How do you "rotational" play

I'm a rotational player so this is my little take on the whole thing.

1. When you begin your play what rules do you abide by (if any)
I usually make little challenges and stuff for myself but I don't have rules as such for rotational play. I just found a style that I thought was practical and stuck with it. I play my main sim with household pretty much 3-4 days and then I create NPC-holidays with certain themes and play the rest of the save.

Really, holidays. Those are the best if there are many different households that you want to visit in one day. No one will miss work or school.

https://64.media.tumblr.com/bc1a6ceeba76a47ef11b38d36691d3df/864d54c4e9f3ec41-9d/s1280x1920/53a538adce104a90df1fa1acedb755c337031d45.png
Death and dogs, classic! A holiday, so I can bounce around all the households I want to see that way. "You guys get a dog. Grandma here is going to get a flower-arrangement scented with deathflower, thank you all those sim-days". Some holidays I spend just one one household. Some holidays I visit 7 households with kids because I want to create clubs of children for my parks. Or perhaps vampires who come to the club to drink from the dancing sims. Anything goes on my NPC-days!

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 main households pretty much always start out as a single sim. Then it can be the beginning of a legacy or just a fun challenge. Since I always rotate away to other households I can chose what I want to do on my NPC-days.

3. how long does this type of play hold your interest approximately? ( for example..a week...a month ...longer?)
Sims 4 is my first Sims-game and I joined at some point right after ghosts and swimmingpools were added. So... since then.

4. Do you usually use NewCrest so you can create your own town or do you have a favorite neighborhood and why?
NewsCrest is my least used map. Sulani is my favorite town but not all my stories takes place there.

5. Would you say there is any draw backs to rotational play and if yes then what would those draw backs be?
I tried to play strictly with one household but it just doesn't work for me. I guess drawbacks depends on each player and how they want to play.

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.
Hm... I guess I prefer to change things up. Good times for my sims and bad times for my sims. A teen struggling to get by to a big happy family. There is usually a mersim or a spellcaster somwhere among the most played households. Vampires in my stories are often scary background characters.

@wickichick so you split them up by seasons? does the garden still look good that way?
I don't really need to pay attention to the worth of the plants cause my gardening sim is not selling them, she uses them for herbalism, potions, cooking, juice fizzing and flower arrangements (she is the sim who's filling up my shops), but I like to have at least one of everything.

RavanSpit...yes it does ...i put winter first because that garden is closest to the back porch...your garden can look as nice as you like..i set up my planters for the plants that fit into this season...then I put in dirt in the entire square and fence it off and i put a walk way in the center using a stone flooring....i usually do this on a 64x64 lot ..the garden is pretty big as you can imagine and there has to be room for the garden space and the house...you can add outdoor decor to each garden space ....can even put in some outdoor lights ...you could even landscape your garden space with pretty plants/trees/flowers and rocks...i need to set up a photo sight so i can put pictures in here again so much easier then trying to explain sometimes ..lol!

@RavenSpit On the first day of a new season, I move the out-of-season plants to the family inventory and take out any that I’ve stashed there for the current season. They maintain their quality. It only takes 2 days or so for them to regrow.
Grafting is great! I always want to grow everything, but I don’t necessarily want that amount of plants. It’s way too much produce anyway! After I’ve grafted something onto another plant, I often just delete it because I really don’t need it anymore.

@babajayne I always forget about grafting, I think that would actually help me alot.
The thing is, I do not have a problem with designing the garden but the seasons mess me up as to when what is growing, I just hate it when I got empty spots during seasons cause the plants planted there are not growing, I guess grafting could help with that?

@wickichick so you split them up by seasons? does the garden still look good that way?
I don't really need to pay attention to the worth of the plants cause my gardening sim is not selling them, she uses them for herbalism, potions, cooking, juice fizzing and flower arrangements (she is the sim who's filling up my shops), but I like to have at least one of everything.

"wickichick;c-17618679" wrote:
gothbunie....i have not used apartments in the sims4 series...does it take longer returning home because you are in an apartment? btw thanks for posting i enjoyed reading your input!

It doesn't. It's the same as with a normal home lot.

