Oregon Trail Challenge Diary
Welcome to the Sims 4 Oregon Trail Challenge diary! We’re in a generic Oldwest setting, trying to reach the New Land on a wagon, fighting hunger, disease, rivers and growing romantic attraction to ...
Forum Discussion
Chapter 6
https://64.media.tumblr.com/8938c0bd7d12871903b18da6af069d8a/2ea2588ac8ab4f3c-74/s540x810/431bfe9fca7c1046d1a9bd415e4530e3c5f31eb6.png
Emma: “See, Jinny? Girls can do this, too!”
Jin: “But do girls want it?”
Emma: “Ey, I like other things better. Telling stories. Playing violin. But I ALSO like tossing horseshoes!”
https://64.media.tumblr.com/c9a9f27d7e3c8e3f7910ad7557cbd4bc/2ea2588ac8ab4f3c-bb/s540x810/de8e8797c768150b2f24d069242c36576e532cbf.png
Gavin: “Look at the girl’s aim, Emma! That’s my best friend! Isn’t she great?”
https://64.media.tumblr.com/801bde6ffd606c123d433d3dbb553a44/2ea2588ac8ab4f3c-55/s540x810/0634a01087ec37d19ef6ab3ecd989d58e9256d33.png
When the friends hugged each other, Emma smiled. Whatever had been between them all week, Tina and Gavin seemed to be over it now. The girl could already hear the wedding bells ring. If she could be flower girl...?
https://64.media.tumblr.com/10ee61e8d0daed4bd16dab047b279f65/0f10d8710d4e203a-a9/s540x810/65b158bda4a9b029f3cb4b2cc1831e2932c27012.png
Emma and Jin then ran back and forth around the waystation until they were exhausted, just for the joy of doing so.
Soon enough they’d be confined to the wagon again.
https://64.media.tumblr.com/c8995cb10ac333216f132a1c0ffcaad9/0f10d8710d4e203a-63/s540x810/0763ca78726c6d59c5906890682aa351bdc52202.png
(When I took this screenshot, Glimmerbrook was my newest world. It’s really beautiful.)
https://64.media.tumblr.com/fd48bc06573ae24716ab3c52318b29b5/5a4b84e93804c33d-a5/s540x810/4306ba3ca40cd8205437880020065892611d0ab5.png
Tina: “If this isn’t a romantic place, then I don’t know what would be!”
Gavin: “Yeah.”
Tina: “Got somebody in mind you’d love to bring here?”
Gavin: “Hey, uh, nice new rifle, Tina!”
Tina: “Thank you! Daniel helped me pick a good one. Then he got a pistol for himself. He’s good with a firearm, you wouldn’t believe it!”
https://64.media.tumblr.com/968db2db76edd06c1d176b1d76281a14/5a4b84e93804c33d-45/s540x810/690e22e4622a8e6e0db926202629c816b7ba204d.png
Gavin: “Daniel?! Daniel can shoot?!"
Tina: “Does that make him more or less desirable?”
Gavin: “It makes him even more of a danger to society, is all.”
Tina: “You’re hopeless, Gavin Curtis Reed. And that’s why we’ll go behind this rock right now (while maximum household size protection is in effect) and do something romantic!”
Gavin: “Without the romance.”
Tina: “You got it!”
https://64.media.tumblr.com/e9d8393198ee70d15fc8154ce1734773/cd2a01af6d9e94b3-95/s540x810/baa45dadbb91755da2fd2cb8db3be3939d0f9abe.png
Meanwhile Caroline and John were still - and every day anew - madly in love with each other.
They waited for a moment when the bar was almost empty to have a little informal date. The on-duty bartender looked familiar...
Caroline: “Didn’t we see you on the wagon train? Your name was Andronikov, right?”
Soren: “Yeah.”
Caroline: “So you had enough of the trek already? Decided to stay here?”
Soren: “Nah. We’re all doing odd jobs to raise the two hundred dollar fee for the next week.”
