My Little Pony: Adventures in Equestria Deck-Building Game – True Talents Expansion
My Little Pony: Adventures in Equestria Deck-Building Game – True Talents Expansion Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
New Additions to the Supply
These new materials are used just like the ones in the core set, with a few exceptions, as outlined on pages 3-10.
- 72 Standard Cards (59 Adventure Deck, 4 Starter, 8 Situation, 1 Reference)
- 17 Deluxe Oversized Cards (9 Hurdles, 4 Final Challenges, 4 Characters)
- 5 Location Cards
- 4 Plastic Standee Bases
- 4 Character Standees
All-New Starting Characters
Each player needs to choose a Starting Character. With this True Talents expansion, you can now play as Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, or Zecora. Of course, you can still choose one of the original Starting Characters from the core set: Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, or Twilight Sparkle. You may also use Starting Characters from any set you have.
The new Pony Characters use these unique cards to complete their starting decks of 10 cards:
- Apple Bloom: Ugh, I Hate Research!
- Scootaloo: When in Doubt, Chart it Out!
- Sweetie Belle: Relax. I Got This.
- Zecora: Take a Second Look
Take the matching Character Card for your Pony and place it in front of you with the Starting Side face up. Insert the matching standee in the plastic base and place it next to the Central Location.
New Situations, Hurdles, and Challenges
A standard game of My Little Pony: Adventures in Equestria pits your team against three Hurdles and one Final Challenge. In this expansion, there are 9 new Hurdles and 4 new Final Challenges to add to the available pool of possibilities. Set up the Hurdles and Final Challenge as described in the core set rule book.
To further increase the difficulty, try adding an additional Hurdle or two to the Active Hurdle stack at the start of the game. This will give the Clouds more time to accumulate on the Final Challenge and you might also see the Adventure Deck run low, which could cause the game to end if it runs out!
Apple Bloom's Gameplay Tip: A good way to start your Adventure is a Level 1 Hurdle, then you can progress from there. We don't recommend starting against a Level 2 or Level 3 Hurdle right away, as that's really, really difficult!
New Locations
True Talents adds 5 new Locations to your available Location options. You can now visit Crystal Empire Square, Sweet Feather Sanctuary, Ponyville: Schoolhouse, Cutie Mark Crusaders' Clubhouse, and Maretropolis (from Spike's comic book?!) to perform all-new Tasks that can guide your team to victory.
Place one Central Location in an open area near the Adventure Row, either Ponyville: Town Square or Crystal Empire Square. Then, shuffle the rest of the Location cards together (except for the unused Central Location) and randomly create a Location deck with 10 cards (return the unused Locations to the box without looking at them). Finally, draw the top 3 cards and arrange them around the Central Location as in the core game.
Preparing the Adventure Deck
True Talents features a ton of new Allies, Actions, and a new Artifact for you to buy. But be warned - there are also new Situation cards that want to make their debut as you try to make it through the game to your Final Challenge!
To prepare the Adventure Deck with all these new cards, follow these procedures in order:
- Shuffle all of the available Ally cards, then create a stack of 30 Ally cards.
- Shuffle all of the available Action cards, then create a stack of 24 Action cards.
- Shuffle all of the available Artifact and Super Ally cards together, then create a stack of 6 cards.
- Shuffle all of these stacks together into an Adventure Deck of 60 cards, then draw the top 6 cards and place them face up to form the initial Adventure Row.
If this is your first few times playing with this expansion and you've yet to win a game, leave the Situations out until you win. When you're ready to add them in, shuffle all of the Situation cards into a stack, then take the top 4 or 8 cards from the stack (according to your desired difficulty level) and shuffle them into the Adventure Deck after placing the initial 6 cards into the Adventure Row.
If you're really feeling "Pinkie Keen," use only one copy of each Ally and Action card from the Core Game and expansions when creating these stacks of cards to shuffle into the Adventure Deck. Now you have a 60-card Adventure Deck where all of the cards are unique! However, the same should apply to the dastardly Situations! Insert 0, 4, or 8 different Situations into the Adventure Deck once you've formed the initial Adventure Row.
Place all unused cards back in the box, unseen. Now you're ready to start the game!
Pinkie Pie's Gameplay Tip: I heard my name, so I guess I'll need to help out here! After the game is over, it is recommended you keep these stacks separate from their duplicate copies if you want to be Pinkie Keen all the time!
See "Build the Adventure Deck and Row" in the core rulebook (page 3) if you need a refresher on how to get your Adventure Deck and Row ready.
New Mechanics
"Discovering" a Trait or Keyword
To "Discover," you simply need to look for and count the named Traits or Keywords on any number of cards in your hand, cards under your control, in the hands of the other players, and cards under their control... all during your current turn. Seeing a Keyword or Trait on cards in the Adventure Row, discard piles, etc. does not count toward your "Discovered" total.
