Ruby Aurora

19 hours ago, Dabmanz said:

This looks awesome. good job. 

Thanks! The program did a lot of the heavy lifting for me, so it was mainly getting layout and such correct.

14 minutes ago, StormyVenture said:

Reminds me a little more of the layout of that room they had the royal wedding in than the throne room itself. (which was part of the show intro). Looks nice for a basic map though, albeit it doesn't quite have that MLP art style and the thrones seem a bit primitive.

I tried to get some references for the royal throne room, and while I did get some good images, the program does not yet have enough assets to make as detailed scenes as I would have liked. As for the show style, that's something I've long since abandoned, as most online maps are in a variety of styles, none of which ever seem to match up with the character icons sadly. I'll see if there are better throne assets, as there were a few that were larger and more stone looking.

Found this new program called DungeonDraft, a map making program for tabletop games, and figured I'd take a look at it. Below is what I made in my first hour or so of idly making a map of the Canterlot Throne room. I'm loving it so far, and will probably be making more maps of locations in the show and putting them up on here if I get the time.

The next game I hope to run is in the Royal Palace, so any suggestion for rooms that would fit are appreciated.

So, just a straightforward question that I'm trying to get some opinions on. I've started recording pony themed tabletop sessions when I run them, and was wondering if anyone had thoughts on how many segments they should be cut up into. On average, a single session lasts about 4 hours, and I've already made the mistake of posting the first session in its entirety. My current idea is cutting it into about 1 hour long snippets, while trying to make sure I get it at a moment that gives the viewers a "cliff hanger" type vibe.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

16 minutes ago, Twilight Luna said:

Many new questions, like who made the prophecy? How did they know it would be 1000 years? 

It seems like Celestia destroyed all records of NMM being Princess Luna.

The destruction of information seems reasonable. Having one of Equestria's rulers suddenly attempt to overthrow the other, followed by the second being banished isn't exactly a glowing image. Not to mention how such information probably soiled the reputation of the royalty in the social circles when it first happened. Having ponies forget about that would have probably been the only thing that would let Celestia try to move on with her duties.

And if she had a hand in making ponies forget about her banished sister, she probably had full reign to make that prophesy herself. Infact, since no ponies are alive from that time period, it may have been less than 1000 years.

11 minutes ago, nightshroud96 said:

Kind of wished they showed what happened during the 1000 years gap.
Such as the aftermath of NMM happening and such.

That would make an interesting fic idea, if it hasn't already been done. I would think it'd focus on the first few decades or so, when the pressure or ruling by her own, mixed with any grief Celestia might have, would have impacted her princess duties.

4 hours ago, Randimaxis said:

*thunderous manic applause*

THIS is the way a GM should be in a one-on-one.  Thank you for sharing your story.  

Thanks, happy to be sharing it. I had a blast planning this out and running it for my friend, and like to channel the bottled up excitement a well run session gives me.

And if you couldn't tell, I tend to go all out with making handouts and character icons. You should have seen the Roll20 map that was made exclusively for this one-on-one. Not to mention this was edited for brevity, as Raven interacted with a few more characters that didn't quite land right, like the cult in the school basement xD

Awhile back I had the pleasure of running a one-on-one tabletop game with an online friend I made half way through 2019. I had messaged him after seeing some of his stories and art, and interacting with him in the typical way that a consumer interacts with a content creator. Telling him how good his art was, or making a funny quip about a joke in the comments of his story. I had seen several things in his work that indicated he liked tabletop games, so I invited him to a game I was trying to set up. After a bit of talking we hit it off real well, and are in the middle of a joint RP/story writing set up, as well as playing tabletop games when our schedules allow.

One thing that started this tale was the fact he and I started doing one-on-one tabletop sessions. We'd spend a few hours, time permitting, every few weeks or so, and just play out a story. Largely improvised, we would have a blast voice chatting and going through a much more story focused tabletop experience. He led the first session by GMing for me. My tomboyish mare, Ivory Fire hunted down a disguised evil necromancer in Celestia's magic school, and proceeded to bully him until the royal guard arrived to cart him to jail. I returned the favor by GMing a session for him, were in a griffin named Raven had to help Princess Luna steal a magical present for her sister on their 100th Gift Giving celebration. After that he offered to GM a multi session game were I play as Ruby Aurora, my usernamesake, as she tried to go on the high seas with pirate ponies. I knew I had to plan a special session for him, as his own schedule made it tough for him to plan out a full game. Enter in, Derpy's Reunion.

