Hello again! This time around, I’m doing things a bit different than last week by focusing on a specific RP thread than a character. For this article, I’ll be covering a RP that I feel exemplifies how the best of the best threads readily go toe-to-toe with quality reading material that we MLP fans read for fanfiction. So without further adieu, I give you “Dungeons, Ponies, Magic, and Dragons”:

WARNING: HERE BE RP SPOILERS.

To put it frankly, “Dungeons, Ponies, Magic, and Dragons” is a RP about... RPing. To be more precise, it is an RP depicting a table-top game conducted by four ponies and one hippogriff. With these five OCs played by Davroth, Imagination, Riverhippo, Phil the Time Wizard, and Bramble Rose, anyone who reads through DPM&D can expect to find some the highest-quality RP around these parts.

As the backstory for DPM&D goes, Davroth’s Drifting Veil had recently relocated to Manehatten for career reasons. Having exhausted all the entertainment that the big city had to offer, he next listed a bulletin at City Hall advertising a meet-up for a RP game at his apartment. Four other individuals answered Drifting Veil’s call; most of them with no prior gaming experience at all, and all hailing from different backgrounds within Equestrian ‘nerd’ culture.

The end result of mixing up these OCs is a delightful read as many of the gamers struggle with figuring out how to even build their own RP characters, point-allocating systems being as complicated as they are. While DPM&D itself has yet to progress to the actual game itself, be assured that what follows will be just as fun as humorous as what has already transpired. If you haven't read through the thread already, click this link now. To help you out is this breakdown of the five OCs involved:

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[colour=#00ff00]Drifting Veil:[/colour] A Germane stallion employed as a theatre stage designer, Davroth’s Drifting Veil acts as the Dungeon Master for DPM&D. As the unicorn had made friends earlier in his life through table-top gaming, he figured to organize a DPM&D session to make some new friends now that he resides in Manehatten. Being the DM, Drifting Veil himself does not make up a character for use. Instead, his main role is to provide instructions and guidance for the newbies participating in his game. Particularly, the DM leads the group’s efforts in developing their RP characters and assigning stats, the latter which bewilders almost eveyrpony who hasn’t played a RPG before.

The RP campaign Drifting Veil constructs is set in an Equestria 500 years in the past. As he explains to his fellow players, a whole slew of monsters have escaped from imprisonment in the land of Tartarus. Against the backdrop of fiendish creatures haunting the countryside, four adventurers unite to seek their fortunes out in the lawless wildness. What happens in the story next, only Drifting Veil knows.....

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[colour=#ff8c00]Sketch:[/colour] Imagination’s OC stallion is a comic book artist born and raised in Manehatten. Prompted by his parents to take a break from his work, this bespeckled unicorn sees an opportunity through DPM&D to not only try something new and interesting, but also to possibly find inspiration for future comic stories. While initially unfamiliar with the mechanics of pen-and-paper games, it doesn’t take too much effort for him to figure out how to fill in a character sheet. Furthermore, Sketch’s creative background makes the process of conjuring his player character comes rather easily for him.

What Sketch comes up with is Solemn Vow, a cleric of the Order of the Sun. As a young colt, the resentful Solemn and his family were forced to panhandle in order to survive. His life changed upon learning that happiness could be obtained through faith and freeing oneself of possessions; thus, the now-cherry cleric resolved to provide kindness and generosity to others. Serving the warpriest role in the group, this character is adapt at casting a variety of magic spells. Fortunately, Sketch will probably have minimal issues with using Solemn in the RP... hopefully.

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[colour=#800080]Sugar Rush:[/colour] Played by Riverhippo, Sugar Rush is that one guy who has severe issues adapting to an unfamiliar game’s rules. On a personal trip to Manehatten, the earth pony arrived at Drifting Veil’s apartment on a sugar high; a premonition of forboding things to come. RPing is utterly out of the stallion’s level of competency, as shown by his extraordinary difficulty in creating sensible characters and comprehending stat sheets. Hence, it is up to the more experienced Silver Flash to guide him through the introductory phases of the game.

