Original picture for the OE cannon.
The first rolplaying canon to be created solely on MLPchan.net's /rp/ board, Open Equestria is designed as a sandbox campaign setting for rolepaying in the world of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.
The canon largely revolves around the main setting of the show: Ponyville. The main serial thread takes place in an inn and tavern called the Inn of the Last Home. The inn serves as a central meeting place for in-character interactions, where cross-canon socialization takes place. The official canon also includes an area known as "Oatville," which serves as a continuation of the spontaneous roleplay that occurs on MLPchan.net's /oat/ board. It is assumed that this is where the various original characters that "inhabit" /oat/ live and work.
Several spin off threads have taken place from both the regular Ponyville and Oatville settings. Most frequently appearing are the series "Ponyville General Hospital" and "Equus Engineering". There have also been a number of one-off or "Event" threads including weddings, holiday gatherings, and adventure roleplays.
As the name implies, the canon is open and new roleplayers are encouraged to participate. In general, the main serial thread is the best place for new posters to join in, and joining a roleplaying session is as simple as posting a description of your character entering the tavern. Additionally, because /rp/ is one of the few boards having the option of editing posts enabled, new users should be encouraged to post regularly, knowing that they are able to correct mistakes, fix typos, or change decisions should the need arise.
The Open Equestria does have restrictions on power levels. Pegasi and Unicorns are allowed, but a character as or more powerful than the main characters of the show are strongly discouraged. Alicorns are allowed, but given the show's association of Alicorns with royalty and depicted as extraordinarily powerful beings, are generally discouraged. God-like beings are expressly forbidden.
The canon has an official OP, which is expected to by copied verbatim when a new thread is created. The following has been accepted as the standard post:
==[#CANNON: Open Equestria] [#Chill] [ #Adventure] [#Open]== ==Welcome to our 16'th thread!== ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– [cs] [b]N[/b]estled in the center of Ponyville, just north of the bustling town square, the well-known Inn of the Last Home was open for business today, and the smell of potato fries and apple cider among harder drinks drifted out pleasantly on the wind. The interior was oak paneled and lit by the soft glow of several lamps and a softly burning hearth on the far side with several ponies of all ages and walks of life gathered here and there for the famous food or drink or just to swap tales and meet some new ponies. The tavern owner was in the back cooking, while a blue stallion with a lavender cloak and hat waited behind the bar, serving drinks with a friendly smile and reading from a book between customers to chat to. [/cs] ==–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––—== >Setting is simple. Ponyville and mostly focused on the Inn of the Last Home. Just a normal old tavern that’s been up in Ponyville for ages though the town and Equestria and the whole world are free to explore of course. Casual, adventure, lighthearted, dark, all are welcome. Everything is basically normal and open ended, we're just giving you a canon to give you some setting to keep rps if you'd like. For more information on the settings, rules, and known characters and players of this thread, check out our WIki at: http://mlpchan.wikia.com/wiki/Open_Equestria >The only rules being no overly grimdark (see: raping somepony or wanton and explicit torture/murder for no reason), no godly characters, and no griefing of other people in the thread. If somepony asks you to stop something OOC, respect their wishes please. Alicorns are mildly acceptable as long as they are not royalty and are not particularly powerful. >The thread owners are: Taiga, Avedon, and Asomameow. >This is a canon we all to make into something great with all of you, and please come in and RP and we can see where this all goes. Hope to see you soon, and remember, Friendship is Magic! >You can contact Taiga via email at: [i]taix1817@gmail.com[/i] Or find him in thread.
The conventions for the description of activities is similar to other imageboard roleplays, with regular text assumed to be dialogue; green text, acheived by beginning a line of text with the character ">", assumed to be a description of a character's actions; spoilered text, acieved by using the [?][/?] tags or Ctrl+s, assumed to be Out of Character chatter to the group at large; hidden text, achieved by using the [h][/h] tags or Ctrl+h, assumed to be an Out of Character message to an individual poster; and a full line of italicized text, achieved by the use of the [i][/i] tags or Ctrl+i, assumed to be a character's internal monologue. Some threads or activities will require the use of dice, which are used by posting the text "[XdY]", where "X" equals the number of dice being rolled and "Y" being the number of sides on each die.
As of the creation of this article, the main thread was on its fourteenth iteration, and was located here.