(Completion of review)
Finally
Art
The maps is simple, but effective. Its colors fit the overall theme and I did not find any names that made me go "WTF?"
The ponies within are well-drawn merging My Little Pony imagery, while outfitting them like regular adventurers. Some parts of the book like the deities and NPCs are particularly nice.
Surprisingly, some of the chapter headers aren't as good. It is not bad, but it is not as enjoyable as the rest of the book.
I will go for a 4/5
Highlights & Organization
Some of the color used for highlight clash with the rest of the document. The Cyan and yellow pastels for the feats and special powers really clash, and not in a way that make me want to read them. The colors are very "poniesque", but they do not draw my eye the way they should and I found myself looking at the text right after them. Interesting since that is where most of the crunch is. When you scroll and reach these pages it breaks the flow of reading.
Races then racial bloodlines and feats, then more races with their bloodlines and feats was reminicent of the Advanced Race Guide, an organization I did not like at all.
Another thing I found difficult to follow were the headers. More important titles are difficult to find in the text. For example, on page 57, a page dedicated to "Optional Rules". The main header is the same size as the rules themselves.
The setting information is not together and requires a lot of flipping back and forth. For example the campaign traits are all at the end, many of which are era-related. Racial traits similarly appear at the end. I would really have preferred to see everything together, much like the Core Rule Book.
The organization of the book is perhaps its greatest failing. I am a big fan of trying to keep everything together for ease of reference.
The magic items formatting was bad.
I have to rate this 2/5
Writing
Now in spite of the organization, I really found myself reading stuff everywhere in the book. The writing is good. As I stated previously, I came into this expecting to laugh myself silly and throw this out as mental masturbatory fanfic. While the fanfic part is obvious, I became engrossed in the story, the world, pretty much everything. This product is one I actually enjoyed.
The rules, for the most part (the only major flaw is the vampiric bloodline), but that can be GM-errata'd fairly easily. The feats have flavor and present a game balance that works. The spells, the traits, the history, the world, all around, I found myself enjoying the read, almost like a guilty pleasure.
I would say 4.5/5 which I will round up to 5, because most of the issues won't bother many other people.
Overall
My daughters (9 and 7) LOVED the idea of playing ponies and they both loved the art. They have been asking me to play ponies in Pathfinder Society... That would be interesting... I don't seriously expect to run a full-blown campaign of it, but one-shots with the girls are a definite possibility.
This is a solid product, with good writing, solid art, and a decent setting. The flaw is its organization, but in spite of that, everything is there. I could see one-shots filling up very quickly at Gencon.
Overall, I must say this is a solid 4 out of 5 (a 5/5 for fans of ponies). Reusability of the product, without having ponies is limited.
I would like to see an adventure published in Everglow, see how they plan on using everything together.
I will look for more from Silver Games in the future.
For full disclosure, I received a free copy in return for providing a fair and honest review.