Dakota 88.....But we all know the troubles with TS3: when you played a save for too long, it used to blow up and became unplayable, so I think I made 2nd generation once, but I never made it beyond that.

No kidding...The sims 3 ran relatively well for me..i had to take Island paradise out because that had routing issues for me but i had everything else and a good share of the store....but now when folks wish the sims 4 could be more developed with open worlds ..color wheel for customization...larger towns....story progression....It all sounds great but if you enjoy the sims community at all..you want a game that plays well for the majority of folks...Sims 3 never did..the forums was full of unhappy folks...i think for the number of folks i see in this thread running rotational plays for four years ..some have for six years! That is pretty darn good...i do think you have to get creative so your town has "life" but you can do that with a bit of effort...We don't all play the same this is true...but the majority of simmers enjoy family style play with a bit of drama mixed in...a town has to have gossip, right?

SheriSim57...you really developed some nice community lots ...i have the idea for a Healthy Living shop..and that will be nice because i am doing the herbal skill with this play..i have never done it before so that should be interesting.
i am really impressed with how much effort you have put into having nice venues to go to..i do like having a lot with a pool for spring/summer..but you have some great ideas ..the laundry mat is good..i have not done that but how do you work around the lint trap thing do you have a sim who lives on the lot who upgrades?

I am going to keep this rotational play small i think because with the eventual two couples that i will have (they are all single right now..so i have four total sims) i can see how quickly you end up with lots of folks in a rotation with kids who grow up and find potential mates and start families.

@wickichick
Yes, I had a problem once and had to go back to an older save ( this was years ago). I got al
back up drive with my new laptop.

I have played my sim self longest. She has no job, but paints and gardens an lol d other things.

I have about 5 or 6 different types of restaurants, all different types and an icecream shop all down loaded and some slightly changed. I downloaded a bowling alley in BB and I also added a basement to a cafe in Windenburg and added another bowling center on a basement floor complete with toddler tunnels. I also added on to the gym there, and I created an arcade/park for Windenburg. Ihave 3-4 gyms, many I have changed to add other things like a pool, sauna basketball court, and or yoga etc. have a few spas. I have several nightclubs, my favorite is in Sulani...., in the ship wrecked lot with a hotel as well as a night club. I made a hospital/mall retail that is in OS. I downloaded the GrandCanyon’ from the gallery and added a bit to the outside, that’s a spa that is in OS too. I down loaded a small military base ( and added other activities to it. That’s in strangerville, I also downloaded a cafe there and added a small gym and laudramat to it. A long time ago some one made a beach ( before pools came out) that I downloaded in OS that is still there ( it is labeled as a pool because I added it to the edge). I also made a small park w/pool in OS. In SM In one of the karaoke bars I added a second story and that is a Scout room, and I added a basement with a laundromat, and play area. In Newcrest I have a grocery store, outdoor lounge, nightclub, movie theatre, a church ( I also have a different church in WC), an office building and an apartment I made, also a big park I downloaded and I have a special residential lot there, I downloaded someone’s yacht for my photographer to live in. I have a photography shop in OS, I believe it was maxis made. I also Downloaded a lot called ‘Dragon Inn’ which has a small bar and I use it as a hotel in OS. In BB I made an Arts Center which I need to update. I still have open lots in BB and Sulani to either create or download.something for. I haven’t changed Siverdorado much yet, but Granite Falls has a Spa, a cafe and a rental that is called ‘the fishing spot’. I think that’s most of the ones I added or changed much..... oh I did add someone’s western ghost town too which was really cute.

I've become a rotational player with TS4. I've always been a family legacy player. With TS2 I was too young to play long enough so I could have my Sims' kids have kids which would have resulted in rotational play in the end, my parents wouldn't let me play a lot. But I do remember playing 2 families rotationally once because I wanted their kids to marry one day (I think it never came to be). With TS3 I didn't play rotationally, I had a story progression mod which made everyone I didn't follow live their lives, so I picked an heir in my family to play them actively. But we all know the troubles with TS3: when you played a save for too long, it used to blow up and became unplayable, so I think I made 2nd generation once, but I never made it beyond that.

