The Sport to End Them All

So we’ve been chatting in the Pony Canon Research Society Discord server, discussing how weather reports in Equestria might be exciting business, when Damaged said: “It could also count as sporting, when a town gets annoyed at some aspect of their weather and pays a rival group (The Washouts?) to give them a few more weeks of autumn for example. So you’d have weatherponies slinging snow-bearing clouds in, and locals bucking them away.”

I replied “And that’s how cloudball was born.”

And then it was born.

Presented for your idea-fication and inspiration here is the full document we cooked up together, with extra input by Shrink Laureate and MitchH.

Just add tabletop rules, and we have a new Blood Bowl.

Cloudball

1. And Luna, when they remember she exists.

Historians date the creation of this popular sport to shortly after the coronation of Celestia¹ when the primary disagreements between the tribes were settled under the aegis of the alicorns, and various pony communities, still largely mono-tribal and spread throughout the continent, woke up to the advantages of using each other’s native magical abilities in concert. This was the time of roving bands of pegasi, offering weather service to various ground-based communities who could not boast a sufficient pegasus population of their own, and fierce competition between said bands, which would occasionally come to blows.

Ponies do not particularly enjoy blows, even the rowdy pegasi, so eventually, a traditional competition between opposing weather teams on who is more capable of providing this vital service evolved. Over the years, as the tribes mixed deeper, while the evolving Equestrian government centralized weather services and established the Weather Factories and the Weather Bureau, direct competition lost its economic significance. Nevertheless, it was so popular among the spectators, who would routinely place bets on the outcome, that it never stopped, and eventually, evolved into the organized sport it is today.

2. Speculated to have originally been filled with the fruits of the earth, and of symbolic significance.

Just how it acquired the name “cloudball” remains unknown: The activity is centered entirely around clouds, but has very little, if anything, to do with balls. Multiple theories exist, most of them unsatisfactory – some say that cloudball inherited the name from hoofball, already a popular sport among earth ponies at the time cloudball was first played, while others theorise that ball lightning, now only a peripheral factor in cloudball, was once a primary element. Yet others suggest that the name is a corruption of “cloudbowl” – which is historically the name of the trophies awarded to the victors, usually some form of a bowl,² and possibly, a reference to the shape of the playing field, which is circular. Scant documentary evidence prevents settling the matter conclusively, and these days, hardly anyone cares, as the game itself is far more exciting than this silly argument.

While initially, the codified rules of the game specified that only pegasi could be players, this rule was repealed about five centuries ago, as the first amateur unicorn team trounced The Wonderbolts in a widely publicized friendly match, which Celestia herself oversaw as the referee. This triggered a major shakeup in the military brass, no end of epistolary discussion, and a rewriting of the rules that permitted anyone to play, no matter their species. That the rules actually do permit any species, rather than any tribe, to participate, was not initially widely recognized, and brought on a secondary kerfuffle a century later, when the first team of griffon citizens tried to skirt by using the exact wording of the rule. The public debate reached Celestia herself again, and as many expected, but few agreed with at the time, Celestia ruled in the favor of making the game as inclusive as possible. As it usually is with Celestia’s decisions, it was ultimately for the best, as the game acquired an unprecedented variety as the result.

Today, an Equestria Open Cloudball Cup is held every four years, and just about every township that maintains its own weather patrol has a community team. Foreign teams are occasionally seen. Historically, cloudball was excluded from Equestria Games, mostly for being far more violent and rowdy than your average team sport, but that didn’t stop it from being popular enough on its own.

The Rules

The basic rules are simple:

• Two teams of six players each, the home team, and the away team, must prevent the winter from coming and bring it, respectively. Figuratively speaking. Less players than six in a team are permitted on the field, never more.
• The match consists of two periods, with each team playing one period as the home team and one period as the away team. Which gets to be the home team first is selected by agreement or randomly, if the agreement cannot be reached. Each period is 45 minutes long, barring various delays.
• The home team guards a circular area 45 meters (or 50 yards) in diameter, the so called “guard zone,” and must prevent the away team from filling it with snow-bearing clouds, by destroying them or by pushing them outside the guard zone.
• The players are not permitted to fly lower than five meters above the ground or land, and they are not permitted to fly higher than 45 meters (or once again, 50 yards) off the ground. They are likewise not permitted to fly further than 90 meters (or 100 yards) from the center of the field. Leaving the play area is a foul, and the player so doing is grounded until the next period.
• The away team, who are supplied with an unlimited amount of snow-bearing clouds from outside the play area as their manager specifies, must get as many clouds into the guard zone as they can. Every cloud that is still within the guard zone at the end of a period constitutes a point.
• There is exactly one referee, and they are positioned in the center of the field on the ground. The referee does not move: if the referee is not in position, the match is put on hold and all the motion on the field must stop.
• The winner of the match is the team that scored the highest amount of points while playing as the away team. Draws are of course possible.

