F.A.Q.

[theharvestmods]

~ BASICS ~
So, what is this game?
Goddess Grotto RP - a panfandom "jamjar" style CR-focused game based on the Harvest Moon and Rune Factory video games.

Panfandom?
That's right! Goddess Grotto is open to fandom characters from any medium, as well as player-made original characters from original worlds and AU characters - that are not OOC by the standards using the original as a standard. You may, for example, app a version of a naïve, zealously optimistic young hero who comes from an alternate world ruined by an evil dictator - but he cannot be that evil dictator unless you handle it very creatively.

Are there any character types I can't apply for?
At this time, we can say that the following characters will not be accepted into the game:
- Real people and historical figures taken from nonfiction or faithful historical fiction. "Fictionalized" versions of such figures, such as Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter, are up for consideration on a case-by-case basis.
- Multiples. If Simba as he appears in The Lion King is already in-game, he may not be apped from Kingdom Hearts or from a player-made AU.
- Canon OCs. Variable or open-to-interpretation characters such as silent or RPG protagonists are viable as long as there's plenty to go on - most incarnations of Link, for example, or Hawke from Dragon Age, but not the Grey Warden.
- OCs native to the setting. Natives don't have Heart Pendants, meaning they'd lose out on many of the game's activities!
- Fan characters. This may be subject to change at a later date, but do not wait up for it!

What's the passage of time like in this game?
3 days IRL = 1 day in-game. This is to roughly match the Harvest Moon and Rune Factory world's seasons-as-months, and allow plenty of time for the most to be wrung out of events and for characters to cross paths!

What are the activity requirements here?
Currently, relaxed. They are detailed in the Rules page, but to brief you here, either three threads, two threads and a post, or one thread and two posts that you have made an earnest effort to follow through tagging.

Can I play a nonhuman character?
You absolutely can! And if they are sufficiently humanoid - for example, one of the main races of Middle Earth or an Alternian troll - they'll enter the world essentially just as they are naturally, though any special abilities more exotic than, say, night vision will be unusable.

But if they're distinctly not human - an animal or an android, for example - then they'll splash down in the Goddess's pond in a much more humanlike shape. They may retain some traits suggestive of their natural forms at the player's discretion, such as pointed ears or vestigial wings, but will otherwise look and be essentially human.

They can get their natural shapes back through means that they should be able to find easily later on.

What if my character has special powers?
A similar case to nonhuman forms - any special ability that can't pass for natural within human limits will be unusable on a character's arrival in the spring, but they will definitely be able to bring them back once they know a way.

What can they bring in with them?
Whatever they had on them at the time they fell into the pond. However, the good it'll do them is limited; if a character had their cell phone in their pocket when they fell in, it won't have been damaged by the water, but it'll have no service or way to charge until they make it home. Other pieces of technology or magical artifacts from their own worlds, such as PokeBalls or magic wands, will also not seem to work on their arrival, though they may way finds to make up for or augment them to coming close after a while of study.

This excludes weapons - your character will have to find any they had with them if they get home. If they really feel naked without, say, their sword, however, the village blacksmith would take a commission for one for a fee and provided materials.

What about a pet, special companion, or familiar - can my character bring theirs?
On three conditions:
1. If they would have had it with them when they fell into the pond. E.x. Maybe they have a dog who would dive in after them; a Pokémon trainer will almost definitely able to bring in whichever Pokémon they had on their belt - though their balls would pop open and stay open on touching the water from the spring.
2. The pet does not have powers above the levels characters can use on the Cape. E.x. If any of the aforementioned trainer's Pokémon was legendary, its ball won't have made it through the spring with them.
3. It cannot be applied for as a character itself. E.x. Lyra Silvertongue literally can't be without Pantalaimon, and so they'd be apped in together as a unit; non- or limited-sentient/non-communicative creatures can come in with characters apart from ones for whom a reasonably solid app personality section could be written without relying too heavily upon headcanon or leaps of faith.

