to get 
  2d (6 points)
  Reﬂ exes: 
  add +2 (2 points) to get 
  1d+2 (5 points)
  Coordination: add 1d (3 points) to get 
  2d (6 points)
  Smarts: 
  add 2d (6 points) to get 
  3d (9 points)
  Senses: 
  add 1d (3 points) to get 
  2d (6 points)
  Power: 
  add 2d+2 (8 points) to get 3d+2 (11 points)
  Finesse: 
  add 3d (9 points) to get 
  4d (12 points)
  Step 3: Talents
  A.  Choose the pony’s Magical Style. Mechanical magic is the abil-
  ity to motivate and operate machinery.
  B.  Choose the pony’s Talents. The pony’s Talents are listed below.
  Piloting, Repair, Engineering, Levitation, and Prime Mover are 
  from the standard Talents list.
  Magical Stamina Specialty of Stamina for resisting fatigue from 
  using Magical Talents.
  Resist Mechanical Injury Specialty of Hardiness for resisting 
  injury from mechanical devices when things go horribly 
  wrong. (This is an example of a Talent or Specialty that a 
  narrator might permit in a comedic literal game, but may be 
  more reluctant to allow in a more serious ﬁ gurative game.)
  Mechanical Control Powering and operating mechanical devic-
  es that aren’t intended to be powered by Prime Mover.
  Gremlins Specialty of Mechanical Control for taking control of 
  a mechanical device away from someone who’s operating it.
  C.  Decide whether each Talent is Mundane or Magical. Magical 
  Stamina, Resist Mechanical Injury, Piloting, Repair, and 
  Engineering are Mundane Talents. Levitation, Prime Mov-
  er, Mechanical Control, and Gremlins are Magical Talents.
  D.  Decide for each Talent what Aptitude to base it on. Magical Stami-
  na and Resist Mechanical Injury are based on Hardiness. Pi-
  loting is based on Coordination. Repair and Engineering are 
  based on Smarts. Levitation Eﬀ ect, Prime Mover Eﬀ ect, and 
  Mechanical Control Eﬀ ect are based on Power; Gremlins 
  Eﬀ ect is a Specialty based on Mechanical Control Eﬀ ect.
  E.  Add 7d (21 points) to Talents. Talent dice/points are added in 
  third column; totals are in last column. Points noted with 
  * (asterisk) are Specialty points. Pat decides to list rolls for 
  spell Talents, even if no points were added, for reference.
  Magic. Stamina: 2d (6 pts.) 
  plus 3d (3 pts.*) = 5d (9 pts.)
  Resist Mech. Inj.: 2d (6 pts.) 
  plus 2d (2 pts.*) = 4d (8 pts.)
  Piloting: 
  2d (6 pts.) 
  plus +1 (1 pt.) 
  = 2d+1 (7 pts.)
  Repair: 
  3d (9 pts.) 
  plus 1d (3 pts.) 
  = 4d (12 pts.)
  Engineering: 
  3d (9 pts.) 
  plus +1 (1 pt.) 
  = 3d+1 (10 pts.)
  Levitation (Eﬀ .): 3d+2 (11 pts.) plus 1d+1 (4 pts.) = 5d (15 pts.)
  Prime M. (Eﬀ .): 3d+2 (11 pts.) plus 1d+1 (4 pts.) = 5d (15 pts.)
  Mech. C. (Eﬀ .): 3d+2 (11 pts.) plus +1 (1 pt.) 
  = 4d (12 pts.)
  Gremlins (Tal.): 4d (12 pts.) 
  plus 2d (2 pts.*) = 6d (14 pts.)
  Step 4: Personal Weakness
  A.  Name and describe the pony’s Personal Weakness. He’s a mad sci-
  entist: “Bwahahahahaha! Now the world will see my genius!”
  Step 5: Finishing Touches
  A.  Describe how the pony looks. He’s scrawny and long-legged. His 
  color scheme deﬁ es any attempt to color-coordinate, with a 
  ﬁ re-engine-red coat, a lime-green mane and tail that usually 
  are somewhat unkempt, and blaze-orange eyes. From time 
  to time he will don the “clock . . . is . . . ticking!” expression; 
  at that point, those who know him well will run. His cutie 
  mark is a set of interlaced gears with broken teeth.
  B.  Name the pony and describe what else is important about him. 
  Through his own luck, as well as inheritance, Glitch is 
  a wealthy unicorn. This allows him to pursue his “des-
  tiny” — if one means “tinkering with devices only slightly 
  more dangerous than a wood-chipper” — free of such minor 
  considerations as “safety”. He has a reputation as an usually 
  incompetent inventor and often is seen ﬂ opping about the 
  skies in his home-made ornithopter. He is indeed the terror 
  of the local pegasus ponies.
  C.  Note down the pony’s Moves and Strength Bonus. His Run Move 
  is 6 yards, his Swim and Climb Move are 3 yards, and his 
  Jump is 2 yards. His Strength Bonus is 1d.
  D.  Choose the pony’s important possessions. He has one major pos-
  session: money! Lots and lots of it! He has one medium pos-
  session: some kind of vehicle — for instance, an ornithop-
  ter, autogyro, steam-car, or giant vinegar-and-baking-soda 
  jet boat — but only one at a time; switching vehicles usually 
  follows the destruction of the previous vehicle. He has two 
  minor possessions: an inventory of parts from broken gad-
  gets, and a contact among fellow mad-scientist ponies. ➧
  
  � Unicorn Pony Form �
  Player’s
  name
  Pat
  Pony’s
  name
  Glitch
  This unicorn
  pony is a:
  � Mare
  � Filly
  � Stallion
  � Colt
  Aptitude
  Add up points
  Dice
  Muscle
  3 + 2 = 5
  1d+2
  Hardiness
  3 + 3 = 6
  2d
  Reﬂ exes
  3 + 2 = 5
  1d+2
  Coordination
  3 + 3 = 6
  2d
  Smarts
  3 + 6 = 9
  3d
  Senses
  3 + 3 = 6
  2d
  Power
  3 + 8 = 11 3d+2
  Finesse
  3 + 9 = 12 4d
  Total points: 36
  Run Move (5 yards + 1
  per whole die in Muscle)
  6
  yards
  Swim Move ( ¹⁄₂ Run Move*) 3
  yards
  Climb Move ( ¹⁄₂ Run Move*) 3
  yards
  Jump ( ¹⁄₄ of Run Move*)
  2
  yards
  Strength Bonus ( ¹⁄₂ of whole 
  dice in Lifting or Muscle*)
  1
  d
  * Round up to next yard or die if needed
  Personal Weakness
  Mad Scientist: 
  “Bwahahahahaha! Now the 
  world will see my genius!”
  Cutie mark (sketch or description)
  Interlaced gears with 
  broken teeth
  Magical Style
  Mechanical Magic: motivat-
  ing & operating machines
  Injury or illness
  � Bruised
  ≤ 0
  � Stunned   1 –
  � Minor
  –
  � Serious
  –
  � Major
  –
  � Mortal
  –
  � Death
  ≥
  Fatigue (Tiredness)
  � Winded: –1d
  � Tired: –2d
  � Exhausted: –3d
  Fatigue (Sleepiness)
  � Sleepy: –1d
  � Tired: –2d
  � Exhausted: –3d
  Luck points
  �����
  �����
  �����
  �����
  Harmony points
  �����
  �����
  �����
  �����
  Size &
  build
  Scrawny and 
  long-legged
  Coat
  Fire-engine red
  Mane
  Lime green and 
  usually some-
  what unkempt
  Tail
  Similar to Mane
  Eyes
  Blaze orange
  Experience
  points:
  Unused
  Spent
  Important possessions (every pony gets panniers/saddlebags) Major Med. Minor
  Money! Lots and Lots of it!
  �
  �
  �
  Some kind of vehicle  — for instance, an
  �
  �
  �
  ornithopter, autogyro, steam-car, or
  �
  �
  �
  giant vinegar-&-baking-soda jet boat  —
  �
  �
  �
  but only 1 at a time; switching usually
  �
  �
  �
  follows previous vehicle’s destruction
  �
  �
  �
  Inventory: parts from broken gadgets
  �
  �
  �
  Contact: fellow mad-scientist ponies
  �
  �
  �
  Talents and Specialties
  Based on
  Add Up Points
  Exp.
  Dice
  Magical Stamina (Spec.)
  Hardi. 6 +3*= 9
  5d
  Resist Mech. Injury (Spec.)
  Hardi. 6 +2*= 8
  4d
  Piloting
  Coordin. 6 + 1 = 7
  2d+1
  Repair
  Smarts 9 + 3 =12
  4d
  Engineering
  Smarts 9 + 1 =10
  3d+1
  Illumination (Talent)
  Finesse 12+ 0 =12
  4d
  Illumination (Effect)
  Power 11 + 0 =11
  3d+2
  Levitation (Talent)
  Finesse 12+ 0 =12
  4d
  Levitation (Effect)
  Power 11 + 4 =15
  5d
  Prime Mover (Talent)
  Finesse 12+ 0 =12
  4d
  Prime Mover (Effect)
  Power 11 + 4 =15
  5d
  Mech. Control (Talent)
  Finesse 12+ 0 =12
  4d
  Mech. Control (Effect)
  Power 11 + 1 =12
  4d
  Gremlins (Spec., Talent)
  Mech. C. 12+2*=14
  6d
  Total
  +21=
  d
  * Specialty points (3 for 1)
  +
  =
  d
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part Two � Page 16 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  � Equipment and Belongings �
  N
  arrators and players who want some help in com-
  ing up with their ponies’ possessions can use these lists 
  of items and rules to go with them. Narrators especially are 
  encouraged to look up more information if they want to add 
  more items. Other game books also based on the Open D6 rules 
  would be a good place to start.
  Historically, most of the items listed were available 
  through much of the nineteenth century. A few were invent-
  ed during the nineteenth century; those items include rough 
  dates in parentheses. Keep in mind that, over time, the same 
  kind of item may get smaller, lighter, cheaper, more eﬀ ective, 
  or some combination — compare a sewing machine or a wind-
  up alarm clock made in 1900 to one made in 1850.
  Available Almost Anywhere
  These can be found wherever there are shops or stores — even 
  in small towns, though the supply might be limited.
  Cheap (buying diﬃ  culty 1–5) Cheap
  Alarm clock (1840s) 
  Newspaper, magazine
  Backpack 
  Personal hygiene kit
  Basic rations (a few days) 
  Pocket-watch (basic)
  Blanket 
  Rope, cotton, 50 yards (45 m)
  Crowbar 
  Rope, hemp, 50 yards (45 m)
  Duﬀ el bag 
  Sewing machine, portable (1840s)
  Eating utensils 
  Shovel
  Lantern 
  Steamer trunk
  Lighter (Döbereiner’s lamp) Tent, 1-pony
  Marbles 
  Torch
  Inexpensive (buying diﬃ  culty 6–10) Inexpensive
  Basic clothing 
  Sleeping bag or bedroll
  Carpenter or construction toolkit 
  Tent, 3-pony
  Iron spikes (8) and piton 
  Wood stove
  Pocket-watch (high-quality)
  Available in Cities or by Mail-Order
  These items are sold in department stores and other large re-
  tailers, which mostly are in big cities. Most department stores 
  mail out catalogs, so faraway customers can mail-order stuﬀ  
  they can’t get in local shops — but shipping a mail order can 
  take a few days to a few weeks, so it’d better not be urgent!
  Cheap (buying diﬃ  culty 1–5) 
  Cheap
  Camera ﬁ lm (1830s) 
  Flashlight batteries (1890s)
  Compass 
  Holster
  Flashlight, large (1890s) 
  Kerosene heater (1850s)
  Inexpensive (buying diﬀ . 6–10) 
  Inexpensive
  Art supplies 
  Gas stove (1850s)
  Binoculars 
  Mechanic’s tool kit
  Camera (1830s) 
  Riﬂ e scope (1830s)
  Disguise kit 
  Telescope, small
  Electrician’s tool kit (1880s) 
  Typewriter (1870s)
  Emergency medical kit (1880s)
  Unusual or Rare
  Most ponies wouldn’t have much interest in buying these 
  items, so they generally wouldn’t be found in ordinary shops 
  or stores. Instead, they’d be oﬀ ered by businesses that sell sup-
  plies to professionals, such as a restaurant-supply company sell-
  ing to chefs and restaurant owners. In some cases, a customer 
  might have to provide proof she is a professional before the 
  company will sell to her — the company wouldn’t want to sell 
  to a pony who doesn’t know what she’s doing and could hurt 
  herself or others, or there may be a law for the same reason.
  The cost diﬃ  culties for weapons are listed with the rest of 
  the information on them. A weapon that’s really good-quality 
  (and of course more expensive) doesn’t cause more injury — in-
  stead, it’s tougher, and less likely to break or not work.
  Cheap (buying diﬃ  culty 1–5) 
  Inexpensive (buying diﬀ . 6–10)
  Lockpicking tools 
  Archæologist’s tool kit (1880s)
   
  Gas mask (1840s)
  A Little Expensive 
  Hobble
  (buying diﬃ  culty 11–15) 
  Jungle explorer’s kit
  Evidence kit (1880s) 
  Parachute
  Useful Information
  Certain items do speciﬁ c things under the rules. Here’s how to 
  handle them during play.
  Binoculars: Add 1d to rolls for looking at, or for, things 
  more than 2 yards (1.8 m) away, but only in daylight.
  Crowbar: Add 1d to Muscle rolls when prying something.
  Flashlight: See the rules under “Weather and Visibility”.
  Gas mask: Wearing a gas mask adds 2d to the wearer’s 
  Hardiness roll against a gas attack or cancels out 1d of subtrac-
  tion from the roll, whichever is more appropriate.
  Hobble: Cuﬀ s together front or rear hooves and comes 
  with a key; the diﬃ  culty of picking the lock is 15, and the 
  toughness of the hobble is 15.
  Jungle explorer’s pack: Add 2 to rolls for surviving in 
  jungle or heavy forest; has pith helmet, insect repellent, and 
  mosquito netting in a small knapsack.
  Iron spikes and piton: Add 1d to climbing rolls; must be 
  used with a rope.
  Lockpicking tools: Add 1d to rolls for picking locks, but 
  only if the user has the Lockpicking Talent.
  Marbles: A pony who steps on marbles scattered on the 
  ground makes a Running or Reﬂ exes roll each step until she can 
  move away from them. Diﬃ  culty is 15; each step is an action.
  Riﬂ e Scope: Add 2 to rolls for shooting at medium or 
  long range, but only if the shooter spent the previous round 
  aiming. Also works as a small telescope.
  Rope, hemp: Hemp rope is heavy-duty, able to support a 
  lot of weight; its toughness is 5.
  Rope, cotton: Cotton rope is medium-duty, able to sup-
  port some weight, but not as much as hemp; its toughness is 3.
  Shovel: Add 1d to rolls for digging.
  Telescope: Add 2d to rolls for looking at, or, for faraway 
  things, but the user must spend a round to focus the telescope.
  Toolkits: Every toolkit includes a container and all the 
  tools and parts needed for working on normal tasks; it adds 1d 
  to rolls for that kind of work. ➧
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part Two � Page 17 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  The Best Things in Life Are Free
  Not every possession a player pony may have is something that 
  can be bought in a store — possession points can be used to 
  represents all sorts of other things too. Some are physical ob-
  jects, but others could be more abstract. Part three of the rule-
  book, “The Magical Land”, contains background information 
  that can help explain some of the suggestions below.
  Such a “possession” can give a pony more history and 
  depth, making her more interesting to play. The narrator may 
  be able to use it as a way to get the pony and her friends in-
  volved in stories. A new one can be a reward for good role-play-
  ing or solving problems. Players may come up with new and 
  interesting possessions, but the narrator should keep an eye on 
  them to make sure they’re appropriate and not too powerful.
  The pony’s social rank can be elevated, but a player pony 
  has to pay for lands or money with other possession points. 
  A patent of nobility is a major possession and makes the pony a 
  member of the peerage (nobility) with a title such as baron(ess) 
  or count(ess) — most likely a life title, one that isn’t inherited. 
  A knighthood is a medium possession and makes the pony a 
  member of a chivalric order (association of knights). The player 
  should explain how the pony got the rank and, for a knight-
  hood, what order the pony was dubbed (inducted) into. The 
  narrator probably shouldn’t allow a player pony to be a royal, 
  though, except under the most extraordinary circumstances.
  The pony may have a contact with an individual or group 
  who can do favors or get information for the pony — but some-
  times may ask for favors or information in return. A major con-
  tact represents an important individual or large group who can 
  and will do big favors. A medium contact represents an individual 
  or group who can do a few big favors or more small favors. 
  A minor contact represents an individual or group who can do 
  small favors, but not big ones.
  A toolkit doesn’t have to contain hammers, wrenches, or 
  screwdrivers. Any set of devices that can help a pony use a Tal-
  ent can be thought of as a toolkit — for example, navigation 
  instruments, a vest containing basic survival gear, an accoun-
  tant’s portfolio, or a wet bar containing a coﬀ ee and tea set. A 
  major toolkit comes in a set of cabinets that must be installed 
  in a workroom. A medium toolkit ﬁ lls a single cabinet that can 
  be on casters so it can be rolled around a workroom. A minor 
  toolkit ﬁ lls a portable container that can be carried easily.
  An inventory of parts or other items can be used to build 
  or repair things, or to use in other tasks. An example is a selec-
  tion of hardware, such as nails, screws, fasteners, hinges, and 
  knobs. The pony can replace items she uses from her inven-
  tory, but not too quickly, and she may run out temporarily if a 
  project or task is big enough. A pony who has a business such 
  as a store, but no separate inventory, can’t use things from her 
  business; there may be laws or regulations that make it hard 
  or impossible, or she sells big things like furniture that can’t 
  be moved easily, or she may not have anything left over from 
  what she has to sell in order to make a living. A major inventory 
  is enough large items to ﬁ ll a small warehouse or enough small 
  items to ﬁ ll a room. A medium inventory is enough large items to 
  ﬁ ll a room or enough small items to ﬁ ll a good-size cabinet. A 
  minor inventory is a few large items or enough small items to ﬁ ll 
  a portable container that can be carried easily. ✶
  � Muscle-Powered Weapons �
  A
  muscle-powered weapon depends on the user swinging, 
  thrusting, or otherwise moving it with her own body to 
  attack. That’s why a muscle-powered weapon adds the user’s 
  Strength Bonus to the weapon’s injury dice (or points), listed in 
  the “Injury” or “Inj.” columns of the tables. How a pony — or 
  any four-legged creature — uses a weapon, especially a long 
  one, is left to the imaginations of the narrator and players.
  Keep in mind that attacking without weapons or with 
  mêlée weapons is always at close range and therefore subtracts 
  5 from the diﬃ  culty of attacking. That’s an easy thing to over-
  look, but it can have a big impact on how a ﬁ ght plays out!
  Attacking Without Weapons
  Any pony or creature can attack even if she doesn’t have a 
  weapon to do it with; she just uses part of her own body and 
  the Brawling Talent (or Reﬂ exes). The list below covers the 
  attacks a pony can make. Other creatures may have diﬀ erent 
  attacks, or may use diﬀ erent values for similar attacks.
  Attack
  With . . .
  Injury Diﬃ  culty
  Bite
  Teeth
  *
  +3 (or +1d)†
  Punch, butt One front hoof or head
  +1‡
  No modif.
  Box or clip Both front hooves or wing
  +2
  +3 (or +1d)
  Kick
  One rear hoof
  1d
  +6 (or +2d)
  Buck
  Both rear hooves
  2d
  +9 (or +3d)
  * Strength Bonus only.
  † Subtract 3 (or 1d) if attacker and target are very close.
  ‡ For a unicorn using her alicorn (horn), use +2 instead.
  Mêlée Weapons
  Most muscle-powered weapons are used for close-up ﬁ ghting. 
  They may be blunt, sharp (bladed or pointed), or ﬂ exible. A 
  sharp weapon can be used as a blunt weapon, if a player says 
  her pony’s doing that: cut the injury roll in half before subtract-
  ing the target’s roll to resist injury. “Long” weapons are longer 
  than 24 inches (60 cm) — see the rule for “unwieldy weapons”. 
  A length of “either” means some weapons are short and others 
  are long. The cost diﬃ  culty of blunt weapons is “cheap” (1–5) 
  except for very large, which is “inexpensive” (6–10); the cost 
  diﬃ  culty of sharp and ﬂ exible weapons is “inexpensive”.
  Attacking with mêlée weapons uses the Mêlée Talent (or 
  Reﬂ exes), with a few exceptions. A spike imitating or ﬁ tting 
  over an alicorn (horn) is a very light sharp weapon. A unicorn 
  attacking with one uses the Brawling Talent; other ponies use 
  Mêlée. A “war boot” like the royal guards wear is a light blunt 
  weapon. Any pony attacking with war boots uses Brawling. ➧
  Blunt
  Inj. Length Real-World Examples
  Extra-light
  +2
  Short
  Blackjack
  Very light
  1d
  Short
  Sap
  Light
  1d+1
  Either
  Brass knuckles (short), mace (long)
  Medium
  1d+2
  Either
  Tonfa (short), quarterstaﬀ  (long)
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part Two � Page 18 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  Sharp
  Inj. Length Real-World Examples
  Very light
  1d
  Short
  Dagger, bayonet, survival knife
  Light
  1d+1
  Either
  Medium
  1d+2
  Either
  Shortsword
  Heavy
  2d
  Long
  Rapier
  Very heavy
  2d+1
  Long
  Extra-heavy
  2d+2
  Long
  Broadsword
  Huge
  3d
  Long
  Large axe
  Flexible Inj. Length Real-World Examples
  Very light
  1d
  Long
  Bullwhip
  Light
  1d+1
  Long
  Medium
  1d+2
  Long
  Kusari-fundo (chain with heavy ends)
  Heavy
  2d
  Long
  Ball and chain
  Missile and Thrown Weapons
  A muscle-powered weapon that shoots a missile or projectile 
  takes one action to reload. Examples would be an archer nock-
  ing a new arrow on her bow or a slinger putting a new stone 
  in her sling’s pouch. A shooter can load and shoot in the same 
  round, if she takes multiple actions in the round to do it.
  The cost diﬃ  culty of a missile weapon is “inexpensive” (6–
  10) except for a large one, which is “a little expensive” (11–15). 
  The cost diﬃ  culty of a small batch of arrows or bolts is “cheap” 
  (1–5). The cost diﬃ  culty of a small thrown weapon is “cheap”; 
  the cost diﬃ  culty of a medium or large one is “inexpensive”.
  The eﬀ ects of short, medium, and long ranges are in the 
  ﬁ ghting rules. For the ranges of a small thrown weapon, the 
  thrower makes a Muscle roll. The result is short range; add 1 
  yard to this for medium range and 2 yards for long range.
  Missile
  Wpns.
  Inj.
  Short
  Range
  Medium
  Range
  Long
  Range
  Real-World 
  Examples
  Very light
  1d
  5 yards
  (4.5 m)
  10 yards
  (9 m)
  15 yards
  (14 m)
  Sling and 
  stone
  Heavy
  2d
  10 yards
  (9 m)
  100 yards
  (91 m)
  250 yards
  (229 m)
  Shortbow 
  and arrow
  Huge
  3d
  10 yards
  (9 m)
  100 yards
  (91 m)
  250 yards
  (229 m)
  Longbow 
  and arrow
  Thrown
  Wpns.
  Inj.
  Short
  Range
  Medium
  Range
  Long
  Range
  Real-World 
  Examples
  Small
  +1
  Muscle 
  roll
  Muscle 
  + 1 yard
  Muscle 
  + 2 yards
  Dart
  Very light
  1d
  5 yards
  (4.5 m)
  10 yards
  (9 m)
  15 yards
  (14 m)
  Throwing 
  dagger
  Heavy
  2d
  5 yards
  (4.5 m)
  25 yards
  (23 m)
  40 yards
  (37 m)
  Javelin (un-
  wieldy weapon)
  Improvised Weapons
  If a pony wants a weapon but doesn’t have a real one, she may 
  try to improvise, using anything that’s around. In general, an 
  improvised weapon isn’t as eﬀ ective as a real one; it doesn’t 
  cause as much injury and adds 5 (or more) to attack diﬃ  culty. If 
  an attack roll results in a mishap, it breaks, the user hurts her-
  self, or both. If the user hurts herself, don’t add her Strength 
  Bonus to the injury dice. An improvised weapon doesn’t last 
  very long — unless it’s something tough like a thick metal pipe 
  or a screwdriver — even if the user doesn’t break it in a mishap.
  For the ranges of a thrown object, the thrower makes a 
  Muscle roll and adds to or subtracts from it to ﬁ nd short, me-
  dium, and long ranges. If the total is zero or less, the thrower 
  can’t get the object to that range or farther.
  Torch: A lit torch causes 3d of injury (or damage) per 
  round after the ﬁ rst that the ﬂ ame’s touching something; if it’s 
  ﬂ ammable, it could catch ﬁ re.
  Blunt
  Injury Length Real-World Examples
  Extra-light
  +2
  Short
  Crowbar, shovel
  Very light
  1d
  Short
  Hammer
  Light
  1d+1
  Long
  Baseball bat, large stick
  Sharp
  Inj. Length Real-World Examples
  Small
  +1
  Short
  Arrow, bolt, dart, iron spike
  Extra-
  light
  +2
  Short
  Awl, ice pick, household scissors, 
  pen knife, screwdriver, stake
  Very light
  1d
  Short
  Hedge clippers, shears, chef’s knife
  Light
  1d+1
  Short
  Hatchet
  Medium
  1d+2
  Long
  Machete
  Flexible
  Injury Length Real-World Examples
  Small
  +1
  Long
  Cotton rope
  Extra-light
  +2
  Long
  Hemp rope
  Throw
  Inj. Diﬀ . Short
  Med.
  Long Examples
  Small
  +1
  +5
  Muscle 
  roll
  Muscle 
  + 1 yd.
  Muscle 
  + 2 yd.
  Apple thrown 
  by front hoof
  Extra-
  light
  +2
  +10
  Double result of Muscle
  roll plus modiﬁ er, if any
  Apple kicked 
  by back hoof
  Extra-
  light
  +2
  +5
  Muscle 
  – 2 yd.
  Muscle 
  – 1 yd.
  Muscle 
  roll
  Rock thrown 
  by front hoof
  Very light
  1d
  +10
  Double result of Muscle
  roll minus modif., if any
  Rock kicked 
  by back hoof
  Adjusting weapons: In all the weapons tables, including 
  those on the next few pages, the weapons shown are typical 
  examples. The narrator and players should keep in mind that, 
  especially before mass production became common in the late 
  eighteenth and early nineteenth century, there can be a lot of 
  variation even among items that are supposed to be very simi-
  lar. There’s room to change the values of many weapons a little, 
  especially for unusual conditions. ✶
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part Two � Page 19 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  � Mechanical Weapons, Firearms, and Explosives �
  A
  mechanical weapon uses tension or a moment arm to 
  throw a projectile at higher speed than most muscles can 
  match. A ﬁ rearm (or a bigger gun like a cannon) uses the pres-
  sure of expanding gas from a very rapid combustion (burning) 
  of gunpowder, black powder, or cordite to do the same thing, 
  but even faster. Explosives release a lot of energy very quickly, 
  also from chemical reactions. The user’s Strength Bonus is not 
  added to the injury (or damage) dice of these weapons.
  Mechanical Weapons
  The most common mechanical weapon small enough for 
  someone to carry and use is the crossbow. Reloading and crank-
  ing one to build up tension takes a round, and the pony doing 
  the cranking can’t take any other actions. A small crossbow 
  shoots darts and is “inexpensive” (6–10); the others shoot bolts 
  and are “a little expensive” (11–15).
  If it’s too big for one pony, it’s probably a siege engine; the 
  best-known is the catapult, but there are others as well. A cata-
  pult ﬂ ings a large object — usually a rock or metal ball — at a 
  target. Reloading it after shooting takes a round, and the re-
  loaders can’t take any other actions. It’s hard to aim, so add 5 
  to the diﬃ  culty of attacking with it. A catapult is at least size 
  12; see “How Big Is a Creature or Object?” in “Weights and 
  Measures: The Physical World” and the Size rules in “Them’s 
  Fightin’ Words: Combat”.
  Crossb.
  Inj.
  Short R.
  Medium R.
  Long Range
  Small
  4d
  10 yd. (9 m)
  25 yd. (23 m)
  50 yd. (46 m)
  Medium
  4d
  10 yd. (9 m) 100 yd. (91 m) 200 yd. (183 m)
  Large
  4d+1
  10 yd. (9 m) 100 yd. (91 m) 300 yd. (274 m)
  Cataplt. 3d+2 50 yd. (45 m) 100 yd. (91 m) 200 yd. (183 m)
  Firearms
  The history of ﬁ rearms is complicated, so to keep things sim-
  ple only four kinds of weapons are covered here. The matchlock 
  had its heyday during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries 
  (but a few antiques still might be around later). The ﬂ intlock 
  took over in the late seventeenth century and lingered into the 
  early nineteenth century. Percussion weapons only lasted from 
  the 1820s to the 1880s, because cartridge weapons appeared in 
  the 1850s and gradually swept away everything else.
  A matchlock ﬁ rearm, also called a musket or arquebus, 
  is a muzzle-loader; the shooter puts a powder charge, wadding, 
  and a round lead bullet down the barrel, then uses a ramrod to 
  tamp them into place at the back. A burning match (a length 
  of thin cord treated to make it burn better) is clamped in the 
  lock. When the trigger or lever is pulled, the lock swings the 
  match onto the touch-hole, where the ﬂ ame sets oﬀ  the powder 
  charge. If the attack roll results in a mishap, it could mean the 
  match went out and doesn’t light the charge — especially if it’s 
  raining or even very humid. The cost diﬃ  culty of a matchlock 
  is “kind of expensive” (16–20), and the cost diﬃ  culty of each 
  powder charge, wadding, and bullet is “cheap” (1–5).
  A typical musket is four to six feet long (1.2 to 1.8 m) and 
  can weigh 20 pounds (9 kg)! It’s so heavy a wooden rest (like 
  a monopod) is needed to support it. If a rest isn’t available, 
  using a musket takes 2 actions: the ﬁ rst action is lifting the 
  weapon with a diﬃ  culty of 3, and the second action is shooting 
  it. Reloading after shooting takes 12 rounds, unless the shooter 
  succeeds at a roll with a diﬃ  culty of 10, using the same dice as 
  for shooting — then it takes only 1 round.
  A ﬂ intlock ﬁ rearm also uses a lock, but instead of 
  a match, a ﬂ int and iron pyrite are scraped together, which 
  throws sparks onto a small pan holding a little powder to light 
  the charge. If an attack roll results in a mishap, it may mean 
  the sparks don’t reach the powder or there’s a ﬂ ash in the pan 
  that doesn’t light the charge. A ﬂ intlock musket is about the 
  same size as a matchlock musket, and also needs a rest for sup-
  port; use the same rule as for a matchlock if there isn’t a rest.
  The ﬁ rst pistols were ﬂ intlocks. A typical example is about 
  a foot (30 cm) long and weighs 8 pounds (3.5 kg). Since these 
  pistols aren’t reliable and take a long time to reload, a shooter 
  often carried a brace (pair). A ﬂ intlock takes 8 rounds to reload, 
  unless the shooter succeeds at a roll with a diﬃ  culty of 8, us-
  ing the same dice as for shooting — then it takes only 1 round. 
  The cost diﬃ  culty of a ﬂ intlock is “kind of expensive” (16–20, 
  though a musket costs more than a pistol), and the cost dif-
  ﬁ culty of a powder charge, wadding, and bullet is “cheap” (1–5).
  A cannon uses gunpowder to throw large stone or met-
  al balls. A small (bronze or iron) cannon needs a crew of two 
  to load and ﬁ re it; a large (iron) cannon needs a crew of four. 
  Loading a cannon takes 1 round, and the crew can’t do any-
  thing else. It takes 1 round for the gun captain (crew leader) to 
  aim and ﬁ re the cannon. If an attack roll results in a mishap, 
  the cannon wasn’t loaded right, and it may not ﬁ re at all — or 
  too much powder was loaded and the cannon barrel fails. A 
  bronze cannon bulges and is ruined, but an iron cannon blows 
  up like a bomb, which can anyone nearby.
  A typical cannon is Size 15; see “How Big Is a Creature or 
  Object?” and the Size rules in “Them’s Fightin’ Words: Com-
  bat”. A small cannon’s cost diﬃ  culty is “expensive” (21–25) and 
  a large cannon’s cost diﬃ  culty is “very expensive” (26–30). A set 
  of one powder charge, wadding, and ball is “inexpensive” (6–10).
  An early percussion ﬁ rearm is a lot like a ﬂ intlock, but 
  it uses a percussion cap instead of a ﬂ int. A new cap, holding 
  a small amount of chemical that ignites when struck, is put 
  on the lock before each shot. This makes loading and ﬁ ring 
  the weapon faster, safer, and more reliable. For a percussion 
  pistol or musket, use the statistics and rules for a ﬂ intlock, 
  with a couple of exceptions. Reloading takes 6 rounds instead 
  of 8, but the diﬃ  culty of reloading in 1 round is the same as 
  for a ﬂ intlock. A percussion weapon is more resistant to bad 
  weather, so it takes a worse roll, or a mishap, to get a malfunc-
  tion than for a ﬂ intlock or (especially!) a matchlock.
  The cartridge appeared in the early part of the nine-
  teenth century. It packages the powder and bullet together 
  and is made of special paper or rubber. New designs became 
  possible, such as the revolver, which can hold multiple rounds 
  in a cylinder that rotates, each time the weapon’s ﬁ red, to bring 
  up a new round. Many weapons used in the Old West were 
  percussion cartridge weapons. ➧
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part Two � Page 20 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  The metallic cartridge, usually made of brass, includes 
  a primer to take the place of the percussion cap; this made am-
  munition completely self-contained for the ﬁ rst time. It was 
  introduced in the 1840s and worked so well that the idea’s 
  lasted right to the present, more than a century and a half later.
  Percussion cartridge ﬁ rearms and metallic-cartridge ﬁ re-
  arms use the same rules and statistics, with two exceptions. The 
  ﬁ rst is that a percussion cartridge weapon must be loaded and 
  ﬁ red in two diﬀ erent rounds, but a metallic-cartridge weapon 
  can be loaded and ﬁ red in the same round, as two full actions.
  The second is how many rounds of ammunition a weapon 
  can hold. A percussion cartridge carbine or riﬂ e can hold only 
  one round. The number, or capacity, of rounds any other car-
  tridge ﬁ rearm can hold is listed in the “Cap.” column; when 
  that many rounds have been ﬁ red, the weapon is empty and 
  must be reloaded before it can be ﬁ red again.
