Aug
26th
2016
Pre-screening thoughts on S6 E17 (preview-level spoilers) · 4:29pm Aug 26th, 2016
Okay, so...
"Dungeons & Discords." This week, our heroes are transported to a strange land very different from our Earth--
Wait, no.
This week, our heroes are transported to a land populated with fantastic creatures, like unicorns and dragons and griffons and--
Wait, no.
This week, our heroes are transported to a land where magic is real, harnessed by powerful wizards who--
Wait, no.
This week our heroes change into different costumes.
Nailed it.
~Skeeter The Lurker
To be perfectly fair, for Mac this is like playing Call of Duty... you know, if your sister was a decorated Navy SEAL who still hung out with you all the time.
4172899 Also, most ponies don't get to do all the stuff the mane 6 do, so while it is mostly things that do technically exist, it's not like it's things they'd get to do.
I've seen no previews or info on this episode. Is this the Brothers Get Together and Play Tabletop RPG episode?
But it could be...
...but won't.
That was basically that idea behind Power Ponies and that wor... that was pretty goo... that was oka...
Huh.
Or, as I like to think of it, "Wherein Hasbro teases me by referring to a Wizards of the Coast product, but not the one I wanted."
4172982 Twilight can use magical blasts slightly weaker than her normal blasts!
Rainbow Dash can summon tornadoes and lightning using an awkward necklace instead of just creating them normally!
PInkie Pie can go super fast while people are looking instead of just appearing wherever she needs to be instantly!
Applejack can... use a lasso. But it's a magic lasso now?
Fluttershy can get angry and intimidate people by smashing things instead of just staring at them!
So bascially, Rarity was the only one who got actual superpowers. Unless you count Spike, who got the superpower of not completely sucking which he badly needs in his day to day life.
It was a good episode, though. n.n
4173001
You want "Friendship: the Gathering," perhaps?
4172914
Based on what promo shots I've seen, I'm going to assume that the girls have to dive in and save the boys from their own game after Discord messes with it.
4172965
That poor dog...
4173074
It'd be nice. At least the comics threw me a bone with Hocus Pocus: The Get-Together.
4173076
Might be worth a watch then.
Two funny things I thought of. First they could in fact literally be playing D&D, not just an expy, but the literal game. Second that it could exist in exactly the same form, but the fantastic element is no longer the magic and monsters, but the dungeons, and possibly the setting. (Equestria is weird in terms of how modern it actually is.) So it's fantastic because it references another time, probably Starswirl the Beared's time, and because sure there are and have been evil lords and whatnot, but just finding a dungeon full of treasure, even well guarded, unlikely. Obviously it's doable, but that requires skill at finding old things. Plus obviously there is the actual danger versus imagined danger thing.
Of course they're playing a Hasbro line game.
Where's the White Wolf love? No? That's what I thought.
4172965 I am reminded of Nodwick when they played the role-playing game where they were salespeople and office workers, which I *believe* crossed over with Full Frontal Nerdity. (although I can't find it on the online archive)
I concur with bookplayer and Dream Volt. The boys are not playing the pony equivalent of DND but GURPS: Seals in Vietnam or Codex Martialis: Guide to the Medieval Baltic.*
*I strongly recommend to anyone interested in Medieval history not just gamers.
Along the lines of what 4172899 said, I remember as a kid back in the 80's playing a spy role playing game... I want to say it was called "Top Secret", but that just makes me think of the Val Kilmer movie. It was fun, as I recall, but the only detail that sticks out to me was my use of the muzzle flash from my gun to light the fuse on a bundle of dynamite when I had no other means. Remembering that, I now wish Mythbusters had tested such a thing.
People do play mortals in WoD you know. Also, Spike gets to be a wizard, so clearly there is personal fantasy there, even if the setting isn't comparatively more fantastic. Even in Equestria people don't get to break down the door, stab everything in the face and take their stuff.
4173047 There was a mishmash of competing ideas in there. One was the joke that the superheroes have mostly the same powers as M6, the other that M6 get new powers they can't control. Settling on one would have improved the episode. And Pinkie inexplicably has the speed force, even though that's Rainbow's thing, but again, if they made one vision the focus and everypony got one of the others' powers it would still have worked out better.
I will be quite sad if it is not Ogres and Oubliettes. I doubt it will be.
I will manage my disappointment.
This week, the girls dive into a world appreciated primarily by post-adolescent guys looking for escapism!
... wait, no ...
4174178
Complete with archaic weaponry and exotic costumes...
...no, wait.
4174249
A world in which they square off against someone who sends them through trials for the sake of amusement, and who dictates the rules of their reality ...
... wait, no ...
I actually wouldn't be surprised if that was the elevator pitch
Come on Hasbro, let's continue that hot streak!
4173305 There was indeed a spy-themed RPG called Top Secret. It was made by TSR unsurprisingly (note to whippersnappers: TSR made Dungeons & Dragons).
4173084
Oh, that's right! You're the one who wrote Elementals of Harmony, aren't you? That was fun, even if I've never actually played M:tG.
4173368
Well, turns out it... kind of was?