Pony Game: Glaciation

24 Sep, 2026

Hi! What follows is a primer for a game called Pony Game: Glaciation that at the moment of writing I'm running with besties I met in the LTRP space.

Pony Game: Glaciation

Pony Game: Glaciation is a play-by-post pointcrawl exploration game, with collaborative writing and worldbuilding during downtime between explorations. Inspiration is taken liberally from Misery in Cathigan by Robin. M. Rondel. You play a group of mythical equines in a kingdom forsaken by it's celestial patrons, and no longer serves as your paradise. To live in this new wintry world, everypony has either adapted or abandoned the old of living. This game will focus on survival in one of the few remaining townships in the kingdom, Ponydorf.

Continued survival in the town is a tax on your own individual resources that varies day by day in it's harshness, simply working or growing food will often not be enough. There is, one curiosity that's close by, and ponies who grew up here would know of the rumors. The Enchanted Forest at the edge of town holds a sequestered part of this kingdom's history deep in it's woods. If there is not some clue as to the Celestial Patrons' disappearance, there could at least be enough valuables to be found and traded with to help live for another day. It's worth enough of a shot to organize into parties and attempt the delve deep into the snow-covered woods.

The chance is not without risk, the Enchanted Forest is home to a variety of wildlife and other desperate ponies that have found their way of life disrupted. They will resort to force and deception to prop up their livelihoods for just one day more. Ensuring that you and your loved ones have access to warmth, food, shelter, and safety will all require risky and dangerous actions either out exploring, or in Ponydorf.

The Impetus of Pony Game: Glaciation is to be a playtest of the Pony Game system to see what actually needs explanation, abstraction, and further fleshing out. To facilitate this, a scenario built specifically for the system will be used. The hope is that everything is able to survive contact with players, and that the setting can be immersed into. The main goal for most players will be their own survival through the pointcrawl exploration and creative problem-solving. This game will end with the resolution of the scenario. However you choose to participate, it will have been a valid way to experience this game.

Setting and Buy-In

Life as a magical pony is different than life as a human, here are some snippets about the overall world to help someone completely new to the setting become familiar.
((If you're already familiar with MLP:FIM, you'll already get most of this, though I encourage you to read as there will be certain details that are emphasized and some are changed.))

• Ponies have figured out steam-engine technology, but there is no electricity beyond summoning lightning.
• Most long-distance communication is done with letters and postal services.
• Travel is commonly done by train or carriage (With the ponies before the cart.)
• Pony food consists of hay, apples, oats, and other dry produce.
• Pony culture tends to vary from place to place, but there is one commonality, at a certain point in ones life, they will uncover their special and unique talent, and it will appear as a symbol somewhere on their coat.
• Groups of Earth Ponies can dig out massive burrowing tunnel systems, even tunnel cities, to live underground. Finding rare and magical gems in the process
• Flocks of Pegasus Ponies are capable of using their powers to sculpt the clouds and the weather to live on floating cloud-cities, that go on grand tours across the kingdoms.
• Schools of Unicorn Ponies often end up recruited by the Celestial Patrons. Hoping to hone and curate their powers.
• There are other kinds of residents in the Royal Kingdom as well. Griffons, Changelings, Yaks, Hippogriffs, even Dragons! These will be beyond the scope of playability, but may still appear in some form or another.
• The Three Celestial Patrons of the Sun, Moon, and Stars have nothing but love, respect, and care for their subjects within the Royal Kingdom. They have taken the responsibility to set up and maintain the infrastructure that knits the Kingdom together, this includes public schools, mail systems, roads, and bridges.

Scenario Details

There are a few events that have happened about five years ago from the start of the game that have altered this world irrevocably.

• The Sun and the Moon have vanished from the sky, leaving the remaining Stars alone without their presence.
• Winters each following year have grown harsher and longer, this year threatens to be the start of the Kingdom's eternal winter.
• The stable crops of Ponydorf have been failing for the past four years despite everypony's best attempts, at best, only small gardens of carefully maintained yields can be made in underground greenhouses, almost never enough for surplus.
• Despite the threat of oncoming Eternal Winter, travelers still follow the old trade routes, and new ponies show up in Ponydorf on occasion. Ponies may have abandoned their old homes, escaped resource-strained cities, or even just trying to maintain the trade of essential goods.
• The world is cloaked in darkness, lanterns, fires, and other magical lights have become an absolute necessity.

Due to these implications in the setting, as a player, there are certain aspects of play, both In Character (IC) and Out Of Character (OOC), that you need to be comfortable with before choosing to take part.

• This is a developing survival scenario. It will not resolve, it may seem stable to a point, but things can and will only get worse from here. Expect unpleasantries.
• Despite the scenario, this does not need to mean that your character must give into hardened grit or hopeless despair, joy and whimsy may just be what is needed to live in these times. We'll go dancing till it all starts over again.
• The specifics of survival in Ponydorf will be abstracted into a "tax" of currency taken from each player every game day representing the cost of going on. Not being able to pay this survival tax should create complications for your character's daily life. Players will not be removed the game from not being able to pay this tax.
• The scope of the game will stay within Ponydorf and the Enchanted Forest exploration areas, leaving this area will mean leaving the game.
• Characters are assumed to be potentially capable of great magical feats, though they cause exertion very quickly without some sense experienced mastery over them.
• You need to be willing to play with and alongside the other players here. You are a community. You can love, like, dislike or hate different ponies, but outside of the Referee-led exploration segments, the downtime portion will not be Referee-Led - instead, it is a community play space.
• When the Referee does make a request or lay a situation out, you need to go along with it. Shape it as you will, but the request is intentional.
• Well-trodden pony terminology (like "everypony" instead of "everybody") is good, though not at all required.