  The cost diﬃ  culty of a cartridge weapon is “inexpensive” 
  (6–10) for a basic model or “a little expensive” (11–15) or more 
  for a fancier model. The cost diﬃ  culty for 50 rounds of am-
  munition is “cheap” to “inexpensive” (1–10), depending on how 
  powerful it is. Of course, a bigger, more powerful weapon or 
  its ammunition will cost more than a smaller, lighter weapon 
  or its ammunition.
  Early Guns Injury
  Short R.
  Medium R.
  Long R.
  Matchlock
  musket
  3d+2
  10 yards
  (9 m)
  20 yards
  (18 m)
  40 yards
  (37 m)
  Flintlock
  pistol
  3d+1
  5 yards
  (4.5 m)
  10 yards
  (9 m)
  25 yards
  (23 m)
  Flintlock
  musket
  4d
  25 yards
  (23 m)
  40 yards
  (37 m)
  100 yards
  (91 m)
  Sm. cannon
  (Size 15)
  4d
  50 yards
  (45 m)
  200 yards
  (183 m)
  800 yards
  (732 m)
  Lg. cannon
  (Size 15)
  5d
  50 yards
  (45 m)
  150 yards
  (137 m)
  500 yards
  (457 m)
  Sidearms
  Inj. Cap. Short Med. Long Examples
  Low-power
  3d+2
  8
  10 yd.
  (9 m)
  20 yd.
  (18 m)
  30 yd.
  (27 m)
  Early 9-mm 
  auto. pistols
  Medium-
  power
  4d
  6
  12 yd.
  (11 m)
  25 yd.
  (23 m)
  40 yd.
  (37 m)
  Colt .38 
  snub revolv.
  High-
  power
  4d+1
  6
  15 yd.
  (14 m)
  30 yd.
  (27 m)
  45 yd.
  (41 m)
  Colt .45 
  Peacemaker
  Carbines
  Inj. Cap.* Short Med.
  Long Example
  Low-
  power
  4d+2
  10
  10 yd.
  (9 m)
  20 yd.
  (18 m)
  40 yd.
  (37 m)
  Medium-
  power
  5d
  10
  12 yd.
  (11 m)
  25 yd.
  (23 m)
  50 yd.
  (46 m)
  High-
  power
  5d+1
  8
  15 yd.
  (14 m)
  30 yd.
  (27 m)
  60 yd.
  (55 m)
  .30-cal. m-1
  Carbine
  *  Ammunition capacity is 1 for any percussion cartridge car-
  bine or riﬂ e.
  Riﬂ es
  Inj. Cap.* Short
  Med.
  Long
  Examples
  Low-
  power
  5d+2
  8
  20 yd.
  (18 m)
  40 yd.
  (37 m)
  80 yd.
  (73 m)
  Med.-
  power
  6d
  6
  25 yd.
  (23 m)
  50 yd.
  (46 m)
  100 yd.
  (91 m)
  High-
  power
  6d+1
  6
  30 yd.
  (27 m)
  60 yd.
  (55 m)
  120 yd.
  (110 m)
  Winchester 
  94 (.30-30)
  V. hi.-
  power
  6d+2
  5
  35 yd.
  (32 m)
  70 yd.
  (64 m)
  140 yd.
  (128 m)
  Heavy
  7d
  5
  40 yd.
  (37 m)
  80 yd.
  (73 m)
  160 yd.
  (146 m)
  Springﬁ eld 
  m-1903
  Shotgun Inj. Cap. Short Med. Long Examples
  Double-
  barrel
  6d
  2
  20 yd.
  (18 m)
  40 yd.
  (37 m)
  60 yd.
  (55 m)
  Remington 30
  (12 gauge)
  Sawed-
  oﬀ 
  6d
  2
  15 yd.
  (14 m)
  20 yd.
  (18 m)
  30 yd.
  (27 m)
  (Barrels cut to 
  make it smaller)
  Someone who knows ﬁ rearms well may notice that these 
  rules and statistics are very simpliﬁ ed. If the narrator and play-
  ers are interested enough to want more detailed ﬁ rearms, they 
  probably have, or can get, enough information to create spe-
  ciﬁ c models and additional rules. The statistics here and, if 
  available, in some Open D6 books can be used as guidelines.
  Rather than reinvent real-world ﬁ rearms, try to think of 
  ﬁ rearms the ponies (or other creatures) might build. This idea 
  applies to other inventions as well. The program might show 
  scissors with bows (ﬁ nger-loops) so a young television audience 
  will recognize them — but a “real” pony inventor probably 
  wouldn’t bother with bows because ponies don’t have ﬁ ngers. 
  Consider instead how she might design them for pony use.
  Explosives
  Cannon have been mentioned and there are ﬁ reworks shows 
  on a few episodes. Modern mining and construction methods 
  also depend a lot on the creative (and careful) use of explo-
  sives. The ponies might not have to use them as much, thanks 
  to spell, levitation, and earth magic, but sometimes a big job 
  probably just can’t be done without blowing something up.
  Low explosives such as black powder deﬂ agrate, or burn very 
  quickly, but still at less than the speed of sound. They’re useful 
  for propelling things, like bullets or rockets, but not as good at 
  blowing up things, because they don’t pack all their force into 
  a very brief instant of time. Low explosives have been around a 
  long time; China had simple ﬁ reworks in the seventh century.
  High explosives such as dynamite detonate; the reaction prop-
  agates (moves through the chemical) faster than the speed of 
  sound, creating a short, sudden shock-wave that carries a lot of 
  force. It’s a good way to blow up things, but it doesn’t propel 
  things very well — they tend to get blown up too. The earli-
  est high explosive, nitroglycerin, was discovered in the 1840s. 
  It was horribly unstable, but various ways to make it safer to 
  handle, including dynamite and gelignite, were invented dur-
  ing the 1860s and 1870s. In the twentieth century, other sub-
  stances were developed to take its place. The cost diﬃ  culty for 
  a stick of dynamite is “cheap” (1–5). ➧
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part Two � Page 21 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  A gunpowder bomb is a pottery ball about the size of a 
  melon, ﬁ lled with black powder; a length of fuse is stuck into it 
  before the ball is sealed up. When it goes oﬀ , it scatters jagged 
  bits of pottery, a little ﬁ re, and a small shock-wave. The cost 
  diﬃ  culty of a black-powder bomb is “a little expensive” (11–15), 
  but it’s a much older invention than the others described.
  A fragmentation grenade is similar, but smaller and 
  metal instead of pottery. It may be packed with shot as well as 
  high explosive. The explosion throws out bits of metal, which 
  can be almost as deadly as bullets over short distances; most 
  don’t go more than about 50 yards (45 m), but a few may zip 
  out as far as 200 yards (183 m). The cost diﬃ  culty of a fragmen-
  tation grenade is “inexpensive” (6–10).
  A smoke grenade is full of chemicals that burn and pro-
  duce a lot of smoke when it goes oﬀ . The cloud of smoke will 
  ﬁ ll an area about 4 yards (3.7 m) in diameter and will be car-
  ried by the wind; anyone inside the smoke subtracts 1d from 
  rolls for Reﬂ exes, Coordination, Senses, and Talents based on 
  them. Anyone or anything within a yard or so of a smoke gre-
  nade when it explodes may get hit with some of the burning 
  chemical, which will cause 3d injury (or damage) like a torch 
  until it burns out or is wiped oﬀ . The cost diﬃ  culty of a smoke 
  grenade is “inexpensive” (6–10). 
  Any of these devices must be set oﬀ  with a fuse, which 
  is lit before the explosive is thrown or placed. When it burns 
  down, the explosive goes oﬀ . The maker or user of the explo-
  sive device can cut the length of the fuse to match the amount 
  of time she wants it to burn, but it’s not completely reliable.
  The narrator should roll, secretly, 2d and subtract 7, which 
  means the result will range from –5 to 5. Add this to the num-
  ber of seconds that the fuse will burn; remember that adding 
  a negative number is like subtracting a positive number. If the 
  result is 0 or less, the explosive goes oﬀ  right away. (Ouch.) 
  On the other hand, if a fuse burns too long, someone might be 
  quick enough to throw the bomb or grenade back!
  The farther away someone is from an explosion, the less 
  injury she’s likely to suﬀ er from it. Someone who’s a short dis-
  tance away, shown in the column labeled “Full”, gets the whole 
  injury roll. Someone who’s a little farther away, shown in the 
  column labeled “¹⁄₂”, gets only half the injury roll, rounded up. 
  Someone who’s even farther away, shown in the column la-
  beled “¹⁄₄”, gets only one-fourth of the injury roll, rounded up. 
  Anyone farther away is fairly safe, though it’s possible a few 
  fragments might hit unlucky bystanders.
  For example, someone no more than 2 yards from a gun-
  powder bomb going oﬀ  gets the full injury roll; someone 3 to 4 
  yards from the bomb gets half the injury roll, and someone 5 to 
  8 yards away gets one-fourth of the injury roll.
  For the ranges of a thrown explosive device, the thrower 
  makes a Muscle roll and adds to or subtracts from it to ﬁ nd 
  short, medium, and long ranges. If the total is zero or less, the 
  thrower can’t get the object to that range or farther.
  Anyone near the place where the explosive lands compares 
  her defense to the throwing roll. If the defense total’s greater 
  than the throwing roll, the pony or creature managed to dive 
  for cover or ﬁ nd some other way to protect herself from the 
  explosion. If the throwing roll’s greater than or equal to the 
  defense total, the pony or creature is hit by the explosion.
  A pony or creature who hasn’t taken her turn yet in the 
  round can abandon whatever she was going to do and try to get 
  away from the blast. She makes a Dodge or Reﬂ exes roll with a 
  diﬃ  culty of 15. If the roll’s less than 15, the pony fails to dodge 
  and stays in the same place. If the roll is 15 to 18, the pony’s able 
  to get one “zone” farther away — for example, from the “full 
  injury” distance to the “half injury” distance. If the roll’s 19 to 
  22, the pony’s able to get two zones farther away. If the roll’s 
  23 or greater, the pony’s able to get three zones farther away.
  Device
  Inj. Full
  ¹⁄₂
  ¹⁄₄
  Short
  Med.
  Long
  Gunpow-
  der bomb
  6d
  0–2 
  yd.
  3–4 
  yd.
  5–8 
  yd.
  Muscle 
  – 2 yd.
  Muscle 
  – 1 yard
  Muscle 
  roll
  Stick of
  dynamite
  5d
  0–2 
  yd.
  3–5 
  yd.
  6–10 
  yd.
  Muscle 
  – 3 yd.
  Muscle 
  – 2 yd.
  Muscle 
  + 1 yd.
  Fragmen.
  grenade
  6d
  0–3 
  yd.
  4–8 
  yd.
  9–16 
  yd.
  Muscle 
  – 4 yd.
  Muscle 
  – 3 yd.
  Muscle 
  + 3 yd.
  Smoke
  grenade
  (3d)
  0–1 
  yard
  —
  —
  Muscle 
  – 4 yd.
  Muscle 
  – 3 yd.
  Muscle 
  + 3 yd.
  Throwing a bomb or grenade: The thrower aims at a 
  place (a map hex, in game terms) rather than a living target and 
  relies on the explosion to injure everyone nearby. The diﬃ  culty 
  of hitting the right spot depends on how far away it is. If the 
  thrower misses, the narrator decides how far and which way.
  Rng.
  Diﬀ .
  Condition
  Mod.
  Close
  0
  Thrower can’t see target area directly
  +6
  Short
  10
  Target area is not “even ground”
  +4
  Med.
  15
  Target area is very hard (bomb bounces)
  +4
  Long
  20
  Target area is very soft (b0mb sinks)
  –4
  A Last Word
  Weapons and explosives are included for narrators and players 
  who want a lot of high adventure, especially groups playing 
  ﬁ gurative games. They certainly aren’t required, and the narra-
  tor is free to exclude them if she wishes!
  A bullet (or arrow or bolt) doesn’t just stop and fall when 
  it reaches the end of long range. Beyond that, though, it starts 
  slowing down; hitting a target (on purpose, at least) gets a lot 
  tougher, and the projectile won’t hit as hard. As it runs out of 
  energy, it does curve down gradually and eventually hits the 
  ground — but that could be a long way oﬀ , so it’s possible to hit 
  something by accident. A good rule of thumb for the possible 
  danger zone is about ten times the weapon’s long range.
  The narrator may want to keep this in mind, especially 
  if a player’s careless about what might happen if she misses 
  her target, and roll to see whether stray rounds hit something 
  important, like bystanders. If it’s far enough away, where the 
  projectiles have lost most of their energy, the chances of hit-
  ting something and the injury dice should be pretty low, but 
  this can help make the point that weapons are dangerous and 
  shouldn’t be used without considering the consequences. ✶
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part Two � Page 22 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  � Creatures �
  C
  reatures living in the world of the ponies are much 
  more intelligent than in the real world. This is one place 
  where using other Open D6 rulebooks can cause a narrator a 
  bit of trouble unless she thinks about how to adapt them.
  For Pony Tales, it’s more useful to divide creatures into 
  talking and dumb. (Originally, “dumb” just meant “unable to 
  talk” rather than “stupid”, and it’s still used that way in some 
  old sayings and proverbs.) A talking creature can think about 
  and communicate complex ideas, and therefore is intelligent 
  enough to build, or at least to participate in, societies and cul-
  tures. A dumb creature may be able to communicate simple 
  ideas, but generally can’t build complex societies or cultures.
  Cattle and sheep can talk, but mostly they seem to live un-
  der the care and protection of the ponies rather than on their 
  own, maybe because the ponies are able to think about the fu-
  ture and plan more eﬀ ectively. Still, they do talk, are somewhat 
  intelligent, and live in pony society, so they’re grouped with 
  the talking creatures.
  Why not call talking creatures “civilized”? The world civi-
  lization actually means “the art of living in cities”. In the ﬁ rst 
  season, for instance, bison are shown to live in small nomadic 
  camps, but not cities, so technically they aren’t civilized.
  What ponies seem to have that most other creatures 
  don’t have is magic — at least, magic beyond the most basic 
  kind, such as the world-magic that makes even dumb creatures 
  smarter than animals in the real world. That’s probably why 
  the ponies have such a thriving society and nation.
  The only zebra shown on the program seems to be an al-
  chemist, working with mineral and vegetable matter to create 
  magical potions, ointments, and other substances that can ac-
  complish sometimes amazing things. Whether that ability is 
  unique to her or is common among zebras isn’t known for cer-
  tain, but the game assumes it’s common, diﬀ erent from pony 
  magic but just as capable.
  Talking Creatures
  The show doesn’t go into much detail about talking creatures 
  other than the ponies. As a result, the listings in this section 
  often rely on guesswork, based on brief glimpses in a few epi-
  sodes and on similar real creatures or creatures from myths 
  and legends in real history. If the narrator disagrees with those 
  guesses, she’s free to change the numbers to suit her own ideas 
  of how the creatures work.
  These listings mostly are for minions or others who aren’t 
  major story characters. “Injury levels” are simpliﬁ cations of 
  the injury table, so that ﬁ ghting lots of minions doesn’t take up 
  too much time in the game. A player pony has 4 injury levels. A 
  creature with 1 injury level suﬀ ers “major injury” from a result 
  of 1 to 12. A creature with 2 injury levels is “stunned” by a result 
  of 1 to 6 and suﬀ ers “major injury” from a result of  7 to 12.
  The narrator should create important characters with the 
  same care that players use in creating their ponies. Powerful 
  ones might have more dice (points) in Aptitudes and Talents, 
  but the narrator should be careful about that, or they might 
  end up being too much for the player ponies to cope with, and 
  that isn’t much fun.
  Bison (buﬀ alo), adult
  Injury levels: 2 
  Size 4 to 6 
  Run Move similar to pony
  Muscle/Hardiness 3d 
  Reﬂ exes/Coord. 1d 
  Smarts/Senses 2d
  Brawling 4d 
  Dodge 2d 
  Jumping 4d 
  Running 4d 
  Search 3d 
  Sneak 3d 
  Tracking 3d 
  Willpower 3d
  Attacks: Strength Bonus 2d, otherwise similar to ponies
  Bison (buﬀ alo), young
  Injury levels: 2 
  Size 0 to 1 
  Run Move similar to pony
  Muscle/Hardiness 2d Reﬂ exes/Coord. 2d Smarts/Senses 2d
  Brawling 3d 
  Climbing 4d 
  Dodge 4d 
  Jumping 4d
  Running 4d 
  Search 3d 
  Sneak 3d 
  Tracking 3d
  Attacks: Strength Bonus 1d, otherwise similar to ponies
  Bull
  Injury levels: 2 
  Size 3 to 4 
  Run Move 10*
  Muscle/Hardiness 3d 
  Reﬂ exes/Coord. 2d 
  Smarts/Senses 1d
  Brawling 4d Dodge 3d Jumping 4d Lifting 4d Running 4d
  Attacks: Strength Bonus 2d, otherwise similar to ponies
  Cow
  Injury levels: 2 
  Size 3 to 4 
  Run Move 10*
  Muscle/Hardiness 3d 
  Reﬂ exes/Coord. 2d 
  Smarts/Senses 1d
  Dodge 3d 
  Jumping 4d 
  Running 4d
  Attacks: Strength Bonus 2d, otherwise similar to ponies
  Changeling
  Injury levels: 2 
  Size 0 
  Move similar to pegasus
  Muscle 2d 
  Hardiness 2d 
  Reﬂ exes 2d 
  Coordination 2d
  Smarts 2d 
  Senses 2d 
  Power 2d
  Brawling 4d Climbing 3d Dodge 4d Flying 4d Jumping 4d
  Running 4d Search 3d Sneak 3d Tracking 3d Willpower 3d
  Attacks: Strength Bonus 1d, teeth +1; others similar to ponies
  Abilities: can imitate the appearance, but not the special abili-
  ties, of another creature that’s about the same size
  Diamond dog
  Injury levels: 2 
  Size 1 to 2 
  Run Move 10*
  Muscle 3d Hardi. 2d Reﬂ exes/Coord. 2d Smarts 1d Senses 2d
  Brawling 5d 
  Climbing 4d 
  Dodge 4d 
  Intimidation 3d
  Jumping 5d Running 5d Search 3d Sneak 4d Tracking 3d
  Attacks: Strength Bonus 2d, teeth +1, claws +1
  Donkey or mule
  Injury levels: 2 
  Size 0 to 1 
  Run Move 10*
  Muscle/Hardiness 2d Reﬂ exes/Coord. 2d Smarts/Senses 2d
  Brawling 5d Dodge 5d Jumping 5d Running 5d Search 3d
  Attacks: Strength Bonus 1d, otherwise similar to ponies
  Draconequus
  Injury levels: 4 
  Size 4 
  Move similar to pegasus
  Muscle 2d 
  Hardiness 2d 
  Reﬂ exes 2d 
  Coordination 2d
  Smarts 2d 
  Senses 2d 
  Power 5d 
  Finesse 5d
  Brawling 4d Dodge 5d Flying 5d Intimidation 5d Jumping 5d
  Running 4d Search 5d Sneak 5d Tracking 3d Willpower 7d
  Attacks: Strength Bonus 1d, otherwise similar to ponies
  Abilities: the only draconequus shown was a master of chaos 
  and transformation; what others may be like is unknown ➧
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part Two � Page 23 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  Dragon, adult
  Injury levels: 4 
  Size 40 
  Run Move 25, Flight Move 32*
  Muscle 5d 
  Hardiness 5d 
  Reﬂ exes 2d 
  Coordination 2d
  Smarts 2d 
  Senses 2d 
  Power 4d
  Brawling 4d 
  Dodge 4d 
  Intimidation 6d 
  Flying 6d
  Running 6d 
  Search 3d 
  Tracking 3d 
  Willpower 5d
  Attacks: Strength Bonus 3d, teeth +1d, claws +1d; ﬁ re-breath-
  ing 3d (do not add Strength Bonus) 
  Armor: +2 thick hide
  Dragon, young
  Injury levels: 2 
  Size 1 to 5 
  Move similar to pegasus
  Muscle 3d 
  Hardiness 2d 
  Reﬂ exes 2d 
  Coordination 2d
  Smarts 2d 
  Senses 2d 
  Power 3d
  Brawling 3d 
  Dodge 3d 
  Intimidation 4d 
  Flying 4d
  Running 4d 
  Search 3d 
  Tracking 3d 
  Willpower 4d
  Attacks: Strength Bonus 2d, teeth +2, claws +1; ﬁ re-breathing 3d
  Griﬃ  n
  Injury levels: 2 
  Size 1 to 2 
  Move similar to pegasus
  Muscle 2d 
  Hardiness 2d 
  Reﬂ exes 2d 
  Coordination 2d
  Smarts 2d 
  Senses 2d 
  Power 2d
  Brawling 4d Climbing 4d Dodge 3d Flying 4d Jumping 4d
  Running 3d Search 3d Sneak 3d Tracking 3d Willpower 3d
  Attacks: Strength Bonus 1d, beak +2, talons +1d
  Minotaur
  Injury levels: 2 
  Size 2 
  Run Move 10*
  Muscle 3d Hardi. 2d Reﬂ exes/Coord. 2d Smarts/Senses 2d
  Brawling 4d 
  Climbing 4d 
  Dodge 2d 
  Jumping 4d
  Running 5d Search 3d Sneak 3d Tracking 3d Willpower 3d
  Attacks: Strength Bonus 2d, similar to unicorn (including horn)
  Sea (river?) serpent
  Injury levels: 2 
  Size 10 
  Swim Move 16*
  Muscle/Hardiness 4d Reﬂ exes/Coord. 2d Smarts/Senses 2d
  Brawling 3d Dodge 4d Search 3d Swimming 6d Willpower 3d
  Attack: Strength Bonus 2d, teeth +2
  Sheep
  Injury levels: 1 
  Size –1 
  Run Move 10*
  Muscle/Hardiness 2d 
  Reﬂ exes/Coord. 2d 
  Smarts/Senses 1d
  Climbing 3d 
  Dodge 3d 
  Jumping 4d 
  Running 4d
  Attacks: Strength Bonus 1d, otherwise similar to ponies
  Zebra
  Injury levels: 2 
  Size 0 
  Run Move similar to pony
  Muscle 2d 
  Hardiness 2d 
  Reﬂ exes 2d 
  Coordination 2d
  Smarts 2d 
  Senses 2d 
  Power 2d 
  Finesse 2d
  Alchemy 3d Brawling 3d Climbing 3d Dodge 3d Jumping 4d
  Running 4d Search 3d Sneak 4d Tracking 3d Willpower 3d
  Attacks: Strength Bonus 1d, otherwise similar to ponies
  Abilities: zebra magic seems to be alchemical — mixing po-
  tions, elixirs, and such from plant and mineral substances
  * This creature adds 5 to movement difficulty for each 
  move after the first and is limited to no more than 4 moves. 
  For example, a diamond dog running 30 yards or an adult drag-
  on flying 96 yards would have a movement difficulty of 10.
  Dumb Creatures
  Along with animals similar to those in the real world, the world 
  of the ponies has magical animals based on myths and legends 
  from many ancient cultures in real history; others are based on 
  terrible puns in English. A flyer with no Finesse or Power bases 
  its Flying Talent on Reflexes and its Flight Move on Muscle. 
  All dumb creatures are limited to no more than 4 Moves, and 
  add 5 to movement difficulty for each Move after the first.
  Cerberus (or Kerberos)
  Injury levels: 4 
  Size 12 
  Run Move 30
  Muscle/Hardi. 4d Reﬂ exes/Coord. 3d Smarts 1d Senses 2d
  Brawling 5d 
  Dodge 5d 
  Intimidation 5d
  Running 4d 
  Search 3d 
  Tracking 4d 
  Willpower 4d
  Attack: Strength Bonus 2d, teeth +1d
  Cockatrice
  Injury levels: 1 
  Size –5 
  Flight Move 15
  Muscle/Hardi. 1d Reﬂ exes/Coord. 3d Smarts 1d Senses 2d
  Brawling 4d Flying 3d Search 3d Tracking 3d Willpower 3d
  Attacks: Strength Bonus 1d, beak +0, talons +1; petriﬁ cation, 
  “injury” 3d (no Strength Bonus) — injury level is how much of 
  target is turned to stone, but can be reversed by cockatrice
  Hydra
  Injury levels: 2 
  Size 15 
  Run Move 15
  Muscle/Hardiness 5d 
  Reﬂ exes/Coord. 2d 
  Smarts/Senses 1d
  Brawling 3d Dodge 3d Search 3d Tracking 3d Willpower 3d
  Attacks: Strength Bonus 3d, teeth +2, stomp +1d
  Armor: +2 thick hide
  Abilities: up to 7 heads, each able to attack individually, but it 
  may have trouble making up its mind about what to do (use 
  “Teamwork” rule in “Doing More Things: Special Task Rules”)
  Manticore
  Injury levels: 2 
  Size 6 
  Run Move 35, ﬂ ight Move 15
  Muscle/Hardi. 4d Reﬂ exes/Coord. 3d Smarts 1d Senses 2d
  Brawling 5d Climbing 5d Dodge 4d Flying 5d Jumping 5d
  Running 5d Search 3d Sneak 4d Tracking 3d Willpower 3d
  Attacks: Strength Bonus 2d, claws +2, teeth +2, tail strike, +1 
  Armor: +2 thick fur
  Abilities: tail sting may inject venom (see cobra); up to narrator
  Parasprite
  Injury levels: 1 
  Size –13 
  Flight Move 15
  Muscle/Hardiness 1d 
  Reﬂ exes/Coord. 3d 
  Smarts/Senses 1d
  Flying 4d 
  Dodge 4d 
  Search 2d 
  Willpower 3d
  Attacks: Strength Bonus 1d, bite +0; swarm attack*
  Phoenix
  Injury levels: 1 
  Size –8 
  Move: Flight 32, glide 15
  Muscle/Hardi. 2d Reﬂ exes/Coord. 4d Smarts 1d Senses 2d
  Brawling 5d Flying 5d Search 3d Tracking 3d Willpower 3d
  Attacks: Strength Bonus 1d, beak +2; talons +1d; ﬂ ash 3d (no 
  Strength Bonus) dazzles (stuns) anyone nearby who fails to resist
  Abilities: can fly or glide for several hundred miles or as long as 
  thermals (air rising from warm ground) can keep them aloft ➧
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part Two � Page 24 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  Quarray eel
  Injury levels: 2 
  Size 10 
  Run (slither) Move 30
  Muscle/Hardiness 4d Reﬂ exes/Coord. 3d Smarts/Senses 1d
  Brawling 5d 
  Dodge 4d 
  Intimidation 5d 
  Running 4d
  Search 3d 
  Tracking 3d 
  Willpower 4d
  Attacks: Strength Bonus, 2d, teeth +1d
  Armor: +2 thick hide
  Timberwolf
  Injury levels: 2 
  Size 1 to 2 
  Run Move 25
  Muscle/Hardi. 4d Reﬂ exes/Coord. 3d Smarts 1d Senses 2d
  Brawling 5d 
  Dodge 5d 
  Intimidation 5d
  Running 4d 
  Search 3d 
  Tracking 4d 
  Willpower 4d
  Attack: Strength Bonus 2d, teeth +1d
  Ursa major
  Injury levels: 4 
  Size 24 
  Run Move 30
  Muscle/Hardi. 5d Reﬂ exes 3d Coord. 2d Smarts 1d Senses 2d
  Brawling 4d 
  Dodge 4d 
  Intimidation 5d 
  Jumping 6d
  Running 6d 
  Search 3d 
  Tracking 3d 
  Willpower 5d
  Attacks: Strength Bonus 3d, claws +1d, teeth +1d
  Armor: +2 astral hide
  Ursa minor
  Injury levels: 2 
  Size 12 
  Run Move 25
  Muscle/Hardi. 4d Reﬂ exes 3d Coord. 2d Smarts/Senses 1d
  Brawling 3d 
  Dodge 4d 
  Intimidation 4d 
  Jumping 5d
  Running 5d 
  Search 2d 
  Tracking 2d 
  Willpower 4d
  Attacks: Strength Bonus 2d, claws +1d, teeth +1d
  Armor: +2 astral hide
  Even ordinary animals in the ponies’ world seem to be 
  much more intelligent than in the real world. Still, in the wild 
  they probably live much the same ways as their real counter-
  parts do. These are based on listings in Open D6 rulebooks.
  * For a “swarm attack”, make one Brawling roll for the 
  whole group of creatures and add 5 to the die roll for every 10 
  creatures involved in the attack.
  Bat, brown or red
  Injury levels: 1 
  Size –10 
  Flight Move 15
  Muscle/Hardiness 1d 
  Reﬂ exes/Coord. 3d 
  Smarts/Senses 1d
  Brawling 4d 
  Flying 4d 
  Search 2d (Hearing +1d)
  Tracking 2d (Sonar +1d) 
  Willpower 3d
  Attacks: Strength Bonus 1d, claws +0; swarm attack*
  Abilities: can fly up to a few hundred miles
  Bird of prey (falcon or hawk)
  Injury levels: 1 
  Size –9 
  Flight Move 32, glide 15
  Muscle/Hardi. 2d Reﬂ exes/Coord. 4d Smarts 1d Senses 2d
  Brawling 5d Flying 5d Search 3d Tracking 3d Willpower 3d
  Attacks: Strength Bonus 1d, beak +2, talons +1d
  Abilities: can fly or glide for several hundred miles or as long 
  as thermals (air rising from warm ground) can keep them aloft
  Cat, domestic
  Injury levels: 1 
  Size –6 
  Run Move 20
  Muscle/Hardi. 1d Reﬂ exes/Coord. 3d Smarts 1d Senses 2d
  Brawling 4d 
  Climbing 4d 
  Dodge 4d 
  Jumping 4d
  Running 3d Search 3d Sneak 4d Tracking 3d Willpower 3d
  Attacks: Strength Bonus 1d, claws +2, teeth +2
  Cat, large (lion, tiger, puma)
  Injury levels: 2 
  Size 3 to 4 
  Run Move 30
  Muscle/Hardi. 4d Reﬂ exes 4d Coord. 3d Smarts 1d Senses 2d
  Brawling 5d 
  Climbing 5d 
  Dodge 5d 
  Jumping 5d
  Running 5d Search 3d Sneak 5d Tracking 3d Willpower 3d
  Attacks: Strength Bonus 2d, claws +2; teeth +2
  Armor: thick fur, +2
  Ability: Can leap 10 yards horizontally or 2 yards vertically
  Cobra
  Injury levels: 1 
  Size –9 
  Run (slither) Move 15
  Muscle/Hardi. 1d Reﬂ exes/Coord. 4d Smarts 1d Senses 2d
  Brawling 5d Dodge 5d Intimidation 4d Running 5d Search 3d
  Sneak 5d 
  Tracking 3d 
  Venom-Spitting 4d 
  Willpower 4d
  Attacks: Strength Bonus 1d, fangs +1d; venom injected if Brawl-
  ing roll succeeds by 5 or more (venom can cause 1 injury level 
  every 10 minutes until victim dies or is treated — roll Hardi-
  ness or Stamina dice against poison diﬃ  culty 25 to resist)
  Ability: can use “called shot” rule to spit venom into target’s 
  eyes or mouth
  Dog, domestic
  Injury levels: 1 
  Size: –5 
  Run Move 25
  Muscle/Hardi. 3d Reﬂ exes/Coord. 3d Smarts 1d Senses 2d
  Brawling 4d 
  Dodge 4d 
  Intimidation 3d
  Running 4d 
  Search 3d 
  Tracking 4d 
  Willpower 4d
  Attack: Strength Bonus 2d, teeth +1d
  Dog, guard
  Injury levels: 2 
  Size: –4 
  Run Move 25
  Muscle/Hardi. 4d Reﬂ exes/Coord. 3d Smarts 1d Senses 2d
  Brawling 5d 
  Dodge 6d 
  Intimidation 5d
  Running 4d 
  Search 3d 
  Tracking 4d 
  Willpower 4d
  Attack: Strength Bonus 2d, teeth +1d
  Rat
  Injury levels: 1 
  Size: –9 
  Run Move 3
  Muscle/Hardi. 1d Reﬂ exes/Coord. 3d Smarts 1d Senses 2d
  Acrobatics 3d+1 
  Brawling 5d 
  Climbing 3d+2 
  Dodge 3d+1
  Hide (self only) 4d 
  Jumping 4d 
  Running 3d
  Search 3d 
  Swimming 1d+2 
  Willpower 4d
  Attacks: Strength Bonus 1d, teeth +0; swarm attack*
  Shark
  Injury levels: 2 
  Size: 3 to 4 
  Swim Move 16
  Muscle/Hardi. 3d Reﬂ exes 3d Coord. 2d Smarts 1d Senses 2d
  Brawling 4d 
  Intimidation 6d 
  Search 3d
  Swimming 5d 
  Tracking 3d 
  Willpower 7d
  Attack: Strength Bonus 2d, teeth +1d
  Armor: +2 thick hide ✶
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part Three � Page 1 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  � Part Three of Four ✶ The Magical Land: Game Setting �
  A Timetable of Discoveries and Inventions  . . . . . . . 2–3
  Why Is the Show’s Technology So Inconsistent?. . . . . . . . . 3
  Agriculture  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
  Power  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
  Muscle, Water, and Wind. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
  Steam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
  Other Power Sources  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
  Electricity  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
  Cooking, Lighting, and Heating  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
  Magic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
  Materials  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
  Construction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
  Glass. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
  Metals  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
  Rubber and Plastics  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
  Fabrics  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
  Pigments and Dyes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
  Transportation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
  Railroads  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
  Roads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
  Seafaring  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
  Aviation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
  Information  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
  Print . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
  Photography  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
  Sound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
  Computing Devices  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
  Writing and Signage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
  Mail and Telecommunications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
  Medicine  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
  General Health Care  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
  Pharmaceuticals  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
  Surgery and Dental Care  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
  Food Safety and Preservation  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
  Magic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
  Military  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9–10
  The Royal Guard. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
  The Pegasus Flying Service  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
  The Citizenry  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
  Military Ranks and Organization  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
  Society  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11–13
  The Royalty. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
  The Nobility  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
  Styles, Dignities, and Territories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
  Knighthoods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
  The Commons  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
  Cutie Marks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
  Money  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
  Cuisine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
  Music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
  Education and Apprenticeship  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
  Mini-Essays  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13–15
  The Grapes of Bein’ Kinda Upset (guest contribution). . . . . 13
  What’s This Thing Made of? (guest contribution). . . . . . . . . 13
  Turn Your Head and Cough (guest contribution)  . . . . . . . . . 14
  Earthshaking Changes  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
  Back in the Old Days . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
  City-State, Principality, Empire. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
  Consorting With Rulers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
  About (Non-Magical) Ponies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
  Archaic Units of Measure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
  T
  he rules deliver a way to handle, fairly and consistently, 
  what happens in a role-playing game, but that’s only half 
  the job. The other half is the setting — the universe in which 
  the game takes place. In the case of Pony Tales, that setting is 
  the country, and the world, where the magical ponies live. 
