How do y'all play Sims 4

I tend .to create my own Sims (rather than play the premade Sims). This leaves me entirely free to direct my own story, if you will. I also love family play. My current active save keeps me very busy. I started with a set of parents, gave them a toddler and an infant in CAS, and took things from there. They've since had two more babies born-in-game.  After the first four were about to head off to university, this couple had an unplanned pregnancy, which gave them a fourth son.  The "baby" of this family is just now a teen. (I play on Long.) The first four have been quite successful in their chosen careers; the eldest is now a chief of Justices, the second son is a very famous and successful Rock Star; the third is a Renown Surgeon and the fourth, the only girl, is a Lieutenant in Starfleet. Two of the five are happily married, raising families of their own for a total of seven, soon-to-be eight of the third generation, so far. And, no, I'm not stopping any time soon.

Have fun, whatever you do. And remember, there is no right or wrong way to play.

I play rotationally - one big save with lots of sims and lots to do but I'm thinking I need to break things up into many smaller saves due to recent issues with corrupted save files (For Rent), broken family trees, bugs and lag.

Yes

I've been playing a family for 13 generations now. Heir is born, always the youngest child, completes the scout badges, goes to university. He/She usually meets their future spouse there. Gets married, has many children (one heir had 12 children with the first husband and 8 with the second husband). Gotta love Ley line! A Sim won the lottery in the 2nd generation, so every heir inherits the fortune. The 12th generation was down to $700,000 but with Businesses & Hobbies the 13th heir has inherited $1,169,000.

People may think I go overboard because I have the lists of names of all the families. The children are named in alphabetical order in every generation. I have two cemeteries where all urns are kept, with pictures of everyone. I have named every picture. Had to build a second cemetery because the game was telling me I had over 200 of an item (urns & pictures) on the first lot. I had to lock the "mausoleums" the urns are in, because a klepto stole one of my heirs and her husband's urns. 😡 All siblings move out when they are YA and I give them a spouse in CAS. Then I make sure they are pregnant & I get a picture of the couple (for the cemetery) before I leave their lot. 😄

Should I get Life & Death?🤔

I'd like to imagine myself to be a storyteller, so I mainly play legacies with stories that I've come up with. Once I've told the story, I generally abandon the save. I'm trying to get into long-term gameplay, though! I LOVE rotational gameplay, too, and have shared my tracker for that here on the forums. My casual rotational gameplay saves tend to last longer than my casual gameplay saves.

I build, play, and do lots and lots of challenges.

I have different saves for each challenge here are them all:

1.  Pit Challenge
2. Gallery
3. Collections
4. Business
5. Apocalypse Challenge
6. Sims 4 Mega Writer Challenge
7. Runaway Teen
8. Alone Toddler
9. Rags N' Business
10. Room Challenge
11. My Room Challenge
12. Rags With Pets
13. Rags to Riches
14. New Town
15. Survival
16. Job Promotion
17. Poor
18. Prison Escape Challenge
19. Homeless Challenge
20. Lot Upgrade Challenge
21. Normal Gameplay
22. Outdoor Challenge
23. History Challenge
24. Sims 4 Mega Garden Challenge

It depends on what I want to do with each save file.

On my PC version, which only has the base game, and I couple packs. For some, I have one main family, which will branch out when their kids move out, so it is technically a legacy family with everyone related to the main family. I also have some themed families, for example, I am on a Legend of Korra kick and Avatar in general, because I recently re-watched the series. With those, I have found Sims based on the characters, and moved different versions in the same save file, and have them all interact with each other. So, think Alternate Universe versions altogether. Other families are random, some may be attached to a challenge, or just made to get away from my other game play.

For my PS4 version, I pretty much have all the packs. Supernatural stuff, and normal stuff all make up my game. I have my Supernatural Sims and normal Sims living together in most save files. 

Like my PC version, I will sometimes theme a save file to a favorite series, like Frozen, Harry Potter, Avatar the last Airbender/Legend of Korra, etc. I will either make my own, or download the ones I like from the gallery, and move them into the same save file. So, canon character set ups will meet AUs. For Harry Potter it would be him as an orphan, but also a version of him raised throughout his life by his parents, and both versions getting to meet each other. 

Also, I keep some save files for just Sims I don't base on anything, or do a mixture of Sims I create interacting with Sims from smaller series I like. 

I feel that switching things up in general makes me a bit more invested in my Sims, and makes game play fun for me. 

I play lazy?  I only have 1 game since 4 years ago when CC corrupted my game files and EA instructed me to delete the entire game from my system, they talked me through it, and reloaded it all as if I just bought it all that day!  100% New.    4 years into this game now, and I only have 49 sims where 200 is max.  I play whichever family I want depending on what I want to do.  Like right now, Started a new retail but am actually creating a "farmers market" similiar to the one I used to go to when I was wayyyyy younger!  😄 I do not use cheats as a general rule however when creating new Adult Sims in CAS, I use cheats to give them traits like "responsible", which only toddlers to teens actually earn as part of the growing together pack.  I also play with aging off for everyone; animals too.    After this is built and useable, (I don't even use the money cheat),  so business growth is slow, i'm not sure what I will do next.   You will learn your preferences as you go. There are so many things  you can do!!!   I don't play occults tho I do have strangerville I have no one lives there except the NPC's who are freaked out most of the time inspite of the fact that we defeated the mother plant!   I prefer a loving, caring, helpful environment filled with fun and laughter, even through the crash landings when snowboarding, skiing or rock climbing and others.   

Rotational every 2 months in the real I switch it up or if someone inspires me here on the forum. I'm playing with around 170 saved favorited(❤️) Sims including households in all my saves.

A little bit of everything. I love creating a new sim or household and build up their life and family. When I need a new building, I can get lost in building for a few play sessions. I rotate to some extent. I have a few families I like to play and switch whenever I feel like it. I usually play one family for a long time until a certain story is told or a goal is reached. 

When the above approach fails, I do a challenge like completing all aspirations or the history challenge. I take my time with them, they are also another family I switch too when I feel like playing them.