My must haves are in this order but I have to say the packs on my list are paired together because they are either compliments to each other or satisfy one a particular playing scenario. For example celebrating holidays or making a farming environment.
- Seasons
- Spooky Stuff, Paranormal Stuff & Happy Holiday, Get Together all paired together
- Cats & Dogs, Cottage Living & Horse Ranch paired together
- Vampires & Werewolves paired together
- Life & Death (You could pair this with Spooky Stuff & Paranormal Stuff for a set as well)
- Get to Work & Dine Out paired together with the French Bistro Kit
P.S. I wanted to love Realm of Magic and it would have made my list. Here are my 10 reasons it didn't.
- I think the Witches (yes I call them Witches) should have had Enchanting Objects in their Skill Set
- I think the Witches should have had alignments (Good, Neutral and Evil, like in Sims 2) that not only affected the kind of spells they could use, but also what familiars they could summon, and the types of creatures they can befriend. Ex: Good Witches with Fairies and Mermaids.
- The Familiars - I wish the familiars could do more and that we could interact with them more.
- I think the nature of your relationship with your familiar should be important. The better it is the better their magical abilities will be for you.
- The Town. I don't like the town all that much.
- Everything except the school is a Kiosk and I'm sick of those. I would have really loved a very quirky mystical town with interesting townies that were all magic users and magic is just a mundane part of life for them.
- I also wanted a nice exceptionally quirky magic shop that my Sims could go into and browse.
- You can't live in the town, update the buildings in any meaningful way because they are shells and there is very little reason to visit the school more than once or twice.
- Dueling would be more interesting if
- Maybe a ranking system for wins/losses
- Dueling was strategic for ex. Offense/Defense, Spells & Counter-spells
- There was potential for more consequences in magic and dueling specifically
- I wish dueling led to being able to battle magically against other Supernatural Creatures, not all creatures would have powers like Werewolves but Fairies, Mermaids and Vampires clearly do.
- I miss the Flame Color Choices, Magic Mirror and Poison Apples From Sims 3 Supernatural. Should have been in at least this pack
- Crystal Creations feels like it was made as part of the ROM but left out to make them both Game Packs
- The Fortune Teller should have been reintroduced in this pack or Life & Death along with:
- Palm Reading
- Aura Reading
- Magic Candles
- Tasseography
- Gris Gris Bags
- The Career & Branches, The Caravan & The Music
- Unicorns should have been in here or Enchanted by Nature or Horse Ranch or been an unlock when you had either of the two others and Horse Ranch. This is what Sims 4 needs more of, small hidden bonuses if you have the two packs that are required.
- I wish we could craft our wands and brooms
Things I like about ROM
- I like how they made the spell book look kinda like an actual book. Could have been slightly better though. They should always keep that if they do future titles of the Sims.
- I like that dueling can take place everywhere
- The Skill Tree - I will never stop loving that. I may not like the types of spells and an other minor issues but I am behind the concept. Mermaids and Aliens should be updated to work the same.