No further demonstration of Sugar Rush’s bewilderment is as ‘exemplary’ as the process behind creating his RP character, the druid Alfalfa. Representative of a stereotypical amateurish character attempt, Alfalfa was originally a mary-sue unicorn zebra with preexisting fame and enormous wealth along a gigantic pet eagle. Sugar Rush eventually was persuaded to change things so that his unicorn was instead raised by a zebra tribe; Sugar doesn’t care about the specifics just as long as his guy can shoot lots of arrows. Alfalfa’s physical design is just as hideous, featuring a garish combination of red and black along with a chocolate bar cutie mark... because Alfalfa likes chocolate apparently. Expect further hijinks from Sugar as he blunders through RPing.

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[colour=#8b4513]Vivid Flair:[/colour] Phil the Time Wizard’s hippogriff is an engineer for Northern Storm Industry’s Manehatten branch by day, but fights crime as a costumed vigilante during her off-hours. Encouraged by her employers to be more social, Vivid follows a tip from a coworker and accepts Drifting Veil’s open invitation to join his RP group. An engineer by trade, the hippogriff doesn’t take too long to figure out how to fill out her character stat sheets.

Ever craving adventure and excitement, Vivid Flair’s knightly character Regalia Banneret represents the sort of OC who exists mainly for use in combat scenarios. Her over-the-top backstory rife with clichéd dialogue and dramatic plot points, Regalia is for all intensive purposes Vivid’s RP-persona. It remains to be seen if Vivid’s overzealous nature will cause powergaming conflicts to emerge in the group.....

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[colour=#696969]Silver Flash:[/colour] Last but not least is Bramble Rose’s OC, the stage-actress Silver Flash. Readers of my last article who looked through “Daringcon General” will recognize Silver as the pegasus cast in the role of Daring Do for a major Mareway production. Unlike the other members of the DPM&D group, Miss Flash is very much an experienced and highly active table-top gamer, possessing nearly as many RP books as the Dungeon Master himself. Owning to her familiarity with the game, it seems natural that Silver Flash takes on an advisory role to the other players in a way not unlike the ones played by Canterlot.com’s ever-amazing RP Helpers.

As the resident veteran and RP Helper-expy, it should be expected that Silver Flash’s character Snicker Snack features the most down-to-earth history of all the other PCs (which is ironic, considering Snicker comes from Cloudsdale). A tinkerer by trade, Snicker fulfills the rogue position in DPM&D by relying on stealth and tricks to win fights. Judging by Snicker’s ability to also outsmart ancient booby traps, it seems that a little bit of Daring Do snuck into Silver’s character as well. All that remains to be seen now is whether Snicker Snack can live up to the awesomeness that is her inspiration.....

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What would a RP Spotlight be without an interview? Here now are all five of the RPers in DPM&D as they talk about this extraordinary thread:

Bellosh101: To start things off Davroth, what inspired you to create "Dungeons, Ponies, Magic and Dragons"?

[colour=#00ff00]Davroth:[/colour] Hmm, when I first joined Canterlot, I tried to get a D&D group going, using the chat and a bunch of programs. I wrote a campaign and everything, but it ended up goes nowhere. The organization thread should still be around somewhere, but it unfortunately disbanded.

So a few months ago, I decided to revisit the idea. Inspired by the unofficial RP awards SteelEagle ran, I wanted to make an awesome thread. One that might be worthy of a nomination, should there ever be unofficial awards again.

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Bellosh101: How did you recruit the participants for this RP about RPing?

[colour=#00ff00]Davroth:[/colour] I asked a bunch of people I knew were reliable enough to stick with an involved thread like this one. ^^

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Bellosh101: What system do you use as the basis for the table-top game depicted in DPM&D? And if you found it necessary, what sorts of adjustments did you make to that system to make it easier to depict within the RP?

[colour=#00ff00]Davroth:[/colour] I made it up myself. It's partly based on D&D rules, though. And it's not a "complete" rules set. It's just enough rules to get the feel right.

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Bellosh101: And for the others: what motivated you to accept Davroth's offer to join "Dungeons, Ponies, Magic and Dragons"?