What about dead characters? Terminal characters?
Dead characters are revived - they will have found themselves winking into a consciousness and "dreaming" about the spring. If they go home, they go back to R'ing-I-P.
Terminal characters, meanwhile, won't experience any worsening symptoms and will feel relatively healthy as long as they stay in the setting, though, for example, a character canonically dying of tuberculosis may experience nasty coughing fits on occasion.

Is death or illness possible in-game?
Characters cannot kill each other or die accidental deaths - sufficiently severe injury will leave them just hanging on, and it won't be long before they're found and taken to the clinic to recover. At worst, this may leave them bedridden for around a week and under the doctor's watch for longer.
Characters can, on the other hand, get sick, and they can theoretically die of anything serious, but it's unlikely anyone let alone the town doctor will let that happen.

What will happen to my character if I go on hiatus? What if I drop?
You can ask your fellow players to treat your hiatus a certain way in-game - maybe you'd like to say that your character got trapped in the mines or went on a road trip with Grey or Zack.

By default, however, characters will fall under the effects of a sleeping spell - simple as that! They'll be found in the woods and taken home (or to the inn, or to the doctor's), and watched over until they wake up.

As for dropped characters, they vanish, pendant and all. Their belongings and property will still exist for someone else to look after.

If you decide to re-app a character you've previously dropped, you may do so, and it'll be assumed that they fell into the spring again - they would have neither gone home nor survived having been trapped underwater for months on end. In their time between falling in and resurfacing, they would've been in a time void of sorts. You therefore may pick up a previously-dropped character with their Heart Levels as they were at the time with characters whose players have not changed since then. It's up to them, however, whether or not their feelings toward your character might have "cooled".

What are Heart Levels and Heart Rewards? How do they work?
Heart Levels, after the old-fashioned Harvest Moon measurement of a character's level of affection for the player, measure characters' friendships with each other, and can be determined by what color a character's heart pendant turns when they think of or are similarly focused on another.

The levels, from "coldest" to fondest feelings represented, are:
Black
Purple
Blue
Green
Yellow
Orange
A platonic Pink OR a romantic Red

Heart Rewards are unlockable by heart pendants of certain colors.

Both Heart Levels and Heart Rewards, including a more detailed description of pendants, what the levels mean, how their progress is tracked, and pre-established canon relationships, are explained further here!

How can I contact the mods?
Feel free to drop anything you may have on your mind that you want us to know, from event ideas to OOC concerns, at the post here! You may also PM the mod account, theharvestmods, at any time.


~ WORLD ~
Where does the game took place?
In a scenic Arcadian town by the sea on misty Cape Beryl. Bower Village is just left of the center of the Cape, with forest and Mt. Throne to the north and northeast. West and south of the town are beaches. It's a pretty and nature-bound region, but a bit rustic - the town uses electricity, but you'll find not a TV or radio in anyone's house.

Why, exactly, is my character here?
The Harvest Goddess lives in and her magic inevitably rubs off in high concentration her Goddess Spring - your character found a spot where her waters well up into their world and fell in. Perhaps they were exploring, out on a stroll, hiding from danger - anyway, some curiosity led them out of the way to a little body of water that some inexplicable hunch told them held something for them. When they leaned in to investigate on actually spotting something in the water - what turned out to be a Heart Pendant - they slipped in and were dropped into one of her main springs, in a grotto near the beach on Cape Beryl.

How do characters communicate?
Communication is mainly face to face. Travel over the cape is relatively easy, so a friend's house is likely to be an hour or less's walk away at the most.

In the town square is also a bulletin board, mainly used for announcement of news, current events, requests of varying kinds, and such, but that's obviously not all that can be done with it. Characters can post questions, PSAs, personal news, and the like if they want, with others free to tack on responses as they pass by.

Characters may also initiate communications and meetings by mail, which is taken and delivered once every day. They can even send mail to NPCs - including event NPCs, for example to make a request to the traveling merchant Yue, if they like, though a response will take longer to arrive!

How does money work here?
The local currency, simply called Gold or "G" (don't you overthink it - the coins aren't made of pure real gold), isn't tracked - this is a Harvest Moon/Rune Factory game after all, imagine how tedious that could be! But estimate your character's means and suggest their spending reasonably. A new part-time worker at the florist's won't be able to buy themselves a horse as soon as a farmer expecting a big harvest.

