How do you play your story? Inspiration tips needed

@EeveeTinn I can understand some of the ways you're conflicted. I also don't like playing 'bad Sims'. However, I did finally break down at one point when there was an issue with vampires really harassing certain of my households... and began I to have several affected Sims beat the crap out of them if need be to get them to stop stalking the house. 😱😇

I originally made a loosely designed 'Sim-self' and hubby, made them 'adult', then they had over time probably 8 or more children - I don't currently remember the number. The original household included the first 5-6 children. I play with aging off. I aged them up as appropriate when I was ready until they were young adults. However, a few of the later children are still at toddler to teen ages. I have over time placed copies of the original 'couple' into different game saves, sometimes with one or more of their kids placed in the same save for whatever goal I have for them, as that is the only way to preserve the relationship when placing them into new game saves.

I'm a very 'type A' player... and I'm good to my Sims. Most of the original adult children I have played a lot also, and most are married with at least one child. I play 'it takes a village' style most of the time, combining one to three couples and their children in a household. I garden heavily, have them own and run (together) restaurants and stores, max out careers, and accumulate skills. This all keeps me quite busy while playing the households. 

I also build a lot and use my Sims to test the builds and new packs in this manner. While testing, though, I don't usually play more than one or two for the initial test, but then move in kids, etc. for full-out testing in the end.

So, although I don't heavily focus on 'aspirations' and skills any more, I have several Sims with mad skills and multiple past careers maxed out. I also have some with minimal skills and play time. I have other Sims I made, several that I've played quite a bit that @PugLove888made, and a few that @EuphorialQueen made. I even had my original couple's second son marry Summer Holiday, and she's the only 'default game' Sim that I've played enough to have her feel like 'my own'. Which Sims I use for any particular goal may vary, including how I combine them.

Sometimes you can 'collaborate' with other players a bit also. For instance, I decided to enter the first 'Sparked' challenge, making a casino venue. @PugLove888 (who makes amazing Sims) made a couple and their families for me to test with, and she entered the couple into the challenge. We had a lot of fun with that, and enjoyed collaborating on it. Slideshow: https://imgur.com/gallery/4mFHgX2

Ive also entered an occasional building challenge, and there are many game-play challenges that can be found on the forums, if you're looking for something like that: 

• Play Challenges: https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/categories/the-sims-4-stories-and-legacies
• Build Challenges: https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/categories/the-sims-4-gallery

There are many ways to play the game and 'switch things up'. Just have fun finding which of them work best for you! ☕

@EeveeTinn--for me, it helps to 'know' the character a little beforehand. my current main household is based on characters from a story i started years ago but never did anything with. so i took those character ideas and made them into Sims.

i tried to stay true to what their personalities were going to be as 'real people', so i did use several of what could be considered 'negative' traits. or simply... just not perfect. so i have gloomy, hot-headed, jealous, clumsy Sims. all sorts. it's interesting to see how the traits play nice or clash with each other. some can be mean/argue with others if they're in a bad mood, some will complain, but it feels more realistic to me that way.

to move the story forward, i then started to create their friends, co-workers, love interests. soon i had an almost full Newcrest with these characters. i've played all of them to develop the skills they are supposed to have, meet the people they're supposed to meet, etc. and it's like the town is connected.

also, i play with ageing off because it takes me a long while to do everything i plan for them. or to play out the scenes i have in mind. i've only aged the main household up from YAs to adults, and it took me a year to do that... yes, a real-life year. 😉

when it's time for the children to grow up, i will have yet another household or two to play. so that would get me to... 12 played households i think. you mentioned you don't really like switching/rotational play. i've found that, with ageing off for both played and unplayed Sims, i really don't mind. it's more fun and relaxed this way IMO. you're in no rush and can stay with any given family for as little or as long as you want without missing anything.

i think it's also fun if you're playing one household (for example the parents in your game) so you can invite the sons/daughters over. it's really personal though, i know people who will only play one household per save.

@EeveeTinn  I play a rotational game. I started with a Sim that I created in the likeness of one of my ancestors. But I already started this in The Sims 3. So when The Sims 4 came out I recreated him and his Sister. And started off from there again. (When I feel like it, I still do some searching for my ancestors with some lineages I reached to 1450 AD)

I played with this Sim for a while together with his sister. Then I wanted to create their parents but the game wouldn't let me so I ended up creating a brother instead. The Sim I created first I maxed him out on all the skills and made him a real patriarch. He also had almost all the jobs you can find in every pack and, in fact, he must be over several hundred years by now. He only married NPC's which of course became Player Controlled Sims. And had several sons and daughters more than 15 in total. He divorced more times than a regular moviestar an remarried. He also had a couple daughters with alien inseminators< which with some inventive use of a mod I lured into the world. Most of his children are still alive and are married.And most of them also maxed out on their skills and aspirations, some of them happily live for ever after. Some of them died because, I did not want to keep them alive or I did not want to keep playing with them.

At a certain moment I stopped the ageing processes because, I still wanted to make a hugh family tree and also play with the offspring. At this moment I play with over 135 Sims but I do have my favorites.

To prevent family marrying family I had to create another two extra families and have them branch out as well. These families live in all the worlds and are the famous bunch. Also, like @SheriGR, I love to let them garden, I have a family of vets, movie stars, scientists, gamers and medical staf. Practically every job you can find in the packs I play with my sims. And now with the new EP I want to experience the new Jobs too. So you see, there are so many ways to make a nice story. You will definitely find yours.

Have fun playing.  😉

@EeveeTinn--i agree. i often wish Sims could be more fleshed out, right out of CAS. when creating them, be able to set skills at a specific level instead of them starting as blank slates.

even being able to lock specific ones. for example, one of my characters is supposed to be a bad cook. so i have to keep cheating his cooking skill down. i think it'd be great if i could set it in a way it wouldn't improve, so he'd stick to easy recipes. it's not realistic to me when everyone becomes a top chef after cooking five meals. 😛

about traits, i also use the reward ones a lot. also makes sense to me because just like in real life, some people might need less sleep, or similar. so i do find them useful.

My problem is that I end up making perfect families; everyone is always happy, kids do their homework, no one ever fights, the house is always clean, a pretty unrealistic scenario :D Then I get bored. I need to find a good challenge to play.