@mastressalita I'm so excited and honored you chose my legacy to be featured on your thread! Thank you so much for all the kind words. I will most definitely be checking out some of the other Disney related stories
I just saw this today as my weeks have been crazy with keeping up with my blog, sims stories and friends and getting back into the swing at school.I BIG I MEAN HUGE THANKS FOR THIS . I read the other feedback for the users and it helps me to know what stories to read for the coming months.
Truly THANK YOU. @everyone Congrats to other writers for your stories.
Edition #4: I'm Surrounded by Idi*ts! Date: 01/24/16
Welcome to this week's edition of Weekly Reading Roundup, where I sample selections of stories from the Stories and Legacies Index! This week the theme is ISBIs, and let me tell you, thanks to the filter on these forums, it took me forever when I first joined here to figure out what that stood for! As a librarian, I am of course anti-censorship, so don't be surprised if I pop some asterisk substitutions here and there to get around it (who decided that the word "idi*t" was so uncouth anyway? Seriously EA...)
The "I'm Surrounded By Idi*ts Challenge" has been around since Sims 2. The point of the challenge is to maintain a household of Sims (often with the Insane trait) for ten generations, while only having the ability to control the torch holder of the household. All other household members are controlled by free will, their actions left autonomous, and their wants and needs are left out of the hands of the player. There is a scoring rubric involved based on the sorts of things -- both positive and negative -- that those crazy Sims get up to, and if you are curious of seeing a full breakdown, then check out the Sims 2 rules, the Sims 3 rules, or the Sims 4 rules.
So why ISBIs? Why not! Squirrel Appreciation Day was this week, and considering the required Insane trait, these Sims tend to be a little nutty... am I right? *ba-dum-tish* And considering the overall lack of control the player has over the Sims in their household, many a Dugg "SQUIRREL!" moment is surely to be had as autonomous Sims drop what they are doing to partake in the strangest of activities... I love insane Sims, so let's dig in!
Story:Biblioteque ISBI Site:Raerei's Fortress Simmer:@ra3rei Sims games featured: Sims 3 Date of last update: 10/24/2016 Total parts (active, ongoing): 19 (3 gens)
The Biblioteque ISBI is originally posted on Raerei's Simblr, but she is kind enough to repost it to Wordpress for certain archivists that don't care for Tumblr's formatting all that much (how kind!) So take your pick! The legacy begins with Clio Biblioteque, who quickly hits it off with a lovely pink-haired hunk, Michael, and many a baby are to be had! The story is told gameplay style, and some of the lines just kill me... ("Employing drastic measure: infant swings. (Please don't put it on fast!" Bwahahaha... seriously, what is with the fast option on those things? Did EA want a bunch of Sim children with disabilities from being shook as a child... or maybe that would explain the insanity? It all makes sense now!) And the #ImpossibleMoments are always fun too! It has currently just entered the second generation, with the torch being handed over to son Melville Biblioteque. A lot of funny moments in bite-size pieces that make this a very quick and enjoyable read! Each image/caption combo is like getting a fun size candy bar to enjoy! (Only far less calories!)
Dim Sims in the City is an unscored ISBI featuring Divan Rex, who has recently moved to Newcrest to escape bad past memories and make a fresh start. He joins the scientist career and quickly proceeds to try to woo every female he finds in a blur of rose petals, until he finds a cuddle muffin that will mother his children. It is written in a rather unique narrative-style, where the author's interactions with the Sim are presented as a "voice" inside his head. Divan is an absolutely hilarious character, from his patented lady-killing smolder to his mischievous Sim-Ray antics to his choice club activities... is he really picking up his bad habits from his equally hilarious villainous son Hunter, or is this just a case of like father, like son...? Hmmm... These Sims are so enjoyable (even when they have their bums in the air from pass-out failures) you can't help but have a smile on your face the entire time reading this!
Idi*t+Insane+Crazy=Idanezy is BLAMSART's third (!) try at an ISBI. It is also a Wishacy and an Alphabetacy on the side! It begins with the cotton-candy-haired Amestia Idanezy, who is quick to meet Harry Bunny, a neurotic, chain-smoking, bunny-eared fairy-with-no-wings who is obviously perfect father material for an ISBI challenge. As the nooboos arrive, their home falls further into chaos, with plenty of screaming toddlers, dying sinks, bedtime story demands, and falling victim to the power of the Zzzzs at the most inopportune times! This is written in narration style, and is quite hilarious, from the interesting interpretations of the conversation and thought bubbles (oh, I do so love insane Sims!) to the fantastic lines by inanimate objects around the house! The title for this is pretty spot on: expect lots of idi*ts, lots of insanity, and plenty of craziness! The Idanezy family are certainly an entertaining one!
Story:My Sim Stories Simmer:@Pinkyslinky Sims games featured: Sims 4 Date of last update: 12/30/2015 Total parts (discontinued): 19 (1 gen)
This untitled ISBI from Pinkslinky's My Sim Stories site follows a few modifications (such a removing the Insane trait stipulation) but otherwise pretty much follows the challenge. It begins with Michele Ann (a Simself!), who like all good legacy founders, has her priorities straight and promptly heads to a club as soon as she's settled into her cheap starter home to meet the local singles, where she is introduced to many potentials wearing scarfs like ascots, until she settles down and starts a family. But starting a new family isn't easy... especially when you are surrounded by idi*ts! The writing in this is hilarious and I find myself busting out laughing aloud in pretty much every chapter! (I love the character of Derick, who provides me with endless entertainment!) The way the strange behaviors of the non-controllable sims is described is really clever as well! (For example, "My boy was broken and I didn't know what to do" for when the son got glitched out... little touches like that which just work so well!) This story is a riot and I love every minute of it!
Story:Reagan ISBI Simmer:@ginnymalfoy22 Sims games featured: Sims 4 Date of last update: 01/18/2017 Total parts (active, ongoing): 7 gens
The Reagan ISBI is another ISBI that goes for a non-Insane-traited flavor, and is also not scored. It begins with Isabel Reagan, who starts her legacy by settling down in Oasis Springs and starting a family with locale Travis Scott, and things seem to go pretty smoothly... and then Generation Two takes over and one is reminded why it is called the "I'm Surrounded by Idi*ts Challenge," hahaha! This story is written in narration style, and you can really feel the frustration that is the ISBI challenge from the lines shared between Sim and author ("I stink!" "So? You know how to use a shower, go use it!" *snrk*) I really love all the detailed expressions that are captured on the Sims faces in this! It just cracks me up how they can look so angry or miserable yet do nothing to autonomously better their own situation (needy Sims, expect the Watcher to do everything, do you?) The different torch holders are a lot of fun, I really like how diverse they are, from curvy evil tech guru to alien!
Story:The Tart ISBI Simmer:@xoxJennxox Sims games featured: Sims 3 Date of last update: 12/12/2016 Total parts (completed): 10 gens
The Tart ISBI is a long-running ISBI, having started in 2011 and still in production, currently in its eighth generation (having survived through a nasty error that almost caused the loss of the family during the first generation, and later being revived again after an HDD crash in generation six! Talk about resilience)! The story begins with founder Plum Tart in the custom world of Sugar Valley, inhabited by colorful "berry" Sim inhabitants. She meets Blackberry Sorbet, and after a first date that last nearly half a week (seriously!) they end up married with their first child, Pop Tart. The family continues to grow as apparently their favorite activity is to autonomously Try For Baby behind the Watcher's back, bwahahaha! Like most ISBIs the story is written in narration-style, with some really hilarious exchanges between the characters and the author! I love all the descriptions of the Sims conversations using their dialogue bubbles and the commentary on their unique outfit choices (aaaah, this is why I love Insane Sims so much!) This story is also a bit of a Wishacy, as the wishes for the torch holder (however inconvenient for an ISBI) are granted, which adds an extra layer to the insanity! Though the story is relocated to an EA world for better stability later, much of the berry Sim population is retained, and there are some seriously unique and adorable kiddos throughout the years!
From the Archives:
Story:ISBI Site:MeggSims Simmer:@Meggles Sims games featured: Sims 4 Date of last update: 05/26/2016 Total parts (hiatus): 14 (1 gen)
This untitled ISBI features Eva Ash, a pink-haired, tattooed cutie that finally meets the right guy, Brayan Schubert, who goes from BFF to lover to spouse during a whirlwind romance and start a family. A short and sweet introduction to ISBIs, with plenty of frustration over autonomous computer usage, kids not doing their homework, and leaving the poor pregnant founder to do all the cleaning.
That's it for ISBI week, but if you want more random autonomous behaviors and craziness, tune in again next week, as we'll be looking at BISBIs, the ISBIs backwards cousin, in honor of Backwards Day!
Thanks @mastressalita for featuring my story. I was shocked to see it here I haven't been on the forums in a while and it was great to see my story being read. I will look into why the images are no longer displaying thanks for the heads ups. Again thanks so much for reading
*unexpected mention* @mastressalita oh wow thanks! And I was honestly surprised by the accurate description you gave of my ISBI. I couldn't have the described the founder-spouse better myself XD
Thanks again
Edition #5: I'm Surrounded by Idi*ts... In Reverse! Date: 01/31/16
Welcome to this week's edition of Weekly Reading Roundup, where I sample selections of stories from the Stories and Legacies Index! Last week we looked at "I'm Surrounded by Idi*t Challenges" -- also known as the ISBI (no doubt due in large part thanks to EA's over-prudent censorship on these forums) -- so this week, in honor of Backward Day, it only seems right to look at Backwards ISBIs!
What is the Backwards ISBI (a.k.a. BISBI)? It is a modified ISBI Challenge, where the torch holder for the first generation begins as an Elder Sim, and the torch is passed each generation when the selected heir reaches the next age state (Generation One, the Elder, passes the torch to the Generation Two heir when they reach Adult; the Generation Two torch holder passes on the torch to the Generation Three heir when they reach Young Adult; all the way until a torch is passed onto an infant!) Obviously this presents different unique challenges to each generation, based on the age of the controllable Sim and how long it will take before the torch may be passed on (for example, a challenge for the first generation is keeping the Elder alive long enough to see a child reach the age of Adult to pass to the torch; obviously the toddler stage would be tricky based on the lack of commands available to toddler Sims). Like a traditional ISBI, only the torch holder may be controlled in the household, while all other Sims are left under the autonomous control of the computer. The rule about the Insane trait needing to be passed on has been removed in his modified version (guess it is difficult enough without all the Sims being crazy as well, hahaha!) For more information about the challenge rules, you can check out this thread.
This will be a short week, as only three stories of this genre have been submitted to the Stories and Legacies Index -- a big thanks to those authors for taking the time to come and submit their works!
Story:The Dreamsicle BISBI Simmer:@xoxJennxox Sims games featured: Sims 3 Date of last update: 06/15/2016 Total parts (hiatus): 11 (2 gens)
The Dreamsicle BISBI is a backwards ISBI by @xoxJennxox, author of the The Tart ISBI which was featured last week. It features Fairy Floss Dreamsicle, a cotton-candy-haired elder who moves to Sunlit Tides to begin her legacy. There she meets a lovely young lady, Pearl, and they begin a relationship (after a bit of a rough start after a rather unfortunate vacation to China, heh). It is such a breath of fresh air to see a legacy with a same-sex pairing! (Let's face it, legacy challenges are set up to be so heteronormative... thank goodness for custom breeding mods! Hey, if Harvest Moon lets my farmer have a child with a mermaid waifu that lives in the farm duck pond with absolutely no explanation, then this hardly seems all that strange in comparison, really...) And as if the BISBI isn't challenging enough, Jenn also throws in a Wishacy element, where all of Fairy's promised wishes must be completed unless exchanged for higher paying wishes. It is written in narrative style, and features plenty of both hilarious and shocking moments! I'd say more, but I really don't want to give too much away... I will say I definitely got a sense of just how challenging this particular challenge can be!
Insanity Family: The K*ok Family Backwards ISBI (pardon yet more creative asterisk substitutions, the censorship on these forums astounds me sometimes... let's hope no one ever tries to post those oh-so-scandelous Addams Family Theme Song lyrics!) begins with Ben K*ok, a crazy old man who hears the disembodied voice of the author commenting on his life inside his head. After meeting a talking llama (clearly a sign from the Watcher!), he decides he must go to university, where he proceeds to attempt wooing the female student body, until he settles for Cindy (who clearly was just trying to escape a most scandelous relationship with one of her professors, heh). Like any good legacy ISBI family, they start having children, except they apparently didn't get the memo that this isn't an alien invasion legacy family. Despite the fact that the BISBI does not require the Insane trait like the traditional ISBI, it is used as a family trait here to much hilarity, lending to some hilarious conversations from the Sim dialogue bubbles or commentary shared with the author, not to mention those choice costume changes! I absolutely fell in love with the founder, Ben, and it is really easy to get caught up in his quest for an ever longer life while dealing with all those equally insane children! An incredibly fun read!
Story:What Are You Even Doing? Simmer:@Cyazurai (Wordpress: Seraphaeli) Sims games featured: Sims 3 Date of last update: 06/03/2016 Total parts (hiatus): 32 (3 gens)
What Are You Even Doing? is a BISBI challenge that starts with founder Exra D'Amore -- pronounced Ezra, that typo gives him character, not that he needs any extra, because being both flirty and proper, he is already quite the character! -- who promptly heads off to Egypt and starts his legacy by having an illegitimate child and then ending up with three Egyptian sisters living in his house before settling down with one as his wife! Oh, and she's flirty too, so it does not take the couple long to fill their little household to capacity with nooboos! Glitches, multiple neighborhood moves, a colorful cast of (sometimes accidental) children, abductions, inter-species cultural fails, heartfarts (*snrk* I'm never going to get over that term...), and plenty of town gossip make this story oh-so-amusing! Amal -- she only does what she wants! -- is such an amusing character, I'm glad to see she got her own spin-off series in the form of a Who's Your Daddy Challenge! This story, written in typical ISBI narration-style fashion, is incredibly enjoyable! There is just so much zaniness always going on in the D'Amore household!
