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Test Subject
Original Poster
#1 Old 6th Sep 2017 at 6:59 PM
Default The stepford Child Challenge
STORY

From the moment you were born your parents told you that you were special. Well behaved, good looking, smart, the perfect baby. You stare down at the unfinished homework on the table and cringe a little. If only they could understand what that kind of pressure did to a child....to a toddler. You can still remember how confused and upset you were when they would retract any affection because you cried too much. Or that time that you wet the bed and they locked you in the bathroom, refusing to let you out until you had 'done things properly'.

Your life was a daily hell and yet....who was there to blame? Your mother? Sure you blamed her before but now...you can see the cracks, the way she stiffens when the key enters the lock, the way she averts fathers eyes when he seeks hers, she is conditioned, nothing more. You could place the blame on the elder brother who is never there for you. But you can see how life grates on him. Barely sixteen and yet pressured to not only go to school but hold down a job and when that's done spend time with the older men at the lodge, and he complains enough about that to you that you're well aware he doesn;t like it. So that leaves your dad, certainly the easiest target. and you want to lay all the blame on him but....maybe it's just the way you've been raised, or maybe somewhere deep down, the speck of love you are obligated to have as his child....you can't do it.

So you are forced to look at yourself, the baby of the family, the rebellious, energetic brat. Is it all your fault? Is it your failures that have made your life so miserable? If so....is it too late to start changing, to maybe salvage your life and mold yourself into what they want, maybe that can make them happy. Or you could do as your brother does, put on a smile, dress nice, and when no ones is looking, figure out a way to escape this hell, and if he knew, that you knew, then you could work together, it wouldn't be easy, but either way, something has to give, something NEEDS to change, or you fear you may die before you can ever truly live.

GOALS

to mold yourself into the perfect child, wether you do this to escape or simply to be left alone is up to you. I purposefully left this open to allow for either a male or female protagonist, but given the stepford world, the skills, goals, and expectations you would have to meet would be widely different in conforming with the traditional stepford views on gender. Still if you dislike simply bowing to the system, you can also defy it. In that case you'll want to befriend your elder brother and make plans, but plans cost money and it will be hard to pretend that, as children, you really have any use for money reaching into the thousands!

However there is no time limit on this, you and your borther are still young and have time to plan and prepare, for now live your life and see where the challenge takes you~

But as a baseline look at the available properties left after things are set up. Then figure out how much you'll need to have stable housing when you get there(#under5k is your friend here) and keep in mind that if your brother is helping you that you'll need enough room for the both of you to live, even if that means sharing a bed! It also has to be a house, as you'll essentially be runaways and you'll want things to look as normal as possible until you're old enough that no one can force you back. For added difficulty apply a fee required to move out of town (in the sims 3 you needed 20k to move to a new town, but i'll leave it up to you if you wanna go for something more acheivable)

GENERAL RULES
  • lifespan is open but must be consistent, ie no playing toddlerhood on long and then childhood on normal or vice versa
  • money cheats are allowed so that you can download or create a suitable 'stepford' residence and you may also use cheats to give the mother skills to not burn the house down and boost the father to the top of his career
  • keep in mind your characters gender when coming up with a plan for better or worse. A male protag has more freedom to go out and get a part time job or fish, whereas a female will be confined to the house with her mother outside of school time and special ocassions 'play dates' ect.

Your 'loving' family

Dad: Ambitious, Materialistic, and Self Assured. He should generally have a country club/formal vibe to his clothing and put him in a respectable career, at or near the top. Set your sim at a neutral relationship or disliked, up to you. He's the closest thing to a villain you'll find in this series, if he catches you defying your role or being 'imperfect' to his standards have him walk over and start using some of the parenthood features if you have the dlc, and if not, just fall back on the standard mean actions, don;t be afraid to get in fights, there's no hold bars for how nasty you can make your family life! 8D

Mom: Big happy family aspiration. Neat, Foodie, and family oriented for traits, if you feel that your protag holds her responsible for their troubles put her at disliked, otherwise set her at neutral or keep the default of friends. You'll need to control her a little bit if you're not playing a girl, as someone needs to do the cooking and cleaning around the house and it won't be the men! Make sure you cheated her some, if not max skill in things like cooking and gardening, it wouldn;t be very stepford if she burned the house down (but as someone who had this happen during playtesting, i can confirm it was hillarious xD)

Big Brother: Possibly the sanest member of the family aside from yourself. Start at neutral relationship. You have nothing against him but aside from a few whispered words at night you never have much time to talk with each other and have grown distant. Give him the Loner and Good traits. He's taken the brunt of your parents harshness all your life and grown apathetic towards everyone because of it, but all around he's a good guy, just troubled. I personally gave him a mischeif aspiration, but feel free to adjust your brother, and really any of these people, based on how you see them, this is a story based all about perspective. Who's the villain, who's your friend, is there any one to blame at all? it's really all up to you, as this is largely meant as a challenge for storytellers.

