Laser Ponies Review - Gateway Game for Girls?
"Feel the Pony Power! On a faraway magical world, in the heart of Glitter Valley, there lives a tribe of beautiful creatures known as the Laser Ponies." - Hex Games Website
Hex games created this very simple RPG in 2009. Laser Ponies is aimed at very young players, but it is still a pen and paper RPG that requires basic math skills and reading ability. I'd suggest it for ages 7 and up. I happen to be running an X-rated convention game for adults, but that is just because I'm very broken. Using the NORMAL setting for Laser Ponies makes for a fun, family-friendly, imaginative gaming experience.
Cost – 10/5
Yes, Laser Ponies gets a 10 out of 5 for cost. How is that possible? The PDF costs $1.99... YES, ONE DOLLAR AND NINETY-NINE CENTS! You get a complete RPG game for less than a cup of coffee at the trendy, overpriced location of your choice. Your dice cost more than this whole RPG.
You can buy the PDF at DriveThru RPG and you get all the information you need to run a Laser Ponies game from the single book. The Quick Start rules are in the back of the book and give you an easy run-down of character creation and combat.
Setting – 4/5
As a female gamer, I am thrilled that this game exists. I think it's a great gateway RPG (drug) for kids, ESPECIALLY HORSE-CRAZY LITTLE GIRLS! I would have loved playing this RPG between my weekly riding lessons. I am (correctly) stereotyping girls, but I think games like this one are the way to increase the number of females gamers. Get 'em into the hobby while they're young! Boys are sure to enjoy this system too because there are monsters, bears, and friggin' laser beams!!
The premise is really simple and sweet. Very sweet. It will give any adult cavities. It's a great game for kids though and harkens back to the simpler times of Candy Land... but with lasers. The ponies live in a magical world called Panagonia. Their homes are in Glitter Valley, which is a peaceful but surrounded by scary forests and some mountains. The bears and monsters are the enemies of the ponies, while the beavers and badgers are their allies. The only human is the evil Chasm Queen who is basically the big boss the ponies need to take down.
Again, it's a game for kids. I've had a lot of fun twisting it to my dark purposes for my adult convention game, but it really is a cute setting for kids.
Note: The game even comes with tables of story ideas, so young GMs can have some helpful ideas of where to take their game. What a great idea!
Character Creation – (5/5 Customization) (4/5 Ease)
Character creation is very simple, and the Quick-start guide in the back of the Laser Ponies book can easily take you through the process. It only takes about 5 minutes to roll up a character, and even less if you are an adult. It's really simple. I do suggest that you help kids during character creation, simply to because the reading level of the directions might be a little high for the average 7-year-old... Sorry! Your kid is not average! I get it! They are the next Einstein... help them the first time through anyway.
There is a high level of customization available in this game through the use of "gimmicks". You can give your pony any perks you want, magical or mundane. The book gives amazing speed, invisibility, prophetic dreams, lucky, and many other examples of good gimmicks. The higher your gimmick level, the more likely that you will succeed in your roll. However, your gimmick level is equal to your weakness level. Weaknesses have to be something that majorly impacts the character, such as bad aim, unpopular, phobias, smelly, etc. Your pony might have incredible powers, but they are no good to him/her if nobody will get within 100 yards of them because they have a habit of sleeping in their own manure. The more powerful the gimmick, the more powerful the weakness.
These gimmicks and weaknesses are approved by the GM to insure they aren't going to ruin the adventure. It's really fun coming up with ideas for these and I can picture kids having a blast during the character creation phase. Plus, you get to name and design your pony!!! Mine may or may not have been named Sugar Cube and had little Pegasus wings...
Combat – (5/5 Speed) (4/5 Ease) (5/5 Fun)
Combat is very fast and simple and reminds me of Wild Talents in many ways. It's split into rounds, but there is no specific amount of in-game time in a round. The GM makes the call if something really complicated takes multiple rounds. The GM goes around the table and each player declares their action, then the GM has everyone roll in the order that makes the most sense depending on the actions. It's a d20 system, if the player rolls less than or equal to the characters number, the action succeeds. There are exceptions and specific circumstances where the rules get a little more complicated, but not much. It's very quick and can be very fun since players get to imagine their own attacks instead of using preset attacks from a book.
I gave Laser Ponies a 4 out of 5 for ease because kids will need some help reading and understanding the directions. It's very simple and kids will catch on very quickly. I highly suggest teaching them in-game instead of reading through the rules with them and trying to make them understand from the text alone.
From the pony's mouth...