There is no In the Archives segment this week, as I just didn't find any BISBI's from the Stories and Legacies Archive that got very far along (many quit after one part!) A daunting challenge, indeed! Though you can find more BISBIs to read -- both discontinued and a few very active ones that never submitted their sites to the Stories and Legacies Index -- over on the BISBI Challenge thread. So if you are hankering for more after this sampling, that's a great place to look!
Next week another new month is upon us, and you know what that means... Legacy Launch-off! Yes, the first week of every month I will take a look at randomly selected legacies from the Stories and Legacies Index, so look forward to it! The following week I'll be out state on vacation, but I'm trying to get something done ahead of time to go up, since that will be Valentine's Day and I'd really like an Edition for the occassion... we'll see. But I'm not making any promises. ^_~
Edition #6: February Legacy Launch-Off! Date: 02/07/16
Welcome to this week's edition of Weekly Reading Roundup, where I sample selections of stories from the Stories and Legacies Index! Since it is the first week of the month, it is time to start off the new month with... Legacy Launch-off!
This week I'll be taking a look at legacies, selected randomly, that have been submitted to the Stories and Legacies Index! So let's roll that random number generator and get started, shall we?
Aussie Accents features Joeseph and Teresa Machin, originally from Sim Macquarrie, AustraliSim, that have recently moved to Veronaville where Joeseph begins a new career in education. However, the move was only temporary, as Joeseph had set his sights on a secret agent job with the Sim Bureau of Investigation in Willow Creek, and as soon as a position was available, the family was relocated so he could take the job. With their new daughter, Mary, the family settles into their new lives in a new town. The story starts out in Sims 2 and transitions into Sims 4 in a very clever way through the writing! The writing style is presented as a narration provided by various members of the family, with the narrator changing each chapter, as they share photos directly to the reader that show what they have been up to recently. It is very much a laid back, slice-of-life story, featuring lots of captioned gameplay photos, cute Aussie slang, and Simmer cameos!
Story:The Bluejay Legacy Simmer:@PalmArrow Sims games featured: Sims 3 Date of last update: 03/29/2016 Total parts (completed): 3 gens
The Bluejay Legacy starts with George Bluejay, who moves to (a modified to have a much more international vibe) Sunset Valley with hardly a simoleon to his name. He becomes a fireman (someone has to save Sim burrito babies left by their idi*t parents to unfortunate flammable accidents!), and settles down with his coworker at the station, Agnes Crumplebottom, to start a family. The story is a chronicle of the Bluejay family's life, based heavily around their wishes, and the writing has this clever way of tying events together by making references to past happenings. The characters are very memorable -- I found the moments between the couples so touching and adorable, and felt legitimately sad to see a favorite child move out upon reaching adulthood. I really love the events in this, from the cute honeymoon vacations abroad to a simple moment when Agnes is in bed portraying her fears of growing older and passing away to the saddest retirement/birthday party ever to the amazing world adventures of the generation three heir! There are also some absolutely lovely scenery shots in this of the World Adventure worlds that seriously have me thinking I need to explore that expansion pack now (I've owned it for nearly a year and still have yet to take a vacation in-game!) I also must give props to this story for introducing me to the Set Table and Call to Meal Mod (oh man, I so needed that!), that amazing build of the Library of Alexsimandria (who would've thought a librarian like me would be so tickled by that? ^_^;; ) and David Starman, a Sim creation to honor David Bowie's passing! Check it out!
Story:Memoirs: A Legacy Tale Site:Simthology Simmer:@OJenn Sims games featured: Sims 4 Date of last update: 04/06/2016 Total parts (discontinued): 4 gens
Memoirs of a Legacy is "a legacy tale told from a different point of view." It is presented as short, memorable moments throughout the legacy founder and his subsequent heirs' lives. It begins with Lee Spencer-Kim-Lewis, who has returned to Willow Creek to rebuild his father's legacy, highlighting the high points and low points of his life until the story is handed over to his daughter. The characters are so relatable, so human, and some of the parts evoke such a strong emotional response it is impossible to keep a dry eye! The style of this legacy is incredibly unique, and it is hard to try to do it justice without checking it out for yourself! Simply lovely!
The Stevens Legacy is a casual, game-driven legacy that features a lovable, clumsy, bubblegum-color-haired goofball named Shea Stevens, who is busy working her way through the ranks of becoming a stellar stand-up comedian while befriending the town with her silly personality and romancing the lovely Alyssa. This story is written in a very light-hearted tone, with lots of humor (with the occassional snark and obligatory pun here and there thrown in!) to perfectly fit with its lovable founder. It is a lot of fun, and I'd highly recommend taking a look! It's impossible to not fall for Shea and become utterly invested in what she gets up to from day to day, whether it be trying out that new joke she's been working on or starting a family with her loving wife!
That wraps up legacy launch-off for this month! I've been working on trying to get a Weekly Reading Roundup edition pre-written for next week, as I will be out of town on vacation, but I can't make any promises that it will get done in time! I wouldn't plan on one, but if you do see one next week, just consider it a pleasant surprise. ^_~
@mastressalita , thank you for featuring my legacy and all the nice things you said about it! Also, many of the other stories you featured sound very intriguing. It's a great idea to have a thread like this!
Edition #7: Romanticly Challenged: Bachelor Challenges and More! Pt. 1 Date: 02/14/16
Welcome to this week's edition of Weekly Reading Roundup, where I sample selections of stories from the Stories and Legacies Index! Since it is Valentine's Day, I bet you are expecting serious, romantically charged stories for this week's theme... but that would've been too obvious, right? Naah, what better for an over-commercialized holiday created to sell cards, flowers, and boxes of chocolate than Sims challenges based on commercialized romance reality TV? Aww ya, now we're talking!
This week I'll be looking at Bachelor and Bachelorette Challenges, and other miscellaneous "romance" themed challenges! These type of challenges have been around since Sims 2, and there are so many different rule sets and variations that trying to link to any "standard" bachelor challenge rubric is in itself a challenge! As you'll notice from the sampling below, there is a lot of variety with how each challenge is played out, which is part of what makes checking out a wide variety in this genre so much fun!
Opi's Sims is a treasure trove of bachelor challenges. If you peruse through the older Bachelor Challenges on the site, you'll find not one, but two completed Sims 3 bachelor challenges! The first features bachelor Chauncey Grimm and takes place in Moonlight Falls, and the second features Sebastian Vanderburg and is set in his hometown of Hidden Springs. In this story there are no competitions for solo dates or eliminations (solo dates are chosen by the bachelor based on who he is most interested in and eliminations are based on who is least interested in). I ended up getting completely caught up in the "reality TV feels" of these stories, with my particular favorite girls and holding my breath during eliminations and having to realign my favoritism whenever my top competitor was cast out, and soon looked over at the clock and realized it was 3 a.m. because I'd gotten so caught up in it all! There is even an After the Bachelor segment that shows snippets of the winning couples' lives after the show, and it was great to get to revisit them. (The only bad part is the last two parts of Sebastian's challenge, as well as the first part of his After the Bachelor, were missing the pictures, but I was so wrapped up in having to know how things were going to end up after that climatic ending that I just didn't care, and read them text-only. Would've been nice to have seen the wedding shots, though!)
Moving into Sims 4 bachelor challenges, you'll find yet another completed bachelor challenge, Bachelor Challenge 4.1, featuring Tanner Palmer, with six lovely ladies and one handsome man (!) all vying to be the object of his affection (you have no idea how happy it makes me to see a mixed cast, even if there is only one man in the running... hey, it's a start in providing a little diversity in what is otherwise normally always a very heteronormative challenge, which I love!) Unfortunately Bachelor Challenge 4.2 was discontinued after a computer meltdown caused the save file information to be lost, which is a bit of a shame since Cannon Griffin was also a bisexu*l bachelor and there was a rather diverse group composed of both genders in that running! Bachelor Challenge 4.3 has just started, so you can jump in and catch all the action! It features Dalton Montgomery as the bachelor, and seven ladies competing for his heart, many of which are familiar faces from the lost Bachelor Challenge 4.2. All the contestants have been announced and the first episode is out, with more on the way!
One of the things I feel worth mentioning is I love the character submission system for the bachelor challenges on this site, which don't necessarily require a fully created Sim, but also provide a form you can fill out and submit as an alternative, describing the physical features, traits, aspirations, and background of a sim, and then Opicana will sculpt a Sim out of CAS accordingly, which makes it possible for players of other versions of the Sims (*coughs* say, certain Sims 3 players that absolutely love reading Sims 4 stories, but would therefore be unable to make Sims 4 Sims and submit them through the Gallery... *wink wink nudge nudge*) to be able to get in on the action (or, heck, even a non Sims player could participate in this manner!) I find that a really nice touch and it's unique compared to every other bachelor challenge I've seen!
This video-format bachelor challenge features Alijah Downing, a "27-year-old pianist who's unlucky in love." Which one of the ten lovely ladies currently staying in his mansion will manage to be that special someone? It follows the typical bachelor challenge format of using a combination of solo dates and group dates to allow the competitors a chance to raise their relationship levels with the bachelor, though unlike some that have challenges to determine who goes on solo dates and is eliminated, solo dates are chosen by random draw, and elimination is based on overall compatibility and relationship levels. I absolutely love the video editing in this; the trailer with the subtitled Simlish was adorable, the episodes have very clean transitions with great status meters for the friendly and romantic interactions during both group and solo dates, and there are other fun popups added for comedic effect. Gus is a great narrator and I always enjoy when she stops and observes the sims' expressions and voices her thoughts on their reactions or puts words in their mouth ("Attention everyone! So what do you all think of this bachelor who is sitting here eating at our table and not even talking to us?") I also find the dates very enjoyable, instead of just being "interaction spam" they actually feel like dates, with the bachelor and the contestant actually doing various activities at the chosen venue, and I enjoy how both the bachelor's personality and the girls' personalities are taken into consideration when choosing interactions. Viewers can also leave date suggestions in the comments! A very fun watch, go check it out!
The Bachelor: Disney Princess Edition is a brand-new bachelor challenge from the author of Disney Legacy: The Blancs which was featured during Edition #3: Disney Magic! Hosted by Chris Harrison and featuring seven lovely Disney ladies competing to win the bachelor's heart (it's far more fun if I don't reveal here who the bachelor is, but I'll just say now I am extremely thrilled with the choice!), this version of the bachelor challenge promises to be a "drama-filled, magical, crazy season!" (Oh, I can't wait!) In this bachelor challenge, solo dates are determined through competitions, and eliminations are determined by a painting challenge each week, with the painting from the eliminated girl displayed on the "Wall of Losers" (bwahahahaha!) New episodes air every Wednesday, so be sure to tune in!
This was featured during my Edition #3: Disney Magic! Weekly Reading Roundup, so if you'd like the full details, I suggest you go check out that past issue. Since it also fit the theme this week, being a Bachelor Challenge, I figured I'd give it another mention!
The I'm a Lover Challenge is a type of legacy challenge where every generation is focused around different ideals about romance, both positive and negative, based around the torch holder's upbringing from the previous generation. There are different specific goals for each generation, which can be viewed here for the Sims 3 and here for the Sims 4. Rory's I'm a Lover Challenge is a video Let's Play that follows Charlotte Wells, a pretty girl who spent her childhood lonely, unable to make friends, and often alone in the library surrounded by books and writing short stories about a happily married life. Now that she's a young adult, she has moved to Windenburg and wants to be a romance author, and dreams of meeting her one true love and getting married. Soon she discovers that her childhood friends, two brothers that she was always awkward around, have also recently moved to Windenburg into a sharehouse with two of their friends... could her romance be found with one of them, or is it waiting with one of the Windenburg natives? The goal of the first generation of the challenge is to meet another young adult male, get married as adults, have two kids after marriage, continue the romance by having a date night once every week, and staying together until death do them part! There are lots of backstory given to the characters, and cute descriptions of past events, that really flesh out the characters and give this LP a lot of charm. As always, it is a pleasure to hear Rory's enthusiasm and reactions, and it is a lot of fun to see how the events of Charlotte's story unfold!
Lenora's Bachelorette Challenge is a Bachelorette Challenge featuring Lenora Atherton, a witch who works as a romance author that has a very detailed and tragic history. Being so down on her luck, she's found herself on "The One," a bachelorette matchmaking program, where she will be tasked with finding true love from among an extremely diverse cast of single men, each with their own detailed backstory (fans of supernaturals will enjoy this group!) In this bachelorette challenge, there are no competitions for solo dates or eliminations; the bachelorette spends both group dates and one on one date time with all the competitors doing a variety of activities (playing chess together, hanging out at the library, visiting a festival/amusement park, enjoying a hot tub) and elimination is based on the lowest numerical relationship score between the bachelorette and the men in the competition using Master Controller values. There is also another season of "The One" in written format, featuring Lenora's fairy friend Ileah Forrester, which can be read here.
The Love Ship is a video series that features Ella Principal, a fairy who is the daughter of Cupid and a fairy queen, who has taken it upon herself to help out with her father's work by helping out single sims who have been romantically down on their luck. After inviting these singles to live with her on her magnificient house boat, she scopes out potential mates for her charges and helps hook them up with their best match. Single sims featured on the series are selected from viewer submissions. You can find a story introduction to Ella and a photo tour of her love ship here. There has also been a reboot of the series here, which currently has two episodes released. This is a very cute idea that takes sim matchmaking in a different direction!