Caroline: “WHAT?! We weren’t told...!”
https://64.media.tumblr.com/4a1b388b6f1c2a5d3e0b87da8a820520/cd2a01af6d9e94b3-9b/s540x810/8f99d71d25c269fab342da1fe87fc442f961a856.png
Soren: “Nobody was. That’s the trick. They do not tell you until you are in too far to turn back. And if you cannot pay - like most - then you get presented a work contract that binds you for years to your creditor.”
Caroline: “Did you hear that, John? That’s genius!”
John: “I know, right? How much money do we still have?”
Soren: “Are you offering to cover our fare, Mr. Phillips?”
John: “Why not? You’d be indebted to me instead of to the wagon train company, but we’d both win: I get some cowboys and you’d get a better interest rate.”
Caroline: “On second thought we better hang on to the money in case another calamity befalls us.”
https://64.media.tumblr.com/bc7bdf33bfcaf2824ffe01066b5c5d8e/cd2a01af6d9e94b3-a6/s540x810/c4370a3e4f70dd76b927930ba6956383e82c8d31.png
Soren: “No offense, Mr. and Mrs. Phillips, but what are you even doing on this trek?”
John: “We bought land in the West.”
Soren: “I know, but... why not closer to home? You`re rich, you can buy your own land and don’t need to travel to the opposite coast for a chance at a little homestead.”
Caroline: “Ah, but land in the Oregon Territory is much cheaper than in the East. Not to forget that we get 480 acres for free from the Land Donation Act!”
Soren: “Travel costs...?”
John: “Still cheaper overall!”
Soren: “Travel risks...?”
John: “We’ve had several injuries in our factory this year, and the dudes lived ten minutes walking distance away. And Daniel broke both his legs as a child when a carriage horse kicked him in our own street. So distance isn’t that much of a factor.”
Soren: “That’s a diff... oh, what gives! Want ‘nother drink?”
(The weekly bills came in at 211 simoleons. I decided that my sims have to pay it, because Sims 4′s semi-open world with the ability to forage makes their life so much easier than it would have been in the Sims 2.)
https://64.media.tumblr.com/05b9d48a6caf84b502f63e1121bcdb91/03fba88ae819d51e-de/s540x810/03b62621b73e0e38e7159800cfd195b5c18100ad.png
Truth be told, John’s woodworking and Vanessa’s artistic performances in the saloon had only been for pocket money. After the travelers had sold all the minerals, herbs and fish they had brought, they already had 2,560 dollar in cash.
Before leaving the waystation, Daniel purchased a third horse, a Conestoga horse bred specifically for pulling heavy wagons like the Phillips’. Emma named him Dewey.
Three horses is the maximum the challenge rules allow and this is why:
https://64.media.tumblr.com/a3e3b9ae84ef1e9ff212af2ec05c5d2e/03fba88ae819d51e-06/s540x810/6f0ab5758f48a3e74d908a77cd4f51adfd02ca02.png
From now on the young man would take Plum for a ride every day. Together they scouted ahead and looked for herbs and berries while the slower carts caught up.
Finally the cityborn and -raised Daniel understood why horses were equaled with freedom. The time saved by being mobile instead of being chained to the wagon was so valuable. He could do whatever he wanted, and still be back in time to do his chores.
I’ve never been free before, Daniel realized. Rich, yes, but not free.
Or maybe this simply was a different kind of freedom than the one money bought, but in any case the young man plunged into it with all his heart.
https://64.media.tumblr.com/cb22f459c81342543e7a7635d333e518/51182375c67b71d8-f0/s540x810/de3f7c8f5d35b68a16adca9a5f1b12d1b524da23.png
The next morning: Time to break up camp and have one last look at the forest. The next week the wagon train would traverse a small mountain range. They were nothing against the Black Hills, let alone the Rocky Mountains, but even so would tax the untrained travelers to no small degree.
Markus: “Wagon twenty-four, Phillips & Chen family? You developed a nasty habit of being late in the mornings...”
John: “It’ll be okay, Mr. Manfred. We never had problems actually driving, so we won’t delay the trek when it crosses a mountain pass. It’s just the morning routines that we had to settle into.”
https://64.media.tumblr.com/97f272fc425d2a2b8987289e4907fb4f/51182375c67b71d8-4c/s540x810/e2dc834c5ead4af6facb4414e2e28916042e8f28.png
Markus: “What did you just call me?”