  A timetable of discoveries and inventions lists a sampling 
  of important developments in several ﬁ elds from the 1820s 
  through the 1920s to provide historical context. The dates list-
  ed are very rough and the entries are just examples; the word 
  “modern” is used loosely to mean that a discovery or invention 
  is starting to look like it does today.
  Background on the ponies’ technology and culture, and 
  speculation about it, covers eight broad topics: agriculture, 
  power sources, materials and metallurgy, transportation, infor-
  mation, medicine, military aﬀ airs, and society in general.
  Mini-essays examine those and other relevant subjects, 
  looking under the surface, making connections that may not 
  be obvious, and oﬀ ering suggestions to narrator and players 
  alike for using the background information in a game.
  Repeating History
  This part was written to provide as much information as pos-
  sible without going overboard. The idea is that it’s better to 
  give a narrator more than she might need, so she can pick and 
  choose what elements to keep and which to throw out, than it 
  is to provide only a little information and force a narrator who 
  wants more detail to go through a bunch of tedious research.
  It’s imp0rtant to remember, though, that history is com-
  plicated and full of surprises. Cramming big chunks of it into a 
  few pages means that lots of details get tossed out, and what’s 
  left over only scratches the surface. A lot of discoveries and in-
  ventions happened earlier or later than many people think, and 
  there are endless arguments over who discovered or invented 
  what and whether he or she was ﬁ rst at it.
  Still, a narrator and group of players should be able to get a 
  basic understanding of the nineteenth-century time period the 
  show’s creator tried to capture, when society was in the midst 
  of leaving behind centuries-old rural and agrarian ways of life 
  as urbanization and industrialization took hold. ✶
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part Three � Page 2 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  � A Timetable of Discoveries and Inventions �
  Before 1820s
  Power, Light, Heat
  Materials
  Transportation
  Information
  Health and Safety
  Windmill, steam 
  power, water wheel, 
  limited gas lighting, 
  early wet cell (battery)
  Steel, synthetic 
  pigments, sewing 
  machine, platinum 
  discovered, ﬂ intlock
  Macadam, velocipede 
  bicycle, hot-air/gas 
  balloon, sailing ship, 
  paddlewheel
  Steam printing press, 
  mechanical paper-
  making, acoustic 
  megaphone
  Germ theory, surgery, 
  stethoscope, pill, early 
  anæsthesia, icebox, 
  inoculation, canning
  1820s
  Portable steam 
  engine, early internal 
  combustion engine, 
  friction match
  Portland cement, 
  rubber balloon, 
  thermocouple, bolt 
  action, percussion cap
  Steam locomotive, 
  marine propellor
  Large-circulation 
  newspapers, Fresnel 
  lens
  Modern dental braces, 
  ﬁ rst modern city ﬁ re 
  brigade (Edinburgh)
  1830s
  Widespread steam 
  power, gas oven, 
  Daniel cell (battery)
  Steel plow, mechanical 
  lawnmower
  Combine harvester, 
  modern “caterpillar” 
  tracks
  Telegraphy, Morse 
  code, plate photogra-
  phy, Babbage engines 
  (never ﬁ nished)
  Gel capsule (for 
  medications), ﬁ rst 
  modern police force 
  (London)
  1840s
  Corliss steam engine, 
  early arc lighting, 
  Grove cell (battery)
  Vulcanized rubber, 
  rubber band, nitro-
  glycerine, guncotton, 
  squeeze tube
  Early ocean liner, 
  railway semaphore 
  signal
  High-speed printing, 
  wood-pulp paper, 
  wind-up alarm clock, 
  postage stamp
  Modern anæsthesia, 
  pressure-sensitive 
  adhesive tape (ﬁ rst 
  used in surgery)
  1850s
  Heat radiator, gas 
  heater, widespread 
  gas/kerosene lighting, 
  lead-acid battery
  Mass-produced steel, 
  petroleum cracking, 
  ﬁ rst synthetic dyes, 
  metallic cartridge
  Steam tractor, steel 
  railroad rail, safety 
  elevator, steam-pow-
  ered ﬁ re engine
  Modern fountain pen, 
  mass-produced watch, 
  “absolute zero” 
  discovered
  Commercial 
  refrigeration
  1860s
  Practical internal 
  combustion engine, 
  ﬂ uorescent lighting, 
  gravity cell (battery)
  Many synthetic 
  pigments, helium 
  discovered, cranked 
  automatic action
  Early glider, early (gas) 
  traﬃ  c light, railway air 
  brake
  Typewriter, wrist-
  watch, ﬁ rst color 
  photography, periodic 
  table of the elements
  Sterilization and 
  pasteurization, 
  Mendelian inheritance
  1870s
  Hydroelectric power, 
  practical carbon arc 
  lighting, supercharger
  Celluloid plastic, 
  gelignite, gem-quality 
  synthetic rubies, lawn 
  sprinkler
  Larger ocean liner, 
  reefer (refrigerated) 
  ship, windjammer, 
  penny-farthing bicycle
  Telephone, cylinder 
  phonograph, cheap 
  pocket watch, carbon 
  microphone
  Modern sutures and 
  germ theory, wide-
  spread commercial 
  refrigeration
  1880s
  Limited electricity, 
  dry cell (battery), early 
  incandescent lighting, 
  steam & wind turbines
  Mass-produced 
  aluminum, cordite, 
  self-loading and fully 
  automatic actions
  Nonrigid airship using 
  hydrogen, pneumatic 
  tire, modern (safety) 
  bicycle
  Cash register, early 
  ﬁ lm photography, 
  linotype machine
  Vaccinations for more 
  diseases, silk dental 
  ﬂ oss on the market, 
  pasteurized milk
  1890s
  Subatomic particles 
  and radioactivity 
  discovered, gas water 
  heater with tank
  Spray painting, noble 
  gases discovered, 
  glass-blowing machine 
  (mass-produce bottles)
  Automobile, motor-
  cycle, steam-turbine 
  ship, escalator
  Early radio, silent 
  movies, high-accuracy 
  pocket watch
  X-ray photography, 
  aspirin, antitoxins, 
  “crown cork” bottle 
  cap
  1900s
  Einsteinian physics, 
  diesel engine, turbo-
  charger, nicad and 
  nickel-iron batteries
  Bakelite, cellophane, 
  synthetic pigments, 
  improved vulcaniza-
  tion, synthetic rubber
  Airplane, rigid airship, 
  military armored car, 
  railway light signal, 
  gasoline ﬁ re engine
  Modern photography, 
  early color ﬁ lm, disk 
  phonograph, early 
  ball-point pen
  Blood types, modern 
  blood transfusions, 
  vitamins discovered, 
  chromosome theory
  1910s
  Superconductivity 
  discovered, Bohr 
  atomic model, neon 
  lighting
  Early artiﬁ cial ﬁ bers, 
  helium production, 
  stainless steel, grow-
  ing metal crystals
  Gasoline tractor, tank 
  (armored ﬁ ghting 
  vehicle), electric 
  traﬃ  c light
  Radio broadcasting, 
  condenser micro-
  phone, sonar, high-
  accuracy wristwatch
  Laporoscopic surgery, 
  antibiotics, genetic 
  map of chromosome, 
  self-serve supermarket
  1920s
  Large electrical grids, 
  modern incandescent 
  lighting, early quan-
  tum physics
  Polymer plastics, 
  zipper, Pyrex glass, 
  ærosol spray, consum-
  er adhesive tape
  Diesel locomotive, 
  autogyro aircraft, use 
  of helium in airships, 
  parking meter
  Movie sound, electric 
  guitar, self-winding 
  watch, photo booth, 
  electric bullhorn
  Vaccinations for many 
  diseases, household 
  refrigeration, modern 
  genetic research
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part Three � Page 3 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  T
  he show presents the ponies’ country as a picturesque, 
  fantastical land of magic. However, instead of a storybook 
  rendition of the Middle Ages, with knights in shining armor, 
  castles, and wizards in towers, the ponies seem to be in the 
  middle of their version of the Industrial Revolution — which 
  in real history took place mostly during the nineteenth centu-
  ry. How can one tell, though? The program isn’t very consistent 
  about the kinds of technology it shows, after all.
  There are lots of examples throughout this part of the 
  rulebook, but one technology in particular pins down the time 
  period pretty well: The steam locomotive entered commercial 
  service in the 1820s, and diesel locomotives started to replace 
  steam in the 1920s. To narrow things even more, the style of 
  locomotive shown in the program is similar to designs used in 
  the United States during the 1860s to the 1880s. So the focus 
  will be on the century of the steam locomotive, with special at-
  tention to the middle three decades. This should provide some 
  historical context as well as speciﬁ c information to help the 
  narrator decide just what she may want to include or leave out.
  As much as possible, information about the show’s set-
  ting is based on the episodes, but some came out of comments 
  by, interviews of, or question-and-answer sessions with people 
  working on the show. That includes the show’s creator, who’s 
  warned that since she isn’t with the show any more, things may 
  have changed. Still, it’s useful to know what she was thinking 
  when she did the original creative work.
  Why Is the Show’s Technology So Inconsistent?
  The show’s supervising director has commented that technol-
  ogy looks so strange because the show’s staﬀ  try to write about 
  and show things that are familiar to a modern audience — espe-
  cially younger viewers — even if some of them otherwise might 
  look out of place. Moreover, the show’s mostly a comedy, and 
  the writers seem willing to stretch things for a good laugh.
  The staﬀ  is trying for a fairy-tale feel, but it’s possible that, 
  even if or when they want to stay “in period”, there’s not much 
  time for research or double-checking things they put in the 
  scripts. A narrator may be able to explain some of the gaps 
  by assuming the ponies are better at, say, entertainment tech-
  nology, because they don’t spend as much time and energy on 
  other things like war. (Of course, they obviously know what 
  war is, since the main character asks if her future self has come 
  back in time from an “epic pony war in the distant future”, a 
  joke based on many science-ﬁ ction movies and video games.)
  Even leaving aside the most obvious anachronisms — things 
  that are out of place for a given time period — it can be tough 
  to nail down a speciﬁ c date. There aren’t any telephones, 
  which showed up in the 1870s, but there are cash registers and 
  linotype machines, which came later, in the 1880s. Color pho-
  tographs and disk phonographs are products of the 1900s, yet 
  everyone uses quill pens instead of the fountain pens that be-
  gan to replace them even before the 1850s.The toys based on 
  the show especially can be way out of the time period, since 
  they include things like pick-up trucks and microwave ovens!
  Still and all, it’s a show for children about brightly colored 
  magical ponies, so it shouldn’t be taken too seriously. This in-
  formation is presented simply to get people to ask questions 
  and look up answers as far as they’re comfortable doing. ✶
  � Agriculture �
  F
  arming and keeping livestock are well developed on 
  the show. Family farms raise a wide variety of crops and 
  other plants, including apples, carrots, celery, corn, and many 
  diﬀ erent kinds of ﬂ owers. Farmers’ markets and neighborhood 
  stores sell the produce of the country’s farms and orchards. It 
  seems safe to guess that the ponies raise just about any food 
  crop there is, no matter where in the world it comes from, as 
  long as there’s someplace with the right climate and soil for it.
  Tea and chocolate seem to be popular, and one episode 
  showed coﬀ ee (in cappucino). All three are from the tropics, 
  but it isn’t clear whether the ponies have to import them from 
  other lands or they can be grown somewhere in the country.
  The apple cider shown in one episode had foam “heads” 
  when poured; that only happens if there’s alcohol in it. Alco-
  hol is a preservative and antiseptic, which is necessary where 
  water may not be safe to drink without treatment. Beer, cider, 
  and wine also contain some vitamins and other nutrients. If 
  the narrator and players want to include alcohol, that means 
  vinyards and wine casks, beer breweries, cider mills, and dis-
  tilleries — as well as pubs and taverns. Incidentally, the idea of 
  a “drinking age” is very recent, arising during the twentieth 
  century where safe drinking water had become commonplace.
  Most natural fabrics seem to be available for clothes, ban-
  ners, and ﬂ ags. There probably are cotton plantations and 
  sheep ranches, sheep-shears and shearing sheds, cotton gins, 
  spinning jennies and Jacquard looms, and other machines and 
  industries needed to turn ﬁ bers into thread and cloth.
  The ponies keep other animals too: cattle for milk, chick-
  ens for eggs, and pigs for less obvious reasons. The show’s cre-
  ator, when asked why ponies kept pigs (raised for meat in the 
  real world), answered that the ponies really like truﬄ  es — cer-
  tain kinds of mushrooms — which pigs can be trained to sniﬀ  
  out. Boar hair also was used to make paintbrushes, tooth-
  brushes, and hairbrushes, though modern plastics mostly took 
  their place in the mid-twentieth century. Manure from animals 
  might be used in fertilizers.
  Earth ponies have a magical connection to the land and 
  to living things, but they also seem to understand scientiﬁ c 
  methods and techniques. Crop rotation, including letting land 
  lie fallow (temporarily unplanted) to “rest” and renew its ability 
  to grow plants, is the most important. Absolute control over 
  the seasons and weather, thanks to the pegasus ponies, would 
  make crop failures and bad harvests rare. Ponies probably 
  don’t go hungry much, and even the poorest ones can aﬀ ord 
  a decent diet. Only the holiday pageants retelling the story of 
  the country’s founding would remind ponies what could hap-
  pen if things went badly wrong.
  Tools used on the farm include pony-drawn plows and oth-
  er devices, as well as hoes, shovels and spades, rakes, and bare 
  hooves. Heavier equipment hasn’t been shown, but portable 
  steam engines came around in the 1820s. They were powerful, 
  but big and expensive, so granges (organizations of local farm-
  ers) would get together to buy or lease them, and move them 
  from farm to farm as they were needed. Steam tractors ap-
  peared in the 1850s, but the ponies can do their own pulling, so 
  they may not be very interested in that kind of invention. ✶
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part Three � Page 4 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  � Power �
  W
  indmills and water wheels dot the landscape, par-
  ticularly in the small town where most of the show 
  takes place. The ponies probably have been building them for 
  centuries — but what about more advanced sources of power?
  Muscle, Water, and Wind
  Thanks to powerful muscles, the ponies themselves are a reli-
  able source of energy. They probably are masters of building 
  and using mechanisms to turn their own eﬀ orts into power 
  for threshing, winnowing, grinding, hauling, and a lot of other 
  agricultural and industrial tasks.
  Windmills and water wheels have been around for some 
  two thousand years, so these too probably are things the po-
  nies understand very well. They’re limited to providing me-
  chanical power right next door, though, which means they 
  have to be built where there’s good water or wind power, not 
  where it would be most convenient for whatever industries are 
  using them.
  Steam
  The ﬁ rst high-pressure steam engines were invented at the be-
  ginning of the nineteenth century. Much more powerful than 
  earlier designs, they helped to make the Industrial Revolution 
  possible, and led directly to the world we know today.
  Early steam engines were fueled with wood or coal; the 
  classic steam locomotive with its coal car is well-known even 
  now. For most of the nineteenth century, the mechanism used 
  by a steam engine was reciprocating, using back-and-forth mo-
  tions, which usually meant big pistons and cylinders. Oil-ﬁ red 
  steam turbines arrived in the 1880s, and saw their ﬁ rst wide-
  spread use in steamships; they mostly replaced reciprocating 
  steam engines in the early part of the twentieth century.
  A big problem with burning wood or especially coal is air 
  pollution. The infamous “London fog” of the nineteenth cen-
  tury killed untold numbers of people and made noon as gloomy 
  as night. The ponies probably wouldn’t put up with that kind 
  of problem getting out of hand (or hoof). Pegasus ponies may 
  use their ﬂ ight and cloud-working to deal with smoke, earth 
  ponies may create new inventions to ﬁ lter and trap it, and uni-
  corn ponies may contribute magical solutions.
  Other Power Sources
  The earliest internal-combustion engines showed up in the 
  1820s, with improved versions coming around in the 1860s. 
  However, they weren’t reliable enough or powerful enough for 
  use in motor vehicles until the 1890s, which is a big reason why 
  automobiles appeared at that time. For a while steam com-
  peted with gasoline, but it lost out because there isn’t much 
  else that packs as much energy into a pound of fuel as gasoline 
  does — and is as easy to burn and use.
  Most other power sources familiar to people today were 
  introduced during the twentieth century, especially after the 
  Second World War, so it’s almost certain that they wouldn’t be 
  available to the ponies at all.
  Electricity
  The show’s creator has said that the ponies don’t have — or 
  at least aren’t supposed to have — electricity. That means their 
  technology probably isn’t much more advanced than the 1880s, 
  when electricity started to be more than just a novelty.
  Hydroelectric and wind turbines were early sources of 
  electric power starting in the 1870s, but until big electrical 
  grids developed in the early and mid-twentieth century, they 
  were limited to supplying nearby buildings or towns. Most hy-
  droelectric power comes from big dams and reservoirs; a dam 
  with hydro plant has shown up, only to burst and threaten the 
  town with ﬂ ooding. That episode was full of funny movie cli-
  chés, though, so taking it with a grain of salt may be wise.
  Cooking, Lighting, and Heating
  A traditional wood- or charcoal-burning brick bakery oven 
  might be so large that the whole building would be constructed 
  around it. Nineteenth-century ovens and stoves were made of 
  iron, and most of them burned wood. Gas-burning appliances 
  went on the market in the 1830s. The electric gadgets that ﬁ ll 
  kitchen counters today didn’t exist; everything was done with 
  muscle-power, and it was hard work.
  Gas lighting started to replace oil lamps early in the nine-
  teenth century, but during the 1850s it got to be pretty wide-
  spread. Several episodes use the sound eﬀ ect of a light switch 
  being ﬂ ipped, probably so a modern audience would recognize 
  it, but a gas light going on makes a whoosh sound (kind of like 
  a gas stove burner being lit) and wouldn’t light up a room as 
  suddenly or as brightly as an electric light.
  At the beginning of the nineteenth century, heat came 
  mostly from ﬁ replaces and wood-burning stoves. Radiators, 
  ﬁ rst using hot water and later steam, were invented in the 
  1850s. Gas heaters were invented at about the same time, and 
  improved versions came out in the 1880s.
  Magic
  As part of the comment mentioned earlier, the creator added 
  that she consoled herself with the idea that unicon inventors 
  might make enchanted appliances, explaining the existence of 
  “electrical” devices. At least one episode has taken this idea 
  and run with it. Still, being cautious about using it probably is 
  a good idea.
  Unicorn magic mostly seems to be limited to a scale not 
  far from what an individual pony can do by more ordinary 
  means. (Remember that the main character of the show is con-
  sidered to be unusually strong magically!) That limited scale 
  may be to keep the unicorn ponies from being more powerful 
  than the other kinds of ponies and to prevent the earth ponies 
  in particular from being overshadowed. Think about this: if 
  enchanting things is easy, why bother using technology at all?
  That said, it may be possible for clever ponies to come up 
  with inventions that can make use of unicorn magic. It’s easy 
  to imagine, for instance, a smithy or machine shop run by a 
  partnership of earth ponies for most of the inventing, design-
  ing, and heavy labor, and unicorn ponies for ﬁ ne work using 
  levitation and spell-casting for tricky or troublesome tasks. ✶
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part Three � Page 5 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  � Materials �
  A
  ll the classical substances seem to be available to the 
  ponies — wood, stone, brick, glass, metals known since 
  ancient times, and natural ﬁ bers such as cotton, wool, and silk. 
  Whether the ponies use animal products such as leather and 
  ivory is an open question; as herbivores, they may not like the 
  idea, and such things are controversial even in the real world, 
  so the writers may not want to bring it up.
  Construction
  The town where most of the show takes place is built mostly 
  of thatched half-timbered buildings, like old European villag-
  es; a lot of Europe’s forests disappeared gradually during the 
  Middle Ages, so wood wasn’t available for rooﬁ ng. Much of 
  the capital city is built of stone, like larger European towns and 
  cities that have been around a long time. The country’s biggest 
  city uses lots of brick, and houses, streets, and stores look like 
  photos of New York in the late nineteenth century.
  Not only does that show what the ponies use to build 
  things with, it also shows that diﬀ erent towns or neighbor-
  hoods are built from diﬀ erent materials. A narrator can use 
  that when describing places, to help give players a vivid men-
  tal picture, and a narrator who’s really interested can decide 
  what’s used in a town or city by ﬁ guring out what’s available 
  because of trade or local mines and industries.
  Glass
  The ponies make telescopes, eyeglasses, and even sunglasses, 
  and every window is glazed (covered with glass). Most of these 
  uses were well-developed during the nineteenth century. Sun-
  glasses using smoky quartz for the lenses were known even 
  to the ancient Chinese, but it wasn’t until the early twenti-
  eth century that they became widely popular. The “designer 
  shades” on some episodes are very modern-looking, possibly 
  so the audience would recognize them as being trendy and up-
  to-date, rather than see them as old-fashioned.
  Metals
  Along with precious metals like gold and silver, metals known 
  since the ancient world include copper, iron, and their alloys. 
  In the case of copper, those alloys are brass — copper and 
  zinc — and bronze — copper and (usually) tin. In the case of 
  iron, those alloys are steel, using diﬀ erent additives to get dif-
  ferent kinds. Large-scale production of high-quality steel came 
  along in the 1850s with the Bessemer process.
  Other metals such as aluminum were being discovered, 
  but were very hard to get, because ways of separating the pure 
  metals from raw ores hadn’t been developed yet. Aluminum 
  was as valuable as silver! It was only in the 1880s that the Hall-
  Héroult process began producing aluminum in quanitity, mak-
  ing it much cheaper.
  The ponies probably make much use of brass, bronze, and 
  iron, and probably steel, as well as gold and silver for jewelry 
  and other specialized purposes. They may have aluminum, but 
  not titanium or other exotic metals.
  Rubber and Plastics
  Rubber in its natural state is sticky, brittle when cold, and 
  doesn’t keep its shape when warm. Vulcanization solved those 
  problems in the 1850s and made rubber practical for all sorts 
  of uses. In the twentieth century, especially since the Second 
  World War, plastics replaced vulcanized rubber for many of 
  those uses. It’s very likely the ponies don’t have those plastics 
  at all. The only plastic they may have is celluloid, which in real 
  history came out in the 1870s; it was used in movie ﬁ lm and as 
  a substitute for ivory, horn, and other animal products, which 
  were much more expensive. However, it’s also kind of fragile 
  and very ﬂ ammable, which is why in the early twentieth cen-
  tury other materials like Bakelite replaced it.
  Fabrics
  Natural ﬁ bers include cotton, ﬂ ax, hemp, linen, jute, sisal, 
  wool, and silk, among others. Most have been known since 
  ancient times, and as noted in the section on agriculture, the 
  ponies probably are able to produce most of them, and may 
  trade for the rest. Silk comes from butterﬂ y cocoons and wool 
  comes from sheep; the rest are plant products.
  There may be thriving industries for spinning raw ﬁ bers 
  into thread, weaving thread into cloth, and coloring thread and 
  cloth with dyes. All of them are hard work, and unless there 
  are strict work-safety laws, they can do pretty nasty things to 
  the people working in them. It’s probably safe to assume the 
  ponies have such laws!
  Artiﬁ cial ﬁ bers didn’t appear until the twentieth century. 
  A few of them were invented in the early part of the century, 
  but most were invented in the 1940s and later. The ponies 
  probably don’t have any of them.
  Pigments and Dyes
  The stuﬀ  that gives paint its color is called pigment. Most nat-
  ural pigments are mineral — ground-up soil or rock. It’s not 
  hard to guess that many are poisonous and expensive. A few 
  natural pigments did come from plants or animals, often from 
  distant lands. Synthetic (man-made) pigments began to appear 
  in the eighteenth and the ﬁ rst half of the nineteenth century. 
  As chemistry advanced in the late nineteenth century and into 
  the twentieth, most of the old pigments were replaced with 
  cheaper and safer synthetics, and many can’t be found today.
  The show features very bright colors, even (or especially) 
  on buildings and in art painted by ponies. Part of that is ar-
  tistic license, to make the animation pretty and appealing, of 
  course. Some of it may be that mineral pigments are unusually 
  easy for the ponies to ﬁ nd or to get. Magic may play a role in 
  prospecting, among other things; one episode featured a spell 
  to detect gemstones, for instance.
  Before the twentieth century, most dyes came from plants, 
  and many weren’t very vivid; the few that could make bright 
  colors were rare and valuable. The dyes weren’t color-fast, mean-
  ing they didn’t stick well to the ﬁ bers, so washing tended to 
  rinse dyes right out of fabric. (Underwear was invented to keep 
  sweat from getting into clothing, so it didn’t need to be washed 
  as much.) Even today, a lot of washing can make dyes fade, 
  which is why so many advertisements for laundry detergents 
  make a big deal about how bright colors are after using them. ✶
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part Three � Page 6 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  � Transportation �
  C
  arts, wagons, and carriages are the most common 
  vehicles shown in the ﬁ rst season’s episodes, all of them 
  pulled by ponies. The only mechanical vehicles seen so far, both 
  in an episode of the ﬁ rst season and especially throughout the 
  second season, are steam-powered railroad locomotives.
  Railroads
  The earliest known railroad dates back to ancient Greece, and 
  they began to reappear in medieval Europe. Through the six-
  teenth and seventeenth centuries they gradually improved and 
  by 1800 they were pretty well-developed. Trains really were 
  drawn by horses until steam locomotives started appearing in 
  the 1820s. Steel rails started to replace iron in the 1850s. Elec-
  triﬁ ed trains arrived in the 1880s and diesel locomotives began 
  to displace steam in the 1920s.
  The steam locomotives shown on the program are typical 
  of the United States in the 1860s. The rolling stock (train cars, 
  as a group) is smaller than most US designs, and looks more 
  like what was seen in Britain, where railways often use tighter 
  curves and smaller tunnels. That’s probably for good cartoon 
  (and toy) appeal.
  Oddly, one ﬁ rst-season episode shows a team of ponies 
  hauling what seems to be a perfectly functional locomotive 
  for no apparent reason, before a herd of bison try to stop the 
  train. Nobody’s given an oﬃ  cial explanation, but it may have 
  been a last-minute script change to make the scene seem less 
  violent. Bumping shoulders with a pony teamster is one thing; 
  derailing a locomotive is a lot more serious!
  What the episode calls a “private sleeper car” actually is a 
  caboose, a car used as an oﬃ  ce and sleeping space for the train’s 
  crew, as well as a place to keep a look-out for hazards and prob-
  lems with the train or tracks. Modern trains don’t use them 
  because technology reduced crew sizes and made it easier to 
  watch for problems.
  An episode in the second season shows a simpliﬁ ed ca-
  boose, and calls one of the crew a conductor, but that actually 
  was the engineer. A conductor deals with the passengers, taking 
  tickets, answering questions, and so on. An engineer keeps the 
  engine running and controls the train’s operations.
  Railroads have been around in the real world for centu-
  ries. In the show they run from the capital through the small 
  town where the main cast live, and even out to a small frontier 
  town. Railroads seem to serve much of the country — but not 
  all of it. Roads and waterways probably make up the rest of the 
  network.
  Roads
  In major cities, cobblestone streets are common. Highways 
  may be built like Roman roads — some of which still are used 
  today, centuries after they were built — or macadam roads, 
  which arose in the 1770s and 1780s and were the ﬁ rst designed 
  using modern scientiﬁ c methods. Concrete also would be avail-
  able, but it’s more likely to be used on bridges and city streets 
  than on country roads; large blocks of concrete are hard to 
  maintain or repair if they crack or crumble.
  Tarmac and asphalt roads historically showed up in the 
  1920s, when automobile traﬃ  c got heavy enough to cause 
  problems on macadam roads. Since pony technology mostly 
  seems to predate the twentieth century, they probably aren’t 
  able to build, and (without automobiles) really don’t need, 
  roads of this kind.
  Carts, wagons, and carriages seem to be well-designed 
  and well-built. Leaf-spring suspensions, iron-strapped spoke 
  wheels, full collars and breastcollars, and whippletrees all date 
  back to the Middle Ages. The ponies plainly have developed all 
  these devices to as near perfection as their technology allows.
  Seafaring
  Believe it or not, the most energy-eﬃ  cient form of transporta-
  tion ever invented is the mule-drawn canal barge! Canals and 
  rivers even today remain important “roads”, and before good 
  roads and good railroads became common in the nineteenth 
  century, they often were the only way to get large cargoes 
  around. Since ponies usually provide their own power, it’s easy 
  to imagine single ponies or teams towing barges the same way 
  they do trains and wagons.
  The show hasn’t touched on the ocean, so the narrator 
  who wants to do so has to rely on real-world history as a guide. 
  In the 1850s, iron started to replace wood for building hulls, at 
  ﬁ rst in warships, then gradually in other kinds of ships. (War 
  is, perhaps lamentably, the real world’s biggest source of inven-
  tion.) Steel started to replace iron in the 1870s.
  The ﬁ rst paddlewheel steamboats and steamships ap-
  peared in the late eighteenth century, primarily for river and 
  canal use. Screw propulsion appeared in the 1840s, mostly 
  on ocean-going ships — especially warships. Screws are more 
  powerful than paddlewheels, but paddlewheels can work in 
  much shallower water.
  The age of sail wasn’t over quite yet, though. Clipper ships 
  and full-rigged ships served at least from the late eighteenth 
  century through most of the nineteenth. The windjammer 
  with its iron (or, later, steel) hull and scientiﬁ c design started 
  to take over from them in the 1870s; it could compete with 
  early steamships, and the last windjammers didn’t retire from 
  commercial service until after the Second World War!
  Aviation
  The ponies apparently use hot-air balloons and airships a lot, 
  and one episode shows an early form of glider; both look like 
  designs dating to the late nineteenth century. A late-twentieth-
  century hang-glider is shown once, mostly as a sight gag. Pow-
  ered aircraft are completely absent, other than a very cartoony 
  pedal-driven gyrocopter-like gadget, which may have been put 
  in the script when the character using it was changed from a 
  pegasus pony to an earth pony during the show’s development.
  Airplanes probably aren’t a priority for ponies, since pega-
  sus ponies already can ﬂ y and can draw chariots and wagons 
  through the air. The ponies seem to understand the science of 
  ﬂ ying, which is why they can build gliders, but they don’t have 
  the powerful engines needed for aviation — steam plants aren’t 
  very eﬃ  cient for use on aircraft. ✶
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part Three � Page 7 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  � Information �
  P
  robably the wildest variations on the show are in in-
  formation technology. Books and phonograph recordings 
  are important media, as they really were in the later part of the 
  nineteenth century. On the other hand, a brainwave monitor, 
  a dual-turntable DJ deck, and a heart-monitor cutie mark have 
  been shown, all based on electronic technology that didn’t ex-
  ist before the 1970s.
  Print
  The oldest mass medium got its start with movable lead type 
  and the printing press in the ﬁ fteenth century. It revolution-
  ized how information was stored and moved and made educa-
  tion and literacy enormously easier to get. Still, aside from mi-
  nor improvements, it didn’t change much over the next three 
  hundred years.
  In the nineteenth century printing was getting faster and 
  more eﬀ ective thanks to steam power, but it wasn’t keeping 
  up with growing demand. New high-speed rotary presses came 
  out in the 1840s, giving print houses the ability to churn out 
  mountains of books, newspapers, and magazines. The ex-
  istence of a large library owned by or at least available to a 
  young student, and of a public library in a small town, argue 
  that books are common and inexpensive for the ponies.
  Newspapers probably are the main source of news. Every 
  large or important city would have at least one daily paper. 
  Most large towns may have dailies and certainly would have 
  weekly papers. Smaller towns and villages may have weeklies 
  or may depend on nearby larger urban centers for newspapers. 
  The episode about a school newpaper showed a couple of 
  cartoony linotype machines, which appeared in the 1880s. These 
  made it possible for newspapers to expand beyond eight pages 
  and sparked an explosion in magazine publishing. There prob-
  ably are scores or hundreds of magazines across the country, 
  on every subject under the sun (or moon, if one prefers).
  Photography
  Both a bellows camera and single-lens reﬂ ex (SLR) cameras 
  are shown on the same episode. Bellows cameras have existed 
  since the 1850s, but SLR cameras came out in the 1950s — an-
  other case of the artists using a familiar device for the audi-
  ence’s beneﬁ t. Practical color ﬁ lm started to appear at the be-
  ginning of the twentieth century, and digital cameras started 
  to appear at the end of the twentieth century. Silent movies 
  started showing in the 1890s and sound was added in the 1920s.
  Sound
  Wind-up phonographs invented in the 1870s played scratchy, 
  tinny monaural (not stereo) sound recordings on waxed cylin-
  ders. In the early twentieth century, new models played re-
  cordings on ﬂ at shellac disks; vinyl came later, in the 1950s. 
  Compact discs appeared in the 1980s, but records still are 
  made because some people like their sound better. The only 
  other audio equipment shown are the previously mentioned 
  DJ deck and some microphones, which are obvious examples 
  of the animators using devices familiar to a modern audience 
  in order to set the right kind of tone for a speciﬁ c scene.
  Computing Devices
  Various forms of abacus have been around for thousands of 
  years. Adding machines ﬁ rst appeared in the 1640s and became 
  widespread in the mid-nineteenth century. Charles Babbage in 
  the 1830s designed and tried to build giant mechanical calcu-
  lating machines, but never got enough money or cooperation 
  to ﬁ nish any. Even if he had, the industry of the time might not 
  have been quite up to the task. Electronic computers weren’t 
  invented until the middle of the twentieth century.
  Writing and Signage
  In early episodes the ponies’ written language was shown as 
  pictographic, using symbols from their everyday lives and pos-
  sibly inﬂ uenced by cutie marks. Later it’s shown as vaguely like 
  the Latin alphabet used by English and other European lan-
  guages, but smudged so it doesn’t look exactly like any real lan-
  guage. The narrator’s probably free to decide what she wants it 
  to look like. Signs hanging outside shops are pictorial, without 
  any writing, which is how almost all signs looked before lit-
  eracy became common in the nineteenth century.
  Mail and Telecommunications
  The electric telegraph made its commercial debut in the 1830s; 
  telegraph lines often were laid alongside the railroads that 
  were expanding rapidly during the same time period. People 
  experimented with telephones all through the nineteenth cen-
  tury, but practical devices didn’t appear until the 1870s. Radio 
  began to appear in the 1890s and television is a product of the 
  mid-twentieth century.
  The second season’s shown telegrams, so there probably 
  is a telegraph network, but there are no telephones, much less 
  radio or television. It’s easy to understand why — calling up the 
  princess for a quick friendship report, rather than using magi-
  cal parchments and dragon-breath, wouldn’t be nearly as much 
  fun for viewers.
  Instead, they probably use a really good postal service, just 
  as people used before all that newfangled stuﬀ  came along. For 
  packages and cheap postage, earth ponies probably haul large 
  vans (enclosed wagons) from town to town. For faster but still 
  inexpensive rates, earth ponies and some unicorn ponies may 
  gallop with saddlebags. More expensive express mail could be 
  sent by pegasus pony. (The obvious puns about “pony express” 
  and “air mail” come to mind.) Deliveries might come twice a 
  day — morning and afternoon — seven days a week, and city 
  ponies might even send letters or postcards across town. They 
  probably don’t use postal or ZIP (Zone Improvement Pro-
  gram) codes, however; those were introduced after the Second 
  World War in the middle of the twentieth century.
