FINALLY my breakthrough!!

To preface, I am a HUGE storytelling and family gameplay simmer. I love realism, challenges, and tons of detail! I do play with mods and CC that enhance my experiences, because I just personally enjoy it! I don't typically go into occults, but I have to mention I have always found RL witch lore to be so interesting! I don't know if anyone else here ever watched the Vampire Diaries show or the Originals spin off, but ever since I watched those, I always sort of loved the whole New Orleans vibes and reading up on history and folklore about witches.

Anywho, I've never merged these interests together. Sims has always strictly been families, generations, etc. It got redundant, I ran out of ideas and challenges and even drama (I'm a writer and I can usually come up with LOTS of drama, but after years of playing, I had used pretty much every idea I could think of!

So the other night when I had this breakthrough, something popped into my head about merging some "witchy stuff" with family gameplay. Maybe a grandmother who is a witch, and playing as one of her descendants, and from there, sooo many detailed ideas flowed! I came up with a whole family backstory, 3 generations, the main character (one of the 3rd generation YA's) to play as my main character. Tons of background details for my game setup as well! I'm actually still setting it all up and sooo excited to start actually playing the story.

It's a lot of imagination/"pretending" mixed with actual game setup and Sims features. I'm not even sure if I'm necessarily going to use any of the Sims occult stuff (spellcasters, etc)

Basically I have a grandmother sim who "grew up" in New Orleans from a family of witches. She has supernatural powers and can communicate with the other side. I'm planning to use the paranormal stuff in this pack, as well as a custom content paranormal career that I found! Basically, "Gramma" has spent her whole life mastering her practice. She lives in a woodsy, secluded home (Moonwood Mill), and her house is full of cool stuff. It's got an "old" vibe, with antiques, lots of candles, and lots of witchy stuff. It is a whole vibe! The sim herself (her name is Rowena) has a fantastic style. I had so much fun creating her. I will add photos later, but she's got long curly hair, and it's gone grayish but it used to be jet black. In my files, I also love to go "back in time" and take lots of family photos to display in my current sims homes for the realism and storytelling. Rowena has always been GORGEOUS and unique. I am just in love with this matriarch of the family!!!

One thing to add about Rowena - she grew up with delicious food surrounding her. I mean, if anyone knows anything about New Orleans I'm sure you know all about the cuisine! Rowena has always had a passion for cooking and even owns/runs her own restaurant (I have it on the docks location in Brindleton, because it gave me the best vibes in terms of the surroundings. I love the lights, the boards, the water nearby). I use a mod as well allowing her to work as the chef and her family to help out by working as servers and hosts. She is always cooking at home, too, and everytime her family visits, she's got delicious food on the stove! I imagine her house always smells absolutely delicious.

She has a daughter, her only child, named Mare (short for Marianna). She raised her to have a love of food and culture as well. Mare didn't take to the actual cooking but she has a TASTE for food and she always wanted to travel the world - selvadorada, sulani, everywhere in the Sims world! - to taste the cuisine and learn about the local lifestyles and cultures. She grew up to become a food critic who travels a ton. In terms of the supernatural powers, Mare has them, but chose not to fully embrace them. It wasn't her preference, and there's more reasons why deeper in the backstory.

Mare fell in love and had 3 daughters. Her husband, Ezra, was absolutely amazing. Rowena adored him as well, and he was an amazing husband and father. He died tragically, when the girls were young, and there's a looot of backstory there! Mare is currently remarried to a kind, gentle man who I loooove! His name is Jacob. The daughters love him too. Mare and Jacob live in Brindleton Bay.

The oldest daughter, Fleur (around age 26), is very similar to Mare. She lives a bit of a lavish lifestyle, and she is engaged to a model. She works in fashion. She, like her mother, also chose not to fully embrace the "family gift" for reasons explained in the backstory. For her, it mostly has to do with losing her father.

The youngest, Calliope (Cal or Callie for short), is very much a free spirit. She is eco-friendly, artistic, and works as a fashion photographer in a studio that she and Fleur own together. She is roomies with Vada (who I get to next) at the start of the file. She embraces her gift moderately, and looks up to her grandmother and her sister, Vada, for guidance as she is only about 19 and still learning how to control it.

The middle daughter, Vada, is the main character that I will play with. She is the daughter who fully embraced her gift. She is about 23, and graduated university with a psychology degree, unsure of exactly what she wants to do in terms of a career. She lived with Rowena for a year after university, and Rowena worked with her to learn how to control her gift, and she trained her. The two became extremely close during this time, and Vada began working in the (cc) paranormal career and moved into a city apartment with Callie. She also works as a bartender (i have a mod that allows me to work at any bar with her interactively) at a country club in Brindleton Bay.

I'm in the process of setting up the file with different things. The 3 girls were raised in a family home in Copperdale and the home is still there, even though they've moved out. Rowena and Mare lived in a trailer in Strangerville while Mare was growing up, and that is also still there! These buildings exist for the purpose of us visiting them and also for my "back in time" photos that I take for display at the start of the game.

I use a religion mod that has pretend religions, and there's one for occults so I am going to have them go to "church" every week and have lunch together - the whole extended family. I also have a grave for Ezra which they will visit and decorate for special occasions and holidays.

My hopes for Vada is to find love and have a family. I can't wait to play with infants when they come out. I will also be playing heavily with my usuals - holidays, vacations, weddings, events, parties...there is no limit to the imagination! I'm very excited and enjoying the setting up phase so much!