1. When you begin your play what rules do you abide by (if any)
None, which is why I'm not sure if my play style really fits the definition of rotational play. I haven't read all the posts in this thread, but from what I understand, many players have a set amount of households and a set amount of time they spend with each before moving on to the next one in the list, and I don't even have a list to begin with (at least not for that). I have only one main save with 50+ households, some of which I haven't played in years, because I generally just open my game and decide then and there who I feel like playing with today. My only rule, if you want to call it that, is that when I play with a household that has a university student in it, I do not switch to another household before the end of the semester, otherwise there might be some nasty surprises when I come back.
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
My ever growing sims community currently consists of over 200 sims spread across 50-something households. My favourite household size is 3-5 sims, and the relationships between members wary a lot. As you can imagine, with 50+ households, they can't all be the same or else the game would get boring rather quickly, so I have pretty much everything: Traditional families with two kids and a dog... Patchwork families where almost everyone is somehow related, but no one knows exactly how... Groups of friends with similar or completely opposite hobbies and interests... Occult households where every member is a different type of occult, sometimes with a token normal person among them… Even people who hate each other and are forced to live together under curious circumstances. I try to be creative about it and not repeat the same pattern too many times.
3. how long does this type of play hold your interest approximately? ( for example..a week...a month ...longer?)
Indefinitely. I've never played the game differently, except maybe in the very beginning, when I only had one big family spread across two households. But even then, I used to rotate between the households.
4. Do you usually use NewCrest so you can create your own town or do you have a favorite neighborhood and why?
I use all the worlds for different purposes that are reflected in the households living there and the public lots. Newcrest is my religious town with two different religious communities living in two of the neighbourhoods with a church in each, and the third being neutral. Oasis Springs is mostly for aliens, but with one neighbourhood dedicated to Selvadoradian culture, Willow Creek is for artists, nobles, and noble artists, Brindleton Bay is for animal and nature lovers, etc. My favourite worlds are Forgotten Hollow and StrangerVille, I'm not much of a fan of San Myshuno and Magnolia Promande, but as I said, I play in all of them.
5. Would you say there is any draw backs to rotational play and if yes then what would those draw backs be?
As I mentioned above, Discover University wasn't made with rotational play in mind, so switching households at the wrong time can have disastrous educational consequences for any students. I also sometimes find that little things such as the chosen colours of sims' mobiles and umbrellas, progress in collections, and the amount of recycled bits and pieces in the household inventory can get reset upon rotating, and consumable items such as herbal remedies or magic potions that were placed on shelves or other surfaces may disappear.
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 always play with goals in mind. Every sim I create has a purpose in life, which involves skills, careers, aspirations, and relationships. I sometimes enjoy traditional family play with children growing up, but most of the time I end up aging babies prematurely and speeding up the toddler life stage as well because they always get on my nerves sooner or later. There would be more children among my played sims if there was more to do for them, but since every expansion basically ignores that a sim's life doesn't begin in their teen years, my game has basically become a young adult simulator, with families often consisting of elderly parents and young adult children.