Simple enough, right? The Discord, as they say, is in the details:

• 3. See Tanks for the Memories for just how heavy.

  Snow-bearing clouds are infamously heavy,³ and usually cannot be destroyed in one blow, or even in several. Only snow-bearing clouds count for points, but the rules do not forbid the players from using other types of clouds for distraction, defensive or offensive plays, or other utilitarian purposes, so it’s often non-trivial to see just what is going on – but from the ground, snow-bearing clouds are easy to identify: snow’s falling out of them.

• Physical contact between players is not permitted, touching another player is a foul. However, there is only one referee, and they’re on the ground, so they don’t see what’s going on inside a cloud, or behind their back, and it is likewise perfectly legal to maneuver the opposing player into a cloud to get their wings fouled up with sleet.
• The use of lightning is expressly permitted, as pegasi are naturally resistant to it. Lightning, however, is treacherous and unpredictable, as many pegasi will attest, and will strike friend and foe indiscriminately. Ball lightning is particularly popular for its shock value and long-lasting effects, as an area denial tool. Many matches employ ground support teams – usually, unicorns – to catch players falling out of the sky, and there’s a bench of backup players for the express purpose of replacing those who so fell. Matches that don’t employ ground support teams usually have the field set up over a lake or another body of water and a boat with a lifeguard to fish the falling players out. A player who left the field may rejoin the game after the half-time, if capable. The rules limit the number of backup players fielded to six, resulting in most teams keeping the full complement of twelve players.

• 4. Who typically use cloudwalking spells, feather fall spells, and ride small clouds – unicorns capable of levitating themselves are relatively rare.

  The rules do not require any of the participants to be pegasi, and in modern cloudball, this is a state that gets exploited all the time to varying effects. Teams of griffons, unicorns⁴ and even earth ponies and other species flying various apparatus were at one time or another seen on the field. Many are now a fixture of the proceedings, and mixed teams are not uncommon. All of them bring their own flavor to the game, including their own flavor of arguments over whether a play was legal or not.

• 5. Or simply legs, in the case of bipedal species. Which also means that the aforementioned cloudwalking unicorns typically end up standing on two legs.

  Only rear legs,⁵ the movement of the air, or telekinetic magic are allowed to be used on the clouds themselves. This places extra emphasis on careful play, since a player cannot just slam through and disperse multiple clouds at once without slowing. It is not legal to apply magic directly to other players, but surprisingly, the use of magical shields is permitted. Many a unicorn tried this tactic, shielding a cloud and charging forth with it, only to be felled by a lucky lightning bolt immediately upon entering the guard zone.

• It is legal to break apart a cloud into multiple clouds after it enters the guard zone, thus turning one point into multiple. However, the broken apart, smaller clouds are easier to destroy afterwards, easier to push out of the guard zone, and if done carelessly, the smaller clouds may simply disperse on their own. Likewise, merging the opposing team’s clouds to reduce the number of points they might score is a valid strategy, if not always optimal.
• At the end of each period, the clouds in the guard zone are inspected by the referee to make sure they still have snow in them. A valid tactic for the home team is to buck all the snow out of a cloud, leaving the attackers miscounting what they think are scoring clouds.

Notable teams

For your inspiration only. Includes both native and foreign teams.