You may think my scores are very forgiving, and you are right. No, I would not choose to play Laser Ponies over Wild Talents or other systems aimed at adults... unless I wanted to have a game night with my god-daughter Allegra. Laser Ponies is perfectly tailored to its chosen demographic. I highly encourage my fellow nerds to pick up a copy to share with their young kids. It's well worth the $1.99, even if you only play it once. It might turn your Bratz-doll-loving daughter into a tabletop gamer.
If you'd like to try the Laser Ponies system with a more adult setting, I suggest you pick up the Q.A.G.S. (Quick Ass Game System) book. It is the basic system that Laser Ponies is built around, but is much more in-depth. I bought and flipped through the QAGS book and was really amused by it's writing and illustrations, but I haven't studied it at length. It is available from DriveThru RPG for $7.99 and includes more detailed options for point-based characters and advanced player combat.
Raya Yarbrough & Bear McCreary Performance
Bear McCreary is a very talented composer who is best known for his work on the rebooted Battlestar Galactica and The Walking Dead. He is also plays the accordion, which is the coolest instrument in existence. Needless to say, I was thrilled when I was invited to an intimate performance of Bear's at a local restaurant. Both the fangirl and the musician in me were giddy. I was very excited when he came out an announce the title of the show, North of Sunset, West of Vine, and then sat down at the piano. At that point I still assumed that Bear would be the main event of the show, but I was very wrong.
Raya Yarbrough, also known for her musical contributions to BSG, was the star of this performance. I came expecting the usual jazz club formula, but this show was something completely unique. An autobiographical story told through a combination of clever monologues and incredible music. Raya performed both acts (yes, BOTH... there were two of them) by seamlessly transitioning from spoken storytelling to singing, and then back again. The spoken parts are impeccably performed, with an instrumental soundtrack that accompanies every event and emotion that Raya portrays.
Raya's frank honesty about her experiences growing up in urban Los Angeles can be shocking. She does not sugarcoat the difficulties she faced as a young woman or the inappropriate situations she was placed in as a child. Her performance is so compelling that it is impossible not to be completely captivated by every moment. Her experiences are varied, but they speak to the human element in us. Whether it be her aspirations for success in Hollywood, her struggles with the instability of divorce as a child, or the descriptions of the colorful characters who kaleidoscope through her life, everyone will relate to something in Raya's story.
I was caught completely off guard by how invested I became in Raya's story. I had expected some great songs with the traditional segues and banter with the audience in between. Instead, I found myself so involved in the story that I sometimes forgot to clap at the end of songs (despite how amazing they were) because I was anticipating what she was going to say next. I was even moved to tears during one especially poignant song about a shabby, yet joyful Christmas in a single dad's apartment.
Raya was spellbinding. Even the presence of a famous Sci-fi composer playing an accordion (again, the coolest instrument in existence) hardly pulled my gaze from her. That's about the best praise I could possibly give a person. No really, she was fucking amazing. Plus, she cites Jem and the Holograms as a musical influence. You can't beat that.
Look for upcoming performance dates and learn more about Raya at rayayarbrough.com or on Twitter @RayaYarbough.
Wild Talents Review
A review I wrote in March of 2011 for The Douchey DM, my friend Stu's gaming rant-blog. It is also the official rant-blog of the Happy Jack's RPG podcast. I had just run my first Wild Talents game at OrcCon 2011 with my buddy Frey. I have since run the system at other cons and my Salem Witch Trials game has become the stuff of Happy Jack's legend. Enjoy.
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At OrcCon, The Amazing Fray™ (also known as Fray) and I ran a new-to-the-Happy-Jacks-crew system called Wild Talents. It is a system specifically designed as a superhero RPG. Arc Dream Publishing released it in December of 2006.
This is my n00b friendly review of that system. I’ll be breaking the game down into four basic categories and then giving an overall opinion, a format I hope to follow with all my future game system reviews. Basically, I’m going to share my opinions on new-to-me systems so people who haven’t played them can figure out if they are interested. This is not a player guide! You do not need to know how to play the game to comprehend this review. A complete explanation of how to play can be found on the Arc Dream website. I won’t bore you by rephrasing what someone has already done a great job of writing. If you are interested in the system after reading this blog post, check that out… or buy the damn game.
Cost – 5/5
This system is nice to your wallet, especially if you plan on designing your own world and adventures. Fray and I ran our game with the compact Wild Talents Essentials Edition. The Essentials Edition is all you need to create and play a Wild Talents game! It includes the very basic character creation and play mechanics. It’s a paperback, the pictures are in black and white and it’s easy to fit in your purse (because I know you were all wondering that!) The book runs around $10 and is available on multiple websites, including Amazon and Arcdream.com. The PDF of the Essentials Edition is available on RPGnow.com for $5. They even have $5 versions of this edition for the Kindle. Geektastic!