Story:The Proposal Simmer:@NewToTheSims (Blogger: LateKnightSimmer) Sims games featured: Sims 3 Date of last update: 09/29/2016 Total parts (hiatus): 17
The Proposal is a bachelor challenge featuring bachelor Giovanni Montelo. Set in Roaring Heights, eleven lovely ladies have gathered to compete in various competitions to win coveted one-on-one date with the bachelor and immunity against elimination every week. How well a lady does both in her social interactions during group hangout time and in the challenge competitions is scored and goes into a point rubric toward the weekly eliminations. Helpful in-game info notes are separated from the story and provide details about the mechanics and scoring of the challenge, and detailed scoring is even provided for each part for the curious! The story is very creativity written, the conversations during the solo dates are very deep and enlightening of the characters, and there are a lot of twists and turns in the competition as the stakes keep ramping up! You won't want to miss it!
Edition #7: Romanticly Challenged: Bachelor Challenges and More! Pt. 2 Date: 02/14/16
From the Archives:
It's been a few weeks since I've featured the From the Archives segment, where I take a look at stories currently found in the Stories and Legacies Archive. The status of archived stories can be anywhere from completed, to currently on hiatus, to discontinued, but no matter what the status of the story, these works are worth looking into to see the influence they have on the genre as a whole, and they can still provide great inspiration and fresh ideas to other writers interested in playing a romance-based challenge!
The Donnelly Bachelor Challenge is a bachelor challenge hosted on Tumblr, so each part is in the short, bite-sized style that is popular of the "Simblr story" format. It features Irish bachelor Brendan Donnelly, who is bisexu*l (yaaaay, another diversified bachelor challenge! That makes my LGBTQQIAA heart so happy!) and therefore a mixed cast of fourteen contestants, eight handsome men and six lovely ladies, will be competing for his affections! The bachelor manor is located in scenic Monte Vista, and the story sports some absolutely lovely imagery, not to mention some lovely, descriptive writing along with the short, humorous captions typical of Simblr stories. This is a great bachelor challenge to follow, especially for those that are fans of LGBT SimLit! There is a lot of deep discussion dealing with sexu*l orientation, and you may just find two bachelor challenges in one!
Fatima's Bachelorette Challenge features the fairy Fatima, who is rather enthusiastic to have been selected to be on "The One," hoping for her "fifteen minutes of fame and to bask in the attention of attractive men." She is dazzled by the luxurious castle and its amazing views on Isla Paradiso, where she will be staying with ten attractive men (fans of supernaturals will be pleased to see several amongst the competition!) vying to win her heart. I absolutely love how this bachelorette challenge is actually written very much like an actual reality TV show, with mentions of the producer and the crew, lots of drama, and showing Fatima as a very relatable character that describes how she is just "doing this for fun" and never thought anyone went on these kind of shows to "actually find love" but couldn't help but find herself feeling guilty every time she had to send one of these nice guys packing when it "wasn't personal." I don't think I've ever seen a bachelor or bachelorette challenge that has ever gone into those sorts of emotions, and I love it! It really made me love Fatima, as she starts to question the whole gimmick behind making a bunch of strangers live together in a house and telling them they have to fall in love or get out, and starting to wonder if maybe, just maybe, she could actually find real love from this whole situation. Unfortunately the story went on hiatus as it was narrowed down to the final three, but it is definitely worth a read regardless! I found the six parts that are available entirely too enjoyable.
This is a bachelorette challenge presented in the bite-sized style so popular on Tumblr, by the same author that did the Donnelly Bachelor Challenge. It features Danika Griggs-Moon, a character from another story on the Leavin on a Southern Train Simblr, Finding Levi, as nine dashing young men compete for her love. Like the "Donnelly Bachelor Challenge," it is very well written, revealing a lot about the characters and their personalities, with humorous commentary thrown in from the author from time to time, and great imagery. Very enjoyable!
This bachelorette challenge... oh my goodness. If you want something different -- not to mention something that is going to make you laugh until you have lung failure in at least one lung -- this is the story for you! It's so hard to properly describe, but I'll do my best (as a fair warning, the author even gives it a disclaimer stating: "This challenge is called Insanely Twisted Bachelor Challenge for a reason. That means, whatever you're used to when it comes to these challenges... get unused to. Cauuuuuse... this is going to be VERY different. TRUST me.") Here we have bachlorette Celery, the generation 8 heir of the Insanity Doesn't Compare ISBI (which should tell you something about at least one of her traits...) who is having a bachelor challenge to determine her future partner (and she doesn't seem all that widely crazy with the prospect either, which just makes this all the more hilarious). Fourteen elgible male Berry Sims are in the competition, and each are obnoxious in their own different ways, which just makes them hysterical and unique and oddly endearing... trust me, you will never see a guy in another bachelor challenge like this boys! The show is hosted by the author's Simself, and the rules are a bit more involved than a typical bachelor challenge. All the competitors are placed into two teams, and negative interactions between teammates actually scores a player a point (negative interactions against a non-teammate also scores points, but a much lower amount). However, teammates receive a bonus if someone on their team wins the challenge! (In the words of the author... "See how this is twisted? You do good for yourself, and treat your teammates like crap, but... you still have to watch them get points for your win. It's delightful.") Single points can randomly be added to a competitor if they do something that pleases Celery, and five points can immediately be lost from a bachelor if they wet themself or pass out (I mean, they are going to be ISBI husband material, after all!) or flirt with Jaxself, the host. Scoring for elimination is based on not only the competitor's relationship with Celery (which is 50% of the score), but how popular they are with readers (via poll votes on who should stay, which is 20% of the score), and how well they can suck up to the Simself host (as the relationship with Jaxself is 30% of the score). This story is written with this dry wit, and is absolutely hilarious! I cannot stress that enough! With so many bachelor challenges going the romance angle (when the entire situation, one must realize, is a fabricated made-for-TV reality program) the fact this is just so tongue-in-cheek and parodical is great... not to mention I never get tired of how terrible Celery is to the competitors. ^_^;; I could watch her pimp slap them and have them keep coming back for more all day, bwahahaha!
Story:Romance Island Site:Opi's Sims Simmer:@Opicana Sims games featured: Sims 3 Date of last update: 05/12/2014 Total parts (discontinued): 7 (2 weeks)
Here is another romance challenge from Opi's Sims site! It is described as a cross between the Lab and the Bachelor Challenges: eight sims (four males and four females) are placed in a luxurious tropical paradise, where they will have a chance to find romance with each other. After they have found true love, they will leave Romance Island to start a new life together. It is designed to be continuous; as a couple leaves Romance Island, a new pair of new singles are moved onto the island. The setting of the challenge is a lovely private island, Isla Romantica, and the action takes place through autonomous interactions, as well as individual and group dates. Only two weeks were played before the series was discontinued, and no official couples were formed during that time (though there was one replacement to a rather dramatic surprise death!) but I really liked the concept behind this romance challenge! I would love to see something similar to this done in the future!
That's it for this installment of Weekly Reading Roundup! Join me again next week, when I'll be taking a look at animal-themed stories in honor of Love Your Pet Day! I can't wait!
Already found a few issues of EA's filter messing with my review though... *grumbles and has to change out all instances of "s*cked" to some other equivalent* This is particularly annoying as in every instance it's a positive thing -- "being s*cked into the story" -- not a negative thing -- "well that s*cked." THANKS EA filter. I will forever find the filter on this forum a plummy plum full of plum-tastic plumination. And that's how I feel about that.
Drawn. Being drawn into the series, if you lack ideas.
Oh, I could fill a whole review just on completely innoculous words the filter totally shouldn't filter out but does and how much I hate it, believe me. That is but one small example. Just wait until my LGBT homage and the fact that, despite the fact sims can be various orientations, this forum filters out every single proper orientation term to "plum." (You can use the nicknames, but seriously, how many people know what Ace stands for? Way to be diversified, EA...) Or the fact that perfectly fine names can't be used on the forums if they just happen to be some obscure slang term for a drug (typically ones I've never even heard of, and likely no one else has either *headdesk*) Sometimes I seriously wonder if they just add a random dictionary word to the plum-filter at random every day. >_> I have no idea how so many stories cope with hosting themselves on these forums and risking having so much of their writing being turned to "plum", likely without the author even realizing it.
Welcome to this week's edition of Weekly Reading Roundup, where I sample selections of stories from the Stories and Legacies Index! In celebration of Love Your Pet Day, today I am looking at stories that are pet-themed! These include the 50 Foal/Kitten/Puppy Challenge, a variation on the famous 100 Baby Challenge, and other stories and challenges where the focus is on Sim pets! Animal lovers rejoice!
50 Foals Challenge: Jason and Salsa Dancer is actually the second attempt at a 50 Foals Challenge by @WolfLady74 , and it is up to 40 out of 50 foals! (Wow!) It begins with Jason Taylor, who after hearing about the tragic death of his cousin and her horse ranch in an earthquake (a clever nod to the previous lost challenge), he decides to carry on her mission to breed fifty foals in her honor. After relocating to Appaloosa Plains, he manages to track down a descendant of his cousin's founding stallion, named Salsa Dancer. Jason settles into a life of horse breeding (complete with many trips to the stables in his tighty-whities to bottle-feed cute little foals), and starts a family after his first major relationship ends up ending quite tragically. The story starts out much like a playlog but quickly turns into a full story of the Taylor family's life, with dialogue and distinct characterization, and you really get a feel for the characters as they go about their lives on the horse ranch. There are also some very gorgeous horses here (with cute names that really fit them, I might add; I quite like S'mores and Starlight!) and they are all available for download in grown form. The only unfortunate part is many of the images are now missing on each of the parts; thankfully not all of the images are missing from any single part, so there is just enough there you can still easily keep up on the action and what is going on (especially since the writing is very good and fills things in well!) If you love multi-generational family stories with a focus on horse breeding, check this out!
The Cat Chronicles is written from the perspective of a cat, and narrated by the main kitty character. After the death of her husband, the newly-widowed elderly Rose adopts a fiesty kitten from the shelter, Shadow, in the need for some companionship to fill that hole recently left in her life. Shadow's grand adventures are pretty much what you would expect from a cat -- catching bugs, fighting dogs, searching for ever superior comfy places, training his wrinkly one in proper kitty-owner etiquette, and the eternal quest to conquer his feathered foes. If you enjoy "cute cats doing cute things" or simply enjoy "cat owner humor," this might be the story for you!
Since at the moment the Cowplant is the closest thing Sims 4 has to pets, I felt this was appropriate! (And who doesn't love Cowplants? I mean, seriously.) The Children of the Cowplant Challenge was created by Snowie, and if you are curious about the challenge rules, please check them out here! It is an immortal-style challenge, where, using a cowplant to draw in victims and drink their essense to prolong the lifespan of a single Sim, you attempt to complete all of their aspirations before they are allowed to age into their next life stage. This video Let's Play story chronicles the life of child Lucia, who has pledged her life to the Cowplant in return for immortality! With her sad excuse of a mortal caretaker (I am forever amused by this young adult sim that is essentially just there to be used by this creepy child who is best friends with their cowplant and hunts down victims to feed it to stay young), she is tasked with completing all the child-age aspirations, socializing with her Cowplant, and, possibly, making friends with good ol' Grimmy as well.
Gilt Sparrow: A Fifty Foal Challenge is a 50 Foals Challenge with a unique backstory: recently, in the greater Appaloosa Plains area an outbreak of a new strain of trypanosomes, carried by tsetse flies, has infected the local horse population. Katie Sparrow decides to try to create a genetic cure by breeding her platinum zebra stallion, Electrum, who is naturally resistent to the disease, to as many mares as possible, hoping that he will pass on the antibodies to the foals. Not only does this story feature some great horses (and later on, some very original ones! My Brony heart approves!), but a trusty barn cat and a loveable flatcoated retriever! The horses featured in this story are also available for download as adults. This is a very enjoyable read that really fleshes out the "world" for the challenge!
Lady and Tiffanie: 50 Puppy Challenge is a 50 Puppy Challenge that is narrated by Lady, a Husky-Border Collie mix that was discovered as a stray digging through the trash as a puppy by Tiffanie, who took her in and raised her. Now Tiffanie has just finished college and moved out, and brought her trusty Lady with her. Expect lots of cute puppy pictures in this one! Playing in puddles, bounding through snow, and the always classic faceplant (I seriously can never get enough of seeing puppies and kittens skidding across the floor to fall flat on their face... so cute!) And you can actually download all the puppies... as puppies! (Seriously, this is a big deal; since Create-a-Pet doesn't let you create kittens and puppies, you can't simply open it up with an adult Pet and "age them down" like you can with Sims! So if you are looking for puppies to load into your game, you can grab some cuties here!)
Pet Masters: The Ambrose Legacy is a legacy based off of the Pet Masters Legacy Challenge, where each generation is based around animals! (I'll admit, I've never been a legacy player myself, but after reading this challenge, I am very tempted to try it myself!) The story begins with Rita Ambrose, an angler who moves to Appaloosa Plains and decides to enter a fishing contest to build a perfect aquarium, which carries a rather hefty prize. There she falls in love and starts a family (and gets two of the cutest housecats ever!) and her son carries on the family legacy as a cat herder. This story is really engaging with lovely imagery! Sadly, it was discontinued back in 2012, but guess what? jbfairybird is back, and @JLBDreamer has announced this story should be returning to her new site sometime in the near future! Everytime a Sim story returns like a Phoenix rising from the ashes like that, an angel gets its wings. (Okay, maybe I'm being overly dramatic, but librarians get excited about things like that... ^_^;; )
That's it for this installment of Weekly Reading Roundup! Join me again next week, when I'll be featuring fairy tales and other fantasy-themed stories for Fairy Tale Day!