With Derpy being a favorite pony of his, I constructed an entire oneshot for him. The plot focused on Derpy going to an anniversary back at her old high school. Given her less than fond memories of the place, she requested that his character attend with her, as we'd already established Raven was a character that could get things done. Raven agreed to Derpy's request, since the mailmare had gotten caught up in the gift heist, and Raven felt a little bit of guilt. Just a smidge, I swear.

Entering into the school, and then the gymnasium proper, a cast around 15 NPCs could be seen milling about chatting, browsing the snack table, and catching up on old times. I had music playing ambiantly as the scene unfolded, the event DJ playing songs from when Derpy and her fellow classmates had still been in school. The tracks were partially taken from Messer Chups - The Incredible Crocotiger album, with the bass and synth really nailed that prom/yesteryear party vibe. The entire feel was aimed at evoking a sense of nostalgia, and that was only a part of it. When he started figuring out what the problem parts were, "That's Gilda, we should steer clear of her" and "Hmm anypony seen Rockerhopper? I heard she's supposed to be here, and I know that Gilda would want to hang out with her old chum." Derpy's wellbeing was the primary goal, though the ditzy mare seemed to let her guard down a little bit upon seeing some of her old friends, one from the drama club, and the other from her math classes.

That was when prong two of my nostalgia trip hit my player. I revealed a side quest that involved helping out the old school photographer find some photos he'd misplaced upon arriving back in town. Scattered throughout the school were polaroid pictures like this.

Made with some edits, the pictures of things that happened in the background of Derpy's school days was put into full view. And the fun didn't stop there. For you see, there was more than just nostalgia in the air. There was also a hint of love. Now, Raven's player is a CheerileeXBigMAc fan. With that I wove a drama of a most devious sort. Cheerilee, busy with her studies to become a teacher, had neglected the stallion she'd loved during their school days. Her introduction at the reunion was Raven finding her having a bit of an existential breakdown as she saw Big Mac, as well as Sugar Belle. With Big Mac seemingly having moved on, the school teacher was sure there was no chance for her to even say hello to the farmer without losing her composure. Raven stepped forward, and did the only sensible thing her chaotic good griffin personality knew how. She called Cheerilee a nerd, belittled her a bit, and told her to mare up. Giving her a pep talk, she helped Cherrilee look a bit more presentable by helping her redo her mane, and helping her find a better dress from the drama department.

But, as it seemed that Cheerilee had found the perfect wing mare (alright, wing Griffin if you wanna be pedantic about it) she remembered Gilda. Not seeing sight of Derpy, Raven raced out to find her. And find her she did. With Gilda and her cohorts having another crack at the mare by verbally taunting her and threatening to do some rather mean things. Not letting that happen, Raven thoroughly kicked flank, and dispatched the bullies, sending Gilda with her tail between her legs. One of the bullies, which Raven recognized as Rockhopper, a wanted small time thief thanks to her own dubious background, was placed into the one room that no troublemaker had ever been able to escape. Detention.

Leaving the criminal there, she gave Cheerilee another pep talk. she then got Sugar out of the picture by locking her in a broom closet (hey, I said she was chaotic good. She does what her gut tells her to). After a completely improvised exchange between Big Mac and Cheerilee, my player was satisfied in seeing them sit down and chat. Cheerilee just barely managed to not die of nervousness while Big Mac was his usual talkative self. With everything looking like the day was saved, what more could there be to worry about? Right? Well, remember how Gilda had fled after getting beat up? She had returned, with a single challenge. Meet her in the restroom, or Derpy would be humiliated like she'd been during their senior field trip to the royal castle.

Raven quickly accepted, and met the bully at the designated place. The muffled music of the gym was ever so slightly audible as they faced off. The whimpers of Vapor Trail, another reunion goer who Raven had left in a rather uncomfortable arrangement, i.e. with underpants on a hook, was the only thing they heard as they stood with bated breath. The fight was fairly one sided. Though Raven was quite the tough griffin, she was no match for the experienced talons of a bully such as Gilda. It wasn't until she received a swirly that Raven was able to at least try and fight back once more. Just as it seemed Gilda was about to dunk her head once more, Raven could hear a certain mare sneaking up behind the bully. With a quick yell from Raven to spur her to action, the cross eyed mare that had been belittled by the griffin did the one thing on pony would have ever expected her too. She wedgied Gilda. This act earned a meme worthy reaction expression of surprise/pain from the eagle faced assailant. That surprise was then leverage by Raven to beat the bully at her own game, and best her in their showdown.

