~Heads up, spoilers to the story~
Hey everyone~!
This is my first time attempting a setup like this, so I'm going to clumsily get this started along here. My first family I'm starting in this challenge is Samson Briggs' family.
My two side families are his brothers, Jessua and Adam.
I use an extra trait mod (100 base game traits) for more variety in my game. As such a lot of my Rules have been adapted for these traits. I also have a mod that gives my sims immune systems, diseases, and pregnancy complications (which you'll be hearing about a lot in a hot second).
Samson's traits rolled in looking like this:
TBH I have no idea how he got the "Alluring" trait in there. His LTW is a culinary one from one of the mods I have. Samson is Tender and Nurturing, which does not affect his rolls. He ended up having a normal immune system, and the game rolled him some immunities fresh.
Don't get used to that. Immunities are off-limits until they're discovered.
Samson married Warin at 16 (teenager in game, as per the rules), whose traits are these:
He's determined and loyal, two things which also don't affect rolls. He does have a weak immune system though, so that's +1 number to every death roll I do for him.
Originally, Samson was set to marry Keon, the eldest of the Vickers -- however after an unfortunate accident with a hammer, Samson needed to find someone who could, ahem, provide for the future children.
Thus, Warin stepped up to bat.
Jessua is the middle child (even if the game logic disagrees with me on aging).
He's feeble and a baby maker, which shake out like this:
Feeble: +2 numbers on every death roll.
Baby Maker: +2 to every side-household child roll.
Strong Immune system: -1 number for every death roll.
So he totals out to be a +1 number for each death roll, meaning if he were aging up to YA, his numbers of death would be: 2, 6, 11, 13, 14... PLUS one random number of my choosing. If it lands on one of those numbers, unfortunately he goes to an early grave. This also applies to the birthing death rolls as well. Each birth I'll be rolling for a 1 + one other number I choose to see if he dies in childbirth (it's normally just a 1).
In short, Jessua is the reason I'm just a sucker for pain...
His husband, Bowen Vickers, rolled in with these traits:
He's determined and loyal like Warin (accident, I swear), and he has a weak immune system. +1 number to his death rolls.
Jumping to Adam and Roland, Adam's traits are:
Adam is perfect pitch and gentle, he has a normal immune system. So, no changes to his death rolls.
He's romantic and relaxed with a weak immune system.
I had the Briggs' mother and father at the start of the challenge, and rolled a death roll for them both (unmodified because I'm a nOOb). It didn't matter much anyways. Joshua and Elizabeth had a chance of death on any numbers lower than 9 (<9). Here's their rolls:
RIP. Bye felicia. Don't let the door hit you on the way out. Or rather, with your traits, do.
And everyone gave 0 fucks.
Prior to this, I rolled the side-households to determine if they could even MARRY Bowen and Roland and if they didn't well... (coughs) maybe they'll have an accident with a hammer too.
Lol I kid, they both made it.
Roll 1-3 never marry, roll 4-20 to allow marriage. Well...
Dingdingding. Just fine here.
Their baby rolls are on a D12. 2-12 is the numbers of pregnancies allowed, 1 means no pregnancies. This does mean pregnancies and not babies. Which means if you have twins/triplets, it doesn't count towards the total count.
So here's their scores, Jessua:
7 + 2 = 9, so 9 total pregnancies (thanks baby maker).
Adams:
6 pregnancies... which he'd be fine with none, lmao, so...
Alright so for this update, we had a lot of building to do. We're in "Windenburg" for this, though it's a super modded and revamped version. I've got everyone on the island, and I'm affectionately naming it Clover Island.
The main Briggs' household looks like this:
This is where Samson and Warin live, to be clear. It's a small lot called "Mid Nowhere" I believe?
Then we have Bowen and Jessua's place:
Hey, you can see Adam and Roland's place in the bg! Which, personally I find their house the most aesthetically pleasing.
Location, location, location.
