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I think the nature of the game is such that even cards that would break the grid before goals are flipped are more of a corner case than a big worry. Most of the time you should be cycling through goals that you aren't close to finishing anyway, and if you're playing well the goal discard pile will stack up fairly quickly.

At least, that's been my experience. All my games have been... I wouldn't exactly call them fast-paced, but there's not so much emphasis placed on individual goals; if you missed getting a goal by a turn or two, or a new goal pops up that someone just wiped the ingredients for, you shrug (maybe yell at the table a bit), and move on. In my experience, there's always plenty of goals and points available even when you cycle through them a lot.
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Site Updates / Re: Design Article #3: What is a Pony?
« Last post by Lord LunaEquie is me on August 24, 2017, 10:48:29 pm »
What exactly do you mean here in regards to a activating a pony's power that's on the grid?

Ah, yes. My article assumes the reader is using the adjacent ship rule described in Section VI of the long-form rules. I find it odd that this is referred as an "Advanced Rule," since its use appears to be fairly standard. Also, I think this may answer your first question as well. Please reply if it doesn't.
Ooooooooh. Suddenly it makes a lot more sense why you would want to ship adjacent ponies instead of playing from your hand.

You know, I remember sometime before actually playing the game for myself thinking that WHENEVER ponies got shipped, their powers activated, so that if you shipped adjacent ponies, both their ponies activated, but I think someone disabused me of that notion, so that's probably why I thought they only activated once from the hand. You know, I'm not sure I've ever sat down to read the Full And Complete Ruleset. TSSSF works on the Golden Rule so much it never seemed necessary.
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Showcase / Re: Foreshadow Prep
« Last post by Ithry on August 22, 2017, 01:16:54 am »
GLaDOS wasn't the intent, but I can see how one would think that!

The ficlet title I just made up and made sure it was super long. It's not referencing anything I'm aware of.
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General Discussion / Re: What Are Your Favorite TSSSF Cards?
« Last post by N.A. Larson on August 21, 2017, 10:38:56 pm »
Sometimes I wonder if Trixie does more harm than good. What do you think?
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Site Updates / Re: Design Article #2: An Overview of TSSSF and Its Card Types
« Last post by N.A. Larson on August 21, 2017, 05:52:23 pm »
Honestly, I don't know how "straightforward" it is, because this means cards like Tantabus and Jumpin' Jack activate BEFORE Goals are replenished, which means you have to break the grid BEFORE you know which Ponies will be relevant. I don't think most players are aware of this situation, but however people are handling it is probably fine (I've never had anyone ask me about it, at least).
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Site Updates / Re: Design Article #3: What is a Pony?
« Last post by N.A. Larson on August 21, 2017, 05:36:41 pm »
What exactly do you mean here in regards to a activating a pony's power that's on the grid?

Ah, yes. My article assumes the reader is using the adjacent ship rule described in Section VI of the long-form rules. I find it odd that this is referred as an "Advanced Rule," since its use appears to be fairly standard. Also, I think this may answer your first question as well. Please reply if it doesn't.


The more I read and the more I play, the more appreciation I gain for the six base pony abilities. Coming in from the super-complex Magic collection, I initially wanted to come up with unique specials and whatnot, but it's slowly becoming clear how important it is to keep them at that simple collection of abilities.

This is pretty much my train-of-thought as well, but there's a lot more to say on the subject of Special powers!
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Showcase / Re: Foreshadow Prep
« Last post by Lord LunaEquie is me on August 21, 2017, 12:42:41 am »
Question: should I be getting GLaDOS vibes from The Scientific Method? Because while that had be busting out laughing, I felt like it was TSSSF meets Portal.

Also why do I feel like I've heard of The Magic of Friendship: Comparative Analysis of Interpersonal Relationships and Derived Supernatural Forces before?
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General Discussion / Re: What Are Your Favorite TSSSF Cards?
« Last post by Lord LunaEquie is me on August 21, 2017, 12:36:25 am »
I think I'm going to have to just keep coming back to this as I play, but I suddenly am really glad All Good Things Must End exists.

I nearly had a game go infinite. On a sweltering summer day with hardly any air conditioner. I am really glad All Good Things Must End exists.
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Quote
You wanna know what I think?
Quote
Yes!
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I think you're some kind of deviated prevert. I think General Ripper found out about your preversion, and that you were organizing some kind of mutiny of preverts. Now MOVE!

