Overboard, Stranded & Alone - Off-the-grid Island Living Challenge Story

Kanindota

Hello there, I'm Kani. I was inspired by the original and its variations after finally getting Island Living. I'm creating another variation building upon what's been made. I'm going to be posting full updates in my Simblr. Under this post are the The Challenge Rules. Feel free to follow along or even attempt the challenge, I will be slow to post and play, will tweak as needed with my first playthrough but really look forward to feedback in terms of how to better my writing.

Overboard, Stranded & Alone
Started: 25 December 2020
Most of the following were randomly rolled with Google's random generator feature.
Sim: Layla Gates
Age: Adult
Traits: Loves the Outdoors, Ambitious, Snob
Starting Season: Winter
Aging: started Normal Long
Hard mode was on, then extreme but went back to normal. Basically still trialing this challenge out. Most likely going to end up in a point-deduction penalty system, but again we'll see

CHAPTERS
1 |1.1 |2

Kanindota

Here are the rules I’ve merged from kitnkabootle, abbyblueflower and JojoMOMSTAR. (Edited again: 29 December 2020, 11:15 GMT)

Overboard, Stranded and Alone
An Off-the-grid Island Living Challenge

You were on an ocean liner when everyone abandoned ship due to a fierce storm. You held on to a raft for dear life until you were tossed on a beach on the remote island of Sulani. Everything you have is lost at sea. To survive, you have no one to count on but yourself. Take charge of your fate. Challenge the elements, challenge yourself and find your way home.

Key Points to Being Stranded in Key Point

• Start by being stranded in Key Point, Sulani (Hard mode: have more than 1 Sim*, e.g. toddler and/or a baby, and/or a child and/or a teen**)
• Keep lot traits to Ocean Paradise and Off-the-grid
• Set funds to §0 to start the challenge (Hard mode: earn §10,000 to build a home fitting Off-the-grid Island Living aesthetic)
• Survive alone on Mua Pel’Am (or Key Point until you reach Fitness Skill Level 3 for endurance swimming with Hard mode) until you can get an Outrigger Canoe to explore and travel beyond Mua Pel’Am****
• You are unemployed as you’re disconnected from the world and can only do odd jobs–until you built a home (with at least a bedroom, a bathroom, a kitchen area and a pier) and own a canoe*** (1 canoe = 1 YA/Adult Sim)
• (Extreme mode: you are not allowed to sell anything except for fish and duplicate collectibles until you unlock a canoe and open up trade with locals you find)
• There is no phone use or socialising with wandering Sims or leaving Key Point until you get a canoe!
• Earn §§§ by doing odd jobs (Hard mode: one odd job a day) and/or

• Beachcombing
• Fishing
• Gardening (Hard mode: Only use Sim-made planters)
• Paintings - Sims must autonomously start painting, only allowed during the day
• Woodworks - sell 3 a day (Hard mode: sell 1 per day)
• Writing books is against rules but Sim can keep a journal

The Route to Rescue and Beyond (Milestones & Aspirations)

• Achieve Beach Life to become a true local and unlock marriage.
• Achieve Well-off (3rd milestone of Fabulously Wealthy) and Estate of Art (1st milestone of Mansion Baron) milestones to
• wire electricity into your home for §25,000 (Hard mode: Complete Fabulously Wealthy & Estate of Art Aspirations to buy electricity for your home costing §25,000)
• Achieve Garden Variety (2nd milestone of Freelance Botanist) to prove you Sims can buy good produce (fruits, vegetables and flowers) from you
• Achieve Ill at Easel (1st milestone of Painter Extraordinaire) and reach Level 4 Painting Skill before you can sell your art
• Achieve Fine-Tuned (2nd milestone of Musical Genius) to unlock better music for others to give you decent tips
• After building a home and completing an Aspiration (as well as the above), you have the freedom to do leave Sulani and go back to on the grid or stay off the grid. Or a bit of both.
• You can buy a canoe if you’ve got the funds or build your canoe (Hard mode: Get a canoe after reaching Fishing Skill Level 10 & Handiness Skill Level 5). Sim must complete a milestone (Hard mode: Every YA/Adult must complete a milestone) made possible without the use of electricity.

