• Member Since 2nd Mar, 2014
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Baal Bunny


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Relaxing after a rousing session of "Ogres & Oubliettes," Spike, Big Mac, Discord, and Shining Armor begin questioning certain of their life choices. Not all their life choices, of course: just certain of them...

The original minific version of this story placed 10th in the Writeoff Association's 80th contest, "Lie Me a River." This rewritten and expanded version was my entry in Aragon's "Comedy is Serious Business" contest with the prompt "We Learned Something Stupid," and the cover image comes from Otonus on DeviantArt.

Chapters (1)
Comments ( 29 )

I dearly want to see more of this playgroup, especially given Shining's inclusion. His dynamic with each of the other characters is fantastic. The story itself was quite a lot of fun as well. Thank you for it, and best of luck in the judging.

*imagines Twilight as a GM or Dm* :twilightoops:

This was funny and well written. Best of luck with the contest.

"I'm more whimsically erratic than mad these days!"

and I wouldn't have you any other way :twilightsmile:

Also boy, is granny accommodating or what?

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^ also ditto to this

8700586 Sorry, but Twilight would be a terrible GM. She would undoubtedly create a fantastic world and story to run, but actually running it, she'd be too inflexible. The first time the player characters went off script, she'd be doing everything she could to railroad them back onto it. I've seen it happen IRL.

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Also, never let a rules lawyer with a good understanding of physics participate in any kind of super hero game. They will do things with seemingly simple powers that the game was never designed to handle.

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That sounds fun until it isn't. I once heard from someone in a group that someone used an ability that let a Monk in some DnD version make sonic blast with punches that just create DC throws to reduce damage rather any ability to miss punch the ground in front of an enemy that was designed to not be hittable to kill the enemy slowly that way. If A player is creative they can really screw up any system.

Awww, what an adorable and sensible little story. Love it.

begin questioning certain of their life choices. Notalltheir life choices, of course: just certain of them...

The two errors here bug me too much to even read the story.

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Thanks, folks!

Any time I can take advantage of the revelation that Shining Armor was a nerd as a kid is a good time. And I think Granny's just glad to have finally found a use for all those ding-dang peanut shells.

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It's been way too long since I've done any gaming: more than a decade, I'd have to say. I just channel all my storytelling urges into actual storytelling now, I guess.

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Yes, I know: colons only get used after complete sentences. But since the three-dot ellipsis is there to signify that the whole thing isn't a complete sentence, I figured I could get away with it. Alas, I figured incorrectly... :eeyup:

Mike

8700744 It goes without saying that magic in capable hands operated by a cunning mind would be an undefeatable weapon. When you both understand physics and possess the means to violate it... anyone with less capacity is utterly screwed.

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Yes, I know: colons only get used after complete sentences.

That... is not the error I was talking about.

"...certain of their life choices." That is not correct. It should say something like "...certain aspects of their life choices." or "...certain life choices they've made."
Similarly, in the next sentence you make the same mistake again; "...just certain of them." To avoid word repetition, I would not advise simply using the word aspects again. You could say "...just certain ones." or "...just specific ones."

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Except magic has both limits and a price. Do you seriously believe magics power is infinite? It isn't and limits can be exploited...if one knows how.

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Speaking as someone who's been both a DM AND a massive rules-lawyer in the past; you have no idea how easy it can be to make characters that are insanely powerful.

In terms of only flexibility, a psion beats most wizards. We have, of course, already left the core three books behind just by mentioning a class from the Expanded Psionics Handbook. Take things a few steps further and use a setting supplement like Races of Faerun and you encounter the Lythari; a race of elves who are naturally lycanthropic without being contagious, and are effectively chaotic good werewolves. One more step brings up the Book of Exalted Deeds and the fact that psions don't require any kind of components or focuses to manifest powers...

Yeah, psionics makes Vow of Poverty stupidly OP and broken as hell in terms of what you lose. Even a SOULKNIFE, widely considered to be the WORST class in the game (with the version presented in Pathfinder being a vast improvement), can gain a huge boost due to the simple fact that their weapon is made with their mind rather than being a material thing and thus there is no sacrifice to combat readiness if negotiations go sour.

Stacking lycanthrope's innate DR with that granted by VoPov, plus all the other bonuses from it alongside a psion's ability to manifest any power they know and you end up with a character capable of almost literally facerolling anything a DM can throw at the party, all while adventuring effectively naked!

That's not even the most overpowered character possible in 3.5 either, but I refuse to speak of Punpun.

8702250 Don't bother getting into a fight with that one. They never acknowledge that their preconceived notions and assumptions might be wrong.

weeee tabletop RPG stuff! And pones!

You actually modified an ancient red box DnD booklet into a cover for your fic? I approve of this. Also liked the fic too!

8702250 Depends on the fictional world. There are plenty of worlds where magic is effectively infinite, you know.

And indeed, even in our world, energy is effectively limitless since it cannot be destroyed, only changed in form and work potential. It's all about being able to harvest it all.

Gonna be honest, my first thought with the feather fluff was that, if this episode had taken place closer to the alicornification, it could've just been Twilight shedding. Probably took her months to get used to the wings.

I like the twist at the end... well done.

Dreadnought

That was nice. Just some pleasant, silly slice of life in the best show style. I knew that whole "making new friends" thing would come back to bite them in the hindquarters.

We need a good episode for these guys, and maybe Thorax for season 8.

Great job!:moustache:

Clever bit of foreshadowing, a little world-building, and some good guy-time. Nicely handled.

"I also collect horn shavings, hoof trimmings, and shed feathers."

At least Discord trolls all three main pony tribes equally. :derpytongue2:

An amusing slice-of-life story. I always love when fanfics show the brotherly relationship between Spike and Shiny. All four of these characters work great together.

A pleasant story and a fun little slice of life. Thank you for it:twilightsmile:

PresentPerfect
Author Interviewer

I can't believe you turned "Discord screws things up in large ways" into a heartwarming slice of life.

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It's wizardry, I tells ya!

Wizardry! :pinkiegasp:

Mike

Comment posted by Xanni deleted Mar 14th, 2020
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