Question regarding Sizes

So, having looked more closely at certain utility talents, I notice that many of them specify things like "medium-sized creatures" or "large-sized" or "your size becomes small".

Now, I can understand the reason for being vague about this (flavor malleability) but some clarification on this mechanic (which is not discussed in the rulebook to my knowledge) would go a long ways, I think.

Moreover; certain talents seem to grant different sizes on a temporary basis (Form Of The Rat comes to mind, being on one of my character sheets). Has there been consideration for talents that alter size on a more permanent basis? Something like this:

Appleteenie (1)
Your size is considered small.

...Whatever being "small" as opposed to "medium" means, of course. There's an obvious distinction; but not a clear one...

Perhaps, if our own developers do not take interest, I should make this my own expansion...

The real trick is keeping flavor open while also making things work. This is a tricky issue that's on our list of things to resolve - but it's more of an inconvenience than more major things we need to fix. If you want to work out definitions for this and show them to us, that'd be great.

That was fast. 

I'll give it a whirl; not right now, I'm busy, and I make no guarantees to quality. But make the attempt I shall...

Crystalite wrote:Perhaps, if our own developers do not take interest, I should make this my own expansion...

I say go for it!    I'm firmly of the opinion that 3rd-party expansions are only a good thing for the system. They fill a need or desire for something (or else they wouldn't be written), so other people with the same want or need can come along and find them and use them. They can open people's eye's to new possibilities in the system (I found Pingcode's Heal Expansion quite an interesting read for some of the ideas in it). And perhaps best of all, once the work's been done it's a lot easier to add or adapt it into an official thing.

I know there have been several people who expressed interest in a better-defined size chart. Take a shot at writing one up, and we can all learn from the process – which would certainly help the process if an official one is ever drawn up. If you want help with it there are plenty of interested parties on these forums who would be glad to lend a hand.

This seems very interesting, though perhaps only because I have a character who can change size at will (Carat D. Bright in tygerburningbright's Grand Line Adventures), and this could be incredibly helpful for many things. For example, why should a pony who is 100 feet tall take the same damage in combat from a knife or fang or similar as does a pony of normal size, or a pony who is 6 inches tall?

Philadelphus wrote:

Crystalite wrote:Perhaps, if our own developers do not take interest, I should make this my own expansion...

I say go for it!    I'm firmly of the opinion that 3rd-party expansions are only a good thing for the system. They fill a need or desire for something (or else they wouldn't be written), so other people with the same want or need can come along and find them and use them. They can open people's eye's to new possibilities in the system (I found Pingcode's Heal Expansion quite an interesting read for some of the ideas in it). And perhaps best of all, once the work's been done it's a lot easier to add or adapt it into an official thing.

I know there have been several people who expressed interest in a better-defined size chart. Take a shot at writing one up, and we can all learn from the process – which would certainly help the process if an official one is ever drawn up. If you want help with it there are plenty of interested parties on these forums who would be glad to lend a hand.

Thank you; that is very encouraging.

Copper Rose wrote:This seems very interesting, though perhaps only because I have a character who can change size at will (Carat D. Bright in tygerburningbright's Grand Line Adventures), and this could be incredibly helpful for many things. For example, why should a pony who is 100 feet tall take the same damage in combat from a knife or fang or similar as does a pony of normal size, or a pony who is 6 inches tall?

In the interest of maintaining the Utility/Combat Split, my supplement will not likely affect combat. I may make a separate supplement, or part of the supplement, with Combat Sizes in mind; but it strikes me as a poor idea at the moment...

Seems like a wise decision.

Also worth noting that it isn't impossible to justify the damage being constant. Losing HP doesn't mean you actually got hit after all. A smaller character is harder to hit, but might exhaust themselves dodging knife strokes. A huge character is pretty much a guaranteed hit, but the knife won't affect them nearly as much.