Paranormal Redecorator Challenge
Since Paranormal Stuff and Dream Home Decorator came out close together and both had gig-based careers and house-based themes I was thinking "Man, it would be cool if you could combine them somehow." And since I can't make mods I came up with a list of challenge rules instead:
Make a new sim / family.
Move into a lot and spend the rest of your money building an empty, sorta rundown house – so total lot value should end up around $20,000. The house should have 4 ‘locked’ rooms. Click the doors of those rooms and ‘lock for everyone.’ Your sims can’t go in there for now. Sims must have access to the following, however:
1) bare essentials kitchen
2) bare essentials bathroom
3) open room big enough for sims to live in during the initial setup
With the very last of your money get your sims a bed each and at least 1 item for crafting something. You need to sell crafted items to make money to finance your restoration / redecoration operation. The aim is to furnish the house and increase its overall value by at least 150%. You can add extra challenge to this by applying likes/dislikes to each of the rooms, limits on what you are and aren’t allowed to change about the shell, etc. It’s kind of like a longform manual version of Dream Home Decorator gigs. But there’s a twist… It’s haunted.
Make the house a haunted house.
(I play heroic mode with Guidry disabled, but it's up to you.)
Apply four lot challenges. Whatever you think is appropriate, or just randomise it.
(I picked Creepy Crawlies, Cursed, Filthy and Gremlins.)
You can remove one lot challenge every time you unlock a room. The way to unlock is a room is to gather three matching specter gifts plus a sacred candle and place them in the room to unlock it.
1) three candy jars + candle
2) three ectocakes + candle
3) three specter sips + candle
4) three soul scraps + candle
Having to interact with the specters to unlock rooms will slow down the decorating part of the challenge and give you a better balance of gameplay vs build mode. This is also where your crafted items come in. Your crafted items are your source of income but also your bribes for the specters. You can have greater or fewer than four rooms if you want, and you can work out your own combinations of spectre items to unlock each room, it just needs to function as a gameplay element for this challenge.
Once the four rooms have been unlocked, the four lot challenges removed, the whole house decorated and its value increased by at least 150% you may change it from a haunted house to a regular residential house. But we’re not done yet. Finally you need to throw a party at the house and achieve gold (or silver if you prefer) status on that party, to simulate the ‘open house’ and the process of trying to find a buyer.
Once all that is done you can pack up your beds, your craftables and your crafting equipment and move out. You cannot take any of the spectre gifts with you, but you may sell them rather than leave them behind. Move into another lot and build another empty house, haunted, lot challenges, etc. but the target lot value needs to increase to compensate for all your new money. Fortunately you do have some advantages now: your sims have skilled up a bit and you do get to hold on to your stack of craftables. This is also the time to think about what you liked or didn’t like about the first round, and make adjustments to make the challenge more suited to how you want to play.
Once your new house is unlocked, decorated, unhaunted and sold you can move out and do a third house. Completing three houses is a good place to set an end point if you need one. Otherwise you can keep doing this as long as you want to, though I think money would become a bit ridiculous at some point, so maybe invent some new ways to slow things down.
Anyway. This was heaps of fun for me so I hope others can enjoy it too. :)
Make a new sim / family.
Move into a lot and spend the rest of your money building an empty, sorta rundown house – so total lot value should end up around $20,000. The house should have 4 ‘locked’ rooms. Click the doors of those rooms and ‘lock for everyone.’ Your sims can’t go in there for now. Sims must have access to the following, however:
1) bare essentials kitchen
2) bare essentials bathroom
3) open room big enough for sims to live in during the initial setup
With the very last of your money get your sims a bed each and at least 1 item for crafting something. You need to sell crafted items to make money to finance your restoration / redecoration operation. The aim is to furnish the house and increase its overall value by at least 150%. You can add extra challenge to this by applying likes/dislikes to each of the rooms, limits on what you are and aren’t allowed to change about the shell, etc. It’s kind of like a longform manual version of Dream Home Decorator gigs. But there’s a twist… It’s haunted.
Make the house a haunted house.
(I play heroic mode with Guidry disabled, but it's up to you.)
Apply four lot challenges. Whatever you think is appropriate, or just randomise it.
(I picked Creepy Crawlies, Cursed, Filthy and Gremlins.)
You can remove one lot challenge every time you unlock a room. The way to unlock is a room is to gather three matching specter gifts plus a sacred candle and place them in the room to unlock it.
1) three candy jars + candle
2) three ectocakes + candle
3) three specter sips + candle
4) three soul scraps + candle
Having to interact with the specters to unlock rooms will slow down the decorating part of the challenge and give you a better balance of gameplay vs build mode. This is also where your crafted items come in. Your crafted items are your source of income but also your bribes for the specters. You can have greater or fewer than four rooms if you want, and you can work out your own combinations of spectre items to unlock each room, it just needs to function as a gameplay element for this challenge.
Once the four rooms have been unlocked, the four lot challenges removed, the whole house decorated and its value increased by at least 150% you may change it from a haunted house to a regular residential house. But we’re not done yet. Finally you need to throw a party at the house and achieve gold (or silver if you prefer) status on that party, to simulate the ‘open house’ and the process of trying to find a buyer.
Once all that is done you can pack up your beds, your craftables and your crafting equipment and move out. You cannot take any of the spectre gifts with you, but you may sell them rather than leave them behind. Move into another lot and build another empty house, haunted, lot challenges, etc. but the target lot value needs to increase to compensate for all your new money. Fortunately you do have some advantages now: your sims have skilled up a bit and you do get to hold on to your stack of craftables. This is also the time to think about what you liked or didn’t like about the first round, and make adjustments to make the challenge more suited to how you want to play.
Once your new house is unlocked, decorated, unhaunted and sold you can move out and do a third house. Completing three houses is a good place to set an end point if you need one. Otherwise you can keep doing this as long as you want to, though I think money would become a bit ridiculous at some point, so maybe invent some new ways to slow things down.
Anyway. This was heaps of fun for me so I hope others can enjoy it too. :)
