Zak Barouh and artists, My Little Pony: Tails of Equestria – The Official Movie Sourcebook
***
Not as much of a cash grab as it first appeared, this second hardback serves as an expansion of the efficient core rulebook for more advanced or jaded players that was luckily well served by the variety of new settings, races and equipment showing up in the film. It's a little advanced for our stumbling beginner level, but since we're rapidly depleting the premade adventures, it'll give us more to work with when crafting our own tales involving Seaponies, sky pirate parrots or Bubble Gum buying a car. And it's another pretty book on the shelf.
2019 / Ebook / 126 pages
***
This would be an essential reference for Games Masters, if only it were complete. I'll dip in and out for reference and to scribble down stats when needed, but it's mainly the double-page spread on creating your own critters and the supplementary material of new playable races, talents and quirks that's the most interesting.
Zak Barouh, Jack Cæsar, Mark Hulmes and artists, My Little Pony: Tails of Equestria – The Compendium of Equestria
****
Feeling like a self-conscious wrap-up, this is the most interesting of the supplementary rulebooks with its encyclopaedia of settings and story launchpad ideas. There's also a handy toolkit for making it all work and they throw in a few new playable races for good measure, though a fair bit is recycled. There's also a short adventure at the end that looks completely unappealing, but we all roll a 1 sometimes.
Jeff Ashworth and Jasmine Kalle, The Game Master's Book of Random Encounters: 500+ Customizable Maps, Tables and Story Hooks to Create 5th Edition Adventures On Demand
****
A bit specific and limited to be of extensive practical use in our decidedly non-D&D RPG, I was still able to steal some basic frameworks and scenarios, and letting dice determine the order of rooms is a definite keeper. I'd have to come up with my own set of D100 tables to generate suitable characters for our game, which would defeat the purpose a bit.
2020-22 (collected 2022) / Ebook / 20 pages
***
Kid-friendly adventures economised at a cost to clarity, but I should be able to plunder an idea or twelve for pony-based roleplaying.
