Does your gameplay involve “storytelling”?

For me, creating stories in my head and then finding ways to play that out - whether through the sims, creating scenes in Daz Studio, playing TTRPG's with my friends or even writing them down - is second nature. I'm actually a little lost by the idea of playing sims with just some sort of mechanics goal in mind. I mean, I get having a mechanics goal, but I can't wrap my head around just playing towards that goal. There's always a story in my head to go with it.

To some extent, I treat the Sims like a TTRPG session, except I'm both player and GM and the Sims AI is the random element. I come up with a loose concept of what sort of story I want to tell, create a sim to tell it, and then adjust on the fly as the story evolves both through my own choices and the influence of the AI. (I've had years of practice in dealing with players who when given the choice of A, B, or C will inevitably choose π) I'll usually pick some sort of mechanics as my victory condition, but why the sims are pursuing that goal and how they plan to go about it is where the story comes in.

Like right now, I have a sim who's in the military as a covert operator. I reset Strangerville, and I'm kinda trying to run the Strangerville plotline from the POV of the agents assigned to protect Strangerville's secret, rather than someone trying to expose it. This is made difficult because she doesn't live in Strangerville for reasons relating to my primary mechanics goal for this save - and I'm trying to get her Toddler's skills filled. But it makes for an interesting story.

Story telling used to be the only thing I did. You basically just come up with a plot, like rags to riches, starting a dynasty, a family drama, etc. You follow that plot and take all of your sims ups and downs with it. It gets you more involved in the game play. You might take screenshots along the way and write a little story about each one. The Sims 3 used to have a story telling and video making platform that I loved dearly. I used to make videos and Maxis would periodically feature a few of them. I'd get tens of thousands of views, and that was really exciting for me as a kid. I also wrote stories for the website too, such as legacies. Nowadays people tend to use other social media platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and Tumblr, to blog about their sims. Although, you don't have to blog about your sims if you don't feel like it, you can just follow the story for yourself. I don't blog anymore, I would if Maxis designed another platform for doing so within the gallery or something, but for now I just don't feel like setting up an external account when I've already got other things going on in my online life. It's partly social media anxiety, and partly just the sheer amount of keeping up I already have to do with other things. It's up to you though, Simmers can really make a name for themselves by blogging about their gaming experiences. A few have gone on to become influencers.

For me though, just following along myself has been enjoyable for the last few years. I bet someday if I really wanted to I could actually put in some effort and relaunch a sims blog/vlog or something, but for now I'm comfortable where I am. The public eye can be a little much anyway.

I have never played Lagecys or Challenges and therefore started to get bored pretty fast.
Unfortunately, I was never able to build a relationship with any of my Sims. So I needed something that would captivate me and make the Sims something special for me.
Writing is a hobby of mine and so I discovered SimLits for myself. Decorating my stories with beautiful pictures from the game is simply wonderful! :)
Since I not only write the story and shoot pictures, but also try to play it through, the Sims / Characters grow very close to my heart. They simply have more personality <3 .

"popstarissa;d-970278" wrote:
Hey Simmies! Not trying to be a plum with my question, and hopefully you won’t think I’m too much of a balloon head. Prior to joining the forums, I never really thought about what other “play styles” were out there. Started with a handful of Sims and I just keyboard warriored my way through their lifecycles, skipping around to whatever branch of the fam tree I happened to find interesting ?

People talk a lot about “storytelling” gameplay and I never really know what y’all mean! I’m super curious. Do you blog or record the story you are telling? Are you playing out a story that you’ve already conjured in your imagination? Is it a single plot point that you evolve into an unknown direction? I love learning about how other Simmies play and would love to learn more about this play style. Thanks! ?

Yes, yes and maybe, perhaps.

I usually want to explore a career or hobby or something.

Recently, I've gone full on into a true story line and have 5 sim stories that I have planned and partially scripted (bullet point what outcomes I intend, but the game will throw a curve ball so I roll with it)

Then I have other games that are more fluid.

My main focus is to try to play every aspect of the game and EPs, GPs.
Like with TS2 I didn't realize there were werewolves and there are features of TS3 I haven't played out. I still haven't found the Kraken.

So, in TS4 I want to explore all of the game and focus on the good things about the game.

I get bored alot, so I tend to hop from different saved games and may play a different saved game when I do play.

i think i kind of do? not really sure if it counts though

what i do is a usually have one main sim in the household that i focus on with a few others there to play too (roommates, spouses, other family members, etc). i give them each a vague personality and life goal/hobby and have them live their little sim lives while i throw in random elements from time to time to spice things up. the story is the progression of their lives and what significant events happened

for example, in my current favourite save, my main sim is a romance novel author named Diana. she lives with her friend Claire and her husband Kurtis. Diana and Claire used to live in the Arts District with their friend Lexi, but they moved to Uptown after Lexi tragically died in a fire (orchestrated by yours truly). Lexi's death, their eventual move, Diana eventually getting married to Kurtis, etc, are all elements of the story that is this save

i don't tend to write these stories down, though i do sometimes write other stories using the same sims as the characters

I write stories in my blog occasionally, but most of them stay in my head - and my massive screenshot folder. Once I decide to write down a story I have to go through a lot of screenies. I actually start a new folder whenever a new EP comes out to make things slightly easier. I play rotationally, so I have plenty of characters to choose from. Usually my story telling is piecing together old things that happened and combining them with my current gameplay. I'm currently working on a story of two of my criminal sims, but I haven't played all of it yet and need to take a break for christmas.

I kind of do... I play rotationally and have 7 households with different story lines going on to provide me with variety. I keep track of them by making a 'scrapbook' of their lives with screenshots (currently in a PowerPoint presentation). I do not write stories, I go by the pictures to recall what happened and add a few small notes about traits, aspirations etc.

I have a few ideas in my head for what is going to happen to each of them, but sometimes it changes depending on what happens in the game.

I don’t write anything out or anything like that, but I definitely create sims with a story in mind for them and select their aspirations to reflect that. I usually know what I want them to achieve and what I want their life to be like, but I’m not strict when it comes to sticking to a story and I do take my time with them and throw other things into the mix to keep things interesting as I like to play for a long time with aging off (I age my household up manually if I feel like it). I think of my sims more as characters than sims. The only downside is that I get too attached and never want to age them up!

For me, I don't set out to tell a story, but I often find that by the end of the generations I plan on playing, it has turned into one. A few years ago I started snapping screen shots and writing down the goings-on of the family through the generations for my daughter. She loves to read them, and I'm not a great simmer so my stories are usually humorous (Or disastrous!)

I always have an idea who my sim is, or what I'd like to do with them, but its never set in stone and its not a clear cut story plan so much as a vague awareness of who my sim is...what type of person they'd be, what they like and hate, who they'd love and hate... etc.

Not really any big stories, but I do often have an idea what to do with my Sims when I start a new save. Sometimes I even plan their story further, but I often change my plans on the way. I don't control my Sims too much, so I don't want to make too detailed plans. I want to see what my Sims want and change my plans if necessary.

Sometimes I just don't care about making any plans, no stories, I just want a relaxing game, I just let my Sims decide what they want and let them lead the way. These kind of saves are usually fun to play.

I don't record (apart from occasional screenshots) or write about my Sims stories, I just play.