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)
Equestria Girls
This variant contains rules for playing adventures and Episodes in the human world as seen in the Equestria Girls movie.
The first step in using this variant is for each player to define their character's 'alternate form' in the human world. Once chosen, this alternate form cannot be changed. A character’s alternate form may be either human, or an animal appropriate to the human world. Moving between the worlds automatically changes a character’s form as appropriate to the world they are entering. The rules for establishing a character’s alternate form for the human world are as follows.
Being Human
At the player's option, and the GM's discretion, a character’s alternate form may be that of a human. This can change a character's basic anatomy in certain ways (such as gaining fingers or losing wings and tails), which can remove some of a character's capabilities (for example, without wings, a character cannot fly). The player and the GM must work together to define precisely what has changed about a character in terms of their capabilities (such as losing the ability to fly or use magic) due to their physical changes.
While this can lead to a certain degree of problems with physical coordination, such as learning to walk upright instead of on all fours (potentially adding Drawbacks to applicable checks), and makes the character subject to human society and cultural norms, the benefit of having an alternate human form is being able to easily blend in with human society; even the strangest and most awkward character is typically assumed to simply be a weird human, and would not be altogether too conspicuous. Characters with an alternate human form can communicate with other humans naturally.
Man’s Best Friend
Any player who does not wish to be a human as their alternate form, may have an alternate animal form. This animal form must be appropriate to the human world, as well as being appropriate for the character's primary form; for instance, ground-based races (such as Earth Ponies, Unicorns, etc) might have similarly ground-based alternate forms such as dogs, cats, or the like – whereas airborne races (such as Pegasi) might have the option to have similarly airborne alternate forms such as birds.
A character's alternate animal form cannot add significant new capabilities to the character (though it may add minor capabilities within reason, such as a dog gaining the ability to hear high-frequency sounds, or pick up scents), though it may grant the character Advantages in certain circumstances according to the natural advantages of the chosen form (such as a cat gaining an Advantage to checks involving trying to land on its feet), and it may remove their normal capabilities; for instance, an Earth Pony cannot be a bird (gaining wings), but a Pegasus could be a dog (losing their wings), if the player chooses. In any case, whatever animal form is chosen, the character retains the ability to speak (and may be understood by humans), and has the ability to communicate with others of its new type (such as mice being able to communicate with other mice).
The advantages of having an alternate animal form include the ability to avoid the pressures of human society and cultural norms, as well as being much more free in what form can be chosen. However, characters with an alternate animal form must be careful not to draw too much attention to themselves; while a talking animal in Equestria is the norm, in the human world it is not. Additionally, they must be careful about how they interact with human society; a rat might be a cute pet to one person, and disgusting vermin to another.
Limited Abilities
While in their alternate form, a character's Attributes and other qualities do not change (though they may incur Advantages or Drawbacks if there are significant differences, such as a strong character having a weak alternate form or vice-versa); they are, generally speaking, the same character – merely in a different form.
However, most magic items (at the GM's discretion), and many magic-oriented Edges and abilities (such as spellcasting) do not function in the human world due to its lack of inherent magic. The GM may allow these Edges to function if a sufficient source of magic is present or if special circumstances allow, and certain Edges may still function for certain characters based on their chosen alternate form if the GM allows (such as a character whose alternate form is a bird retaining their previously purchased wing-based Edges due to still having wings with which to fly). In addition, if the GM allows, certain characters in certain alternate forms may retain a limited use of certain Edges, or may have a unique ability in their alternate form which is thematically or functionally related to one of their restricted Edges (for example, a Changeling character whose alternate form is a chameleon might have the natural chameleon ability to blend in with their surroundings as a thematic compensation for no longer having the ability to shapeshift).
Common sense and reason should prevail in dealing with these matters, and while the GM has the final authority, everyone at the game table should work together to use interpretation and improvisation to make sure things are fair and fun.