The Equestrian Multiverse

Doc pseudopolis wrote:The Lotus Eater Machine (Warning:Link leads to TVTropes.) is a concept in fiction where someone is trapped in a "Paradise" inside their own mind by an outside force for whatever reason in-universe to paraphrase from the article.

Oh, ok nevermind.

Speaking of playing off backstory, what's the source material for 150? Another show, gen1 or something? Anyway, I like nonexistant magic, and I've been waiting for a legitimate slice of life campaign for a while, so sounds pretty good. And you'd need to define the parameters of "Modern" vs "Fantasy", especially when it referring to something as technologically ambiguous as MLP. Seems like every episode they add some new kind of modern tech, despite still lacking dishwashers and telephones.

Good questions.

-My Little Pony Tales was a cartoon.  The second one in the franchise (leading to some erroneously calling it G2) but it was still within the G1 toyline and general body proportions.  
-It was the franchise's first version of a static set of protagonists as opposed to random rotating casts like the previous show.  The protagonists themselves were school age but a campaign can easily work by making them older.
-While all seven protagonists were female, this is one of the few parts of the franchise where male ponies were actively a part of the entire show.  Three of the guys were part of the secondary cast and were about as recurring as the CMC are for G4.
-The quirk is that magic exists but there's less or the bigger magic hovers on the outskirts.  I mentioned passive luck since one of the 7 protagonists had it.  However, she was also clumsy and not especially bright so it generally wasn't overpowered.
-Manehattan shows that rotary telephones exist but you have a good point.  The franchise as a whole has a rather hybrid mix of genres.  Tales style of modern is like...suburbs.  It was structured somewhat similarly to an early 90s sitcom or after school show.  However, the "magic is on the outskirts" is reflected by having a few medieval style towers here and there.  Essentially, MLP as a franchise is a fantasy with modern elements.  Tales is a modern show with occasional fantasy elements.
-Tales is guilty of a number of bipedal stances and front hooves with marshmallow consistency.  I originally wasn't going to mention it since a lot of fanart uses sticky hooves and back leg standing but it's probably needed for people like me who do err on the side of quadrupedal motion.

A "best" list is difficult to gauge since the show feels like the era and people have differing tastes. A lot of early 90s cartoons had jerky characters, one of the boys is a "tough guy with a sensitive side" that some people read as abusive (ignoring the fact that he's like, 10 or 11 years old and incredibly insecure), and overall weird quirks like occasional hoofhands.  Though I guess I could narrow things down to An Apple for Starlight (introduces most of the recurring cast, has a more overt adventure, arguably a better introduction than the actual pilot episode) and Up, Up and Away (one of the characters who's displayed a fascination with the unknown winds up encountering it).  There's a few other episodes that I think are good but not in a vacuum.  If someone doesn't utterly hate the show, I advocate just marathoning it since the entire thing is only as long as G4 Season 3 and it actually does have a set continuum.

Ok, G2. Well I watched Sabersparks' video, and got the impression that G2 was almost overly girly- the actual incarnation of what haters think G4 supposedly is. Not in a bad way, but the themes were almost exclusively boyfriends, shopping, makeovers, etc. Obviously I never watched it so I might be wrong.

But then, if its just the suburban low-magic setting, then the themes could be anything you want I suppose. So no real issue, beyond I very much prefer the style of G4.

Thing is, it's a bunch of preteen girls so things like boys come up in some episodes but it's not the entire show. There's three problems essentially. A lot of the more cliche episodes are earlier before the show hits a decent stride so people see those and form those opinions before seeing the stronger parts. Even this is mixed since while the pilot, Slumber Party, is literally about a slumber party, it also introduces ghosts as canon (something that doesn't show up in the rest of the franchise). Second, people tend to purposely pass around what they view as the worst episodes so lower opinions are heavily spread around without seeing the whole picture. Finally, the show was designed for the long game. Despite being an episodic show for syndication, it had multiple small character arcs that really need to be watched in order and in entirety. It's sorta all or nothing. However, the show had 10 minute episodes so it really didn't have the breathing room for the things it was attempting. I'd argue that G4 is a vastly better show but Tales/G1.5 attempted to play with a few different concepts that benefited later generations.

As far as themes, I'm trying to write these in a way that any GM can pull from. "Suburban low-magic setting" is probably the most concise description for this.

@Bonymous

Yeah, I'm crappy at balancing and rules wrangling, but with someone competent at the head, I think the concept could work.

@Zamuel

I would love to play in a universe like that. I've always been a fan of characterization-heavy growing-up type games as long as there was a twist to make it interesting, and ponies would work well as that twist.

Something else I just remembered relayed to the topic. When it comes to jumping between parallel universes, which of these premises is more appealing?

A) You arrive in a new universe, and given the correct circumstances may come into contact with this verses version of yourself.

B) When you arrive in a new universe, your consciousness inhabits and overwrites the present version of yourself- you take their form and their place, but still know you as you from another universe.

C) Upon arriving, you completely overwrite the other you, replacing them.

As said before, my ideas on the multiverse thing come from the Sweetie Chronicles fanfic, which makes use of two of these options. Combining with my Gender divide theory, it would work as such:

Whenever you jump to another universe on the same side of the Gender divide, if you exist already in that universe, then option B happens, and you take over your alternate self. If you don't already exist, then you just arrive as yourself (this can be due to extreme differences in cause and effect, or a difference of time line.).
When you manage to bridge the Gender gap, though, the differences here are so extreme that you and your alternate self cannot be considered the same entity, so you arrive as yourself, and can end up meeting your opposite gendered self.

Since the thing is more of a guide than hard-fast rules, it might be best to mention all three options. They all have great story potential, from meeting yourself to Quantum-Leaping, and it might be a good idea to leave it to the discretion of the GM, based on the kind of story they want to tell.

Personally I'm a major fan of option A... With the subet of there maybe not being a version of you running around in the new universe... Or the two of yous are different enough to not even realize being doubles if that is an option. Too much is it that multiverse travel it's easy to run into the doubles and it really comes off as being way to easy to figure out that they're doubles...

Minor thread necromancy, but...whatever.

Just want to let you guys know I haven't dropped this. Actually, I was waiting to get my hands on the last chapter of the Reflections arc, in case it through out some stuff about Equestria-3... and I finally managed to get to my local store and pick up my reserved comics.

So... I have the complete Reflections arc- meaning I can write a rough guide to E3- and I'm working through the Lunaverse, so I should be able to work on that one real soon. I'll try and finish my E3 guide and submit it here as a trial template, to see if the format is workable.