Where can my character stay?
There won't be any vacant homes waiting to be occupied in Bower Village when they arrive, we're afraid. However, the proprietor at the Aerie Inn will happily accommodate them, although they'll have to share rooms if many characters stay there long. Similarly, the other villagers will more often than not be easily persuaded to board them, though they'll most likely want something in return. Try having your character chat one of them up, or checking the bulletin board to see if offers turn up.

Your character can have a house all their own after some very patient saving. That said, the way a character can most easily start living independently and accumulating money is by working and living on their own designated plot of land.

In other words, farming.

Well, this is Harvest Moon we're talking about! How can my character get their farm?
Not by any formal process or through a talk with the mayor but by a way that goes something like this...

When your character starts exploring the outskirts of Bower Village and beyond, they may start noticing "things" - rough fish traps in the streams, freshly-watered logs covered in mushrooms, and little patches of peat out of which the tops of root vegetables or bunches of flowers poke out.

They can, of course, follow these signs of activity outside of town - and conclude in finding the Harvest Sprites, dedicated attendants and worshippers of the Harvest Goddess, at one of their camps. The Sprites at the camp, only able to do so much on their own, especially without drawing too much attention to their activities, will be absolutely grateful to any characters willing to turn the land to a more proper farm in the Goddess's honor, and will be happy and willing to assist them in any way they can in a heartbeat - and they'll use their first bit of inspiration to provide new farmers with basic tools and a cozy farmhouse!

What do I need to know about the Harvest Goddess?
To begin with, that she wants you here! Who do you think put the fact that there's treasure at the "bottom" of all of those ponds into so many heads, or the pendants, for that matter? She is hoping for something to come out of drawing so many strangers to Cape Beryl, and she does intend to thank them thoroughly for playing a part.

She hasn't been seen or heard from recently, however, even by the Harvest Sprites. Normally, she can be summoned at any time by those connected to her with an offering thrown into the pool in the grotto and a prayer, but she hasn't responded recently to any efforts to call her.

What about the Harvest Sprites?
The nature sprites are first and foremost devotees and helpers of the Harvest Goddess, and her lack of presence naturally concerns them greatly. However, though Cape Beryl is normally home to over a hundred of them, not all are currently present - which keeps them from doing most of the work they normally would to honor the Goddess and, hopefully, boost her power enough that she can force through anything keeping her from resurfacing.

They normally stay out of the sight of the villagers to keep their work quiet and undisturbed, but they'll be thrilled to have the outsiders' help in getting proper farms going in their goddess's honor and the power that it should bring her. Besides, given the circumstances under which they've come and those pendants around their necks, what do they have to hide?

They'll also be willing and able to provide such clearly-Goddess approved folk help at their subterranean hollow base, Sprite Station!

More information on the Harvest Goddess and the Harvest Sprites can be found here!
Are there any village festivals?
Many, listed and detailed here. There are at least three a month, and they include social events, contests, date (or man-date, or girls' day/night out, etc.) opportunities, rare items for sale, what have you - stay up-to-date and don't miss out!

Say I have a child character, and said child character is an obedient little angel. Is there a school in town?
Not all its own, now, but it just so happens that the librarian is a certified teacher. We'll bet that one of the NPCs will refer your character over to her for tutoring. If her base of pupils starts increasing, she may even set up a little school room in the library!

Does the setting feature any monsters?
It does. Anywhere far enough outside settled land, particularly in the woods, on the mountains, and in the caves both there and accessible from the beach, are a number of wild animals, exotic creatures, and seemingly supernatural beasts - many of whom can be tamed by certain means, with benefits as pets or farm animals. Have you ever ridden a wild stag or eaten a phoenix egg?

A bestiary including creatures by location, descriptions, behavior, and possible hints on how to tame them can be found here.

So, this world clearly includes magic...
So it does, and it's not unbeknownst to the NPCs, either! A briefing on this world's useable magic is located here.

Where can my characters ICly find info on setting and world?
The library, of course.

If you have any other questions, or can think of one that you haven't seen that you feel should be answered in this F.A.Q., feel free to ask in a comment here!

