Frain Breeze

Keep in mind that she didn't break the whole thing off. I was envisioning something more like just the last quarter of it being snapped. But if that's still a bit much, I suppose she could wear a false horn over the damaged bit. I was actually tossing around that idea when I was brainstorming this char.

UPDATE. Twilight Sparkle has been knighted. The spearhead is supposed to resemble the main part of her cutie mark.

The mute mare smiled and nodded at Candy, then tapped out a quick "thanks" for speaking for her. Communicating among a large group was always sort of taxing on her, so she appreciated the assistance.

Rappatat listened to Colton, and tilted her head a little at his apparent slip up. She was perplexed by a sudden chirping noise, but a smirk soon crossed Rappatat's face when she saw the pegasus' pet. She gave a silent giggle at the annoyed bird, then gave it a friendly little wave with her hoof.

Did a little more tweaking, marked as final.

Updated, added cutie mark story. I'm gonna see if anyone in chat has suggestions, then mark final.

I was just about to make a topic about the same thing.

Firefox 8.0

Windows Vista Home Premium

Here's what I get (screenshot is scaled down)

Rappatat looked shocked by Candy's story. She looked away for a moment, sorry to have brought up the subject, and tapped her hoof on the table ["Are you okay now?"].

Her ears perked up as somepony new entered the inn. She turned her head, giving a smile and a friendly wave to the newcomer, but quickly withdrew her hoof as soon as she heard the professor offer seconds on the sauerkraut. Once the "danger" passed, Rappatat leaned toward Colton, extending her hoof to shake.

I'm still kinda stumped on the cutie mark story. Is it actually required in the application, or just a suggestion to help fill out the summary portion?

On a side note, what's the general consensus on unicorns breaking horns- Decreased powers or total loss of powers? How long does it take them to grow back, assuming they do?

Rappatat retrieved her notepad from underneath her chair. She flipped to one of her pre-written messages, then tore out the page and gave it to Krashkop. "I work at the lighthouse in Fillydelphia. I mainly just keep the light going, but sometimes I have to help with search and rescue teams. I send signals with the light to help alert them to danger and coordinate them when they arrive."

Rappatat turned her attention back to Candy, then began tapping out horse code. ["Im visiting places I heard my pegasus friends talk about. Maybe we could go sightseeing?"] She paused for a moment, then began tapping again, looking concerned [ "What happened with the capture?" ].

I'd be all for a stat system, but... nothing that complex, please. I imagine it would be nigh impossible to attract newcomers to such a system when so much has to be read just to know how to make a character. Back when I played Diablo 2, I used to crunch numbers for hours before starting each and every character, but even I think this system is a bit much.

Rappatat gave a thankful smile to the professor, taking one of the sandwiches. She looked down at the casserole on her plate and then timidly pushed it aside. She took a bite of her sandwich and gave the professor a nod of approval.

(ooc: sorry this post is short, got a bit of writer's/RPer's block here)

Updated her picture.

I'm not quite sure on the specifics of her cutie mark story. Any ideas on that are welcome

You say that potential-RPers dont feel shut out of discussion here, but Frain Breeze above (who is pending RP approval, I believe) seems to express as much above, and with concrete examples about where s/he would like to comment.

I'm no longer pending approval, but yes, that is how I felt when I was still waiting. I think that letting new users give input on worldbuilding could help the site grow. Having it closed off from the start makes it seem like it's something only the "higher-ups" or long-time members are encouraged to participate in. I have a couple ideas I'd like to add to those threads, but I feel kinda nervous about contributing since I'm so new here.

Name: Lady Lanceguard (or just Lanceguard if you prefer)

Sex: Female

Age: Mare

Species: Unicorn

Coat Color: Light brown

Mane/Tail/Markings Color & Style: Dark brown mane and tail. Both tend to be on the messy side

Eye Color: Blue

Cutie Mark: Two crossed unicorn horns (1 black, 1 white)

Physique: Slightly taller than average, with some extra muscle in her front legs and neck

Origin: Canterlot

Roleplay Type: Mane RP

Occupation: Athlete (jousting)

Motivation: She wants to make jousting the popular event it once was.

