Inspiration Needed-Tell Me Your Story

Great thread! I'd be interested in seeing what people say.

Wow, so many ideas.

1. If you find your own sims boring, download others. We all tend to make our ideal sims so they end up looking alike.
2. Get involved with the townies. They’re lots of fun. The Goths, Claire Ursine, the Frio brothers, all in the base game. And they have great back stories. a) Claire ursine is pregnant (when the game boots) by Jared Frio who dumped her. He lives next door to her with his brother, Connor, who turns out to be quite a healthy relationship for Claire and a nice substitute father for the little girl who is born. b) Gunther Goth and Cornelia, his wife, don’t have the greatest relationship when the game boots. Play them and get them back on good terms for Mortimer’s sake. C) Thornton Wolff, the most eligible bachelor in town has been carrying on with Jamie Jolina. He goes away on vacation and brings back a new wife, Morgana. They are newly married when the game boots. Does he continue with Jamie or stay true to his new bride? If he dumps Jamie, how will she take her revenge? If he cheats on Morgana, what will she do? d) Agnes Crumplebottom is a newlywed whose husband died on their honeymoon. There’s 4 awesome stories to play.
3. Watch machinima for ideas! There are still a lot of good machinima stories out there with awesome ideas for townies or your own sims. I’ll link a few. Mine first of course ?

This is the Sequel, with Bella and Mortimer, Dina and Nina Caliente, and lots more. There was a Prequel before it with Gunther and Cornelia and Lolita Goth, but the beginning episodes are pretty rough cause I was new to machinima. The sequel starts out when sunset valley boots, Agnes husband is dead, Gunther and Cornelia are estranged.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrbiXzbuFmqEMu-FQzoHgvht0laMp9uix

This should keep you busy for awhile! But I’ll edit and add my other favorite machinimas.

Check out the requirements for achieving badges found in you Sims 3 MyPage.

I have several video series where I have different types of sims doing different things. Some are working towards badges, others are exploring parts of the game I haven't done much with so far. The link to my channel is in my signature.

My tutorials are popular and my story type videos have game play tips and solutions to problems encountered during game play while recording the videos.

I try to have a save for every world and just pick something to do and go with it, I was rewatching an old lets play and reminded of a custom world I wanted to try. I made an irresistible sim to attract a specific vampire, but I have her living with her talking cat and dead father who haunts her. Her first night out she meets the vampire and his brother and a whole bunch of other sims that can't get enough of her so....I still have to see where that goes lol. The point is start with something that takes very little effort and creativity and just add on to see what you get.

"elleskyheart;c-17655245" wrote:

"Mikezumi;c-17655198" wrote:
@elleskyheart How do you normally play?

Well with sims 3, it's hard to make up stories for me. for some reason. Normally, I create one or two sims and then pair them off with someone already made in the game. Often they are smart, or loners, or being good/family oriented but then have at least one negative trait. I am trying to make my own family, but I'll likely try the legacy challenge soon. But yeah, I wanna create at least oen interesting sim even if they aren't a good person.

I also am not too good with making sims as they often look similar sadly.

I don't quite understand what you mean by making up a story because I never have a story in mind about why my sims are together or about what they do. I play only for genetics so am happiest when my sims live happy lives and produce lots of kids. I guess my play style would be boring for many but it has kept me happily amused since the game came out. Do you mean the story you tell yourself about your sims or do you mean an actual story you want share with others? If you mean a shared story I can't help you because I don't write stories or read the stories of others so my advice would be useless.

Using bad traits could be fun and it sounds like something you want to do so go for it. As for looks, I see that @ZeeGee has suggested you download sims if you want sims that look different than you would normally make and it's a good way to get diversity. For me, the best way to make sims that don't all look alike is to try to recreate the faces of celebrities/famous people.

I don't like rules so have never tried a Legacy Challenge but if you prefer a structured game it could be good for you.

You might also take a browse through the "What Happened in Your Sims 3 Game Today" thread. There's a lot of people playing Sims 3 story ideas and maybe that might jog your imagination for a unique story idea of your own.

I make up stories for my sims. I love sending them on adventures or quests. I have several ongoing stories, a couple of which are on hiatus right now. I don't do challenges as I don't like rules. Not all of us play the same and luckily with Sims 3, there is so much to do and so many worlds including player-made worlds to explore that I'm never bored. If I run out of ideas for one family/story, I move to the next one that I play. A friend made a ghost sim for me recently and his back story prompted one of my current stories that I am playing. I don't generally play EA sims or families but I've added a few of the sims from Midnight Hollow to one of my stories as they had interesting backstories that I wanted to incorporate into my original story. As @Nikkei_Simmer suggested look at the "what happened..." thread or pop into sims 3 creative corner and look at some of the story threads there. Most of all, have fun whatever you decide to do. Happy Simming.

I created a house of young adults who were all attractive/irresistible except for one extra friendly guy, made a few of them flirt with multiple housemates and become friends with the friendly guy, then switched to controlling another house to watch the scandals unfold from afar. It didn't take them long to figure out what's what, and one couple from that became my legacy family. One set of them ended up marrying other people, but then I caught them making out in the library one day, mussing up their thinning gray hair. Apparently, the library is quite the old people makeout spot in sunset valley!

