Do you put “rules” on yourself?

Sometimes. But I also tend to break most of the rules I make after a while. I think too many rules make the game less exciting, but they can on occasion be fun when playing certain challenges etc. (even though, I break rules in challenges too once I like one or more sims enough to just go on playing them independently of the challenge :D)

I did in the past have a hunk of them but I shed them as I found them inhibiting and a bit dull. I don't really do challenges anymore although I have altered challenges to suit myself.

Nowadays I have only one that involves my main saved game. That is; NOT to take in ANYMORE homeless Sims and MAKE THEM PLAYABLE!!! Oye! Maybe half of my households that is in that rotation consists completly or partially of former homeless townies so that rule was made for a reason. A rule I did break this week /cringes/ when I put a homeless single mom and her son into the Karaoke household and then another homeless teen. Now that mom has two sons with the help of the CAS. Her original offspring and that teen.

I just can't help myself.

No rules

When I was a kid, pretty much anything went in the game. By the time I was older and playing The Sims 2, I had rules..I tried to avoid sim cheating, my sims married for life, they didn't woohoo until they were married, that sort of thing. The more I played TS2 the more I got away from that, and now in TS4 anything goes.

Nope. Sometimes I try to make rules for myself, but I like to be free to change things up whenever I want to otherwise I’d be afraid of losing interest.

I have a few rules, such as: never leave the game without saving, so there is no turning back on sims died or children taken away. No mods. Money cheating only if it lowers the amount for the household played. No change of physical appearance through CAS.

I really try to make rules. I really do. I make reasonable ones, like “don’t make the moody teenage daughter turn into a vampire and lock up the rest of the family and suck their blood” and “don’t make the lady kill all her boyfriends, put their urns in a dark basement, and woohoo with each of their ghosts in turn each night”. But I just can’t seem to follow my own rules.

I have a few rules that have made my plots a little more interesting:

1. Ghosts can join a household but cannot be permanently revived. They may come back briefly to finish some sort of task, but they must become ghosts again within a few days at most. Also, physical interaction with a ghost has a chance of putting a curse on a living Sim and causing them to join the afterlife, as well.

2. If you can become a PlantSim and you become Infected, you must also become a PlantSim. Mother prefers this.

3. The final tier of any adult aspiration may be cheated if desired. Child aspirations may be completely cheated when the child maxes out the relevant skill. (There are too many fun creative things for a kid to do for me to sit down and force them to draw the same five pictures every single time.)

4. Money and fame may be cheated IF starting a new family with a Sim who logically would be famous and/or rich already.

I think that's about it. These are really fun to read.

Usually varies depending on what I'm doing, but I keep most of the same ones for my gameplay.

-No cheating needs
-No money cheats (only subtract money)
-Start out with an unfurnished home or apartment. (Less my sim is living in a tent)
-Most skill building done off lot
-Only sale items with the yard sale table

I have only 3 rules :

1. No cheats allowed!
2. The traits must be randomised.
3. Always save the game even when something bad happens.

Improvise, adapt, overcome :D