Oh, I could fill a whole review just on completely innocuous words the filter totally shouldn't filter out but does and how much I hate it, believe me. That is but one small example. Just wait until my LGBT homage and the fact that, despite the fact sims can be various orientations, this forum filters out every single proper orientation term to "plum." (You can use the nicknames, but seriously, how many people know what Ace stands for? Way to be diversified, EA...) Or the fact that perfectly fine names can't be used on the forums if they just happen to be some obscure slang term for a drug (typically ones I've never even heard of, and likely no one else has either *headdesk*) Sometimes I seriously wonder if they just add a random dictionary word to the plum-filter at random every day. >_> I have no idea how so many stories cope with hosting themselves on these forums and risking having so much of their writing being turned to "plum", likely without the author even realizing it.
tl;dr : Librarians hate censorship. ^_^
Oooh - do you know why the name Ch4na is censored? A drug? I could not figure it out and I looked once I realized what was happening. Sorry - um...stories!... so many good ones listed again. I love how you're doing this, putting them in "genres" so that folks can find similar stories. This is a completely new genre to me so I'm going to have fun exploring. And I can't wait to see what you review next.
Check out Raerei's Fortress for Builds, Short Stories, and maybe some longer stuff.
@ra3rei : I know I've seen other folks with Sims named Mo.llie or Ci.d and had them filtered out, and all I could find out was that they were really, really obscure drug references that I (and likely the majority of the T for Teens audience this forum is rated for) have never even heard of. I have no idea about Cha.na, I might have to dig for that one... this is what I mean by I swear they just pick random words to add to their filter every day!
I've wanted to complain about it in the Feedback and Suggestions forum for a long time, but like everything that fills that forum, I know the Gurus would just ignore it, so I feel it would be a waste of my time typing up my thoughts, no matter how well put-together on the subject I could make them. *sigh* (I just fail to see why there is a T for Teen logo in the bottom corner of my screen when I can't even type the word "idi*t" or why my sims can be homosexu*l yet I can't even use that word to describe them on their own official forums. Infuriating!)
I'm glad you like the reading corner though! I'm worried I may have to cancel (or be late) this week though due to illness... all my time stuck in bed hacking up my innards hasn't led to much reading time. I'll have to see how it goes. I can be incredibly stubborn about my own self-imposed deadlines. :-P
Welcome to this week's edition of Weekly Reading Roundup, where I sample selections of stories from the Stories and Legacies Index! For Tell a Fairy Tale Day, this week I'll be taking a look at stories based on fairy tales, that have a very fairy tale-esque theme, or that are part of the fantasy genre!
Story:Beauty Simmer:@Daijahv Sims games featured: Sims 3 Date of last update: 01/21/2014 Total parts (completed): 30
Beauty is a completed story that blends elements of Beauty and the Beast and Phantom of the Opera (with a side of Swan Lake) in a "tale of love, loss, and life." It features Natalie Silverman, who seems to have it all: a trust fund baby blessed with good looks, a promising future as a talented ballerina, and popular amongst the uppercrust gents. But the amount of control placed on her life has Natalie wanting more, and when a mysterious masked man, Blake Foster, enters her life, getting Natalie entangled in a battle amongst werewolves, she starts to realize perhaps she should've been careful what what she wished for... A great read with excellent imagery for fans of supernatural romance with fairy tale themes!
The Beauty and the Beast Challenge is a completed video Let's Play challenge created by @sweetnightingale that is based on the old fairytale, but now has a modern-day reimagining. Sarah Oliver, the daughter of a rich family, is faced with difficulty for perhaps the first time in her life when her mother becomes fatally ill and all treatments fail to work. Enter Vincent Corelli, formerly an esteemed doctor, but after a medical treatment went wrong and his patient died, resulting in the loss of his medical liscence, he became a recluse, secluding himself in his manor, though continuing to dedicate his life to the study of medicine over the guilt of his mistake. Sarah seeks him out and asks if he can save her mother; he says that he can, but the treatment that can save her requires technology from the future, and because the consequences of time travel are great, so is the price: Sarah must live at Vincent's manor against her will, taking care of the estate. To save her mother, she agrees to the terms. The challenge focuses on a punishment-and-reward system for building Sarah's skills and relationship with Vincent. Can Sarah overcome her dislike for Vincent to find love, without burning down the manor learning how to cook? I love the rich backstories that @sweetnightingale gives her sims, and the modern spin on the Beauty and the Beast tale!
Cursed Beauty is a non-generational prettacy challenge that features Kaliani Briggans, who was cursed from the time of her birth by her evil older sister, who did not want to lose any of her parents' attention and admiration, to be disfigured and ugly, causing her to be kept out of the public eye by her family and reduced to the role of a mere houseservant rather than a daughter. By focusing on improving herself within, however, she can slowly overcome the curse: for every skill mastered, Kaliani can change one ugly feature into a pretty feature. The story is intriguing and will really appeal to fans of fairy tales! It is half narrated SimLit, with a storyline read over screencaps from the game that progress the story each chapter, and half video Let's Play, with the second half dedicated to following the characters around Windenburg and watching how they interact with each other directly. The interesting this about this is that if you are a fan of Let's Plays, this is a great introduction into traditional SimLit and may branch more folks that typically stick to LPs into trying out standard Sim story formats, and vice versa; SimLit writers may become more engaged in the world of LP and try out more LP videos. As a fan of many different forms of storytelling (the Stories and Legacies Index has accepted both print and video media since day one!) I absolutely love this new, unique approach! The narrations in the story segments are great, giving voice and personality to each character, and the narration during the LP is equally engaging, as Virtualee is a lot of fun to listen to and makes some hilarious commentary or breaks out into parody song from time to time! Make sure to check it out!
Story:The Fairy Tale Reader Simmer:@Marialein Sims games featured: Sims 4 Date of last update: 03/04/2016 Total parts (discontinued): 5
The Fairy Tale Reader is a story-within-a-story: it features Sera, a teen in an orphanage that can't seem to find a home, who finds solace in reading fairy tales to all the younger children there and using them to teach them valuable lessons. Each chapter features Sera reading the kids a different fairy tale, which is then reimagined beautifully within the world of the the Sims! I absolutely love the world-building in this; all the different sets for each different tale are astounding! For anyone that has enjoyed checking out different picture books of fairy tales from the library as a kid, reading all the different renditions and looking at the different styles of art (*coughs* I am not ashamed to admit I was one of those kids!) then definitely check out this story! It is great fun to see your favorite stories told and illustrated using Sims 4! So far you can enjoy Little Red Riding Hood, The Frog King/Iron Henry, Sleeping Beauty, and the first part of The Little Mermaid!
Story:The Fey of Life Simmer:@RipuAncestor Sims games featured: Sims 3 Date of last update: 12/23/2016 Total parts (active, ongoing): 26
The Fey of Life features Lynn Farley, who is certain after her mother remarries that her new step-brother, Rem Monsoon, is actually a pixie child that can see into another world. No one else believes her, but she can't shake the feeling her new pointy-eared sibling isn't what he seems... There is this lovely sense of mystery that permeates what is an engrossing, very well-written tale of Lynn's family life. The imagery is fantastic, including beautiful original artwork by @RipuAncestor as well! This story is a lovely blend of fantasy, drama, suspense, and slice of life, and I would highly recommend it to fans of any of those genres!
One day a little girl with golden pigtails and a very sour mood wonders into a home, and promptly fulfills her needs by eating their food, breaking their computer, and sleeping in their bed. The residents of the home -- a family of bears (or at least, a family who really, really love their bearsuits) -- find her there, but little Goldilocks manages to worm her way into their hearts, and the family adopts her. Goldilocks and Bears is a delightful slice-of-life tale that uses the classic fairy tale as a starting point to simply chronicle the lives of this bear-plus-one family, and the story is told very much in "Tumblr style" with a parade of captioned images highlighting different events in their life. Expect plenty of heartfelt moments, and goofy moments, and touching moments... as well as magic clay, exploding rocket ships, animated gifs, video footage of choreographed dancing bears, and cat pictures! You can't expect to not win me over with cat pictures! (Though to be fair, dancing bears is a close second.)
Story:Shrektastic Simmer:@Colorist40 Sims games featured: Sims 3 Date of last update: 08/04/2016 Total parts (hiatus): 44
Shrektastic features characters from the popular movie series, but this is an original tale. It begins with Fiona being forced into an arranged marriage by her family with a man they think is properly suitable as he is... ah... "equal" to her in the looks department. Fiona, however, was less than pleased with this development, and even moreso when she actually met Shrek, who she found hideous; he, likewise, felt the same of her. Nonetheless, they have to start a life together despite their misgivings, and move in together in a rather full house along with Dragon, Donkey, and Pu*s 'n Boots. This is a very fun take on Shrek and Fiona's domestic life, with a lot of drama and twists! Shrek fans -- or just fans of tsundere romances -- should definitely check this out! (Trust me, it's so much better than Shrek 3 I just can't even...)
From the Archives:
Story:Summerdream Simmer:@caterpillar Sims games featured: Sims 3 Date of last update: 01/11/2017 Total parts (ongoing): 9
Summerdream is a fantasy-genre series for mature readers, based on a world where fairies and dragons, both magical and immortal beings, clash over their different cultures, leading to the threat of war. As they were busy trying to work through their differences, the first humans, neolithic cavemen, appear in their part of the world, adding further tensions. As time draws towards the medieval era, humanity grows in population while the fairy and dragon populations start to dwindle, threatening the existence of magic in the world. This is an absolutely treat for fans of fantasy stories! It is simply beautiful, with some gorgeous imagery and equally gorgeous and unique sims! The story is currently being re-written and posted on Wordpress, but there is a previous draft available on Blogspot that has 54 parts available (if you really can't wait on the rewrite, I suppose... ^_~ )
That's it for this installment of Weekly Reading Roundup! There are many other stories out there that feature magic, witches, wizards, supernatural creatures, and other similar themes, but I'm going to hold off on those and likely do a Supernatural Smorgasbord the entire month of October! (I was hoping to fit a few of those in under this theme this week, but I've been sick with Strep Throat and I just didn't have the time... sorry!)
Next week is Read Across America Day! This is a very special day where schools and libraries share their love of reading, often by having "read-ins", on March 2nd, the great Dr. Seuss' birthday. Instead of doing my usual Legacy Launch-Off this month, in honor of Read Across America Day and Dr. Seuss, let's celebrate short stories! I'll be compiling a list of authors that have short story works registered with the Stories and Legacies Index and encourage all of you to read at least one short story to celebrate the love of reading for this special day! Feel free to chat about your selections, and all the things you love about reading SimLit!
Holy what awww I've been sampled I'm too flattered for proper punctuation. Thank you!
My Sims stories: The Fey of Life - fairytales in life are few and far between (Forum thread HERE) The Chrysanthemum Tango - a story about life, death, magic, and how to be a good landlady (Forum thread HERE) Forget-Me-Not - some things just refuse to stay buried; an Ambrosia Challenge story (Forum thread HERE)
Comments
I just saw this today as my weeks have been crazy with keeping up with my blog, sims stories and friends and getting back into the swing at school.I BIG I MEAN HUGE THANKS FOR THIS
Truly THANK YOU. @everyone Congrats to other writers for your stories.
Date: 01/24/16
Welcome to this week's edition of Weekly Reading Roundup, where I sample selections of stories from the Stories and Legacies Index! This week the theme is ISBIs, and let me tell you, thanks to the filter on these forums, it took me forever when I first joined here to figure out what that stood for! As a librarian, I am of course anti-censorship, so don't be surprised if I pop some asterisk substitutions here and there to get around it (who decided that the word "idi*t" was so uncouth anyway? Seriously EA...)
The "I'm Surrounded By Idi*ts Challenge" has been around since Sims 2. The point of the challenge is to maintain a household of Sims (often with the Insane trait) for ten generations, while only having the ability to control the torch holder of the household. All other household members are controlled by free will, their actions left autonomous, and their wants and needs are left out of the hands of the player. There is a scoring rubric involved based on the sorts of things -- both positive and negative -- that those crazy Sims get up to, and if you are curious of seeing a full breakdown, then check out the Sims 2 rules, the Sims 3 rules, or the Sims 4 rules.
So why ISBIs? Why not! Squirrel Appreciation Day was this week, and considering the required Insane trait, these Sims tend to be a little nutty... am I right? *ba-dum-tish* And considering the overall lack of control the player has over the Sims in their household, many a Dugg "SQUIRREL!" moment is surely to be had as autonomous Sims drop what they are doing to partake in the strangest of activities... I love insane Sims, so let's dig in!
Story: Biblioteque ISBI
Site: Raerei's Fortress
Simmer: @ra3rei
Sims games featured: Sims 3
Date of last update: 10/24/2016
Total parts (active, ongoing): 19 (3 gens)
The Biblioteque ISBI is originally posted on Raerei's Simblr, but she is kind enough to repost it to Wordpress for certain archivists that don't care for Tumblr's formatting all that much (how kind!) So take your pick! The legacy begins with Clio Biblioteque, who quickly hits it off with a lovely pink-haired hunk, Michael, and many a baby are to be had! The story is told gameplay style, and some of the lines just kill me... ("Employing drastic measure: infant swings. (Please don't put it on fast!" Bwahahaha... seriously, what is with the fast option on those things? Did EA want a bunch of Sim children with disabilities from being shook as a child... or maybe that would explain the insanity? It all makes sense now!) And the #ImpossibleMoments are always fun too! It has currently just entered the second generation, with the torch being handed over to son Melville Biblioteque. A lot of funny moments in bite-size pieces that make this a very quick and enjoyable read! Each image/caption combo is like getting a fun size candy bar to enjoy! (Only far less calories!)