• The Wonderbolts (Major): The Wonderbolts are the Army/EUP Guard team, and that is one of the reasons the Wonderbolt barracks are set up for 12-pony squadrons when the original Wonderbolt squad had 20 ponies in it. They are historically the team with the most Cups in their closet, and generally the favorites and the benchmark other teams are rated against, but winning the Cup is far from certain even for them.
• The Wonderbolt Reserves (Minor): Traditionally, Wonderbolt reservists are on the roster of the Wonderbolt minor league team, and performance in the game often affects promotion to the Wonderbolts proper. This team has its good days and bad days, since the Wonderbolt Reserves are the place where they weed out those who aren’t cut out for the Wonderbolts, but is usually seen as a strong contender.
• Baltimare Globetrotters (Major): Baltimare is one of the major centers of industry, and so their home team is notable for fielding primarily earth ponies, who have cloudwalking spells cast on them by non-playing unicorns. They employ the same tactics unicorns usually do – riding clouds into the field – but use a variety of air cannons, propellers and oversized hair dryers to move clouds around from a distance, often confusing their opponents, used to a more orthodox style of play. Widely considered to be average, but a nightmare to play against.
• Canterlot Knights (Major): Canterlot has a very low pegasus population, most of which are out-of-towners selected for the Royal Guard. As such, it is informally a Royal Guard team, with extra spots being filled by graduates of the School for Gifted Unicorns. Their performance varies widely, introducing more scandal into the sport than just about any other team, as the unicorns try new and more unpredictable spells each year, they are just as likely to win the Equestria Open as they are to come in dead last.
• Ponyville Planters (Minor): Ponyville, despite being a predominantly earth pony population, nonetheless fields a strong team in the Minor League. Made up of some of the best fliers of the region, it is notable because it is also made up of just about the only fliers in the region. The biggest name to come out of Ponyville is, of course, Rainbow Dash. After being picked up by The Wonderbolts to play in the Majors, The Wonderbolts became the town’s second-favorite team.
• Cloudsdale Cumulonimbus (Minor): With The Wonderbolts scooping up many of Cloudsdale’s best players, the Cumulos often get severely underrated. They aren’t the best team in the Minor League, but they are consistent, and know clouds like the back, front, and sides of their hooves.
• Aris Avengers (Major): After the liberation from the Storm King, the hippogriffs of Mount Aris wasted no time introducing themselves to the sport. Hippogriffs are capable of cloudwalking natively, and while they do not have the full range of pegasus abilities in weather manipulation, they make up for this lack with amazing feats of aerobatics that have left a lot of the top pegasus players green with envy. One notable quirk is that every game they’ve played against the Canterlot Knights has seen a ceremonial greeting of thanks from the Knights players, who remember the hippogriffs actions against the Storm King.
• The Diamond “Under” Dogs (Minor): An up-and-coming team in the Minor League, hailing from the kingdom of Dimondia, once (briefly) ruled by Trixie. The Under Dogs use a mix of flying contraptions including gyrocopters, hang-gliders, and even a hot air balloon. (Use of a rocket was forbidden as it exploded in testing, the referee ruled that they’re a danger to the spectators.) What they lack in outright magic they make up for in tenacity, often using snowballs gathered from scoring clouds as ammunition to pelt enemy players. Their motto is: You Can’t Keep A Good Dog Down.
• Griffonstone Gougers (Major): A fierce team of the bravest Griffonstone griffons, this team has seen problems before as their most famous game was one they walked out of due to a pay dispute. Not needing machines like the Under Dogs, they can compete with pegasi for speed in the air, but nonetheless lack the ability to easily destroy clouds. Their claws, however, have been found to be efficient at shredding clouds into many smaller cloudlets, giving them many wins from cloud-multiplication in the dying seconds of a game.
• Crystal Condors (Major): Newly rejoined to both Equestria and the sport, The Crystal Empire wasted no time putting a team of mixed crystal unicorns and pegasi together mostly from Shining Armor and Princess Cadance’s guard. Controversy arose, however, when the royal couple themselves took the field, with Shining Armor’s shields proving a major headache to The Wonderbolts, and Princess Cadance’s unrivaled ability to use unicorn magic and pegasus weather magic together cinching a rare victory over the Major League favorites.

• 6. One of which is herself, and the other two are Spike and Smolder.

  Dragons (???): Dragon Lord Ember is trying to rally a team of dragons to partake in the next season, but so far she has yet to find more than three dragons who are willing to work together.⁶ She could, of course, order them to, but she rightfully worries that the result will be sub-optimal, or, as she puts it, “piss poor.”