[colour=#ff8c00]Imagination:[/colour] Not too long before that I was in my Fallout craze, and I saw people were starting a Fallout: Equestria thing on IRC, and I joined because Fallout is awesome. And ponies are awesome. So the collision of the two would likely cause the Earth to erupt. Somehow we're still here. But anyway, I remember having so much fun with that that when I saw Davvy offering this, I said 'Sure, why not?'. I just enjoyed my first taste of tabletop things so much I figured I'd give it a try, even if it's just roleplay.

[colour=#800080]Riverhippo:[/colour] Well, at first I thought it was a joke, not necessarily because the idea was very meta-sounding but because I had thought of the idea at first. My idea, however, was more of a play on the community of role play here on canterlot.com, whereas it would have been a Free-fro-All RP thread involving original characters in a world where a fandom phenomenon appears in Equestria, much like it appears here on Earth with Friendship is Magic. It would drive fan ponies to create original character humans and role play them through what was to be called the ponynet. Davroth's idea was way better and more organized.

After that, what really got me interested is that the other players involved are people I really enjoy writing with and have been able to bounce off of their ideas in the past. So being jumbled with a good idea with good writers gave me the realization that this would be an opportunity to do something quite daring for Canterlot role play.

Also, to add to the first paragraph, Davroth's concept was much more board canon and did not muddy the system up with humans in Equestria or further risks of chance lore.

[colour=#8b4513]Phil the Time Wizard:[/colour] Well, I've been RPing with Dav for a while on the forum and we work together on the RP Helper team; we've become pretty good friends. Because of that, when he was asking around for people who were interested in the idea it was pretty easy for me to say yes, especially since the idea itself sounded pretty cool.

[colour=#808080]Bramble Rose:[/colour] Well, I love gaming. And at first I wasn't sure, because I wasn't sure which of my characters would enjoy gaming... till I figured that I could use Vin Diesel as one of my inspirations for Silver Flash.

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Bellosh101: Did you have prior real-life experience with table-top RPs before DPM&D?

[colour=#00ff00]Davroth:[/colour] Yes. In about 4 or 5 different systems.

[colour=#ff8c00]Imagination:[/colour] Absolutely not. I'm still brand new to these things. Everyone has to explain things to me and help me through it all, but I'm having a lot of fun and it's been a very interesting learning experience.

[colour=#800080]Riverhippo:[/colour] Absolutely none. What's interesting is that my character, Sugar Rush, is also complete clueless as to what he is doing. I play the character who doesn't understand the rules, not just because I want to, but also because I have to. I have always understood what tabletop gaming was, and always found it to be something I would be interested in, but never had the circle of friends in real life that would be willing to participate.

[colour=#8b4513]Phil the Time Wizard:[/colour] Absolutely none. Never done it before. Like River, I'm going in as unfamiliar with it all as my character is.

[colour=#808080]Bramble Rose:[/colour] Yes. I have over 15 years of tabletop gaming experience. Both IC and OOC, I probably have more gaming experience than anyone else.

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Bellosh101: What made you decide on the specific characters you used for DPM&D instead of your other OCs?

[colour=#00ff00]Davroth:[/colour] Out of all my OCs, Drifting Veil's the only one nerdy enough to get something like this going.

[colour=#ff8c00]Imagination:[/colour] I thought Sketch would best fit the scene. I originally thought about using Ruby Pinch, because she would be all 'wee, boardgames!', but they only wanted older ponies. Jammy would be too 'dude, wut' to get anything done, Reveille... Well, playing D&D with a drill instructor is probably no fun, and so on and so forth. So I used Sketch, the comic artist. For one he lived in the city the roleplay was taking place in, but he also has a wonderful creative mind, and making characters to use in a game like D&D just seemed like something he would enjoy.

[colour=#800080]Riverhippo:[/colour] Sugar Rush, at the time, was a newer character that I hadn't had the chance to use yet in role play, and was waiting for a chance to finally reveal his nutty persona to the other role players. I feel an original character's entrance is important to their character development, and helps establish exactly what you want to do and show with that character. So you can't just throw them in anywhere. When I got a look at the other characters the other players were deciding to use, I couldn't help but drop Sugar's insane sugary antics into the party full of nerdy ponies and pretentious griffons.

Sometimes a character fits best where he is last likely to be seen.