Character Summary: Lanceguard has been involved in jousts nearly her whole life, starting with a simple club in her school years, to official tournaments later in life. As of late, however, she has noticed less and less ponies showing up to these events, spectators and competitors alike. Do modern ponies find it too violent? Have they gotten too soft? Whatever the reason, Lady Lanceguard has made it her mission to bring the sport back into the spotlight. She now travels the country, usually still wearing her caparison, in hopes of spurring others into jousting. She will take on any opponent, and will sometimes behave arrogantly if she thinks it will get a potential opponent riled up and ready to challenge her.

In the jousting arena, the goal is to knock down the opponent- If their sides or back touches the ground, they're out. Lanceguard's hind legs aren't quite strong enough to win in a headlong charge, so her usual tactic is to dodge direct hits and instead try to attack from the side. She keeps herself low to the ground, and will often attempt to reach her horn under her opponent and flip them into the air. It is a maneuver that has earned her equal amounts of victories and sore necks. Though Lanceguard is accustomed to winning jousts, she is not a sore loser. She will accept a fair loss and will congratulate the winner on a job well done.

Though Lanceguard is a competitive fighter, she is not without class. She was brought up in Canterlot, after all. She insists on introducing herself with the title "Lady" so as to remind everyone of her upper-class origins. Despite her family's long line of powerful spellcasters, Lanceguard's own magic is rather lacking. Her spells are limited to the usual telekinesis and an occasional armor-repair spell. She figures this is probably for the better, though- Not much to lose if she ends up breaking her horn again. It's happened before.

Back in her school days, Lanceguard made it to the final round of one of her club's tournaments, finding herself against the toughest colt from her class. The joust began, and they hit hard in the initial charge. Lanceguard stumbled back, and barely had time to regain her footing before he charged again. After a few such attacks, Lanceguard was nearing the wall of the arena. She had to go on the offensive. Both contenders charged at full speed, the tips of their horns lodging in each others' helmets. As soon as she felt herself being pushed, Lanceguard jumped backwards, pulling the colt off balance. Lanceguard took a step back, using the colt's own momentum against him as she reared up and threw him over her shoulder with her horn*. She looked over her shoulder at her defeated opponent, and was shocked to see part of her horn broken off and lying on the ground beside him. More shocking, however, were the two new horns she saw- The ones that made up her brand new cutie mark. As soon as she saw that, she stopped worrying about her horn.

Her family was concerned of course, being all adept magic users. However, their studies had also taught them that there's no fighting a pony's special talent. If jousting was her talent, that was that. Lanceguard was still able to use magic after damaging her horn, but she practically never trains her spells anymore. She only really works on her magic when it's all she can do, such as when traveling by train or when recovering from an injury. Lanceguard's family occasionally picks on her for her low magic ability, but it's all in good fun. Her horn still isn't perfect since she got her cutie mark, so she wears a false horn over it to hide the damaged bit. Lanceguard doesn't normally tell other ponies about her false horn, but she isn't defensive about it either. If she has the right audience, she doesn't mind breaking off the fake piece to get a rise out of a tournament crowd, or even for the occasional practical joke. However, she's a lot more careful about it when trying to get more magically-gifted unicorns into the arena, so as not to scare them off.

Reference picture (click to zoom)

*horn-flip referenced in her cutie mark story (click to zoom)

Rappatat shook her head at Candy and tapped, ["My vacation just started"]. She glanced back to Professor Krashkop and gave a smile and nod, then looked down at her plate. She had never had sauerkraut before, but remembered a few not-so-pleasant opinions of it from her friends back home. She stared at it for a moment as if she expected it to move.

Rappatat glanced around the table as she caught herself just staring at her plate. Not wanting to disappoint Krashkop, the white mare took a small bite of casserole. She chewed slowly, trying hard to maintain a pleasant expression as she discovered she didn't like it. Rappatat swallowed, then shivered from the taste. She quickly washed it down with a big gulp of apple cider, then looked around at the other guests.

