How do you choose your sims' children traits?

nasch_katze

Hi.

When I play with a family, each time the sim ages up and the "choose a new trait" popup comes up, I always let the game choose for me and hit the "random" button.
Since I don't have a storyline in mind for children (I do have for my initial sims though), I kinda let the game guide me. Having random traits helps me craft some kind of storyline on the fly and also gives me the opportunity to play with traits I wouldn't have chosen otherwise and create fun dynamics for gameplay, enhanced by the Growing Together compatibility system and a mod to enhance the Wants (I love playing with Wants and there are some traits-based ones I would never roll if the game didn't assign them randomly to my sim's children).

But I was curious about how other people actually approached this?

luciusstorm

I usually base my sim children's traits on their parents and/or their role in the story I'm telling.

That doesn't mean necessarily thar the child has the same traits as the parent. A Creative sim might have an Art Lover child... or a Snob, depending on what kind of relationship I want to explore. Still, I try to make the child's personality reflect their origins in some way.

mightysprite

I roll 3 times and then choose the one that seems the best fit from those limited options. Unless one was a trait a parent also has, in which case they inherit it automatically.
I like having limited options because it forces me to think outside the box! Like what you said about crafting a storyline on the fly.

EnkiSchmidt

I watch them for the smallest hint as to what their personality might be. In a way, that is random, too, but I also take into account how their parents' actions might shape them. Since I re-use my sims a lot, over the course of several saves I form a pretty accurate idea of them.

nasch_katze

luciusstorm wrote: »

I usually base my sim children's traits on their parents and/or their role in the story I'm telling.

That doesn't mean necessarily thar the child has the same traits as the parent. A Creative sim might have an Art Lover child... or a Snob, depending on what kind of relationship I want to explore. Still, I try to make the child's personality reflect their origins in some way.

That is very clever and also realistic in a way!

mightysprite wrote: »

I roll 3 times and then choose the one that seems the best fit from those limited options. Unless one was a trait a parent also has, in which case they inherit it automatically.
I like having limited options because it forces me to think outside the box! Like what you said about crafting a storyline on the fly.

I like that. It makes the child's traits kind of logical this way, with a hint of randomness. Over the course of a legacy save, a few generations down the line, there might still be one trait that has been passed down but the "way of life" of your sims might be completely different. I might actually incorporate this "gameplay rule" in my game from now on.

EnkiSchmidt wrote: »

I watch them for the smallest hint as to what their personality might be. In a way, that is random, too, but I also take into account how their parents' actions might shape them. Since I re-use my sims a lot, over the course of several saves I form a pretty accurate idea of them.

I like this too

AngeliqueAdelaide

First trait is based on traits they had as infant/toddler, the rest are randomized. If what pops up is stupid like dance machine or whatever the get together club-based trait is, randomize again.

RememberJoy

I usually take into account their toddler trait which I almost always randomize. Then I'll just hit the randomize button until a trait I think appropriate comes up. Now that we also have infant traits and quirks I might also take those into account.

SweetieWright_84

For the majority of my sims' kids, I randomize 3 times. I do sometimes give them one trait each from their parents, but that's more rare.

Amapola76

When I create a household, I usually have a story in mind for everyone, including the children... even the children that I want to be born in-game instead of created in CAS. So the traits tend to fit that story. I might allow one to pop up as surprise/random trait when they age up to teens or YA, or let them discover new ones through gameplay, just for a small element of uniqueness/surprise.

So, for example, I have the one family where the dad is kind of a schlubby, nerdy guy, and the mom is a real soccer mom type (Karen haircut and all). The drama in their household is going to come from the fact that mom wants her daughter to be a cheerleader like she was and her son to be athletic. But in reality, daughter is a big nerd who takes after her dad, and the son is more artistic (and a bit clumsy).

In another family, I have an aunt who is raising her orphaned niece. The aunt is a concert pianist, and she is raising her niece to be a musical prodigy, but the niece has more of a gift for the violin than the piano.