John: “Manfred. Aren’t you Markus Manfred, the Wagon Train Captain? You were elected yesterday at the waystation.”
Gavin: “Yes, that’s him. Of the few persons on this trek that I remember from Detroit, he has the nerves to keep it together in a crisis.”
Martin: “Well, yes, half of the wagons we went to check this morning thought I was Markus. Because “obviously” the white guy has to be the leader...”
John: “Excuse me, you would have been who again...?”
https://64.media.tumblr.com/4f318f14980ff57340ed9956c62c4e73/51182375c67b71d8-0a/s540x810/b8fed4e64dcf5a2780f73dab8e3394f08e1ad023.png
Markus: “This is Martin Davids, my adoptive father’s geriatric nurse and valet. What people usually take me for.”
Gavin: “Not John. Johnny here is color- and genderblind. But don’t let that fool you, it’s only because he has f---ing dollar notes in front of his eyes.”
John: “Oh, yes! My dollars f--- all the time. They are great at procreating.”
Gavin: “I wager he doesn’t even see our faces, but the price tags on our shirts.”
Markus: “Okay, take care of you, Phillips and Reed! Losing either of you would rob the world of a couple of good laughs that it severely needs!”
Next: Into the mountains (and to a new lot, as the challenge rules demand)
Notes:
- Getting to know Markus was the first scripted/cheated scene. I teleported him and Martin in so that my sims could get to know them both. But afterwards the Manfreds kept to themselves. Other sims were more interested in calling and befriending my household.
- In my rotational save the Manfreds, Reeds and Phillips are related: Markus adopted an abduction baby who is the half-sibling of Daniel’s abduction baby and Daniel is married to Gavin.
- “Oregon Territory” by 1850 also covered Washington, Idaho and parts of Wyoming and Montana. It is far more likely that John’s future ranchland is in modern days Wyoming instead of what would become the state of Oregon.
https://64.media.tumblr.com/8938c0bd7d12871903b18da6af069d8a/2ea2588ac8ab4f3c-74/s540x810/431bfe9fca7c1046d1a9bd415e4530e3c5f31eb6.png
Emma: “See, Jinny? Girls can do this, too!”
Jin: “But do girls want it?”
Emma: “Ey, I like other things better. Telling stories. Playing violin. But I ALSO like tossing horseshoes!”
https://64.media.tumblr.com/c9a9f27d7e3c8e3f7910ad7557cbd4bc/2ea2588ac8ab4f3c-bb/s540x810/de8e8797c768150b2f24d069242c36576e532cbf.png
Gavin: “Look at the girl’s aim, Emma! That’s my best friend! Isn’t she great?”
https://64.media.tumblr.com/801bde6ffd606c123d433d3dbb553a44/2ea2588ac8ab4f3c-55/s540x810/0634a01087ec37d19ef6ab3ecd989d58e9256d33.png
When the friends hugged each other, Emma smiled. Whatever had been between them all week, Tina and Gavin seemed to be over it now. The girl could already hear the wedding bells ring. If she could be flower girl...?
https://64.media.tumblr.com/10ee61e8d0daed4bd16dab047b279f65/0f10d8710d4e203a-a9/s540x810/65b158bda4a9b029f3cb4b2cc1831e2932c27012.png
Emma and Jin then ran back and forth around the waystation until they were exhausted, just for the joy of doing so.
Soon enough they’d be confined to the wagon again.
https://64.media.tumblr.com/c8995cb10ac333216f132a1c0ffcaad9/0f10d8710d4e203a-63/s540x810/0763ca78726c6d59c5906890682aa351bdc52202.png
(When I took this screenshot, Glimmerbrook was my newest world. It’s really beautiful.)
https://64.media.tumblr.com/fd48bc06573ae24716ab3c52318b29b5/5a4b84e93804c33d-a5/s540x810/4306ba3ca40cd8205437880020065892611d0ab5.png
Tina: “If this isn’t a romantic place, then I don’t know what would be!”
