Something Happened: Little Surprises Now Find You All Over MiroTown

Scoop here, and for once the story found me. I was halfway down Market Street with the morning papers when a parcel got pressed into my paws by a stranger who was going the other way. "It's for the Toy Chest," they said, and off they went. That, it turns out, is a Happening, and from today they can happen to you.

What a Happening is

A Happening is a little scene that finds you while you play. Someone in town needs a hand. Your pet comes trotting up with something muddy in its mouth. A cobblestone rocks under your foot and there is a glint underneath it. A coin pouch gives up at the seam. Each one is a few sentences and a decision, and what you decide is what happens next.

There are two dozen of them to start with, and no two visits are quite the same: the pet, the character, the shop, the item and the amounts are all rolled fresh each time. Some of them remember you. Help Sous out of a jam in the Kitchen and, a few days on, someone may spot you across the street with a small favour to ask.

How they find you

Happenings are earned by playing. Feed a pet, finish a game, buy something, train at the Gym, and one may be waiting the next time you head to the Dashboard or My Pets. They never interrupt a game, a shop or a trade, and refreshing pages does nothing at all. Expect one or two a day, at moments you cannot predict.

Every Happening has a Not now button, and nothing expires while you are away. Whatever it was will wait on your Dashboard until you are ready.

Some finish out in the world

This is my favourite part. Take that misplaced parcel and it is delivered the moment you walk into the right shop, reward waiting on the counter. Let Dr. Harris's free clinic look after an unwell pet and you get a note from the clinic a few hours later. Choose somewhere quiet for a startled pet and it settles when you get there.

About the mishaps

Not every Happening is a gift, and that is on purpose. Once in a while a pet gets the sniffles, or a gust of wind snatches something out of an open backpack. Every mishap comes with a way to respond, the stakes are small, and nothing precious is ever at risk. The Wiki has the full rules, including which ordinary Healing Hut medicine cures which ailment, so that shelf finally has a job.

Keep the log

Everything that has happened to you, what it paid and which pet was there lives at Happenings, along with four new Charms: Something Happened, Good Neighbor, Home Remedy and Sharp Eyes.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a parcel to deliver.