How do you "rotational" play

I'm a rotational player and I have a lot of households. This also means that a lot of my own sims walk around in the community worlds which makes them more interesting to me. If a sim marries into a household that I'm playing, they "join" my rotation. If I get uninterested, I'll make a household unplayable and then just leave them as townies wandering around. I don't play with mods. I switch households whenever I want to and I play with aging off for playable households. I tend to freeze time as I'm moving around between the different households so that it's like everything is happening at the same time but I'm seeing all of my sims evolve. Every so often, I'll age up the unplayables but lately I haven't because I might want to make a few households playable again later to see if they interest me more.

To answer your questions:

1. I started this rotation by deciding not to pick an heir and to follow two brothers with different lives. I then decided that the town needed a lot more characters. I made potential spouses and then decided to follow some of the ones who weren't picked. In the beginning, some of my households joined because I wanted to see what would happen to some of the rejected love interests, would they ever find love? Now, I just have a whole lot of sims and I'm generationally farther along, so I now switch between various characters. I choose to switch when I get to a stopping point with a particular household. I try not to let one household age up way more than the others before going back to play them. I make myself check in on specific households every so often. I'm just able to keep track. If they were to get really boring I would quit playing them but usually, they get more interesting when I do. No one is an elder when someone of the same generation is a teen, if that makes sense. It means I get to experience a lot of different households with different homes, lifestyles, etc.
2. They are all different types of households because it's a legacy rotation, so they might be single, then get married, most of them have at least one kid. Few of them stay single long term but they might go through a long time that way, in which case, I'll usually turn aging off. If I like a household or am working on some part of their lives, I'll turn aging off. Unless they have kids, I turn aging off in university. That's one rule of mine, when they have kids, the aging clock goes on for them. That's when time definitely moves on.
3. If you are wondering how long I'll play a household before I switch, it depends on what is going on the game. I have Seasons with a long span on so I'll pay attention to the shifting weather and holidays. I might just check in with a household for a few days or I might spend weeks with one. With university, I obviously need to play at least a week at a time. If you are asking about how long it keeps me interested, I've had my rotation for years, but I have a life, interests and responsibilities. It keeps me interested when I play because the characters are "mine" and I like seeing what happens to them. It's like my own tv show in which I don't need to worry whether it entertains anyone else. I think I spend a lot of time on character development for sims I like.
4. Newcrest is a centralized neighborhood that is mostly non-residential. I only have two households there and instead it's a neutral place where sims can go to hang out. I have a cafe, parks, a spa, the lost garden of time, a cinema/bowling alley, a different kind of library, bars, clubs, several restaurants, etc. Not sure what to do? Go to Newcrest. I don't have a specifically favorite world. I like switching between them and seeing how the neighborhoods develop.
5. How long it takes especially with as many households as I have. I've sometimes wondered where it is going but it's entertaining. When I get into it, I'm generally happy. There are times that I've made myself play a household that I was bored of. With a big rotation, I need to just say, "It's ok to just make them unplayable," and to just concentrate more on the households I like. I don't need to explain why I like them, I just do.
6. Eh, I like switching between different households and phases of life. I'm mostly interested in my characters and I like having very different visual environments. I just don't want anything to be too repetitive.

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!

I used to never play rotational, but after I figured out there was no story progression, I had to do something because I was tired of all my sims in town dying of old age, single, and childless. I needed friends/cousins etc. I've turned aging off except for current household so I don't have people randomly dying or aging out of range for friendships etc (until I'm ready for them to). I keep it on for the current household though because the race against the clock (as it were) is one of the few challenges in the game. I don't rotate families on any set schedule, I just rotate whenever I get bored or need to rotate to keep age groups aligned.

1. 9/10 times I begin with one sim. That sim becomes a "legacy" founder and that sim I will use to populate a lot of the world over multiple generations. Over time, I will have to add more sims, but I add them later when I have an idea what the offspring will need for personalities for potential friends and mates. They usually start with an empty lot or bare bones house and I "rags to riches" style game play. When the next generation grows up, I legacy style it, and one will inherit the house and the other siblings move out (if there's multiples). The ones that move out then move onto their own legacy of sorts and again back to the beginning with the whole rags to riches thing.
2. Starting with one and then growing a family. They're all various sizes and I've played with anything up to 8 sims and a variety of pets and non pet households.
3. Depends on my save and my RL. I play other games besides sims too so I will take a break if another game is catching my interest. If I want to play sims and bored with the current save, I have other saves I work on as well. I build. Right now this current save has been worked on since last February with small breaks.
4. I use Newcrest as more of a place to dump a lot of venues. I have restaurants there, church, graveyard, outdoor cinema, shops, cafes. Depending on the save and the story happening in my head is where my sims live. I love Forgotten Hallow and Strangerville though, they are my favourties to look at, but I tend to use Sulani a lot. Lately I've been in Willow Creek the most.
5. The biggest draw back for me is eventually there becomes too many households to keep up with. Right now I'm on Generation 5 and there's 5 groups of families all related. Of those 5 groups, 3 have 2-5 children each and when those kids grow up... I don't know what I'm going to do! :D
6. I guess I prefer families. I just prefer to build them up from nothing. The only times I create entire families in CAS is when I'm making townies to move in for my sims to have friends/mates etc. I also prefer them to be occult too. Aliens are my favourites, but I have soft spots for the others as well. I also love to have chaos in the game. Anything that helps to hinder some of the family members is welcome in my game (murphy beds as an example). I like a little bit of risk and I like the challenges that come with that. When the game stops challenging me is when I usually stop a family or even an entire save.

