Where is My Little RPG?

In 2006, Wizards of the Coast (WOTC) made a compelling argument for a My Little Pony role-playing game and miniature line as a means of reaching "a previously unexploited segment of the roleplaying game marketplace," girls ages 3 to 7. The press release argued that the game would be a draw for younger players, would provide "cooperative play" opportunities for girls, and act as a transitional game to Dungeons & Dragons. There was just one problem: it was all a joke. With the My Little Pony franchise grossing over $1 billion in gross sales in 2015 for WOTC’s parent company Hasbro, the possibility of a My Little Pony role-playing game is no laughing matter.

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For the uninitiated, My Little Pony is about unicorns, pegasi, and ponies in a fantasy universe where monsters are real and friendship is magic. The latest iteration, led by Lauren Faust who also created The Powerpuff Girls, has launched a global movement that has swept up men and women, boys and girls in its fandom. It's got an adult sensibility but is bright and charming enough for kids, which is how "bronies" have popped up -- male fans of the show. Hasbro Studios executive director Brian Lenard explained how the franchise has evolved:

What Lauren Faust brought to the table really helped redefine what My Little Pony was. It had become a bit saccharine and sweet, which was fine, but I don’t think it was able to cut through the clutter the way the new version has. This version introduced a deeper layer of mythology and a sort of irreverent sense of humor. It brought really iconic new characters to the brand.

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Given that the license is owned by Hasbro, the parent company of Wizards of the Coast, it's no surprise that there's a long line of merchandise to support the brand. But is a Fifth Edition Dungeons & Dragons-compatible My Little Pony role-playing supplement possible?
[h=3]The Role-Playing Game[/h]
Ironically, Wizards of Coast made the most compelling argument for a role-playing game as part of its 2006 April Fool's press release:

Leveraging opportunities between Hasbro’s core girl brand and Wizards of the Coast’s most popular game formats, the My Little Pony RPG marks an exciting d20 experience for girls ages 3-7, a previously unexplored segment of the roleplaying game marketplace. The My Little Pony RPG uses the game system of the d20 Modern Roleplaying Game, featuring custom-designed ponies with rules for choosing a wide range of pony colors, hair styles, accessories such as “cutie marks,” and powers such as “rainbow flight” and “find-and-seek”. Containing both adventures (foiling the nefarious “Dark Rustler”) and adventure hooks (collecting the most butterflies and rainbow berries), the My Little Pony RPG core rulebook presents a fully detailed world, with such popular locations as Celebration Castle, Twinkle Twirl’s Dance Studio, and the Cotton Candy Café.

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My Little Pony is no stranger to games. Simon Waters, Senior Vice President of Global Brand Licensing and Publishing at Hasbro, said in a press release:

The MY LITTLE PONY brand is experiencing explosive growth paving the way for highly thoughtful licensing programs that further extend the brand engagement in new and meaningful ways for millions of young girls around the globe.
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The press release went on to explain the plans for 2013, including licensed merchandise from publishing to digital gaming, plush, and fashion & beauty:

From flipping the pages of the My Little Pony: The Elements of Harmony: Friendship is Magic: The Official Guidebook from Little Brown Books for Young Readers to swiping the screens of iOS and Android devices to hanging out and interacting with TWILIGHT SPARKLE and friends playing the MY LITTLE PONY game app by Gameloft, Hasbro continues to enlist licensees that deliver an unmatched level of creativity and imagination to the magical MY LITTLE PONY world.

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There is a much broader audience for a My Little Pony game beyond little girls and the numbers back it up. The 2014 "State of the Herd" report of My Little Pony fandom estimates that fans with an average age of 20 range from 7 to 12 million in the United States alone, with 5 percent who also participate in Live Action Role-Playing (LARP) games and 20 percent participating in cosplay.