• Manehattan Masquerade (Major): A competitive team who believe that winning requires a sharp outfit in order to be worth it, the Masquerades often use clever patterns to dazzle or confuse their opponents while their solid unicorn/pegasus team takes advantage of the situation. Controversy arose one year when they made uniforms that looked exactly like whatever team they were playing against, and swapped them every game. The crowd booed them every game, though they were unsure exactly who they were booing at.
• Provincial Pouncers (Minor): A team put together of the best pegasus fliers from around Equestria that are not in a major city/town. Lacking mostly in teamwork, each of these ponies is often responsible for large areas on their own, resulting in excellently trained weatherponies. Would be a Major League contender if they could take the time to train together, but their day-to-day duties conspire to keep them apart.
• Las Pegasus Lancers (Major): Extremely well-funded, the Lancers never fail to put on a good showing for one reason, the pay is exceptional. Scooping up every last talented pegasus with a need for bits, the Lancers are nonetheless respected by all for their consistent play and, despite the way they’re gathered together, teamwork.
• Washout Wanderers (Major): The Washouts started as a simple stunt show, and in the off season many of their players still perform as such. They are known for wild plays that barely scrape a victory through in the dying seconds of a game, but as often as not those plays fail due to an overabundance of captains. They are not based out of any geographic location.
• The Trottingham Terror (Major) A mixed griffon and earth pony team with unicorn support, this team is best known for introducing air-chariot play and an industrial approach towards cloud management. They aren’t particularly skilled in actual cloud-wrangling, but they make up for their lack of cloud-sense with volume.

Extra ideas

While we think the above set of suggestions mostly works as a unit, you might want to try those in here as well:

• Instead of counting individual clouds left in the guard zone at the end of a period, measure the total mass of snow delivered. This could lead to hilarious situations, like a mid-air snowball fight breaking out, as attackers seek to get a few extra pounds of snow into the scoring circle. It would also make wind drift much more important, since the circle at ground level, the circle at 500 feet, and the circle at 1000 feet would result in different dispersal of the snow delivered.
• For these events, Cloudsdale deploys small “field supplies” of various cloud types. Some players prefer to use the manufactured clouds, while others have their own favorites or roll their own before the match. Others still employ more wild clouds, though these can be a danger to their own team if wrangled incorrectly. Some possibility for sponsorship and other shenanigans could ensue as fights over supplying clouds and other gear break out among suppliers.
• Rainbow Dash was picked up by The Wonderbolts from languishing in the Minor League team in Ponyville, but there was some controversy over her eligibility, since The Wonderbolts are a military team. Twilight Sparkle herself provided the solution by naming Rainbow Dash “Captain of the Friendship Guard”.
• A Yakyakistani team was proposed, and even demonstrated good form in the Minor League. Using yakapults to gain initial momentum, their ground crew rushed around with extremely large, extremly reinforced trampolines to ensure the yak players never left the play area. Ultimately, however, while they did win, the yaks were unable to continue playing due to them destroying all their equipment at the end of the game in a celebratory smashing.

Use responsibly!

Comments

[Shrink Laureate]

The suggested parallel with Blood Bowl has me imagining how this would work as a board game.

There's a circular board, a similar scale to a Monopoly board, with a small circle in the middle representing the guard zone. You can add landscape pieces to the board representing natural features. It's overlaid with a triangular grid, allowing lots of freedom of movement. Each point on the grid is a small hole in which pieces can be slotted; landscape pieces have similar holes. Players, clouds and airborne hazards are represented by figures attached to one, two or three-unit risers, slotting into those holes. Any unit that drops to the ground is out of bounds.

The game would be turn-based. The attackers get to act with each of their meeples in any order they wish, followed by the defenders. Attackers start anywhere on the outer edge of the circle, defenders start anywhere in the guard zone.

The rules for movement and action vary by species and individual. For example, some pegasi are faster than others, at the cost of cloud moving power or defensive agility. Yaks move a long way but only in straight lines between points on the ground representing their catapult stations; and a catapult cannot be moved while a yak is occupying it. Unicorns must ride on clouds, otherwise they cannot move and drop one unit per turn (feather fall spells ftw). Dragons cannot cooperate on a single cloud at the same time, or they end up squabbling. Diamond dogs' gryocopter movement is partly random, based on dice.