Story: Dim Sims in the City: An ISBI
Simmer: @pammiechick
Sims games featured: Sims 4
Date of last update: 09/22/2016
Total parts (hiatus): 27 (2 gens)
Dim Sims in the City is an unscored ISBI featuring Divan Rex, who has recently moved to Newcrest to escape bad past memories and make a fresh start. He joins the scientist career and quickly proceeds to try to woo every female he finds in a blur of rose petals, until he finds a cuddle muffin that will mother his children. It is written in a rather unique narrative-style, where the author's interactions with the Sim are presented as a "voice" inside his head. Divan is an absolutely hilarious character, from his patented lady-killing smolder to his mischievous Sim-Ray antics to his choice club activities... is he really picking up his bad habits from his equally hilarious villainous son Hunter, or is this just a case of like father, like son...? Hmmm... These Sims are so enjoyable (even when they have their bums in the air from pass-out failures) you can't help but have a smile on your face the entire time reading this!
Story: Idi*t+Insane+Crazy=Idanezy: An ISBI
Simmer: @BLAMSART
Sims games featured: Sims 3
Date of last update: 12/21/2016
Total parts (active, ongoing): 4 gens
Idi*t+Insane+Crazy=Idanezy is BLAMSART's third (!) try at an ISBI. It is also a Wishacy and an Alphabetacy on the side! It begins with the cotton-candy-haired Amestia Idanezy, who is quick to meet Harry Bunny, a neurotic, chain-smoking, bunny-eared fairy-with-no-wings who is obviously perfect father material for an ISBI challenge. As the nooboos arrive, their home falls further into chaos, with plenty of screaming toddlers, dying sinks, bedtime story demands, and falling victim to the power of the Zzzzs at the most inopportune times! This is written in narration style, and is quite hilarious, from the interesting interpretations of the conversation and thought bubbles (oh, I do so love insane Sims!) to the fantastic lines by inanimate objects around the house! The title for this is pretty spot on: expect lots of idi*ts, lots of insanity, and plenty of craziness! The Idanezy family are certainly an entertaining one!
Story: My Sim Stories
Simmer: @Pinkyslinky
Sims games featured: Sims 4
Date of last update: 12/30/2015
Total parts (discontinued): 19 (1 gen)
This untitled ISBI from Pinkslinky's My Sim Stories site follows a few modifications (such a removing the Insane trait stipulation) but otherwise pretty much follows the challenge. It begins with Michele Ann (a Simself!), who like all good legacy founders, has her priorities straight and promptly heads to a club as soon as she's settled into her cheap starter home to meet the local singles, where she is introduced to many potentials wearing scarfs like ascots, until she settles down and starts a family. But starting a new family isn't easy... especially when you are surrounded by idi*ts! The writing in this is hilarious and I find myself busting out laughing aloud in pretty much every chapter! (I love the character of Derick, who provides me with endless entertainment!) The way the strange behaviors of the non-controllable sims is described is really clever as well! (For example, "My boy was broken and I didn't know what to do" for when the son got glitched out... little touches like that which just work so well!) This story is a riot and I love every minute of it!
Story: Reagan ISBI
Simmer: @ginnymalfoy22
Sims games featured: Sims 4
Date of last update: 01/18/2017
Total parts (active, ongoing): 7 gens
The Reagan ISBI is another ISBI that goes for a non-Insane-traited flavor, and is also not scored. It begins with Isabel Reagan, who starts her legacy by settling down in Oasis Springs and starting a family with locale Travis Scott, and things seem to go pretty smoothly... and then Generation Two takes over and one is reminded why it is called the "I'm Surrounded by Idi*ts Challenge," hahaha! This story is written in narration style, and you can really feel the frustration that is the ISBI challenge from the lines shared between Sim and author ("I stink!" "So? You know how to use a shower, go use it!" *snrk*) I really love all the detailed expressions that are captured on the Sims faces in this! It just cracks me up how they can look so angry or miserable yet do nothing to autonomously better their own situation (needy Sims, expect the Watcher to do everything, do you?) The different torch holders are a lot of fun, I really like how diverse they are, from curvy evil tech guru to alien!
Story: The Tart ISBI
Simmer: @xoxJennxox
Sims games featured: Sims 3
Date of last update: 12/12/2016
Total parts (completed): 10 gens
The Tart ISBI is a long-running ISBI, having started in 2011 and still in production, currently in its eighth generation (having survived through a nasty error that almost caused the loss of the family during the first generation, and later being revived again after an HDD crash in generation six! Talk about resilience)! The story begins with founder Plum Tart in the custom world of Sugar Valley, inhabited by colorful "berry" Sim inhabitants. She meets Blackberry Sorbet, and after a first date that last nearly half a week (seriously!) they end up married with their first child, Pop Tart. The family continues to grow as apparently their favorite activity is to autonomously Try For Baby behind the Watcher's back, bwahahaha! Like most ISBIs the story is written in narration-style, with some really hilarious exchanges between the characters and the author! I love all the descriptions of the Sims conversations using their dialogue bubbles and the commentary on their unique outfit choices (aaaah, this is why I love Insane Sims so much!) This story is also a bit of a Wishacy, as the wishes for the torch holder (however inconvenient for an ISBI) are granted, which adds an extra layer to the insanity! Though the story is relocated to an EA world for better stability later, much of the berry Sim population is retained, and there are some seriously unique and adorable kiddos throughout the years!
From the Archives:
Story: ISBI
Site: MeggSims
Simmer: @Meggles
Sims games featured: Sims 4
Date of last update: 05/26/2016
Total parts (hiatus): 14 (1 gen)
This untitled ISBI features Eva Ash, a pink-haired, tattooed cutie that finally meets the right guy, Brayan Schubert, who goes from BFF to lover to spouse during a whirlwind romance and start a family. A short and sweet introduction to ISBIs, with plenty of frustration over autonomous computer usage, kids not doing their homework, and leaving the poor pregnant founder to do all the cleaning.
That's it for ISBI week, but if you want more random autonomous behaviors and craziness, tune in again next week, as we'll be looking at BISBIs, the ISBIs backwards cousin, in honor of Backwards Day!
Have a Sim story site? Please submit your link to the Stories and Legacies Index!
Check out my Simlit at Sim Stories: Hijinks from the World of Sims 3!
My Simlit Discussion/Updates | The Fringe | Short Story Challenges
House: Hufflepuff | Wand: Ebony wood w/a unicorn hair core, 9 ¾"
Origin ID: meggles87 | twitter | simblr
Simblr
Gilbert Vampiracy
Reagan ISBI
@mastressalita oh wow thanks! And I was honestly surprised by the accurate description you gave of my ISBI. I couldn't have the described the founder-spouse better myself XD
Thanks again
Date: 01/31/16
Welcome to this week's edition of Weekly Reading Roundup, where I sample selections of stories from the Stories and Legacies Index! Last week we looked at "I'm Surrounded by Idi*t Challenges" -- also known as the ISBI (no doubt due in large part thanks to EA's over-prudent censorship on these forums) -- so this week, in honor of Backward Day, it only seems right to look at Backwards ISBIs!
What is the Backwards ISBI (a.k.a. BISBI)? It is a modified ISBI Challenge, where the torch holder for the first generation begins as an Elder Sim, and the torch is passed each generation when the selected heir reaches the next age state (Generation One, the Elder, passes the torch to the Generation Two heir when they reach Adult; the Generation Two torch holder passes on the torch to the Generation Three heir when they reach Young Adult; all the way until a torch is passed onto an infant!) Obviously this presents different unique challenges to each generation, based on the age of the controllable Sim and how long it will take before the torch may be passed on (for example, a challenge for the first generation is keeping the Elder alive long enough to see a child reach the age of Adult to pass to the torch; obviously the toddler stage would be tricky based on the lack of commands available to toddler Sims). Like a traditional ISBI, only the torch holder may be controlled in the household, while all other Sims are left under the autonomous control of the computer. The rule about the Insane trait needing to be passed on has been removed in his modified version (guess it is difficult enough without all the Sims being crazy as well, hahaha!) For more information about the challenge rules, you can check out this thread.
This will be a short week, as only three stories of this genre have been submitted to the Stories and Legacies Index -- a big thanks to those authors for taking the time to come and submit their works!
Story: The Dreamsicle BISBI
Simmer: @xoxJennxox
Sims games featured: Sims 3
Date of last update: 06/15/2016
Total parts (hiatus): 11 (2 gens)
The Dreamsicle BISBI is a backwards ISBI by @xoxJennxox, author of the The Tart ISBI which was featured last week. It features Fairy Floss Dreamsicle, a cotton-candy-haired elder who moves to Sunlit Tides to begin her legacy. There she meets a lovely young lady, Pearl, and they begin a relationship (after a bit of a rough start after a rather unfortunate vacation to China, heh). It is such a breath of fresh air to see a legacy with a same-sex pairing! (Let's face it, legacy challenges are set up to be so heteronormative... thank goodness for custom breeding mods! Hey, if Harvest Moon lets my farmer have a child with a mermaid waifu that lives in the farm duck pond with absolutely no explanation, then this hardly seems all that strange in comparison, really...) And as if the BISBI isn't challenging enough, Jenn also throws in a Wishacy element, where all of Fairy's promised wishes must be completed unless exchanged for higher paying wishes. It is written in narrative style, and features plenty of both hilarious and shocking moments! I'd say more, but I really don't want to give too much away... I will say I definitely got a sense of just how challenging this particular challenge can be!
Story: Insanity Family: The K*ok Family Backwards ISBI
Simmer: @MichelleLynn01
Sims games featured: Sims 3
Date of last update: 07/31/2016
Total parts (hiatus): 69 (4 gens)
Insanity Family: The K*ok Family Backwards ISBI (pardon yet more creative asterisk substitutions, the censorship on these forums astounds me sometimes... let's hope no one ever tries to post those oh-so-scandelous Addams Family Theme Song lyrics!) begins with Ben K*ok, a crazy old man who hears the disembodied voice of the author commenting on his life inside his head. After meeting a talking llama (clearly a sign from the Watcher!), he decides he must go to university, where he proceeds to attempt wooing the female student body, until he settles for Cindy (who clearly was just trying to escape a most scandelous relationship with one of her professors, heh). Like any good legacy ISBI family, they start having children, except they apparently didn't get the memo that this isn't an alien invasion legacy family. Despite the fact that the BISBI does not require the Insane trait like the traditional ISBI, it is used as a family trait here to much hilarity, lending to some hilarious conversations from the Sim dialogue bubbles or commentary shared with the author, not to mention those choice costume changes! I absolutely fell in love with the founder, Ben, and it is really easy to get caught up in his quest for an ever longer life while dealing with all those equally insane children! An incredibly fun read!
Story: What Are You Even Doing?
Simmer: @Cyazurai (Wordpress: Seraphaeli)
Sims games featured: Sims 3
Date of last update: 06/03/2016
Total parts (hiatus): 32 (3 gens)
What Are You Even Doing? is a BISBI challenge that starts with founder Exra D'Amore -- pronounced Ezra, that typo gives him character, not that he needs any extra, because being both flirty and proper, he is already quite the character! -- who promptly heads off to Egypt and starts his legacy by having an illegitimate child and then ending up with three Egyptian sisters living in his house before settling down with one as his wife! Oh, and she's flirty too, so it does not take the couple long to fill their little household to capacity with nooboos! Glitches, multiple neighborhood moves, a colorful cast of (sometimes accidental) children, abductions, inter-species cultural fails, heartfarts (*snrk* I'm never going to get over that term...), and plenty of town gossip make this story oh-so-amusing! Amal -- she only does what she wants! -- is such an amusing character, I'm glad to see she got her own spin-off series in the form of a Who's Your Daddy Challenge! This story, written in typical ISBI narration-style fashion, is incredibly enjoyable! There is just so much zaniness always going on in the D'Amore household!
There is no In the Archives segment this week, as I just didn't find any BISBI's from the Stories and Legacies Archive that got very far along (many quit after one part!) A daunting challenge, indeed! Though you can find more BISBIs to read -- both discontinued and a few very active ones that never submitted their sites to the Stories and Legacies Index -- over on the BISBI Challenge thread. So if you are hankering for more after this sampling, that's a great place to look!
Next week another new month is upon us, and you know what that means... Legacy Launch-off! Yes, the first week of every month I will take a look at randomly selected legacies from the Stories and Legacies Index, so look forward to it! The following week I'll be out state on vacation, but I'm trying to get something done ahead of time to go up, since that will be Valentine's Day and I'd really like an Edition for the occassion... we'll see. But I'm not making any promises. ^_~
Have a Sim story site? Please submit your link to the Stories and Legacies Index!
Check out my Simlit at Sim Stories: Hijinks from the World of Sims 3!
My Simlit Discussion/Updates | The Fringe | Short Story Challenges
Date: 02/07/16
Welcome to this week's edition of Weekly Reading Roundup, where I sample selections of stories from the Stories and Legacies Index! Since it is the first week of the month, it is time to start off the new month with... Legacy Launch-off!
This week I'll be taking a look at legacies, selected randomly, that have been submitted to the Stories and Legacies Index! So let's roll that random number generator and get started, shall we?
