How do you "rotational" play

1. When you begin your play what rules do you abide by (if any)
I don't really have any rules, except I try and follow the Sim to their personality. So for example if they want to be an artist, I want to at least complete one aspiration on this sim. My entire save game is nice sims, so I actually have not played with any mean/evil/mischief sims. I actually created an alternate universe (new save file), and am thinking about playing with the evil sims in a separate world from my normal sims.

2. How many characters do you play and are they usually single..married...married with kids or are they direct family members (example ..mom dad and/or siblings
In my main save file, I have 32/80 active Sims (some are adopted NPCS), but some of these are pets. I have to admit, I don't really like playing with normal families that much. It feels boring to me, because what they're doing is very everyday. I usually play young adult sims, who date and have their own careers. I only have ONE family household, and it's with Caleb Vatore. So really even my one family-oriented household is supernatural. I felt pretty stressed out playing with the babies/toddlers because I try and max the children sims to max level to get the bonus before aging them up. Also when I played with families there was a leave lot issue, where babies didn't actually get put into daycare, so I would be stuck playing this family until I could age up the child.

3. How long does this type of play hold your interest approximately? ( for example..a week...a month ...longer?)
One of my oldest households I've played from the beginning, so at least 1-2 years. They're a group of super sim vamps, and honestly they're just my favorite household, so when I get new packs I just play with them by default. I try and change households, but the other sims usually don't hold my interest for very long.

4. Do you usually use NewCrest so you can create your own town or do you have a favorite neighborhood and why?
Island Living is my favorite neighborhood. It's just visually the most beautiful.

5. Would you say there is any draw backs to rotational play and if yes then what would those draw backs be?
I feel like if you rotate, you'll progress each family a bit more slowly than if you focused all your energy on one household. I do think rotational play is interesting because it lets you play with careers/items that you may not have access to otherwise.

1, I play each household for the same amount of time before rotating. At the moment it's a whole sim year with my seasons set at 14 days. I plan to change the amount of time eventually to a shorter length as I have a lot of families in my rotation now.

2, First born child to each generation will inherit the family home and carry on family lineage.

3, No premature aging of sims. It has to be their birthday on the calendar for them to age up.

4, No game play cheats. Only bb.moveobjects or reset sim if needed are allowed.

"wickichick;c-17614130" wrote:
oh i love this feed back ..how interesting to read through each of the posts and see such excellent ideas for using rotational play..i just started a new save...my single female has moved into the "neighborhood" and i am using Willow Creek. I do use builds i have placed in my library to put in venues i like to use...it is fun to add new things from time to time. I have played the single female for a bit now and she has a good friend who has moved in next door. The two girls are long time besties...i moved in two single guys now. I am going to use the guy who will date my main home and begin a rotational play. I am amazed with how large some folks rotations are but excited about it as well because this feels like a new kind of adventure to me. I have never used new crest ..but i might incorporate that somewhat this time. I do have some additional questions after reading through the responses i received originally.

1. Duvelina ..(and anyone can answer) regarding the rules, excellent point regarding work schedules ..so when rotating to the next household i think i will be sure work shifts have ended ..kids (if there is any ..will be home from school) since the idea is to have families with progressive lives being able to be promoted to your next job level is important. Thanks for that pointer. My question is ...once saving one household and heading to the next ..all family members will be home ..so life should be good, right? Is there anything else to be concerned with that folks can think of or additional input on this one subject.

2. in my neighborhoods i generally have a bowling alley..a spa...a nightclub with a dj....a restaurant....a outdoor swimming pool hang out....and a bakery.(or some kind of retail lot) I am very interested what other players like to place in their neighborhoods to create a good community feel and to include a kind of "memories" into play ..like first dates...celebrating anniversaries..weddings ..etc

3. Do you create groups between your rotational play families ..it would seem like a cohesive way to have activities ..how do you usually use your groups ..i know some folks like for their kids to have a homework group ..but i wonder what do other folks do?

I really appreciate the ideas and suggestions offered so far..thanks so much!

1. Things should be good otherwise!

2. For now, I've mostly been using what was already there. I do try to make my sims stay in their own town for activities to keep it more realistic unless it's close by. I envision my older sims to have driver's licenses so they can go to other places but I wouldn't randomly go to Sulani for example. That should be a vacation or an immigration.

3. I don't use the group feature all that much right now. I only use it to recreate a 'gang' feeling for one of my characters. In another save I do have a gardening club for my elderly ladies. In reality, they gossip more than garden. ?

Here's mine:

1. My only rule is to switch around 6 am to avoid most of the 'missing work/school' scenarios.

2. Lots! In my current save I have played 10 households so far, but still have a lot more to go through. Singles, couples, families, some with pets, a few supernaturals, a few off-the-grid, some at uni, lots of different careers/traits/hobbies/skills/aspirations.