[Shrink Laureate]

I love that this game is significantly more chaotic and asymmetrical than conventional Earth sports, or any sports we've seen in the show, but also feels in keeping for ponies, and pegasi in particular.

[Mitch H]

It occurs to me that stuffy and moralizing ponies might denounce cloudball as violent, dangerous, a 'tool of Discord' and a grossly inharmonic invitation to division and ill feeling among ponies. They would find it incredibly infuriating whenever somepony reminds them that Princess Celestia is an ardent fan.

[Neece]

4968213
It also occurs to me that they are one ascension/birth away from Fielding a pure Alicorn team. I wonder, what would be the team name?

[Shrink Laureate]

4968217
The Unfair Advantage

[Shrink Laureate]

Other team ideas:

Dazzlings (Minor): An irregular team since it has only three members, but the sirens are fast and have strong attack magic. Exceptionally willing to try and cheat - as long as the referee can't see them.

Hive (Minor): Lacking in natural cloud-walking and weather abilities, changelings must use spells each time they wish to push a cloud, slowing them down. The ability to disguise themselves as members of the enemy team, as clouds, or as pieces of landscape proves strategically useful.

Discord (Minor): Starts with one player, but may spawn up to five clones at once. Doesn't believe in rules. Uniquely powerful, but often self-defeating because cotton-candy doesn't count as a valid snowcloud. Referees are not inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt.

[FanOfMostEverything]

One potential draconic defensive strategy is simply filling the guard zone with so much scaled flesh that there's no room for clouds. Ember just needs to take a page out of her father's book. ("HOLD STILL!")

In any case, fantastic concept for Equestrian athletics. I hope people make heavy use of this. (And there's the question of how a changeling team would work. Could be Manehattan all over again, especially if Pharynx is captain.)

[Mitch H]

Can magic be used on equipment brought onto the field? I'm pondering an arms race between Trottingham-fielded physical equipment and Canterlot-conjured spellwork. Such as a two-griffon aircart sporting an enormous blunted spar down the carriage shaft designed to shatter unicorn shields protecting their mount-clouds. And retalatory spellwork aimed at demolishing the carts and chariots the Trottingham players brought onto the field.

[Oliver]

4968234

Can magic be used on equipment brought onto the field?

I would rule that yes, considering that we’ve already provided examples of magic cast by non-players affecting players (the Globetrotters.) In general, the idea is that the basic rules, just like the basic taboos, are simple, and meant to ensure at least a semblance of fairness and a modicum of safety for the players and spectators – but their interplay in practice is complicated and unpredictable.

[Shrink Laureate]

4968234
The way the sport grew out of real (albeit bloodless) conflict suggests that by default anything goes. Nobody wants blood on the field, but tightening the rules too tight would take all the fun out of it; and if the formal sport deviated too far from the informal game, it would lose its support.

So as 4968236 says, the rules and rulings would be there to support a sense of fair play, but not to inhibit creative play. Magic, flying machines, yakapults, anything you can think of to make the game interesting.

[Shrink Laureate]

More board game thoughts.

Yaks

Setup
In addition to the 6 yak pieces, place 9 catapults at any point within the starting area (the guard zone or the edge of the board). Yaks begin on catapults.

Select 20 magic stones. These are not allocated to individual yaks.

Movement
Catapults move independently of yaks, at any point during the yak turn. They may each move only 1 step per turn. Only one yak may occupy a given catapult at once.

Yaks can travel up to 9 steps, but may only travel between existing catapults. They may reach maximum height only at the middle of their arc (see parabola chart). Any airborne creature in the path of a yak must make an agility roll to evade by moving 1 step; if they fail, they are scattered 3 steps in a random direction (using the direction dice). If for any reason a yak lands on the ground at a place other than a catapult, that yak is out of bounds.

Interaction
At any point during their arc, a yak may spend one magic stone. The effect of stones varies; they may push a cloud or creature up to 4 steps, in which case normal cloud defense and deflection rules apply. Other stones have other effects.

A magic stone once spent cannot be reclaimed.

[Aquaman]

All I can think is this:

”Remember, team, the enemy’s circle is down!”