Story: Aussie Accents
Site: Storytime with Silver
Simmer: @SilverDaybreak
Sims games featured: Sims 2, Sims 4
Date of last update: 02/04/2016
Total parts (discontinued): 6
Aussie Accents features Joeseph and Teresa Machin, originally from Sim Macquarrie, AustraliSim, that have recently moved to Veronaville where Joeseph begins a new career in education. However, the move was only temporary, as Joeseph had set his sights on a secret agent job with the Sim Bureau of Investigation in Willow Creek, and as soon as a position was available, the family was relocated so he could take the job. With their new daughter, Mary, the family settles into their new lives in a new town. The story starts out in Sims 2 and transitions into Sims 4 in a very clever way through the writing! The writing style is presented as a narration provided by various members of the family, with the narrator changing each chapter, as they share photos directly to the reader that show what they have been up to recently. It is very much a laid back, slice-of-life story, featuring lots of captioned gameplay photos, cute Aussie slang, and Simmer cameos!
Story: The Bluejay Legacy
Simmer: @PalmArrow
Sims games featured: Sims 3
Date of last update: 03/29/2016
Total parts (completed): 3 gens
The Bluejay Legacy starts with George Bluejay, who moves to (a modified to have a much more international vibe) Sunset Valley with hardly a simoleon to his name. He becomes a fireman (someone has to save Sim burrito babies left by their idi*t parents to unfortunate flammable accidents!), and settles down with his coworker at the station, Agnes Crumplebottom, to start a family. The story is a chronicle of the Bluejay family's life, based heavily around their wishes, and the writing has this clever way of tying events together by making references to past happenings. The characters are very memorable -- I found the moments between the couples so touching and adorable, and felt legitimately sad to see a favorite child move out upon reaching adulthood. I really love the events in this, from the cute honeymoon vacations abroad to a simple moment when Agnes is in bed portraying her fears of growing older and passing away to the saddest retirement/birthday party ever to the amazing world adventures of the generation three heir! There are also some absolutely lovely scenery shots in this of the World Adventure worlds that seriously have me thinking I need to explore that expansion pack now (I've owned it for nearly a year and still have yet to take a vacation in-game!) I also must give props to this story for introducing me to the Set Table and Call to Meal Mod (oh man, I so needed that!), that amazing build of the Library of Alexsimandria (who would've thought a librarian like me would be so tickled by that? ^_^;; ) and David Starman, a Sim creation to honor David Bowie's passing! Check it out!
Story: Memoirs: A Legacy Tale
Site: Simthology
Simmer: @OJenn
Sims games featured: Sims 4
Date of last update: 04/06/2016
Total parts (discontinued): 4 gens
Memoirs of a Legacy is "a legacy tale told from a different point of view." It is presented as short, memorable moments throughout the legacy founder and his subsequent heirs' lives. It begins with Lee Spencer-Kim-Lewis, who has returned to Willow Creek to rebuild his father's legacy, highlighting the high points and low points of his life until the story is handed over to his daughter. The characters are so relatable, so human, and some of the parts evoke such a strong emotional response it is impossible to keep a dry eye! The style of this legacy is incredibly unique, and it is hard to try to do it justice without checking it out for yourself! Simply lovely!
Story: The Stevens Legacy
Site: stevenssimslegacy
Simmer: @Munterbacon
Sims games featured: Sims 4
Date of last update: 06/17/2016
Total parts (hiatus): 50 (2 gens)
The Stevens Legacy is a casual, game-driven legacy that features a lovable, clumsy, bubblegum-color-haired goofball named Shea Stevens, who is busy working her way through the ranks of becoming a stellar stand-up comedian while befriending the town with her silly personality and romancing the lovely Alyssa. This story is written in a very light-hearted tone, with lots of humor (with the occassional snark and obligatory pun here and there thrown in!) to perfectly fit with its lovable founder. It is a lot of fun, and I'd highly recommend taking a look! It's impossible to not fall for Shea and become utterly invested in what she gets up to from day to day, whether it be trying out that new joke she's been working on or starting a family with her loving wife!
That wraps up legacy launch-off for this month! I've been working on trying to get a Weekly Reading Roundup edition pre-written for next week, as I will be out of town on vacation, but I can't make any promises that it will get done in time! I wouldn't plan on one, but if you do see one next week, just consider it a pleasant surprise. ^_~
Have a Sim story site? Please submit your link to the Stories and Legacies Index!
Check out my Simlit at Sim Stories: Hijinks from the World of Sims 3!
My Simlit Discussion/Updates | The Fringe | Short Story Challenges
Date: 02/14/16
Welcome to this week's edition of Weekly Reading Roundup, where I sample selections of stories from the Stories and Legacies Index! Since it is Valentine's Day, I bet you are expecting serious, romantically charged stories for this week's theme... but that would've been too obvious, right? Naah, what better for an over-commercialized holiday created to sell cards, flowers, and boxes of chocolate than Sims challenges based on commercialized romance reality TV? Aww ya, now we're talking!
This week I'll be looking at Bachelor and Bachelorette Challenges, and other miscellaneous "romance" themed challenges! These type of challenges have been around since Sims 2, and there are so many different rule sets and variations that trying to link to any "standard" bachelor challenge rubric is in itself a challenge! As you'll notice from the sampling below, there is a lot of variety with how each challenge is played out, which is part of what makes checking out a wide variety in this genre so much fun!
Story: Bachelor Challenge 4.3
Site: Opi's Sims
Simmer: @Opicana
Sims games featured: Sims 4
Date of last update: 05/02/2016
Total parts (discontinued): 12
Opi's Sims is a treasure trove of bachelor challenges. If you peruse through the older Bachelor Challenges on the site, you'll find not one, but two completed Sims 3 bachelor challenges! The first features bachelor Chauncey Grimm and takes place in Moonlight Falls, and the second features Sebastian Vanderburg and is set in his hometown of Hidden Springs. In this story there are no competitions for solo dates or eliminations (solo dates are chosen by the bachelor based on who he is most interested in and eliminations are based on who is least interested in). I ended up getting completely caught up in the "reality TV feels" of these stories, with my particular favorite girls and holding my breath during eliminations and having to realign my favoritism whenever my top competitor was cast out, and soon looked over at the clock and realized it was 3 a.m. because I'd gotten so caught up in it all! There is even an After the Bachelor segment that shows snippets of the winning couples' lives after the show, and it was great to get to revisit them. (The only bad part is the last two parts of Sebastian's challenge, as well as the first part of his After the Bachelor, were missing the pictures, but I was so wrapped up in having to know how things were going to end up after that climatic ending that I just didn't care, and read them text-only. Would've been nice to have seen the wedding shots, though!)
Moving into Sims 4 bachelor challenges, you'll find yet another completed bachelor challenge, Bachelor Challenge 4.1, featuring Tanner Palmer, with six lovely ladies and one handsome man (!) all vying to be the object of his affection (you have no idea how happy it makes me to see a mixed cast, even if there is only one man in the running... hey, it's a start in providing a little diversity in what is otherwise normally always a very heteronormative challenge, which I love!) Unfortunately Bachelor Challenge 4.2 was discontinued after a computer meltdown caused the save file information to be lost, which is a bit of a shame since Cannon Griffin was also a bisexu*l bachelor and there was a rather diverse group composed of both genders in that running! Bachelor Challenge 4.3 has just started, so you can jump in and catch all the action! It features Dalton Montgomery as the bachelor, and seven ladies competing for his heart, many of which are familiar faces from the lost Bachelor Challenge 4.2. All the contestants have been announced and the first episode is out, with more on the way!
One of the things I feel worth mentioning is I love the character submission system for the bachelor challenges on this site, which don't necessarily require a fully created Sim, but also provide a form you can fill out and submit as an alternative, describing the physical features, traits, aspirations, and background of a sim, and then Opicana will sculpt a Sim out of CAS accordingly, which makes it possible for players of other versions of the Sims (*coughs* say, certain Sims 3 players that absolutely love reading Sims 4 stories, but would therefore be unable to make Sims 4 Sims and submit them through the Gallery... *wink wink nudge nudge*) to be able to get in on the action (or, heck, even a non Sims player could participate in this manner!) I find that a really nice touch and it's unique compared to every other bachelor challenge I've seen!
Story: Bachelor Challenge with Alijah Downing
Site: Gus' YouTube Channel
Simmer: @Xoxk9 (YouTube: Grown&Unsexy)
Sims games featured: Sims 4
Date of last update: 11/12/2016
Total parts (completed): 26
This video-format bachelor challenge features Alijah Downing, a "27-year-old pianist who's unlucky in love." Which one of the ten lovely ladies currently staying in his mansion will manage to be that special someone? It follows the typical bachelor challenge format of using a combination of solo dates and group dates to allow the competitors a chance to raise their relationship levels with the bachelor, though unlike some that have challenges to determine who goes on solo dates and is eliminated, solo dates are chosen by random draw, and elimination is based on overall compatibility and relationship levels. I absolutely love the video editing in this; the trailer with the subtitled Simlish was adorable, the episodes have very clean transitions with great status meters for the friendly and romantic interactions during both group and solo dates, and there are other fun popups added for comedic effect. Gus is a great narrator and I always enjoy when she stops and observes the sims' expressions and voices her thoughts on their reactions or puts words in their mouth ("Attention everyone! So what do you all think of this bachelor who is sitting here eating at our table and not even talking to us?") I also find the dates very enjoyable, instead of just being "interaction spam" they actually feel like dates, with the bachelor and the contestant actually doing various activities at the chosen venue, and I enjoy how both the bachelor's personality and the girls' personalities are taken into consideration when choosing interactions. Viewers can also leave date suggestions in the comments! A very fun watch, go check it out!
Story: The Bachelor: Disney Princess Edition
Site: Sim-ply Awesome Stories
Simmer: @swcheppes
Sims games featured: Sims 4
Date of last update: 04/05/2016
Total parts (completed): 9
The Bachelor: Disney Princess Edition is a brand-new bachelor challenge from the author of Disney Legacy: The Blancs which was featured during Edition #3: Disney Magic! Hosted by Chris Harrison and featuring seven lovely Disney ladies competing to win the bachelor's heart (it's far more fun if I don't reveal here who the bachelor is, but I'll just say now I am extremely thrilled with the choice!), this version of the bachelor challenge promises to be a "drama-filled, magical, crazy season!" (Oh, I can't wait!) In this bachelor challenge, solo dates are determined through competitions, and eliminations are determined by a painting challenge each week, with the painting from the eliminated girl displayed on the "Wall of Losers" (bwahahahaha!) New episodes air every Wednesday, so be sure to tune in!
Story: The Disney Princess Bachelor Challenge
Site: Rory Plays the Sims
Simmer: @Rorygilmore34
Sims games featured: Sims 4
Date of last update: 01/07/2016
Total parts (completed): 26
This was featured during my Edition #3: Disney Magic! Weekly Reading Roundup, so if you'd like the full details, I suggest you go check out that past issue. Since it also fit the theme this week, being a Bachelor Challenge, I figured I'd give it another mention!
Story: I'm a Lover Challenge
Site: Rory Plays the Sims
Simmer: @Rorygilmore34
Sims games featured: Sims 4
Date of last update: 01/19/2017
Total parts (active, ongoing): 3 gens
The I'm a Lover Challenge is a type of legacy challenge where every generation is focused around different ideals about romance, both positive and negative, based around the torch holder's upbringing from the previous generation. There are different specific goals for each generation, which can be viewed here for the Sims 3 and here for the Sims 4. Rory's I'm a Lover Challenge is a video Let's Play that follows Charlotte Wells, a pretty girl who spent her childhood lonely, unable to make friends, and often alone in the library surrounded by books and writing short stories about a happily married life. Now that she's a young adult, she has moved to Windenburg and wants to be a romance author, and dreams of meeting her one true love and getting married. Soon she discovers that her childhood friends, two brothers that she was always awkward around, have also recently moved to Windenburg into a sharehouse with two of their friends... could her romance be found with one of them, or is it waiting with one of the Windenburg natives? The goal of the first generation of the challenge is to meet another young adult male, get married as adults, have two kids after marriage, continue the romance by having a date night once every week, and staying together until death do them part! There are lots of backstory given to the characters, and cute descriptions of past events, that really flesh out the characters and give this LP a lot of charm. As always, it is a pleasure to hear Rory's enthusiasm and reactions, and it is a lot of fun to see how the events of Charlotte's story unfold!
Story: Lenora's Bachelorette Challenge
Site: Sweetnightingale's YouTube Channel
Simmer: @sweetnightingale (YouTube: sweetnightingale2907)
Sims games featured: Sims 3
Date of last update: 11/01/2014
Total parts (completed): 7
Lenora's Bachelorette Challenge is a Bachelorette Challenge featuring Lenora Atherton, a witch who works as a romance author that has a very detailed and tragic history. Being so down on her luck, she's found herself on "The One," a bachelorette matchmaking program, where she will be tasked with finding true love from among an extremely diverse cast of single men, each with their own detailed backstory (fans of supernaturals will enjoy this group!) In this bachelorette challenge, there are no competitions for solo dates or eliminations; the bachelorette spends both group dates and one on one date time with all the competitors doing a variety of activities (playing chess together, hanging out at the library, visiting a festival/amusement park, enjoying a hot tub) and elimination is based on the lowest numerical relationship score between the bachelorette and the men in the competition using Master Controller values. There is also another season of "The One" in written format, featuring Lenora's fairy friend Ileah Forrester, which can be read here.
