Levels and Leveling up

Congratulations, you have managed to successfully finish an adventure!
Now it’s time to go back to your cozy home in Ponyville, snuggle up under a blanket with a nice cup of cocoa, and reflect on what you and your pony character have learned in the last adventure. You might even want to write a letter, maybe to Princess Celestia, or possibly to one of your pony friends — either the ones that have just shared the adventure with you or some who couldn’t, but might join you in the next one. Your gamemaster will be more than happy to help you with this. Think back about the adventure, think of the hard tests and both the successful and challenging moments. What did your character do? What traits and talents did they use? This is called ‘experience,’ and by accumulating experience, your talents and natural abilities will grow and improve.
Follow the steps below:

1) Level

You can now gain a new level. Update your character sheet and increase your level by 1.

2) Traits

You can upgrade one of the die values among your three traits. Pick any Trait (Body, Mind, Charm) and increase it by one step. For example, you can choose to increase your current Mind trait from a D4 to a D6 or your current Charm of D6 to a D8. There are no strict rules about which trait to choose. You can think about which trait you have used the most in the last adventure, and increase that one — a clear effect of learning from experience. On the other hand, you can imagine that your pony, seeing that their Body was a bit weak for some of the tests your group had to overcome, might decide to train hard for a few weeks, in order to get a stronger/faster Body and be ready for the next adventure. Or you can choose to study hard to improve your Mind, or take singing or acting lessons to improve your Charm… it’s entirely up to you! Upgrading die levels follows the order: D4, D6, D8, D10, D12, D20.
_{Some ponies may want to be really good at just one thing, and while that is allowed, we suggest that ponies try to have a rounded set of traits. Generally a good rule of hoof is that no trait should be more than two steps higher than the next highest trait. So if you have a Body of D8 and a Mind and Charm of D4, it is best to upgrade either Mind or Charm.}

3) Stamina

As you develop, so does your Stamina — growing older means getting tougher! If you upgraded either Mind or Body, increase your Maximum Stamina so that it is the sum of your Body and Mind values. As you have plenty of rest in between adventures, your current Stamina points go to the maximum — your new and upgraded maximum. For example, if you had Body D6 and Mind D4, your previous Maximum Stamina was 10. Upgrading your Mind to D6 means that your Maximum Stamina goes up to 12. If you ended the adventure missing some Stamina points (say, on 5 points of Stamina), your current Stamina points go to the new maximum (12).

4) Friendship

Much like when you started to play, you get 1 Token of Friendship per player that was in the last adventure, including yourself and the gamemaster. These are added to your current number of Tokens of Friendship remaining after the last adventure.
_{For example, Emily’s pony character has ended her adventure with 2 Tokens of Friendship remaining. Emily played the adventure with two of her friends, so she earns 4 Tokens of Friendship (three players in the group, plus the gamemaster). These extra 4 tokens are added to the leftover 2 tokens, so Emily’s pony character is ready to start the new adventure with 6 Tokens of Friendship.}

5) Talents

Upgrade all talents you used
All of the talents you have used in the adventure automatically improve by one die level. Because of this, you might want to record during the adventure whenever you use a talent — whether successfully or unsuccessfully, a pony learns from failure as much as from success. Just put a check next to a talent when you use it during an adventure.
Upgrade a single unused talent or Learn a new talent
After you have upgraded all the talents that you have used, you get to either upgrade one more talent that you have not used (if any), or learn a new talent. Upgrading a talent you have not used represents the fact that your pony character will feel the need to improve this talent and will spend some time practicing it between adventures. Alternatively, you can decide that it would be more useful to learn a new talent, maybe something you wish you’d known how to do in the last adventure, or something that you saw in the TV series, or even an activity, skill, or hobby that you are learning in your real life, like ballet, tennis, or chess. Pick from the list of talents or talk to your gamemaster about creating talents that are not listed there. All talents have a die value attached to them, and all new talents are gained at the D4 level.

6) Portrait

Finally, you can modify your character’s portrait to show any changes in clothing style, equipment (maybe related to a new talent), and so on. You are now ready for your next adventure!

Picking additional quirks (optional)

You or the gamemaster might decide that your pony has gained a new quirk during the adventure. Maybe you have experienced something really terrifying (like falling into a pit full of poisonous snakes), or maybe you have suffered an injury that will remain with you for a long time, or maybe even for the rest of your life (like badly damaging your left knee). These things happen, and a pony must learn to move on and continue with the adventures of life, learning from experience and adapting. Pick a suitable quirk from the list, or create a new one with the gamemaster — write it down below your main quirk. This quirk is exactly like any other quirks your pony may have, earning Tokens of Friendship as normal. We suggest picking additional quirks only very rarely, maybe once or twice in the life of any pony — one or two extra quirks make your character interesting to play, but too many might make it very difficult!

Level 10 and above — epic quests

After reaching Level 10, ponies can decide to retire, as they are now very experienced and powerful and might prefer to leave the adventuring life to younger and more eager ponies. This means that you can start another pony character and try a different pony type, with a different set of skills and talents. This is often fun, as it lets you rediscover that fresh feeling of when rolling a D8 felt like a major accomplishment. On the other hand, you can decide to keep adventuring as a veteran pony of Level 10 or more. This will mean facing much more difficult quests, which we sometimes call ‘epic quests.’ The gamemaster will have to be careful, as these ‘big’ adventures might range further from home.

Level 0 — the Cutie Mark Crusaders quest

When you start a new pony character, you might decide that you want to play as a very young colt or filly, one that does not have a cutie mark yet! Your first adventure (or adventures) will be about finding your talent and getting your cutie mark. So, you will continue to adventure without leveling up between adventures, until the moment when the gamemaster decides that it is time for you to get your cutie mark and you can level up for the first time. When creating a Cutie Mark Crusader pony, follow the procedure for a Level 1 character, with the following exceptions:

• Both your Body and Mind are D4 (but Earth ponies have Body D6).
• You only have 8 Stamina points (but Earth ponies have 10).
• You have no main (cutie mark) talent yet.
• Earth ponies have the Stout Heart (D4) talent, Pegasi have the Fly (D4) talent, and Unicorns have the Telekinesis (D4) talent, which means they are not really very good at their talents…
• Your cutie mark box remains a blank for now.