3. I have enjoyed rotational play for a long time, but started my current game only a short time ago as I only just started using MCCC so that they would not lose friendships whilst I played other homes.

4. Newcrest is currently my community town. It has one of each type of main community lot in it (though my other worlds do have a few community lots too). The households I play are from all of the other worlds but I guess my favourite is Windenburg because it has the island, the countryside and the town areas and it's very festive in the snow!

5. Drawbacks: If you do not use a mod in rotational play then relationship scores decrease while you are not playing previous sims and, if they drop far enough, then the relationship will be culled. I found this out the hard way after playing for weeks and then returning to earlier homes and finding they no longer had their friends. I now use MCCC solely to set the relationship decay to zero. It doesn't generally happen if you only rotate a few houses and the time gap is not large, but I wanted to do a really, really big rotation.

6. I probably enjoy families or large households most, but I like any kind of play which is why I have a big variety in my rotation.

I love rotational play - not all my saves are rotational but I do have a few.

1. When you begin your play what rules do you abide by (if any)?
I usually ensure that I switch families at about 6 AM (when most families are waking up). I make sure everyone is at home the home lot when I switch households. I have aging off except for my played household. I also create all the families and move them in to their houses before starting to play. I place seasons on 28 days when I'm playing rotationally. I sometimes have other rules but it depends on what type of game I feel like playing.
2. How many characters do you play and are they usually single..married...married with kids or are they direct family members (example ..mom dad and/or siblings.
For rotational play I usually start with married sims and usually start with somewhere between 6-8 families. I let them develop their careers, skills and relationships with the others for the first week or two before starting to have kids.
3. how long does this type of play hold your interest approximately? ( for example..a week...a month ...longer?)
A while - usually longer than a month. I do tend to take breaks from this style of play every so often but I always come back to it at some point.
4. Do you usually use NewCrest so you can create your own town or do you have a favorite neighborhood and why?
I pick different worlds depending on the story line I'm playing with. I've played in Willow Creek, Oasis Springs and Brindleton Bay so far. I usually do place new community lots from the gallery - but I also tend to put community lots in all the worlds because if I'm playing 8 families I like various different lots.
5. Would you say there is any draw backs to rotational play and if yes then what would those draw backs be?
Rotational doesn't always work the best if you are sending Sims to university. Sometimes I really get into a family story line and I don't want to rotate even though I still do because I want to keep the rotations the same.
6. other then using rotational play what type of simmer are you in game...for example ...do you prefer family related play....single sims over couples...do you prefer to begin as a teen in a family or something else.
I'm a family player so even when I play rotationally I'm usually playing families and then it is fun having all the kids grow up together and giving them different relationships (some are positive and some are negative). I usually start the Sims as young adults but I have started as teens before.

1. My rotation is sheer chaos. I do what I want, when I want. However, I limit Sims to doing only things I think they would naturally do. For example, it took a long time for me to see the magic realm, because a Sim had to naturally find it by doing things I thought were within that Sim’s character. Sometimes I set a specific rule for a specific Sim or household. I do try to rotate when Sims are sleeping, because I got tired of Sims being “late for work” when I rotated to a new household.

2. I have about 250 played characters, after some painful self-culling. They are a little of everything, but probably 2/3 single. I have 10 or 12 families now that are related either directly or through marriage. I started with one Sim, who got married, then I added his parents, grandparents, and cousin. My Sim had five children, and the cousin was created with three children. The cousin married a Sim, and I gave that Sim a brother and parents. My main Sim also has extended family of a grandmother and seven grandchildren. Then I added my main Sim’s wife’s parents and brothers. My game keeps growing like this. But I also play single Sim households with no family at all.

3. Sometimes I play the same family for a month, or sometimes just an hour. I rotate freely. I may play one household over and over, while I play another household only once every six months. It always holds my interest this way. This is the same save I started in 2015.

4. I love Newcrest because it is such a blank slate, but I edit all the worlds. I play in all the worlds. I rarely play in Selvadorada or Granite Falls because I can’t get the residential mod to work. Most of my play ends up happening in Strangerville and Willow Creek, but all of the worlds are involved.

5. Rotational play is hard to coordinate with acting gigs and college classes. I usually play one household for at least a Sim week when dealing with those matters. Otherwise, rotational play is ideal and the only way I personally want to play.

6. I like it all! I have families, singles, humans, mermaids, vampires, aliens, and pets. I have Sims who started as babies and Sims who started as elders. It just depends on my mood.

"Justin;c-17614102" wrote:
A bit off topic but curious to know why people have an interest in rotational play? I tried to do it myself but it’s too much to keep up with & I prefer to just play a single household. So I guess my question is, how do you find it fun & not complicated to keep up with?

For me, the complication IS the fun. I love having my Sims’ lives intertwine and develop richer meanings.

