Items - The Playtest Document!

Hey folks, looks like the playtest for the item expansion is up in record time! Enjoy. This is going to expand a LOT of course, but this should be enough to get you playtesting the basic item mechanics in your own groups. Enjoy.

The Treasure Hoard - Combat Items for Voicechat

Also, if you haven't seen the stuff for the tabletop version of the game yet - feel free to check it out here.

Tabletop Combat Rules and Talents

The Treasure Hoard - Combat Items for the Tabletop Game

Mmm... More combat-ish then the impression I was left with about items playing both combat and non-combat roles. But other then that, I love what we got so far! :3

Xel Unknown wrote:Mmm... More combat-ish then the impression I was left with about items playing both combat and non-combat roles. But other then that, I love what we got so far! :3

Awesome. And yep, this is focusing on the combat side of things for now - as it adds that final layer of customization to combat build to really make the game a joy to build the combat side of things with (between utility talents, racial powers, boons and destinies the non-combat stuff already has tons of juice to work with). We're definitely going to add lots of non-combat items too and items that do both combat and non-combat things. There might even be an item-creation mechanic that allows you to force non-combat item properties onto a combat item for a proportional increase in cost... Build your own magic item. For example, if a combat item costs 1200 gold and the non-combat item costs 800 - you could apply both properties to the same item and purchase it for 2000 gold. You wouldn't be able to combine two combat items together though, of course. That'd just be silly. =)

Lyra would go nuts over that treasure pile. Dat Gauntlet.

I don't understand some of these weapons. Farshot bow's effect means nothing in terms of Pony Tales- at least, not in any of the games I've been in. Same for anything with "melee attacks". The idea of flavoring our own combat talents means that anyone can say any attack they have is a melee attack, even something like fireball or thunderstorm.

Stairc -Dan Felder wrote:Awesome. And yep, this is focusing on the combat side of things for now - as it adds that final layer of customization to combat build to really make the game a joy to build the combat side of things with (between utility talents, racial powers, boons and destinies the non-combat stuff already has tons of juice to work with). We're definitely going to add lots of non-combat items too and items that do both combat and non-combat things. There might even be an item-creation mechanic that allows you to force non-combat item properties onto a combat item for a proportional increase in cost... Build your own magic item. For example, if a combat item costs 1200 gold and the non-combat item costs 800 - you could apply both properties to the same item and purchase it for 2000 gold. You wouldn't be able to combine two combat items together though, of course. That'd just be silly. =)

Funny you should talk of mixing unitily and combat items together... Cause I've already got a character I'm planning on mixing with the items... My fav weapon is the Oversized Sword. I WANT THAT SO BAD!!!

Xel Unknown wrote:Funny you should talk of mixing unitily and combat items together... Cause I've already got a character I'm planning on mixing with the items... My fav weapon is the Oversized Sword. I WANT THAT SO BAD!!!

We loved designing that sword too. =)

Bronymous wrote:Lyra would go nuts over that treasure pile. Dat Gauntlet.

I don't understand some of these weapons. Farshot bow's effect means nothing in terms of Pony Tales- at least, not in any of the games I've been in. Same for anything with "melee attacks". The idea of flavoring our own combat talents means that anyone can say any attack they have is a melee attack, even something like fireball or thunderstorm.

Are you sure you're looking at the right document? There's one for the tabletop which does care about such melee attacks and one for the skype version which doesn't.

Edit - Nevermind, my bad. Hadn't cut those specific items out yet.

I was also going to point out redundancies and duplicates, but it looks like you got them. You know, if you allow other people to comment on the item, its easier for us to point out things you might have missed, or need to clarify.

I'll be sure to start trying to think up some new items of my own... With minor unitily effects and combat effects.

Fury of the Tempest wrote:Not many weapons that don't have /battle or /daily effects...

I find it odd that Lifebound Armour doesn't have an upgraded form... Oh wait, it does. Its just in the trinket section.