[bigbear]

Thank you for sharing this. I love MLP themed games. Cloud Ball seems to be a well put together game, with lots of possibilities for drama.

Unfortunately, many games that writers make up for stories (in fanfic and in professional prose) are poor games. Quidditch, in the Harry Potter series, is among the most glaring examples. The Golden Snitch makes the rest of the game irrelevant.

I described a different version of an aerial team game here: Royal Cloud Clash Tournament. And I described several non-sport games here: Games Unicorns Play.

Thanks for sharing. I hope it inspires more stories with games of any type in them.

[Shrink Laureate]

Diamond Dogs

Setup
Select 6 dog pieces from those available: balloons, copters and gliders. A balloon carries two dogs, and counts as two pieces.

Select 6 magic stones. These are not allocated to individual dogs.

Movement
Diamond dogs cannot cloudwalk.

Balloons can move 1 step up or down. Each turn they move 1 step horizontally at random (use the direction dice). Either or both dogs in the balloon can use their action to push the balloon with a fan.

Copters can move 3 steps in any direction. Creatures in the path of a copter must move 1 step out of its way. A copter passing through a cloud has a chance of dispersing or dividing it (use cloud impact dice).

Gliders can move 6 steps in a straight line, which may be either all horizontal, or 1 step up or down.

Interaction
A dog may use a fan to push a cloud 1 step at any point during their turn.

A dog may use a net to catch another creature at any point during their turn, including during their move. The creature must make an agility roll each turn to escape. A net cannot hold more than one creature.

A dog may spend one magic stone to move a cloud or creature, or other effect. Other stones have other effects. A magic stone once spent cannot be reclaimed.

[Shrink Laureate]

I need to find a work to work "yak shaving" into it...

[Oliver]

4968293

Aerodynamics!

[Reese]

"Their claws, however, have been found to be efficient at shredding clouds into many smaller cloudlets, giving them many wins from cloud-multiplication in the dying seconds of a game."
Though I'm guessing, from the rules above, that a key component of this tactic is waiting until the referee is looking somewhere else. Or are the claws on their hindlegs enough?

"Rainbow Dash was picked up by The Wonderbolts from languishing in the Minor League team in Ponyville, but there was some controversy over her eligibility, since The Wonderbolts are a military team. Twilight Sparkle herself provided the solution by naming Rainbow Dash “Captain of the Friendship Guard”."
Wouldn't being in the Wonderbolts have already taken care of that? Or has she not actually joined, or yet, in this universe?

Interesting thing you lot have created here. :D

[Damaged]

4968357

Though I'm guessing, from the rules above, that a key component of this tactic is waiting until the referee is looking somewhere else. Or are the claws on their hindlegs enough?

Back legs only, unless they manage to obscure the scoring area from view, like with a particularly large balloon.

Wouldn't being in the Wonderbolts have already taken care of that? Or has she not actually joined, or yet, in this universe?

Since The Wonderbolts are merely a sporting team in this, to be part of it would necessitate qualifying for it, which needs you to be in the military. Note: This gives extra meaning to "The Washouts" doesn't it?

[Reese]

4968368
"Back legs only, unless they manage to obscure the scoring area from view, like with a particularly large balloon."
Or intervening clouds, or doing it behind the referee's back by causing a diversion in the other direction, or the like.

"Since The Wonderbolts are merely a sporting team in this, to be part of it would necessitate qualifying for it, which needs you to be in the military."
Ahh, okay, thanks; I'd not understood that they were only the sporting team rather than also the sporting team.

"Note: This gives extra meaning to "The Washouts" doesn't it?"
That they're still current or former members of the Equestrian military?

[Damaged]

4968408 Indeed. There could be a lot of rivalry between them. As for The Wonderbolts being only a team, you could go with that. We mostly were just fishing for ideas to use with this, not so much making a rigid AU structure.

[howard035]

I'm not sure if the Manehatten Globetrotters fit this, but if not them, then some other team like the Harlem Globetrotters.

Not really in the league per-se, but a team composed of mostly party ponies, breaking all the rules (of the sport and of physics) as they play against their perennial rivals, the Canterlot Captains (most of whom are ex-EUP and quite skilled, even though they lose every game). Of course, these games are family events and ticket proceeds go to charities for underprivileged foals.

