strangething

I'm going to start posting here again, at least until school starts again. I still have lots of nerdy things to say about ponies, role-playing, politics, and Team Fortress 2.

Remember when I used to post things here unrelated to cartoon ponies?

A while ago, a couple of my friends asked me to teach them how to run a table top RPG. So I started compiling a document of all the useful GMing advice I've absorbed over the years. It's something I worked on in fits and starts, between homework, games, and internet surfing.

Here's my work so far. It's not quite halfway done, but it's a solid foundation. A solid study on how to torment and lie to your players, and have them love you for it.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Zy5n1WkFGU8RQmqJ_L0il5XnzxiyoxtNr5cqJWijP0s/edit

Apple Bloom finally gets her cutie mark! Except not.

As usual, I come bearing images. All under the cut.

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Apparently Sweetie Belle's (lack of) cooking skill defies belief. She can go beyond the impossible and burn juice.

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Finally we come to the guest of honor, Princess Luna. She sure knows how to make an entrance.

(That must be Lyra in the mummy wrappings. Hi Lyra!)

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So much to see and talk about! LiveJournal may try to squeeze these images, so if they look wonky, just click though to my Photobucket.

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I was all geared up to do my long-awaited Nightmare Night post, only to discover that two whole weeks have past, and there's a new episode ready to go. (I usually wait long enough for quality screen shots to show up, and to read about all the sneaky jokes so I can appear clever.)

So what did I think of Luna Eclipsed?



There was so much fan-created material about Luna that everyone was braced for loud wailing and gnashing of teeth from fan-artists, once canon Luna shattered their elaborate fictions. Instead, pretty much everyone fell in love with the haughty, bombastic Luna we got. She's awesome.

So many little details in this episode. The CMCs were all dressed as classic Universal Studios monsters: Sweetie Belle as Dracula, Scootaloo as the Wolfman, (Wolfpony?) and Apple Bloom as the Bride of Frankenstein.

The regulars of Ponygoon's freeze frame theater have found quite a few costume gags that I didn't spot on first viewing. Like Mr. & Mrs. Cake as Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy. Little details like Carrot Top's devil costume having little cloven-hoof booties.

I may need to watch it again, and do an in-depth, spoiler-filled review at a later date. Right now, the new episode is calling me. So stay tuned next time, when THE FUN WILL BE DOUBLED!

Taobao is an auction company based in China. A lot of prototype toys show up there, since that's where the factories are. So far, they've always been the first with pictures of the new MLP toys. Some pics showed up recently for us all to scrutinize like blurry pictures of bigfoot.



These are part of a new wave of the tiny molded-plastic toys that the collectors call "Ponyville" figures. That is absolutely a Big Macintosh mini. Been a long time since Hasbro made a male MLP figure.

As usual, Equestria Daily has the scoop.

It's surprising enough that Hasbro finally made another mold. They used the same five molds for the first two waves. I assumed that if they ever made another, they'd finally make one for poor Fluttershy. She just looks weird as a Rainbow Dash recolor. That's right, Fluttershy, Hasbro loves Big Mac more than you!

There's more than just Big Mac, too. Looks like we're getting official toys of some more background ponies. As with Daisy and Rose, they're going to get official names, and the fandom gets to fight about them. Equestria Daily has a few names here.

Noteworthy is actually cooler than Blues. Heartstrings is a cool name, but the name Lyra is too entrenched in the fandom to change. "Golden Harvest" is a non-starter. She will be Carrot Top forever in the eyes of the fans.

So have you seen Lesson Zero yet?



Wow. It rivals Feeling Pinkie Keen for slapstick violence and Party of One for main-character-goes-crazy. The show is TV-Y7 this season instead of TV-Y, and it lost the stupid e/i tag, so this may be a sample of what's to come.

Spoilers ahoy!

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How Octavia got her name. Usually background pony fan-names emerge by consensus, but Octavia is the result of one fan's subtle lobbying.
http://nerdnoise.blogspot.com/2011/05/how-i-named-pony.html

Would MLP take off in Japan? Well, the fan-made subs have just been released over there. Here's a random chat room's response.
http://maxiburger.tumblr.com/post/11283534618/what-japan-thinks-of-mlp01

I've gone and gotten into another online game. Echo Bazaar is a huge step forward from the interchangeable Zinga-style hamster-wheels. It just oozes gothic Victorian style. I'd bet the creators know pen and paper RPG well. You can see the focus on story and uniqueness.

This link is to my profile.
http://echobazaar.failbettergames.com/Profile/Strangething

Anyone else still using LJ? I think I might pull up stakes and move to Blogger or Wordpress.