I only rotate between a handful of households, so I’m not a “pure” rotational player, and I don’t have any hard and fast rules. Basically when I start to get bored, I switch it up to see what’s going on elsewhere.

Oftentimes I’ll switch to a sim who has somehow become involved in one of my played sims’ stories, just to nudge them in a certain direction.

"wickichick;c-17614130" wrote:


1. Duvelina ..(and anyone can answer) regarding the rules, excellent point regarding work schedules ..so when rotating to the next household i think i will be sure work shifts have ended ..kids (if there is any ..will be home from school) since the idea is to have families with progressive lives being able to be promoted to your next job level is important. Thanks for that pointer. My question is ...once saving one household and heading to the next ..all family members will be home ..so life should be good, right? Is there anything else to be concerned with that folks can think of or additional input on this one subject.

2. in my neighborhoods i generally have a bowling alley..a spa...a nightclub with a dj....a restaurant....a outdoor swimming pool hang out....and a bakery.(or some kind of retail lot) I am very interested what other players like to place in their neighborhoods to create a good community feel and to include a kind of "memories" into play ..like first dates...celebrating anniversaries..weddings ..etc

3. Do you create groups between your rotational play families ..it would seem like a cohesive way to have activities ..how do you usually use your groups ..i know some folks like for their kids to have a homework group ..but i wonder what do other folks do?

1. Family members actually may not be home. When you’re not playing them, they may show up as NPCs at a different lot, wearing something weird. So when you rotate back to them, they may still be at that other lot, wearing that weird outfit. But you can quickly have them change and return home, then proceed from there.

2. Most of my play happens at home. My Sims like to visit libraries, parks, museums, festivals, and the pool, but events happen at home.

3. I have tons of clubs! I have several clubs for my main family, because there are far too many extended family members to all fit into one club. I have clubs for aliens, and for mermaids. I have a club for geeks to get together and play video games and watch sci-fi. I have a club for democrats. I have a chess club. I have clubs for music groups; for example, I have a club for The Mothers of Invention. I have a religious club. I have a club for astronauts. I have a few teenage clubs and an elder club. I have an ecology club. I have a NAMI club (mental health organization). And way more! My clubs are used for fun, for socializing, and for practical purposes. For example, Sims may need to improve their logic skill, so a Sim will hold a meeting of the chess club.

By the way, I was just looking at my main Sim’s stats, and I saw that he has slept 177 times. So I guess I have played him for 177 Sim days. I recently aged him up from young adult to adult.

Thought I'd chip in my two cents since "rotational" play is my poison of choice!~

1. When you begin your play what rules do you abide by (if any)?
- I don't really have any rules except "have fun." I know it sounds so cheesy, but my rotational save is my "relax and just play" save, meaning I boot it up when I need to de-stress, or just want to play the game. I use cheat codes for some households, some I don't -- it just depends on what I'm feeling like at the moment. Oh, and all my aging is turned off, of course!

2. How many characters do you play and are they usually single..married...married with kids or are they direct family members (example ..mom dad and/or siblings)?
- This is probably going to sound insane (or should I say erratic?), but I have...roughly 300* Sims give or take (and that includes the premades, of course), but obviously I don't play them all at the same time. Most of them I haven't played as at all -- yet. I just really love to make Sims, and it makes me happy to see them walking around town, even if they're just there for scenery for now. As for their marital status and stuff, it varies widely. I've got single Sims, big families, small families, roommate groups. Everything goes!

3. How long does this type of play hold your interest approximately? ( for example..a week...a month ...longer?)
- I'd say I've had my current rotational save for two or three (maybe four) years now. Sometimes I'll go on long bouts without playing, but it's always there when I come back!

4. Do you usually use NewCrest so you can create your own town or do you have a favorite neighborhood and why?
- Tbh Newcrest is like...the bane of my existence. I've filled out maybe half of it, but I use it mainly for large families and restaurant/other types of community-based lots. My favorite world is apparently San Myshuno, where 12 of my played households live. Although I do personally have a soft spot for Oasis Springs~ ?

5. Would you say there is any draw backs to rotational play and if yes then what would those draw backs be?
- I'd say that, for me anyway, it can be a little overwhelming sometimes. There's still lots I want to do in my world (remaking/adding community lots, making more Sims to fill out empty houses, etc.), but I try not to feel too bad if I put it off to just play the game for a while.

6. Other then using rotational play what type of simmer are you in game...for example ...do you prefer family related play....single sims over couples...do you prefer to begin as a teen in a family or something else.
- The Sims I usually wind up spending the most time with are the young adult, single Sims. They may have a roommate or two, but it's just less stressful for me than playing with large families (especially ones with toddlers). I mainly have fun trying to get to the top level of different careers, fill out aspirations, etc.!

*Edited to reflect the...actual number...of Sims I play with...

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