Saving Sunbridge

hi this is a SUPER quick and dirty test drive for an idea i’m still fleshing out—please feel free to invite your friends if they’re cool, but i’m not making a big public thing of it until i have more information done lmao.

the basic premise: your character has been isekai’d into Sunbridge Town, a small village in the vein of harvest moon/stardew valley/story of seasons, by the sunsprites, our jumino/harvest sprite/etc. equivalents. a Threat looms over the town—expect the details to either get much more specific or to change entirely, but the magic that has existed in it all this time has been draining over time as the townsfolk find themselves burdened and struggling with the encroachment of Big Capitalism. the draining magic has resulted in poorer harvests and other parts of the town faltering, resulting in a vicious cycle. the harvest goddess figure has even grown sick! in a last ditch effort, the sunsprites have gathered up the magic they have and summoned strangers from other worlds to assist. they’re on a time limit, though they have at least a season or two, and if they manage to save the town, heal the harvest goddess, and return the magic to its full power, the sunsprites will be able to send everyone home.

setting notes

• for now, picture the sunsprites as particularly sparkly juminos. they are represented by a single spirit who takes a more humanoid form, for now just referred to as the harvest goddess, who was able to explain the situation to the new arrivals. her presence is sporadic.
• with few exceptions, the townsfolk were largely unaware of the sunsprites and the magic in their town before the arrival of the strangers. they sure are aware of it now! they’re learning about this magic just as much as y’all, and are reacting in various ways to everyone’s presence—from curiosity, to eager helpfulness, to fear.
• the sunsprites have made space for the new arrivals to sleep and settle in a fairly recently abandoned farmstead. there’s plenty of room, but not necessarily much privacy; a lot of people will be group bunking in the barn or having a big sleepover in the house’s living room sort of deal, if they haven’t chosen to pitch a tent and camp outside.
• technology level is typical of stardew valley et al; low, but not nonexistent. we don’t have internet.

places your character can be

• the abandoned farmstead where characters will be staying
• the forests behind the farmlands. they’re just normal woods, but they go deep enough and get thick enough that there’s little point going in there unless you seek the sunsprites, whose emergence point is the lake in the grove in which the harvest goddess stays when she takes on her humanoid form
• the ruins at the town’s edge. it’s hard to tell what they used to be—remnants of a previous town, perhaps? there’s only one structure intact enough to really go inside of, and there’s stairs that lead to a basement with yet another set of stairs going down, and no telling how deep it goes…
• the beach! it’s a beach. it has fun beach things. you can go fishing here
• the town itself, which contains all your basic town amenities

character notes

please note you can play whoever you want on this test drive but i want to set expectations about who can and can’t be played in the actual game on the off chance that it happens so that you know what you’re getting into.

• canon characters and ocs are all good. ocs can be from existing canons as long as they’re not weird about relationships with canon characters
• characters i am probably not going to allow in the game if it comes to fruition: AUs (including CRAUs), anyone based on a real person, customizable protags who have inconsistent relationships with canon characters (ex. WoLs, inquisitors, shepherds)
• characters who aren’t going to engage with the setting right off the bat are going to be a bad fit—”my grump needs a couple weeks to make friends first” isn’t going to work unless you can append something like “but they’ll immediately be worried about the livestock and start working with them”
• characters are probably going to be allowed to have powers that aren't game-breaking. they can also have their pokémon or whatever. if you want to nerf your character's powers, you can.
• nonhuman characters are not humanized. they also aren't downsized unless it would be game-breaking, or if you want them to be.

prompts

• when the new arrivals are shown to the place they’re staying, it’s…well, it’s going to fit them? it hasn’t been abandoned for terribly long, so the farmstead isn’t exactly decrepit, but it clearly wasn’t taken care of over this past winter. there’s also not exactly space for everyone to have their own room or anything—there’s exactly one private bedroom, and it’s likely that people are going to want to share the floorspace if they aren’t interested in stuffing themselves into the rafters of the barn, which is probably happening anyway. the fields are full of weeds and sticks and stones. how is your character settling in? are they helping clean up? are they fighting someone else for space? do they want to actually do farming?
• the sunsprites will often leave quests for the new arrivals! these will appear randomly, and require people to interact with and assist each other. some quests your character might be on include:
  • the river is low and dry this year. one of you has been tasked with collecting and recording, in whatever way they can, sorrowful memories from as many people as possible, so that the harvest goddess can hear them and her tears can fill the river again.
  • the cold of winter is lasting longer than it ought to into the beginning of spring, with frost still clinging to the land. to nurture the flowers that wait in fear for the chance to grow, a pair of people will have to find something one of them has never done before that the other can guide them through.
  • the soil is weak, and the harvest is struggling. a character is asked to remind the soil of what its bounty means by sharing something they've made with their own two hands, freely and without anything expected in return.
  • or make up your own idea!
• the townsfolk have a jobs board up in the main square! you can post any requests you’d like up there so that someone else might be able to help!
• there’s a festival coming up!
  • the festival could be…
    • a celebration of the autumn harvest
    • a beach party
    • a flower festival to celebrate spring
    • a night market
  • your character could be…
    • partying, of course
    • helping with the setup and preparation
    • inviting others and trying to make the festival really happen instead of just being like four people standing around awkwardly
• if you want an npc existing resident of any kind, please make a prompt and let me know! you could ask for…
  • someone specific:
    • the harvest goddess; ill, but eager to help as best she can. generally kept in the forests behind the farmlands, in a grove near the lake the sunsprites emerge from.
    • ethel, an elderly woman who’s known about the magic all this time and is thrilled about the new arrivals. softspoken, gentle, and blind. lives with her more outgoing wife, eudora, who hasn’t disbelieved ethel but is still stunned to see the magic and the sunsprites real and in person.
    • melanie, a researcher in her early 30s here to investigate the history of the ruins at the edge of sunbridge town. brusque, blunt, and suspicious of magic in all its forms, and so meets all the newcomers with a healthy dose of caution and suspicion—but she also has a thirst for knowledge that makes it easy to get her talking.
    • bellamy, mid 20s, local florist and dandy. seeks beauty in everything, and the beauty in sunbridge town has kept him here all this time, and despite his general nature of cheerfully flouncing about, he’s struggling with watching the town falter. tentatively hopeful that the new arrivals can help, and while the weirdness of many of their existences frightens him, he’s eager to assist if asked.
    • felix, a middleaged man who owns the local tavern/bar. gregarious and generous. a little skeptical about the new arrivals’ ability to help, but has taken this whole “magic is real” thing in surprising stride—or he’s just too focused on his business to worry too much about it.
    • rowan, early 20s, waitress at the local tavern/bar. puts on a friendly face at work for the new arrivals but has a standoffish caution around them outside of it. an artist who’s saving up money with the intention of moving to the big city where she hopes to be more successful, but struggles with her attachment to the town and how it hurts to watch it suffer and to think of leaving it.
  • a general archetype:
    • someone who is suspicious of the new arrivals—did your character take their job from the board? have they been forced into the same circumstance? is your character just trying to buy something from the store and it’s become a whole thing?
    • a small child immensely curious about the new arrivals—do you want to be interrogated?
    • someone who works with the livestock—let’s talk about animals!
    • idk choose your own adventure i don’t have a full cast yet