Story: The Love Ship
Site: Sweetnightingale's YouTube Channel
Simmer: @sweetnightingale (YouTube: sweetnightingale2907)
Sims games featured: Sims 3
Date of last update: 09/07/2014
Total parts (completed): 10
The Love Ship is a video series that features Ella Principal, a fairy who is the daughter of Cupid and a fairy queen, who has taken it upon herself to help out with her father's work by helping out single sims who have been romantically down on their luck. After inviting these singles to live with her on her magnificient house boat, she scopes out potential mates for her charges and helps hook them up with their best match. Single sims featured on the series are selected from viewer submissions. You can find a story introduction to Ella and a photo tour of her love ship here. There has also been a reboot of the series here, which currently has two episodes released. This is a very cute idea that takes sim matchmaking in a different direction!
Story: The Proposal
Simmer: @NewToTheSims (Blogger: LateKnightSimmer)
Sims games featured: Sims 3
Date of last update: 09/29/2016
Total parts (hiatus): 17
The Proposal is a bachelor challenge featuring bachelor Giovanni Montelo. Set in Roaring Heights, eleven lovely ladies have gathered to compete in various competitions to win coveted one-on-one date with the bachelor and immunity against elimination every week. How well a lady does both in her social interactions during group hangout time and in the challenge competitions is scored and goes into a point rubric toward the weekly eliminations. Helpful in-game info notes are separated from the story and provide details about the mechanics and scoring of the challenge, and detailed scoring is even provided for each part for the curious! The story is very creativity written, the conversations during the solo dates are very deep and enlightening of the characters, and there are a lot of twists and turns in the competition as the stakes keep ramping up! You won't want to miss it!
Have a Sim story site? Please submit your link to the Stories and Legacies Index!
Check out my Simlit at Sim Stories: Hijinks from the World of Sims 3!
My Simlit Discussion/Updates | The Fringe | Short Story Challenges
Date: 02/14/16
From the Archives:
It's been a few weeks since I've featured the From the Archives segment, where I take a look at stories currently found in the Stories and Legacies Archive. The status of archived stories can be anywhere from completed, to currently on hiatus, to discontinued, but no matter what the status of the story, these works are worth looking into to see the influence they have on the genre as a whole, and they can still provide great inspiration and fresh ideas to other writers interested in playing a romance-based challenge!
Story: Donnelly Bachelor Challenge
Site: Leavin on a Southern Train
Simmer: Karri
Sims games featured: Sims 3
Date of last update: 06/08/2014
Total parts (completed): 322 (Simblr format)
The Donnelly Bachelor Challenge is a bachelor challenge hosted on Tumblr, so each part is in the short, bite-sized style that is popular of the "Simblr story" format. It features Irish bachelor Brendan Donnelly, who is bisexu*l (yaaaay, another diversified bachelor challenge! That makes my LGBTQQIAA heart so happy!) and therefore a mixed cast of fourteen contestants, eight handsome men and six lovely ladies, will be competing for his affections! The bachelor manor is located in scenic Monte Vista, and the story sports some absolutely lovely imagery, not to mention some lovely, descriptive writing along with the short, humorous captions typical of Simblr stories. This is a great bachelor challenge to follow, especially for those that are fans of LGBT SimLit! There is a lot of deep discussion dealing with sexu*l orientation, and you may just find two bachelor challenges in one!
Story: Fatima's Bachelorette Challenge
Site: Going Solo
Simmer: @Vuneca
Sims games featured: Sims 3
Date of last update: 05/16/2015
Total parts (on hiatus): 6
Fatima's Bachelorette Challenge features the fairy Fatima, who is rather enthusiastic to have been selected to be on "The One," hoping for her "fifteen minutes of fame and to bask in the attention of attractive men." She is dazzled by the luxurious castle and its amazing views on Isla Paradiso, where she will be staying with ten attractive men (fans of supernaturals will be pleased to see several amongst the competition!) vying to win her heart. I absolutely love how this bachelorette challenge is actually written very much like an actual reality TV show, with mentions of the producer and the crew, lots of drama, and showing Fatima as a very relatable character that describes how she is just "doing this for fun" and never thought anyone went on these kind of shows to "actually find love" but couldn't help but find herself feeling guilty every time she had to send one of these nice guys packing when it "wasn't personal." I don't think I've ever seen a bachelor or bachelorette challenge that has ever gone into those sorts of emotions, and I love it! It really made me love Fatima, as she starts to question the whole gimmick behind making a bunch of strangers live together in a house and telling them they have to fall in love or get out, and starting to wonder if maybe, just maybe, she could actually find real love from this whole situation. Unfortunately the story went on hiatus as it was narrowed down to the final three, but it is definitely worth a read regardless! I found the six parts that are available entirely too enjoyable.
Story: Griggs-Moon Bachelor Challenge
Site: Leavin on a Southern Train
Simmer: Karri
Sims games featured: Sims 3
Date of last update: 02/28/2015
Total parts (completed): 238 (Simblr format)
This is a bachelorette challenge presented in the bite-sized style so popular on Tumblr, by the same author that did the Donnelly Bachelor Challenge. It features Danika Griggs-Moon, a character from another story on the Leavin on a Southern Train Simblr, Finding Levi, as nine dashing young men compete for her love. Like the "Donnelly Bachelor Challenge," it is very well written, revealing a lot about the characters and their personalities, with humorous commentary thrown in from the author from time to time, and great imagery. Very enjoyable!
Story: Insanely Twisted Bachelor Challenge
Site: Insanity Doesn't Compare: ISBI... Challenge Accepted
Simmer: @Spongeb0b (Wordpress: Spongey)
Sims games featured: Sims 3
Date of last update: 01/21/2016
Total parts (completed): 22
This bachelorette challenge... oh my goodness. If you want something different -- not to mention something that is going to make you laugh until you have lung failure in at least one lung -- this is the story for you! It's so hard to properly describe, but I'll do my best (as a fair warning, the author even gives it a disclaimer stating: "This challenge is called Insanely Twisted Bachelor Challenge for a reason. That means, whatever you're used to when it comes to these challenges... get unused to. Cauuuuuse... this is going to be VERY different. TRUST me.") Here we have bachlorette Celery, the generation 8 heir of the Insanity Doesn't Compare ISBI (which should tell you something about at least one of her traits...) who is having a bachelor challenge to determine her future partner (and she doesn't seem all that widely crazy with the prospect either, which just makes this all the more hilarious). Fourteen elgible male Berry Sims are in the competition, and each are obnoxious in their own different ways, which just makes them hysterical and unique and oddly endearing... trust me, you will never see a guy in another bachelor challenge like this boys! The show is hosted by the author's Simself, and the rules are a bit more involved than a typical bachelor challenge. All the competitors are placed into two teams, and negative interactions between teammates actually scores a player a point (negative interactions against a non-teammate also scores points, but a much lower amount). However, teammates receive a bonus if someone on their team wins the challenge! (In the words of the author... "See how this is twisted? You do good for yourself, and treat your teammates like crap, but... you still have to watch them get points for your win. It's delightful.") Single points can randomly be added to a competitor if they do something that pleases Celery, and five points can immediately be lost from a bachelor if they wet themself or pass out (I mean, they are going to be ISBI husband material, after all!) or flirt with Jaxself, the host. Scoring for elimination is based on not only the competitor's relationship with Celery (which is 50% of the score), but how popular they are with readers (via poll votes on who should stay, which is 20% of the score), and how well they can suck up to the Simself host (as the relationship with Jaxself is 30% of the score). This story is written with this dry wit, and is absolutely hilarious! I cannot stress that enough! With so many bachelor challenges going the romance angle (when the entire situation, one must realize, is a fabricated made-for-TV reality program) the fact this is just so tongue-in-cheek and parodical is great... not to mention I never get tired of how terrible Celery is to the competitors. ^_^;; I could watch her pimp slap them and have them keep coming back for more all day, bwahahaha!
Story: Romance Island
Site: Opi's Sims
Simmer: @Opicana
Sims games featured: Sims 3
Date of last update: 05/12/2014
Total parts (discontinued): 7 (2 weeks)
Here is another romance challenge from Opi's Sims site! It is described as a cross between the Lab and the Bachelor Challenges: eight sims (four males and four females) are placed in a luxurious tropical paradise, where they will have a chance to find romance with each other. After they have found true love, they will leave Romance Island to start a new life together. It is designed to be continuous; as a couple leaves Romance Island, a new pair of new singles are moved onto the island. The setting of the challenge is a lovely private island, Isla Romantica, and the action takes place through autonomous interactions, as well as individual and group dates. Only two weeks were played before the series was discontinued, and no official couples were formed during that time (though there was one replacement to a rather dramatic surprise death!) but I really liked the concept behind this romance challenge! I would love to see something similar to this done in the future!
That's it for this installment of Weekly Reading Roundup! Join me again next week, when I'll be taking a look at animal-themed stories in honor of Love Your Pet Day! I can't wait!
Have a Sim story site? Please submit your link to the Stories and Legacies Index!
Check out my Simlit at Sim Stories: Hijinks from the World of Sims 3!
My Simlit Discussion/Updates | The Fringe | Short Story Challenges
Drawn. Being drawn into the series, if you lack ideas.
http://www.getfreeebooks.com/star-trek-original-series-fan-fiction-trilogy/
tl;dr : Librarians hate censorship. ^_^
Have a Sim story site? Please submit your link to the Stories and Legacies Index!
Check out my Simlit at Sim Stories: Hijinks from the World of Sims 3!
My Simlit Discussion/Updates | The Fringe | Short Story Challenges
Date: 02/21/16
Welcome to this week's edition of Weekly Reading Roundup, where I sample selections of stories from the Stories and Legacies Index! In celebration of Love Your Pet Day, today I am looking at stories that are pet-themed! These include the 50 Foal/Kitten/Puppy Challenge, a variation on the famous 100 Baby Challenge, and other stories and challenges where the focus is on Sim pets! Animal lovers rejoice!
Story: 50 Foals Challenge: Jason and Salsa Dancer
Simmer: @WolfLady74
Sims games featured: Sims 3
Date of last update: 08/30/2016
Total parts (hiatus): 188 (approx)
50 Foals Challenge: Jason and Salsa Dancer is actually the second attempt at a 50 Foals Challenge by @WolfLady74 , and it is up to 40 out of 50 foals! (Wow!) It begins with Jason Taylor, who after hearing about the tragic death of his cousin and her horse ranch in an earthquake (a clever nod to the previous lost challenge), he decides to carry on her mission to breed fifty foals in her honor. After relocating to Appaloosa Plains, he manages to track down a descendant of his cousin's founding stallion, named Salsa Dancer. Jason settles into a life of horse breeding (complete with many trips to the stables in his tighty-whities to bottle-feed cute little foals), and starts a family after his first major relationship ends up ending quite tragically. The story starts out much like a playlog but quickly turns into a full story of the Taylor family's life, with dialogue and distinct characterization, and you really get a feel for the characters as they go about their lives on the horse ranch. There are also some very gorgeous horses here (with cute names that really fit them, I might add; I quite like S'mores and Starlight!) and they are all available for download in grown form. The only unfortunate part is many of the images are now missing on each of the parts; thankfully not all of the images are missing from any single part, so there is just enough there you can still easily keep up on the action and what is going on (especially since the writing is very good and fills things in well!) If you love multi-generational family stories with a focus on horse breeding, check this out!
Story: The Cat Chronicles
Site: Sim Stories
Simmer: @mastressalita
Sims games featured: Sims 3
Date of last update: 01/21/2017
Total parts (active, ongoing): 42
The Cat Chronicles is written from the perspective of a cat, and narrated by the main kitty character. After the death of her husband, the newly-widowed elderly Rose adopts a fiesty kitten from the shelter, Shadow, in the need for some companionship to fill that hole recently left in her life. Shadow's grand adventures are pretty much what you would expect from a cat -- catching bugs, fighting dogs, searching for ever superior comfy places, training his wrinkly one in proper kitty-owner etiquette, and the eternal quest to conquer his feathered foes. If you enjoy "cute cats doing cute things" or simply enjoy "cat owner humor," this might be the story for you!
Story: Children of the Cowplant Challenge
Site: Snowie's YouTube Channel
Simmer: @ewright9
Sims games featured: Sims 3
Date of last update: 12/01/2015
Total parts (discontinued): 4
Since at the moment the Cowplant is the closest thing Sims 4 has to pets, I felt this was appropriate! (And who doesn't love Cowplants? I mean, seriously.) The Children of the Cowplant Challenge was created by Snowie, and if you are curious about the challenge rules, please check them out here! It is an immortal-style challenge, where, using a cowplant to draw in victims and drink their essense to prolong the lifespan of a single Sim, you attempt to complete all of their aspirations before they are allowed to age into their next life stage. This video Let's Play story chronicles the life of child Lucia, who has pledged her life to the Cowplant in return for immortality! With her sad excuse of a mortal caretaker (I am forever amused by this young adult sim that is essentially just there to be used by this creepy child who is best friends with their cowplant and hunts down victims to feed it to stay young), she is tasked with completing all the child-age aspirations, socializing with her Cowplant, and, possibly, making friends with good ol' Grimmy as well.
Story: Gilt Sparrow: A Fifty Foal Challenge
Simmer: @Thrippa
Sims games featured: Sims 3
Date of last update: 01/16/2017
Total parts (active, ongoing): 80+
Gilt Sparrow: A Fifty Foal Challenge is a 50 Foals Challenge with a unique backstory: recently, in the greater Appaloosa Plains area an outbreak of a new strain of trypanosomes, carried by tsetse flies, has infected the local horse population. Katie Sparrow decides to try to create a genetic cure by breeding her platinum zebra stallion, Electrum, who is naturally resistent to the disease, to as many mares as possible, hoping that he will pass on the antibodies to the foals. Not only does this story feature some great horses (and later on, some very original ones! My Brony heart approves!), but a trusty barn cat and a loveable flatcoated retriever! The horses featured in this story are also available for download as adults. This is a very enjoyable read that really fleshes out the "world" for the challenge!