And its Mithral that was chosen to upgrade the plate. Its meant to be really light, why that?

Shouldn't the upgraded Hawkeye have a different name?

Bronymous wrote:You know, if you allow other people to comment on the item, its easier for us to point out things you might have missed, or need to clarify.

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Like everything I just said!

Overall, its really interesting. I like the addition of this table-top combat system. I'm interested to note that there are both some table-top exclusive treasures and some non-tabletop exclusive treasures. I don't understand the second one... as for the first...

Challenge accept!

Thanks for pointing those errors out, I was whipping up the higher level gear for tonight's pony tales session so fast, led to silly mistakes. Also, the reason that those skype versions haven't been ported to the tabletop yet is quite simply because I haven't had time yet. =)

Hope to soon.

Fury of the Tempest wrote:And I've already made skype versions of all the table-top only weapons!

Epic.

I just looked over all the items.

Those are some pretty cool looking toys, but as a first impression, I didn't like the level advisement for how much stuff you should have at any given time. It seemed kind of un-ponyish to have base characters starting out with any combat items at all... and then I was informed that this is more of an expansion for the Living Legends game, not Pony Tales, and it made a bit more sense...

-Still, that duly noted, for a system like Pony Tales/Living Legends that's focused on keeping things simple and streamlined, I don't know if I like the idea of starting people out with 3,000 gold worth of combat-related stuff. It's always been more fun to find items and artifacts as you go anyway - and speaking from personal experience, I've found the combat system is already complicated enough for first timers without overloading them with even more options (which so far, this item expansion seems to do).

I'd recommend players start without items at all so they can get a feel for the system, then start introducing items after they've got the basics down.

-That's my two bits (;

My understanding is that the starting Bits is more a GM desided issue, but the gold stated here is more a LIMIT the items you can own at that level... And if it's not that, then I'd suggest that be how things work.

Maybe I'm new, but what exactly is the difference? I thought Pony Tales was originally designed as a tabletop that was just implemented over skype and whatever.

Actually the opposite. Pony Tales was a skype based game, and the tabletop was developed later for people who wanted to play but didn't want to play as talking colorfol magical ponies. iirc

Wow, yeah, I'm surprised to hear people are struggling with the combat system over skype pre-items. Items sure do add another layer of complexity, but without them it's one of the simpler roleplaying systems - certainly compared to the mainstream ones. Even 4e, often called too simple, is much more complicated. Even with the tabletop version, our playtests of it have gone very smoothly even when people trying it their first time hop in - and the table-top system is more than twice as complex as the skype one. I wonder, could you be more detailed about what's tripping your players up? If there's something we can make easier to understand, that'd be great.

On the subject of gold amounts, that's completely up to DM discretion. However, the gold amounts there represent a significant ratio between the power level of your other abilities and the power level of your items - one we like. You also don't have to award gold, you can award items however you like to players. I prefer gold except in the rare case of unique or extremely powerful items though, as players love getting a chance to go shopping and the items they choose for themselves give them a lot more fun than ones the DM picks out for them most times (unless the DM is handing them items far more powerful than they should be able to afford) and it saves the DM time as well. You can easily run Pony Tales/Living Legends without an Item in sight. That said, items are handed out at level 1 because they provide powerful customization options to further differentiate your character and play them how you like. Otherwise, until you get 2-3 traits, your character can feel a little bland combat-wise. Items fill this hole.

As for other material about Living Legends, you can find it here. We've got the player's handbook up - though it's almost identical to the Pony Tales one. The significant differences are the Races and the fact that every utility talent is open to every race (I so love that). Within the handbook is also a link to the Tabletop Combat System, if you haven't seen it already.

Living Legends - Player's Handbook

Fury of the Tempest wrote:Yeah, the only real difference is the species and flavour. Everything else is still the same.

Yep. We wanted to create a core system you could use for any canon - ponies, dungeons and dragons, star wars and more.

Fury of the Tempest wrote:Through of course, for ponies it does best!

As with all things in life.