1. Find a cool challenge to play, they're not all "ten gen legacy with x condition" either. Boolprop probably hosts the most updated list but look around here and on other forums for anything that might have been missed too.

2. Take your novel idea and play it out in The Sims instead.

3. Combine the two into some unholy monster but it's fun, take it from me.

"Mikezumi;c-17655392" wrote:

"elleskyheart;c-17655245" wrote:

"Mikezumi;c-17655198" wrote:
@elleskyheart How do you normally play?

Well with sims 3, it's hard to make up stories for me. for some reason. Normally, I create one or two sims and then pair them off with someone already made in the game. Often they are smart, or loners, or being good/family oriented but then have at least one negative trait. I am trying to make my own family, but I'll likely try the legacy challenge soon. But yeah, I wanna create at least oen interesting sim even if they aren't a good person.

I also am not too good with making sims as they often look similar sadly.

I don't quite understand what you mean by making up a story because I never have a story in mind about why my sims are together or about what they do. I play only for genetics so am happiest when my sims live happy lives and produce lots of kids. I guess my play style would be boring for many but it has kept me happily amused since the game came out. Do you mean the story you tell yourself about your sims or do you mean an actual story you want share with others? If you mean a shared story I can't help you because I don't write stories or read the stories of others so my advice would be useless.

Using bad traits could be fun and it sounds like something you want to do so go for it. As for looks, I see that @ZeeGee has suggested you download sims if you want sims that look different than you would normally make and it's a good way to get diversity. For me, the best way to make sims that don't all look alike is to try to recreate the faces of celebrities/famous people.

I don't like rules so have never tried a Legacy Challenge but if you prefer a structured game it could be good for you.

Well I've watched players like lilsimie and have even read some stories for the sims 3 and I found them to be a fun read. I know with sims storytelling is limit, but their are those who plays a certain way and are telling a story. I just want an interesting sim and maybe try out new things. I am like you though. I like building a family and all that. Problem is though, it doesn't like long for some reason. One of my longest files was a guy who adopted two kids and was married to a musician. It was my longest and funnest gameplay.

"Nikkei_Simmer;c-17655402" wrote:
You might also take a browse through the "What Happened in Your Sims 3 Game Today" thread. There's a lot of people playing Sims 3 story ideas and maybe that might jog your imagination for a unique story idea of your own.

Thanks! I've done that from time to time, but only a glimpse. I try to take a better look.

"bekkasan;c-17655579" wrote:

I make up stories for my sims. I love sending them on adventures or quests. I have several ongoing stories, a couple of which are on hiatus right now. I don't do challenges as I don't like rules. Not all of us play the same and luckily with Sims 3, there is so much to do and so many worlds including player-made worlds to explore that I'm never bored. If I run out of ideas for one family/story, I move to the next one that I play. A friend made a ghost sim for me recently and his back story prompted one of my current stories that I am playing. I don't generally play EA sims or families but I've added a few of the sims from Midnight Hollow to one of my stories as they had interesting backstories that I wanted to incorporate into my original story. As @Nikkei_Simmer suggested look at the "what happened..." thread or pop into sims 3 creative corner and look at some of the story threads there. Most of all, have fun whatever you decide to do. Happy Simming.

This is what I'd like to do, but sadly it's difficult for me. Either I don't stick with the sim because they are too boring or the story isn't interesting enough. Honestly, maybe I'll create a bad sim and see how things go. That would be a new style of gameplay. As for the looks, I don't create the most interesting looking sims. Even in sims 4, my sims often looked the same or too generic. Still, unlike sims 4, there is a lot to do in the sims 3. I just have to find it .

"DottyKC;c-17655590" wrote:
I created a house of young adults who were all attractive/irresistible except for one extra friendly guy, made a few of them flirt with multiple housemates and become friends with the friendly guy, then switched to controlling another house to watch the scandals unfold from afar. It didn't take them long to figure out what's what, and one couple from that became my legacy family. One set of them ended up marrying other people, but then I caught them making out in the library one day, mussing up their thinning gray hair. Apparently, the library is quite the old people makeout spot in sunset valley!

That does sound a lot of fun. I know a lot of people like causing mayhem in sims. It can be fun. Maybe I'll give it a shot. Thanks !

"InfraGreen;c-17655668" wrote:
1. Find a cool challenge to play, they're not all "ten gen legacy with x condition" either. Boolprop probably hosts the most updated list but look around here and on other forums for anything that might have been missed too.

2. Take your novel idea and play it out in The Sims instead.

3. Combine the two into some unholy monster but it's fun, take it from me.

I don't mind challenges. In fact, I did one last year with the runaway teen challenge. It was fun. Used nrass on the game that helped my teen move out. When with a premade sim as well in Sunset Valley. Sadly i stopped. Didn't even get to my second kid. Maybe I will try again.