Recommendations for packs for a family player?

Cats and Dogs kinda cool, especially if your family likes pets and Brindleton Bay (another world) is so beautiful. It comes with animal aspiration as well. One of my Sims completed the aspiration and she basically can talk to her pets! And Vintage Glamour Stuff is quite useful too..particularly for a large house or family (at least in my games). The butler helps me with lots of chores.. I don't have most of the pack..But I would like to get the toddler and kids stuffs next..

Laundry Day Stuff is also good for family players, makes things more interesting especially if you have a large family and you need to take care of all the laundry. :D It also adds realism to your family

Cats & Dogs is great especially if you need space because it brings a new world with it, which Seasons does not.
And having a pet is always great for the family, pets can even interact with toddlers!

Get Together can be very useful for family play. It is advertised for party type gatherings, but it is so much more versatile. And it's half price right now. ;)

Your family can be the club. Set your activities as things that your family would normally do such as watch TV, read books, play chess and use toilet or take shower/bath. You will quickly accrue points to take advantage of benefits to make their lives easier.
The vibe perks will help you to achieve requirements for aspirations, such as changing the vibe to playful for the motor play on jungle gym while playful or focused for the mental do homework while focused 3 times.
Skill perks will of course help you build skills faster.
Rally the Troops will give a boost to hunger, bladder and energy. You can use it as many times as you want - there is no cool down period.

I was one of those who couldn't get into GT because I couldn't care less about the club/partying atmosphere. After I discovered that you can have family clubs and never even need to leave the lot, it completely changed my outlook on this EP! :)

It really depends on the type of families you play with, city living added a bunch of stuff and sometimes it can be fun to raise a family in the city, they also give you three new careers, and lot traits, like twins are more likely to be born on certain lots or apartments, another bonus to me in CL was because the sims 4 isn't open world, your sims can instantly meet people in their apartment buildings, outside the apartment and of course when they travel! so your sims can do a bit more with those! if you don't care to have animals in your game then you don't need cats and dogs, while Brindleton bay is gorgeous, the world itself is pretty small and can feel a bit on the empty side. While get together is geared for more parties and stuff, it's always fun seeing your sims join a club or even form their own club and make friends, it's a really easy way to go out there and meet other sims! and you can play with the story line of your teens sneaking out to go to the club to meet their crush or something. I tried to list all of them that added another world to the game, so you can get the idea or feel of what route you would like to go, but my suggestion would be City Living or Get Together as they generally add a lot to your game and a lot for you to do and experience with your sims.

Toddler Stuff and Kids Room Stuff for good CAS. Cats and Dogs if you want family pets. Get Together clubs can also be fun for families in my opinion.

Bowling night, Backyard stuff, Cool Kitchen, & Movie Night are all stuff packs, but add some fun family activities to your game, plus cute furniture and clothing. Also Outdoor Retreat, a family camping trip is always fun.

My opinion only, but this is my list.

Necessary:
Get together - Clubs and quite a few activities. You can make a cool teen hangout with the arcade machines. Clubs basically allow you to populate community lots and somewhat dictate the actions of nonplayables. For that it's worth it. I have some townies I make clubs for just so I can have my playables have more filled and interesting community lots. It also makes it easier to summon family members to do activities together.

Seasons - More activities and some nice things for toddlers + kids. Of course the weather, ability to plan events, and create holidays or celebrate premade ones. All very nice for family play.

Parenthood - Adds interesting game mechanics around parenting so your parenting will affect how your sims behave past teenhood. This makes some sims more sensitive or compassionate than others. A mean sim with the insensitive trait is far more nasty than just a regular mean sim. The board helps to manage families and set limits on teens and kids. So curfew and things like that. You can also punish and help in projects from school. It just makes everything about families more engaging and interactive.

Toddler Stuff - I think this is worth it just to get more things for toddlers to do and use. I use the slide a lot in my houses and community lots.

Kids room stuff - Adds basically a pokemon ripoff that kids can play which is kind of fun and cute. They can fight each other with their cards, collect them, and trade them (or gift them with seasons). Plus adds more CAS and Buy/Build items for kids and teens.