Safety Expectations

Pony Game: Glaciation is a survival scenario, and as such may become uncomfortable at times. Please expect typical survival and post-apocalypse content warnings the longer the game goes. You must be 18+ to play (and to even be on the server).

A broad OOC chat is available, and any check-in threads should be within that channel - checking in with your fellow players is highly encouraged. Ping the Referee into any check-in thread you create so they are in the loop on current player feelings. If you need a simple, quick chat without your character’s voice, (( double brackets )) around any text signify OOC communication.

If situations get emotional, tense, violent, scary or pose any other kind of challenge, players should use the following colored emojis to express comfort levels:

• ⬜ - Do more of this, big fan
• 🟩 - This is good, keep going
• 🟨 - Slow down, blur the descriptions a little more
• 🟥 - Stop, don't continue with this
• ⬛ - Hard line, bad experience

Play may pause or stop at any time by the Referee will, if required. This may be because they are unable to handle the game at that time, or because player comfort needs consideration first. This is an experimental playtest experience, and players should expect adjustments over time.

Players should expect disturbing imagery to come from play, but should list their personal limits on their character post, and keep those of others in mind. Again, check-ins are useful, but players must remember they have signed up for a harsh survival scenario. Sexual content should remain broadly above the collarbone, and should also be broadly done in private spaces - when the camera would cut away in a film, players should take it off-server. Sexual abuse of people or animals, rape and/or pedophilia will not come up in play - if they do, the initiators will face immediate and permanent removal.

Playing

Pony Game: Glaciation is split into two portions of play, though still rules-light with both. Players should create a character according the template in the character's form, following the rules in Pony Game where they roll their three stats, choose a pony type, and a special talent. It's recommended that you set your discord nickname to "Character Name (Short Username)" Once you are in the game. Character art is not required, and a ban on AI in all forms is in place. You cannot play a character younger than 18. Ping the Referee into your character's forum post for approval, and you will have access to the game after any potential tone adjustments.

A daily calendar of weather events will happen each game day that will strain tracked resources. Trading for what you need will be the default assumption, these will determine the tax on Bits each player will need to pay for their continued survival.

When violence or conflicts occur that require litigation, even during downtime, the Pony Game attacking rules will come into play, with the Referee handling the rolls, please ping the Referee when this is needed. Conflict between the residents should be an absolute last resort, and should not be a sport, there will be no benefits to creating more hardship this way.

Exploration

Play outside of Ponydorf consists of forming into an expedition party of no more than five ponies, and describing where exactly they would like to travel within view of the map. Play from that point will happen in Play-By-Post fashion back and forth between the Referee and the players. The rules outlined in Pony Game will be used, and resources and items should be more strictly tracked.

Here is a link to the text rules for Pony Game: Link

Downtime

Outside of these guided exploration segments, players should feel free to define the kind of town Ponydorf has become. There are some standard locations like a market square, a library, farmhouses, and a church, but you should take those basic assumptions and define them for yourselves. Asking the Referee questions will be more useful during explorations, where the locations are a lot more uncertain and dangerous. Players are encouraged to claim and flesh out locations for themselves that they are tied to or control, such as a farmer defining what the farmhouse and the surrounding land is like.

The Core interface for players during downtime is pinging the Referee and asking a question. Players shouldn’t ask questions constantly - they should be springboards for twisting the play experience in a new way. Ideally they are short, pointed, and have room for discovery. For example, a player who pings the Referee and asks “What do I find on my walk?” may receive a response to the tune of “A patch of grass around a flower, it wasn't there on your last walk.” These responses are both answers and prompts, allowing GM guidance to nudge the collaborative writing towards the intended tone and progression of the experience. Asking questions of your fellow players and of yourself should be more common that asking the GM - but sometimes, the GM may drop in their own details if it seems appropriate.

Public thread creation is encouraged to divide up the town into buildings and rooms. You can also create private threads for whispers and private conversations, all I ask is that you Please ping the Referee into them.

In addition, each pony has a few special things they can do during downtime in lieu of going on Explorations:

((To pull the mechanical levers related to these actions, please ping the Referee.))
Earth Ponies have the capability of maintaining a garden that is properly sheltered from the weather. This would be enough to ignore the survival tax of the day and see what surplus (if any) is reaped.

Pegasi during downtime may attempt to lessen the weather effects of the oncoming day. They can only attempt this once each day, and the amount of total successes will be factored in determining the following day's tax. Disrupting all the winter will take a tremendous amount of force each and every day.

Unicorns that wish to learn more complex spells and capabilities beyond the lesser spell list will want to define exactly what they wish to learn to do with magic, and ping the Referee when they are certain. The Referee will then exactly define how much time and Bits are needed to learn the spell, which allows it to be performed correctly at a 1in2 chance. Another time will be defined for when these spells are mastered and have no chance of failure.

Any further updates and additions to these rules after game start will go in this channel as the game goes along.

Noted Not-Pony Inspirations

Elden Ring by FromSoftware, Inc
Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers by Square Enix Creative Business Unit III Frostpunk by 11 bit studios
Misery In Cathigan by Robin M. Rondel
The King is Dead by The Decemberists
That one night where I walked around the interior of a university building alone in the middle of a snow storm and felt alone, that the hallways would twist and turn forever under bright lighting and empty hallways. I felt so free yet so stuck.

Noted Pony Inspirations

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic by Hasbro Studios & DHX Media Vancouver
The well-known pieces of Pony Music in 2011-2013 created by Glaze, Jessa Stebbins, and The Living Tombstone
Starship Ponyville Series by Vylet Pony
Sunjackers by CaptainHoers
We Live Inside a Little Pony Dream Castle by Danfango700