Lwani.se

This post will be changed and updated until I feel happy with it. I will remove this text when I have tested enough in game that I feel the challenge is well balanced and the rules feel logical.

I am going to put some of my sims in foster care, and thought I’d set up some guidelines/rules. Maybe someone else will appreciate them too!

First off, there are foster challenges out there already, but the ones I found focus on the parents completing the challenge. I am going to focus on one child.

The idea behind this challenge is to put yourself in a child’s mind. I always felt I didn’t know what to do with a child and just kind of ignored them until they was at least teenager when they could have a more interesting purpose, like getting a boyfriend. With the getting points for befriended siblings, we give a “mission” to the child, and by not being allowed to control anyone else, we get a feel for the child and also a sense of not being in power.

I don’t know anything about actual foster care in any country and this is just based on my vague ideas about what it actually entails. This is based on a world I made up in the Sims game. Not reality.

Setup

• Place some children and/or teens that are siblings in families that are not their parents. No two children can be placed in the same family. Distribute the children as evenly as possible between the locations (Oasis springs, Newcrest and so on)
• Chose one child to be your “main character”
• Give your main character their own room.
• Give the foster family 1000 simoleons (ctrl+shift+c kaching) for receiving you
• Decorate the room as you wish, but only with the allowed items below. You don’t need to have all items from the start. The point is to have a room where you can sleep and keep occupied if necessary. But that you would not want to spend your entire day in.
  • One children’s bed
  • One bookcase
  • One desk
  • One children’s chair
  • Any item the main character created
  • Any decorative item that has no emotional aura (or emotional aura turned off)
  • Mirror(s)/drawers
• Turn autonomy off for active sim.

Rules

• You are shy and may not initiate any interaction with older household members or anyone while on your home lot unless you are in friend status or above with them. Older is counted as someone in age group above yours, in other words, if you are a teenager, you may talk to children, babies and teenagers.
• You may let other household members interact with you autonomously
• Since you are shy, you cannot do any social phone or computer interaction with anyone you are not already friends with.
• You may redecorate your room at any time, but cannot add items not allowed in list above
• You may switch to other household members to manage their inventory and see what jobs they have, what they are doing and their family tree etc. You should pause the game though, because your main character might do things otherwise.
• You cannot place or cancel actions for any other member of the household.
• Exceptions from previous rule:
  • When you move into a new family, every family member will greet you with a friendly action
  • If the foster parents do not have jobs, you may assign them any job you want.
  • You may initiate the “try for baby” action for the foster parents at any time if you like
  • At 7 PM you may order a foster parent to serve some dinner.
  • You may have the foster family members start club gatherings and parties. They cannot invite your siblings, and you can only talk to invited guest that you are friends with.
  • If someone knocks on the door, you may have a foster family member open the door. If you do it yourself you will get scolded for it.
  • When it is someone’s birthday (the game notifies you that it is their birthday, not almost their birthday) you may get someone to make a cake and age them up.
  • You may answer phone calls to household members. They always accept invitations, but don’t play them, just let them leave and switch back to your sim
  • If a household member of your sims age are invited out and you are friends, they bring you and you may talk to anyone there
• No one can move in or out until your main character is a young adult.
  Exception: If you only have one foster parent, you may play that one and get him/her a spouse that is moved in. This also creates another exception from the previous actions rule.
  Exception2: Any household member that turns into young adult can then chose to move out.
• Aspiration must be randomized and cannot be changed until you complete it and/or game asks you to chose a new one.

Rewards and punishments

Friendly action: Any action from the friendly or funny category to be made by one foster family member towards your main character.

Mean action: Any action from the mean category to be made by one foster family member towards your main character.

These actions are to be given to you by a member of the foster family whenever you have earned them and are at home or with a foster family member. In this order:

1. A present adult (Young adult, adult or elder)
2. A present teen

If more than one fit a description above, you have to chose the one you have the least good relationship with in the first fitting description.

If you are a teen, teenagers cannot punish and reward you.

Example: You are a child and there are 2 adults and one teen at home. You have to chose the adult you have the least good relation with.