Wild Talents does have a pre-designed setting and adventures too. Information on them is not included in the Essentials Edition, so the cost goes up a bit. The full Wild Talents Second Edition costs around $50 (it’s on sale on Amazon for $32.90 right now, only 12 left!), or you can pay $30 for the PDF. There is no Kindle version. Again, this is the only book you will need to run a game. This book is hardcover and has full color artwork inside. It’s the normal size you’ve come to expect with RPG books. Second Edition is thicker than some DnD books, but not as thick as HERO. Hmm… maybe I shouldn’t compare sizes… size doesn’t matter…
Setting – 4/5
Wild Talents is a superhero game, but it’s really flexible. With some work you could use the mechanics to create any type of game, although why reinvent the wheel when there are tons of great systems out there for other genres? The feel of a Wild Talents game is easily customized by point limits. The books give lots of tips about designing the feel of the game you want. If you are the type of GM who loves to let your imagination go “wild” (haha), you will like this aspect of the system.
GMs who like to use pre-generated worlds and adventures (often known as “Guy with a Day Job” or “Dad”) will do well with this system too. There seems to be plenty to choose from for Wild Talents. The Second Edition is a follow up to the setting in Arc Dream’s other game GODLIKE, where super-powered humans started to appear during WWII. It’s a crazy place where supers come in direct conflict with one another. This Favored Land is a sourcebook that sets up the appearance of supers during the Civil War. There are other sourcebooks for Victorian London settings and modern games that include sorcerers and the occult. I have not played in any of these settings, but I love the variety. It seems like there is something for everyone. The extra sourcebooks and adventures are available at Arc Dream’s website.
Character Creation – (5/5 Customization) (3/5 Ease)
Customization: If you can dream up a super power, you can make it in Wild Talents. The books have a good bank of pre-generated powers to select from and include point costs and which dice to roll. If you want something specific that isn’t on the list there are directions for creating your own powers. Creating powers gets a little complicated. You can get any powers you want, but it takes a little work. It’s still nothing compared to systems like HERO. Stats and skills are easily customized to fit a character’s role and back-story by spending points.
Ease: Really this system needs two scores for ease. One for if you design your PC from the pre-generated power bank and another for if you get your hands dirty and create your own powers. Creating a character with the pre-gen powers is a no brainer. Pick and choose what stats/skills/powers you want until you hit the point cap the GM set. If you create your own powers you will spend more time and brainpower (and money on beer), but you might come up with something really unique and amazing. It adds complexity to character creation, so it lost a point there.
For the GMs: Wild Talents also lost a point in Ease because of how difficult it can be to keep the game balanced. It is a DEADLY system. One extra die and a PC or NPC will be very over powered. Fun system and easy to run, but play test if it’s your first time. If you are having your players create their own characters, check them before you play. It’s a system that can easily be min/maxed (and they admit that), so be sure you know what you’re in for and can plan accordingly (or nerf the hell out of them!)
Combat – (5/5 Speed) (4/5 Ease) (5/5 Fun)
I love the combat system in Wild Talents. The game uses the ORE (One-Roll Engine) mechanic and it really speeds things up. Our game had some of the fastest combat rounds I have seen, and the players were actually MORE interactive than with other game systems. First, the PCs and NPCs all declare their actions. Everyone is listening and paying attention because what other players say might change what you do. I noticed this seemed to increase the amount of teamwork the players used (without meta-gaming) because they didn’t have to wait for their turn. After that, everyone rolls their dice at the same time. The dice then determine who beat whom, succeeded, failed, etc. Rinse. Repeat. Very fast, interactive and fun for most groups.
The dice mechanics seem more complicated than they actually are. There are multiple types of dice and each drastically changes the power of a roll. I suggest everyone learn while playing a game. It seems really simple when you’re at the table. There are very specific dice and effects for different power types, so put some notes on the character sheets and have a book handy. After the first combat, everyone pretty much knows how their powers and dice work, so its smooth sailing from there. The regular dice mechanic is interesting since you are looking for matching die instead of adding them together. We will need further testing to determine if this makes it easier or harder to play while drunk. Volunteers?
Overall, Wild Talents is a great system. I think it’s especially good for convention games since it is very fast paced, and easy to learn. We got nothing but good feedback about the system from our players. I will definitely be running more Wild Talent games at future conventions and buying a TON of d10s.
PLEASE NOTE: If you create Radioactive Cheerleaders for a combat, the players will find a way to skip them EVERY TIME YOU RUN THE GAME. Not kidding. What a waste of spiky pom-poms of death…