Still not convinced? Ponyfinder for Pathfinder's exceeded its Kickstarter goal by $16,000. And so did its sequel. A third is in the works that is over $7,000 past its goal. In addition to Ponyfinder, there are several other role-playing systems that have incorporated pony themes:

• Laser Ponies is for girls and boys alike, and is the first all-ages role-playing game from Hex Games. It uses the QAGS system, but you do not have to own the QAGS rulebook-the QAGS Qik Start rules, which tell you everything you need to know to play the game, are included in the back of the book. Also included are rules for Pony Power, 40 story ideas, sample characters, illustrations by up-and-coming young artist Katie Staffiera, and a character sheet.
• The Savage World of My Little Pony is the culmination of over a year and half of work by numerous authors who contributed to its continuing evolution since its conception in early February of 2011.
• My Little Pony: Roleplaying is Magic was initially an idea between two bronies—Tall Tail and Know-It-All—to create a stand-alone pony RPG system which not only was unique instead of requiring another system to use, but was also designed to provide an experience true to the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic cartoon.
• Ponies: The Roleplaying Game is a first draft of a simple RPG for people who want to play as ponies with actual stats and dice.
• My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is a roleplaying game that lets you play as one of the ponies from the show or create your own pony to explore the magical world that awaits you.

[h=3]The Miniature Line[/h]
The April Fool's article also proposed a miniatures line compatible with Dungeons & Dragons miniatures. Thing is, miniatures already exist in the form of G4 Blind Bag Ponies.

G4 Blind Bag Ponies are pony figurines that are fully molded toys and about half the size of the 'regular' pony toys. With their molded hair they more closely resemble the character in the show My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. 'Blind Bags' refers to the fact that these toys are mostly sold in "surprise" opaque packaging, as in you can't see what pony you are getting until you open her up. However collectors soon found that each bag had a number stamped on it indicating which pony was in each bag. Jordan Peacock on PEG Inc.'s boards gives more information on how these miniatures work with traditional fantasy gaming terrain:

Scale is an issue. These are 2" high, so they are noticeably not very "little" compared to 32mm (let alone 25mm) miniatures and scenery. They seem [to] look nice enough next to most of my Hirst Arts dungeon pieces, although they fill up the corridors (a 2" wide corridor is really only wide enough for the ponies to comfortably walk single-file), and some of the doors are just too small. The Mage Knight and Warhammer Quest doors look large enough, however, and I think the larger 1.5"-wide Hirst Arts blocks doors should work as well.

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For smaller scale miniatures more in line with 28mm humanoids there are several options to consider.

• Pewter Ponies from Slap Miniatures consists of a base set of a "string of ponies" featuring 1 princess pony, 3 pegasi, 3 unicorns, and 5 regular ponies. The Kickstarter surpassed its £3,000 goal by £4,000.
• Chibi Ponies from Impact Miniatures consisted of a unicorn, pony, eagle winged pony, and hat-wearing pony. The Kickstarter to launch this line had a modest goal of $3,250 and concluded with $105,099 on November 1, 2012. You can buy the miniatures at the company's web site, but a large majority of them are sold out.

[h=3]Now What?
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John Frascotti, President of Hasbro Brands, laid out the My Little Pony blueprint: Toy & Game Product Innovation, Digital Media, Lifestyle Licensing and Immersive Entertainment Experiences. If there's a role-playing game, it seems that it most likely would fit in more than one category: a digital role-playing game would be a game innovation, digital media, and an immersive entertainment experience. There are rumors, but then trolling MLP fandom is a common Internet pastime, like the Kickstarter for a pony-focused dating sim that turned out to be an elaborate hoax.

Of course, the question of why there isn't a My Little Pony role-playing game can extend to all of Hasbro's licenses. Where's the Transformers game? G.I. Joe? It's clear that at least for the moment, Hasbro doesn't see "role-playing game" as a significant media channel to develop for its licensed properties.

That may change. Hasbro's approach to turning all of its franchises into transmedia properties has started to gain traction, most specifically with the Dungeons & Dragons film, which Hasbro considers a powerful enough brand that it was willing to go to court over the film rights.