  Sending mail by magic probably would be rarest, fastest, 
  and of course most expensive, unless a pony happens to have an 
  advantage like a live-in dragon. Speaking of said live-in dragon, 
  the show’s creator has said she ﬁ gured, after he was hatched 
  by the show’s main character, that the older princess reared 
  him and taught him the spells for sending and receiving letters. 
  Later he was reunited with the show’s main character because 
  the princess thought the pony who hatched him should be a 
  part of his life. ✶
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part Three � Page 8 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  � Medicine �
  I
  n the eighteenth century, medicine was turning from 
  an art into a science. By the beginning of the nineteenth 
  century, this medical revolution was well under way. The “wild 
  card” for pony medicine is magic, which may aﬀ ect it more 
  than anything else except possibly agriculture.
  General Health Care
  Medical care probably isn’t hard for ponies to get, since they 
  live in a wealthy, peaceful country, and many of them may be 
  diligent about getting check-ups and preventive care, a good 
  example to follow. Still, they apparently don’t have universal 
  health care; a goal mentioned by one of the show’s main char-
  acters is saving up to get a replacement hip joint for her grand-
  mother. Of course, joint replacements didn’t come around in 
  the real world until after the Second World War, so this may 
  be another case of the writers stretching things for the sake of 
  a good joke.
  It’s sad but true that infant mortality was the biggest 
  reason populations didn’t grow quickly before modern medi-
  cine — too many children didn’t make it past their ﬁ rst couple 
  of birthdays. Since the ponies live in a fairy-tale land, they may 
  not have had as much trouble with that in their history. Be-
  sides, they probably consider prenatal and postnatal care of 
  both dam (mother) and foal to be really important. In another 
  century the land may be covered with ponies!
  Pharmaceuticals
  Germ theory evolved through the early part of the nineteenth 
  century, and in the 1870s and later matured into its modern 
  form. Inoculation against disease was introduced to the West 
  in the eighteenth century, but in the 1880s and after vaccina-
  tions improved in eﬀ ectiveness, technique, and the number of 
  diseases covered.
  In the 1890s, aspirin was derived from willow bark, a tra-
  ditional painkiller sometimes applied by brewing it into tea. 
  Antibiotics and other antibacterial drugs started to show up 
  in the early twentieth century. It’s possible, though, that the 
  magical nature of the ponies’ world may give them some ad-
  vantages in discovering and making pharmaceutical remedies 
  sooner than in the real world.
  Not only do the ponies have all the plants of the real 
  world, grown by them or imported from other lands, but there 
  seem to be lots of magical plants, such as the blue plant that 
  plays pranks on unlucky creatures who touch it. The narrator’s 
  as free as the writers to think up new ones, especially ones 
  important to the story.
  Alert viewers may wonder how the ponies can dismiss 
  curses and ghosts as superstition, yet accept magic as a fact 
  of their lives. How can a cure for the blue plant’s pranks be 
  “natural”? In the ponies’ world, that plant is natural. The cure 
  for it would be natural too. Magic works by laws that can be 
  discovered and written down. Curses, ghosts, and other prod-
  ucts of superstition can’t be explained the same way; there’s 
  no way for them to work under the laws of science — and to 
  the ponies, magic is a science too. It’s as natural as physics, 
  chemistry, or biology.
  Surgery and Dental Care
  Surgery, including dental surgery, is very old; there’s evidence 
  of it happening even in prehistoric times. Still, it wasn’t until 
  the nineteenth century that surgery started getting less hor-
  rible and more reliable. A big reason was a better understand-
  ing of the body and how it’s put together, but a lot of other 
  factors contributed too.
  Early anæsthetics were around in the early nineteenth 
  century, and better ones, along with better ways of using them, 
  began to show up in the 1840s. Sterilization started preventing 
  infection in the 1860s. Primitive blood transfusions appeared 
  in the 1810s, with improvements like blood typing in the 1900s.
  Toothbrushes also are ancient, but by the nineteenth cen-
  tury they were starting to look like modern ones, and early in 
  the century the ﬁ rst toothpastes were showing up. Dental ﬂ oss 
  made of silk was invented at about the same time, but didn’t go 
  on the market until the 1880s. (Today it’s made of nylon, which 
  was invented in the 1930s.)
  Food Safety and Preservation
  Canning was invented in the 1810s, but older ways to preserve 
  foods, including salting, drying, pickling, and candying, have 
  been around for centuries or millennia. Pasteurization, a prod-
  uct of the 1860s, cut down on food poisoning.
  The icebox, invented at the beginning of the nineteenth 
  century, kept food cool —  but a block of ice had to be put in it 
  to do the job. The ice gradually melted, of course, and had to 
  be replaced every so often; the meltwater had to be drained, 
  too. A whole industry grew up around collecting, storing, and 
  delivering ice.
  Large-scale refrigeration came about in the 1850s, at ﬁ rst 
  for use in warehouses by brewers, butchers, and other busi-
  nesses, including ice houses, which supplied ice for iceboxes. 
  Refrigeration wasn’t scaled down for household use until the 
  1920s, after electriﬁ cation became common across the indus-
  trialized world.
  Magic
  Earth-pony magic is centered on the land, living things, and the 
  arts (both creative and mechanical). Medicine, both for ponies 
  and for other creatures, clearly is a part of that. Consider that 
  the nurses shown on several episodes are earth ponies. Some 
  unicorns apparently have spell talents related to medicine, too.
  Earth magic probably allows a pony to sense where an in-
  jury or illness is in a patient, and may guide the pony in choos-
  ing a treatment. It might be a subtle thing: something “feels 
  right” to do. Even so, it’s likely the ponies study medicine as a 
  science; if nothing else, they probably want to learn why and 
  how their magic guides them, to double-check what they do 
  and to avoid making mistakes.
  Spell magic is more spectacular and obvious, but it can’t 
  work miracles. A unicorn pony almost certainly can’t heal a pa-
  tient all at once. Instead, what a spell can do probably is similar 
  to a physical exam or a surgical operation, or a treatment of 
  about that level of eﬀ ort. If it were able to do much more than 
  that, it wouldn’t be a spell, it would be a super-power. ✶
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part Three � Page 9 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  � Military �
  T
  he existence of a Royal Guard and of barding — armor 
  worn by equines — are signs of a military tradition that 
  may come originally from the ancient pegasus tribe. The show 
  called the tribe’s leader a commander, but that’s a modern navy 
  rank equal to the army rank of lieutenant colonel. This is a com-
  mon mix-up because a similar term, commanding oﬃ  cer, means 
  an oﬃ  cer of any rank in charge of a military unit. A more ﬁ t-
  ting one-word rank for a military dictator would be general.
  The Royal Guard
  The modern soldiery seen most often is the Royal Guard. 
  Its primary role appears to be guarding the royal family and 
  the capital. It also carries out important royal errands, such 
  as conveying the protégé of the sun princess, and her dragon 
  sidekick, in a sky chariot to the small town that would become 
  their new home.
  Unicorn ponies have been shown providing security at 
  festivals or other public gatherings. Pegasus ponies often ﬂ y 
  escort for the princesses and act as bodyguards during their 
  visits. A few earth-pony guards also have been shown, starting 
  with the last episodes of the second season.
  Guardsponies’ barding looks to be gold-plated and deco-
  rative but functional. Its design is fanciful, borrowing from 
  lorica segmentata — the style of armor historically worn by Ro-
  man legionaries — and from real barding worn by destriers, the 
  warhorses of medieval European knights. The helm (helmet) 
  is modeled loosely on the Roman galea (gay-lee-ah), complete 
  with ceremonial crest. The design may have come down from 
  the ancient pegasus tribe, which apparently used similar armor.
  Oddly, the guards’ uniform appearance isn’t limited to 
  their barding; most of the guards are shown in the episodes 
  with gray coats and white tails or white coats with blue tails. 
  The real reason probably is to make life easier for the anima-
  tors, who can duplicate one ready-made model as many times 
  as they need for a scene. Maybe the armor is enchanted to 
  change the way its wearer looks, and when a guard takes it oﬀ , 
  he changes back to his normal appearance.
  This enchantment would help fulﬁ ll the role of a uniform, 
  which is to reinforce a sense of group identity and belonging 
  for every member of a military force. Note that the barding 
  covers a guard’s cutie mark; perhaps the magic of a cutie mark 
  is strong enough to overcome such an enchantment!
  The show’s creator has said that guardsponies are paid for 
  their service and hinted that the guard is a volunteer force. 
  Certainly they seem to be well-trained and well-disciplined, 
  which is easier to achieve for an all-volunteer service than 
  for a conscripted (drafted) force. Beyond this, however, little is 
  known of the guard; from here, the blanks must be ﬁ lled in 
  with guesswork based on real military history.
  The Roman inﬂ uence in the Guard’s barding has led to 
  speculation that the guard is organized, like the Roman army, 
  into centuries, maniples or cohorts, and legions, with oﬃ  cer ranks 
  like centurion, prefect, tribune, and legate. Another possibility is 
  to use British or European army organization and ranks of the 
  nineteenth century, in keeping with the era the show’s creator 
  seemed to have in mind.
  The Guard seems to be the closest thing to an army the 
  ponies have, and even if it isn’t very big, there’s probably more 
  of it than is shown on any of the episodes. There must be room 
  for all three tribes of ponies, but whatever organization is used 
  probably makes each unit all one kind of pony. A ﬂ ying unit 
  wouldn’t be much good if it isn’t made up completely of pega-
  sus ponies, after all.
  In the nineteenth century, armies had three basic branch-
  es: the infantry, the cavalry, and the artillery. The infantry was 
  an army’s main strength. The cavalry was fast and mobile. The 
  artillery was hard-hitting at a distance, but if an enemy got 
  close, it was very vulnerable. The three kinds of ponies are sort 
  of the same way, if one thinks of tough, strong earth ponies as 
  infantry, fast-ﬂ ying pegasus ponies as (air) cavalry, and spell-
  casting but less rugged unicorn ponies as artillery.
  A pet tortoise is named “Tank”, after the heaviest type of 
  armored ﬁ ghting vehicle — but tanks were invented, in Britain, 
  during the First World War in the 1910s! (To keep the real goal 
  secret, the government said they were going to be “mobile wa-
  ter tanks” to carry water for the troops, and the name stuck.)
  The ponies have ﬁ reworks, and bullets and cannon are 
  mentioned, but spears are the only personal weapons shown, 
  as part of the Royal Guard’s equipment. That makes sense for 
  a children’s program, and it’s tough to ﬁ gure out how ponies 
  would use the spears, or any other weapons, for that matter. 
  Still, it’s possible they can make and use ﬁ rearms or other 
  weapons that were around in the nineteenth century.
  The Pegasus Flying Service
  In the ﬁ rst season, the pegasus military ﬂ ying service was pre-
  sented as being sort of like the US Navy’s Blue Angels æro-
  batic team — right down to a similar livery, or color and design 
  scheme, of blue trimmed with gold. The third season made it 
  clear that the organization is much larger, possibly a full arm of 
  the nation’s military in its own right.
  One episode took place at the academy where cadets (of-
  ﬁ cer candidates) are trained, though the script probably was 
  inﬂ uenced more by Hollywood movies than real oﬃ  cer train-
  ing schools. Also, the major character starring in the episode 
  seems very young to be a cadet, since the show’s creator has 
  said that she and her friends probably are in their teens.
  A possible explanation is that she and her group are going 
  through a junior training course, kind of like the US military’s 
  JROTC (Junior Reserve Oﬃ  cer Training Corps) for high-
  school students. In that case, young ponies who pass the junior 
  course would be on a “fast track” to promotion when they be-
  come oﬃ  cers after graduating from the real training program.
  The Citizenry
  On some episodes the main characters, and others in town, get 
  together to solve a problem — at least once because of a royal 
  summons. Before the twentieth century, many countries kept 
  small armies (because armies are expensive) and called up citi-
  zens in time of trouble, and the ponies seem to have a similar 
  militia tradition. An unorganized militia is made up of anyone 
  who responds to the call. An organized militia, like a volunteer 
  ﬁ re department, has oﬃ  cial members and support from the 
  government, but it’s not a full-time organization. ➧
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part Three � Page 10 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  Military Ranks and Organization
  During the nineteenth century, many people knew something 
  about the army and navy. Over the course of the twentieth 
  century, especially the second half, that became much less 
  true — especially as technology and organization got more 
  complicated and attitudes about war changed. Today most 
  people outside the military know very little about it.
  To provide a little guidance, here are some generic tables 
  based on a mix of how Britain and the United States handled 
  military aﬀ airs during the late nineteenth century. Military 
  ranks and organization evolved over time as traditions, tech-
  nology, and force sizes changed and developed. Marine corps 
  ranks and organization tend to be similar to army ranks and 
  organization, but may be slightly diﬀ erent here and there.
  Army  Commissioned oﬃ  cer ranks  Navy
  Field Marshal* [UK] or
  General of the Army* [US]
  Admiral of the Fleet* [UK] or
  Fleet Admiral* [US]
  General
  Admiral
  Lieutenant general
  Vice admiral
  Major general
  Rear admiral
  Brigadier general
  Commodore
  Colonel
  Captain
  Lieutenant colonel
  Commander
  Major
  Lieutenant commander
  Captain
  Lieutenant
  Lieutenant [UK] or
  ﬁ rst lieutenant [US]
  Sublieutenant [UK] or
  lieutenant (junior grade) [US]
  Ensign/cornet† [UK] or
  second lieutenant [US]
  Midshipman [UK] or
  ensign [US]
  * Used only in wartime †  Ensign in infantry, cornet in cavalry
  General ranks as a group don’t have a special name. Colo-
  nel, lieutenant colonel, and major are ﬁ eld ranks because they 
  usually are in the ﬁ eld (while generals may be at headquarters 
  planning strategy). Captain and lieutenant ranks are company 
  ranks because they are in company-size units or smaller.
  Commodores and admirals used special ﬂ ags to show 
  which ships they were on, so these ranks are called ﬂ ag ranks 
  (and the ships are called ﬂ agships). Captain, commander, and 
  lieutenant commander are senior ranks. Sublieutenant/lieuten-
  ant (junior grade) and midshipman/ensign are junior ranks.
  General and ﬂ ag oﬃ  cers tend to be at least in their forties, 
  and usually are older. Field and senior oﬃ  cers tend to be at 
  least in their twenties, and usually thirties or forties. Company 
  and junior oﬃ  cers tend to be in their thirties or younger.
  Army grades — Enlisted ranks — Navy rates
  Sergeant major
  Chief petty oﬃ  cer
  First sergeant
  Petty oﬃ  cer ﬁ rst class
  Staﬀ  sergeant
  Petty oﬃ  cer second class
  Sergeant
  Petty oﬃ  cer third class
  Corporal
  Leading seaman
  Private
  Able seaman
  Corporals, sergeants, and petty oﬃ  cers are noncommis-
  sioned oﬃ  cer (NCO) grades or rates. NCOs assist oﬃ  cers, help 
  teach new oﬃ  cers and privates or seamen, and generally act as 
  the “glue” holding together a military force. In Britain enlisted 
  ranks used to be called “other ranks”.
  The terms grade (army) or rate (navy) may be used in place 
  of “rank” for enlisted personnel. Navies use another word, rat-
  ing, for an NCO’s job specialty; example ratings are boatswain’s 
  mate or bos’n, quartermaster, gunner’s mate, master at arms, 
  cook, armorer, and coxswain (senior NCO in charge of a boat).
  Army organization: A unit contains two to eight — or 
  sometimes more — units of the next smaller level, depending 
  on what kind of organization’s used. A large unit, usually com-
  pany or bigger, also may have a small “headquarters” unit made 
  up of the commanding oﬃ  cer, his staﬀ , some guards, and others 
  such as couriers and clerks. Units may be lettered, numbered, 
  or (regiments or larger) named. Confusingly, a big enough na-
  tional army may contain several units called “armies”!
  Infantry Cavalry Artillery
  Personnel
  Led by
  Army (contains all branches)
  80,000–200,000 General
  Corps (contains all branches)
  20,000–45,000
  Lt. gen.
  Division
  Division
  Division
  10,000–15,000
  Mjr. gen.
  Brigade
  Brigade
  Brigade
  3000–5000
  Brig. gen.
  Regiment Regiment Regiment
  1500–3000
  Colonel
  Battalion Squadron Battalion
  300–1300
  Lt. col.
  Company
  Troop
  Battery
  80–255 (4–8 guns) Cap./mjr.
  Platoon
  Platoon
  —
  26–55
  Lieut.
  Section
  Section
  Section
  8–13 (2–4 guns)
  Cpl./sgt.
  Squad
  Squad
  —
  8–13
  Cpl./sgt.
  Navy organization: A sailing warship was a man-of-war; 
  a commercial ship was a merchantman. The British Royal Navy 
  classiﬁ ed men-of-war by rates — ﬁ rst to third rate for ships 
  (larger men-of-war) and fourth to sixth rate for frigates (smaller 
  men-of-war) — based on how many cannon they carried. Men-
  of-war that didn’t ﬁ t neatly were unrated, with names depend-
  ing on their designs: brig, sloop, corvette, cutter, and so on.
  Usually, the most powerful men-of-war were organized 
  into squadrons, but smaller men-of-war were organized into ﬂ o-
  tillas instead. Any man-of-war cruising independently, not as-
  signed to a squadron or ﬂ otilla, was called a cruiser. As sails and 
  wooden hulls gave way to steam and iron hulls during the late 
  nineteenth century, everything changed. New types of war-
  ships needed new names and new organizations, and things 
  didn’t settle down again until the early twentieth century. ✶
  Navy unit
  Men-of-war
  Led by
  Fleet
  Several sqdns./ﬂ ots.
  Admiral
  Sqdrn./ﬂ otilla
  4–8
  Commodore/r. adm.
  Division
  2–4
  Sr. capt./commodore
  Half-division
  1–2
  Senior captain
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part Three � Page 11 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  � Society �
  W
  hat makes the show so attractive to so many people 
  is the obvious eﬀ ort the creator and the staﬀ  put into 
  inventing lovable, believable characters and building an inter-
  esting world for them to live in. The company that owns the 
  show had their own ideas, but they had the wisdom to take the 
  best parts from both and, with a few exceptions, the courage 
  to give the writers a surprisingly free hand in telling the stories.
  Because the ponies’ country is a land of magic, a lot of 
  fairy-tale ideas are used. The country is ruled by a pair of prin-
  cesses (royalty) and, at least as originally written, it had a peer-
  age (nobility). More recent ideas from fantasy ﬁ ction also were 
  adopted, such as moving the background from the Middle 
  Ages to around the Industrial Revolution.
  The show rightly focuses closely on the seven main charac-
  ters and the princesses. This does mean that unless some piece 
  of information is important to one of the episodes, it usually 
  doesn’t get mentioned and may not even be developed. Some-
  times one episode might contradict another, possibly because 
  of tight timing in the scriptwriting or because a script just can’t 
  work with what another episode established. The narrator will 
  have to decide whether to worry about contradictions and, if 
  she does take them into account, how to resolve them.
  The Royalty
  In the original planning for the show, the country was going 
  to be ruled by a queen. The title was changed to “princess” 
  out of a belief expressed by company executives that animated 
  movies over the last few decades have associated queens with 
  villains, and princesses with heroines, in people’s minds. (Note 
  that the changelings are ruled by a queen, which only reinforc-
  es this odd idea!) After her return, the moon princess became 
  co-ruler, working at night while her sister works during the day.
  Technically, only members of a country’s ruling family are 
  royalty. The royal sisters don’t have any other siblings. They 
  do, or did, have parents, but nothing much has been said about 
  those parents. The bride in the royal wedding is a niece of the 
  ruling princesses, and also is a princess herself, possibly de-
  scended from the old rulers of the crystal ponies.
  The show’s creator has mentioned a very distant nephew 
  of the princesses’ mother, who was going to be a duke (a no-
  ble), but ended up being a prince (a royal). This was changed 
  because of a concern that, in places where people aren’t famil-
  iar with European titles of nobility, nobody would know what 
  a duke is. It’s a good point — after all, explaining those titles is 
  part of why this section was written!
  The Nobility
  Below the royalty are the nobility, families who — usually but 
  not always — have their own ﬁ efs (lands they hold). A noble 
  might owe allegiance, called fealty, to a higher-ranking noble, 
  and so on, up to a noble who would be directly under the 
  crown. A vassal is anyone who owes fealty to someone else, 
  who in turn is called the vassal’s lord. Relationships among no-
  ble families, and between noble and royal families, got pretty 
  confusing between the end of the Western Roman Empire and 
  the start of the modern world in the seventeenth century.
  Titles of nobility (and royalty) usually are hereditary, passed 
  down from parent to child, except for so-called life titles. Life 
  titles might be granted as rewards or, historically, sold to raise 
  funds for the royal government, though polite people didn’t 
  say that in so many words. Such titles might or might not have 
  lands attached to them, but the bearers generally weren’t eligi-
  ble for membership in the upper house of parliament or other 
  legislative body, as hereditary nobles would be.
  The show hasn’t mentioned nobility or a parliament, but 
  judging from the creator’s comments, she obviously meant 
  for the ponies to have the former if not the latter. How much 
  of a role the nobility has in the governing and day-to-day life 
  of the country is an open question. Are the princesses abso-
  lute rulers, or does the country have a parliament that makes 
  laws? Fan-written stories have come up with a whole variety of 
  guesses, and the narrator, too, may have to ﬁ gure out answers 
  that suit her and the players.
  Styles, Dignities, and Territories
  To keep things simple, the table of ranks lists only the most 
  common verbal style, or form of address; diﬀ erent styles might 
  be used in letters or on envelopes, among other places. A digni-
  ty is the title itself, separate from properties or territories that 
  may go with the title; both of those are listed too. There are 
  many other ranks that aren’t listed because they were rare or 
  used only in small areas. Most titles are pronounced in English 
  as one might expect — but viscount is pronounced vye-count.
  Originally, the word “gentle” literally meant “noble”. 
  That’s why today the polite way to address a crowd of people is 
  as “ladies and gentlemen”; once upon a time, that phrase actu-
  ally meant “noblewomen and noblemen”. Calling a commoner 
  a “lady” or “gentleman” wasn’t a good idea, and even worse was 
  failing to pay proper respect to a noble or royal, which often 
  was a crime and still is considered terribly rude.
  Through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, society 
  got more relaxed about styles and obeisances (gestures of respect 
  such as bows or curtseys). It may be enough to call a noble or 
  royal “sir” or “ma’am” after using the proper style at least once 
  when meeting that person during an event.
  A pony might address one of the sisters ﬁ rst as “Your Roy-
  al Highness” and after that as “Ma’am”. Addressing her ﬁ rst as 
  “Princess” or “Your Highness” would be quite informal, though 
  a student or close friend might be allowed to do it. For the new 
  princesses, who might not rank quite as high, one idea is to 
  use old European styles of “Serene Highness” and “Illlustrious 
  Highness”, with just plain “Highness” being lower still.
  A prince/princess or duke/duchess may or may not rule a 
  sovereign (independent) country. A sovereign prince or princess 
  rules a principality; a sovereign duke or duchess rules a duchy. A 
  non-sovereign prince or princess usually is the son or daughter 
  of a king or queen, and a non-sovereign duke or duchess is a 
  noble. The pony princesses, of course, are sovereign and tech-
  nically rule a principality.
  If a country has one ruler, which usually was the case in 
  real history, that ruler is a monarch, from Greek monos (one) 
  and archon (ruler), ruling a monarchy. There are a few historical 
  cases, though, of two rulers, like the royal sisters; each of the 
  rulers would be a diarch, ruling a diarchy, instead. ➧
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part Three � Page 12 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  Knighthoods
  A knight or dame belongs to a chivalric order (association of 
  knights). A country may have several diﬀ erent orders, each 
  with centuries of history behind it. Some orders may have spe-
  cial privileges or duties, handed down over generations from 
  times gone by. They might be open only to certain kinds of 
  people — maybe only women can be dubbed (inducted) into one 
  of them, and only people who’ve distinguished themselves in 
  battle can be dubbed into another. Often there are ranks with-
  in an order; a new knight may start at the lowest and may be re-
  warded later with higher rank if he or she has done something 
  new that deserves recognition. Knighthoods aren’t hereditary, 
  though, and knights technically are high-ranking commoners.
  A narrator can use her imagination to create orders and 
  invent their histories, ranks, privileges, and duties. A ﬂ owing 
  title like “Dame Commander of the Order of the Golden Sun” 
  or “Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Harmony” can add a 
  lot of color to a character, especially if there’s a story behind it. 
  Knighthoods also are a possible reward for player ponies who 
  do something really spectacular.
  The Commons
  Anyone who isn’t royalty or nobility is a commoner. In a modern 
  society like the ponies have, this includes the poor and the 
  working class, rich merchants and landowners, and the middle 
  class in between. As in Britain during the late nineteenth cen-
  tury, some ponies apparently are interested in ﬁ nding ways into 
  the nobility (or the royalty). Most ponies seem happy with the 
  way things are, though, and they show a reverence and genuine 
  aﬀ ection for the princesses, who clearly love their little ponies 
  in return. They’ve built a wealthy, peaceful country, and the 
  princesses help make sure it stays that way.
  Cutie Marks
  This unique aspect of the ponies has been a great way for the 
  writers to talk about growing up. It’s central to pony society, 
  and the narrator and players should keep that in mind. Much is 
  made on the show of how a mark’s supposed to reﬂ ect a pony’s 
  talents, but a look at various marks shows that some are kind 
  of abstract, and for others it’s a stretch to make the connec-
  tion. The narrator and players probably don’t have to be too 
  fussy about a pony’s mark, and a mark that isn’t obvious can be 
  something to build a story around: “But . . . what does it mean?”
  Rank (male or female)
  Class
  Most Common Verbal Style
  Dignity
  Territory
  Emperor or empress
  Imperial
  His/Her/Your Imperial Majesty (HIM)
  —
  Empire
  King or queen
  Royalty
  His/Her/Your Majesty (HM)
  Kingdom or queendom
  Kingdom
  Prince or princess
  Royalty
  His/Her/Your Royal Highness (HRH)
  Princedom
  (Principality)
  Duke or duchess
  Nobility
  His/Her/Your Grace
  Dukedom
  Duchy
  Marquess or marchioness
  Nobility
  My Lord/Lady, Your Lordship/Ladyship
  Marquessate or marquisate
  March
  Earl/count or countess
  Nobility
  My Lord/Lady, Your Lordship/Ladyship
  Earldom
  Earldom or county
  Viscount or viscountess
  Nobility
  My Lord/Lady, Your Lordship/Ladyship
  Viscountship
  Viscountcy
  Baron or baroness
  Nobility
  My Lord/Lady, Your Lordship/Ladyship
  Barony
  Barony
  Baronet or baronetess
  Gentry
  Sir or Dame [First or Full Name]
  —
  —
  Knight or dame
  Gentry
  Sir or Dame [First or Full Name]
  —
  —
  Money
  The ponies have a cash economy, using money rather than barter 
  for most business. Their currency’s called the bit, likely based 
  on “two bits”, a nickname for the US quarter: In the eighteenth 
  century, a popular Spanish coin called the real could be broken 
  into eight parts, so two bits were a quarter of a coin; that’s also 
  the source of the phrase “pieces of eight”. The bit seems to be 
  a small, thick gold coin, and there’s been no sign of paper bills. 
  “Cents”, from Latin centum meaning “hundred”, are mentioned 
  on one episode, so there probably are 100 cents in a bit.
  They may have checks (or cheques) and letters of credit, 
  banks, and perhaps even stock markets. They probably don’t 
  have credit cards, charge cards, or other forms of cards; those 
  were invented in the mid-twentieth century and later.
  They do have income tax. In an early episode, a pony oﬀ ers 
  to “do” the main character’s taxes for one of her ball tickets!
  Cuisine
  Since the ponies are herbivores, eating mostly plant materials, 
  their foods don’t include any meats, though they do use dairy 
  products and eggs. They cook some dishes, such as soups, but 
  others are eaten raw, such as salads. Sandwiches seem to be 
  popular. More than anything else, though, baking seems to be 
  the central pillar of pony cuisine. Not all baking is sweet — cal-
  zones, for instance, are savory — so whole meals might be 
  baked goods. As with building materials, a good narrator can 
  make a place come alive partly by describing local diﬀ erences 
  in foods and cooking.
  Preserving foods by pickling and salting have been around 
  thousands of years. Canning was invented in the early nine-
  teenth century; iceboxes and large refrigerators were invented 
  mid-century, but household refrigerators came in the 1920s.
  Music
  The nineteenth century was a period of transition. The for-
  mal kinds of music that people today lump together as “clas-
  sical” gradually gave way to popular music such as ragtime 
  and jazz, which arose from minstrel music and other sources 
  as sheet music became widely available and audio recording 
  became possible. Rock and roll developed out of jazz in the 
  1950s. Popular music existed before the nineteenth century, 
  and “classical” music still is written today; it’s just that they 
  switched places in terms of how well-known they are. ➧
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part Three � Page 13 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  Education and Apprenticeship
  Foals go to school. That might seem trivial, but it’s important. 
  A government-supported universal education system was rare 
  before the eighteenth century. Even in the nineteenth cen-
  tury many children only got a few years of schooling, espe-
  cially those who helped out on family farms (which was most 
  of them). It’s no coincidence the growth of such schools hap-
  pened during and after the Industrial Revolution.
  Before industrialization, societies depended mostly on ag-
  riculture and on “cottage industries” — small businesses such 
  as smithies, shops, and other establishments run by individuals 
  or families. Many boys (and even some girls) learned by doing, 
  through apprenticeships, helping out and being taught by the 
  masters of the businesses. Once they were ready they became 
  journeymen, wandering, working, and learning more about their 
  trades from other masters. Eventually, if they were able, they 
  would try to pass exams before committees of local masters to 
  become masters themselves, and set up their own workshops 
  and businesses.
  There were universities, but they mostly taught things like 
  law, theology, and other esoteric subjects, and mostly were at-
  tended by the wealthy. In a lot of fantasy ﬁ ction, magic usually 
  qualiﬁ es as an esoteric subject, with its own special schools 
  or colleges, either independent or as part of universities. The 
  princess’s school for gifted unicorns follows that tradition. 
  Universities started taking their current form during the early 
  modern period in the seventeenth century.
  As the Industrial Revolution went on, the need to educate 
  people beyond what they could learn in apprenticeships got 
  more and more urgent, especially the need to teach basic lit-
  eracy, the ability to read and write. Finally the apprenticeship 
  system as the primary way to educate young people collapsed, 
  and only traces of it remain. An organized system of formal ed-
  ucation in schools developed to take its place, and that’s what 
  most people go through today.
  One of the main characters helps run a family farm. An-
  other is a clothing designer who seems to have earned her mas-
  tery and runs a boutique. (One episode shows her as a ﬁ lly 
  sewing in the same boutique, so maybe she was an apprentice 
  there.) Yet another w0rks at a bakery. Two others may be in 
  public service. The show’s central character is a student, pos-
  sibly on a royal stipend, and may be the town librarian. That 
  much responsibility suggests the characters are in their early 
  twenties, but the show’s creator described their maturity as 
  being in the range of twelve to eighteen: young enough to learn 
  the show’s lessons, but old enough to do adult things, so writ-
  ers wouldn’t be limited to stories about school or family. 
  All this indicates a society in the midst of changing from 
  agrarian (mostly agricultural) to industrial, which ﬁ ts the 
  nineteenth-century feel the writers seem to want. Teens were 
  viewed as junior adults rather than as “senior children”, the 
  way they often are regarded today. They had more freedom of 
  movement — and a lot more responsibility to go along with it. 
  Important themes of the show, besides the value of friendship, 
  seem to be that being able to stand on one’s own feet (hooves) 
  is something to strive for and that healthy ambition is a good 
  thing for anyone to have. ✶
  � Mini-Essays �
  T
  hese short commentaries, some by other writers, are 
  intended to inform and inspire the narrator and players. 
  Some of them take closer looks at the subjects outlined in the 
  previous sections, both to bring up points that may not be ob-
  vious at ﬁ rst glance and to suggest ways the information can be 
  used by a narrator or player. Others discuss topics that might 
  not show up in any episodes, but still could be useful.
  The Grapes of Bein’ Kinda Upset (guest contribution)
  The ponies’ nation is, at its heart, an agricultural land. Thanks 
  to pegasus weather control and the ability of earth ponies to 
  coax the best possible crop yields from the ground, only a rel-
  atively small part of the population needs to be involved in 
  food production. This leaves the rest of the population free to 
  pursue other things, to urbanize, and to have plenty of leisure 
  time. Excess food production is the basis of trade with the 
  outside world. The backbone of the realm is its farmers.
  But this means that when trouble does strike the ﬁ elds, it’s 
  serious business. Even a minor failure in the managed ecology 
  looms large and warrants high-level attention. The famine that 
  led to the Great Migration of the three tribes, and the very 
  founding of the nation they joined together to create, is one 
  of the most important stories the ponies pass down through 
  the generations. The system is more fragile than most think, 
  subject to interference in many diﬀ erent ways.
  Shady characters are attracted to wealth, and the wealth of 
  this land is in its homesteads and plantations. And what of the 
  other lands that aren’t so lucky as to have fully controlled skies 
  and magically enhanced farms? When the ponies have plenty 
  but neighboring countries do not . . . morality and treaties 
  mean nothing to parents watching their children grow thin. 
  Prosperity brings burdens and tensions that must be solved, 
  and the infrastructure — transportation, magical support, edu-
  cation of young farmers — requires constant vigilance lest di-
  sasters both natural and intentional lay bare the ﬁ elds.
  What’s This Thing Made of? (guest contribution)
  Materials science is one of the most important aspects of a 
  culture and its technology. It’s also one of the greatest hazards 
  to the culture’s well-being.
  History shows that when a new technology starts mak-
  ing heavy use of a natural resource, a crisis follows. The great 
  shipbuilding boom of the seventeenth century that created 
  the British Empire cost England nearly all of her old-growth 
  oaks. The advent of glassmaking in Scotland demanded huge 
  amounts of fuel, which denuded the northern forests. Cheap 
  coal led to pollution. And this is just a single island.
  Taking an invention from a curiosity to the mass market 
  often comes at a huge price, and in a carefully managed nation 
  like the ponies’, this causes tensions between those who want 
  the item and those who don’t want to exhaust the resources 
  needed for it. That can lead to bootlegging, poaching, and buy-
  ing materials from other nations — “let them suﬀ er the conse-
  quences while we keep our land pristine!” ➧
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part Three � Page 14 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  Complex chemistry is just starting to operate at a large 
  scale. Individual laboratories and alchemists still mostly would 
  ply their trades in small amounts, making reagents rare, prized, 
  and costly. (Pegasus smugglers, anyone?) As well, a lot of mate-
  rials taken for granted in the modern world won’t exist among 
  the ponies, or will be much more expensive. Consider also 
  toxic by-products and what to do about them; the princesses 
  will have little sympathy for a polluter, even on a modest scale.
