How do you Create a Story?

I like a rotation too, whether I set up a group from the beginning or play on short or even long and build up the rotation as I go but it also depends on what is on my mind to begin with or whether or not I think a specific moodlet matters. I have been into the sims since bustin o and into stories since sims 2. So personally I find them all to be similar in the story telling area something basic so everyone can decide what matters and what doesn't, it's a chill game not meant to be hard so you have the excuse to do what you want and of course rush things along by spamming actions instead of stopping them and waiting for when you think your sim should be done. So I throw all that out and focus on whatever happens. I used to play only on long but I have been playing on short and normal when wanting to move along more quickly but as I think of them more as actors or characters and not just sims it has the same effect. Now it looks like rambling so I'll say it's always what you make of it, some of my more enjoyable stories came from something as simple as a teen having a moodswing and setting up what is pushing them over the edge when I actually play them.

RedDestiny92....oh goodness i just loved bust'in out ....i began playing the sims in 2001 i think it was..the sims had been out for about a year at that time ..i think...ya know it is odd when i think this but it is true that i have never played a family with anything but a long life or more often i turn off aging all together....so there is much i could do in a rotational that would be really different game play for me....i have set up homes with sims living in them that i have made but always stick with my main character for the story. It really is enlightening to see how folks engage in their sim's stories.

I do not really play my sims, I play their world. In the beginning I think of a setting and what houserules I want (are all jobs available to everyone? how about rocket ships in the backyard? is magic real? how much does a servo cost? that sort of thing). Then, when I create my households, I only need to decide how they will fit in.
A simple concept like "ex career soldier" is good enough, because my backstory already suggests all the other details, like where that sim will have been stationed. I just have to pick from "Strangerville Counterspionage", "Detroit Android Revolution" and "Sulani Coast Guard" and each choice will come with a handful of existing sims that my new one will most likely already know, whether as comrades or as former enemies.

Or when I want to play an archaeologist, a government sanctioned selvadoradan historian and a young adult from Detroit desperate to pay the bill for the mansion they inherited will actually play different: the latter will get put into the next plane home if he runs into line of sight of a local in the jungle, while the former can expect the occasional cheat for equipment. So basically I think less of who my sims are and more of what role they play.

Getting a save off the ground from scratch can take weeks before I even load up the game for the first time. But in the long run it is worth it, because no sim will ever exist in a vacuum and think "What should I do now".
The downside is that I often has to declare phone calls or chance cards as "never happened", because they contradict my backstory.

that is intriguing EnkiSchmidt....it is a way different approach then anything I have heard before..don't we all need a bit of that? it is interesting that getting a save off the ground can take you a week or more ...is that because you are building to suit the story or just in development so not in the game but perhaps doing a hard copy draft? I would consider this to be quite the beginning by the time you are in CAS.

When I was blogging about the Legacy Challenge I took up, I found myself allowing my Sims to tell me their story. Then after the gaming session I would write down what happened, and add the motivation and thoughts behind the action. My Sims' feelings, et al. Most of the time the story was just right there, it was just a matter of me capturing it on the page.

When it comes to my Cantrell family, they were created for the Star Trek mini-series I wrote to help flesh out my original character (O/C). Her favorite brother is the second eldest child in the family who is a musician. I mostly focus on him these days, playing through his rise to fame. He's also a big family Sim and desires to not just be the 'fun' uncle, but to have a family of his own. Being wildly famous and successful has always put a damper on his desire for a family life. He gets burned more often than not. In fact, in the game save that just got lost in my transfer from one computer to my laptop, his new girlfriend was already crushing on his older and next younger brothers! At first I thought it was his brothers doing the crushing, but right before I had to transfer my game save to the new location, I went to her household and checked her friends panel. I was crushed myself to find, the feelings with his brothers were mutual. Their father is a very rich Sim, Erik was already a Global Superstar (achieving this goal in just 16 Sim days). Gold-digger came to my mind. In one way I'm not sorry the save got lost in the ether.

https://i.imgur.com/Y9IPzqo.jpg
Normally, his hair is shoulder length. He got it cut to please his father, before school starts again in the fall. Bad job, he ended up going for a shorter look to clean up the mess!

His signature hair:
https://i.imgur.com/71xBxmi.jpg

The mess of a hair cut:
https://i.imgur.com/D0L8Wsm.jpg

The fix:
https://i.imgur.com/SqDxACm.jpg

I'm sure there's a story here, too.

Galaticgal....you let your sims dictate the storyline, eh? it is interesting you say that because ..i have heard this from other folks that write stories and they don't play the sims ...it confuses me from that point of view but what you say makes perfect sense...i have never approached it that way however to start a game with no prior thought in mind and then just see what happens is not a bad idea....enjoyed the pics and insight into your story btw..

I don't know, I find that TS4 definitely has less drama and randomness than previous games (and there were things in TS2 I would really really like to see return), but I don't agree that absolutely nothing happens in TS4. In fact, every time I'm certain that "this is how it's gonna go when my sim does x", it often turns out completely differently. Kind of like my sim was supposed to have the best university experience ever, but the best friend he made there died at the beginning of his last semester, causing him to be super depressed, difficult to manage and eventually get an F on his last class, which he therefore had to repeat. That was not what I had in mind but it was fun to play, it adds more story to his life.