There is also precedent for Wizards of the Coast to produce games from other properties, notably the short-lived Heroscape line. Wizards has also produced board games based on its properties, like the Magic: The Gathering board game...which looks a lot like Heroscape.

Of all the paths to game publication of a Hasbro franchise, the most likely means of getting an official game is through 3D printing and sub-licensing. Hasbro has already endorsed official My Little Pony miniatures through its partnership with Shapeways to launch SuperFanArt, with the pony franchise leading the effort. And that's not all:

While Hasbro is starting with My Little Pony, its other brands will be added to SuperFanArt this year in the coming months. It also owns Transformers, Monopoly, Play-Doh, Magic: The Gathering, Littlest Pet Shop and Nerf.

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We've come a long way from 2006, when My Little Pony was the butt of an April Fool's joke. The warm reception of Fifth Edition Dungeons & Dragons by players and Hasbro bodes well for future expansions that explore other brands. Here's what lead D&D developer Mike Mearls had to say on the subject:

I can’t say for certain at this point, but one of the nice things about a modular approach is that it’s much easier to extend the game in different directions. If you have an elegant, robust, and easily learned core, you can imagine adding rules for mutations and dangerous tech for Gamma World, or beam weapons and space travel for Star Frontiers.

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If fans can start making their own Magic: The Gathering and My Little Pony miniatures and Wizards of the Coast is producing a Magic: The Gathering board game, a My Little Pony role-playing and miniature game seems more feasible than ever.

Mike "Talien" Tresca is a freelance game columnist, author, and communicator. You can follow him at Patreon.

 

[Mournblade94]

UGH I have to deal with this show everyday. My little girl makes me watch it with her. Its a grind. I love cartoons, but little kid cartoons grind on me. As long as I can skip the game with her I will be OK. I think I can probably make D&D Interesting for her at 7 years old. I am afraid I would be a terrible dungeon master for hair brushing ponies and sing song.

 

[John Little]

Just as a question, if adult males want to sit around pretending to be super powered ponies, what's the difference between that and pretending to be super heroes? Or Elves? Why would it be considered 'ewwww'?

Before any accusations fly, I'm not any kind of secret brony and I have no agenda. I've never watched my little pony. I have a daughter who will one day probably be very into it. I'm just curious about this comment as an examination of gender typing versus RPG players perceptions/what's considered status quo in a 'normative space' and where we draw lines.

I think this discussion is on topic. If a mod or anyone else considers this off topic, I'll shut up now.

Yeah, I'm curious about this too. I've seen an episode of Friendship Is Magic, and while the show isn't for me I can't really get the big negative reaction that it inspires. I probably wouldn't want to play such a game myself, but I can totally understand why people might want to roleplay in a game like this. I mean, in the end isn't roleplaying about the escapism of getting to be something that you think is fun? If a roleplaying game comes along for something that I don't want to play as, I can just... not play it. Meanwhile the people who want to play it can. So, I don't really see the big deal. It's sorta like my friends who love D&D but don't really share my love of pulp sci-fi. It makes it tough to get people for a game of Cosmic Patrol, but they don't hold anything against me for wanting to play it.

 

[mxyzplk]

Yeah, I wrote this piece back in 2011 about this - the fact that they think it's a joke concept speaks very poorly of them and means it's unlikely to happen. http://geek-related.com/2011/07/07/my-little-pony-the-rpg/ Having a daughter of "pony age," this is a huge opportunity for them, it ties into the culture of fan art, fanfic, etc. around the game and, if designed by someone adequately unfamiliar with D&D, could actually be engaging for quite young children.

 

[Doctor Futurity]

Just as a question, if adult males want to sit around pretending to be super powered ponies, what's the difference between that and pretending to be super heroes? Or Elves? Why would it be considered 'ewwww'?

Before any accusations fly, I'm not any kind of secret brony and I have no agenda. I've never watched my little pony. I have a daughter who will one day probably be very into it. I'm just curious about this comment as an examination of gender typing versus RPG players perceptions/what's considered status quo in a 'normative space' and where we draw lines.