  So far, there’s been no sign on the show of mass produc-
  tion, which has a certain charm — but also means that any-
  thing complex will be expensive and hoof-built. Maintenance 
  requires artisans and craftsponies, not mere “parts changers”, 
  as spare parts may not ﬁ t without individual modiﬁ cation. 
  Construction may be as much art as science, and anything that 
  needs to last will be extremely overbuilt.
  Imagine the turmoil when a factory brings in a new tech-
  nology that promises to improve eﬃ  ciency. In fairness, histori-
  cally such a factory owner usually increased production (to try 
  making more money) rather than cut down on work force, but 
  the workers didn’t know that or didn’t want to believe it if they 
  were told, since they had families to support!
  The ponies are working their way through an Industrial 
  Revolution, but while their path is markedly diﬀ erent than the 
  real world’s, it’ll no less chaotic.
  Turn Your Head and Cough (guest contribution)
  Medicine’s a tricky subject; historically it’s been surrounded by 
  superstition, taboo, and outright quackery. The sad truth is, it 
  also tends to be driven by terrible things: war and epidemics.
  Through the nineteenth century, several important fac-
  tors were coming together in Western medicine. Most clus-
  tered around germ theory, including pasteurization, antisep-
  tics, and vaccination. Other discoveries, such as anæsthetics, 
  made surgery much less brutal, and X-rays allowed diagnosis 
  of internal injuries. Treatment of traumatic injuries advanced 
  dramatically, though unfortunately it took the carnage of the 
  American Civil War for that to happen.
  By its nature, the ponies’ country is a much cleaner place 
  to live than the real world, and its populace isn’t subject to 
  warfare. It also doesn’t have cultural habits that interfere with 
  medicine and science. Most ponies aren’t geniuses — but they 
  also aren’t resistant to accepting ideas from those who are. 
  Once a discovery’s made, it often seems to be adopted amaz-
  ingly quickly, especially if the word of royalty backs it up.
  All that being said, medicine still would have its adven-
  tures. Dealing with an epidemic outbreak requires learning 
  how it spreads; that in turn leads to the desperate search for 
  “patient zero”, the ﬁ rst case from which the epidemic springs. 
  Quacks, charlatans, and snake-oil sellers prey on the gullible, 
  and ponies can be pretty gullible.
  A small group of ponies might ﬁ nd itself dispatched to 
  locations in remote corners of the nation, or beyond, to oﬀ er 
  relief in time of trouble. Disasters, natural or otherwise, leave 
  in their wake hard decisions in triage (pronounced tree-ahzh), 
  the process of choosing whom to treat and in what order, with 
  limited time and resources — and who has to be left untreated 
  because they can’t be saved. Such decisions could be very rough 
  on the ponies, who are compassionate and empathic by nature.
  And there is always Mad Science! “It’s alive!” invariably is 
  gleefully proclaimed by someone with the title of “Doctor”. . . . 
  There may be no zombie ponies, but are there Frankenfoals?
  Back in the Old Days . . .
  Everything can and probably will change in a thousand years. 
  When the moon princess was banished, most ponies appar-
  ently lived in thatched huts and fenced yards, according to the 
  book illustrations on the ﬁ rst episode. The population may 
  have been one-third or one-fourth as large back then. There 
  might not have been many cities or large towns, and most 
  would be small by modern standards. Most ponies might have 
  lived in the countryside or in small villages and hamlets every 
  few miles along the few dirt roads winding across the land.
  Now she’s back, using a “Hollywood” version of medieval 
  speech. English itself isn’t a thousand years old, so that’s the 
  only way the writers can get across the idea of old-fashioned 
  talk. But it also could mean that pony society doesn’t move as 
  fast as real history did; there aren’t as many wars, famines, or 
  plagues to push things along. The princess’s style of talking is 
  associated with the High Middle Ages, so it’s a reasonable rule 
  of thumb to double the amount of time for historical things, 
  like inventions and fashions, to happen. What was going on, 
  say, ﬁ ve hundred years before the nineteenth century? That 
  could be what the magical land looked like when the royal sis-
  ters battled and, presumably, destroyed their castle-palace.
  Earthshaking Changes
  Today we’re used to society and technology changing constant-
  ly, yet it’s easy to forget that, not so long ago, people just didn’t 
  have some device or process we take for granted now. In the 
  nineteenth century, though, people struggled with the notion 
  that, fairly suddenly, ideas and ways of doing things that had 
  been around for hundreds or even thousands of years weren’t 
  working any more. In the Middle Ages a man or woman might 
  do things much the same way as an ancestor of a century be-
  fore; during the Industrial Revolution a living grandparent 
  might be able to remember a completely diﬀ erent world.
  Train locomotives started moving people and cargoes fast-
  er than horses. Telegraphy began to move information faster 
  than letters. Huge new factories used mass production and 
  interchangeable parts to churn out consumer goods. Cities be-
  came even more important, drawing in ever larger numbers 
  of people seeking work. Big new machines needed far more 
  energy than muscles, water wheels, or windmills could provide.
  All of this was happening at once, and nothing like it ever 
  had happened before in history, so there wasn’t any kind of 
  guide to ﬁ gure out what to do about it. The social upheavals 
  were gigantic, and it’s almost impossible to describe easily how 
  big an eﬀ ect they had on people at the time — much greater 
  than we see today, even with all the advances in electronics.
  There seems to be less uncertainty and baﬄ  ement in the 
  ways ponies are coping with these changes. Of course, those 
  wouldn’t be the best things to put into a children’s television 
  show, for a lot of reasons, but this also could be seen as more 
  evidence that pony society isn’t moving at the same meteoric 
  speed that real history has. Ponies, being herd creatures, also 
  may be more cooperative and may ﬁ nd it easier to get along. ➧
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part Three � Page 15 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  City-State, Principality, Empire
  An empire is a diverse collection of countries or peoples joined 
  together under an overall monarchy or oligarchy (small ruling 
  group). Since it seems to include exactly the sort of varied 
  lands and tribes that an empire should have, the pony princi-
  pality seems to be more of a true empire than the land of the 
  crystal ponies that actually is called an empire in the program.
  If the crystal ponies’ country isn’t really an empire, then, 
  what is it? It doesn’t seem to be very big and, probably to be 
  more familiar to a young television audience, it looks more like 
  a twentieth-century suburb than an medieval city that disap-
  peared a thousand years ago. More than anything else, then, 
  it appears to be a city-state, a tiny country consisting mostly 
  of a central city with maybe a small amount of land around it, 
  possibly including some farmland, villages, or both. Perhaps 
  it should be called the Crystal City instead — but trademark-
  ing that name to use on toys and other products might have 
  turned out to be too diﬃ  cult or even impossible.
  Going farther back, one might ask how the ancient pony 
  tribes were governed. The unicorns plainly had a feudal monar-
  chy, with a king who ruled directly and maybe a nobility. Equal-
  ly clearly, the pegasus tribe was a military dictatorship ruled by 
  a high-ranking oﬃ  cer, set up as if the whole society were one 
  big army. It isn’t as clear how the earth tribe was governed, 
  though. Perhaps it was a sort of early republic, either democrat-
  ic (in which individuals vote on everything) or representative 
  (in which oﬃ  cials are elected to act on behalf of the citizens).
  Consorting With Rulers
  An empire is ruled by an emperor (if male) or empress (if fe-
  male) — yet the ponies are ruled by princesses. The real rea-
  sons that was done for the show already have been explained, 
  but how can a narrator justify it for the players?
  Perhaps the sun and moon princesses aren’t comfortable 
  with the title of empress and avoid using it in favor of “prin-
  cess”. It could be the pony population or other nations who 
  don’t care for the idea of “empresses”, so the princesses are be-
  ing tactful. More simple still, maybe the ponies just don’t think 
  of it as an empire, and so don’t call it one even if it technically is.
  The title of prince (or princess) originally just meant 
  “ruler” in general, and could be applied to an emperor, king, 
  duke, or any other monarch; plenty of old phrases and sayings 
  still use that meaning. Possibly by accident, that also is kind of 
  how the show uses the word to describe the special ponies who 
  include all three tribes. Five have been shown so far: the sun 
  and moon princesses who rule over all the ponies, the ruler of 
  the crystal ponies, the main character of the show — and the 
  princess in the storybook who took the “love poison”.
  Marrying into royalty can create confusion, since the 
  royal spouse would gain a “courtesy” title but wouldn’t be a 
  ruler. If it’s necessary to tell them apart, the word regnant (from 
  the same root as the word reign) is added to a ruling royal’s ti-
  tle, while the word consort is added to the title of a ruling royal’s 
  spouse. For example, the ruler of the crystal ponies is a princess 
  regnant, while her husband, the main character’s brother, is a 
  prince consort. The husband of a ruling queen or empress also 
  is called a prince consort, an old custom dating from the days 
  when prince was a more general term.
  About (Non-Magical) Ponies
  For the ﬁ rst time in history, more human beings around the 
  world live in cities than in the country. Because of that, fewer 
  and fewer of them get to meet many animals face-to-face, oth-
  er than dogs, cats, a few other kinds kept as pets, zoo exhibits, 
  and — if they keep their eyes open — some wild animals that 
  make their homes in human neighborhoods. Since motor ve-
  hicles replaced most horses, ponies, and other draft animals in 
  the middle of the twentieth century, fewer and fewer people 
  get to meet them at all. For folks who might not have had 
  much chance to learn about the animals on which the magical 
  ponies are based, here’s a little background on them.
  The diﬀ erence between a horse and a pony is supposed to 
  be size. An adult horse stands more than fourteen hands, two 
  inches tall at the shoulder. (A hand is four inches, so that would 
  be ﬁ fty-eight inches, or about 147 centimeters.) In theory, a 
  full-grown pony is no taller than 14.2 hh (14 hands 2 inches). 
  Of course, in reality it’s more complicated than that. Stocky 
  body shape and proportions often are considered part of what 
  makes a pony diﬀ erent from a horse, but sometimes it depends 
  more on who’s talking, what part of the horse world they’re 
  interested in, and a lot of other sometimes confusing things 
  like tradition or occupation.
  Ponies are very strong for their size, which makes them 
  surprisingly heavy, thanks to all those muscles, and they’re 
  very smart and friendly, if they’re trained properly to deal with 
  people. They developed in out-of-the-way places with harsh 
  climates, where being small but strong, and being able to live 
  on food of less than ideal quality, were real advantages to the 
  people who used them as draft animals. Even today in a few 
  places they still are used for work on farms, to pull carts or 
  wagons on roads, and for riding. Pony sports are as popular as 
  events for larger horses, and in some cases horses and ponies 
  might compete in the same events.
  The lips of ponies and horses are very mobile, able to 
  do amazingly delicate things like pick up and handle objects. 
  There is one case known to the author of a bored horse us-
  ing his lips to help unfasten the door of his trailer so he could 
  go wandering around a local park. Even human lips, which are 
  mobile enough to help make the complex sounds of language, 
  aren’t as good at manipulating things. Since the magical po-
  nies combine the two abilities, using their lips to do things like 
  write with pencils is quite plausible, and of course teeth and 
  tongue could be used to help in some cases. (Keeping things 
  clean would be a big priority, since a magical pony never knows 
  when she might have to put something in her mouth.)
  Ponies don’t have fur, exactly. Like cattle, deer, and 
  other related animals, ponies and horses have hides of hair rath-
  er than pelts of fur. Furred skin grows two or three diﬀ erent 
  kinds of hairs. Ground hairs are short and frizzy to insulate an 
  animal against cold. Guard hairs are longer, straighter, and stur-
  dier, to protect the other hairs from damage. Awn hairs, if an 
  animal has them, are in between the other two kinds. Hide, on 
  the other hand, has only one kind of hair — and sweat glands, 
  which help cool down an animal after exercise. (That usually 
  means running away from predators.) The ponies in the show 
  sometimes are shown to sweat, and occasionally mention it in 
  dialog, which means they probably have hides. ✶
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part Three � Page 16 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  � Archaic Units of Measure �
  I
  n 1824, the United Kingdom passed the 
  Weights and Measures Act to regularize 
  a hodgepodge of ancient English measure-
  ment units; the new technologies coming 
  out of the Industrial Revolution demanded 
  standardization and precision. Earlier, in 
  1799, a movement to create a whole new 
  “metric system” got its start in France, for 
  similar social and industrial reasons. In the 
  middle of the twentieth century, both sys-
  tems were overhauled again, and it’s those, 
  or related systems, that are used today.
  The tables on this page show many, but 
  not all, of the obsolete English units. They 
  didn’t disappear overnight — older people 
  still tended to use them for many years after 
  1824, lots of records and objects were based 
  on them, and some stuck around in the Unit-
  ed States, which was already independent. 
  The ponies may be going through a simi-
  lar transition, and farmers especially may 
  use old units. Some of the units listed were 
  based on the human body; the ponies may 
  use units based on their own bodies or on 
  the body of the immortal sun princess. ✶
  Troy weight (coins, precious metal)
  Apothecary (used in medicine)
  Grain
  gr
  ¹⁄₇₀₀₀ US pound; about 64.8 milligrams (both troy & apoth.)
  Pennyweightdwt
  24 grains
  Scruple
  s ap
  20 grains
  Ounce
  oz t
  20 pennyweights
  Dram
  dr ap
  3 scruples
  Mark
  8 troy ounces
  Ounce
  oz ap
  8 apothecary drams
  Pound
  lb t
  12 ounces troy or apoth.; about 0.823 avoirdupois/US pound
  Avoirdupois
  Weight equal to
  Grain
  gr
  ¹⁄₇₀₀₀ US pound; about 64.8 milligrams
  Dram/Drachm
  dr
  ¹⁄₁₆ oz. (possibly from ancient Greek silver drachma coin)
  Ounce
  oz
  ¹⁄₁₆ US pound; about 28 grams
  Pound
  lb
  US pound; about 454 g (lb short for libra, “scales” in Latin)
  Nail
  ¹⁄₁₆ long hundredweight; 7 pounds
  Clove
  7 pounds (wool) or 8 pounds (cheese)
  Stone
  st
  2 cloves; 14 pounds
  Quarter or tod
  ¹⁄₄ hundredweight; tod is 2 stones or ¹⁄₄ long hundredwt.
  Hundredweight cwt
  112 pounds (long) or 100 pounds (short)
  Ton
  t
  20 hundredweights; long or short tons
  Volume
  Equal to
  Volume
  Equal to (US gal. = about 3.8 l)
  Mouthful
  about ¹⁄₂ ﬂ uid ounce
  Gallon
  2 pottles (1.25 US gallons)
  Pony
  2 mouthfuls
  Peck
  2 gallons (2.5 US gallons)
  Jack(pot)
  2 ponies (2 ¹⁄₂ ﬂ . oz.)
  Kenning
  2 pecks (4 gallons)
  Gill
  2 jacks (5 ﬂ . oz.)
  Bushel
  2 kennings (8 gallons)
  Cup
  2 gills (10 ﬂ . oz.)
  Strike
  2 bushels (16 gallons)
  Pint
  2 cups (20 ﬂ . oz.)
  Coomb
  2 strikes (32 gallons)
  Quart
  2 pints (40 ﬂ . oz.)
  Hogshead
  2 coombs (64 gallons)
  Pottle
  2 quarts (80 ﬂ . oz.)
  Butt/pipe
  2 hogsheads (128 gallons)
  Volume
  Equal to
  Tun
  2 butts or pipes (256 gallons; see next page)
  Jigger
  1 ¹⁄₂ ﬂ uid ounces (still used in recipes for mixed drinks)
  Perch
  24 ³⁄₄ cubic feet of dry stone (a pile 16 ¹⁄₂ feet by 1 ¹⁄₂ feet by 1 foot)
  Cord
  128 cubic feet of ﬁ rewood (a stack 8 feet long, 4 feet wide, 4 feet high)
  Area
  Equal to
  Perch
  1 square rod; 272 ¹⁄₄ square feet or about 25.3 square meters
  Rood
  ¹⁄₄ acre; width of 1 rod by length of 1 furlong
  Acre
  1 chain by 1 furlong (can be plowed in 1 day); about 0.4 hectare
  Bovate
  about 15 acres/6 hectares (can be plowed with 1 ox in 1 year)
  Virgate
  about 30 acres (can be plowed with 2-oxen team in 1 year)
  Hide
  4 to 8 bovates (land able to support 1 household for food/taxes)
  Carucate
  about 120 acres (can be plowed with 8-oxen team in 1 year)
  Knight’s fee
  5 hides (fee was enough money to produce 1 equipped soldier)
  Hundred/
  wapentake
  100 hides, grouped for administrative purposes
  (census, taxes, ownership records, and so on)
  Length
  Equal to
  Poppyseed
  about ¹⁄₄ barleycorn
  Line
  ¹⁄₄ barleycorn
  Barleycorn
  ¹⁄₃ inch
  Digit
  ³⁄₄ inch
  Finger
  ⁷⁄₈ inch
  Inch
  3 barleycorns
  Nail
  3 digits
  Palm
  3 inches
  Hand
  4 inches
  Shaftment
  6 inches
  Link
  7.92 in. (¹⁄₁₀₀ chain)
  Span
  3 palms (9"; oustretched hand)
  Foot
  modern US foot; 30.48 cm
  Cubit
  18 inches (ﬁ ngertips to elbow)
  Yard
  modern US yard; 0.9144 m
  Ell
  45 inches (mostly for cloth)
  Fathom
  6 feet (outstretched arms)
  Rod
  5 ¹⁄₂ yards (for surveying)
  Chain
  4 rods; about 20.12 m
  Furlong
  40 rods (one plow-furrow long)
  Mile
  modern US mile; about 1.6 km
  League
  3 miles (one hour’s walk)
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part Four � Page 1 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  � Part Four of Four ✶ Once Upon a Time: Storytelling �
  The Valley of Heart’s Delight: A Sample Setting. . . 2–3
  Geography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
  Development. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
  The Marquess and His Family. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
  Technology  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
  The Neighbors  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
  Creating and Using a Setting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4–5
  Scale and Scope. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
  There and Back Again  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
  Making Connections  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
  Here Be Dragons  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
  A Living World  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
  Story Seeds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6–7
  “That’s Not What I Ordered” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
  “An Explosive Situation”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
  “Stand and Deliver”  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
  “A Giant Complication”  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
  “Title and Deed”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
  “Ten Little Ponies”  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
  “Cooking the Books” (by Vikki) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
  “What’s That Noise?” (by Vikki)  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
  “The Forbidding Fruit” (by Vikki)  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
  “The Slumbering Princess” (by Vikki)  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
  Sample Ponies  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8–13
  Bumpkin: Earth Stallion (guest contribution)  . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
  Cymbal: Earth Mare (guest contribution). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
  Stormbucker: Pegasus Stallion (guest contribution)  . . . . . . . 10
  Marathon: Pegasus Stallion (guest contribution) . . . . . . . . . . .11
  Wind Shear: Pegasus Mare (guest contribution)  . . . . . . . . . . .11
  Starry Skies: Unicorn Mare (guest contribution) . . . . . . . . . . 12
  Galea: Unicorn Mare  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
  Silver Tuppence: Unicorn Stallion (guest contribution). . . . . 13
  E
  veryone has read up on the rules, talked over their 
  ponies, and decided whether they want to play a literal 
  game or a figurative game and how much comedy or drama 
  they want in it. Now what? For any narrator, especially one 
  who hasn’t run a role-playing game before, that can be a pretty 
  daunting question. Most RPG rulebooks try to answer it at 
  least to some extent, and Pony Tales is no exception.
  A setting is the ﬁ rst thing the narrator needs. An ex-
  ample, the Valley of Heart’s Delight, can be used as-is, or can 
  serve as a source of ideas for the narrator’s own work. Some 
  suggestions and guidelines also are provided to help the narra-
  tor consider how to approach the project.
  Story seeds are short descriptions of adventure ideas, 
  which a narrator can use directly, change around to suit her 
  own ideas of how to do things, or use as reference when devel-
  oping completely new ideas.
  Sample ponies can be borrowed and used directly, or can 
  serve as inspiration for players creating their own ponies or a 
  narrator creating background characters for stories.
  Showing by Example
  Mostly this part presents actual samples that can be used or 
  modiﬁ ed directly. In some cases there also is some examina-
  tion and explanation of why and how those samples are set up 
  in particular ways — usually when it may not be obvious just 
  from looking at them.
  The word “setting” is used a bit diﬀ erently in this part 
  than in part three. There, it’s more general, used to mean the 
  whole country and world shown in the series. Here, it’s more 
  speciﬁ c, used to mean a particular region where the game may 
  spend much or most of its time. In the series, the equivalent 
  would be the town where the main characters live, the nearby 
  national capital, and the surrounding areas, including the two 
  forests where some episodes take place.
  Following this part of the rulebook is a twelve-page quick 
  reference of tables containing summaries of important rules. It’s 
  not intended to replace the rules; instead, it’s designed to make 
  looking them up faster and more convenient, so the narrator 
  and players can keep the story moving. ✶
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part Four � Page 2 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  � The Valley of Heart’s Delight: A Sample Setting �
  T
  he Valley of Heart’s Delight was settled by ponies a 
  few centuries ago. The pleasant, fertile valley is nourished 
  by forty feet of topsoil, laid down year after patient year by 
  the broad shallow river that wanders along its length to a small 
  delta where the valley opens on the ocean. The surrounding 
  hills are less than four thousand feet high — but they are un-
  usually rugged and densely carpeted with redwoods, oaks, and 
  a wild variety of other trees and scrub.
  After passing over these diﬃ  cult hills from the growing 
  pony principality to the north, the would-be settlers felt they’d 
  found a land worthy of the ordeal. It wouldn’t be theirs with-
  out a struggle, though. Besides the eﬀ ort of turning the land 
  itself to their purposes, they faced the hostility of a griﬀ on 
  tribe living in the hills to the south. Raiding and occasional 
  skirmishes heated up tensions between the two peoples. Nei-
  ther was willing to give up the rich land, and as the more orga-
  nized and numerous ponies gradually pushed back the griﬀ ons, 
  the latter in turn became more desperate.
  A border war loomed on the horizon, underscoring the 
  immediate need for a workable lasting solution. Should the 
  situation get bad enough, the sun princess herself might inter-
  vene. Even the pony settlers didn’t like that possibility, for her 
  sense of justice and fairness might not favor them so much as 
  they would wish.
  A shrewd, charismatic earth stallion conceived an answer. 
  Though complex in detail, its essence was simple: a series of 
  agreements and arrangements that ensured each side was bet-
  ter oﬀ  having the other around than it would have been alone. 
  He worked tirelessly and sometimes bravely to convince oth-
  ers of his vision, and did not emerge entirely unscathed. But 
  emerge he did, triumphant if exhausted and wounded.
  His reward from the princess for a job well done was, of 
  course, another job. She ennobled him, giving him the title 
  of marquess and a ﬁ ef, the March of the Valley of Heart’s De-
  light — including the nearest ridgelines of the bordering ranges 
  of hills. The title has descended in direct line over the genera-
  tions to the present day, and the march has grown and pros-
  pered under the leadership and guidance of its marquesses and 
  marchionesses.
  Geography
  The valley is shaped roughly like a pie wedge about forty miles 
  (64 km) long by twenty miles (32 km) wide at the coast. From 
  its point at the crotch of the surrounding ranges, its axis runs 
  west-southwestward to the ocean. The valley ﬂ oor is nice and 
  ﬂ at aside from occasional hummocks and hillocks around the 
  rim, in sharp contrast to the craggy hillsides making up that 
  rim. Its name, landforms, and climate are inspired by the Santa 
  Clara Valley (today better known by its modern nickname of 
  Silicon Valley), at the south end of San Francisco Bay.
  In more than one sense, the valley’s heart is the Honey 
  River, which ﬂ ows more or less along the valley’s centerline 
  from the hills to a small delta at the ocean. The Honey is about 
  the size of California’s Russian River and meanders from year 
  to year, though rarely any great distance. Various creeks cross 
  the valley to join it, none of them wider than a stone’s throw.
  Twenty-ﬁ ve miles (40 km) oﬀ  the valley’s coast are the 
  Carillon Islands, an arc of intimidatingly rocky islets rising 
  sharply from the sea. They, and the bank on which they rest, 
  provide some shelter against storm surges and surf — and, it 
  was discovered in recent years, are near the edge of the con-
  tinental shelf. Beyond, a cold ocean current runs southward.
  The coast extends north-northwest and south-southeast 
  from the valley; the ranges of hills end abruptly in steep sand-
  stone cliﬀ s overlooking narrow rocky beaches. Beyond the hills 
  to the south are open rolling plains and a large unsheltered bay. 
  These wild lands remain a thinly populated frontier beyond 
  the pony land’s borders and unclaimed by any organized polity. 
  The bay has no notable harbor sites and the plains are marginal 
  by pony standards, which explains why they aren’t settled.
  Development
  Before the arrival of the pony settlers, grasses and scrub domi-
  nated the valley itself, while the hills above were thickly for-
  ested, all thanks to a Mediterranean climate. Since then most 
  of the valley has been covered with orchards and ﬁ elds, and the 
  nearest hillsides support vinyards and small ranches; among 
  the farms is a sizable spread belonging to a branch of the Apple 
  clan. Throughout the nearby hills there is judicious logging, 
  especially of oak and redwood. Kelp beds lie oﬀ  the coast, and 
  a combination lighthouse and weather station stands sentinel 
  on the tallest of the Carillons.
  Processing and preserving raw produce forms much of 
  the valley’s industry. There are packing, canning, salting, pick-
  ling, and candying houses. There are wineries, breweries, cider 
  mills, and distilleries; most are of at least decent quality, but 
  best-known and most celebrated are some of the wineries and 
  cider mills. Even a little spinning and weaving goes on, though 
  it is strictly minor by comparison. The valley can feed itself, 
  and exports some of the raw and processed foodstuﬀ s, textiles, 
  and other products, but must import most raw materials and 
  industrial goods other than what the modest local cottage in-
  dustries can produce.
  Making this export trade possible is a superb transporta-
  tion network of canals, Roman-style highways, and macadam 
  secondary roads. Barges from tiny to medium-size ply the wa-
  terways, and a steady traﬃ  c of small riverboats, including a few 
  steam paddle-wheelers, navigates the Honey up to the base of 
  the hills. The valley’s only rail corridor, recently expanded to 
  two lines, follows the river through the hills to the head of the 
  valley, steers wider of it to avoid ﬂ oodwaters, runs to the delta, 
  and continues along the coast, skirting the hills to run north, 
  back to the interior of the pony nation.
  The valley’s only (medium-size) city, Gallopston, lies at the 
  mouth of the river; it is a good river port, an adequate seaport, 
  and the valley’s biggest railway station and terminal. Towns and 
  villages dot the valley, along with windmills and water wheels. 
  Not far from the head of the valley, a rocky promontory among 
  the straggling foothills forces the river to bend around it to the 
  south. Atop the promontory is . . . a castle. It’s not very big, 
  and it’s rather timeworn, but it’s still occupied by the marquess 
  and his family. Nestled at the base of the promontory beside 
  the river is the seat (capital), Bitburg, a large town where a lot 
  of the march’s main government oﬃ  ces are located. ➧
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part Four � Page 3 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  The Marquess and His Family
  The marquess is eﬀ ectively a crown governor. In theory, it is an 
  autocratic position, but in practice even the most dictatorial 
  lord or lady is forced to rely on a cabinet of appointed experts 
  and to hear what amount to elected lobbyists sent by various 
  districts or occupations. The princess likely had just this out-
  come in mind, but if so has never admitted it.
  The current marquess has inherited his line’s leadership 
  and imagination, but also is quite eccentric. Schmiede eisen 
  (German for Wrought Iron; schmieden means “to forge” and 
  Eisen means “iron”) is in late middle age. His coat is steel-gray 
  and his mane and tail are a deep bronze; his eyes are a bright 
  green and his cutie mark is an iron-strapped water wheel.
  He is fascinated with gadgets and artifacts of all sorts, 
  both ancient and modern. (King Christian IV, who ruled Den-
  mark during part of the seventeenth century, is a loose model 
  for this mild obsession.) The march’s inhabitants regard him 
  with a sort of aﬀ ectionate exasperation, and accept his vaga-
  ries the way real-world farmers deal with the weather: it does 
  what it does, and there ain’t much to do about it.
  His wife Weinstock (Grapevine), though long-suﬀ ering, 
  genuinely seems to love him, and has much practice managing 
  and directing his occasional enthusiasms. The mare is about 
  the same age as her husband, but still handsome with her rosy-
  violet coat, leaf-green mane and tail, and pale eyes. Her cutie 
  mark is, in fact, a length of grapevine, beﬁ tting a scion of the 
  valley’s most important vintners. She has borne ﬁ ve foals: a 
  daughter, three sons, and a second daugther.
  The eldest daughter and heir, Morgenstern (Morning 
  Star), is a robust mare in her mid-twenties. Her coat is alabas-
  ter, her mane and tail seafoam gray; her cutie mark is a rising 
  sun. She is married, though there are no foals as yet, and lives 
  with her husband in Bitburg, near — but not in — the castle. 
  She has inherited both her paternal line’s formidable intellect 
  and her mother’s practicality, and promises to be a capable 
  marchioness when the time comes.
  The eldest son and second child, in his early twenties, is 
  Herbsthimmel (Autumn Sky, from Herbst and Himmel). His 
  cyan coat is set oﬀ  by white mane and tail, and his cutie mark 
  is an inkpot and quill. The second son, about twenty, is Gold-
  ensonne (Golden Sun). He is butter yellow with pale orange 
  mane and tail; his cutie mark is a sloop in full sail. The young-
  est son, in his late teens, is Dämmerung (a word that can mean 
  Dawn, Dusk, or Twilight). He has a magenta coat, deep red 
  mane and tail, and a cutie mark of a wine press. All three spend 
  as much time away from the castle as they can manage.
  The youngest child is Abendstern (Evenstar), a delicate 
  ﬁ lly of fourteen. Her coat is glossy black and her mane and 
  tail are mint-gold; her cutie mark is a constellation of stars. 
  She is the only one of the ﬁ ve to live in the castle, though she 
  ventures out routinely, especially to visit her mother’s family’s 
  holdings on the northern slopes of the valley.
  Technology
  Pony society appears to advance at a leisurely pace, perhaps 
  half the rate of real history. This places the moon princess’s 
  banishment in the equivalent of the late fourteenth century, 
  which ﬁ ts with her “forsoothly” style of speech and manner.
  Science and engineering are assumed to be roughly equiva-
  lent to the late nineteenth century in the real world, speciﬁ -
  cally the 1860s to the 1880s. It’s an exciting time, when a lot of 
  new discoveries and inventions are appearing.
  The marquess’s love of machines and inventions ﬁ ts this 
  era of progress and industry, but it can be very hit or miss. In 
  some cases, such as the excellent road system and the dual-line 
  railway, it has been of great beneﬁ t to the valley’s economy. 
  Others have been outright failures. And in the middle are 
  some dubious-seeming schemes.
  Chief among the last is an experimental sidewheeler tug-
  boat based in Gallopston harbor and, rather incongruously, 
  named after the sun princess. A locomotive boiler and drive 
  system powers each of the wheels, and can be reversed at need. 
  Unfortunately these power trains are separate, with no provi-
  sion for one boiler to drive both wheels. The tug’s dumpy hull 
  is double-ended, with a rudder at each end that can be ﬁ xed in 
  place when that end of the tug is serving as the bow. 
  The merchant shipping served by the tug (an honor most 
  of their captains can do without) includes paddle and screw 
  steamers, barques and full-rigged ships, the earliest windjam-
  mers, and a last few clippers. Most of these ships carry on the 
  domestic trade, running among ports within the pony nation, 
  but some may run to foreign ports as well.
  An airship terminal also was added recently on the north-
  east edge of Gallopston to serve the growing air traﬃ  c.
  The Neighbors
  In the southern hills lives a sizable population of griﬀ ons in 
  scattered villages. Before the ponies arrived, the griﬀ ons lived 
  a more-or-less tribal lifestyle, hunting and gathering from the 
  bounty of a mild, friendly land.
  After the ﬁ rst marquess established the accords that end-
  ed the potentially deadly rivalry, the griﬀ ons supplemented 
  their traditional ways ﬁ rst by trading with the ponies and even-
  tually by working in seasonal or peripheral occupations among 
  or near the pony population.
  Late September through October is called “griﬀ on sum-
  mer”. Originally the time of year when their raids and depre-
  dations were most frequent, it evolved after the two peoples 
  came to terms. It still is the season when they have the most 
  contact with the ponies, but the activities are very diﬀ erent.
  Some come to trade. Others renew old contracts or ne-
  gotiate new ones. There is seasonal employment, whether for 
  themselves or for pony employers. Traditional ﬁ shing rights, 
  both oﬀ shore and along the Honey River, are very important.
  Toward the end of October there is a combination fair and 
  festival celebrating the season and the comity. That the spooky 
  holiday inspired by the moon princess forms a sort of cap to 
  it is a coincidence of timing, but perhaps inevitably there has 
  been some mixing of the two. Some griﬀ ons participate with 
  gusto, especially younger ones, while their elders simply treat 
  it as another autumn festivity.
  Though amity is the overall consensus on both sides, it 
  is not universal. Some friction remains among inherently un-
  pleasant personalities and those who bear ancestral grudges 
  more readily than others. Generally such individuals are re-
  garded as soreheads and given little heed. ✶
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part Four � Page 4 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  � Creating and Using a Setting �
  P
  erhaps the most important single idea a narrator should 
  keep in mind when creating a setting for her game is va-
  riety. There should be a lot of different places, and kinds of 
  places, in easy reach of the player ponies. That gives the narra-
  tor a wide range of choices for story locations and the players a 
  lot of alternatives for their ponies’ backgrounds.
  The example setting, the Valley of Heart’s Delight, is a 
  well-settled coastal region on the edge of the pony nation. 
  A network of roads, waterways, and rails makes it easy to get 
  around the valley in a few hours.
  For adventures in untamed or exotic places, there’s wilder-
  ness just over the border to the south and in the hills to the 
  east. An ocean right next door is useful for journeys by ship or 
  airship, perhaps to remote islands or distant foreign countries.
  For stories that take place in civilized places, there’s a me-
  dium-size city and many smaller towns and villages. The grif-
  fon settlements in the southern hills are a bit out of the way, 
  but just diﬀ erent enough to be an interesting change of pace.
  If a major city is needed, the story probably is big enough 
  to justify the player ponies traveling to it by land, sea, or air. 
  For that matter, a story can be set on a passenger train, ship, or 
  airship, especially if it’s a long trip; within the valley, barges and 
  paddlewheel riverboats are other colorful possibilities.