[colour=#8b4513]Phil the Time Wizard:[/colour] Well, I chose Vivid Flair mostly because it was decided that this RP would be Manehattan based and she's pretty much my only character who lives there. She ended up really kind of fitting with it though, as she has a strong fondness for knights and stuff and can get a bit obsessive with things.

[colour=#808080]Bramble Rose:[/colour] *laughs* As I said, I had the inspiration to make Silver Flash the Vin Diesel of Equestria. The original big-name actor-gamer.

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Bellosh101: How did you come up with the RP characters that your OCs use in the RP?

[colour=#00ff00]Davroth:[/colour] Drifting Veil doesn't use a character. He is the dungeon master. ^^

[colour=#ff8c00]Imagination:[/colour] With Solemn Vow, I wanted to try something different. In most RPGs I play a thief or an archer/sniper, or something like that. Sometimes I'll play a heavy hitter like a knight or a berzerker or something. But since Sketch was trying something completely new, I figured I would too. So I went with a magic build. Looking over all the different types of magic and all that stuff, I thought it would be kinda cool to make a Warpriest, or something like that. It reminded me of a priest from Warhammer. 'BURN, HERETICS' and all that. So that was all the motivation I needed. xD

[colour=#800080]Riverhippo:[/colour] Well in the story, another character brings pizza to the meeting. And of course, ponies don't eat meat. It was essentially a pizza with alfalfa sprouts on it. As character development started, Sugar ate a slice. Considering his mind is everywhere at all times, he really just thought of the first thing that came to mind. Alfalfa. He initially wanted Alfalfa to be a forest zebra, because he couldn't choose between a zebra and a forest unicorn. After changes encouraged by his fellow gamers, he changed Alfalfa to a forest unicorn, who was raised by zebras, which gives him the tribal markings and stripes all zebras have been known to have.

[colour=#8b4513]Phil the Time Wizard:[/colour] Hmm, well, Regalia Banneret pretty much comes entirely from Vivid, her way at looking at things and her unchecked passions. Her obsessive nature made me want to give Regalia a rather pretentious, overblown air (not to mention name). The backstory for Regalia is purposely comprised of a lot of cliches--some inspiration might have come from poorly thought out character applications I've worked with on the forum. Oh, and she's a knight of course, because that's Vivid's thing. And she's a hippogriff because Vivid is.

[colour=#808080]Bramble Rose:[/colour] Well, I tend to try to create a character last, that fills in the holes of the group. I've played pretty much every role in a group, so this often gives me opportunities to try something I haven't tried before. In this case, though, the 'untaken role' was both wizard *and* rogue, from the standard four-player group. I had just recently read in some forums about how to abuse the 'use magic item' skill, AND I had just recently found a feat that allows someone without spellcasting to make magic items, and figured ... why not try the skill-monkey magic rogue? From there, I considered that Silver Flash was a pegasus, and that pegasi do, in fact, have a host of magical equipment that needs engineers, to run their weather.

And it just started growing from there. Snicker Snack, of course, is from Lewis Carol, and it just seemed like *SUCH* a perfect pony name, especially for a gaming character.

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Bellosh101: How will DPM&D affect your long-term character development for your characters?

[colour=#00ff00]Davroth:[/colour] Drifting Veil doesn't really have a long-term arc anymore. The RP I originally wrote him for unfortunately died.

[colour=#ff8c00]Imagination:[/colour] It'll give Sketch a new hobby, that's for sure. But it might inspire him to draw different comics or maybe host games himself if he learned enough. More important than that is he'll be making some friends at these games, which will definitely give him plenty of chances to hang out with them more in future RP.

[colour=#800080]Riverhippo:[/colour] That's a good question. I think its best that I don't know, for if I did know, I would be limiting the possibilities of his overall character. Eventually he will learn things and have new experiences. Most likely, though, he'll be the guy at the end of the game still wanting to play while everyone else is falling asleep.

[colour=#8b4513]Phil the Time Wizard:[/colour] Well, Vivid is an interesting character, and this thread definitely shows a new side of her character (not that she's in very many threads in the first place...). Considering her typical role as reticent engineer/kinda campy vigilante-heroine, this shows her in a more personal light, I'd say. It's her having fun with others and being more expressive. In all, I really think this thread might get her to open up some. And since it is one of her first notable threads, it's also just helping me define her voice period.