Roland is a fisherman though, so he needed to be by the docks.
All the lots are off the grid, simple living, as per instructions. I stopped by each of the side households every day at around 6-8am to do a try for baby and check on them, but mostly they get left to their own devices.
It took a super long time with the fertility settings as they are to get Jessua pregnant, and as of now (1301) Adam refuses to grow a spawn...
I follow the rules pretty tightly, but there are some exceptions I make here and there - though it's mostly for aesthetics.
This first year of the challenge was really hard to get off the ground. You really feel that ticking clock as you realize every 4 sim days is a year. It felt imperative to get everyone pregnant ASAP because the death rolls are brutal in the start.
But boy oh boy did they resist me.
It took most of 1300 to see Jessua pop a baby bump, and Adam is still trolling me. They have 4 "years" left until they have to age up through the brutal death roll of YA, so come 1304, I'm probably going to be saying goodbye to at least one of them or their husbands.
This year was literally the worst though because I was playing with all these new mods that I have never tested before... and the immune system one adds complications to birth and pregnancy which of fucking course Samson triggered and I, clinging to my rules, could do literally nothing to help him.
I kept apologizing every time he'd get a dizzy spell or a headache which was... literally all the time. I thought for sure the game would kill him on me before I'd even gotten to see his kids.
Imagine a lot of me shouting "I'M SORRY FOR DOING THIS TO YOU- I mean it was Warin but like also me."
True story though, the Ye Olde Cooking mod comes with this cute ass sign a-la the Sims Medieval to let my sims "go to the village" or forest, etc. It's how they hunt for game.
Though once Warin came back mauled by a bear and I rolled myself laughing remembering all the times my Sims Medieval sims would come back limping and bandaged. Shame they couldn't implement that too. Nah, it's just a -10 uncomfy moodlet.
One of these options though, under village - for a whopping $250 - was a "Visit the Physician" option.
Like, ok, my brain knew...
I'm a smart girl, ok? But sometimes...
Like I knew it wouldn't work, because they aren't even the same mod, but I still sent Samson twice on a wing and a prayer hoping it might help with that complication.
It didn't.
And I was tortured.
Turns out it was anemia all along. Like the most minor of the complications on that mod.
But still.
Gave me a literal heart-attack.
He made it to labor with me gripping to life by the skin of my teeth here and out came not one, not two... but three children.
THREE.
TRIPLETS.
Well at least I had a story reason for the pregnancy complications. Freaking. Triplets. On the first go.
So I named them Margery, Rose, and Warin II. (Two girls, one boy)
Then came the ugly, scary part: the rolls.
So since this is my first chapter on this, I'll explain the death rolls in a little more detail. In the Ultimate Decade's challenge, you have to roll a dice for a "chance of death" (aka "Death Rolls") at pivotal points during the timeline as well as during your own sim's timeline. The data is already provided and in short, you're given a list of numbers you're to not hit if you wish for your sim to continue living. If you roll them, well, they're dead.
These dice rolls are done on every birth, birthday, and historical main events (such as the plagues, wars, etc depending on the literal year).
On BIRTHS, you must roll a dice to determine if the birthing parent survives (well they say "mom" because they assume all is doing the true historical route and I say hohoho you don't know me thanks). Then, you must roll to see if the child (or children - one roll per child, in MY case) survive.
The rolls at birth are brutal for infants, the brutality of it is only matched by the YA roll. I'm going to put the numbers and my (+ Blamsarts LOVE YOU) extra trait rules. For those not interested, just keep scrolling.
These are the big avoid numbers... then we add our spices to the mix - the new traits we randomly roll for each child and their modifiers:
These traits can end up modified when at war, at peace, and during specific moods or moodlets. As babies don't have traits, it doesn't apply to them. As Samson doesn't have any negative-affecting traits here, it doesn't affect him either. His immune system is normal, his traits don't modify, so just one number to avoid: 1.