And thus, with the day saved by the power of friendship and bullying the bullies, Raven got to finally put her feet up, and enjoy the final slide show that played the session to a close. All the while the photos she'd found around the school were put on the projector, and she got the hear the NPCs recall all those fond memories. By the end the lights all flipped on, and Raven said a final goodbye to all those that she'd met at the reunion, as well as gloat a bit to the bested Griffin and Rockhopper. As Raven left Yakford, the session drew to a close, and a tale full of memories, regrets, hopes and the prospect of many more stories yet to be told came to a close.

By the end, my player said he was shedding a little bit of a tear at how well the tone had gotten to him. He himself had never experienced a high school reunion, and felt it'd given him a second hand sense of what one might feel like (and I didn't point out a normal one probably would not have been as action packed). So there you have it. Using a combination of characters, music, and visuals, I was able to lay that sense of far off nostalgia of yesteryear upon someone that I am happy to call a friend, and who I hope to have many more stories told with in the years to come.

If you have any questions about stuff I might have glossed over, or want to share your thoughts on this whole wacky session we ran, feel free to reply. I always enjoy sharing my tabletop experiences with others (the reason why I wrote out all of this to begin with) and love to hear what others think of the insanity and hilarity I and my players get up to.

Also, I apologize if I posted this is the wrong section, I spent ten minutes trying to decide which one was best, before settling on this one, as it is a story, and the RP section is more for people searching for an RP.

"Executing parsed order AE-761. I.E. you."

Jailed for not adhering to the 200+ page documentation as it pertains to shipping anime couples. Weeb police on route.

This OC is originally from a tabletop pony game that I never got to play due to busy schedules, though I will definitely try to use her more in the future. She's such a dork, and you can bet I would go all out and give her so much supporting material to really sell her academic nature.

Name: Ruby Aurora

Gender: Female / Mare
Sexuality: Straight, though she's never had that presumption tested.
Species: Unicorn
Height: Average for a mare.
Age: Around 26 in human years

Appearance:
Red / rose color fur
Orange mane and tail that transitions to a white tint at the tips
Violet / Lavender eyes
Spectacles adorning her snout with a small saddle bag with books at her side. (For the tabletop setting she's from ponies wear clothes, so she's clad in mage robes ill suited for adventuring.

Cutiemark: A dazzling, orange firework bursting into embers.
Talent: Magic, with a specialty in illusion and light based spells.

Personality: With her nose buried in a book or enthralled in an academic debate, Ruby is a brainiac through and through. Though she has her specialties and primary field of magical study, she is always eager to learn something new. Keeps to herself, and often finds other disagreeable to be around, especially if they don;t value a higher education.

Quote: "You know, I've read about that before."

Story / Background: Ever since her father showed her his hobbyist alchemical set up when she was a filly, Ruby has always possessed a pension for learning about magic and the natural world. Though, this often revolved around subjects that would bore most other ponies. If anything was written in a book, she excelled at soaking in the knowledge like a sponge. Though when it came to applying what she'd learned she would often find the theory to be much simpler than practice. Though she took after the father with her aptitude for magic, she utterly lacked the social graces of her mother. Because of this she often kept herself company with books than with other ponies. This eventually led to her becoming very familiar with the various techniques of bullies that saw her as an easy target, which only drove her further into her studies.

The one upside to such a deep dive was that she excelled at schoolwork and her magic training. So much so that by the time she had finished her secondary education she dove headlong into the world of academia. She attended Celestia's College of Universal Magic, were she learned about ground breaking magical theory and fundamentals of all the various sub groups of magic. Knowing that she wanted to remain within academia, she settled in for the long haul, and is now finally ready to earn her PHD after graduation with honors.

Now laden with all the book knowledge that a high cost university could provide, she needs to stumble her way through the world to get material for her thesis on an as of yet undetermined aspect of magic to help advance the discipline. To this end, she has taken up the role of a part time adventure to gain both knowledge, thesis material, and an income to pay off the mountains of student debt that she has acquired in her years of study.

