Generations
As players progress in Echoes of the Plum Grove, they will advance through generations of descendants. These are progressed by building relationships with other characters.
Proposing
Once you have built up a relationship with a single adult villager, you can buy a marriage bouquet from the Lavender Boutique and gift it to your intended. If they agree to date you, a quest will appear asking you to befriend someone they are close to in order to move forward with the relationship.
Once the quest if fulfilled, your intended will ask you where you should go on a date. Three choices of a date location will pop up and once you have selected your date location and time of day, they will meet you there.
Before you head to your date, remember to buy a wedding ring to propose with at the blacksmith. There are four rings you can propose with, each ranging in price. The most expensive ring will guarantee your proposal's success. Do not be late to your date as your intended will be on time and will only wait an hour before walking away. If you do not propose within the date window, you will have to try again.
If your proposal fails for any reason, you will have to buy another bouquet to try again.
Wedding
Once you have proposed successfully, you will be wed the next day at the town hall at 12:00. You can marry anyone you wish as long as they are an adult and not married already. NPCs will also marry anyone as long as they are an adult.
At midnight on your wedding day, a prompt will pop up asking who you would like to move into your household. Some family members will be allowed to join you in your household along with your spouse as long as you have room within your household and they are a single adult or a child without either parent. If you are marrying a single parent, their child can also come with you, or not.
Start a family
Once you are married, if you go to sleep before midnight, there is a 25% chance each night for a prompt to pop up asking if you'd like to have a baby.
Once you click yes, two different options will appear where you can choose to get pregnant or adopt.
Adopt
A child will appear in your home the first day a passing ship appears. This happens on Saturday or Sunday.
You may also adopt orphaned children or stepchildren in the village. First you will need to purchase adoption papers from the Mayor. You must also become friends with the child or they will reject your offer. If accepted, the child will become part of your family and live on your farm.
Pregnancy
If you choose pregnancy, you'll get another prompt asking if you or your spouse should be pregnant. Gender does not matter. Once pregnant, you will walk with a 'pregnancy walk' for 3 days before the baby is born.
Growing up
Children (yours or other NPCs) will be babies for 3 days before turning into children. Your baby will never be taken away or hurt if you forget to feed or cuddle them. There is a higher chance of them obtaining a negative trait though.
Once they are children, you have the option to either apprentice your child out to another profession, send them to school, or help you work on your farm. By default, they will automatically go to school.
Children and adults can have different traits. There are 37 traits altogether. Children and adults like the player can also gain and improve their skills. If you apprentice them out (adult or child family member) depending on where they work they will gain different skills and an income that you can collect daily. If your children attend school, they will slowly gain all skills. If they help you out on your farm, they will only improve their farming skill.
Aging
There are different aging speeds. Fast, normal, slow and off. There are different settings for aging in general and your own player aging. Aging is based off the day you are born, rather than the day you "age up".
Fast aging
Babies: 1 day
Children: 1 season
Adults: 2 seasons
Elder: ~1 season
Normal aging:
Babies: 3 days
Children: 2 seasons
Adults: 4 seasons
Elder: ~2 seasons
Slow aging:
Babies: 6 days
Children: 4 seasons
Adults: 8 seasons
Elder: ~4 seasons
Aging off:
No one will age.
Elders have a random chance to die each day after they become an elder
Death
Once you pass away, a prompt will appear and you will be able to choose an offspring to continue playing. If all of your adult children have already moved out of your household, they can still be chosen upon the player's death. You do not have to play on as your child, it can be anyone within your household. Once you have chosen, their skillset from their childhood and adult job will apply to the new player. Though you lose all your previous character's skills, you still retain all learned blueprints and recipes.