Comments

[makingrainbows]

Just a quick question while I try to decide here - I'm supposing most Harvest Moon protags wouldn't have enough information to go off to be appable?

[theharvestmods]

I'm so sorry to have kept you waiting!

That is correct, I'm afraid. However, other Harvest Moon characters would be acceptable - bar only Harvest Goddesses, Kings, Sprites, and Witch Princesses, due to the roles their in-game NPC would-be counterparts play in the setting!

[vintage_magic]

Is it okay to assume a magical force pulled a character down into the pond rather than them just sinking at first? The character I play with this journal is a witch and witches in her canon can't sink although she has been dragged underwater before by supernatural forces.

And is it okay for her to still be extra buoyant although not as much as in canon (since some people are more buoyant than others in real life)? Because she can't swim and might find herself in trouble otherwise once she gets to the Harvest Goddess' Spring.

[theharvestmods]

That is all perfectly okay - buoyancy varies indeed, and as for the first question, there're bound to be characters with unusual relationships with water that it's safe to assume the magic involved works around.

[brionacs]

Kudos to you for even making this game, mods ♥ Hopefully everything would be totally prepared on the launch ♥ Color this one player intrigued in joining.

That being said, however, I would like to ask about this game's take on Improbable Weapon User. You know, fighting with a weapon that is not a weapon. Let's say I'm thinking of joining as either Neku Sakuraba from TWEWY or Setzer from FF6, who respectively use pins and cards fuck logic, and as we can tell, those things are just... your everyday harmless items.

Yeah, basically, how would things turn out with those characters of sort? Will they lost the ability to fight with their favorite weapon, and they have to resort to sword/spear/other generic medieval weapon? Thanks in advance!

[theharvestmods]

Thank you so much, for the kudos, hopes, and interest. We hope you find it not to be a waste of your attention!

As for the answer, improbable weapons of choice will stay with characters who have them on them, but what happens to them depends - if a character has a weapon with them that is really in itself an entirely normal item without any special attributes that they just happen to be very good at working into a fighting technique - say their signature weapon is a standard frying pan, frozen drumstick, umbrella, or similarly deceptive object - then they can use it without any penalties.

If a character fights with an everyday object made "special" in some way, though they can keep it, on their arrival, they'll be unable to use it as a weapon - but they can be brought back to their old degree of usefulness through means available on the Cape if the character can figure out a way. For example, a poison-filled pen would be empty on a character's arrival, but could be refilled with something the character mixes themselves; Neku's psychic pins would be essentially plain old pins, but perhaps he or someone willing to lend a hand could attach spells to them to un-seal or closely imitate their usual abilities.

Setzer's case would be somewhere in between - card-throwing is a "thing", as it were, but normally even an expertly-thrown card will barely do a thing to whatever it strikes; since this suggests either something unusual about his cards or some sort of "power" involved in his technique, accordingly, he could still fight with his cards if he wanted, but not with nearly the same effectiveness that he could in FFVI.

I hope that's an adequate answer - if you'd like clarification or further elaboration on anything, please don't hesitate to ask.

[brionacs]

That's more than enough, mods! Thanks for the clarification.

[jackbotsattack]

Okay maybe I'm just really dumb and missed it, but what's the difference between the main comm and the log comm if there's no network? Is one for action spam and the other for prose, or something like that?

[theharvestmods]

Apologies for the late response!

That is indeed basically it. The main community is expected to be looked at as especially appropriate for the sorts of interactions that would be made over a network in a game that would include one - more or less ones where the focus is on the characters' interactions, whereas the log community is where somewhat more dynamic posts go. Along those lines, active events and festivals will be posted to the log comm, though some characters would probably post reactions and such to the main comm.

But hoo boy that's probably putting the implied into way more words than necessary, and I apologize. Nevertheless, I hope that clarifies!

[healium]

Hellooo, I've got a question! For the samples on the application, do they need to be written with this game setting in mind, or can you use anything?

[theharvestmods]

Thank you for your patience!

Anything will do - you may write original samples, or link to any others you may find appropriate, so long as they're relatively recent!