"Duvelina;c-17614106" wrote:
@Justin I guess that that could be a problem. I've always been good about remembering what was going on. It could help to write down a short bio for the family so you can easily get back into it. That's what I do for TS4, so I know what I was planning on doing next and I keep it updated.

I will actually write down their story the
next time I try rotation play. I’ll prob only start off with 3 first. The first 2 times I tried to do a whole neighborhood but failed because I couldn’t keep up & kept forgetting lol. Thank you for your the tips :)

@Justin I guess that that could be a problem. I've always been good about remembering what was going on. It could help to write down a short bio for the family so you can easily get back into it. That's what I do for TS4, so I know what I was planning on doing next and I keep it updated.

"Duvelina;c-17614104" wrote:
@Justin What's complicated about it? I don't think anything is complicated and like I said in my post, I think the variety is what makes the game fun for me. I haven't always played like this but it definitely started with TS2 for me already, so about ten years now maybe?

Keeping up with as many families is a bit complicated for me personally . Remembering their stories & what not. But thank you for answering my question. I will continue to follow this post in hopes of trying it again

@Justin What's complicated about it? I don't think anything is complicated and like I said in my post, I think the variety is what makes the game fun for me. I haven't always played like this but it definitely started with TS2 for me already, so about ten years now maybe?

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?

1. I do not really have rules beyond what fits with my story. For example, my vampire bartender that is too busy for kids is not suddenly going to become a teacher. I also try to maintain family bonds and develop a story to the world. Even minor characters need a little flavor.
2. Me, I usually start with parents and kids or a group of siblings. Then slowly marry them off and start their own families. Like I said previously, part of my goal is to maintain these bonds as they grow into an expanded and more free world.
3. This is complicated, because you try the formula out and either it sticks or it doesn't with that go through. The characters themselves I usually have saved in my library. My first big save like this I took over all of Newcrest and cannot bring myself to delete it to this day. I updated it regularly for nearly three to four years with new pack content and I may still go back. My other ones... If it sticks it can easily keep me preoccupied for three months. I save a lot of stuff in the library so the saves are not so vital anymore.
4. Usually, no. I have to be in one of those moods and have a grand plan to take over Newcrest. That three to four year save I did and I saved all those lots to reuse, but this is not typical. I love the space of Newcrest, but the neighborhood itself is boring and some of the lots are super small. I only recommend it if you do have those grand ambitions because you can get bogged down.
5. Just if you are trying to force it. I fell into this play naturally (when I do it) because I cared about the characters. I wanted to see them grow into houses with spouses and kids. Some I created parents or what not for later for some backstory. If you do not feel it for the characters it is just a chore, but if you do it comes naturally.
6. I usually play with large families. Either parents with a bunch of kids or or siblings and their pets. I have several families where I have a Sim in every age group and then matching pets. A lot of times I just play this unit, but when I do rotational I break up my large family after playing with the original unit and exploring where their lives go. Sure this is family play, but it also has elements of single Sims getting back to the large family stage and all the steps in between. I also have a penchant to make them occult families normally, but I do not break up my occult families so often. Rotational play let's me shake up my normal play by letting the family grow up.

1. The only real rule I abide by is switching households between 5 and 6 AM, so no one inconveniently comes home from work because you switched households.
2. At the moment I play five households with 14 sims in total. The dynamics within the households differ. I can't say I usually play with a specific set-up because there isn't one. Two of my households consist of one sim. One household is a mother and daughter and the two other households are parents with some of their kids.
3. I've been playing (and storytelling) with this save for months now, so I'd say it has kept my interest for quite long. I think it's the variety in household size and the different storylines that keep it interesting.
4. I've barely used Newcrest. I put a roller rink and a park there and that's it. I started playing with premade households so they already had houses. Most of my sims live in Windenburg because that's where they started out and I wanted my related sims to be close to each other. One sim lives in San Myshuno in an apartment but that's because his girlfriend (at the time) moved there and he moved in with her.
5. Depends on how long your rotations are. Mine are very short sometimes which means none of my households pay bills. I don't know why but they don't get them anymore. It's also harder to get a promotion with shorter rotations because you usually have to go to work twice with all your tasks completed so when I get back around to a sim they're a couple days older already. The coming home from work/school thing in the middle of the day whenever you switch is a real drawback too but avoidable by switching at a time when you know everyone in the other household is home anyway.
6. I started the save with a single sim and that's my go-to starting set-up but I fell into the Villareal family and it all went on from there. I do enjoy bigger households so you could say I'm into family-play but I'm also really happy when I can switch back to a single sim and focus on them.