How To Make A Pony
This is actually quite simple, there are a whole 6 choices. It's simple enough I'll give you all the options as I walk through it.
1st- What type of pony are you?
An Earth Pony is strong and brave, a Pegasus can fly, and a Unicorn uses magic.
I like magic, so I first thought of Unicorn. But, if I did play this pony with my friends there was already a Unicorn and an Earth Pony - so I figured I'd go with Pegasus.
2nd- What is your Element of Harmony?
pick from: Honesty, Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, Loyalty, or Magic
Generosity sounded good to me (since I was eschewing magic). I had a vision of a pony who was very helpful and always had the right tool on hand when somebody needed to do something.
3rd- Body or Mind higher?
You have 3 attributes: Body, Mind and Charm. Charm is the same for all starting ponies, but you have to choose weather your Body or Mind is higher.
My "being helpful" concept seemed more material than in knowing stuff, so I went with Body as the higher of the two stats.
4th- Choose a Talent
Every pony gets one free Talent, or power/ ability, from their type, and they get to choose one more (or upgrade the default one).
This was the hardest part, I really saw my pony as the guy who always had the right tool at hand (err... hoof) - kind of a walking bag of holding, or even The Luggage from Discworld. Looking over the abilities in the book I didn't see one like that however, and doing the "Felix the Cat"-style of having a transforming handbag or pulling things out of thin air like Bugs Bunny didn't seem to fit the tone of the game (which is fairly serious for being a children's game/cartoon). So I settled on "Special Skill: Hauling" so he can carry really heavy loads (my thought was- if you can hitch him to it he can pull it) which will let him carry around his cart (since at this point I had the idea that he went everywhere pulling a cart, which had folding kite wings so he could fly with it).
5th- Choose a Quirk
Every pony has a quirk, some character trait that tends to get them in trouble or complicate their lives (like Allergy, Bossy or Forgetful).
I went with "Naive," he wants to be helpful so much that he often gets taken advantage of or tries too hard and makes things worse.
6th- Choose/ Draw Your Cutie Mark and Portrait
The last decision is what your pony looks like, and your "cutie mark" is a special image that describes your character (from the little I've seen of the show).
His Cutie Mark is a bucket with wings, which came from how he used to always carry around a bucket in his teeth as a young colt, and he'd carry things for people in it. I managed to draw a sad approximation of it that I won't reproduce here. He's a boy pony, and tall and thin but stronger than he looks. He's got a bark blue coat and a white mane with light brown eyes.
Final steps
Those are all the choices you have to make to create a pony, the last thing to do is record the other fixed numbers and fill out a character sheet. Buying equipment is described as being somewhat optional, but since my character concept was to have a lot of stuff, I went ahead and got all his gear.
Just-in-time, aka "Justin"
a Level 1 Pegasus of Generosity who's Naive
Body: d6 Mind: d4 Charm: d6 - Stamina: 10
Talents- Fly: d6, Special Skill: Hauling/Carry d6
Cutie Mark: a bucket with wings
Appearance: tall and thin, other ponies tend to comment on how he's stronger than he looks. Has a dark blue coat and white mane with light brown eyes. Always in the middle of things, looking for a way to help out - he doesn't like to be alone or useless. Goes everywhere he can with his cart full of stuff, which he keeps to give to other people when they need something.
Bits (money): 0 [tends to spend it as soon as he gets it to buy gifts for people or have more stuff on hand]
Equipment-
Cart [has folding kite wings so he can fly with it]
Raincoat and Boots [for himself when alone, but he'll loan them out and get wet if somebody else needs them]
Food: Simple Meal x9 [in case anybody gets hungry, and for any long-distance flights]
Food: Snack x3 [usually given away to anyone looking peckish, or maybe candy for kids, I'm not sure]
Saddlebags [yeah, he has the cart, but you can never have too many bags]
Rope [a million uses]
Ponybalm x5 [kind of a minor healing potion in the game, for anyone who gets hurt]
Lamp [good for dealing with the dark]
Party kit [in case anyone wants to celebrate, I'm guessing this includes a small tent which could have its own uses]
Cooking kit [goes with throwing a party]
Book of stories [in case anybody is bored, to loan or read to others]
Guidebook to Equestria [the world is a big place, so he has a guide to geography and customs to get around and get along, how accurate it is is something the GM can have fun with]
Bucket [the same one he used to carry around as a colt]
Cleaning kit [for cleaning up after the party above]
Grooming kit [important to look good, and really helpful after any long-distance flights]
Instrument: Harmonica [to pass the time or entertain others, I'm assuming he knows how to play it since there is no skill or talent for playing, and having him be bad at it might be funny, but doesn't quite seem like the character]
Clock [good to be on time]
Shovel [another generally useful tool]
Some Thoughts
Mechanically this is one of the simplest characters I've ever made, and it's also one of my favorite characters. I really like the character creation for this game. It's focused on teamwork, the whole book subtly reinforces that you're going to be part of a team, and some of the mechanics like your Element of Harmony and Tokens of Friendship (which I didn't list since you get them from your party) - but with that it has a focus on your nature. A typical RPG is about making a party, a team (well, a good RPG in my opinion) but the focus is on your role in that team: tank, healer, damage type stuff. Here, your role in the team is your nature, like Justin's "Generosity." While it would be possible to make a party of ponies that were all the same, you'd be missing a vital part of the game in how the characters' different natures bring different approaches to solving problems (and create different complications). I've watched just a couple of episodes of the cartoon since making this character, and really like how it has that character-focus instead of a typical RPGs ability-focus.
Also, that focus on a character's nature and the simple mechanical choices made it really easy for me to concentrate on my character concept. I actually feel like I know this character, his backstory and how to play him, better than most other RPG characters I've ever made. Not having a million choices and rulebooks and sourcebooks and class guides and numbers to add kept the importance on the character. I do prefer more mechanically developed games, so I'm not sure how it's going to feel to actually play the character (if I ever do), but for character creation it was great to keep it simple.
I didn't know what to expect before making this character, but I'm amazed now that I was able to create such a detailed character so quickly, and one that seems like he'd fit well in a party and has some potential to be fun to play and explore. I tip my hat to the developers of Tails of Equestria for making a great system to create characters, and one that I'm taking some notes from for my own games.
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