[healium]

Awesome, thanks!

[releaf]

How many Pokémon can a trainer bring with them, exactly?

[theharvestmods]

As many as a full team of six!

[releaf]

Thank you very much for your quick response!

[thisclinchesit]

Bit of an odd question, but are NPCs able to be applied for? Mary was my first thought of someone to play when I heard about this game, and then I found the NPC list, ahah.

[theharvestmods]

Not NPCs, at least at this time - however, Harvest Moon and Rune Factory characters are indeed appable, even if they have counterparts among the denizens of Cape Beryl, excluding the Harvest deities and the Witch Princess! They'll simply be considered to be similar people, not the same people, just as the characters in the DS games set in Forget-Me-Not Valley were supposedly descended from those in Wonderful Life, despite essentially identical looks and mannerisms.

I hope that that's an adequate response!

[thisclinchesit]

Ahhhh, okay. Apply ye olde wibbly wobbly Harvest Moon lineage logic, then. Thanks!

[notsocool]

Two questions!

1. Weapons are out - what about armor? Zed wears a full suit of armor for most of the game, although I can see him being convinced to ditch it for normal clothes.

2. Are the townspeople likely to object to someone sleeping outside?

[theharvestmods]

Sorry to keep you waiting!

1. Armor may stay, though any functions it may have apart from serving as armor (such as including concealed or mounted weapons or enhancing strength to superhuman levels) will be disabled.

2. Though they may wonder about it, they wouldn't force anyone not to!

[lil_rebbitzen]

I'm a little confused by something, and I apologize if I asked this already somewhere. By canon OCs, what do you mean? Would that include like a Pokemon gijinka? Sorry, just a little confused.

[theharvestmods]

Oh, no - I apologize for causing any confusion or lack of clarity!

By canon OC, we refer to a technically canon character who, if played, would essentially be an OC - such as a fully-customizable RPG protagonist or a character who appears in canon, but doesn't display any real personality that would lend itself to an app, like one of the My Little Pony fandom's fanonized background ponies.

Whether or not a Pokémon gijinka would count as such would depend a bit - if you were to apply for a gijinka version of a side or minor character's Pokémon who appears little in canon and doesn't make much of their personality clear, they would most likely count as a canon OC; if you were to app an original Pokémon gijinka character, they would be considered a fan character. In neither case would the character be accepted if apped at this time.

On the other hand, if you were to apply for a character closer along the lines of Ash Ketchum's Pikachu, Bulbasaur, Charmander, or Squirtle, all four of whom have clear personalities; or a character from the Mystery Dungeon games, you could do so, directly from canon to be turned more humanlike on entering Goddess Grotto or just as acceptably from a gijinka AU.

I apologize if I took that on a ramble - all the same, I hope I've answered your question!

[notsocool]

More questions! Well, one.

Are any of the businesses willing to hire temporary help? Something between arriving and settling into farming - I'm sorry if I missed something in the Businesses list about this.

[theharvestmods]

A fantastic question, actually - that they would, and the Businesses list has now been updated with more available jobs!

[whiteserenade]

Was about to ask this as well... More questions c:!

- Does taking the job require you to post in the business page?
- It is possible for a character to take more than one job since there are some jobs that pay a character per hour/shift?

[theharvestmods]

But of course!

The answers to your questions are respectively yes please and absolutely! If your character is interested in a job, a response saying so to the relevant entry on the business page would be appreciated. Don't worry that they'll be turned down from one - it's only to help keep note of what characters are doing what, where, and with who in case the info might be useful in future plots and events.

[kamikaze_kaito]

I have a question too before I decide what my character will be doing job-wise here. :)

I am a little confused about the farming camp system. Is there only allowed to be one farm at each campsite so people must work in groups on the three farms or does each campsite area allow for multiple farms?

[theharvestmods]

At this point, yes - currently, characters interested in working a farm must work together between three farms, one established at each campsite. I apologize if this is inconvenient, but it is likely to change as more characters arrive on the Cape.

[notsocool]

Is there a difference between the log community and the goddess_grotto community, posting wise? Or is the grotto community just for day changes?