Pony Tales: Aspirations of Harmony - The Consolidated Handbook

So, after about my thirteenth time creating a character and having to flip back and forth between about six different variations on the same page in order to find that one special combat talent, it hit me - these links are nice and all, but wouldn't it be cool if all the official expansions were inserted directly into the same document for easier access?

Well, that's what this is. Behold:

The Pony Tales Consolidated Rulebook!

Questions and Comments:

What, really? This...wasn't that big a deal.
SHUT UP THIS TOOK ME THREE AND A HALF HOURS

This is pretty cool and all, but where did the pictures go and why is some stuff formatted kind of...weird?
Those two things you just mentioned are occasionally my fault - but most of the time Google Docs is just being a butt. Teach me to start off working in Microsoft Word then move things over, I'll tell you what...anyway, I'll probably go in and insert the pictures properly in the future - which will fix most, but not all of the spacing problems otherwise.

Why isn't the [so and so] expansion included?
There is literally no current official expansion that is not included in this document. Therefore, you are referring to one of two possibilities: 1) The specific heading for, example, the Art of War is missing. That's because I took it out. When I say "Consolidated" I don't just mean "Slap everything together and call it consolidated", I mean "integrate as much as possible". Therefore, for example, the Art of War Combat Talents are placed within the document in their appropriate locations - +3s before +2s, -4 after -1s, and 0s in between. I simply chose to ignore the introduction to the expansion and introduce the new content as if it was always part of the old. The same goes in different ways for the Talent Show expansion, the Book of Fate, and others expansions.

If you have checked and the expansion you are referring to really is missing, keep this in mind: although I like certain optional supplements very much to the point of considering them part of the official rules for most games I PH, they still aren't official yet. If you're certain the expansion isn't optional/is official and is missing, then go ahead and confront me about it, and I'll prepare to eat crow.

Hey, you added some stuff in here/took some stuff out/took some liberties!
And here is where I explain why!
Added stuff in: The Treasure Trove official expansion didn't really have a "place" in the original document despite being an official expansion, so I added a quick blurb in between a couple of the questions at the start of the combat section detailing what items are and emphasizing that they are just as much a part of the game as anything. I also added in another question in the same place dealing with a different subject: the optional beta-rule about switching in combat talents as a minor action.

Taking stuff out: yes, I took the introductions for some stuff away - stuff like Genetic Engineering or the Items were different enough that they deserve their own explanatory blurb, whilst "more of the same" stuff like the Equine Power expansion doesn't. I also took out who was the "main author" for the introductions I did keep in and all the "Special thanks", primarily because they broke the flow of the document. But a careful observer will also notice I put them back in: there weren't really any authors mentioned in the expansions who didn't work on Pony Tales, and those who weren't + Special Thanks...well, let's just say the Special Thanks at the beginning of the document are much longer now. To the untrained eye, it also looks like I took out the "How much gold I have when I level up" table, but in reality I simply moved the contents of that table into the normal level-up tracker.

Took some liberties: Hey, I only took one liberty, that's all! Well, not counting all the stuff I moved around and wrote up...ANYWAY! In the Art of War, there are two different sections for psychic power headings: Psylord and Psion. Psylord was not found in the original Pony Tales document yet was not introduced as a new class and only had two powers, so I assumed the heading was an anomaly, an error of some sort, and put Psylord's powers under Psion where I assumed they belonged. And even if I was wrong, I like to think I was justified because why the frick would Psion and Psylord be two different things

So is this the project you've been hinting about for the past few days?
Nah, this is just a side-project.

This is pretty clunky. You gonna go back and fix this sometime soon?
I worked really hard on this it looks perfect in Microsoft Word ;_;

The answer to your question is: yes and no? What do you mean by "Soon", cause if you mean like within a week or possibly even a month, then my answer is AHAHAHAHAHAHAHahA no.

Do you like waffles?
I swear to Celestia I will kill you with my bare hands.

I now feel validated in having been too lazy to do this myself knowing that someone else finally did it for me. =P

Nice AProc. It only took three and a half hours? You work fast I'm certain this will get a lot of use.

That's great! I'm glad I don't need to open all those tabs anymore. Glad you took the trouble to sort it all out - in particular the combat talents; I'm sure that was a lot of work but also incredibly useful.

Curunir wrote:That's great! I'm glad I don't need to open all those tabs anymore. Glad you took the trouble to sort it all out - in particular the combat talents; I'm sure that was a lot of work but also incredibly useful.

Less than you'd expect once I figured out how to select multiple sections of text that weren't directly connected at once. A couple presses of the proper buttons and bam six different talents went from bold to normal then to italicized. The match the stylization choices of their kin.

Thank you all for showing your appreciation. It's...well, it's nice to be appreciated.

AProcrastinatingWriter wrote:Therefore, for example, the Art of War Combat Talents are placed within the document in their appropriate locations - +3s before +2s, -4 after -1s, and 0s in between.

Aaaaand that's when I got seriously impressed. I must admit that while building a character I'll probably still use multiple tabs because I like to cross-reference multiple different areas with each other (like combat talents and traits and items and special moves), but for a simple, one-stop reference, this looks really good. Color me impressed.

What this most certainly needs is a table of contents at the start of the document, which offers links to the various sections: It's hard to tell what is where, otherwise: You have to scroll endlessly to find the sections you need/want. No point in having a consolidated document if it takes you longer to find a section than it would to open its separate doc.

Having links to the separate sections itself would also allow for easy "checking up" of official stuff, if there's an update.

Zarhon wrote:What this most certainly needs is a table of contents at the start of the document, which offers links to the various sections: It's hard to tell what is where, otherwise: You have to scroll endlessly to find the sections you need/want. No point in having a consolidated document if it takes you longer to find a section than it would to open its separate doc.

Having links to the separate sections itself would also allow for easy "checking up" of official stuff, if there's an update.

HOLY LEGITIMATE CRITICISM, BATMAN!

...ahem. Sorry.

You make good points, and I shall take them into consideration the next time I update this rulebook.

DOUB<LE PO>ST

Or maybe the time after that - I'm a tad busy now.

Anyway, first update is complete - new 8-point setup for all races is in! Not the only thing I need to change, I know - still gotta do what Zarhorn suggested, plus add in the Flgiht Utilties update and It's Witchcraft soon to come - plus update the "born system". But this is what I've done for the moment

wheeeeee

Fair warning, there may be some more changes after those too. Certainly Weather-Crafting (though I have no idea if that will be a very big change or not).

I actually knew about that

And then forgot all about that

So genuine thanks to you, Ramsus.

Fury of the Tempest wrote:Just a few things I noticed.

In the races section, the 'don't worry about them' or whatever it is cuts off at worr. Additionally, it only talks about 3 species, when there is obviously more.

That cut is actually in the original document, I noticed it the other day while I was browsing it. Should probably bring it to Dan's attention.

Thanks. It's been fixed. =)