  There aren’t many big factories in the valley, but smaller 
  industries do exist, so if the narrator wants, say, a handy mill, 
  smithy, or weaving shed for a story, it shouldn’t be hard to put 
  one where it’s needed. The countryside surrounding the val-
  ley’s settlements is ﬁ lled with farms, orchards, vinyards, ranch-
  es, forests, and all sorts of other rural or open spaces.
  There’s one other important fact about the valley: It’s as 
  far away as possible from where the television series mostly 
  takes place, so the episodes and the characters in them don’t 
  overshadow or distract from the game’s characters and stories.
  The Valley of Heart’s Delight is just one way to provide va-
  riety, and the narrator’s free to come up with her own methods 
  of doing that. It isn’t necessary to use the same answers — but 
  it’s a good idea to start by asking some of the same questions. 
  Some questions can be ﬁ gured out by looking at how the Valley 
  is put together, and others are explored in this section.
  Scale and Scope
  Will the player ponies live in one place, as the television char-
  acters do, or will they be a traveling band of adventurers or 
  other wanderers, like so many characters in fantasy ﬁ ction and 
  role-playing games? The answer will aﬀ ect how big an area, and 
  what kinds of details, the narrator should think about as she 
  works on her game’s setting.
  The narrator doesn’t need to ﬁ gure out where every house 
  is and who every pony is, of course. To start with, it’s enough 
  just to give the players a good sense of place — what and where 
  the most important features (both natural and pony-made) are, 
  a brief history, and prominent individuals. Here and there the 
  narrator may want to go into detail, such as the town where 
  the player ponies live or meet, or other places of unusual inter-
  est, but the rest can be described in more general terms to give 
  the players an introduction to the setting.
  The players should get some input too. Their ponies need 
  to be ﬁ tted into the setting, after all, and they may have good 
  ideas to add. If everyone knows each other well enough, the 
  narrator may be able to sketch out a setting she’s pretty sure 
  the players will like and can use, then adjust it to accommodate 
  their contributions and characters. Newer acquaintances, or a 
  group that hasn’t played role-playing games before, may need 
  to talk over what they want from the setting (and the game) 
  before the narrator starts to work on it.
  If the player ponies are settled, the area within about 
  a day’s travel of where they live needs to be fairly detailed. 
  Outside of that, rough notes should be enough at ﬁ rst. When 
  a story takes the players to a faraway place, the narrator can 
  ﬁ ll in details on it as she’s getting ready for that story. (In the 
  section on the Valley of Heart’s Delight, for instance, there’s 
  only the most basic information on the lands outside the val-
  ley.) This method’s harder at ﬁ rst, since the narrator has to do 
  a lot of work up front, but as long as the players don’t decide 
  suddenly to take a long-distance trip, she usually won’t have to 
  make up whole new places on the spot during a game session.
  If the player ponies are nomadic, the narrator has to 
  cover a much bigger area, but probably doesn’t have to be re-
  ally detailed about any single part of it. As the players travel, 
  the narrator may need to think about places they might go and 
  make some notes on those places between game sessions. This 
  method is easier at ﬁ rst, since the narrator doesn’t have to lay 
  down a lot of groundwork before starting, but it does mean the 
  narrator may have to do a lot of improvising when the players 
  go oﬀ  in an unexpected direction. (Sooner or later they will!)
  There and Back Again
  In a traditional fantasy setting, long-distance travel mostly is 
  limited to walking speed, either of the characters themselves 
  or of horses. There may be sailing ships or ﬂ ying creatures that 
  can be ridden, but those may be rare or not very much faster. 
  The ponies, though, have an industrial-age society, and that 
  increases travel speeds greatly.
  The speed of a steam locomotive depended on a lot of dif-
  ferent things — for example, how big and powerful it was, how 
  heavy a train it pulled, and how many hills, bridges, and curves 
  slowed it down on its route. A fast passenger train might aver-
  age 45 to 50 miles per hour (72–80 km/h), while a slower train 
  might run 30 to 45 mph (48–72 km/h). Faster speeds did hap-
  pen, but those usually tended to be exceptional.
  A typical steam ocean liner of the late nineteenth century 
  could maintain speeds of 15 to 20 knots (17–23 mph or 28–37 
  km/h) for most or all of a trip, though it might be capable of 
  slightly faster speeds for short periods. Cargo steamships gen-
  erally were slower, many of them only half as fast. A windjam-
  mer could reach an ocean liner’s speed with favorable winds, 
  and even if winds weren’t ideal it could match a cargo steamer.
  An airship wasn’t fast at all, especially the early ones that 
  ﬂ ew before the twentieth century. The ponies might be able 
  to do a little better, but probably not by very much. One ad-
  vantage a pony airship captain could have is that, with pegasus 
  control of the weather, airship travel may not face as many 
  unexpected storms or unfavorable winds. ➧
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part Four � Page 5 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  Making Connections
  In a ﬁ gurative game that pays attention to details of world-
  building — the design and creation of a logical, self-consistent 
  ﬁ ctional setting — technology can be a pretty central element. 
  Part three covers a lot of ground, but there are a few other 
  points a narrator should keep in mind when building a setting.
  The biggest two are in communication and transporta-
  tion. A major reason there doesn’t seem to be as much room 
  for adventure in today’s world is that it’s a snap to send lots of 
  information almost anywhere, almost instantly. It isn’t a whole 
  lot more diﬃ  cult to send people or goods around the world. 
  That means there aren’t many frontiers left that are beyond 
  the easy reach of civilization — but consider how much adven-
  ture ﬁ ction depends on wilderness and distant, exotic places.
  Being lost, making rescues, discovering new places, ﬁ nd-
  ing primitive tribes, questing for ancient artifacts: all of them, 
  and more, depend on the unknown or little-known. Rumors, 
  legends, delayed letters, and long-lost expeditions are staples 
  of pulp and classic tales of mystery and derring-do. During the 
  time period the show’s creator had in mind, this already was 
  starting to break down, thanks to the spread of telegraphy and 
  steam propulsion, but that process hadn’t gone very far yet.
  The next step away from a romantic world of adventure 
  came at the end of the nineteenth century. Broadcasting by 
  wireless (radio) could send information long distances in any 
  direction, without wires, as long as there was a receiver at 
  the other end. Petroleum-feuled internal-combustion engines 
  freed fast, reliable ground transportation from rails, improved 
  shipping, and made widespread aviation possible.
  At the end of the Second World War in the mid-twentieth 
  century, that process of mechanization was nearly complete 
  across the industrialized world. Jet aircraft, electronics, and 
  rockets led in turn to mass air travel, television, and satellites.
  Another important aspect of technology is that one area 
  often inﬂ uences another, sometimes in surprising ways. It can 
  be tricky, when world-building, to give a society one technol-
  ogy but not another that existed in real history. There might be 
  developments in one technology that depend on, or result in, 
  the technology that’s supposed to be “missing”.
  The invention of celluloid in the 1870s made all sorts of 
  products cheaper and easier to make, especially items previ-
  ously made from ivory: billiard balls, photographic ﬁ lm, jew-
  elry boxes, parts of musical instruments, and hair accessories. 
  Unfortunately, it also was brittle and, more importantly, one of 
  its components, nitrocellulose, is terribly unstable. Celluloid 
  was known to explode occasionally during production, and 
  several movie theaters full of people burned down during the 
  early twentieth century when nitrate ﬁ lm — which was made 
  from nitrocellulose — caught ﬁ re. (Diﬀ erent kinds of “safety” 
  ﬁ lm were developed in the 1900s and 1940s.) What made it 
  dangerous for consumer goods and the movie industry, though, 
  turned out to be perfect for ﬁ rearms. Guncotton, which was 
  based on nitrocellulose, replaced older forms of gunpowder 
  because it was more powerful and produced much less smoke.
  A literal game is less concerned about the ﬁ ne points 
  and is more about what’s happening at the moment. The nar-
  rator and players are much more free to ignore inconsistencies 
  in favor of whatever keeps the story going in lively fashion.
  Here Be Dragons
  In addition to written notes, a narrator may want to make 
  and keep maps. A role-playing game tends to use two kinds of 
  maps: area maps and local maps.
  An area map displays an overview of a region — where 
  cities and natural features are, what roads, railroads, or other 
  transportation routes exist, and any additional information the 
  narrator or players might ﬁ nd important. It could show a small 
  section of countryside or a large nation, depending on how 
  much detail is needed and how important the area is.
  A poster of the whole pony nation came out a while back, 
  but it’s anyone’s guess how accurate the map on it may be, 
  since it wasn’t created by the folks who actually work on the 
  program. The show’s supervising director has commented that 
  the production crew’s never made any maps, instead creating 
  new places as needed for scripts. A narrator probably is free to 
  go either way, using the poster-map or not as she wishes.
  A local map shows a small area, usually of someplace 
  where a story is happening. There’s more detail on this kind of 
  map in “Hooﬁ n’ It and Wingin’ It: Movement”. It can be, and 
  probably should be, printed with a grid of hexagons to make 
  keeping track of moving and ﬁ ghting easier. It also can make 
  visualizing the place easier for players, on the principle that a 
  picture is worth a thousand words.
  A Living World
  As the game goes on, the narrator may want to build up a 
  “world book” of information on characters, places, and events 
  from past stories that may be useful later. It also can include 
  ideas the narrator (or even a player) comes up with that haven't 
  showed up yet in any stories during the game, or may not have 
  anything to do with the player ponies, but still are worth keep-
  ing in mind for the future.
  Some of the latter could show up in the newspapers, for 
  instance, either as foreshadowing (to pave the way for, and may-
  be hint at, future events) or simply as “window dressing” to 
  promote the illusion of living in a busy, complicated world. A 
  world’s a big place, after all, and lots of things happen even 
  when the player ponies aren’t around.
  Another way for the narrator to show an ongoing, active 
  society is to change around some things (especially small ones) 
  in logical ways when the players come back to a place they’ve 
  visited before — particularly if it’s been a long time since they 
  were last there. If what the players did in the past has had a 
  big impact on a place, such changes can be a good way to show 
  them just what kind of impact it was.
  An example could be the players happening on a town in 
  a dry land, where there isn’t much rain, that depends on a well 
  for water — but the ancient windmill that used to pump water 
  up from the well was damaged or destroyed and none of the 
  local people know how to repair it. Do the players simply pass 
  through? When they return later, the narrator can describe a 
  desolate scene of abandoned, ruined buildings, sand drifting in 
  the doorways. Do they stop and help? They could come back 
  to a hero’s welcome in a thriving, healthy town of happy inhab-
  itants. Once the players ﬁ gure out that their actions can aﬀ ect 
  the people and places around them, it can be an eye-opening 
  experience for everyone. ✶
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part Four � Page 6 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  � Story Seeds �
  J
  ust like any writer, every narrator may develop her own 
  style, both in the kinds of stories she likes to set up and 
  the way she prefers to handle them. On the other hand, there 
  are rules of thumb authors tend to follow, at least most of the 
  time. Because role-playing is diﬀ erent in many ways from ordi-
  nary ﬁ ction, some of the rules may be diﬀ erent, but a lot of the 
  basic elements of storytelling are pretty similar.
  A story or adventure that should happen in one afternoon 
  or evening of play is kind of like a single episode of the show. 
  A single sentence or a short paragraph probably is enough to 
  start, and the narrator doesn’t even have to write it down, as 
  long as she has a pretty good idea what it is. A multi-session 
  story is more like one of the show’s two-part stories, and the 
  narrator may need to write down at least a basic description so 
  she won’t forget the important points.
  Whether the story’s big or small, the narrator should be 
  prepared with anything she thinks she’ll need, such as maps, 
  notes, and character descriptions. The bigger or longer the 
  story, the more preparation’s needed, but don’t go overboard. 
  Players have minds of their own. Frequently they’ll think of 
  something the narrator didn’t, or miss the narrator’s hints or 
  clues, and go oﬀ  in a completely diﬀ erent direction!
  When that happens, it’s tempting to do anything neces-
  sary to force the players back on track, even if it damages the 
  story or the characters. The narrator will have to use her judg-
  ment, but being ﬂ exible usually is best. Maybe the story won’t 
  turn out the way the narrator had in mind, but if everyone has 
  fun — including the narrator — does it really matter?
  Re-using ideas from the show is perfectly okay — as long 
  as the narrator tries to use them diﬀ erently. Partly that’s so the 
  players don’t guess too early what the story’s supposed to be, 
  and partly it’s to keep the story fresh and original. Think about 
  good and bad movie sequels: The worst ones try to tell pretty 
  much the same stories over again, while the best ones try to 
  tell completely new stories, diﬀ erent from the previous mov-
  ies, even if they feature the same characters or locations.
  Serial or Episodic? Originally, the show’s creator want-
  ed the series to be a serial: Each new episode would pick up 
  right where the last one left oﬀ , allowing the overall story arc to 
  be rich and detailed. Company executives, on the other hand, 
  wanted the series to be episodic: Each episode would be a sepa-
  rate story — except for occasional two-part stories — allowing 
  new watchers to get into the series quickly without forcing 
  them to catch up on everything that’s happened or to watch all 
  the episodes in order.
  Of course, the program ended up being episodic, but that 
  doesn’t mean the narrator and players have to do it that way. 
  Many role-playing games have been serial, simply following the 
  lives of the characters as they go from adventure to adventure. 
  The story-seeds are written for an episodic game, but most of 
  them should be easy to alter for a serial game.
  For that matter, a game doesn’t have to be all one or the 
  other. A serial story arc might last for many sessions, then 
  eventually end; that could be followed by some episodic game 
  sessions, maybe leading to another long story arc.
  “That’s Not What I Ordered”
  After a mix-up in shipping, one of the player ponies gets the 
  wrong package — and it’s full of parasprites! The ﬁ rst problem 
  is dealing with them, especially if they get loose. After that, 
  ﬁ nding out where they came from, who sent them, and why 
  probably is pretty urgent.
  “An Explosive Situation”
  The slightly crazy old uncle of a player pony lives up in the 
  hills, prospecting for minerals. He sends a letter to the player 
  pony claiming other ponies are trying to run him oﬀ  his claim. 
  It turns out those other ponies are loggers who aren’t happy 
  that he’s leaving boxes of old, unstable dynamite lying around 
  (so he doesn’t have to carry the heavy boxes everywhere) that 
  could blow up if somepony just happens to walk by. . . .
  “Stand and Deliver”
  The player ponies are hired to help set up a new airship termi-
  nal or small seaport well outside the ponies’ country. During 
  the journey to the job site, the airship they’re on is waylaid by 
  sky pirates in a smaller but faster airship, armed with a swivel-
  mounted quick-ﬁ ring breechloading light naval gun. The ﬂ yers 
  among the pirates — pegasus ponies, a couple of griﬀ ons, and 
  maybe even more exotic creatures — try to land on the bigger 
  airship in order to capture it. Stand by to repel boarders!
  “A Giant Complication”
  This is a sequel to the previous story. After the pirates are de-
  feated and the airship is repaired, the expedition reaches the 
  place where the new terminal or port will be set up. A thin 
  thread of smoke coming out of a nearby cave turns out to 
  be from a very old sleeping dragon. He’s big enough to be a 
  problem if they make an enemy of him, but frail (and lonely) 
  enough that they might be able to talk him into being friendly 
  or at least into putting up with pony neighbors.
  “Title and Deed”
  The inheritance of a prominent and popular local landowner is 
  being challenged by a stranger from a distant city, who brought 
  old papers that support this claim. Are the papers legitimate or 
  fakes? If the latter, does the pony bearing them know or is he 
  or she a dupe of someone else who has a hidden agenda?
  A possible complication can be the disappearance of the 
  local claimant’s papers from the family’s lawyer’s safe (or the 
  whole safe itself). Who took them and how? Where are they? 
  Can they be found and brought back in time for the court case?
  “Ten Little Ponies”
  Along with the crew and maybe a few other passengers, the 
  player ponies are stuck on a small steamship or large airship 
  that’s been damaged by untamed weather and is drifting 
  in pea-soup fog. What no one realizes at ﬁ rst is that a lost 
  changeling was blown aboard during the storm and is making 
  ponies disappear into hidden cocoons one by one.
  For an extra twist, the narrator could talk with one of the 
  players privately before the game starts. That player’s pony 
  could be the ﬁ rst one kidnapped, and the player would play the 
  changeling until the other players ﬁ gure out what’s going on. ➧
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part Four � Page 7 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  “Cooking the Books” (by Vikki)
  Some miscreant schoolfoals have discovered a spell that alters 
  the text in their schoolbooks, which lets them contest the 
  grades on their tests. (“It’s not a mistake at all! See?”) Miscasting 
  the spell, though, has made its eﬀ ects more far-reaching than 
  they realize — which ponies all over town are ﬁ nding out.
  “What’s That Noise?” (by Vikki)
  Irate dragons show up, insisting that ponies are using a weapon 
  on them. They claim to hear a grating, high-pitched tone that’s 
  strongest in the area, and refuse to leave until it’s stopped. 
  What’s causing it? The dragons are getting more and more up-
  set, and some ponies want to send for military assistance. Can 
  the mystery be solved before hostilities break out?
  “The Forbidding Fruit” (by Vikki)
  An exotic new fruit that some claim tastes better than apples 
  is discovered (or maybe “discovered”)! The new plants are sold 
  to local farmers, who put them in ﬁ elds — only to ﬁ nd that 
  they grow like weeds, even over boundaries, choking out all 
  other crops including apple groves. Trying to uproot them re-
  veals that they refuse to be dealt with like mere plants.
  Even after dealing with the problems caused by the plants 
  themselves, there might be all sorts of other questions to an-
  swer. Who found, or maybe made, them? Why sell them? Is 
  the discoverer innocent, just as much of a victim as everyone 
  who bought the plants, or a villain with a scheme?
  “The Slumbering Princess” (by Vikki)
  One evening while preparing for her duty of raising the moon 
  and guarding the night, the moon princess suddenly collapses 
  on her balcony. She’s found after the unusually long dusk is 
  noticed, and her sister, though reluctant to leave her side, cov-
  ers for her the same way as during the time of her lunar exile.
  She’s placed in the care of the best physicians, who discov-
  er that her condition is some sort of deep sleep. Word spreads 
  like wildﬁ re throughout the land, but stranger news follows as 
  the capital and an expanding wave of towns start to experience 
  total insomnia. Accidents caused by sleep deprivation, and ar-
  guments caused by related irritability, skyrocket! After a few 
  days, desperation sets in as it gets harder to concentrate on 
  even simple tasks, no matter how important.
  The player ponies at last are visited by cryptic dreams in 
  which the sleeping princess begs them to unite in the capital 
  and, to prove their story, endows them with a memory of her 
  foalhood that only her sister would know.
  All sorts of possibilities can follow. For example . . .
  • Are the player ponies awake or still dreaming?
  •  The player ponies could be attacked by their own night-
  mares — but in the waking world! Are they subconscious 
  memories, fears, or insecurities that must be overcome?
  •  The capital’s population could turn into sleep-deprived 
  mind-controlled zombie ponies, maybe even including the 
  sun princess, and the player ponies must awaken the moon 
  princess to save the day.
  •  The player ponies may have to enter the moon princess’s 
  dreams and battle against the subconscious remnants of the 
  villainess she became before being banished to the moon. ✶
  Additional guest contributions will 
  be included in future revisions.
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part Four � Page 8 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  � Sample Ponies �
  O
  n the following pages are several ponies the narrator 
  can use as background characters or players can use di-
  rectly or as inspiration for their own ponies. Each sample pony 
  is set up as if he or she is a starting player pony, with 12d of 
  added Aptitude dice and 7d of Talent dice.
  For a more experienced pony, simply add some experience 
  points for improved Talents or Specialties, or new ones that 
  seem appropriate for the pony. If the group isn’t using the Spe-
  cialties optional rule, convert the sample pony’s Specialties to 
  regular Talents; each added Specialty die would become one 
  point of Talent. Most of the sample ponies’ Specialties are in 
  whole-die increments to make conversion easier.
  These samples are intended to be widely varied, both in 
  the kinds of characters they are and the kinds of games they ﬁ t 
  into best. Some were created by players for the author’s “pilot” 
  game, while others were created especially for this section.
  For a unicorn Magical Talent, both Talent and Eﬀ ect 
  rolls are listed for easy reference. If Illumination or Levitation 
  isn’t listed, use the pony’s base Finesse for the Talent roll and 
  base Power for the Eﬀ ect roll. The same goes for a pegasus 
  who tries to use a weatherworking Talent that isn’t listed.
  “Extras” or “spear carriers”: Not every character the 
  player ponies run into needs to be this detailed. A random 
  shopkeeper or some pony who stops to give directions prob-
  ably doesn’t need any numbers — or at most may need an im-
  portant Talent or two, such as Business or Haggling in the case 
  of that shopkeeper. A bit of vivid description, maybe some per-
  sonality or physical quirks, and other touches of individuality 
  often can be enough to keep the scene going in an enjoyable 
  and believable fashion. Real people the narrator’s met, story 
  characters, and even news items or anecdotes the narrator’s 
  heard or read can provide ideas.
  Reactions to the player ponies should be reasonable, 
  though. A gang of tough-looking armored bravos swaggering 
  into town might not be greeted with friendly smiles, for in-
  stance — more like nervous suspicion that they might be ban-
  dits or outlaws. Of course, that could depend on the kind of 
  place the town is: A frontier village might be a little more will-
  ing to accept rough-hewn ponies who obviously have had to 
  travel through potentially dangerous wilderness, while a pony 
  in a big city might be more inclined to call the cops.
  Villains and minions: Some of the example ponies can 
  be used as antagonists, working against the player ponies but 
  not really bad or evil; they even might be working for a vil-
  lain, knowingly or not. Still, sometimes the narrator deﬁ nitely 
  needs a pony or other creature who really is nasty or ruthless 
  enough to be a true “bad guy”. For such a “boss” villain, the 
  narrator should spend as much eﬀ ort as a player does on creat-
  ing her pony. That villain needs to be worth working to beat, 
  and when the players succeed, it should be a satisfying victory.
  On the other hand, lowly minions, like other “spear car-
  riers”, don’t need much more than some basic notes — Apti-
  tudes and the most important Talents they’re likely to use, 
  maybe with a few quirks to make some of them seem a little 
  more individual. Minions shouldn’t get many luck or harmony 
  points, if they get any!
  Bumpkin: Earth Stallion (guest contribution)
  Muscle 
  2d+1 
  Run Move 
  7 yards
  Hardiness 
  2d 
  Swim & Climb Moves 
  4 yards
  Reﬂ exes 
  2d 
  Jump 
  2 yards
  Coordination 2d 
  Strength Bonus 
  1d
  Smarts 
  3d+2 
  Cast-Iron Stomach* 
  4d+5
  Senses 
  2d 
  Resist Injury & Fatigue* 2d+5
  Power 
  5d 
  * Includes bonus from Power
  Talent and Specialties (based on . . .) 
  Dice
  Cast-Iron Stomach (Hardiness) Stamina Specialty  . . . . . . . 4d
  Resisting getting sick from eating or drinking bad 
  or diﬃ  cult things
  Improvised Weapons (Reﬂ exes) Mêlée Specialty  . . . . . . . . . 4d
  Fighting using objects not intended to be weapons
  Brawling (Reﬂ exes) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3d
  Firearms (Coordination) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3d
  Business (Smarts)  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4d
  Cosmopolitan (Smarts) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4d
  Conﬁ dence (Smarts)  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4d
  Familiary (Smarts) with pony nation’s highways . . . . . . . . 4d
  Moonshining (Power)  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6d
  Brewing and distilling alcohol in primitive 
  conditions with hoof-built equipment
  Medicine (Power) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6d
  Trauma Medicine (Medicine) Medicine Specialty. . . . . . . . 7d
  Treating traumatic injuries from accidents or ﬁ ghting
  Possessions (he usually has a bottle of bourbon in his panniers)
  Dwelling (medium) Rented outbuilding on a farm
  Money (medium) Income from moonshining
  Business (medium) Distillery in the woods
  Contact (minor) with the local black market
  Weapon (minor) Fancy coach gun: 2 shots, 6d injury; silver-
  inlaid engraving, scrimshawed ivory butt-plate & side inlay 
  panels, purple velvet shell pouch containing 20 nickel-plated 
  all-brass shells
  Bumpkin is the very picture of a hayseed from the back coun-
  try — but he’s smarter than he looks and acts.
  Personal Weakness: Hick — he behaves a lot like the 
  stereotype of a backwood yokel.
  Physical Description: Bumpkin is tall and a little gan-
  gly. His slightly shaggy coat is copper-colored; his short, rag-
  gedly cut mane and tail are blonde and rough. All of them usu-
  ally are a bit dirty. His eyes are bloodshot . . . okay, purple. His 
  cute mark is a clay jug with “XXX” marked on it
  Best suited for a game set in the country, maybe near a 
  small town, that might be a bit uncouth, but not dark. ➧
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part Four � Page 9 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  Cymbal: Earth Mare (guest contribution)
  Muscle 
  1d+2 
  Run Move 
  6 yards
  Hardiness 
  2d 
  Swim & Climb Moves 
  3 yards
  Reﬂ exes 
  2d 
  Jump 
  2 yards
  Coordination 4d 
  Strength Bonus 
  1d
  Smarts 
  2d+2 
  Resist Physical Fatigue* 3d+3
  Senses 
  3d+2 
  Resist Injury or Illness* 2d+3
  Power 
  3d 
  * Includes bonus from Power 
  Talents and Specialties (based on . . .) 
  Dice
  Physical Stamina (Hardiness) Stamina Specialty  . . . . . . . . 3d
  Resisting getting tired from physical, not magical, 
  exertion; does not apply to resisting illness
  Mêlée (Reﬂ exes). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2d+1
  Clubs (Mêlée) Mêlée Specialty  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4d+1
  Fighting using blunt instruments that 
  may or may not be intended as weapons
  Drums/Percussion (Coordination) Music Performance T.  . 6d
  Flutes (Coordination) Music Performance Talent. . . . . . 4d+1
  Dance (Coordination) Performance Talent  . . . . . . . . . . . 4d+1
  Business (Smarts)  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3d
  Charm (Smarts) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3d
  Familiary (Smarts) with pony nation’s highways . . . . . . . . 3d
  Acting (Senses). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4d
  Disguise (Senses)  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4d
  Streetwise (Senses) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4d
  Musical Hypnosis (Power) Wild Talent, Eﬀ ect roll  . . . . . . . 4d
  Possessions (including panniers/saddlebags)
  Dwelling (medium) Road-pony caravan that she pulls
  Money (medium) Income from performing and petty crime
  Musical instrument (medium) High-quality drum set
  Musical instrument (minor) Silver ﬂ ute
  Clothing (minor) Performance wardrobe
  Cymbal is the stereotypical road pony — independent, mobile, 
  a bit larcenous, alluring, and the kind of ﬁ lly one doesn’t bring 
  home to Mother. Her usual performance is a percussion-and-
  dance show with drums set at various angles on-stage that she 
  plays as she dances. Some ponies, though, may have ﬁ gured out 
  there seems be a little more to it than just musical skill. She 
  also is willing to beat a ﬁ ne rhythm on the skulls of those who 
  get just a little too forward in their appreciation or intolerance.
  For all her carefree, ﬂ ippant ways, she does have a sense 
  of duty, if not to the nation’s laws and society, then at least to 
  the Princesses and ordinary folk, whom she adores in equal 
  measure. She’s known to be a minor troublemaker and irritant, 
  but she also keeps the local constabulary informed of anything 
  threatening and has been known to undertake dangerous self-
  assigned missions to keep others out of harm’s way. The con-
  stables don’t quite know what to make of her.
  Wild Talent (Musical Hypnosis spell): When Cymbal 
  works at it, her music can hypnotize — holding a small crowd 
  in passive rapture, putting a pony to sleep, weaving a sugges-
  tion, or calming a raging opponent. A glow appears around the 
  instrument, but it won’t distract those under the spell. To cast 
  it, make a Music Performance Talent roll with applicable mod-
  iﬁ ers. Casting distance: none. Ranged spell: use range modiﬁ er 
  for the farthest aﬀ ected creature. Failure: spell ﬁ zzles. Mishap: 
  spell backﬁ res, causing unexpected behavior. Eﬀ ect: Intimida-
  tion, Persuasion, or other appropriate Talent roll to hypnotize 
  listeners; resist with Willpower or Smarts, or Senses if appro-
  priate. Duration: how long hypnosis lasts before it wears oﬀ .
  Personal Weakness: Minor criminal record — she’s known 
  to the authorities for petty theft and disorderly conduct.
  Physical Description: Cymbal is short, slim, and grace-
  ful, with a dancer’s muscles. Her coat is golden and her mane 
  and tail are white and ﬂ owing; all of them are carefully tended. 
  Her eyes are azure blue, and her cutie mark is a tambourine.
  Best suited for a game set nearly anywhere that might 
  be a bit edgy or daring.�
  Stormbucker: Pegasus Stallion (guest contribution)
  Muscle 
  3d 
  Run Move 
  8 yards
  Hardiness 
  3d 
  Swim & Climb Moves 
  4 yards
  Reﬂ exes 
  4d 
  Jump 
  2 yards
  Coordination 1d+1 
  Flight Move 
  7 yards
  Smarts 
  1d+2
  Senses 
  2d+2 
  Strength Bonus 
  2d
  Power 
  1d+2 
  Resist Flying Fatigue 
  4d
  Finesse 
  2d+2 
  Resist Injury or Illness 3d
  Talents and Specialties (based on . . .) 
  Dice
  Flying Stamina (Hardiness) Stamina Specialty . . . . . . . . . . 4d
  Resisting fatigue from ﬂ ying
  Brawling (Reﬂ exes) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5d
  Buck (Brawling) Specialty: Attacking by bucking  . . . . . . . 7d
  Warboot Parry (Brawling) Spec.: Parrying with warboots  . 7d
  Dodge (Reﬂ exes)  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4d+1
  Conﬁ dence (Smarts)  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2d
  Painting (Senses) Art Talent. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3d
  Gambling (Senses)  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3d
  Investigation (Senses). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3d
  Notice (Senses) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3d
  Streetwise (Senses) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3d
  Black Market (Streetwise) Specialty  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4d
  Buying, selling, and moving contraband 
  and other illicit goods
  Boltworking Talent (Finesse). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3d
  Boltworking Eﬀ ect (Power). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3d
  Flying (Finesse)  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3d
  Emergency Maneuvers (Flying) Specialty  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4d
  Maneuvering suddenly to avoid crashing or trouble
  Sky Chariot (Flying) Specialty  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4d
  Pulling a chariot through the air safely & comfortably ➧
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part Four � Page 10 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  Possessions (including panniers/saddlebags)
  Dwelling (medium) A small ﬂ at that he owns
  Money (medium) Income from bodyguarding and pick-up jobs
  Vehicle (medium) Two-passenger sky chariot that he pulls
  Barding (minor) Old royal guard helm: +3d armor, head only; 
  forehead spike, 1d injury plus Strength Bonus (3d total)
  Weapon (minor) Warboots: 1d+1 injury plus Strength Bonus 
  and strike dice; Punch, 3d+2 total injury; 
  Box, 4d total injury (+3 or +1d diﬃ  culty mod.);
  Kick, 4d+1 total injury (+6 or +2d diﬃ  culty modiﬁ er);
  Buck, 5d+1 total injury (+9 or +3d diﬃ  culty modiﬁ er)
  Stormbucker used to be a royal guard who served on the bor-
  ders and in the nation’s biggest city. He’s not a police-pony or 
  detective, but he learned how the “real world” works by assist-
  ing in criminal take-downs. He hoped for a posting to the royal 
  palace — what guardspony doesn’t? — but then he uncovered 
  some corruption in his own unit.
  A lieutenant was taking bribes from smugglers and bu-
  reaucrats. Stormbucker reported it, and the lieutenant was 
  tried and convicted, but the court-martial was hushed up and 
  others escaped justice. It all looked to Stormbucker like poli-
  tics and dirty dealing. He appealed to the Princesses but never 
  got an answer. (What he doesn’t know is that his letter was 
  intercepted and buried, so it never reached them.)
  He resigned from the guard in disgust and now is a “white 
  hat” muscle-for-hire: bodyguarding, making dangerous deliv-
  eries, and doing other, similar jobs. He’s known to the local 
  authorities, who sympathize with his history — but they also 
  know he’s kind of a loose cannon.
  Personal Weakness: Distrusts authority — his bad experi-
  ences in the royal guard have left a lasting impression.
  Physical Description: Stormbucker is large and sturdy, 
  with a well-trimmed gold coat. His short-cropped mane and 
  tail are cobalt blue. His eyes are violet. His cutie mark is a 
  horseshoe over crossed spears.
  Best suited for a somewhat dark game set mostly in a 
  big city, with lots of shady ﬁ gures and scheming.
  Marathon: Pegasus Stallion (guest contribution)
  Muscle 
  2d 
  Run Move 
  7 yards
  Hardiness 
  4d+1 
  Swim & Climb Moves 
  4 yards
  Reﬂ exes 
  2d 
  Jump 
  2 yards
  Coordination 2d 
  Flight Move 
  8 yards
  Smarts 
  2d+1
  Senses 
  2d+2 
  Strength Bonus 
  1d
  Power 
  3d 
  Resist Flying Fatigue 
  4d
  Finesse 
  1d+2 
  Resist Injury or Illness 3d
  Talents and Specialties (based on . . .) 
  Dice
  Stamina (Hardiness)  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6d+1
  Navigation (Smarts). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4d
  Orienteering (Navigation) Navigation Specialty. . . . . . . . . 5d
  The use of maps and charts (rather than using 
  instruments or examining the lay of the land)
  Geography (Smarts) Science Talent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2d+2
  The science and study of the lands, the features, 
  the inhabitants, and the phenomena of the world
  Postal Service Administration (Smarts) Admin. Specialty  . .1d+2
  Dealing with the royal postal service
  Aerial Teamster (Finesse) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3d
  Eﬃ  ciently loading, pulling through the air, 
  and unloading a van, wagon, or cart
  Flying (Finesse)  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4d
  Bump of Direction (Finesse) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4d
  Weather Sense (Finesse)  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5d
  Magical ability to understand exactly what the 
  weather’s doing at the moment and how it may change
  over the next day, assuming it isn’t inﬂ uenced by magic
  Possessions (including panniers/saddlebags)
  Dwelling (medium) A small ﬂ at that he rents
  Money (medium) Income from postal work
  Maps (medium) Case of maps and charts
  Toolkit (minor) Navigation instruments with case
  Library (minor) Books with an emphasis on romances (in the 
  old meaning of the word: novels about exotic places and 
  characters, what today would be called pulp ﬁ ction)
  Marathon works for the royal postal service, ﬂ ying letters and 
  small packages long distances from post oﬃ  ce to post oﬃ  ce.
  Personal Weakness: Introvert  — he doesn’t make friends 
  easily or quickly.