Gavin: “Yeah.”
Tina: “Got somebody in mind you’d love to bring here?”
Gavin: “Hey, uh, nice new rifle, Tina!”
Tina: “Thank you! Daniel helped me pick a good one. Then he got a pistol for himself. He’s good with a firearm, you wouldn’t believe it!”
https://64.media.tumblr.com/968db2db76edd06c1d176b1d76281a14/5a4b84e93804c33d-45/s540x810/690e22e4622a8e6e0db926202629c816b7ba204d.png
Gavin: “Daniel?! Daniel can shoot?!"
Tina: “Does that make him more or less desirable?”
Gavin: “It makes him even more of a danger to society, is all.”
Tina: “You’re hopeless, Gavin Curtis Reed. And that’s why we’ll go behind this rock right now (while maximum household size protection is in effect) and do something romantic!”
Gavin: “Without the romance.”
Tina: “You got it!”
https://64.media.tumblr.com/e9d8393198ee70d15fc8154ce1734773/cd2a01af6d9e94b3-95/s540x810/baa45dadbb91755da2fd2cb8db3be3939d0f9abe.png
Meanwhile Caroline and John were still - and every day anew - madly in love with each other.
They waited for a moment when the bar was almost empty to have a little informal date. The on-duty bartender looked familiar...
Caroline: “Didn’t we see you on the wagon train? Your name was Andronikov, right?”
Soren: “Yeah.”
Caroline: “So you had enough of the trek already? Decided to stay here?”
Soren: “Nah. We’re all doing odd jobs to raise the two hundred dollar fee for the next week.”
Caroline: “WHAT?! We weren’t told...!”
https://64.media.tumblr.com/4a1b388b6f1c2a5d3e0b87da8a820520/cd2a01af6d9e94b3-9b/s540x810/8f99d71d25c269fab342da1fe87fc442f961a856.png
Soren: “Nobody was. That’s the trick. They do not tell you until you are in too far to turn back. And if you cannot pay - like most - then you get presented a work contract that binds you for years to your creditor.”
Caroline: “Did you hear that, John? That’s genius!”
John: “I know, right? How much money do we still have?”
Soren: “Are you offering to cover our fare, Mr. Phillips?”
John: “Why not? You’d be indebted to me instead of to the wagon train company, but we’d both win: I get some cowboys and you’d get a better interest rate.”
Caroline: “On second thought we better hang on to the money in case another calamity befalls us.”
https://64.media.tumblr.com/bc7bdf33bfcaf2824ffe01066b5c5d8e/cd2a01af6d9e94b3-a6/s540x810/c4370a3e4f70dd76b927930ba6956383e82c8d31.png
Soren: “No offense, Mr. and Mrs. Phillips, but what are you even doing on this trek?”
John: “We bought land in the West.”
Soren: “I know, but... why not closer to home? You`re rich, you can buy your own land and don’t need to travel to the opposite coast for a chance at a little homestead.”
Caroline: “Ah, but land in the Oregon Territory is much cheaper than in the East. Not to forget that we get 480 acres for free from the Land Donation Act!”
Soren: “Travel costs...?”
John: “Still cheaper overall!”
Soren: “Travel risks...?”
John: “We’ve had several injuries in our factory this year, and the dudes lived ten minutes walking distance away. And Daniel broke both his legs as a child when a carriage horse kicked him in our own street. So distance isn’t that much of a factor.”
Soren: “That’s a diff... oh, what gives! Want ‘nother drink?”
(The weekly bills came in at 211 simoleons. I decided that my sims have to pay it, because Sims 4′s semi-open world with the ability to forage makes their life so much easier than it would have been in the Sims 2.)
https://64.media.tumblr.com/05b9d48a6caf84b502f63e1121bcdb91/03fba88ae819d51e-de/s540x810/03b62621b73e0e38e7159800cfd195b5c18100ad.png
Truth be told, John’s woodworking and Vanessa’s artistic performances in the saloon had only been for pocket money. After the travelers had sold all the minerals, herbs and fish they had brought, they already had 2,560 dollar in cash.