So even though I miss open world and I am sometimes annoyed by all the loading screens, I am happy the game is much more stable with TS4. The 2nd generation has just been born and my game runs smoothly. I'm an adult now so I can play as long as I want and I've been playing my current save since 2017 (with long breaks in between).

Now to your question:

1. I change households at 5 AM (like everyone else here, haha) so my Sims won't miss work or school. I usually play a family for 4 days (did 3 days up until a little while ago, but I noticed it was just too short to really develop their story). I try to be very strict about the time I play each family because I don't want them to age differently as I play with aging off except active household. I randomize the amount of kids my Sims will have, otherwise I would just let everyone have 5 kids or something and I'd end up with too many Sims. I also randomize their traits and aspiration and then I create a story along the randomized traits and aspiration (otherwise I'd end up with the same traits and aspirations all the time). I give them a new every day outfit with every seasonal change when I return to the family.

2. Right now I have 5 families: the legacy founder couple (who are old and my dear Sim will die soon) and their four kids who have already moved out, 2 of them have kids of their own already. So I've got 12 Sims in total right now, pets not counted. 3 seniors, 3 adults, 3 young adults, 1 child, 1 toddler, 1 baby. Another baby will follow soon. :)

3. As I said: I've been playing this save since 2017 with long breaks in between. It's not that I lose interest but I always think playing Sims consumes so much time and when I work or have much to do academically, I won't have that much time left for playing, so I often rather stop completely than just settle with an hour a day or something (you can hardly do anything in an hour of sims gameplay and it's not that immersive). I am really enjoying the different storylines right now, it's become more fun with more gameplay options of course because you can do different things. With TS2 and TS3 I hardly got to try all of the stuff the game offered because of lack of time and blown up save files, TS4 doesn't offer as much and I wish it would offer more. But it is enough for me right now as there are a lot of things I haven't played (probably won't ever play Vampires and Stranger Ville, but apart from that there is so much I still haven't done).

4. I tend to fill up my neighbourhoods with premade houses I download from speed builders (love watching speed builds). I usually change them to fit my needs and taste. But as this takes a lot of time and I don't want to JUST build, I tend to build between family rotation for a little while, so my neighbourhoods are a mess right now. In Newcrest I have a church, lots of community lots (also a school on which I am working right now, I play with Zerbu's school mod) and as for now only 1 family home for one of my families (others will follow though).

5. Yes, there are drawbacks. You can set seasons to 28 days the longest. I wish I could play my families 5 days each and not 4, but I want everyone to experience every season and it won't work so well anymore with 5 families and just 28 days. I would have to give them new outfits everytime I change family and that is a bit tedious. Otherwise there is gameplay for which you need more than 4 Sim days and which will not freeze when you change family. For example the actor career or University... I don't know yet if the actor career even is playable for me whith my playstyle... Relationship culling would be another drawback, but I use a mod to prevent that (it still happens sometimes though, it's really annoying).

6. As said, I am a family legacy player. I usually start with a couple I made in CAS, sometimes they already have kids (in my current save I made them toddler twins), sometimes their kids are born in game shortly after. My first family will always have lots of kids, 3 at least, but most of the time it's 4-8. In this save it was 4, but I would have loved more haha, love playing with families.

"babajayne;c-17618346" wrote:
@wickichick I’m glad to share. I know it seems like overkill a bit, but I tried playing rotationally before this and I didn’t follow any plan. I suddenly noticed that some families had Winterfest multiple times, while others had never experienced it at all (poor kids!) and there were gardeners that weren’t getting around to all the seasons so they weren’t growing everything. Therefore it’s become really important to me to make sure the seasons flow right for each family.

Have fun finding what’s right for you!

In my huge, irregular rotation I also have a system to track seasons/holidays. I mark each family with a number from one to four (1 = spring, 2 = summer, 3 = autumn, 4 = winter). That way I can easily keep track of what season they had last time I played and avoid repeats. This is the only system I could come up that would work for my game and it's still relatively loose. I may jump over a season if I feel like it. Also sometimes I need to change the numbers for everyone involved if there's a big gathering (for example a new year's party) or something significant happens (some could start dating for example).