Ally cards in the core game and this expansion have a combination of Traits (Star, Moon, Mountain), and Keywords. The core set has the Keywords Pet and Crusader, and this expansion introduces one new Keyword: Classmate. You may also encounter new cards that ask you to Discover a certain Trait or Keyword on cards.
Example: Zecora plays Gabby on her turn, which names Crusader as a Keyword that the player needs to Discover in order to unlock the card's full potential. Well, it turns out that Sweetie Belle has Sweetie Belle in her hand, Apple Bloom has Discord, Honorary Cutie Mark Crusader in her hand, and Scootaloo has Apple Bloom in her hand, so Zecora gains an extra 4 this turn. Because as the Gabby card says, it counts itself as well!
The example names four Ally cards. Their printed card text, as shown in the manual's artwork, is:
- Gabby (Ally): Crusader – +1 Help for each Crusader you have Discovered, including Gabby.
- Sweetie Belle (Ally): Crusader – Target player gains a +1 Info token.
- Discord, Honorary Cutie Mark Crusader (Ally): Crusader – +1 Move for each Crusader you have Discovered, including Discord, Honorary Cutie Mark Crusader.
- Apple Bloom (Ally): Crusader – Target player gains a +2 Help token.
Sweetie Belle's Gameplay Tip: Make sure you can see all of your teammates' cards in their entirety, because you'll want to Discover to the best of your ability! If you don't have space for this, you can always ask your teammates to check for Traits and Keywords.
"Adventure Row" Call-Out
Some new cards will have the text "Adventure Row:" before their effects. If these cards are in the Adventure Row, that effect is active. Once they are removed from the Adventure Row (e.g., by buying, gaining, or discarding), they no longer have this effect, including when you play them on your turn.
Scootaloo's Gameplay Tip: If you see these cards in the Adventure Row, try to purchase them right away, because you may get a small discount or you may produce a cool effect on your turn!
Refashion the Adventure Row
Rarity's Gameplay Tip: Adventure Row looking drab? Want it to look fab and make it your own runway? Let's Refashion it! Use this new action to free the row of any cards you may not need!
The active player may spend Info to discard up to 3 non-Situation card(s) from the Adventure Row. The rest of the non-Situation cards are moved to the right to fill any gaps, and the row is refilled with 1 less card from the top of the Adventure Deck. You may only perform this action once during each of your turns.
The Info cost is equal to the number of cards discarded:
- 1 Info: Discard 1 card.
- 2 Info: Discard 2 cards, refill 1 card.
- 3 Info: Discard 3 cards, refill 2 cards.
Example: The active player decides to Refashion the Adventure Row, spending 2 Info to discard Trixie and Diamond Tiara from the Adventure Row since the team has too many Clouds on the Final Challenge already and wants to steer clear of any cards that provide Move! Taking the Stage is moved to the right, to fill the gap, and Spike is drawn as a replacement. The Apple Rot! Situation card must be skipped over when refilling, and it cannot be moved or discarded using this action.
The example names five cards. Their printed card text, as shown in the manual's artwork, is:
- Diamond Tiara (Ally): Leader, Classmate – If you have Discovered another Classmate, each player may remove 1 card in their discard pile from the game.
- Trixie (Ally): Target player gains 1 Sugar Cube.
- Taking the Stage (Action): Adventure Row: The active player may gain this card if the team has suffered a Setback this game.
- Spike (Ally): Draw 2 cards.
- Apple Rot! (Situation): During your End Phase, add 1 Cloud to the Final Challenge if your team has not suffered a Setback this game. Resolve: Pay [Move symbol]. Reduce this by half if you have Discovered a Mountain.
Please note that the team will lose the game if the Adventure Row cannot be refilled to its limit at the start of any player's turn, so use this action wisely!
Go, Go, Power Ponies!
Looks like the Power Ponies from Spike's enchanted comic book have entered the fray! These cards are called Super Ally cards when you're constructing the Adventure Deck during set-up, but they are considered normal Ally cards for the purposes of other card effects in play.
You'll notice that they provide -1 Cloud when they're played, so if you play them on your turn, or you've discarded them for their provided Resources, they will remove 1 Cloud from the Active Hurdle or Final Challenge!
Example card: Fili-Second (Super Ally): The first time you perform a non-repeatable task at a Location this turn, gain a + [token symbol not legible in the PDF text layer] Token. It provides -1 Cloud when played.
Spike's Gameplay Tip: Although these are really powerful to have around, you don't want too many high-cost cards in your Adventure Deck as it can leave you with fewer buying options in the early part of the game!
Solo Play Changes
When playing Solo, the new Discover ability is modified, allowing you to Discover Keywords and Traits on cards in the Adventure Row. However, cards in discard piles still do not count towards your Discover total.
Zecora's Gameplay Tip: Try playing your cards that utilize Discover early in your turn before buying cards, because you'll need all the added Traits and Keywords from the Adventure Row!