(ooc: After typing this post, now all I can think of is this:

Rappatat righted herself, then reached down and retrieved a notepad from one of her bags. She flipped through a few pages of pre-written messages, then held it up to show a "Thank you" to Candy and Krashkop. She flipped the page a few more times, this time showing, "I'm on vacation from the lighthouse in Fillydelphia. I'm mute, so I have to use horse code or this notepad to talk."

I noticed that the "OOC chatter" forum is only open to members with "roleplayer" status. The forum descriptions make it sound like it's just for planning out a RP thread you want to do or for organizing one that's already in progress. If that's all it was, it would make sense not to allow non-RP members to post there. You can't join a RP without an approved character, duh.

However, I also see stuff in that forum that doesn't intrinsically require you to have a character in order to have input. Area ideas, world map discussion, and the "mary sue checklist," for example, all seem like stuff that anyone could give valid input to, or at least ask relevant questions. I don't quite see the point of having to wait to have a character approved in order to talk in that forum. Anyone else have thoughts on this?

Edit: Or alternatively, do threads like those belong someplace else?

Rappatat smiled big as Candy acknowledged her message, then tapped out another one: [ .. .----. -- / .-. .- .--. .--. .- - .- - ("I'm Rappatat")]. She walked in, waving to Candy, the professor, and the other guests, then shut the door behind herself with her hind leg. Rappatat was carrying a large set of saddlebags on her back, comically overstuffed with supplies.

Rappatat began tapping again, [ "I've never had sauerkraut. How is it?" ]. She knelt to set down her saddlebags, but soon found herself falling over with them. Rappatat flailed her legs as she tipped over, finding herself upside-down and still strapped to her luggage. She gave a sheepish grin toward the group and reached "up" to tap again, [ "Um. SOS" ].

A white earth pony with a blond mane approached the door to the inn. She was tired from traveling, and assumed this would be just as good a place as any to rest. That, and she was really curious about the commotion she heard just a minute or two ago.

Rappatat opened the door and peeked in cautiously, her big blue eyes scanning the room. She rapidly tapped and scraped her hoof on the floor, creating a message in horse code [.... . .-.. .-.. --- ..--.. (hello?)]. She didn't quite expect anypony to understand her greeting, but it was just about all the noise she was capable of making.

I guess I'm sort of a mix of Twilight and Fluttershy.

Twilight because I'm logical, organized/OCD-ish, and have a bit of AGHCANTBELATE

Fluttershy because I'm.. well, shy. I have a lot of trouble joining a conversation 'cause I don't wanna interrupt someone. I also don't talk very loud unless in rage-mode.

We've seen Twilight and Nightmare Moon charge at each other in season 1 episode 2, and I'm sure a lot of bronies thought "unicorn joust, yeah!"

Question is, do you think anypony does stuff like this for sport? Obviously, the rules would have to be a little different from our form of jousting since there's no rider to unhorse. Perhaps the losing condition would instead be "if your body touches the ground, you're out" or something to that effect.

(topic may or may not be related to an OC idea of mine...)

Just figured I'd post this series I'm working on lately. It's the elite troops- one from each faction, from Mount & Blade: Warband. As ponies.

FINISHED:

Rarity, as a Sarranid Mamluke

Applejack, as a Nord Huscarl

Rainbow Dash, as a Khergit Veteran Horse Archer

Twilight Sparkle, as a Swadian Knight

To be made:

Fluttershy as a Rhodok Sharpshooter

Pinkie Pie as a Vaegir Knight

Hope you guys enjoy them!

^ Yeah, it's quite the coincidence. Until I clicked on the link, I was actually afraid somebody from Deviant Art might have stolen my character. Thankfully, that theory was disproven once I read the bio.

Back on topic, a small question: Does the origin have to be a location named in one of the maps here? There's nothing specifically wrong with any of those, I just worry about there being a dozen ponies all claiming the same lighthouse. I have an idea for a place called Coronet Point, if we're allowed to make up or suggest locations ("coronet" can refer to a crown or the top part of a hoof).

Well, it got the character pic working. The map still gives me the same error though.

EDIT: There we go! Thank you