Goals/Dreams: Write her thesis and become a professor at Celestia's College of Universal Magic.
Investigate the "Magic of Friendship" that she heard the princess talk about so much in a speech she gave during Ruby's graduation ceremony. (First she'll have to learn that such magic cannot be quantified like transmutation ratios or abjuration defense metrics. Like I said, she's a dork.)

Thinking about possible story ideas that I could make in the future, as opposed to actually writing the tabletop module I need to be working on. Procrastination has a strong grip.

Thanks @Kadae!

I too love me some Octavia, so it's good to see another person that knows their stuff. But in all seriousness, thanks for the warm welcome. I'd say that if you'd able to find a group, online or in person, the system can be a blast to play. A bit more simple than other systems, but it's workable and enjoyable if you want a low numbers game to run. Speaking of, do you know which forum section might be appropriate to post links to the sessions that I''m debating on posting potentially? I'm pretty bad when it comes to that sort of thing ^^;

@Jesse Terrence

Oh, we joked with it alright. The entire session was set in our local library, since a fellow GM in my IRL group works there, and we were making funny quips and jokes. One person was incharacter as himself asking people what their favorite anime was. That was his determining factor on whose blood he drank xD

Guilty as charged@Jesse Terrence I've even got the glasses to prove it, so nerd is an apt description.

And I agree with you. My families anyways been big on technology (my gramps was an electrical engineer that learned all his computer stuff when some of the first models came out in his lifetime. Floppy disks galore!) and I just naturally fell into that groove. And the potential money aspect was also appealing.

I'll certainly check out that section. I've already got a piece of art I'm making for a friend I could use some tips on.

I should have mentioned in the above post, but I go by Jack online. Though Ruby Aurora works just as well for this site.

Oh, I've heard of it alright. I got murdered my first session. Literally, it was a meta "you guys ARE the characters" and my dumb self got dragged of for breaking the Masquerade. Fun time.

24 minutes ago, Rikifive said:

Hello and welcome to the herd!

Thanks! I'm happy to be here, even if I am sort of joining after the main event has started to pack up. But I know that by internet law there will always be at least one person making content for stuff, so it's all good.

11 minutes ago, Splashee said:

Hi @Ruby Aurora and welcome to this friendly forum!
We seem to share a lot when it comes to understanding how things work. Trying to understand the mechanics, and keep improving at the things we like in life.

Hi there. I agree, having just taken a look over your profile and seeing you have a lot of things in common that are related, if only tangentially .

Hey there everyone. I'm a current college student trying to get a bachelors degree in computer science. I am also trying to pursue a side hobby in writing/artwork to have some secondary skills I hope to become proficient in. I like to consider myself the type that likes creative endeavors, but is able to focus on the mechanics behind the scenes if need be to keep things going. Which, on the subject of the arts and mechanics, segway!

I do a lot of tabletop gaming with various systems such as D&D 5e, Cyberpunk 2020, Call of Cthulhu, and various other tabletop systems or "one page rule" games. I am currently running a small campaign online with friends I've made on DeviantArt using the Tails of Equestria system. That game is three sessions in, and I'm thinking about posting some of the videos I've recorded of it some time. Though they may not be 100% forum approved, since they do include references to minor kinks, though it is mostly a typical tabletop game aside from minor shenanigans with that.

My love of writing and tabletop games has also given me an interest in niche things that can be used to improve the setting a game or story takes place in. I kid you not, if you have an idea about how magic is classified into various schools of magic or types, or the population rates of various species in Equestria, or any sort of mundane thing that can be used to add detail to a setting, I will gobble that up faster than you can shake a tail at it.

Fun Fact: My username is from a character I made but have yet to play as in a tabletop one-on-one one of my online friends was going to be running for me. She has a character concept that I love, and I may try to write some stuff with her if I have the time to later. If anyone is curious, I'm debating whether or to make a post about her in the OC posting thread.

TL:DR, I like detailed worldbuilding, writing, artwork, tabletop games, computers, and am interested on anyones thoughts about any of these things. I'm always up for discussing headcanons, or expanding upon things that the writers of the show have not fleshed out in detail, or putting my own spin on stuff.