So, I haven't played TSSSF too many times as of yet, and most of the time it's been with my full collection of 500-some-odd cards, but every time the game has had some huge memorable moment.

Just such a moment occurred today.

So gather 'round, all you would-be shippers, with your rose-tinted glasses and your pints of love poisons, and listen to my tale of how the multiverse broke and all the fics burned.

First, we have the setup. Baka Senpai Discord had taken Twilight's place at the center of the fanfic universe. Three figures have emerged from the shadows at his will to write the stories that will shape our little ponies' destinies, and their love lives.

Before anyone knew it, 1/2 2/3 of a point had been won. Soon Senpai Flash Sentry-Kun and Nipon ni Naritai Twilight Sparkle joined Discord in the proto-world of fanfiction. Mr. Cake proposed to Mrs. Cake not once, but twice, as they practiced swinging, trying to find their place in the new order. The Mistress of Equality herself, Starlight Glimmer, briefly made an appearance to smack down all would-be points to less than 1, before being replaced outright by a strangely serene Fluttershy leading the worshipers of eldritch gods.

Somehow a T kept being made.

Then, things started heating up. Adjutant hit the board, sewing the seeds of chaos and rule-breaking that would soon follow as a single turn saw two goals won and five or six ships played. The board was misread (because someone kept thinking all Twilight Sparkles are seemingly princesses) and play passed to me. Senpai Flash Sentry-Kun, who had been happily engaged with Discord, soon found himself pet-sitting for Nipon ii Naritai Twilight Sparkle, and suddenly all Tartarus started breaking loose. With a combination of replace, search, copies, and forgetting that Adjutant's power couldn't be copied, I played Japanese Brad's power about 8 times, playing probably 15 ships in the process and gaining... 1 goal. No unicorns were played during this turn.

The board had grown once again, and it was time to cut it down to size. Derpy made an appearance, and another well-placed love poison saw the board nearly wiped, then with a few more ships, another T formed.

As turns went by, the discard piles grew considerably. When Mahou Shoujo Derpy cast her pretty spell over everyone, we knew it was the beginning of the end. The points were pretty tensely matched: 6, 8, and 9 2/3. The one behind in the race had a plan, though. With a well-placed search, Inconvenient Trixie found her way onto the field, immediately followed by a protective Rainbow Powered Maude Pie. By this point in the game, the room had become quite physically hot, and two out of three of us wanted the game to end. I knew what I had to do.

But I had not the power to do so. I emptied my hand, but for a single ship, winning three goals in the process and pushing me to fifteen points, but the game was still afoot. I drew seven ponies, hoping for a Search. I got a Copy, but I was in luck! There was a search on the board! Two turns remained.

A nearly-thought out Love Poison took Trixie out from underneath Maude's protective watch, but a miscalculation meant she was still sitting inconveniently on the field. A small chunk of the grid was gone. One turn remained.

As attempts were made to prolong the game, my opponents were unaware of my plan. A secondary plan was attempted, to bring the Mistress of Equality back, but I had ended up drawing it by accident. A few points were won in that last turn, but it was for naught.

As it comes back to me, I play the one ship I had to use the Copy, taking the Search power on the board, and doing the one thing you should never do: I combined a Bag of Holding with a Portable Hole.

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Site Updates / Re: Design Article #3: What is a Pony?
« Last post by Lord LunaEquie is me on August 20, 2017, 11:49:41 pm »
In reading this, an interesting notion that I hadn't considered before entered my mind. The way I have been playing was that ponies and ships MUST be played together (with a few exceptions, such as Love Poison ships or ponies with the Replace power); the way you describe playing a Draw power, though, it seems like you intend that you only have to worry about grid attachment sometime after you play, like at the end of the turn or something?

Also, I need to clarify something. In the article, you say:
Quote
This is useful if there is a Pony on the grid whose power you'd like to activate, but no adjacent Pony to ship it to:

What exactly do you mean here in regards to a activating a pony's power that's on the grid? I had also been under the impression that pony powers (with very few exceptions) only activate once, when played from your hand.

Other than that, I like it. The more I read and the more I play, the more appreciation I gain for the six base pony abilities. Coming in from the super-complex Magic collection, I initially wanted to come up with unique specials and whatnot, but it's slowly becoming clear how important it is to keep them at that simple collection of abilities.
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