Story: Lady and Tiffanie: 50 Puppy Challenge
Simmer: @Fiveme2
Sims games featured: Sims 3
Date of last update: 10/22/2016
Total parts (hiatus): 31
Lady and Tiffanie: 50 Puppy Challenge is a 50 Puppy Challenge that is narrated by Lady, a Husky-Border Collie mix that was discovered as a stray digging through the trash as a puppy by Tiffanie, who took her in and raised her. Now Tiffanie has just finished college and moved out, and brought her trusty Lady with her. Expect lots of cute puppy pictures in this one! Playing in puddles, bounding through snow, and the always classic faceplant (I seriously can never get enough of seeing puppies and kittens skidding across the floor to fall flat on their face... so cute!) And you can actually download all the puppies... as puppies! (Seriously, this is a big deal; since Create-a-Pet doesn't let you create kittens and puppies, you can't simply open it up with an adult Pet and "age them down" like you can with Sims! So if you are looking for puppies to load into your game, you can grab some cuties here!)
From the Archives:
Story: Pet Masters: The Ambrose Legacy
Site: JBFairybird's Sims Stories
Simmer: @JLBDreamer (formerly @jbfairybird )
Sims games featured: Sims 3
Date of last update: 12/26/2012
Total parts (discontinued): 16 (2 gens)
Pet Masters: The Ambrose Legacy is a legacy based off of the Pet Masters Legacy Challenge, where each generation is based around animals! (I'll admit, I've never been a legacy player myself, but after reading this challenge, I am very tempted to try it myself!) The story begins with Rita Ambrose, an angler who moves to Appaloosa Plains and decides to enter a fishing contest to build a perfect aquarium, which carries a rather hefty prize. There she falls in love and starts a family (and gets two of the cutest housecats ever!) and her son carries on the family legacy as a cat herder. This story is really engaging with lovely imagery! Sadly, it was discontinued back in 2012, but guess what? jbfairybird is back, and @JLBDreamer has announced this story should be returning to her new site sometime in the near future! Everytime a Sim story returns like a Phoenix rising from the ashes like that, an angel gets its wings. (Okay, maybe I'm being overly dramatic, but librarians get excited about things like that... ^_^;; )
That's it for this installment of Weekly Reading Roundup! Join me again next week, when I'll be featuring fairy tales and other fantasy-themed stories for Fairy Tale Day!
Have a Sim story site? Please submit your link to the Stories and Legacies Index!
Check out my Simlit at Sim Stories: Hijinks from the World of Sims 3!
My Simlit Discussion/Updates | The Fringe | Short Story Challenges
Oooh - do you know why the name Ch4na is censored? A drug? I could not figure it out and I looked once I realized what was happening. Sorry - um...stories!... so many good ones listed again. I love how you're doing this, putting them in "genres" so that folks can find similar stories. This is a completely new genre to me so I'm going to have fun exploring. And I can't wait to see what you review next.
I've wanted to complain about it in the Feedback and Suggestions forum for a long time, but like everything that fills that forum, I know the Gurus would just ignore it, so I feel it would be a waste of my time typing up my thoughts, no matter how well put-together on the subject I could make them. *sigh* (I just fail to see why there is a T for Teen logo in the bottom corner of my screen when I can't even type the word "idi*t" or why my sims can be homosexu*l yet I can't even use that word to describe them on their own official forums. Infuriating!)
I'm glad you like the reading corner though! I'm worried I may have to cancel (or be late) this week though due to illness... all my time stuck in bed hacking up my innards hasn't led to much reading time. I'll have to see how it goes. I can be incredibly stubborn about my own self-imposed deadlines. :-P
Have a Sim story site? Please submit your link to the Stories and Legacies Index!
Check out my Simlit at Sim Stories: Hijinks from the World of Sims 3!
My Simlit Discussion/Updates | The Fringe | Short Story Challenges
Date: 02/28/16
Welcome to this week's edition of Weekly Reading Roundup, where I sample selections of stories from the Stories and Legacies Index! For Tell a Fairy Tale Day, this week I'll be taking a look at stories based on fairy tales, that have a very fairy tale-esque theme, or that are part of the fantasy genre!
Story: Beauty
Simmer: @Daijahv
Sims games featured: Sims 3
Date of last update: 01/21/2014
Total parts (completed): 30
Beauty is a completed story that blends elements of Beauty and the Beast and Phantom of the Opera (with a side of Swan Lake) in a "tale of love, loss, and life." It features Natalie Silverman, who seems to have it all: a trust fund baby blessed with good looks, a promising future as a talented ballerina, and popular amongst the uppercrust gents. But the amount of control placed on her life has Natalie wanting more, and when a mysterious masked man, Blake Foster, enters her life, getting Natalie entangled in a battle amongst werewolves, she starts to realize perhaps she should've been careful what what she wished for... A great read with excellent imagery for fans of supernatural romance with fairy tale themes!
Story: Beauty and the Beast Challenge
Site: Sweetnightingale's YouTube Channel
Simmer: @sweetnightingale (YouTube: sweetnightingale2907)
Sims games featured: Sims 3
Date of last update: 08/26/2014
Total parts (completed): 8
The Beauty and the Beast Challenge is a completed video Let's Play challenge created by @sweetnightingale that is based on the old fairytale, but now has a modern-day reimagining. Sarah Oliver, the daughter of a rich family, is faced with difficulty for perhaps the first time in her life when her mother becomes fatally ill and all treatments fail to work. Enter Vincent Corelli, formerly an esteemed doctor, but after a medical treatment went wrong and his patient died, resulting in the loss of his medical liscence, he became a recluse, secluding himself in his manor, though continuing to dedicate his life to the study of medicine over the guilt of his mistake. Sarah seeks him out and asks if he can save her mother; he says that he can, but the treatment that can save her requires technology from the future, and because the consequences of time travel are great, so is the price: Sarah must live at Vincent's manor against her will, taking care of the estate. To save her mother, she agrees to the terms. The challenge focuses on a punishment-and-reward system for building Sarah's skills and relationship with Vincent. Can Sarah overcome her dislike for Vincent to find love, without burning down the manor learning how to cook? I love the rich backstories that @sweetnightingale gives her sims, and the modern spin on the Beauty and the Beast tale!
Story: Cursed Beauty
Site: VirtuaLee's YouTube Channel
Simmer: @VIRTUALEE
Sims games featured: Sims 4
Date of last update: 03/18/2016
Total parts (completed): 18
Cursed Beauty is a non-generational prettacy challenge that features Kaliani Briggans, who was cursed from the time of her birth by her evil older sister, who did not want to lose any of her parents' attention and admiration, to be disfigured and ugly, causing her to be kept out of the public eye by her family and reduced to the role of a mere houseservant rather than a daughter. By focusing on improving herself within, however, she can slowly overcome the curse: for every skill mastered, Kaliani can change one ugly feature into a pretty feature. The story is intriguing and will really appeal to fans of fairy tales! It is half narrated SimLit, with a storyline read over screencaps from the game that progress the story each chapter, and half video Let's Play, with the second half dedicated to following the characters around Windenburg and watching how they interact with each other directly. The interesting this about this is that if you are a fan of Let's Plays, this is a great introduction into traditional SimLit and may branch more folks that typically stick to LPs into trying out standard Sim story formats, and vice versa; SimLit writers may become more engaged in the world of LP and try out more LP videos. As a fan of many different forms of storytelling (the Stories and Legacies Index has accepted both print and video media since day one!) I absolutely love this new, unique approach! The narrations in the story segments are great, giving voice and personality to each character, and the narration during the LP is equally engaging, as Virtualee is a lot of fun to listen to and makes some hilarious commentary or breaks out into parody song from time to time! Make sure to check it out!
Story: The Fairy Tale Reader
Simmer: @Marialein
Sims games featured: Sims 4
Date of last update: 03/04/2016
Total parts (discontinued): 5
The Fairy Tale Reader is a story-within-a-story: it features Sera, a teen in an orphanage that can't seem to find a home, who finds solace in reading fairy tales to all the younger children there and using them to teach them valuable lessons. Each chapter features Sera reading the kids a different fairy tale, which is then reimagined beautifully within the world of the the Sims! I absolutely love the world-building in this; all the different sets for each different tale are astounding! For anyone that has enjoyed checking out different picture books of fairy tales from the library as a kid, reading all the different renditions and looking at the different styles of art (*coughs* I am not ashamed to admit I was one of those kids!) then definitely check out this story! It is great fun to see your favorite stories told and illustrated using Sims 4! So far you can enjoy Little Red Riding Hood, The Frog King/Iron Henry, Sleeping Beauty, and the first part of The Little Mermaid!
Story: The Fey of Life
Simmer: @RipuAncestor
Sims games featured: Sims 3
Date of last update: 12/23/2016
Total parts (active, ongoing): 26
The Fey of Life features Lynn Farley, who is certain after her mother remarries that her new step-brother, Rem Monsoon, is actually a pixie child that can see into another world. No one else believes her, but she can't shake the feeling her new pointy-eared sibling isn't what he seems... There is this lovely sense of mystery that permeates what is an engrossing, very well-written tale of Lynn's family life. The imagery is fantastic, including beautiful original artwork by @RipuAncestor as well! This story is a lovely blend of fantasy, drama, suspense, and slice of life, and I would highly recommend it to fans of any of those genres!
Story: Goldilocks and Bears: A Sim Fairy Tale (video version)
Simmer: @chealsycat
Sims games featured: Sims 4
Date of last update: 12/11/2016
Total parts (active, ongoing): 69
One day a little girl with golden pigtails and a very sour mood wonders into a home, and promptly fulfills her needs by eating their food, breaking their computer, and sleeping in their bed. The residents of the home -- a family of bears (or at least, a family who really, really love their bearsuits) -- find her there, but little Goldilocks manages to worm her way into their hearts, and the family adopts her. Goldilocks and Bears is a delightful slice-of-life tale that uses the classic fairy tale as a starting point to simply chronicle the lives of this bear-plus-one family, and the story is told very much in "Tumblr style" with a parade of captioned images highlighting different events in their life. Expect plenty of heartfelt moments, and goofy moments, and touching moments... as well as magic clay, exploding rocket ships, animated gifs, video footage of choreographed dancing bears, and cat pictures! You can't expect to not win me over with cat pictures! (Though to be fair, dancing bears is a close second.)
Story: Shrektastic
Simmer: @Colorist40
Sims games featured: Sims 3
Date of last update: 08/04/2016
Total parts (hiatus): 44
Shrektastic features characters from the popular movie series, but this is an original tale. It begins with Fiona being forced into an arranged marriage by her family with a man they think is properly suitable as he is... ah... "equal" to her in the looks department. Fiona, however, was less than pleased with this development, and even moreso when she actually met Shrek, who she found hideous; he, likewise, felt the same of her. Nonetheless, they have to start a life together despite their misgivings, and move in together in a rather full house along with Dragon, Donkey, and Pu*s 'n Boots. This is a very fun take on Shrek and Fiona's domestic life, with a lot of drama and twists! Shrek fans -- or just fans of tsundere romances -- should definitely check this out! (Trust me, it's so much better than Shrek 3 I just can't even...)
From the Archives:
Story: Summerdream
Simmer: @caterpillar
Sims games featured: Sims 3
Date of last update: 01/11/2017
Total parts (ongoing): 9
Summerdream is a fantasy-genre series for mature readers, based on a world where fairies and dragons, both magical and immortal beings, clash over their different cultures, leading to the threat of war. As they were busy trying to work through their differences, the first humans, neolithic cavemen, appear in their part of the world, adding further tensions. As time draws towards the medieval era, humanity grows in population while the fairy and dragon populations start to dwindle, threatening the existence of magic in the world. This is an absolutely treat for fans of fantasy stories! It is simply beautiful, with some gorgeous imagery and equally gorgeous and unique sims! The story is currently being re-written and posted on Wordpress, but there is a previous draft available on Blogspot that has 54 parts available (if you really can't wait on the rewrite, I suppose... ^_~ )
That's it for this installment of Weekly Reading Roundup! There are many other stories out there that feature magic, witches, wizards, supernatural creatures, and other similar themes, but I'm going to hold off on those and likely do a Supernatural Smorgasbord the entire month of October! (I was hoping to fit a few of those in under this theme this week, but I've been sick with Strep Throat and I just didn't have the time... sorry!)
Next week is Read Across America Day! This is a very special day where schools and libraries share their love of reading, often by having "read-ins", on March 2nd, the great Dr. Seuss' birthday. Instead of doing my usual Legacy Launch-Off this month, in honor of Read Across America Day and Dr. Seuss, let's celebrate short stories! I'll be compiling a list of authors that have short story works registered with the Stories and Legacies Index and encourage all of you to read at least one short story to celebrate the love of reading for this special day! Feel free to chat about your selections, and all the things you love about reading SimLit!
Have a Sim story site? Please submit your link to the Stories and Legacies Index!
Check out my Simlit at Sim Stories: Hijinks from the World of Sims 3!
My Simlit Discussion/Updates | The Fringe | Short Story Challenges
The Fey of Life - fairytales in life are few and far between (Forum thread HERE)
The Chrysanthemum Tango - a story about life, death, magic, and how to be a good landlady (Forum thread HERE)
Forget-Me-Not - some things just refuse to stay buried; an Ambrosia Challenge story (Forum thread HERE)
And also thank you for the other reviews! Now I know what to read.
Book marked the thread to be always in touch.