Rewards

• Complete homework – 1 Friendly action
• Increasing one grade – 3 Friendly actions
• Increasing in skill level (except for mischievous) – 1 Friendly action
• Helping around the house will give you one Friendly action per thing; cleaning ALL dishes, taking out ALL trash, watering ALL plants etc.
• Repairing – 1 Friendly action per repaired item

Punishments

• Decrease a grade – 3 Mean actions
• Going to school with unfinished homework – 1 Mean action
• Not finishing school project – 1 Mean action per day you leave for school with it unfinished
• Late for school (leaving the lot after 9 AM) – 1 mean action per started hour
• Invite sims to home lot by calling them on the phone or talking to them in the street – 1 Mean action per invited sim.
  You are allowed to bring students home from school without punishment if the game asks you. Not siblings, though! Doing this anyway will get you moved.
• Stay up past your bedtime (9:00 PM as child, 10:00 PM as teen) – 1 Mean action for every started hour you stayed up. If you stay up until 10:30 PM as a child you get 2 mean actions. These actions are received the day after. Being alone in your room will act as if you are asleep (since your foster parents will not know). There is NO excuses for leaving your room until 05:00 AM. If you have to pee, you can go to the bathroom, but that will start the clock and you will receive Mean actions the day after. This applies if any of the other household members are at home, but they do not need to be in the same room (they can hear you, they got bat skills 😉 )
• Not at home for dinner (7:00 PM no matter your age)
  • 1 Mean action for every started hour.
  • Staying out after 9:00 PM as a child (10:00 PM as teen) is not a great idea since every started hour will generate 2 Mean actions, one for not being home, and one for not being in your room.
    This rule changes on Fridays and Saturdays; teenagers do not have to be home until midnight, on either Friday or Saturday (not both) each week.
• At midnight, a foster parent will come and fetch you if you are not at home. You will immediately receive 3 Mean actions and travel home. These does not count towards your punishment for not being home and in your room at night.
• Sleeping till after 9:00 AM will result in Mean actions, one per hour, you know the drill. You are allowed to make someone in the foster family wake you. The one that wakes you immediately punishes you.

You can go to bed early. No one will punish you for that. Nor will they reward you.

Move out rules

If you get a red relationship with ANY member of the foster family (all members of the household counts as your foster family), you have to be moved to another family since it is “not working out”. This takes effect on the third day after moving into a new home.

If power or water is shut off, you will be moved to another family since this one is deemed unfit for your special needs.

If someone in the household dies from any other cause than old age, you will be moved since the family needs to grieve the unexpected loss of their loved one.

If you invite a sibling (child or teen) to the lot, social services will move you as soon as they leave.

If you get an F in school or decrease two grades below your best grade in the foster family, the teachers will call social services and alert them you are not faring well. If you start with an F in one foster family, you have 3 school days to get anything else. If you get an F again, move again. If you are placed in the family with a C, you are to be moved if you get an E. If you increase to a B, getting a D will get you moved.

Finding your siblings

Obviously you as a player know where they are, but your main character was not told this. To find them you need to travel and find them in lots. You cannot chose to travel with them.

You can visit homes and community lots to search for them but must always randomize which lot you visit. Use for instance random.org. Once you have randomized lot, you need to actually go there even if you know there is no sibling there. If it’s a residential lot you need to knock on door, then you are free to travel to another lot.

Until you have visited all lots in your neighborhood, you must randomize amongst them.

Once you have found a siblings home you can stay as long as you want (remember you will receive mean actions if you stay away from your home too long), but as soon as you leave, the sibling will be moved to a new family since the authorities does not think it a good idea that you socialize with them (make up some reason for this if you are story telling).

Points

• 1 point for every foster family member befriended
• Grades: you get points both times when it is your birthday. A gives you 5 points, B gives you 4 points and so on.
• 1 point for every sibling you are friends with when it is your birthday. Both times.
• 1 point for every skill point earned
• 1 point for every aspiration goal met
• 10 Minus points every time you have to be moved.

Challenge ends when you turn into a young adult and can finally get your own home!

Since you can start with different amounts of siblings, lifespan and also at any age of your choosing, the points you can get varies. So if you chose to compete with others, these things should probably be established before hand.

Happy simming!

This post will be changed and updated until I feel happy with it. I will remove this text when I have tested enough in game that I feel the challenge...