Before leaving the waystation, Daniel purchased a third horse, a Conestoga horse bred specifically for pulling heavy wagons like the Phillips’. Emma named him Dewey.
Three horses is the maximum the challenge rules allow and this is why:
https://64.media.tumblr.com/a3e3b9ae84ef1e9ff212af2ec05c5d2e/03fba88ae819d51e-06/s540x810/6f0ab5758f48a3e74d908a77cd4f51adfd02ca02.png
From now on the young man would take Plum for a ride every day. Together they scouted ahead and looked for herbs and berries while the slower carts caught up.
Finally the cityborn and -raised Daniel understood why horses were equaled with freedom. The time saved by being mobile instead of being chained to the wagon was so valuable. He could do whatever he wanted, and still be back in time to do his chores.
I’ve never been free before, Daniel realized. Rich, yes, but not free.
Or maybe this simply was a different kind of freedom than the one money bought, but in any case the young man plunged into it with all his heart.
https://64.media.tumblr.com/cb22f459c81342543e7a7635d333e518/51182375c67b71d8-f0/s540x810/de3f7c8f5d35b68a16adca9a5f1b12d1b524da23.png
The next morning: Time to break up camp and have one last look at the forest. The next week the wagon train would traverse a small mountain range. They were nothing against the Black Hills, let alone the Rocky Mountains, but even so would tax the untrained travelers to no small degree.
Markus: “Wagon twenty-four, Phillips & Chen family? You developed a nasty habit of being late in the mornings...”
John: “It’ll be okay, Mr. Manfred. We never had problems actually driving, so we won’t delay the trek when it crosses a mountain pass. It’s just the morning routines that we had to settle into.”
https://64.media.tumblr.com/97f272fc425d2a2b8987289e4907fb4f/51182375c67b71d8-4c/s540x810/e2dc834c5ead4af6facb4414e2e28916042e8f28.png
Markus: “What did you just call me?”
John: “Manfred. Aren’t you Markus Manfred, the Wagon Train Captain? You were elected yesterday at the waystation.”
Gavin: “Yes, that’s him. Of the few persons on this trek that I remember from Detroit, he has the nerves to keep it together in a crisis.”
Martin: “Well, yes, half of the wagons we went to check this morning thought I was Markus. Because “obviously” the white guy has to be the leader...”
John: “Excuse me, you would have been who again...?”
https://64.media.tumblr.com/4f318f14980ff57340ed9956c62c4e73/51182375c67b71d8-0a/s540x810/b8fed4e64dcf5a2780f73dab8e3394f08e1ad023.png
Markus: “This is Martin Davids, my adoptive father’s geriatric nurse and valet. What people usually take me for.”
Gavin: “Not John. Johnny here is color- and genderblind. But don’t let that fool you, it’s only because he has f---ing dollar notes in front of his eyes.”
John: “Oh, yes! My dollars f--- all the time. They are great at procreating.”
Gavin: “I wager he doesn’t even see our faces, but the price tags on our shirts.”
Markus: “Okay, take care of you, Phillips and Reed! Losing either of you would rob the world of a couple of good laughs that it severely needs!”
Next: Into the mountains (and to a new lot, as the challenge rules demand)
Notes:
- Getting to know Markus was the first scripted/cheated scene. I teleported him and Martin in so that my sims could get to know them both. But afterwards the Manfreds kept to themselves. Other sims were more interested in calling and befriending my household.
- In my rotational save the Manfreds, Reeds and Phillips are related: Markus adopted an abduction baby who is the half-sibling of Daniel’s abduction baby and Daniel is married to Gavin.
- “Oregon Territory” by 1850 also covered Washington, Idaho and parts of Wyoming and Montana. It is far more likely that John’s future ranchland is in modern days Wyoming instead of what would become the state of Oregon.
Community Highlights
- SimGuruKuxiku5 years ago
EA Staff (Retired)
- SimGuruKuxiku5 years ago
- SimGuruKuxiku5 years ago
- SimGuruKuxiku5 years ago