* - There is no daycare, Sim toddlers must go be with a Teen/Adult but Sims babies cannot go on the canoe and must remain on Key Point.
** - If stranded with children and/or teens, they cannot go to school until a YA/Adult has a canoe. (Hard mode: Until a basic home is made)
*** - You can buy a canoe if you’ve got the funds or build your canoe (Hard mode: Get a canoe after reaching Fishing Skill Level 10 & Handiness Skill Level 5)
**** - Sims cannot go to the hospital or anywhere that requires the loading screen to travel. (Hard mode: Sim can’t go out of Key Point to nearby Mua Pel’Am islands until reaching Fitness Skill Level 3 to make sure they don’t ‘drown’)

General Rules

• Cheats are not allowed unless turning funds to §0 in the beginning and if you choose to pay for travel around Sulani (e.g. weekly boat pass).
• Mods are welcome as long as they don't make things easier
• Reward traits and items are allowed except for Potion of Youth and Money tree.
• Father Christmas visiting you is optional (as a result of island fever/hallucination or because stranded Sims need all the help they can get)
• Turn Celebrity Off for the household if you have Get Famous EP. If you want to be a Celebrity, you must complete Friend of the World before turning it on.
• You may choose or randomise your Sim. (Hard mode: use Child of the Ocean and because 'fish are friends, not food' ups the difficulty).
• Choose your difficulty by choosing your life span.
• Once you have electricity you are free to do as you please, you have succeeded! Return on the grid and back to your Sim’s life before or off the grid, or a bit of both, you choose!

Kanindota

UPDATE & PLAYTHROUGH NOTES
Chapter 1.1 - Sand Again is out!

Playthrough notes

• A quick and short update from me! I'm trying to figure Tumblr out and how to best approach the story and challenge.
• I may have to create a second round of this playthrough once I've figured out the best way to play my version of this challenge. I need reassess my initial rules regarding selling collectibles after Layla fished the rare items out of the ocean making me on-track of reaching §10,000 after 5 days of starting the challenge. I didn't want a short challenge like that so...
• Added Extreme Mode which is to not sell any collectibles unless they're duplicates until you get a canoe and find other people to trade with
• There's also another issue you can see Sims swimming, wandering, and taking that Outrigger Canoe in the open so I have to forcibly stop and ignore them

tldr;

this ongoing round is too easy so I am going to make it harder for myself and see how it goes

Cosy_Catastophe

This is a tough challenge, it’s a shame collectibles threatened to cut it short! I’d like to see more of the story :)

Kanindota

UPDATE & PLAYTHROUGH NOTES
Chapter 2 is out!

Playthrough notes

• Extreme mode (not sell any collectibles unless they’re duplicates and have got a canoe to ‘trade’ with others) lasted a good three to four Sim days and I’ve sold all my collectibles to ensure Layla stayed alive and well
• I’m having trouble writing in how Layla is able to get more objects (i.e. a tent, an off-the-grid shower without any plumbing knowhow, etc.) but being creative and silly is part of the fun with writing SimLit, at least I’m finding
• I’ve been playing ahead and screen-capturing the interesting things Layla’s experiencing...though I feel it would be better for me to play then write straightaway before going forward...Fellow writers, any advice?
• I'm torn and in-between normal, hard and extreme mode with the part where Layla sustains herself. Maybe I can do a point-scoring/deduction system for this challenge but I'll go through it first...maybe
• Also took out all my mods to play vanilla for a few days

tldr;

I made the next iteration too hard lol...still adjusting, but I’m playing ahead and screen-capturing...is this okay?

@Cosy_Catastophe thank you for your interest and checking my story out! It's much appreciated! I'm enjoying playing and writing though it can sometimes be a bit tricky. Most of the time, I feel like a complete noob That aside, do you write SimLit or have anything fun you're playing through?

Cosy_Catastophe

@Kanindota it’s all about practice! It sounds like a cliche but it’s true, if something doesn’t work out then you’ll learn something from it (if if you don’t realise at the time!)

Which is handy for me - I’ve done other writing before, but just started my first simlit/legacy today - https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/985463/if-it-ain-t-broke-a-casual-legacy

I’m just starting with Sims 4, too, so lots of learning for me 😅

Kanindota

UPDATE & PLAYTHROUGH NOTES
Chapters 3 & 3.1 are out!

Playthrough notes

• After accepting Father Winter to play into the game, I wanted to see what gift he would give her...but it was literally an empty box. (insert sadLayla.jpeg)
• Layla’s been mostly fishing and tbh, it can be tedious to keep seeing her pee herself (again at this time I didn’t realise it was an option for her to pee in the ocean), get hungry, fish all the day long but it was a fun writing exercise to try and explain it out
• For a while I didn’t understand why she was unable to roast fish with the firepit. I reset the object, nope. I moved it away from ‘flammable’ objects, nothing. I reset Layla. Nothing until I gave in and bought her a cooler (I’ve been selling fishes since the start and that was feasible to sustain her) and she started munching on yoghurt and granola...
• Turns out I needed to add more logs for her to cook it. Or maybe her mood was a detriment. Basically idk. Island Living noob here.
• With money coming in from fish, Layla’s been able to get the basic tent! Hoorah!
• I realised playing ahead means I miss out on the little stuff so I'm going to prep what I've caught so far and try to weave some ramblings together (this is what I think my first SimLit basically is = a rambly introspective mess)

tldr;

Lay-la Lay-la’s stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive...by getting money, getting burned, and getting a tent, get it girl