I think this discussion is on topic. If a mod or anyone else considers this off topic, I'll shut up now.

Hmmm.....since I was going for "bad joke" I feel akward trying to defend my supposition that bronies = some level of squick so I will only say, "I have no defense, it was one of those jokes that depends on nervous laughter."

Now, if you want to talk about gender stereotyping in general, I agree some of that goes on. But bronies are more than just a case of people questioning whether men have a right to enjoy a tale of magical ponies....there are, ah, elements of the culture which have sort of perverted the purity of it all and probably overshadow what I am sure is an entirely pristine and extremely G-rated enjoyment of the Little Pony genre. A Huffington Post example is right here, and also here. Oh and also here. I dont even....I mean....

As always, the internet is why we can't have nice things.....and the problem with any process of stereotyping like this is that we engender some ingrained expectations. Girls enjoy MLP because it might be an empowering show, filled with magic ponies that are interesting to watch. Boys might also enjoy it for that reason and that's fine (my kid watched it, for example). However, and lets faced it: if my kid hits puberty and starts sexualizing ponies, then regardless of whether or not his sexual preferences are okay or not from a general standard it will be very hard for me, as a parent, to not feel like I ed up somewhere. Being gay is something that just happens; it's genetic, or a byproduct of such. But being a bronie with a sexual attraction to ponies? That's a fetish conditioning process, and suggests some weird implications for how and why the show appeals to adult men....and their upbringing.

For context: I'm a 44 year old father with a child about to turn 4. I do have expectations for my child, but I admit I find it interesting that if my kid comes to me when he is 18 and says "I'm gay" I will be okay with that, but if I find he's got a bronie sex doll in his closet I will be very disappointed in myself as a father. Take that as you will.....but I guess I know where my hard bias hits its wall on stuff like this.



EDIT: and reading comments from fathers with daughters only makes me wince even more at the bronie concept. I mean...why can't girls have nice things, too? Why do adult men have to slide in and make this all....disgusting?

 

[Doctor Futurity]

Nerds shaming other nerds is just not cool at all. We all need to remember Wheaton's Law and remember that there is a lot of crossover amongst the various fandoms.

I think the problem of "squickiness" with bronies is much the same for all the elements of fandom where love of a genre, show or theme gets inextricably tangled with sexualized fetishization of that love. It's always a minority, of course, but the internet being what it is that minority element gets dramatically over-purposed in typifying any given culture. Bronies just have it harder because of the inescapable connection to bestiality that pony love dolls imply. And of course, even though a majority of bronies probably do not have any connection to the fringe in their subculture, it is that fringe which gets the press at Huffington Post all the time.


ANOTHER EDIT: And I feel bad in general for even talking about this because I get the vague feeling that no one else posting here has read all those huffpo articles or seen the various bronie documentaries that weirded me out. Thus, I apologize in advance if I accidentally exposed anyone to bronie cultural elements that were hitherto unknown, thus ruining the purity of it all. Gah.

 

[Benji]

EDIT: and reading comments from fathers with daughters only makes me wince even more at the bronie concept. I mean...why can't girls have nice things, too? Why do adult men have to slide in and make this all....disgusting?

I think I get where you are coming from with this. I think sexualising it is an entirely different discussion. There's pretty much now way, for example an MLP game run with my daughter in this imaginary future would involve anything but fighting the forces of darkness/whatever happens on the show that requires them to have super powers. If adult friends of mine thought it was cool and wanted to play in that game too, I would't find it weird. If they stared making it 'adult', that'd be another thing.

I also don't really think there's much association with watching MLP and becoming sexually enamoured with animals: I think that's a subculture that already existed that took the show for it's own means. I don't find Planes sexual attractive although I watched a Tonnage of jumbo & the jet set when I was young. (If you wren't making that point, then I misunderstood you slightly -I'm not sure you were but you seemed to link 'interest/brony' into 'sexual stuff').