[colour=#808080]Bramble Rose:[/colour] That's pretty much it - adding some geekiness and enthusiasm, and increasing Silver Flash’s future role as an ACTION STAR! Starting, of course, with her premier mareway role as Daring Do.

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Bellosh101: What do you feel has been the most challenging part about participating in a RP specifically about table-top RPing?

[colour=#00ff00]Davroth:[/colour] Oh, the character generation. We are still in the middle of that. It's difficult because most of the others don't know anything about real P&P RPG.

[colour=#ff8c00]Imagination:[/colour] We haven't gotten too far into the roleplay itself, which is understandable with it being the end of the year and all that. But so far the most difficult part for me was actually filling out the character sheet and assigning skillpoints and choosing the right build and picking equipment... It was difficult, but interesting. Once I had the character fleshed out and ready, I felt pretty good about it.

[colour=#800080]Riverhippo:[/colour] Creating a character sheet. It wouldn't be so hard if this was all done in person, but over the net, talking with the more experienced players requires a learning curve, a bit of patience, and flexibility. Fortunately, Sugar Rush's character revolves around this idea, so it's super easy to simulate in the thread. In some instances where Sugar is being shown how to make his character by other characters, is almost an exact replica of my personal conversation with the other players in establishing a character for Sugar. In fact, sometimes my Sugar Rush comes out of me when I'm trying to understand it, and I'll ask stupid questions and act like a four year old. But the other players think its cool. Right? Right?

I definitely play the goofball character in this sitcom.

[colour=#8b4513]Phil the Time Wizard:[/colour] Well, the fact that I don't know about the table top stuff, probably. Dav is taking that aspect of it rather seriously, so it has a much higher learning curve than a lot of other RPs. There are a lot of forms to fill out and stuff, something that has kinda stalled the thread for a while.

[colour=#808080]Bramble Rose:[/colour] *laughs* The fact that none of the other players have ever played Dungeons and Dragons, and that OOC, I've had to spend hours helping them through the fake character-creation process. XD Apparantly, no matter whether it's a real game or a fake game, I always take on the most challenging players and help them along.

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Bellosh101: How much of your posts in DPM&D have been influenced by Canterlot RP experiences?

[colour=#00ff00]Davroth:[/colour] Not all that much, really. Actually, when I came up with the idea, I wanted this to be something ambitious, since I've never seen anyone do it like this in Mane RP before. Or on any RP board, for that matter.

[colour=#ff8c00]Imagination:[/colour] Not really. I've regrettably had very little RP with Sketch. It's mostly been with that adorable little bundle of fluff, Ruby Pinch, but I could still remember his character. Kind of timid, artsy, action-packed imagination, so I still just went with my initial concept.

[colour=#800080]Riverhippo:[/colour] In this particular thread, playing with the other players in this idea set has been very revolutionary. It can sometimes be very difficult trying to coordinate with other role players all the time to come up with our story situation and character outlines. Any good role play thread is going to require time behind the scenes, chatting it up with other players, watching video clips from My Little Pony and other TV shows for inspiration, and the determination to try to come up with ideas, even when your muse is a little dry. As far as Sugar Rush goes, his character has shown me more of the Pinkie Pie-side of things and teaches me the balances of being crazy, but not so crazy that becomes impossible to interact with. You want goofy characters to be funny, but you don't want to crack yourself up so much that it becomes funny to you and no pony else.

[colour=#8b4513]Phil the Time Wizard:[/colour] Well, the "meta" aspect of it is definitely one of the things about it that makes it the most appealing to me. I definitely keep it all in mind when I'm approaching the thread that I'm RPing my character RPing. I'm not sure how much of it can be tied back to specific board experiences, but I am sometimes definitely drawing parallels.

Well, as I said when I was having Vivid come up with her character, I sort of pictured it like her drawing up a character application. And within the group, I kinda think of it in the same terms as an RP, with the characters representing different type of RPers we might see on the board. Sugar Rush would be the over energetic poster who doesn't quite get it or think his RP through as much. Silver Flash is the meticulous RP expert who always does everything just right, my Vivid Flair is the over aggressive player who pushes perhaps a little too hard against the rules, etc.