Yes, this isn't always true for TS4, but I find that the more your sim interacts with other sims, says yes to things, goes out, the more those chances open up.

Backstories. For all the iterations, the backstories I develop a character with and continue to develop through gameplay are the number one thing. Be it Vlad ruling over all that is supernatural while raising daughters or two rival grandmothers competing to knit the best stuff, once I have a concept of the characters and their identities then my imagination can run wild.

To be fair, I do agree with the criticism, though. With 4 it is all my imagination all the time so my backstories are more important than ever. The game itself doesn't help create the story like I have had happen in the past with other entries. I also do not get so enveloped into playing either, for better or worse. It takes a lot more effort on the players' part because the Sims are more doll like than ever.

I can have fun with 4 and some things it does the best in the series, but I do miss the depth of gameplay we had in the past. 3's personalities especially come to mind.

For me, preparing for a new save takes a lot of time! Gladly, I've been playing with the same save for over a year now and I'm not planning on letting it go for at least two more! :)

Before beginning to play, I always limit myself with a movie or tv show on which I base my game. I do that to stop my constant urge to write down my silly little sims worlds and turn them into actual novels (because for a writer that stuff can be very dangerous and damaging, trust me :D). My first save was a DC save, then I had a Whedonverse save, currently I'm playing in a Marvel save.

Right now I'm playing with Peter (aka Spiderman), the adopted son of Tony and Steve (Iron Man and Captain America) who has a sister Morgan (Tony's and Pepper's daughter), used to have a pitbull Tessa (because Tom Holland, the current actor playing Spiderman, has one) and is currently in love with Gwen (Gwen Stacy). He also used to do ballet (because Tom Holland did), modelling (again, Tom Holland), wears Tony's glasses (reference to the latest Spiderman movie), keeps an Iron Man action figure in his bedroom, etc, etc, etc. As you can see, references everywhere. I love references :) Most of them were prepared and written down before I actually began playing.

I don't really try to grasp the same looks of the characters because I'm terrible at creating sims based off real people but I still try to keep some features like the hair color, eye color, etc, so that takes a lot of time too. Their personalities usually start off the same as in the movies, but later evolve and change into something completely different. These kind of limitations make the game more challenging, fun and also help me keep my inner writer in tact because otherwise I would be stressing over how to turn everything I came up with in an actual book and the game would become a chore. But this way, it's like I'm writing fanfiction, which is nice and relaxing and doesn't require me being good or original or stressing over plot holes which there are A TON of :tongue:

The funniest thing is, all of those hard and long preparations are usually just the surroundings for the story. The limits - who gets to marry who, how many kids should they have, what will be their interests. Character and world building, basically. But as for the storyline itself, I usually just come up with something very simple and then let the game throw some curveballs at me to help it evolve. Because the game can come up with the most amazing plot twists ever, trust me! The main storyline of my current sims family happened because of something my game itself decided to do. It's just more fun that way :)

"wickichick;c-17593921" wrote:
thank you to everyone who posted...i really did enjoy reading the responses...

Hermitgirl...i am pretty sure that i could not bring a lot of creative genius to "the sims spark'ed " in the short amount of time in which each team is given..but it is fun to watch them do it..lol! I liked your idea using Strangerville for something with a little more depth and intrigue ...i have never used the town, i just loved the cas and build/buy...i mean i always think i will do it sooner or later but as yet never have...I do like having a play where it is basic romantic family ..it is relaxing.

DaWaterRat...i get what you mean by heavy lifting...i just started trying that ..it is ok to do for something different...i think i have to try using Newport and go all out ...encourages some creative building and i do save some in my library for future use. your story-line involving Asley's grand daughter sounds involved and interesting...my sims have always only vacationed in Selvadorada but the temples would be fun...and it sounds like a good way to kill off a sim for sure.

Telmarina..i haven't tried rotational play ..it is a great idea and now that you introduced the idea it is one that i definitely want to try out.

So-Money...i do like to create back stories for characters...it is really fun to do and often times it is running through my head in create a sim...definitely influences the way you might choose to dress that particular sim and then in turn the way you create the home and decide on family funds ...rags to riches is fine but lol sometimes it is fun to do a reverse and have a sim who was born with a silver spoon and then suddenly finds themselves broke and desperate.

several folks mentioned playing off a particular event that happens at random while playing and that definitely influences the direction my stories go in as well...sometimes the romance festival comes up and off you go ...or a random phone call from a particular character...i don't always love it when Vlad shows up ..haha but now that we can just send him home it definitely takes the unwanted event away but sometimes it was ok...we can still allow it but it isn't the same.

sometimes i create my own career ..has anyone else done that? I might use something in game to help with income or pay myself with motherlode...currently my sim is a botanist but is becoming interested in genetics ..not sure where that will go right now.

One of my sims is a food photographer. He has his tripod and camera next to a table, he sets that table with some arrangements like flowers or something else beautiful, he cooks different dishes and then he photographs the food. His kitchen walls are full with his food photos, he sells the remaining photos to magazines and now he lists one of them in plopsy.