Apologies for those planning on being American critters, but I've decided to stick with the Japanese setting. No plan on using the rules of the actual game (distribution of dreams, in particular, would be difficult), so no need to worry about learning them.
Imagine a small town in the Japanese countryside. There's only a single rail line with two car trains passing once an hour and no more. Most of the roads are little more than dirt paths. Rice paddies outnumber houses. Temples, shrines, bamboo groves, flower beds, and forests. It gets very dark a night, the people are outnumbered by animals, and the fireflies come out in profusion every summer.
This town is home to more than just people, even if they don't all know it. If you go out to the right places at the right time of day, some of the people you talk to might be something else in disguise.
Golden Sky Stories takes place in such a town. This roleplay is based on a tabletop game, although we won't be worrying about the game's mechanics, although if you're familiar with them, feel free to take the weaknesses and powers of henge into account. This is a roleplay about a small town, and is meant to be a chill, heartwarming sort of experience. Your characters are animals with a little bit of magic, and you live alongside humans in town, helping them with their small problems and learning a thing or two about friendship along the way. There are no big villains to defeat, or epic quests to be had. Heck, there probably won't even be any fighting.
The actual roleplay will probably be a bit episodic in nature, with each "episode" being a single little story or scenario your characters get involved in. Yokokoshi Town
Yokokoshi is a small town in rural Japan. A river runs through town and splits it, or maybe it's more that a large part of the town is on an island and the river splits around it? The town is mostly residential, although there are some shops, restaurants and bars downtown, and a couple supermarkets and convenience stores. There are a lot of old forests on the island and near town. Local kids like to go out and play in them, or sometimes make an expedition all the way to the mountains nearby. Bike paths wind their way through town, cutting through wooded areas and connecting some of the places with more traffic. They're also one popular route for people to get to school. The biggest of the local shrines is on a hill and a bit secluded from the busier parts of town.
People and Places Yoshiro - The head priest at the local shrine. He's older, wiser, and knows about henge and even some other local spirits. Saki - A part-time miko.
The Characters Your characters are henge, animals with a bit of magic that lets them take on human form. Henge are still primarily animals, they live like animals, don't need housing, money, cell phones, and so-on. They get their food as animals, and when they transform ,they appear fully clothed.
Henge human forms aren't perfect. They retain their animal instincts in some ways, or their ears and tail might still be visible. It's not like it's a huge secret, though. Most of the older residents in town know about the henge and will pretend they didn't see your bigger slip-ups. Henge can speak like humans, even in animal form.
Henge can also perform other feats of minor magic, depending on what they are.
I addition to henge, there are humans, animals, local gods, and other spirits or youkai wandering around. It's a wonderful world out there in and around your little town.
Your characters will need the following information. Feel free to format the sheet however you like for a nice presentation. There's not a lot, but due to the nature of the RP, there doesn't need to be.
Name: Age: Gender: Boy or girl True Form: What animal is your true form? What does it look like? Human Form: What does your human form look like? Age is typically 8-18, but you can go outside it if you want. Consider apparent age and manner of dress. You human form's gender is the same as your own. Art for either form is encouraged. Personality: A brief sketch of your character's personality. A paragraph or a list will do.
Feel free to add sections or include any details to better fit your character into the town. A fox may have a shrine dedicated to them. A dog, rabbit, or cat might be a family pet. If there's anyone specific you know, or a location that's important to you, write it down and I'll try to add them in.
Oh, neat, someone else familiar with the game. I don't have The Colors of the Sky, although I should pick it up at some point. I do have Twilight Tales, so other youkai may turn up from time to time, though possibly not as player characters.
Anyway, I'll have to think a bit on what to do for the setting overall. Last time I considered small town America, my thoughts went toward looking at American folklore and such for ideas. So it'd probably be a mix of Native American stories and other such things, if one wanted to draw directly from them instead of the more Japanese sort.
The henge covered in the rulebook I have are Fox, Cat, Dog, Racoon Dog (Tanuki), Rabbit, and Bird. Though if we move to America as a setting or otherwise muck around, there are certainly other options. The possum is actually one good example of a more uniquely American critter. I at least am pretty sure there's nothing call a possum or opossum (or related to those guys) native to Japan.
Imagine a small town in the Japanese countryside. There's only a single rail line with two car trains passing once an hour and no more. Most of the roads are little more than dirt paths. Rice paddies outnumber houses. Temples, shrines, bamboo groves, flower beds, and forests. It gets very dark a night, the people are outnumbered by animals, and the fireflies come out in profusion every summer.
This town is home to more than just people, even if they don't all know it. If you go out to the right places at the right time of day, some of the people you talk to might be something else in disguise.
What is Golden Sky Stories
Golden Sky Stories is a little Japanese tabletop RPG. It's a cute, heartwarming, and comfy game that's more about helping people in a small town with their small problems and maybe learning a lesson about friendship along the way. There's no big damn heroes, no mysterious dungeons and no slaying of terrible beasts. It's all about chill, laid-back fun. Quite the change of pace from most games.
It'd also be great for a forum roleplay, whether we use the rules or not. There are no dice to roll. Instead, success or failure is more a matter of resource management. Do you want to succeed at something now, even if you might not be able to handle something else later? Or do you think it would be funny, cute, or appropriate for your character to fail? That's the sort of game this is, so the mechanics honestly translate pretty well. Not much to keep track of, just pools of points to spend.
Anyway, I'm posting here instead of the Tabletop section because I may not even be using the actual tabletop rules, and just using the game's premise as a springboard for cute, laid-back stories.
The characters
Your characters are henge, animals with a bit of magic that lets them take on human form. Henge are still primarily animals, they live like animals, don't need housing, money, cell phones, and so-on. They get their food as animals, and when they transform ,they appear fully clothed.
Henge human forms aren't perfect. They retain their animal instincts in some ways, or their ears and tail might still be visible. It's not like it's a huge secret, though. Most of the older residents in town know about the henge and will pretend they didn't see your bigger slip-ups. Henge can speak like humans, even in animal form.
Henge can also perform other feats of minor magic, depending on what they are.
I addition to henge, there are humans, animals, local gods, and other spirits or youkai wandering around. It's a wonderful world out there in and around your little town.
The Town The town is small-town Japan. Or small-town America, we can probably work with that and just change up the legends a little, but the game's set in Japan and uses a very Japanese concept. And we don't need to worry about being too faithful to actual Japan, anyway. A fantastical world is just fine.
I'll provide some locations in town, a rough map, and at least some of its inhabitants. But I also want players to feel free to add their own places and people. It's part of the fun. And there's plenty of folks in a population of up to 10,000 anyway. Anyway, this is just to gauge interest. if you like the idea of cue, heartwarming adventures in a small town, either as a change of pace or just in general, you might like this RP.
I'm someone who does do tabletop games, but this is interesting. I'm certainly curious as to where you're going with this or how the tabletop "feel" will come through.
Izurich