[colour=#808080]Bramble Rose:[/colour] Well, like I said - taking Sugar Rush under Silver Flash's wing... is a LOT like a recent gaming experience where a hyperactive but brilliant and very creative 12-year old wanted to join our public gaming group. He got on everyone's last nerve ... except mine. Cause I kinda used to be that hyperactive overeager kid. So I helped him *focus* through his hyperactive ideas and flood of excited ideas.

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Bellosh101: For those previously inexperienced with table-top gaming: has participating in this RP encouraged you to try some table-top RPing in real life?

[colour=#ff8c00]Imagination:[/colour] I've definitely thought about it, but I know absolutely no one who's into that stuff. I'm sure if I was presented with the opportunity I would at least give it a shot.

[colour=#800080]Riverhippo:[/colour] It has. However, my real life friends are still too cool to be nerds. None of them role play, and none of them like ponies. Maybe eventually I'll find a group of people that I can game with.

[colour=#8b4513]Phil the Time Wizard:[/colour] No, not yet. It seems kinda cool, but I don't think I really know a lot of people who would be into it.

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Bellosh101: And for the table-top veterans: what RP systems do you recommend that Canterlot members use if they want to get into the world of table-top gaming, and why?

[colour=#00ff00]Davroth:[/colour] I'd say Savage Worlds is a good one to start. It can be adapted to a lot of different settings, and is simple enough for beginners without being boring.

[colour=#808080]Bramble Rose:[/colour] Honestly, it depends on what they want from it... different games support different types of gamers, and so much of it also depends on what group they get into... so really, I'll use my answer to support some of the lesser-known games. Feng Shui is a great action-movie style game that supports descriptive and imaginative roleplaying. TWERPS - The World's Easiest Role Play System - is such an easy one to pick up and use at a moment's notice. You can make a character in five minutes flat, and be playing shortly thereafter, focusing mainly on story with the numbers just being very vague, so as to more easily support the story.

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Bellosh101: Any final comments about DPM&D?

[colour=#00ff00]Davroth:[/colour] I just hope we can keep it up, and make this thread the fun it should be. ^.^

[colour=#ff8c00]Imagination:[/colour] Seems like it's going to be a lot of fun, the guys who are in the RP are awesome, my friend Peggly is awesome, hide yo kids, hide yo wife, and chicken salad is awesome. Those are just last comments period, unless there's more.

[colour=#800080]Riverhippo:[/colour] This paticular thread is a little slower than a lot of my other threads with other characters. But that does not necessarily dilute the interest. Davy and the guys have all been in communication with each other and we are on each other's toes all the time for new ideas and new developments. Just because there isn't a post for a while, doesn't necessarily mean it has stalled.

[colour=#8b4513]Phil the Time Wizard:[/colour] Hmm... not much. I still feel like the thread is really just getting started, but it's one of the threads I'm in that I'm most excited about. Dav had a really fun, creative idea with this--something that, as a member of the RP team, I really love to see on the board even when I'm not a part of it. I'm really looking forward to seeing this thread develop.

[colour=#808080]Bramble Rose:[/colour] It's just a lot of fun, and I hope that when we get past the character creation, it'll pick up a lot!

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Bellosh101: Roger that! Thank you for your time today everyone, I most appreciate it.

[colour=#00ff00]Davroth:[/colour] No problem. Thanks for having me. ^^

[colour=#ff8c00]Imagination:[/colour] You're welcome!

[colour=#800080]Riverhippo:[/colour] Not a problem. Thanks! It's always fun to know that someone else other than the users involved are interested in reading role play threads for their fan fic fix.

[colour=#8b4513]Phil the Time Wizard:[/colour] No problem! Any time.

[colour=#808080]Bramble Rose:[/colour] Glad to be here! Thanks for the interview, I'm really flattered!

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I’m taking next week off from my series due to Christmas and New Year’s, but expect the Spotlight’s return the week after. If you want your RP character spotlighted, let me know. Meanwhile, I’ll probably do a write-up on one of my characters again during my “week off”. Until next time, this is Bellosh101 wishing you Happy Holidays!