With the current version, Pony Tales finally appears to be past the need for major additional work. In light of that maturity and my own sense of “project fatigue”, I am reducing support for it to what the software business calls critical patches, shoring up fatal flaws that yet may surface, but no longer pursuing active development.

It’s been two years since I first started playing around with the notion of a pony role-playing game. Since then, playtesting via the “pilot” game with local friends and input from varying viewpoints on design or play—sometimes orthogonal and occasionally opposed to one another or to mine—have exerted positively tectonic pressures that transmuted Pony Tales almost beyond recognition. As a result, I long since have lost sight of the game I set out to create—and, I must admit, my original motivation for creating it.

My goal had been simple, briskly paced rules emphasizing playability and fluidity, yet more full-featured than an utterly basic “beer and pretzels” sketch, accompanied by background information as I understood it. I regarded the project as a lark, a thought experiment, so when certain unformulated elements threatened to bog down the creative process, rather than delve into a more serious design effort I opted to do what was expedient: I bolted my ideas to an existing rules set that I felt was reasonably compatible and exhibited certain qualities I found agreeable in a game with a cinematic approach. As a bonus, it was open-source.

Over time, when revising the game to address the inevitable problems that cropped up, I decided again on the expedient route, both for myself and to avoid delaying the active pilot game: Instead of re-examining the existing structure before becoming irrevocably committed to it and if necessary restarting from scratch, I simply adopted or adapted previously unused portions of the open-source rules set that could be plugged in to address the weaknesses. I suppose if I were writing to Princess Celestia, the lesson would be not to let the most expedient choice dictate one’s course of action, on pain of unintended consequences.

I do feel a wistful urge to start fresh on a new, more original set of rules—if not replacing the current incarnation, then alongside it. Certainly the whole process has been a learning experience, I have some new ideas, and other games as well as the existing rules can supply inspiration or act as catalysts. Should some new method or possibility for playtesting emerge, I might pursue the project, but for now I am leaning regretfully toward shelving it.