Setting Rules

Other than typical Setting Rules options from the core Savage Worlds, there are other optional setting rules you can use for MLP:SA, described below.

Optional Setting Rules from the Core Rules

Other than the No Power Points setting rule for MLP:SA, you may wish to incorporate other setting rules to your game, such as Heroes Never Die, Joker's Wild, and Critical Failures; depending on the campaign type, you can also use Born a Hero, Fanatics, Multiple Languages, or High Adventure.

Friendship Is Magic

Right, so you're playing ponies inspired by the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic show, and thus there's a general expectation of having that general atmosphere of "love and tolerate" (to take a line from the early days of fandom).

As such, in MLP:SA, deliberate excessive violence (particularly of the lethal variety) is frowned upon. It's up to the GM/the group to agree beforehand on what connotes and what the consequences should be for resorting to heavy violence (tip: I do not recommend being murderhobos in a MLP game).

What consequences applies will depend on your GM/group; you could go with 0xp for the group, gaining a new hindrance (Bloodthirsty, Mean, Mean Meanie Pants, etc), making a Spirit roll or taking a retaliatory mental Wound (or even permanent Wound, representing the ~deep scarring~ on your psyche for the violent act) when it occurs in a session. (In this case, the setting rules Gritty Damage and Blood and Guts are not used.)

As always, each group has its own definition on what constitutes excessive "violence" and what falls under "tough love." Consider that the show canon has its own level of cartoon violence: Rarity's "I Know Kung Fu," the all-out brawl versus Changelings in A Canterlot Wedding, wrestlemania Fluttershy in Lesson Zero, party cannons, showdowns with apple pies, and Daring Do hoofdicuffs. In addition there's also the comics, where actual weapon play comes into action a la pirate adventures in Issues #13-14.

My personal rule of thumb is "Would Captain America do that?" For a gritter game, it's "Would Batman do that?"

This is, after all, Savage Worlds, and My Little Pony: Savage Adventures. ;D

Combined Attacks

In keeping with the whole "MLP:SA cooperative fighting" tactic, heroes (and enemies!) can coordinate and combine their attacks together for devastating effect. Because as we've seen on the show, when you've got your friends to help, you can do amazing things together. Like rainbow beams

To combine attacks, the group has to tell the GM their plan. If the GM agrees, each character spends a benny and chooses a lead character - the one who's going to deal the final blow. (Note: the lead character must inflict Heavy Weapon damage to affect a target with Heavy Armor, regardless of the final damage value.)

The group then acts on the slowest participant's Action Card (faster characters will need to go on Hold and thus may be Interrupted!) When it comes to enact The Plan, all supporting characters make their respective attack rolls against the target (Fighting for melee, Shooting for ranged attacks; whatever best fits the narrative). The lead character, assuming they successfully hit their target themselves, gets a bonus damage die starting a d4 and increasing in size with each success and Raise from the supporting characters.

Ex: "Here's the plan," Twilight says, "Rainbow Dash and Applejack flank on either side of us, moving in to make sure the lead diamond dog doesn't get away. We need that key! Pinkie Pie and Rarity, you'll be on ranged duty with me. Fluttershy, we need you act first to distract him." And then there was agreement so we don't make this longer than it needs to be.

Fluttershy acts first, hovering overhead and successfully pulling off a Smarts Trick on the diamond dog (Parry -2). At that, Rainbow Dash and Applejack charge in and flank from the sides, Rainbow Dash flying in with a double backkick (successful Fighting) and Applejack throwing down with a massive Stomp (successful ranged Nature(land)). Pinkie Pie flings cupcakes (successful Shooting) and Rarity throws the diamond dog in a tizzy with a shower of gem shards (cast Elemental Manipulation(earth)). Finally Twilight Sparkle prepares for a truly massive array of magical beams: a successful mega-bolt strikes for not just 3d6 damage, but 3d6+d10 damage!

With Power Points

Instead of MLP:SA's standard No Power Points setting rule, you may decide to return to the native Savage World's core rules and use Power Points for magic.

In this case, the defaults for Arcane Background (Magic) return back to their default rules in Savage Worlds, summarized as follows:

    • Arcane Skill: still Spellcasting, linked to Smarts
      • Activating a Power: spend Power Points, roll Spellcasting (no spellcasting modifiers, unless you're maintaining a Power) with standard TN=4; if you fail nothing happens (other than your PP being spent)
    • Starting Power Points: 10
      • Recover Power Points at 1 per hour
    • Starting Powers: 3 (plus Inherent Spells)
    • Backlash: if you roll a natural 1 on the skill die, you are automatically Shaken; if this would cause a Wound you instead take a level of Fatigue that is recovered by 8 hours of rest
  • Maintenance as default PPs per round, penalties to future Spellcasting rolls
    • Disruption (Interruption) as per standard Savage Worlds rules
    • Inherent Spells remain unchanged

A number of Power Point related edges (from the Core Rules) return for the taking:

    • (more) Power Points (duh) - can be taken only once per Rank
    • Rapid Recharge
      • Improved Rapid Recharge
    • Wizard

Design Note: MLP:SA's default setting is to use No Power Points because it A) reduces bookkeeping and B) emphasizes magic outside of combat. Since there's no limit to how many times you can attempt casting a spell with the No Power Points rule (other than the risk of Fatigue), especially with spell preparation, you can cast Beast Friend all day long and amass a horde of bunnies, or Fly as long as you'd like. However, for that simplicity you face higher risk with the combat magics such as Bolt and Blast, due to the greater risk of failure from spellcasting penalties. In other words, high risk, high reward.

Since this is pony, non-combat magic should theoretically get more emphasis. However, your game may wish to incorporate more combat, and if you don't like the "high risk, high reward" model then you can choose to instead use the regular Power Points rules, which greatly reduces the risk (no spellcasting penalties, lighter Backlash rules) at the cost of limiting how many spells you can spam in a short order of time.

Note: you must choose one method or the other for a character; you can't have a character that can switch between using Power Points or not for the same spell. All for one and one for all!

Even More Action!

My Little Pony - Savage Adventures is already geared for action-packed, pulpy-like games. However, if you want to go full-on Rambo or want an even more cinematic game, you can use the following setting rules to up the ante.

Heroic Healing

After a fight, each hero is allowed a straight up unmodified Vigor roll. With a success, he recovers a Wound (or a Fatigue level; player's choice), two with a raise. This represents the character "shrugging off" wounds (either regular Wounds or mental Wounds) and acts in addition to normal Healing rolls.

Really Heroic Healing

Like Heroic Healing, but the character automatically recovers one Wound with a failure, two with a success, and three with a Raise. Only with a critical failure does he recover no Wounds.

For Small Groups

Most RPG games are played with 4-6 players. Savage Worlds is pretty darn flexible, especially with the concept of Extras, but very small groups requires a little bit more tweaking.

The Heroic Duo

A lot of action movies and pulp stories depict the story of two partners fighting alongside each other. If your group includes only two heroes, you may consider using the following rules:

  1. The heroes automatically benefit from the Common Bond edge
  2. Use the Heroic Healing rule (from above)

The Lone Hero

On the other hoof, a lot of action movies and pulp stories also depict the story of a single hero on their quest against all odds (Daring Do, anyone?). In that case, you may consider the following:

  1. The lone hero begins with an additional benny
  2. Halve (rounding down) gang-up bonuses against the lone hero
  3. Use the Really Heroic Healing rule (from above)