RULE NUMBER ONE! - Every generation has to end with a happy ending. I love drama but also I love my sims too much to give them tragic endings. All rules can be broken in favor of this.
Each generation focuses on four tiers of characters
1) Main Characters: The heir and their significant other.
2) Regular Characters: Those directly within the household of the MC's.
3) Recurring Characters: Family members of the MC's that may provide additional plot.
4) Guest Characters: Townies/Premades who make it into the story for a specific plot point.
My story is developed over the course of 7 steps:
1) Big Picture - I have a general plot line for each generation planned out way ahead (Most legacys have about 10 generations). For me these are events that will happen on a "global" view of the game (wars, pandemics, new laws, occult introductions, tech advancement, etc). Each generation will have 2 major events (1 per decade) that will influence their generation as well as at least one unique challenge that will be determined through the roll of a dice.
2) Preplanning - When the heir of a new generation is born I look over the big picture for what the world will look like for them as an adult and start creating some ideas for storylines that that can be used depending on dice rolls and the traits they roll. For me each generation only lasts 40 sim days (or 20 years) which is the perfect pacing for me but might be too fast for others.
3) Planning - When the heir becomes a teenager that's when I start really focusing on what their story will look like (while I finish their parents generation). By this time they should have most of their traits (I play with a mod that allows up to 5 traits so they get a new trait with each age with two at childhood and none at elder). At this point I also will roll for if they will get married and when they will marry (I do this with all Regular and Recurring Characters when they become teens as well as rolling for babies to keep the outside characters diverse and alive). If an heir rolls that they won't get married they will still have to produce an heir and have a happy ending. All these things combined helps me develop a story. For all Regular Characters I will create their SO as soon as they become teens so that I can start developing a storyline based on their SO's traits. Before I start a new generation I will come up with at least 5 goals for the generation that have to do with the world events as well the heir's character. These are closely connected to the happy ending that they will get.
4) Gameplay - When I finally start playing the storyline that was developed throughout the previous generation I will lean into the randomness of the game as much as it makes sense. I take time to really enjoy the game and take screenshots of anything significant that happens, especially moodlets and rabbit holes and any other notifications that might pop up. The most important thing is to make sure they're staying true to their traits and the personality they've developed. (I also use Chingyu's 100+ traits along with extra trait slots in order to develop really diverse characters).
5) Posing - This is actually my favorite part of my process though it isn't for everyone as it is rather tedious. I find the game lacks a lot in animations and can become boring when it comes to storytelling so I use poses to bring the moodlets, rabbit holes and dull animations to life. After a gameplay session I will take the screenshots I have and look over the text events that happened in-game and search for poses that will bring those scenes to life. In my head these are the types of things that happened anyway when they had a first kiss or made a best friend, poses just help me bring it to life to share with others. I play on a rather fast game speed (aging off but 2 sim days = 1 year) so posing helps me slow things down and spend more time with the characters. Some plot lines come into play after I choose poses as I'll be browsing for something general (first kiss) and find something specific (a kiss on a swing) that I can then create a scene around. Often times I will get ideas for scenes and characters and can save poses for later content. (Note: The best way to not lose track of your poses is to keep a folder of pictures that has the same name as the posepacks that way you can go through an album and find what you're looking for rather than straining to see tiny thumbnails) Once again the most important thing to me is that it fits the character that's been developed by their traits.
6) Sorting - This is my least favorite part. After I have like a million screenshots I then have to organize them into some kind of vague storyline that makes sense and cut out all the garbage shots. I use multiple folders to help me stay organized with one folder per year (2 posts). Since I post on twitter I can only have 4 pics per 140 characters. So I number my pics by which post and which pic in the post (1.1, 1.2, 2.3 etc). I also select which in-game text I'm going to use (moodlets, rabbit holes etc) and use Paint to copy and paste onto the main picture as an extra explanation of what they're feeling and why.
7) Scripting - I do all my scripting last. Though I may have some lines bouncing around in my head and a general script forming after going through the pictures, I don't write anything down until I'm preparing to post. This is partially because I don't want to script the whole thing and then have too many characters and not enough pics but ultimately I want to really get to know the characters before I write anything down. By the time I sit down and write a conversation between my heir and their SO or script a break-up or a fight, I've taken a lot of time to really get into their head and know how they tick and how they would react and the words they would most likely say. I fill in the blanks of why they're making certain faces and rearrange or delete pics if necessary and then it's ready to post! I archive everything when I'm done by deleting all the pictures and redownloading them straight off Twitter so I don't have to figure out which pictures I actually used. Then I create collages for my website.
Personally I enjoy having rules for the game to give me guidance and help me develop a storyline. I'm really good at characterization but personally would struggle to come up with bigger diverse plotlines for multiple generations. To reconcile this, I use rules from multiple challenges to create an overarching storyline across 104 generations (I'm hoping to complete the 100 Generation challenge!)
My legacy will include rules from...
* The Decade Challenge (including rags to riches challenge)
* My own Lepacy rules (each gen focuses on a different gamepack) that will introduce occults
* Eras Challenge (post the Apocolypse Challenge)
* Harry Potter Challenge (Condensed)
* Disney Princess Challenge (Heavily Modified)
* Not So Berry Challenge (Pt 1 & 2)
* Whimsy Challenge (Expanded)
*Moon Phase Challenge
Each gen focuses on a letter of the alphabet because I don't like numbers and because it's more fun to connect them to a certain word that defines them. My plan is to go through the alphabet 4 times!
Note about LGBT+ relationships
- As a heterosexual female I find much more enjoyment writing romances that attract and excite me. While I do enjoy reading and supporting the content of all kinds of creators with all kinds of stories, you will find limited storylines surrounding LGBT themes especially with my main characters. This is not to show hate to anyone but rather to write the romances I enjoy reading the most as a heterosexual, cis-female.
Thank you for your understanding and support!
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