  Physical Description: Marathon is average size for a 
  pegasus stallion, but with an athletic build like a marathon 
  runner. His coat is dark blue with an undertone of gray. His 
  mane and tail are light grayish-blue; he keeps the former fairly 
  short and the latter slightly longer. His eyes are greenish-blue. 
  His cutie mark is a pony sandal with wings.
  Best suited for a game that may involve traveling, but 
  tends to be based in one area. ➧
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part Four � Page 11 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  Wind Shear: Pegasus Mare (guest contribution)
  Muscle 
  3d 
  Run Move 
  8 yards
  Hardiness 
  3d 
  Swim & Climb Moves 
  4 yards
  Reﬂ exes 
  2d+1 
  Jump 
  2 yards
  Coordination 2d+1 
  Flight Move 
  7 yards
  Smarts 
  2d+1
  Senses 
  2d+1 
  Strength Bonus 
  2d
  Power 
  2d+1 
  Resist Fatigue 
  3d+1
  Finesse 
  2d+1 
  Resist Injury or Illness 3d
  Talents and Specialties (based on . . .) 
  Dice
  Stamina (Hardiness)  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3d+1
  Swimming (Reﬂ exes) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3d+1
  Administration (Smarts). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2d+2
  Knowledge of rules and regulations 
  and how an organization works
  Familiarity (Smarts) with city where game is set. . . . . . . 2d+2
  Lifeguard (Smarts) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2d+2
  Rescuing a victim from drowning without letting 
  a panicking victim drown the rescuer too
  Medicine (Smarts)  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3d
  Survival (Smarts)  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3d
  Marine Survival (Survival) Specialty dealing with ocean  . 4d
  Urban Legends (Smarts)  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2d+2
  Knowledge of spooky stories that may or 
  may not really have happened somewhere
  Rescue Search (Senses) Search Specialty  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3d+1
  Finding lost victims in the wilderness or on the ocean
  Flying (Finesse)  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3d+1
  Weather Sense (Finesse)  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3d
  Windworking Talent (Finesse). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3d
  Possessions (every pony gets panniers/saddlebags)
  Dwelling (medium) A small ﬂ at that she rents
  Money (medium) Income from patrol work (and maybe writing)
  Phonograph and record collection (medium)
  Toolkit (minor) Survival vest with minimal gear (for example, 
  compass, ﬁ rst-aid kit, whistle, waterproof canister of matches, 
  ﬁ recrackers, and a pair of ﬂ ares)
  Sunglasses (minor) High-quality ﬂ yer’s shades with lanyard
  Wind Shear works on the local coastal patrol, helping to safe-
  guard seafarers and those who live close to the ocean. She’s 
  good at her job, but those around her know full well she also is 
  a little crazy. A favorite piece of advice she gives is “Always put 
  a lanyard on your sandwich. You don’t want to drop it when 
  you’re sitting on a cloud taking your lunch break.”
  Personal Weakness: Loopy — the sky isn’t the same color 
  in her world. She’s willing to believe the most outrageous things 
  and is a little overenthusiastic. Parents occasionally tell their 
  foals not to drink too much seawater or they’ll end up like her.
  Physical Description: Wind Shear’s lean and wiry like a 
  track-and-ﬁ eld athlete and fairly attractive. Her well-groomed 
  coat is medium purple; her mane and tail are glossy black, 
  straight, and medium length. Her eyes are deep purple. Her 
  cutie mark is a white ﬁ ve-pointed star with a gold upraised wing.
  Best suited for a fairly light game that ranges from silly 
  to serious, set in a coastal area around a port city.
  Starry Skies: Unicorn Mare (guest contribution)
  Muscle 
  1d+2 
  Run Move 
  6 yards
  Hardiness 
  2d 
  Swim & Climb Moves 
  3 yards
  Reﬂ exes 
  2d 
  Jump 
  2 yards
  Coordination 1d+2
  Smarts 
  4d 
  Strength Bonus 
  1d
  Senses 
  2d 
  Magic Stamina 
  3d
  Power 
  2d+2 
  Resist Injury or Illness 2d
  Finesse 
  4d 
  Magical Style: Pyromancy
  Talents and Specialties (based on . . .) 
  Dice
  Magical Stamina (Hardiness) Stamina Specialty  . . . . . . . . 3d
  Resisting fatigue from using Magical Talents
  Astronomy (Smarts) Science Talent. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5d
  The study of heavenly bodies and phenomena
  Optics (Smarts) Science Talent  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5d
  Working with light using lenses & related instruments
  Mathematics (Smarts) Science Talent  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4d+1
  Working with advanced equations and calculations, 
  including geometry, algebra, and calculus
  Charm (Smarts) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4d+1
  High Society (Charm) Specialty  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5d+1
  Dealing with the upper classes and the places 
  where they tend to spend their time
  Sharp Vision (Senses) Notice Specialty for seeing well  . . . 3d
  Illumination (Finesse) Talent  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4d
  Illumination (Power) Eﬀ ect  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4d
  Levitation (Finesse) Talent. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4d
  Levitation (Power) Eﬀ ect. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2d+2
  Pyrokinesis (Finesse) Talent  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4d+2
  Pyrokinesis (Power) Eﬀ ect  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4d
  Generating heat in a target object, possibly to the 
  point of causing it to melt or catch ﬁ re
  Possession (including panniers/saddlebags)
  Business (major) Telescope and optics shop; she lives in a room 
  above the storefront
  Money (medium) Income from the business
  Telescope (minor) High-quality collapsing spyglass
  Mirror (minor) Silvered segmented folding parabolic steel mir-
  ror (24” diameter): +1d injury or Eﬀ ect with Pyrokinesis and 
  combat Illumination, +1d resistance to light or ﬁ re magic 
  when used as a shield; use Levitation or Coordination for 
  Talent roll, depending on how it’s being used
  Starry Skies is a classic mage-type: able to attack and defend at 
  range fairly well, but fragile when the bad guys ﬁ nally get their 
  grubby mitts on her. Her favorite combat moves will be blind-
  ing ﬂ ashes, enhanced by her mirror if she has time to deploy 
  it, or good old-fashioned telekinetic rock-chucking. She will 
  direct ﬁ re spells at living beings only as a last resort.
  Magical Style: Pyromancy is ﬁ re-related magic. The “Pyro-
  kinesis” spell isn’t a ﬂ amethrower, ﬁ reball, or wall of ﬁ re; it’s the 
  ability to generate heat and to stare at things until they catch on 
  ﬁ re. It’s like opening a hot oven and getting slapped in the face 
  by the hot air coming out — just add sparkly special eﬀ ects.
  Personal Weakness: Unusual appearance — she looks odd 
  even for a brightly colored magical pony. ➧
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part Four � Page 12 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  Physical Description: Starry’s cutie mark is a galaxy 
  surrounded by nebulæ, representing her talents in all things 
  astronomical — in particular, her interest in cosmology and her 
  nation’s place in the universe. In other ways, her appearance is 
  unusual enough to be memorable and a little unnerving. She’s 
  small and somewhat slender for an adult unicorn, but much of 
  her coloration is similar to that of the moon princess, espe-
  cially the cobalt blue of her coat. Her mane and tail of deep 
  violet frosted with magenta, sometimes dotted with red glow-
  ing motes, also is out of the ordinary. Her eyes are ruby red.
  In fact, her costumery on Nightmare Nights often is as 
  either the moon princess or the villain that princess used to be, 
  and she’s scared the proverbial pants oﬀ  of more than one foal.
  Best suited for a ﬁ gurative game of classic high adven-
  ture, including questing and epic journeys.
  �
  Galea: Unicorn Mare
  Muscle 
  2d 
  Run Move 
  7 yards
  Hardiness 
  2d 
  Swim & Climb Moves 
  4 yards
  Reﬂ exes 
  2d 
  Jump 
  2 yards
  Coordination 2d
  Smarts 
  4d 
  Strength Bonus 
  1d
  Senses 
  2d 
  Resist Fatigue 
  3d
  Power 
  2d 
  Resist Injury or Illness 2d
  Finesse 
  3d 
  Magical Style: Martial magic
  Talents (based on . . .) 
  Dice
  Leadership (Smarts)  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5d
  Navigation (Smarts). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5d
  Piloting (Coordination). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3d
  Stamina (Hardiness)  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3d
  Force Blast (Finesse) Talent  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3d
  Force Blast (Power) Eﬀ ect  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3d
  Force Bubble (Finesse) Talent  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3d
  Force Bubble (Power) Eﬀ ect  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3d
  Illumination (Finesse) Talent  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3d
  Illumination (Power) Eﬀ ect  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3d
  Possessions (including panniers/saddlebags)
  Knighthood (med.) Dame Commander of the Order of the Sun
  Money (medium) Pensions and partnership dividends
  Dwelling (medium) Townhouse with small yard in town
  Contact (minor) With the Royal Guard and business world
  Toolkit (minor) Set of navigation and sighting instruments
  Galea served for many years as a Royal Guard oﬃ  cer in the air-
  ship corps, eventually reaching the rank of lieutenant colonel 
  and assuming command of a large transport airship. During a 
  training exercise, a smaller airship with an inexperienced crew 
  collided with hers, causing both airships to crash. Her ﬁ rm 
  leadership, quick thinking, and clever use of her spells during 
  the crisis saved lives, but she herself was seriously injured.
  Her age and injuries forced her to retire; she still has a 
  slight limp and isn’t quite as strong as she used to be. In recog-
  nition of her sacriﬁ ce and gallantry, she received a retirement 
  promotion to colonel and a knighthood. Both provided her 
  with generous pensions, which she used to buy a townhouse.
  She spent several months recuperating and adjusting to life 
  as a retiree, but found it . . . boring. A group of investors, who 
  were forming a company to build and operate an airship larger 
  than any previous design, approached her to oﬀ er a chance to 
  invest and to be the airship’s captain. She leapt at the chance.
  Magical Style: Martial magic is related to combat and war, 
  including spells that help an oﬃ  cer exercise tactical command.
  Personal Weakness: Oﬃ  cer’s manner — her military train-
  ing and bearing tend to come out in her attitudes and actions.
  Physical Description: Galea is thin and a bit stringy 
  with age. Her coat is a medium stone-gray, and she generally 
  keeps it well-groomed. Her mane and tail are two-tone blue 
  and somewhat wavy; she keeps them as neat and tidy as she did 
  when she was in the Guard, though they’re a little longer now. 
  Her eyes are orange-red and usually narrowed. Her cutie mark 
  is a galea (Roman legionary helmet) with face-guard in proﬁ le.
  Suited for almost any game, with modiﬁ cation. In a co-
  medic game, she can be competent but oﬃ  cious and self-im-
  portant; in a serious game, she can be focused and professional.
  An adventure game could follow the airship’s travels to ex-
  otic lands or contract jobs around the ponies’ country. In that 
  case, substitute a suit of armor for the townhouse, including 
  an alicorn-cover on the helm and war-boots on the hooves; a 
  Hardiness of 2d can be a bit fragile in a serious ﬁ ght.
  For a lighter game, she might have retired a second time 
  but kept her part ownership of and investment in the airship.
  �
  Silver Tuppence: Unicorn Stallion (guest contribution)
  Muscle 
  1d 
  Run Move 
  6 yards
  Hardiness 
  1d 
  Swim & Climb Moves 
  3 yards
  Reﬂ exes 
  1d 
  Jump 
  2 yards
  Coordination 1d+1
  Smarts 
  5d
  Senses 
  3d+1 
  Strength Bonus 
  1d
  Power 
  3d 
  Resist Injury or Illness 1d
  Finesse 
  4d+1 
  Magical Style: Numismatics 
  Talents (based on . . .) 
  Dice
  Alertness (Reﬂ exes)  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2d
  Accounting (Smarts) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5d+1
  Math dealing with business income and expenses
  Business (Smarts)  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5d+1
  Intimidation (Smarts). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5d+1
  Leadership (Smarts)  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5d+1
  Organization (Smarts)  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6d+1
  Creating & maintaining order in a document or eﬀ ort
  Willpower (Smarts)  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5d+1
  Barista (Senses)  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3d+2
  Brewing, steeping, mixing, or otherwise creating 
  safe, tasty, and beneﬁ cial or well-balanced drinks
  Writing (Senses). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4d
  Levitation (Finesse) Talent. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5d+2
  Levitation (Power) Eﬀ ect. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3d
  Illumination (Finesse) Talent  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4d+2
  Illumination (Power) Eﬀ ect  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3d
  Metal Appraisal (Finesse) Talent  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4d+2
  Metal Appraisal (Power) Eﬀ ect  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3d ➧
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Part Four � Page 13 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  Possessions (including panniers/saddlebags)
  Dwelling (medium) A nice ﬂ at in the lord’s seat (manor house, 
  castle, or palace from which the lord runs his lands)
  Money (medium) Income from majordomo’s job
  Steamer trunk (medium) Contains a couple of butler-style out-
  ﬁ ts, pince-nez glasses with clip-on sunglasses, sundry toilet-
  ries, and a couple of blankets
  Toolkit (minor) Accountant’s portfolio in a leather case, with 
  abacus, chalk and small chalkboard, ledger paper, fountain 
  pen with reﬁ lls, letter paper, envelopes, candle wax, and a 
  copy of the lord’s wax seal for oﬃ  cial business
  Toolkit (minor) Wet bar with tea set, coﬀ ee set, and liquors
  Silver Tuppence works as a majordomo for the lord (or lady) in 
  charge of the area where the game is set. He helps to keep the 
  household’s accounts in order and acts as the lord’s agent for 
  various tasks, including inspections and audits of businesses 
  and local government agencies within the lord’s lands.
  For a stallion he’s a bit pretty, and he’s polite to the point 
  of fussiness — but when the chips are down he can be surpris-
  ingly ﬁ rm and able. He’s not fond of leaving the lord’s seat, 
  preferring to work in his study, but all too often there’s some 
  errand that simply has to be run, and of course he usually gets 
  chosen to do it because he’s so reliable and capable.
  Magical Style: Numismatics in the real world is the study 
  and collection of coins, paper money, and medals. In Silver 
  Tuppence’s case, it is magic dealing with those things, and by ex-
  tension other metals of value and ﬁ nancial instruments — stocks 
  and bonds, letters of credit, and the like.
  Metal Appraisal spell: Senses what, if any, metals and 
  how much are in an object or location. Casting distance: none. 
  Ranged spell: use range modiﬁ er for how far away object or lo-
  cation is. Failure: spell ﬁ zzles. Mishap: spell gives false informa-
  tion. Eﬀ ect: Notice dice to determine if object or location con-
  tains metals, what those metals are, and how much. Duration: 
  instant; in eﬀ ect, the spell asks a question and gets an answer.
  This spell is right on the edge of his Magical Style, and is 
  phrased to make it useful for adventuring as well as more ev-
  eryday accounting purposes. For example, it can be used to de-
  termine if steel or iron slugs are mixed in with silver or gold 
  coins, but it also can be used to determine if there is iron rebar 
  (reinforcing bar) inside a brick wall — say, as part of a building 
  inspection. Another possibility is to count the monetary value 
  of a pile or bag of coins without touching it, which would re-
  quire a suitably high diﬃ  culty for the spell’s Eﬀ ect Notice roll.
  Personal Weakness: Fussy homebody — he can be a bit 
  obsessive-compulsive and hard to pry out of the lord’s seat for 
  any kind of outing.
  Physical Description: Silver Tuppence is slim and lanky, 
  delicate enough to be mistaken easily for a mare. His impecca-
  bly groomed coat is silver gray. His mane and tail are similarly 
  tidy — white with a shock of blue, worn straight and bound 
  with a ribbon at the end, then curled. His eyes are copper-
  colored. His cutie mark is a pair of silver coins stamped with 
  the seals of the royal princesses.
  Best suited for a light adventure game that takes place 
  mostly in one area. ✶
  Additional guest contributions will 
  be included in future revisions.
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Quick Reference � Panel A 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  T
  his twelve-page quick reference can be punched and 
  placed in a binder with the rest of the rulebook — or 
  printed on or glued to both sides of heavy card-stock sheets, 
  then assembled into a foldable screen to shield the narrator’s 
  notes and story-spoilers from the players’ view. The panels 
  can be arranged in any order that suits the narrator. Be aware, 
  however, that the tables are extremely abbreviated and are in-
  tended as reminders, not as substitutes for the actual rules. If 
  there’s a conﬂ ict between this quick reference and the rules 
  sections, follow the rules sections.
  � First Things First: Creating a Pony �
  Checklist for Creating a Pony
  Step 1: What Kind of Pony?
  A.  Choose the pony’s tribe: earth pony, pegasus, or unicorn.
  B.  Choose whether the pony’s a mare (female) or stallion (male).
  Step 2: Aptitudes
  A.  List the starting Aptitudes of the tribe chosen for the pony.
  B.  Add 12d (36 points) to Aptitudes.
  Step 3: Talents
  A.  Choose the pony’s Talents and describe them if necessary; 
  for a unicorn, choose the pony’s Magical Style.
  B.  Decide whether each Talent is Mundane or Magical.
  C.  Decide for each Talent what Aptitude to base it on.
  D.  Add 7d (21 points) to Talents.
  Step 4: Personal Weakness
  Decide on the pony’s Personal Weakness.
  Step 5: Finishing Touches
  A.  Describe how the pony looks.
  B.  Name the pony; describe anything else that’s important.
  C. Note down the pony’s Moves and Strength Bonus.
  D.  Decide on the pony’s important possessions.
  Optional Rule: Too Many Dice!
  Whole
  Dice
  5d
  Wild
  Die
  Whole
  Dice
  5d
  Wild
  Die
  11d
  +21
  +35
  19d
  +49
  +63
  12d
  +25
  +39
  20d
  +53
  +67
  13d
  +28
  +42
  21d
  +56
  +70
  14d
  +32
  +46
  22d
  +60
  +74
  15d
  +35
  +49
  23d
  +63
  +77
  16d
  +39
  +53
  24d
  +67
  +81
  17d
  +42
  +56
  25d
  +70
  +84
  18d
  +46
  +60
  26d
  +74
  +88
  � Doing Things: Basic Task Resolution �
  Diﬃ  culty and description
  Range
  Trivial: can do task without thinking about it
  0 or less
  Routine: task takes little thought or eﬀ ort
  1 to 5
  Easy: having a good Talent helps with task
  6 to 10
  Middling: doing task right takes skill and eﬀ ort
  11 to 15
  Hard: should be well-trained in kind of task
  16 to 20
  Very hard: only best-trained has good chance
  21 to 25
  Impossible: success is worth telling stories about
  26 or more
  Modiﬁ er and example
  Range
  Huge disadvantage: no tools, complicated repair
  +16 or more
  Big disadvantage: extreme interference
  +11 to +15
  Fair disadvantage: major interference
  +6 to +10
  Small disadvantage: minor interference
  –1 to –5
  Small advantage: minimal tools for the job
  –1 to –5
  Fair advantage: rough-and-ready tools for job
  –6 to –10
  Big advantage: good tools for the job
  –11 to –15
  Huge advantage: best tools for the job
  –16 or less
  Taking extra time on task
  Modiﬁ er to dice rolled
  Taking 2 times as long on task
  +1d
  Taking 4 times as long on task
  +2d
  Taking 8 times as long on task
  +3d
  Rushing the task
  Diﬃ  culty modiﬁ er
  Taking ³⁄₄ as long as normal on task
  +5
  Taking ¹⁄₂ as long as normal on task
  +10
  Taking ¹⁄₄ as long as normal on task
  +20
  Success!
  Result
  exactly
  barely successful; a little less than expected
  by 1 to 4
  adequately successful but nothing special
  by 5 to 8
  quite successful; may get a little extra
  by 9 to 12
  very successful; should get a little extra
  by 13 to 16
  extremely successful; should be rewarded
  by 17 or more
  amazingly successful; should get big reward
  Dice:
  +1
  +2
  1d
  1d+1
  1d+2
  2d
  2d+1 2d+2
  3d
  3d+1
  3d+2
  4d
  4d+1 4d+2
  5d
  5d+1 5d+2
  6d
  (and so on)
  Points:
  1
  2
  3
  4
  5
  6
  7
  8
  9
  10
  11
  12
  13
  14
  15
  16
  17
  18
  (and so on)
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Quick Reference � Panel B 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  � Plumb Tuckered: Fatigue and Rest �
  Fatigue roll:
  1
  2
  3
  4
  5
  6
  7
  8
  9
  10
  11
  12
  13
  14
  15
  16
  17
  18
  19
  (& so on)
  Diﬃ  culty:
  0
  3
  6
  9
  12
  15
  18
  21
  24
  27
  30
  33
  36
  39
  42
  45
  48
  51
  54
  (& so on)
  Level of exertion with examples
  Roll
  Light work: walking, carrying light load
  1 hour
  Moderate work: trotting, carrying medium load
  10 min.
  Heavy work: cantering, carrying heavy load
  1 minute
  Maximum eﬀ ort: galloping, carrying very hvy. load
  1 round
  DM = diﬃ  culty modiﬁ er
  Condition for fatigue modiﬁ er
  DM
  Hot weather
  +5
  Very hot weather
  +10
  For each exertion beyond the heaviest single one
  +5
  Only light work, if pony is pacing herself
  Trivial
  For each range beyond short that spell is cast
  +5
  For Heroic ﬂ ight
  +5
  Simplifying Fatigue During Rounds
  Activity
  Exertion
  Being less active than ﬁ ghting
  (hiding, thinking, freeing prisoners, etc.)
  Medium work
  Fighting or otherwise being 
  active most of the time
  Heavy work
  Roll for fatigue after ﬁ nishing actions
  Maximum eﬀ ort
  Extra eﬀ ort optional rule:
  +1d to all rolls for the round
  Maximum eﬀ ort
  � Icky Stuﬀ : Injury, Illness, and Healing �
  Injury or illness (use second column for changed values, if any)
  ≤ 0
  ≤ 0
  Bruised
  No eﬀ ect
  1–3
  1–
  Stunned
  –1d to all tasks this round and next
  4–6
  –
  Minor
  –1d to all tasks until healed
  7–9
  –
  Serious
  –2d to all tasks until healed
  10–12
  –
  Major
  –3d to all tasks until healed; may 
  be unconscious for 10d minutes
  13–15
  –
  Mortal
  Unconscious until healed; Hardi-
  ness roll each minute to stay alive
  ≥ 16
  ≥
  Death
  Immediate
  Natural healing from
  Roll after
  Diﬃ  culty
  Stunned (no recovery roll needed)
  —
  automatic
  Minor illness or injury
  3 days
  6
  Serious illness or injury
  3 days
  6
  Major illness or injury
  2 weeks
  6
  Mortal illness or injury
  5 weeks
  8
  Medical treatment for
  Roll after
  Diﬃ  culty
  Minor illness or injury
  1 day
  10
  Serious illness or injury
  1 day
  15
  Major illness or injury
  1 day
  20
  Mortal illness or injury
  1 day
  25
  Optional Rule: Natural Hazards
  Hail or sleet:
  Injury/round:
  Mod.
  1d
  Heavy
  1d+1
  V. hvy
  1d+2.
  Extr.
  2d
  Max.
  3d
  Hazard
  1d
  1d+1
  1d+2
  2d
  2d+1
  2d+2
  3d
  3d+1
  3d+2
  4d
  � Injury
  Asphyxiat.
  1st
  2nd
  3rd
  4th
  5th
  6th
  7th
  8th
  9th
  10th
  Round
  Drowning
  1st
  2nd
  3rd
  4th
  5th
  6th
  7th
  8th
  9th
  10th
  Failed Roll
  Dehydrat.
  1
  1 ¹⁄₂
  2
  2 ¹⁄₂
  3
  3 ¹⁄₂
  4
  4 ¹⁄₂
  5
  5 ¹⁄₂
  Days
  Starvation
  2
  3
  4
  5
  6
  7
  8
  9
  10
  11
  Days
  Cold
  40–49
  4–9
  30–39
  –1–4
  20–29
  –7– –2
  10–19
  –12– –7
  0–9
  –18– –13
  –10– –1
  –23– –18
  –20– –11
  –29– –24
  –30– –21
  –34– –24
  –40– –31
  –46– –35
  –50– –41
  –46– –41
  °F each hour
  °C each hour
  Falling
  6–10
  2–3
  11–15
  3–5
  16–20
  5–6
  21–25
  6–8
  26–30
  8–9
  31–35
  9–11
  36–40
  11–12
  41–45
  12–14
  46–50
  14–15
  51–55
  16–17
  Feet
  Meters
  C0llision
  26–30
  24–27
  31–35
  28–32
  36–40
  33–37
  41–45
  37–41
  46–50
  42–46
  51–55
  47–50
  56–60
  51–55
  61–65
  56–59
  66–70
  60–64
  71–75
  65–69
  Yards/round
  Meters/round
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Quick Reference � Panel C 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  � Weights and Measures: The Physical World �
  Size Examples
  Size Examples
  Size Exam.
  40
  Dragon
  3
  Small cart
  –6
  Housecat
  24
  Bldg. (8 ﬂ rs.)
  3
  Sun princess
  –6
  Breadbox
  20
  Bldg. (4 ﬂ rs.)
  2
  Moon princess
  –9
  Rat
  14
  Bldg. (2 ﬂ rs.)
  0
  Adult pony
  –12
  Mouse
  10
  Train car
  –3
  Foal
  –15
  Coin
  6
  Large wagon
  –3
  Medium dog
  –21
  Ant
  Precipitation*
  Visibility
  None: 0 inches (0 mm)
  See table at right
  Very light: ≤ 0.01 inch (0.25 mm)
  4–8 mi. (6.4–13 km)
  Light: 0.02 to 0.04 in. (0.26–1 mm)
  2–4 mi. (3.2–6.4 km)
  Moderate: 0.05 to 0.16 in. (2–4 mm)
  1–2 mi. (1.6–3.2 km)
  Heavy: 0.17 to 0.64 in. (5–16 mm)
  ¹⁄₂–1 mi. (0.8–1.6 km)
  Very heavy: 0.7 to 2.0 in. (17–50 mm)
  ¹⁄₄–¹⁄₂ mi. (0.4–0.8 km)
  Extreme: 3 to 8 in. (51–203 mm)
  ¹⁄₈–¹⁄₄ mi. (0.2–0.4 km)
  Maximum: > 8 inches (203 mm)
  ¹⁄₁₆–¹⁄₈ mi. (0.1–0.2 km)
  *  Drizzle may be very light or light; half visibility.
  Snow may be 6 to 11 times as bulky; half visibility.
  Visibility Conditions
  DM
  Light smoke or fog, or middle distance
  +3 or +1d
  Thick smoke or fog, or long distance
  +6 or +2d
  Very thick smoke or fog, or very long distance
  +12 or +4d
  Twilight (half normal range of visibility)
  +5
  Night (one-fourth normal range of visibility)
  +10
  Visibility in air
  Distance
  Ideal: clear mountain/arctic air
  45–60 miles (72–91 km)
  Typical: sea level near town/city
  20–30 miles (32–48 km)
  Haze: thin fog, smoke, etc.
  1.25–3 miles (2–5 km)
  Mist: medium fog, smoke, etc.
  0.625–1.2 miles (1–1.9 km)
  Fog or clouds: thick smoke, etc.
  0.62 miles (0.95 km) or less
  “Zero” visibility
  110 yards (100 m) or less
  Light
  Day
  Twilight
  Night
  Lasts
  Match
  —
  0–1 yards
  2 yards
  4 rounds
  Candle
  —
  0–1 yards
  2–3 yards
  1 hour
  Lantern*
  0–1 yards
  2 yards
  3–5 yards
  6 hours
  Flashlight*
  0–5 yards
  6–10 yards
  11–30 yds.
  see rules
  *  Flashlight casts 30° cone; lantern may cast 360° circle or 30° 
  cone — double distances if cone.
  Match
  Twilight
  Night
  Candle
  Night
  Twilight
  360° Lantern
  Night
  Twilight
  Day
  Day
  Twi-
  light
  Night
  Bullseye
  lantern or
  early �ashlight
  (electric torch)
  Day Twi-
  light
  Night
  Modern
  �ashlight
  (electric torch)
  Can’t see
  (completely
  dark)
  Beaufort Scale
  Knots
  mph
  km/h
  Conditions on land
  Conditions on water
  0
  Calm 
  little or no wind, too light to feel Calm — smoke rises vertically
  Flat seas with no signiﬁ cant waves
  1
  Light air
  1–2
  1–3
  1–5.5
  Smoke drifts, wind vanes are still
  Ripples without crests
  2
  Light breeze
  3–6
  4–7
  5.6–11
  Leaves rustle, wind vanes move
  Small wavelets, glassy crests
  3
  Gentle breeze
  7–10
  8–12
  12–19
  Leaves and twigs move
  Large wavelets, scattered whitecaps
  4
  Moder. breeze
  11–15
  13–17
  20–28
  Small branches move, dust raised
  Small waves with breaking crests
  5
  Fresh breeze
  16–20
  18–24
  29–38
  Small trees sway, med. branches move
  Many whitecaps, slight spray in air
  6
  Strong breeze
  21–26
  25–30
  39–49
  Large branches move, umbrellas pull Foam crests frequent, some spray
  7
  Near gale
  27–33
  31–38
  50–61
  Trees move, hard to walk
  Sea heaps up, foam blown in streaks
  8
  Fresh gale
  34–40
  39–46
  62–74
  Twigs broken oﬀ , very hard to walk
  High waves, breaking crests, spray
  9
  Strong gale
  41–47
  47–54
  75–88
  Branches break, some saplings fall
  High waves, some rolling over, spray
  10
  Whole gale
  48–55
  55–63
  89–102
  Trees break, shingles come loose
  High waves with overhanging crests
  11
  Violent storm
  56–63
  64–72
  103–117
  Much damage to plants and roofs
  Extremely high waves, lots of spray
  12
  Hurricane force
  ≥ 64
  ≥ 73
  ≥ 118
  Major damage to plants and houses
  Huge waves, air ﬁ lled with spray
  —
  Typical tornado
  90–100
  104–115
  167–185
  Catastrophic but uneven damage
  Waterspout; extreme conditions
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Quick Reference � Panel D 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  Doing More Things: 
  Special Task Rules
  How Much Can a Pony
  Lift, Carry, and Pull?
  D = diﬃ  culty
  tons = US short tons
  tonnes = metric tonnes
  pounds
  kg
  D
  0.1 to 2
  0 to 0.9
  1
  2.1 to 10
  1.0–4.5
  2
  11 to 20
  4.6–9.1
  3
  21–40
  10–18
  4
  41–60
  19–27
  5
  61–80
  28–36
  6
  81–100
  37–45
  7
  101–120
  46–54
  8
  121–140
  55–64
  9
  141–160
  65–73
  10
  161–180
  74–82
  11
  181–200
  83–91
  12
  201–240
  92–109
  13
  241–280
  110–127
  14
  281–320
  128–145
  15
  321–360
  146–163
  16
  361–400
  164–181
  17
  401–500
  182–227
  18
  501–600
  228–272
  19
  601–700
  273–318
  20
  701–800
  319–363
  21
  801–900
  364–408
  22
  901–1000
  409–454
  23
  1001–1100
  455–499
  24
  1101–1200
  500–544
  25
  1201–1300
  545–590
  26
  1301–1400
  591–635
  27
  1401–1500
  636–680
  28
  1501–1600
  681–726
  29
  1601–1700
  727–771
  30
  1701–1800
  772–816
  31
  1801–1900
  817–862
  32
  1901–2000
  863–907
  33
  tons
  tonnes
  D
  1.01–1.10
  0.91–1.00
  34
  1.11–1.20
  1.01–1.09
  35
  1.21–1.30
  1.10–1.18
  36
  1.31–1.40
  1.19–1.27
  37
  1.41–1.50
  1.28–1.36
  38
  1.51–1.60
  1.37–1.45
  39
  1.61–1.70
  1.46–1.54
  40
  1.71–1.80
  1.55–1.63
  41
  1.81–1.90
  1.64–1.72
  42
  1.91–2.00
  1.73–1.81
  43
  2.1–2.5
  1.9–2.3
  44
  2.6–3.0
  2.4–2.7
  45
  3.1–3.5
  2.8–3.2
  46
  3.6–4.0
  3.3–3.6
  47
  4.1–4.5
  3.7–4.1
  48
  4.6–5.0
  4.2–4.5
  49
  5.1–5.5
  4.6–5.0
  50
  5.6–6.0
  5.1–5.4
  51
  6.1–6.5
  5.5–5.9
  52
  6.6–7.0
  6.0–6.4
  53
  7.1–7.5
  6.5–6.8
  54
  7.6–8.0
  6.9–7.3
  55
  8.1–8.5
  7.4–7.7
  56
  8.6–9.0
  7.8–8.2
  57
  9.1–9.5
  8.3–8.6
  58
  9.6–10.0
  8.7–9.1
  59
  11–15
  10–14
  60
  16–20
  15–18
  61
  21–25
  19–23
  62
  26–30
  24–27
  63
  31–35
  28–32
  64
  36–40
  33–36
  65
  41–45
  37–41
  66
  46–50
  42–45
  67
  51–55
  46–50
  68
  56–60
  51–54
  69
  61–65
  55–59
  70
  Load is carried on
  *
  Load is carried on
  *
  Skids, smooth surface
  2
  Modern cart/wagon
  20
  Primitive cart/wagon
  10
  Train or canal barge
  100
  * Divide weight of load by number listed
  Teamwork
  Leader’s orders or instructions
  Diﬃ  culty
  Simple or general commands
  3
  Easy or speciﬁ c commands
  7
  Diﬃ  cult or very speciﬁ c commands
  12
  Very diﬃ  cult or precise commands
  17
  Extremely diﬃ  cult or very precise commands
  22
  Exacting commands
  28
  Group’s ability
  Diﬀ . Mod.
  Follows leader no matter what
  –20
  Members will sacriﬁ ce for each other
  –15
  Has trained a lot to work together
  –10
  Has trained a little to work together
  –5
  Has worked together a lot or is willing to
  None
  Has worked together several times
  +5
  Has worked together only a few times
  +10
  Has never worked together or
  most of group hates each other
  +15
  Not interested in working together, or mem-
  bers hate each other or can’t communicate
  +20
  Using Magical Talents
  Size of weatherworking or spell
  D
  Very small: 1 pip/die Eﬀ ect; spell lasts 1 hour, is no eﬀ ort
  0
  Small: half Eﬀ ect; spell lasts up to 1 hour, is light work
  5
  Medium: full Eﬀ ect; spell lasts 10 min., is medium work
  10
  Large: Eﬀ ect and a half; spell lasts 1 min., is heavy work
  15
  Very large: double Eﬀ ect; spell lasts 1 round, max. eﬀ ort
  20
  Casting distance and magical range modiﬁ ers
  DM
  Casting distance: –1d per yard beyond 1 yard from pony
  —
  Short: yards equal to number of whole dice of Eﬀ ect
  —
  Medium: more than short to 10 times short range
  +5
  Long: more than medium to 100 times short range
  +10
  D = diﬃ  culty  DM = diﬃ  culty modiﬁ er
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Quick Reference � Panel E 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  � Hooﬁ n’ It and Wingin’ It: Movement �
  Move
  Yards per round
  Maximum
  Run
  5 + 1 per die of Muscle*
  8 Moves per round
  Swim, Climb
  ¹⁄₂ of Run Move
  4 Moves per round
  Jump
  ¹⁄₄ of Run Move
  4 Moves per round
  * Earth pony may use Power instead if it’s greater.
