Table of Contents

Front Cover Front Matter Introduction Welcome to Season Four! What You’ll Need to Play How to Read This Book The RiM: S4E Team Character Creation D.A.S.H. Design Aspects Statistics Headway D.A.S.H. Example Playing an Episode Structure of Gameplay Making Checks Advantages & Drawbacks Acting in Harmony Damage, Recovery, & Sidelining Using & Restoring Valor Ending an Episode Character Advancement Learning Lessons Experience Points Purchasing Edges Edge List Library of Edges Magic & Spellcasting Magic Is as Magic Does Creating Spells Casting Spells The Canterlot Archives Running an Episode Being the Game Master Collaborative Storytelling Getting Things Started Checks & Difficulty Targets Damage & Sidelining Lessons & Experience Variant Rules Plot Points Equestria Girls Paragon Ponies Wide, Wide World Epic Experience Encyclopedia Equestria Premade Episodes The House of Enchanted Comics Ars Unicornia Mutants and Maresterminds Whinnystrad Miscellaneous Character Sheet A Note for Developers Updates & Resources Single Page Version (for print)
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Single-Page (for print)

Ars Unicornia

The House Of Enchanted Comics, Part One

Ars Unicornia

As the light from the book fades, you find yourselves in a small classroom filled with unicorn foals, each dressed in classy, yet, slightly archaic, robes. At the head of the class stands an older Unicorn, finishing up a lecture.

“And that, students, should cover all the basics of rudimentary teleportation. I hope you’ve all been paying attention, as your practical exam, worth 50% of your final grade, will be tomorrow. Class dismissed, and study hard!”

Once the class is over, the group will have the opportunity to explore Scholioprance, the magical academy. Their first priority should be to figure out one major dilemna; how the hay any non-magical character is going to pass their magical test tomorrow!

The school grounds of Scholioprance are massive and labyrinthian, and students practicing spells and charms in the halls, as well as the swooping in and out of countless familiars only add to the chaos. The magic test on teleportation for Professor Starlight is in 24 hours, and getting from one location at Scholioprance takes an hour.

The Classrooms

Students sit in rapt attention as an elderly Zebra professor prattles on about the basics of magical theory. Sprinkled throughout the lecture are useful notes about basic applications of magical power.

The school of Scholioprance offers classes and lectures on almost any type of magical learning. As a special rule, a character who sits in on one of these hour long lectures may gain the Magic Trick Edge for free by making a Mind check (GM's discretion).

The Cloudspell Field

Ponies of all kinds play in this large field, playing a strange game. Unicorns jump from cloud to cloud, telekinetically holding and throwing a ball back and forth. Pegasi guard goals on either end of the field, while other ponies launch other balls from the ground in an attempt to knock the cloudwalkers off their clouds, or dissipate the clouds underneath them.

The ponies here are playing a magical game known as Cloudspell, which the players can certainly join in on if they have the proper skills to play. If any ask, a young, buff unicorn named Falling Star offers to explain the game.

  • The goal of Cloudspell is to score 5 points for your team by getting the Stratus-Sphere (the large ball carried by the unicorns) into your opponents goal. Each team has three Cloudwalkers, unicorns or zebras using spells to hold the Stratus-Sphere and move it towards the goal, using magic to create new clouds to jump from. Meanwhile, the goalkeepers (typically either pegasi or unicorns with spells) prevent the Stratus-Sphere from reaching their goal. Finally, two players at the bottom, called Thunderstrikers, launch ring-shaped “Cumulo-Nimbuses” at the clouds above, looking to knock the Cloudwalkers down to the sandy ground below, or force them to give up control of the ball in order to avoid falling.
  • For Cloudwalkers, the player must be able to stand on clouds, whether by natural ability or by magic. In the case of natural ability, the player is not allowed to use wings for any reason other than manipulating clouds as they would with magic. Cloudwalkers move from cloud to cloud, manipulating them, launch the ball toward the goal, and take damage should they fall.
  • For Goalkeepers, the player must be able to fly indefinitely, whether by natural ability or magic. Goalkeepers block shots to the net.
  • For Thunderstrikers, anypony capable of throwing the rings is capable of playing. Thunderstrikers launch the rings at Cloudwalkers and their clouds, to knock them down.

The group is free to play a game or two of Cloudspell, and each game takes about half an hour to play. The group can come here to unwind, or to practice any teleportation magic they may have learned, putting it to good use on the field.

The Dueling Grounds

The ponies here are engrossed in one on one magical dueing matches, testing their prowess against one another. Spells of all kinds fly through the air as opponents constantly try and outdo each other with flashy spells.

The players are free to practice their new-found magic here, as well as get into duels with each other and other students. Duels are typically friendly affairs, with students often asking each other afterwards about different spell combinations. Feel free to play around with any sort of magic you want here.

  • Spindle
  • At the dueling grounds, there is a very young unicorn named Spindle, Cutie Mark freshly acquired, and proficient in magic surrounding sleep, dreams, and nightmares. Give him a chance to face off against one of the PCs, but make it clear that he is still just a beginner. Afterwards, if the party is on good terms with Spindle, he can help them around Scholioprance, cutting the time spent to get to new locations by half.

The Library

The school library at Scolioprance puts any other library you have ever seen to shame. Books on every magical subject you could possibly imagine line the walls. Students and staff weave carefully through the aisles in a delicate dance of picking books from the shelves and returning them to their places. Many students rest at tables situated around the library, studying for upcoming exams.

Scholioprance’s library is huge, to the point where finding any one book, even with the assistance of a librarian, takes at least 15 minutes. The party would probably be most interested in a book on teleportation magic, or a book on finding a way to have non-magical beings teleport. Should they look for such a book, they eventually stumble upon Starswirl’s Treatise of Teleportation, an older book detailing the hows and whys of unicorn teleportation. One passage of the book stands out particularly well:

“Teleportation is the manifested will of the caster to be somewhere else. Sometimes, this takes the form of something of great importance at the target location. Other times, it is the overwhelming desire to be anywhere else than where the magician currently is. All that is known is that any attempt to nail down exactly what that unique catalyst is for teleportation is as fleeting and immaterial as an idea.”

If the party can work this out, and find something worth teleporting to (or away from,) their spell will be successful tomorrow. But don’t let them know that just yet.

The Dorms

The dorm rooms, separated by stallions and fillies rooms, care little for who is actually in them. Students come and go, occasionally catching quick naps between classes and study sessions.

The dorms are less bedrooms and more hostels where students can rest and store their things. The group can come and go as they please, catching sleep and chatting by the fireplaces.

The Exam

After 24 hours of the party exploring the Scholioprance campus, time comes again for Professor Starlight’s exam. The party reconvenes in Starlight’s classroom, and one by one, the students are called up to perform an act of teleportation.

At this point, give the PCs a bit of time to really describe what they want to do in order to do their teleportation before making the jump. As each one makes a leap of faith, picturing something special to them on the other side (friends, family, really any motivation in their hearts to move will work) that character winks out of existence, and appears back in the Enchanted Comic Shop.

Back in the Shop

Once the party returns from their trip, Page is waiting at her desk, reading a signed copy of "Harry Trotter And The Alicorn's Stone."

“Ah, you’re back! What did you think? Would you like to try something else?”

Page remains silent on petty issues such as “What the hay was that?” and “How does that work?”, simply switching the direction of the conversation to the other two featured books if they have not yet been completed.

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