4968220 Even if a dragon can't cover the entire field, they can use the "Spike Maneuver" and melt all the snow clouds above them.

Dragons would be unstoppable on defense... but not as good as offense. Herding the clouds with dragon body heat (and probably draconic resistance to external cloudwalking spells) and still having those clouds cold enough to keep snowing by the end of the match is probably what would keep a dragon team balanced against other species.

Also, I guarantee Rutherford told all the other Yaks Equestria asked them discontinue the yak team as yaks were just too good.

How surprised are fans when some of the members of the Manehatten Masquerade came out as changlings?

[Shrink Laureate]

Dragons

Setup
Select 6 dragons from the available pieces: large or small. You may only field 2 large dragons. A large dragon occupies 3 spaces on the board, so use a triangular base and riser.

Movement
Dragons cannot cloudwalk.

A small dragon may move 3 steps in any direction. A large dragon may move 6 steps in a straight line (which may be horizontal, or 1 step up or down).

A small dragon (or other creature, if playing mixed teams) may also ride on the back of a large dragon. They may start or end their movement on a larger dragon's place, and may take their turn before or after the larger dragon's turn.

Interaction
A dragon may breathe fire. For a small dragon, use the short line template; for a large dragon use the fire burst template. Unshielded clouds caught in the flame have a chance of losing their payload (use cloud impact dice, ignoring the 'divide' result). A flame immediately underneath a cloud or other player causes them to move upwards 1 step. This includes players in freefall. If this causes a player to rise more than the maximum of 3 risers, that player is out of bounds.

A dragon may use their wings to push a cloud. A small dragon may push a cloud 1 step; a large dragon may push a cloud 2 steps.

Only small dragons may use magic stones or other devices.

[Shrink Laureate]

Hippogriffs

Setup
No special rules.

Movement
Hippogriffs can cloudwalk.

A hippogriff may move up to 5 steps in any direction.

At any time, during a hippogriff's turn or any other player's, they may transform into a seapony and immediately drop any number of steps. This may be used to evade forced movement (you must make this decision before rolling to evade), or to avoid being lifted out of bounds.

If a hippogriff dives or drops into water, they are not out of bounds provided they return to their air on the following turn. See the rules regarding water landscape features, and notably waterfalls.

Interaction
A hippogriff may buck a cloud up to 2 steps in any direction.

A hippogriff may use a cloud to release lightning on any player beneath them (use evasion dice).

[Reese]

4968424
Ah, thanks.

[Oliver]

A few more extra ideas:

• Reverse Buck Maneuver:

  Typically performed by pegasi, but the passive partner in the maneuver may be other tribe or even other species.

  • The partners are positioned face to face. The active partner holds the front hooves of the passive partner with their own – or alternatively, holds the passive partner by the barrel, if the passive partner has no wings and cannot contribute to keeping aloft.
  • The active partner flies forward as required, while the passive partner does their best to contribute or simply keep aloft.
  • The passive partner bucks clouds on the active partner’s command.

  This permits two players to attack multiple clouds in sequence using accumulated momentum without having to fly backwards to do so, which few pegasi can actively perform. In the same fashion, it permits a pegasus and an earth pony on a mixed team to make best use of a cloudwalking earth pony’s buck strength.

• Softball:

  A version of cloudball for foals, played with rain clouds and no lightning allowed, typically played in schools on a smaller field.

  A version for the very youngest also exists, played on the ground in two dimensions, with soft, fluffy clouds, bespelled to be kickable by everypony so nopony feels left out.

[Bad Horse]

Now you need to figure out how to make this a live-action game at Bronycon.

[Oliver]

4968700

Reduce it to two dimensions and kick huge bean bags around?…

[Bad Horse]

4968703
I think to make the action fast, and keep the players far apart enough that an audience could see what was happening, and also to avoid physical contact between different teams (which could cause problems), balls that rolled would work better, as long as they weren't so fast that they would just roll through the entire home zone, so light that they would just bounce off balls already in the zone, or so heavy they they'd hurt somebody. Perhaps under-inflated beach balls.

Or, you could go another route entirely and have the players move floating balloons with air hoses. Imagine playing with these:

[Oliver]

4968711

Perhaps under-inflated beach balls.