  Movement
  Minimum
  Maximum
  Diﬃ  culty
  Walk
  1 yard
  1 Run Move
  0
  Trot
  > 1 Run Move
  2 Run Moves
  5
  Canter
  > 2 Run Moves
  4 Run Moves
  10
  Gallop
  > 4 Run Moves
  8 Run Moves
  15
  Swim
  0 yards
  4 Swim Moves
  5 per Move
  Climb*
  0 yards
  4 Climb Moves 5 per Move
  Jump
  —
  1 jump
  5
  per yard (0.9 m) farther than Jump Move
  +5 dm
  galloping start –5 dm for 1 round; –10 dm for 2 rounds
  *  If climber has Climbing Talent, may make 2 Climb Moves 
  with diﬃ  culty 5; +5 diﬃ  culty per additional Climb Move.
  Running maneuvers
  Limits and eﬀ ects
  Speed up or slow down
  By no more than 2 Moves
  Move backward
  Diﬃ  culty 5; walking only
  Turn 60° or sidle
  A turn isn’t movement, sidle is
  Swim/climb maneuvers
  Limits and eﬀ ects
  Speed up or slow down
  By no more than 1 move
  Turn or sidle (swimming)
  A turn isn’t movement, sidle is
  Bad conditions for movement (including ﬂ ying)
  DM
  Uneven surface, small obstacles, choppy water, 
  climbing a tree, ﬂ ying in strong winds
  +5
  Big obstacles, strong current, climbing a rough wall, 
  ﬂ ying in rough air
  +10
  Lots of big, close obstacles, stormy weather, 
  a few hazards in the air
  +15
  Narrow path, big waves, climbing a smooth wall, 
  lots of hazards in the air
  +20
  Collapsing hallway, swimming or ﬂ ying in a hurricane
  +25
  DM = diﬃ  culty modiﬁ er
  Flight
  Yards per round
  Maximum
  Normal
  5 + 1 per die of Power
  8 Flight Moves per round
  Heroic
  More than 8 Flight Moves in a round
  Flight
  Minimum
  Maximum
  Diﬃ  culty
  Hover
  —
  0 yards
  3
  Slow
  1 yard
  1 Flight Move
  0
  Moderate
  > 1 Flight Move
  2 Flight Moves
  5
  Fast
  > 2 Flight Moves
  4 Flight Moves
  10
  Very fast
  > 4 Flight Moves
  8 Flight Moves
  15
  Heroic
  > 8 Flight Moves
  +5 dm per doubling of moves
  Basic maneuvers
  Limits and eﬀ ects
  Speed up or slow down
  By no more than 8 Flight Moves
  Fly low (close to ground)
  +5 ﬂ ying diﬃ  culty modiﬁ er
  Gain or lose altitude
  By no more than 4 Flight Moves
  Turn 60° or slip*
  A turn isn’t movement, a slip is
  Glide
  +5 diﬃ  culty mod., –1 fatigue level
  * Heroic: 1 turn/slip allowed at end of Moves; slip ¹⁄₄ of Moves.
  Advanced maneuvers
  Limits and eﬀ ects
  Fly backward
  Diﬃ  culty 5; slow ﬂ ight only
  Rotate inverted or upright
  +1 ﬂ ying diﬃ  culty modiﬁ er
  Break sound barrier
  +10 dm for that round only
  Half-loop or half-roll
  +5 ﬂ ying diﬃ  culty modiﬁ er
  Power-dive or zoom-climb*
  Base diﬃ  cul. on altitude change
  *  Gravity subtracts from altitude; see gravity table below.
  Round pulled by gravity:
  In power-dive or zoom-climb:
  Falling while spread-eagled:
  First
  140 yards
  140 yards
  Second and later
  500 yards
  300 yards
  Taking oﬀ  & landing
  Maneuver/diﬃ  culty
  Take oﬀ  
  Jump ≤ 2 yards (galloping start allowed)
  Land at walking speed
  Jump down from height
  Land at trotting speed
  +5 to jump diﬃ  culty
  Land at cantering speed
  +10 to jump diﬃ  culty
  Land at galloping speed
  +15 to jump diﬃ  culty
  Land faster than gallop
  +20 to jump diﬃ  culty
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Quick Reference � Panel F 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  Optional Rules for Movement
  A runner . . .
  Must go straight . . .
  Making 2 Run Moves
  1 yard before turning or sidling
  Making 3 Run Moves
  2 yards before turning or sidling
  Making 4 Run Moves
  4 yards before turning or sidling
  Making 5 Run Moves
  6 yards before turning or sidling
  Making 6 Run Moves
  8 yards before turning or sidling
  Making 7 Run Moves
  12 yards before turning or sidling
  Making 8 Run Moves
  16 yards before turning or sidling
  Turning or sidling too soon suﬀ ers +1 dm per yard too soon
  Maneuver
  Optional limits and eﬀ ects
  Gain altitude
  Slow down 1 yard per yard altitude gain
  Lose altitude
  Speed up 1 yard per yard altitude lost
  Slip
  May make 2 turns in opposite direction
  Per turn or slip
  Slow down by ¹⁄₂ Flight Move
  Per half-loop/-roll
  Slow down by 1 Flight Move
  Glide:  must go faster than 2 Flight Moves; no landing, 
  hovering, speeding up, or advanced maneuvers
  A ﬂ yer . . .
  Must go straight . . .
  of . . .
  Making 2 Moves
  1 yard before turn or slip
  1 yard
  Making 3 Moves
  2 yards before turn or slip
  1 yard
  Making 4 Moves
  4 yards before turn or slip
  1 yard
  Making 5 Moves
  6 yards before turn or slip
  ¹⁄₂ Move
  Making 6 Moves
  8 yards before turn or slip
  ¹⁄₂ Move
  Making 7 Moves
  12 yards before turn or slip
  1 Move
  Making 8 Moves
  16 yards before turn or slip
  1 Move
  Turning or slipping too soon suﬀ ers +1 dm per yard too soon
  In heroic ﬂ ight may not make turns immediately after slip
  Making 1 Move may turn freely but can’t slip, half-loop/-roll
  A ﬂ yer . . .
  Must go straight . . .
  of . . .
  Making 2 Moves
  2 yards before half-loop/-roll
  1 yard
  Making 3 Moves
  4 yards before half-loop/-roll
  ¹⁄₂ Move
  Making 4 Moves
  8 yards before half-loop/-roll
  ¹⁄₂ Move
  Making 5 Moves
  12 yards before half-loop/-roll
  1 Move
  Making 6 Moves
  16 yards before half-loop/-roll
  1 Move
  Making 7 Moves
  24 yards before half-loop/-roll
  2 Moves
  Making 8 Moves
  32 yards before half-loop/-roll
  2 Moves
  Half-looping/-rolling too soon gets +1 dm per yard too soon
  � Two Bits: Buying Things �
  Possession of money:
  Dice for purchases:
  Major
  6d
  Mod.
  4d
  Minor
  2d
  None
  1d
  Price range
  Diﬀ .
  3d times
  Cheap: 1–20 bits
  1–5
  1 bit
  Inexpensive: 21–200 bits
  6–10
  10 bits
  A little expensive: Hundreds of bits
  11–15
  100 bits
  Kind of expensive: A few thousand bits
  16–20
  500 bits
  Expensive: Several thousand bits
  21–25
  1000 bits
  Very expensive: Tens of thousands of bits
  26–30
  10,000
  Costly: Hundreds of thousands of bits
  31–35
  100,000
  Things that can aﬀ ect prices
  Diﬀ . Mod.
  Item is: low-quality, damaged, very common, 
  or simpler technology than commonly avail-
  able; local market is ﬂ ooded
  –5 or less 
  (each)
  Customer pays on time, customer shops 
  there a lot, or seller has no complaints
  –1 or less 
  (each)
  Customer doesn’t pay on time or is a problem
  +1 or more
  Item is: high-quality, in very good shape, heav-
  ily decorated, uncommon, not easily avail-
  able, in big demand, or a bit more advanced 
  technology than commonly available
  +5 or more 
  (each)
  Item is: not available to public, out of season, 
  from far away, or much more advanced tech-
  nology than is commonly available
  +15 or more 
  (each)
  Purchase diﬃ  culty
  How often?
  Casual: ≤ number of money dice
  Several per day
  Normal: > number to 3 times number of dice
  One per day
  Luxury: > 3 times number of money dice
  One per week
  �������������
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  turn
  sidle or slip
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  ���������������
  U
  loop
  ���������������������
  U
  ���������
  ���������������
  U
  U
  barrel roll
  U
  ���������������
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Quick Reference � Panel G 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  � Them’s Fightin’ Words: Combat �
  Step 1: Defense
  Defense
  Attack diﬃ  culty
  Passive: no special eﬀ ort to defend
  10
  All-out: no other actions allowed
  Dodge or Reﬂ exes roll + 10
  Normal: other full actions allowed
  Dodge or Reﬂ exes roll
  Block: trying to stop attacks
  Brawling, Mêlée, or Reﬂ exes roll
  Pary: trying to deﬂ ect attacks
  Brawling, Mêlée, or Reﬂ exes roll
  Step 2: Attack
  Unarmed
  Attacker uses . . .
  Injury
  DM
  Bite
  Teeth
  *
  +3 (or +1d)†
  Punch, butt One front hoof or head
  +1‡
  No modif.
  Box or clip Both front hooves or wing
  +2
  +3 (or +1d)
  Kick
  One rear hoof
  1d
  +6 (or +2d)
  Buck
  Both rear hooves
  2d
  +9 (or +3d)
  Toughness, with examples
  Dice
  Flimsy: plywood door
  1d
  Tough: weapon or hard wooden door
  2d
  Sturdy: ﬂ oor safe or bolted steel door
  3d
  Very sturdy: a few layers of steel
  4d
  Reinforced: many layers of steel
  6d
  DM = Diﬃ  culty Modiﬁ er 
  † Subtract 3 (or 1d) if attacker and target are very close.
  * Strength Bonus only. 
  ‡ For a unicorn using her alicorn (horn), use +2 instead.
  Special
  Attacker . . .
  Grab
  Attack diﬀ . modif. of +6 (or +2d); each round 
  target is grabbed, attacker can use Strength 
  Bonus;target trying to escape rolls Muscle 
  contest against attacker (counts as an action)
   Choke
  Cuts oﬀ  target’s air, using Strength Bonus on 
  ﬁ rst round; after that, use general Grab rules
   Flip
  Yanks target into falling; target suﬀ ers 3d 
  injury from hitting round and then is prone
   Hold
  Holds target; subtracts 3d or more from injury
    Slam or
  throw
  Lifts and slams or throws target into nearby 
  object with two actions (lift and slam), both 
  needing lifting rolls; injury equals toughness 
  roll for object; attacker’s Strength Bonus may 
  damage object, resisted by toughness roll
  Tackle
  Tries to grab target’s body; +3 (or +1d) to 
  attack diﬃ  culty, normal injury dice ﬁ rst 
  round, Strength Bonus after
  Trip or 
  knockdown
  Rolls Muscle (or Talent) contest against 
  target; +6 (or +2d) to diﬃ  culty of attack; if 
  successful, target falls but is not injured; 
  target must take a full action to stand up
  Push
  Rolls Muscle (or Talent) contest against 
  target; +3 (or +1d) to diﬃ  culty of attack; if 
  successful, –2d from target’s next Agility roll, 
  but target is not injured
  Optional
  Attacker . . .
  Disarm
  Tries to knock weapon or object from target’s 
  grip; target can use an action to roll Muscle (or 
  Levitation) against “injury” roll in a contest to 
  keep a grip on weapon or object
  Entangle
  Tries to tangle up target with lasso, net, whip, 
  etc.; target isn’t injured, but can’t take any 
  actions besides trying to break free in a contest 
  against “injury” roll; slipping out is an Agility 
  roll, and breaking weapon is a Muscle roll
  Lunge
  Rushes target; add ¹⁄₂ yard (45 cm) to range of 
  attack, +3 (or +1d) to attack diﬃ  culty, –1d injury
  Sweep
  Makes roundhouse blow or leg sweep; –6 (or 
  –2d) from attack diﬃ  culty and –1d from injury
  Step 3: Range
  Range
  Distance
  Example
  DM
  Close
  0–3 yards (0–2.7 m)
  A few steps away
  –5
  Short
  Beyond 3 yards to 
  1st range listing
  Riﬂ e ﬁ re 
  across ballroom
  None
  Medium
  Beyond 1st range list. 
  to 2nd range listing
  Pistol ﬁ re 
  across ballroom
  +5
  Long
  Beyond 2nd range list. 
  to 3rd range listing
  Riﬂ e ﬁ re across 
  sports ﬁ eld
  +10
  � Fast and Furious: Rounds and Actions �
  Step 1. Initiative
  Determine order of play with Alertness or Reﬂ exes 
  rolls; does not count as full action.
  Step 2. Actions
  Decide how many, and which, full actions to take; 
  apply multi-action penalty if needed.
  Step 3. Is It Over?
  Determine whether to continue with rounds or to 
  revert to normal handling of time. 
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Quick Reference � Panel H 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  � Them’s Fightin’ Words: Combat �
  Condition
  Eﬀ ect
  All-out 
  attack
  –6 (or –2d) from attack diﬃ  culty and +1d to 
  injury; can’t take any other actions in round
  Crouched 
  target
  +3 (or +1d) to attack diﬃ  culty; +3 (or +1d) more 
  if crouched target is moving; crouched target 
  can move only half as far as normal
  Prone 
  target
  –6 (or –2d) to attack diﬃ  culty at point-blank/
  short range; +6 (or +2d) at medium/long range
  Size
  See “Size” table for example values
  Surprise
  In ﬁ rst round, goes ﬁ rst or +1d to all actions
  Cover and visibility
  DM
  Target can’t see at all
  –12 or –4d
  Light smoke/fog, dim light, twilight, 
  or target ¹⁄₄ hidden
  +3 or +1d
  Thick smoke/fog, moonlight, or target ¹⁄₂ hidden
  +6 or +2d
  Very thick smoke/fog, darkness, target 
  ³⁄₄ hidden, or attacker can’t see at all
  +12 or +4d
  Target is completely hidden*
  †
  *  If attack does more injury/damage than protection provided 
  by cover, what’s left may hit the target. Usually the cover will 
  have to be destroyed before the attacker can hit the target.
  † Can’t hit target directly.
  Step 4: Special Conditions
  Optional
  Eﬀ ect
  Aiming
  Shooter taking no other action gets +1d to 
  attack roll per round aiming at target; +3d max.
  Group Att. See “Teamwork” tables for information
  Multiple 
  weapons
  Multi-action penalty if using 
  multiple weapons in round
  Quick
  draw
  Attacker can subtract dice from attack roll 
  and add them to initiative roll for a round
  Unwieldy 
  weapon
  +5 to attack diﬃ  culty: weapon is more than 2 ft. 
  (60 cm), hard to use, or user doesn’t understand
  Called Shot
  DM
  Injury
  Eﬀ ect of injury
  Head
  +3 or +1d
  +12 or +4d
  –1 to Smarts, 
  Senses, initiative
  Heart
  +12 or +4d
  +12 or +4d
  No actions 
  next round
  Arm
  +2 or +1d
  –2 pips
  –1 to rolls with 
  injured arm
  Leg or wing
  +3 or +1d
  –1 pip
  –1 to Reﬂ exes, 
  Coordination, init.
  DM = Diﬃ  culty modiﬁ er
  Step 5: Roll!
  Step 6: Injury or Eﬀ ect (if successful)
  Type of barding (armor):
  Hardiness roll modiﬁ er:
  Leather
  +1d
  Mail
  +2d
  Plate
  +3d
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Quick Reference � Panel I 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  � List of Sample Talents �
  Muscle Talents
  Blacksmithing Working iron into useful artifacts or devices.
  Lifting Used instead of Muscle for hefting and carrying.
  Lumbering Harvesting wood from trees with minimal waste.
  Move Increase (ability) Add to Muscle for Run Move.
  Plowing* Pulling, steering, and operating a plow or harvester.
  Teamster Loading, pulling, and unloading a van, wagon, or cart.
  Hardiness Talents
  Stamina Replaces Hardiness to resist fatigue, poison, illness.
  Reﬂ exes Talents
  Acrobatics Performing gymnastics and breaking falls.
  Alertness Replaces Reﬂ exes for rolling initiative; see the rules 
  in “Fast and Furious: Rounds and Actions” for details.
  Brawling Fighting without weapons.
  Climbing Scaling steep surfaces to move upward or downward.
  Contortion The ability to wiggle out of bonds or restrictions.
  Dodge Avoiding attacks or obstacles; see the rules in “Them’s 
  Fightin’ Words: Combat” for details.
  Jumping Leaping, including over obstacles, without falling.
  Mêlée Fighting with close-up weapons (clubs, blades, et cetera).
  Running Moving on one’s hooves (or paws or feet).
  Sneaking Moving silently, using cover and misdirection.
  Swimming Moving through the water and breathing properly.
  Coordination Talents
  Firearms Shooting pistols, riﬂ es, shotguns, and cannon.
  Legerdemain Fancy manipulation and misdirection.
  Lockpicking Opening locks, disarming simple traps.
  Masonry Building sturdy and useful brick and stone structures.
  Missile Weapons Shooting bows, crossbows, and slings.
  Performing Any single kind of performance is a Talent.
  Piloting Steering or guiding mechanical vehicles.
  Throwing Flinging or catching objects accurately.
  Tinker Building, repairing small or simple mechanical devices.
  Smarts Talents
  Business Running an enterprise successfully and proﬁ tably.
  Charm Inﬂ uencing other ponies or creatures with charisma.
  Conﬁ dence Using bluﬀ s, lies, and trickery on others.
  Cosmopolitan General knowledge of other cultures.
  Demolitions Using force to destroy structures or objects.
  Engineering Designing and building big, complicated devices.
  Farriery* Hoof care — trimming, balancing, rasping, shoeing.
  Farming* Planting, maintaining, harvesting, and processing.
  Forestry* Caring for forests and the lands where they grow.
  Forgery Creating or spotting fake documents, art, or currency.
  Husbandry* Breeding, rearing, and caring for animals.
  Intimidation Inﬂ uencing others through threats and fear.
  Languages (group) Any single language is a Talent.
  Leadership Directing groups of other ponies or creatures.
  Medicine* Treating sick or injured ponies.
  Navigation Using maps or other means to avoid getting lost.
  Preserving* Using any method to prevent food from spoiling.
  Repair Returning damaged or worn devices to good condition.
  Science (group) Any single science is a Talent.
  Telegraphy Operating and maintaining telegraph equipment.
  Veterinary Medicine* Treating sick or injured animals.
  Willpower Resisting stress or pain, or attempts to inﬂ uence.
  Senses Talents
  Acting Playing a ﬁ ctitious role, on the stage or anywhere else.
  Animal Training* Teaching animals to perform tasks and follow 
  commands.
  Art (group) Any single form of art is a Talent.
  Cooking* Preparing foods that are safe, nutritious, and tasty.
  Craft (group) Any single craft is a Talent.
  Disguise Changing appearance with make-up, costume, posture.
  Familiarity Knowledge of a speciﬁ c geographical area; the big-
  ger the area, the less detailed the knowledge is.
  Gambling Playing games of chance or skill.
  Hiding Keeping still and avoiding notice, concealing objects.
  Investigation Gathering clues to solve puzzles or mysteries.
  Journalism Gathering and presenting information about news-
  worthy events.
  Notice Observing things or details with sight and other senses.
  Oratory Public speaking to inﬂ uence large audiences.
  Persuasion Inﬂ uencing small audiences with talk, gifts, or other 
  methods.
  Searching Canvassing an area systematically for hidden objects.
  Streetwise Finding information, goods, and contacts in an ur-
  ban environment.
  Survival* Techniques for living in wild conditions.
  Tracking Following a creature’s trail without being noticed.
  Writing Communicating eﬀ ectively using text rather than spo-
  ken language.
  Pegasus Magical Talents
  Bump of Direction Orients a pegasus even when she can’t see.
  Flying Moving through the air without losing control and fall-
  ing; see “Hooﬁ n’ It and Wingin’ It: Movement” for details.
  Flight Increase (ability) Add to Power for Flight Move.
  Weatherworking (group) Controlling and manipulating clouds: 
  Boltworking, Cloudworking, and Rainworking Talents.
  Windworking Controlling and directing of winds.
  Unicorn Magical (Spell) Talents
  Force Blast shoots a beam of raw magical force at a target.
  Force Bubble creates a protective sphere of magical force.
  Illumination creates a glow like a will-o’-the-wisp — see the 
  rules in “Visibility: How Far Can a Pony See?” for details.
  Levitation lifts, carries, and manipulates objects using magic.
  Prime Mover powers a mechanical device that’s designed for it. 
  The narrator may decide to allow any unicorn to use it rather 
  than requiring it to be part of the unicorn’s Style.
  Pyrotechnics creates a ﬁ reworks-like display of ﬂ ashes, star-
  bursts, or simple images. Can be used to attack: dazzle cre-
  ates a blinding ﬂ ash; explosion causes real injury.
  Transformation (group) Talent must specify, with narrator’s ap-
  proval, what can be transformed and what it can be trans-
  formed into.
  Wink moves creatures or things across distances “in the wink 
  of an eye”.
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Quick Reference � Panel J 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  � List of Sample Equipment �
  Available Almost Anywhere
  Cheap (buying diﬃ  culty 1–5)
  Alarm clock (1840s)
  Backpack
  Basic rations (a few days)
  Blanket
  Crowbar
  Duﬀ el bag
  Eating utensils
  Lantern
  Lighter (Döbereiner’s lamp)
  Marbles
  Newspaper, magazine
  Personal hygiene kit
  Pocket-watch (basic)
  Rope, cotton, 50 yards (150 ft. or 45 m)
  Rope, hemp, 50 yards (150 feet or 45 m)
  Sewing machine, portable (1840s)
  Shovel
  Steamer trunk
  Tent, 1-pony
  Torch
  Inexpensive (buying diﬃ  culty 6–10)
  Basic clothing
  Carpenter or construction toolkit
  Iron spikes (8) and piton
  Pocket-watch (high-quality)
  Sleeping bag or bedroll
  Tent, 3-pony
  Wood stove
  Available in Cities or by Mail-Order
  Cheap (buying diﬃ  culty 1–5)
  Camera ﬁ lm (1830s)
  Compass
  Flashlight, large (1890s)
  Flashlight batteries (1890s)
  Holster
  Kerosene heater (1850s)
  Inexpensive (buying diﬃ  culty 6–10)
  Art supplies
  Binoculars
  Camera (1830s)
  Disguise kit
  Electrician’s tool kit (1880s)
  Emergency medical kit (1880s)
  Gas stove (1850s)
  Mechanic’s tool kit
  Riﬂ e scope (1830s)
  Telescope, small
  Typewriter (1870s)
  Unusual or Rare
  Cheap (buying diﬃ  culty 1–5)
  Lockpicking tools
  Inexpensive (buying diﬃ  culty 6–10)
  Archæologist’s tool kit (1880s)
  Gas mask (1840s)
  Hobble
  Jungle explorer’s kit
  Parachute
  A Little Expensive (buying diﬃ  culty 11–15)
  Evidence kit (1880s)
  Useful Information
  Binoculars Add 1d to rolls for looking at, or for, things more 
  than 2 yards (1.8 m) away, but only in daylight.
  Crowbar Add 1d to Muscle rolls when prying something.
  Flashlight See rules in “Visibility: How Far Can a Pony See?”
  Gas mask Adds 2d to wearer’s Hardiness roll against a gas at-
  tack or cancels out 1d of subtraction from roll, whichever is 
  more appropriate.
  Hobble Cuﬀ s front or rear hooves and comes with a key; dif-
  ﬁ culty of picking lock is 15, toughness of hobble is 15.
  Jungle explorer’s pack Add 2 to rolls for surviving in jungle or 
  heavy forest; has pith helmet, insect repellent, and mosquito 
  netting in a small knapsack.
  Iron spikes and piton Add 1d to climbing rolls; must be used with 
  a rope.
  Lockpicking tools Add 1d to rolls for picking locks, but only if 
  user has Lockpicking Talent.
  Marbles A pony who steps on marbles scattered on the ground 
  makes a Running or Reﬂ exes roll each step until she can 
  move away from them. Diﬃ  culty is 15; each step is an action.
  Riﬂ e Scope Add 2 to rolls for shooting at medium or long range, 
  but only if shooter spent previous round aiming. Also works 
  as a small telescope.
  Rope, hemp Hemp rope is heavy-duty, able to support a lot of 
  weight; toughness is 5.
  Rope, cotton Cotton rope is medium-duty, able to support some 
  weight, but not as much as hemp; toughness is 3.
  Shovel Add 1d to rolls for digging.
  Telescope Add 2d to rolls for looking at, or for, faraway things, 
  but user must spend a round to focus it.
  Tool kits Every tool kit includes a container and all tools and 
  parts needed for working on normal tasks; adds 1d to rolls 
  for that kind of work.
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Quick Reference � Panel K 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  � Muscle-Powered Weapons �
  Purpose-Built Mêlée Weapons
  Blunt
  Inj. Length Real-World Examples
  Extra-light
  +2
  Short
  Blackjack
  Very light
  1d
  Short
  Sap
  Light
  1d+1
  Either
  Brass knuckles (short), mace (long)
  Medium
  1d+2
  Either
  Tonfa (short), quarterstaﬀ  (long)
  Sharp
  Inj. Length Real-World Examples
  Very light
  1d
  Short
  Dagger, bayonet, survival knife
  Light
  1d+1
  Either
  Medium
  1d+2
  Either
  Shortsword
  Heavy
  2d
  Long
  Rapier
  Very heavy
  2d+1
  Long
  Extra-heavy
  2d+2
  Long
  Broadsword
  Huge
  3d
  Long
  Large axe
  Flexible Inj. Length Real-World Examples
  Very light
  1d
  Long
  Bullwhip
  Light
  1d+1
  Long
  Medium
  1d+2
  Long
  Kusari-fundo (chain with heavy ends)
  Heavy
  2d
  Long
  Ball and chain
  Purpose-Built Ranged Weapons
  Missile
  Wpns.
  Inj.
  Short
  Range
  Medium
  Range
  Long
  Range
  Real-World 
  Examples
  Very light
  1d
  5 yards
  (4.5 m)
  10 yards
  (9 m)
  15 yards
  (14 m)
  Sling and 
  stone
  Heavy
  2d
  10 yards
  (9 m)
  100 yards
  (91 m)
  250 yards
  (229 m)
  Shortbow 
  and arrow
  Huge
  3d
  10 yards
  (9 m)
  100 yards
  (91 m)
  250 yards
  (229 m)
  Longbow 
  and arrow
  Thrown
  Wpns.
  Inj.
  Short
  Range
  Medium
  Range
  Long
  Range
  Real-World 
  Examples
  Small
  +1
  Muscle 
  roll
  Muscle 
  + 1 yard
  Muscle 
  + 2 yards
  Dart
  Very light
  1d
  5 yards
  (4.5 m)
  10 yards
  (9 m)
  15 yards
  (14 m)
  Throwing 
  dagger
  Heavy
  2d
  5 yards
  (4.5 m)
  25 yards
  (23 m)
  40 yards
  (37 m)
  Javelin (un-
  wieldy weapon)
  Improvised Mêlée Weapons
  Blunt
  Injury Length Real-World Examples
  Extra-light
  +2
  Short
  Crowbar, shovel
  Very light
  1d
  Short
  Hammer
  Light
  1d+1
  Long
  Baseball bat, large stick
  Sharp
  Inj. Length Real-World Examples
  Small
  +1
  Short
  Arrow, bolt, dart, iron spike
  Extra-
  light
  +2
  Short
  Awl, ice pick, household scissors, 
  pen knife, screwdriver, stake
  Very light
  1d
  Short
  Hedge clippers, shears, chef’s knife
  Light
  1d+1
  Short
  Hatchet
  Medium
  1d+2
  Long
  Machete
  Flexible
  Injury Length Real-World Examples
  Small
  +1
  Long
  Cotton rope
  Extra-light
  +2
  Long
  Hemp rope
  Improvised Ranged Weapons
  Throw
  Inj. Diﬀ . Short
  Med.
  Long Examples
  Small
  +1
  +5
  Muscle 
  roll
  Muscle 
  + 1 yd.
  Muscle 
  + 2 yd.
  Apple thrown 
  by front hoof
  Extra-
  light
  +2
  +10
  Double result of Muscle
  roll plus modiﬁ er, if any
  Apple kicked 
  by back hoof
  Extra-
  light
  +2
  +5
  Muscle 
  – 2 yd.
  Muscle 
  – 1 yd.
  Muscle 
  roll
  Rock thrown 
  by front hoof
  Very light
  1d
  +10
  Double result of Muscle
  roll minus modif., if any
  Rock kicked 
  by back hoof
  
  Pony Tales by Dave Bryant 
  Quick Reference � Panel L 
  Third Edition � Version 1
  � Mechanical Weapons, Firearms, and Explosives �
  Mechanical Weapons Injury Capacity Short Range
  Medium Rng.
  Long Range
  Small crossbow
  4d
  1
  10 yards (9 m)
  25 yards (23 m)
  50 yards (46 m)
  Medium crossbow
  4d
  1
  10 yards (9 m)
  100 yards (91 m)
  200 yards (183 m)
  Large crossbow
  4d+1
  1
  10 yards (9 m)
  100 yards (91 m)
  300 yards (274 m)
  Catapult (Size ≥ 12)
  3d+2
  1
  50 yards (45 m) 100 yards (91 m)
  200 yards (183 m)
  Firearms
  Injury Capacity Short Range
  Medium Rng.
  Long Range
  Real-World Examples
  Early
  Matchlock musket
  3d+2
  1
  10 yards (9 m)
  20 yards (18 m)
  40 yards (37 m)
  Flintlock pistol
  3d+1
  1
  5 yards (4.5 m)
  10 yards (9 m)
  25 yards (23 m)
  Flintlock musket
  4d
  1
  25 yards (23 m)
  40 yards (37 m)
  100 yards (91 m)
  Small cannon*
  4d
  1
  50 yards (45 m) 200 yards (183 m) 800 yards (732 m)
  Large cannon*
  5d
  1
  50 yards (45 m) 150 yards (137 m) 500 yards (457 m)
  Sidearms
  Low-power
  3d+2
  8
  10 yards (9 m)
  20 yards (18 m)
  30 yards (27 m)
  Early 9-mm automatic pistols
  Medium-power
  4d
  6
  12 yards (11 m)
  25 yards (23 m)
  40 yards (37 m)
  Colt .38 snub revolver
  High-power
  4d+1
  6
  15 yards (14 m)
  30 yards (27 m)
  45 yards (41 m)
  Colt .45 Peacemaker
  Carbines
  Low-power
  4d+2
  10 (1†)
  10 yards (9 m)
  20 yards (18 m)
  40 yards (37 m)
  Medium-power
  5d
  10 (1†)
  12 yards (11 m)
  25 yards (23 m)
  50 yards (46 m)
  High-power
  5d+1
  8 (1†)
  15 yards (14 m)
  30 yards (27 m)
  60 yards (55 m)
  .30−cal. m−1 Carbine
  Riﬂ es
  Low-power
  5d+2
  8 (1†)
  20 yards (18 m)
  40 yards (37 m)
  80 yards (73 m)
  Medium-power
  6d
  6 (1†)
  25 yards (23 m)
  50 yards (46 m)
  100 yards (91 m)
  High-power
  6d+1
  6 (1†)
  30 yards (27 m)
  60 yards (55 m)
  120 yards (110 m) Winchester 94 (.30−30)
  Very high-power
  6d+2
  5 (1†)
  35 yards (32 m)
  70 yards (64 m)
  140 yards (128 m)
  Heavy
  7d
  5 (1†)
  40 yards (37 m)
  80 yards (73 m)
  160 yards (146 m) Springﬁ eld m−1903
  Shot.
  Double-barrel
  6d
  2
  20 yards (18 m)
  40 yards (37 m)
  60 yards (55 m)
  Remington 30 (12 gauge)
  Sawed-oﬀ 
  6d
  2
  15 yards (14 m)
  20 yards (18 m)
  30 yards (27 m)
  (Barrels cut to shorten it)
  Explosive Devices
  Injury
  Full
  Half
  Quarter
  Short Range
  Medium Range
  Long Range
  Gunpowder bomb
  6d
  0–2 yards
  3–4 yards
  5–8 yards
  Muscle – 2 yards
  Muscle – 1 yard
  Muscle roll
  Stick of dynamite
  5d
  0–2 yards
  3–5 yards
  6–10 yards
  Muscle – 3 yards
  Muscle – 2 yards
  Muscle + 1 yards
  Fragmentation grenade
  6d
  0–3 yards
  4–8 yards
  9–16 yards
  Muscle – 4 yards
  Muscle – 3 yards
  Muscle + 3 yards
  Smoke grenade
  3d‡
  0–1 yard
  —
  —
  Muscle – 4 yards
  Muscle – 3 yards
  Muscle + 3 yards
  Throwing Explosives
  Range Diﬃ  culty
  Condition
  DM
  * Size 15
  †  Ammunition capacity is 1 for any percussion car-
  tridge carbine or riﬂ e.
  ‡  Subtract 1d from all rolls for Reﬂ exes, Coordina-
  tion, and vision while inside the smoke; burning 
  chemicals injure like a torch (3d) until they burn 
  out or are wiped oﬀ .
  Close
  0
  Thrower can’t see target area directly
  +6
  Short
  10
  Target area is not “even ground”
  +4
  Med.
  15
  Target area is very hard (bomb bounces)
  +4
  Long
  20
  Target area is very soft (b0mb sinks)
  –4
  
  “O
  nce upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria . . .”
  With these words, the world was introduced to My Little Pony Friendship 
  Is Magic. This half-hour television program became a surprise hit in its ﬁ rst season, 
  not only with the young girls for whom it was intended but with people of all ages 
  and many cultures — thanks to its creators’ determination to present well-written 
  stories, vivid characters, and a fascinating setting.
  Those qualities have made this storybook principality and the good-hearted 
  ponies who live there a wonderful place to visit, even if only in one’s imagination. 
  Pony Tales is a vehicle for that imagination, providing rules to guide any group of 
  friends with a bunch of dice and maybe some maps in spending a few hours around 
  a table exploring Equestria for adventure and entertainment.
  My Little Pony Friendship is Magic is a trademark of Hasbro, Inc.
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/My Little Pony (MLP)/PonyTales/Pony-Tales-Rulebook.pdf