Sorry if it felt like an attack. I get it was a joke and you probably didn't expect me asking. I'm just exploring ideas really.

I asked a few of my RP friends if they'd run anything based on it: apparently on of them ran a game that was called 'Band Of Bronies' with some adult friends and involved them fighting the Nazi's and getting horribly maimed. Either genius/madness, I'm not sure. I do know the character sheets had pony shaped hit location charts.

EDIT: Dude just read your second post, basically you've answer this question already. Don't feel bad, it's been a really interesting discussion and it was nice that you didn't knee-jerk react to my question in an 'angry defensive' way but instead put forward a well worded thought train.

 

[Alzrius]

I think the problem of "squickiness" with bronies is much the same for all the elements of fandom where love of a genre, show or theme gets inextricably tangled with sexualized fetishization of that love.

No, the problem is when outsiders of a particular fandom adopt the perception that said fandom defined by one of its fringe minorities, as you have here. I'm honestly baffled that you seem to recognize that you're committing this particular conflation...and then continue to hold that view anyway. That's right up there with believing that Dungeons & Dragons is "inextricably tangled" with the Book of Erotic Fantasy (which, just to be unmistakably clear, was a perception that was never adopted either by the D&D community or by those outside of it).

 

[Doctor Futurity]

No, the problem is when outsiders of a particular fandom adopt the perception that said fandom defined by one of its fringe minorities, as you have here. I'm honestly baffled that you seem to recognize that you're committing this particular conflation...and then continue to hold that view anyway. That's right up there with believing that Dungeons & Dragons is "inextricably tangled" with the Book of Erotic Fantasy (which, just to be unmistakably clear, was a perception that was never adopted either by the D&D community or by those outside of it).

I think we're both in agreement on this, and yes, it is an outsider perception.

 

[Doctor Futurity]

I think I get where you are coming from with this. I think sexualising it is an entirely different discussion. There's pretty much now way, for example an MLP game run with my daughter in this imaginary future would involve anything but fighting the forces of darkness/whatever happens on the show that requires them to have super powers. If adult friends of mine thought it was cool and wanted to play in that game too, I would't find it weird. If they stared making it 'adult', that'd be another thing.

I also don't really think there's much association with watching MLP and becoming sexually enamoured with animals: I think that's a subculture that already existed that took the show for it's own means. I don't find Planes sexual attractive although I watched a Tonnage of jumbo & the jet set when I was young. (If you wren't making that point, then I misunderstood you slightly -I'm not sure you were but you seemed to link 'interest/brony' into 'sexual stuff').

Sorry if it felt like an attack. I get it was a joke and you probably didn't expect me asking. I'm just exploring ideas really.

I asked a few of my RP friends if they'd run anything based on it: apparently on of them ran a game that was called 'Band Of Bronies' with some adult friends and involved them fighting the Nazi's and getting horribly maimed. Either genius/madness, I'm not sure. I do know the character sheets had pony shaped hit location charts.

EDIT: Dude just read your second post, basically you've answer this question already. Don't feel bad, it's been a really interesting discussion and it was nice that you didn't knee-jerk react to my question in an 'angry defensive' way but instead put forward a well worded thought train.

No problem!

Discussions about bronies just make me feel old. I'm part of the last generation to still suffer under the weight of an era when D&D was popularly regarded as satanic, when going to college meant throwing all of my Transformers and G.I. Joes away, and when it was routine for parents to trash their kid's comic book and RPG collections. So the modern era in which adult men can enjoy MLP without any sense of social remorse or personal guilt is both fascinating to me and something I envy, because damn, I still feel guilty for playing D&D as much as I do.

 

[Mournblade94]

I just find the fact that masculine guys can get as into toys of young girls, as I am into say the Avengers or comic books, somewhat boggling. I can see the appeal of superheroes for gamer guys. Ponies for young girls, I have trouble seeing. I could see an individual dude or two, but a movement of fandom by straight men for little girl cartoons is baffling.

It does no harm. Just stirs my bewilderment.