That’s an option, though, they’d have to be pretty big to approximate what’s supposed to be going on closely enough.

Or, you could go another route entirely and have the players move floating balloons with air hoses. Imagine playing with these:

Air hoses sound like a lot of equipment, most of which will fail in practice or tangle somewhere and get people to lose balance.

[Mitch H]

4968711

That's damn cool. I'm not sure I'd call it art, but it's a neat little big of public interaction. Kind of like a ballpit in open space.

[Bad Horse]

4968715

Air hoses sound like a lot of equipment, most of which will fail in practice or tangle somewhere and get people to lose balance.

Since I want the two teams never to get withing touching distance of each other, and powerful-enough air hoses should work at a bit of a distance, there's no reason for any player to move much--they could each stand in one place. Hoses should then not get tangled.

Getting powerful air streams is a bigger problem. I was thinking you could run several small hoses off an air compressor, but I calculated the CFM and found that a sizable air compressor (125 psi) only puts out about 15 CFM, which is only about half what a good hair dryer puts out. And those air compressors are quite noisy.
Computer squirrel-cage fans might cost $10 for a 15cfm motor, so they're not even as good as buying cheap hair dryers, except that they run off 12V and low power so you could make them cordless. The kind of squirrel-cage blower used in wood shop sawdust-vacuuming are even less practical; you could get one 1000cfm blower for around $150, which would be enough for all of the players, but then you'd have a lot of work to build the system, and hoses all over the place.

I wanted to see how much power a hair dryer uses if you use no heat, to see if you could make them cordless and heatless, but I can't find my power meter.

Beach balls seem to be too expensive, since I reckon you'd need at least 50 of them, maybe 100. For balloons, I found these 18-inch mylar balloons for $1 each.

[Oliver]

4968941

Getting powerful air streams is a bigger problem.

Idea.

Just give people sheets of thin fiberboard or plastic, or another lightweight but solid material, with only a bit of bend to it, about a meter in size. Maybe somewhat smaller, but two of them. Waving that around makes more than enough wind to blow around thin mylar balloons like these, especially in an enclosed space of any kind – and you’ll probably end up playing in an enclosed space. Shape the sheets kinda like wings. Done!

[Bad Horse]

4968979 D'oh! That should work.

(But I wanted a complicated engineering solution! )

Why 2 sheets? It should take 2 hands to hold 1 sheet and constrain it from 3 to 1 degrees of freedom. You mean attach them to the arms, like wings? That would work, and look cool.

[Oliver]

4969145

You mean attach them to the arms, like wings? That would work, and look cool.

That’s precisely the idea, yes. You can have two cloth belt straps to hold it to the arm (one at shoulder or elbow level, one over the palm) and they could be spray painted to look more like actual pegasus wings…

And importantly, that would be cheap and wouldn’t set anyone back too much if it doesn’t work out.

[Bad Horse]

4969154 Are you going to Bronycon 2019? I'll help submit & run (if accepted) this if you want.

A remaining detail is how to do this in a room with a very high ceiling. Temperature variation & unpredictability might make it difficult to get slightly less than neutral buoyancy (so balloons eventually fall back down).

[Oliver]

4969542

Are you going to Bronycon 2019?

Alas, no, there’s no chance of that, unless something really unpredictable happens.

Temperature variation & unpredictability might make it difficult to get slightly less than neutral buoyancy (so balloons eventually fall back down).

That depends on what exactly do you fill them with, and they can always be weighed down by applying duct tape to an edge to tune each one exactly. Might be a hassle to actually do, though…

[Damaged]

4969145 Hrmm, trying to think of a way to add "lightning" to it, too. Maybe small bean-bags with a trailing strip of something to give it a longer look. Teams get a limited number during a game, and when hit with one you have to raise an arm and stand still for a few seconds.

The other option is to literally brand it as Softball, the foal equivalent, since that would be played on the ground anyway.

[Frustration in Excelsis]

This is amazing. The teams themselves were my favorite part -- there's a lot of personality there. The best detail has to be the proposed yak team. Yakapults.

I could see a draconic team making up for a lack of cloudcrafting by using their fire to literally boil the snow out of the clouds -- or boil the clouds of existence, for that matter.