How Much Personality Do You Give Your Sims?

"QueenofMyshuno;d-967317" wrote:
How much personality do you give your sims within and outside of the game's limits? And how do you do it?

For example, things within the game limits would be assigning traits and hobbies or getting reward traits, either by earning them or using a cheat. Things outside of the game limits would be using your imagination while you're playing to pretend like they have different motives, needs, goals, etc.; using poses and screenshots, or writing stories about them.

To give you an idea of what I'm asking, I'll tell you how I go about it. I like all of my sims to have some sort of defining hobby or concern that may or may not be part of the game-assigned personality. Like so:

Fidelia: Her defning quality is that she is a heterosexual girl who does not especially like frilly or feminine things. From there, I decided her hobby would need to be rock collecting. From there, I decided she would be adventurous, which will affect the man she marries, as I will probably have her marry an adventurous man.

Ulysses Meryweather: His defining concern is that he is afraid that his son is gay. (My game takes place in a time when men could be executed for being homosexual, so it's a big concern for him.) This leads to Ulysses' personality being very conforming to the ideals of masculinity of the society he's in, to him snooping around his son's room, to him being in a bad mood a lot because he's worrying so much, and to some funny moments where he's trying to ask his son about his preference without actually coming out and asking him.

I use stories or blog posts to fill in details about their personalities and what they're doing. I also like to take screenshots and build stories off of them that may not pertain to what they were actually doing at the time. Like if they have a certain facial expression, I might make the story out to say they were thinking a certain thing that doesn't match their actual emotional state in game.

Please tell me about how you give your own sims personalities, or if you don't give them any added personality beyond what the game assigns. Examples of specific sims welcome. Screenshots also welcome.

I have similar 'head canons' about my Sims. A techie Sim is generally not going to be into herbalism. Indiana Primley, the Sim who was tasked with finding all the collectibles from IL, wasn't going to wear short skirts.

I always have my toddlers talk about their favourite colours and animals. That inspires me when I go into CAS and decorate their rooms when they age up - a tot who likes butterflies and the colour green will get lots of butterflies and green. (My current tot, in my RoM save, likes orange and snakes. She's not getting either one.)

Actually, speaking of headcanons, I just realised that I'm referring to my toddler as a girl, but she's a boy. I wanted a girl, and had her mother listen to loads of pop (we couldn't find any strawberries), but a boy it was. I've been giving her longer hair and using those non-gender wrap skirts from IL - she's obviously headed in a non-binary direction. I think she'll get a little more boy-girl balanced once she hits her teens, and I'll start thinking of her more as a boy. (Hormones, you know.)