Nice to have depending on your style of family play:
City Living - Depends on how much you desire the world or some of the activities it includes. I really don't use any of the festivals.

Cats & Dogs - Depends on how much you desire the world or like pets. They do add a good bit of family play, but if you aren't into pets then it won't matter.

Jungle Adventure - Depends on if you'd like a vacation world. If so I'd get this one. A lovely location and there is tomb raiding for sims that are older. It can be very lucrative and kind of fun as a main career. Who can beat a jungle for a family vacation? JA definitely outshines outdoor retreat in this.

Vampires - Get this GP only if supernatural stuff interests you. I'm a family player, but I do love supernatural stuff. Vampire kiddos are so cute and I love how much more depth these ones have to previous vampires. If that doesn't interest you though then not something you need.

Laundry Day - This depends on how you play. This basically adds nothing gameplay wise except laundry. The CAS and Build/Buy items are wonderful though. I love them a lot, but if you are sure you'll never use or want laundry then it's not worth it to get it.

Backyard Stuff - Adds slip and slides and some other small items that I do think offer some gameplay value to my families.

Completely optional:
Spooky Stuff - A decent add on to basically make use of the seasons expack's ability to create holidays. I really never used the stuff until Seasons. So if you aren't buying that no use for this.

Dine Out - I don't think this adds family gameplay really. Toddlers don't work as well with restaurants so you can't really include them without a ton of hassle (it came out before toddlers). It does allow some family moments at fancy restaurants, but again it's all kind of badly implemented. The meals take forever. I usually only use it for dates now because anything more than 2-3 sims becomes unmanageable. A breakfast can last like 6 hours in sim time.

Cool Kitchen - Basically the only item that is included here that sort of helps family play is the ice cream maker, but imo not worth buying just for it. I'm not sure it adds that much family gameplay. If you don't get Dine out probably not worth it. If you do have Dine out then you can make a ice cream parlor which is pretty much all I use those packs for anyways lol.

Movie Hangout Stuff - I use this one more especially the CAS/Buy items. It allows for your families to watch movies together and popcorn is kind of a nice add on as well. Again though if movie night watching isn't your thing then no reason to get this. You are basically paying for the movies and popcorn items.

Vintage Glamour - I don't really think this is useful, but if you play a lot with a maid a butler might be interesting to you. I honestly never hire npcs so it's not worth it to me. There is also the makeup table for kids to play around with, but most of the items are for adults. Only a few interactions you will gain from kids interacting with adult objects. That's not really worth it to me.

Bowling Night Stuff - I consider this optional because without mods I don't find bowling works well. It often ends up being long and tough to manage with mods it's easier. Still it does add something enjoyable for families or teens (my bowling place is mostly a teen hangout with an arcade).

For family play I would suggest Seasons, C&D & laundry day. I think bowling can also be fun for families. And, personally, I take my families out to eat a lot so Dine Out can also be interesting for family play but it's very focused, so it only adds that one particular element :)

Get Together’s Club system is actually pretty good for my family play as I can form clubs for families and create gatherings of clubs at various lots. As a family player with multiple families or families that are a bit spread out, I’ve been loving it! :smiley: I can also make clubs out of future romantic pairings as well, which brings about potential for making new families and new connections. :smile:

Seasons is great if you would love putting in weather effects, some seasonal activities, holiday gatherings and more party events. :smile:

Parenthood is also great and enhances the feel of a family. Your sims parents/caregivers/guardians help build the character of their children Sims. It is great if you like that little touch of parenting (praising, encouraging, scolding, etc) and if you want the kids to act a certain way as they grow up.

I would also recommend Toddler Stuff and Kids Stuff to give more CAS and activity/toy content for the toddlers and kids. :smile:

Cats & Dogs is good if you would like to add pets and a beautiful new neighborhood to add to your game, so it’s up to you on how much you want the pets. (Look up some gameplay videos or game guides so you can see how the pets work in Sims 4.)