There's some controversy right now about the new OGL (Open Gaming License) published by Wizards of the Coast, the company behind Dungeons & Dragons.
I don't talk about D&D here a lot, since I know it's not relevant to Fimfiction, but I think it's worth getting this news out. Also they're owned by Hasbro, the same company that own MLP, so it's worth knowing what they're up to.
MitchH has published some stories lately that warrant more attention than they've had. One of them just got an RCL feature too, so I'm taking this chance to give him a boost.
This story just hit the Royal Canterlot Library, and it's easy to see why: it's strange, thought-provoking and satisfying. The writing style is unusual, in that it has no dialogue and nary a character name. Instead the whole thing is written like a story being told. It's very personal, like somebody really is saying what happened to them.
Despite the gentle, personal style of the narration it's tightly plotted – enough so that it's hard for me to say any more about it without spoilers. So I'll just say that it's short and worth reading.
Twilight and her orphaned niece are starting a new life in a new town, as far from Flurry Heart's monster of a grandfather as they can get. But as far as you might run, you can't run away from you. Especially when magic's involved.
Set in a darker version of the Equestria Girls world where magic portals never happened, this is the story of Twilight and her niece Flurry Heart moving to a new town and trying - and failing - to keep their heads down. There's a murder, there's a potential gang war brewing, there's a drugged up cult out there somewhere, there's magic going on in secret, and there's people just trying to live their lives.
This story does a few really clever things, among them its use of alternative names. A lot of characters have their own reasons for using an alias, for wanting to be lost and unidentifiable; but the readers, if they know the R63 names and others the community has come up with, have an extra clue what's going on.
The way it weaves a strange hybrid of the real world with a fantasy one is also interesting, since it brings a lot of specific real-world detail in while also changing odd things. It leaves you wondering just what effects those changes would have on the history of this world.
But the best part of it, for me at least, is the character of Twilight Sparkle. This is a SciTwi who never went to Canterlot High, who never learned those friendship lessons, and who experienced something else instead. Throughout this story she walks a fine line between noble aims and questionable methods.
There's already a sequel for this in the works, and – no spoilers – it's shaping up to be really interesting.
This is a lovely little gem that had the misfortune to be marked as a sequel to a much, much longer story. Don't be put off by that, since this story works perfectly well on its own.
Its a dreamlike tale about cutie marks, destiny and what to do when the special talent you're looking for is really, really rare.
I'll stop before spoiling it any more. It's short and worth reading.
I can see why some people would dislike this - it's about icky bodily functions, after all - but I think they may be missing the point. MitchH is not a writer to indulge in pointless squick. This story is about the culture shock of a poor pegasus filly who has just become an alicorn princess; and about politics in a medieval era, and has more roots in the real world than you'd think.
This is a strange little bit of AU headcanon about how hard life used to be for ponies in the past, particularly living next to the Everfree forest. It's got plenty of atmosphere, and makes a sickening kind of sense.
This one's still ongoing, albeit on hold right now. It's a strange mashup of Shadow Play and Beauty and the Beast, with Trixie's personality thrown in as a wildcard. The part of the Beast is played by the Pony of Shadows, and much like the Beast in the original story he's got more depth than originally appears.
There's a lot of world building, and myth building, much of it based on the fact that Trixie is unaware of the whole limbo situation.
Shrink, y'all are making me blush. And I'm trying to get back into the saddle on both Trixie And The Beast and the sequel to Twilight In Plain Sight, but progress has been... uneven. Every time I sit down to write something, another fragment of some random other story emerges instead. I think I've got maybe the majority of three chapters written on the TIPS sequel, which is tentatively, but awkwardly going by the name Applejack And The Crack In Everything... but the current structure is so Pulp Fiction-style disjointed that I'm leery of publishing what I have, for fear I'm going to have to radically rearrange it.
You've got some interesting projects in the pipe, including that Luna comic epic that seems to have a lot of potential.
👌
Shrink, y'all are making me blush. And I'm trying to get back into the saddle on both Trixie And The Beast and the sequel to Twilight In Plain Sight, but progress has been... uneven. Every time I sit down to write something, another fragment of some random other story emerges instead. I think I've got maybe the majority of three chapters written on the TIPS sequel, which is tentatively, but awkwardly going by the name Applejack And The Crack In Everything... but the current structure is so Pulp Fiction-style disjointed that I'm leery of publishing what I have, for fear I'm going to have to radically rearrange it.
You've got some interesting projects in the pipe, including that Luna comic epic that seems to have a lot of potential.
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I know the feeling. It's why you've been waiting three months for the next chapter of the thing I'm supposed to be writing.