THE PERFECT LIFE

Make sure you cheat yourself enough funds for a nicer house, and use freerealestate to get yourself a place in one of the richer neighbourhoods (the lots surrounding the goths, or the landgraabs, are good starts). If you're feeling super ambitious bowldoze the whole place and make an entirely stepford neighbourhood! Once that's done get dad a career and brother a part time job, you're too young to have a job if male and mother needs to focus her energy on caring for the home.

We All Have Our Roles to Fill

Mom: Must cook and clean the house all day, you can use her as a secondary protagonist if you life. Otherwise you only really need to click on her to ensure that she serves three meals a day and to clean up any messes that are made.

Dad: He's the bacon maker, he goes to work and expects to come home to a perfect family. Be on your best behaviour when dad comes home as he's the man of the house and the one in charge of punishments compared to your mother more willing to brush it off as you being just a child. If he has a want that either his wife or children can solve they must do so or make themselves available to do so, and no, if he wants to try for baby with his wife she can;t drink birth control beforehand, she'd have no way to aquire it.

Big brother: He'll be busy with work, school, and friends. He is allowed to have his own bank account (use a calculator or a peice of paper) so that he can one day get his own place for his future family. He must have a part time job and it must be in line with 'masculine' ideals ie no babysitter. In adittion to that he must accept all invitations and attened all festivals (if you have city living) but you dont have to follow him to this, just send him along and then switch back control to your protagonist, for an easier time make dad go with him, which means if you go to your room you can have complete privacy to do whatever you need to!

Protagonist (Girl): As a girl there's simply some things you cannot do without getting yelled at. You must wear dresses and done up hair as often as possible, and all other outfits should have a simillair 'put together' vibe. You can clean and cook (mods required) for yourself to save time though you should at least make an appearance when the family has dinner, this is usually a good time to do homework. Your father might be willing to see painting as feminine enough to ensure you have basic supplies on hand (Teen. small paintings only, you can use the kids activity table freely) but if you think that's too easy then you can take up gardening and selling your produce. (teen)

Protagonist (Male): This is a slightly easier way to play. As a male you're expected and encouraged to be independant and alpha. You can fish for money, get a part time job as a teen, and leave the house so long as you have a reason. It won;t be soon as wrong if you gather things like frogs and minerals (boys will be boys) but you're reliant on your mother for food as you're not allowed to cook unless she is heavily pregnant (third trimester) and just like your older brother you have social obligations to uphold and must accept all invitations and attened all festivals (if you have citly living)

OPTIONAL

Brothers Aid: This can be changed based on how difficult you want the challenge to be. For an easy challenge, assume you have this immediately and start with friendly relationship with your brother. For medium difficulty you're required to befriend him first and for hard you must become BFF's with him. Either way brothers aid is invaluable as you can sneak all your funds into his bank account and not have to be concerned with hiding your increasing money stash from your parents, and they won;t think much of siblings whispering with each other all the time, as it's pretty normal, unless you see mom and dad as particularly paranoid.

Reversed Gender Roles: Just something to make things a little less sexist. Make the women the breadwinners and the men the homemakers, same rules apply, but swap the genders, just an optional to potentially spice things up ;3

and that's all i have for now, i may update this later, but for now, this is it, happy simming!
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Test Subject
#2 Old 20th Sep 2017 at 12:11 PM
This seems interesting might try it
Test Subject
Original Poster
#3 Old 20th Sep 2017 at 5:30 PM
Quote: Originally posted by akira-suna-kunoichi
This seems interesting might try it


Glad to hear it! Let me know how it goes for you! ^^
Test Subject
#4 Old 1st Apr 2018 at 2:18 AM
Woah, six months since a reply? What? This is none of the best challenges on here!

Good job making the challenge. I'll try it; but I rely heavily on cheats so this may be too hard for me XD
Lab Assistant
#5 Old 2nd Apr 2018 at 10:03 PM
Great! I might do this after a bit.
C:
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