Royal Kingdom Challenge
This is my version of the Royal Kingdom Challenge. It's a hard-core challenge, for advanced/hard-core players. Casual players beware
I played the Royal Kingdom Challenge with TS2 and loved it, although I wasn't able to complete it due to issues with the game crashing (back then I used a lot of CC). Onnyola has also put together a version of the challenge for TS3.
One of the issues with the RKC is that eventually all sims will get rich and the classes will disappear. To prevent this I've revised the rules, and introduced the Taxation System to help out. I've also added some other rules that I found to be interesting and may make it more historically accurate.
The Sims 2 Royal Kingdom ChallengeOnnyola's TS3 RKC versionnatasha699's TS3 RKC versionDo your Sims have a longing for days gone by? Do they want to shout "Huzzah! Long Live the King and Queen!?" Do they have a hankering for good old-fashioned servitude? Then it is you duty to transport them back in time several hundred years to live in Good Old Simland! Simland has a King and or Queen that presides over all of their loyal subjects. It's up to you to make the strongest Royal family that you can. The fate of the Kingdom depends of you!
from the original post by enblith
You need:
- A new neighborhood
- 1 royal family: 1 King (Young Adult/Adult/Elder) and 1 Queen (YA/A), and any number of servants (optional)
- 2 noble class families: 1 Lord (YA/A/E) and 1 Lady (YA/A), and any number of servants per household (optional)
- 2 merchant class families: 1 male (YA/A/E) and 1 female (young adult or adult) per family
- 2 peasant class families: 1 male (YA/A/E) and 1 female (YA/A) per family
- 1 monastery/church family: 1 male/female (YA/A/E) #
Only 1 family of each class is ok too
Playmode
I play all my families, but I guess you could only play one if you'd like
I play each family the same amount of time
I've added other "odd" households (wizards, trolls, witches etc.) to fill my neighborhood. I have story progression on for them
I use
NRaas StoryProgression mod to allow me to set story progression off for my households and let the rest of the neighborhood have SP on. I also use it to transfer money from lower classes to the higher classes, according to the Taxation System
Goal
The point of this challenge is to make a themed neighborhood with a royal family, nobility, merchants, and peasants and reach 5 generations with at least one family from each category.
OPTIONS Theme
If medieval isn't your style you can also play this challenge with another theme such as Victorian, Gothic, Egyptian, fantasy or any other theme that suits you.
Church
If you want to play with a church, you will have to add a church/chapel and monastery/abbey to your neighborhood that you can send sims to that you don't want to marry. Sims of the church are considered a separate class with their own rules. Church rules are marked with #
Moving Out Sims
If you move out a member of the family to create another household you can either choose to add it to your play list and play the household as any of the others, or just move them out and let SP take care of them.
Family-trait
When creating each household's founders in CAS, choose one of the founder's 5 traits to become the "family trait". There after, every sim born to that family must possess this trait by the time they reach young adulthood. If they do not inherit it at birth, you must choose that trait the moment you are given the option. The remaining traits still must be rolled for.
Patriarchy/Matriarchy
The challenge rules have been written assuming that the game play is of a patriarchal society (male inheritance of land and title), however, you can choose to play a matriarchy instead. All rules that apply to either males/females should then be reversed to apply to the opposite sex. These rules are marked with **
Comments
General Rules
- No cheats
- No hacks/mods that make the game easier
- Building cheats are allowed
- Hacks and mods are allowed only for the purpose of making the neighborhood more historically accurate or fix bugs
- You may choose to play with or without electronics, or just use the necessary for the game-play *
- You may not delete gravestones, but you can move them to a specific graveyard lot
- No cars or motorcycles allowed
- There may not be a school in town. (Send the kids you can, according to the rules, to boarding school)
- Only sims that have gone to school may read skill-gaining books, the only exceptions being genius sims and sims that have moved into the monastery
- Traits must be randomly picked unless playing with a family-trait, this does not apply for the CAS created starter sims
- Women take the class of their husband, the man must propose **
- Illegitimate children below royalty will take on their mother’s class **
- NPC’s and townies are like servants so they may only marry sims from the merchant or peasant class
- You must choose “try for baby” every time your sims woohoo
- No gender determination by eating apples/watermelons
- All sims are allowed to have love affairs with any sim of any class
- Any sim, either YA/A/E, of any class may become a monk/nun and move to the monastery. If the heir chooses to do so, the next in line will become heir (See succession law) #
- Ghost, vampires, mummies, clones, simbots and imaginary friends are fair game
- Simbots are considered servants
- All pets are allowed for any class (Pets)
- When in doubt, use common sense to comply with the theme of the challenge, or discuss in these forums
Royal Family
- All money cheats are allowed
- The first-born legitimate son will become the heir to the throne (Follow the succession laws) ** %
- The heir may only marry sims from the royal or noble class
- Any illegitimate children of the queen would not be a prince/princess but could marry a non-heir royal or noble **
- The royal family must either have a servant or a butler (LN), you have to have at least one but are allowed to have as many as you like
- Non-heir peasants may move in as servants
- Women cannot work or live alone, they can however be self-employed in any of the skill-careers (Amb) **
- Women are not allowed to travel alone (WA) **
- All royal marriages must be public marriages
- All children must go to boarding school (Gen)
Noble Class
- You may use motherlode twice
- The first-born legitimate son will be the family heir (Follow the succession laws) ** %
- The heirs may only marry royals or nobles
- The noble family MAY either have one to many servants or a butler (LN)
- Non-heir peasants may move in as servants
- Women cannot work or live alone, they can be self-employed in any of the skill-careers (Amb) **
- Each family must pay taxes (Follow the tax system) ¤ #
- Women are not allowed to travel alone (WA) **
- All noble marriages must be public marriages
- All children may go to boarding school (Gen)
Merchant Class
- You may use motherlode once
- Any of the sons can be heir and the heir may never move out of the house **
- The heir can marry merchants, nobles or royalty
- Women may not live alone **
- Single women may have jobs **
- Married women cannot work, they can be self-employed in any of the skill-careers (Amb) **
- Each family must pay taxes (Follow the tax system) ¤ #
- No servants/butler allowed, all other service NPC’s are fair game
- The following lifetime rewards are not allowed: Discount Diner, Professional Slacker, Complimentary Entertainment, Bookshop Bargainer, Vacationer, Haggler, No Bills Ever, My Best Friend, Watering Hole Regular, Always on the List, Inheritance
- Only the heir can attend boarding school (Gen)
- Non-heir children may attend boarding school at the additional fee of 5 000 simoleons (Gen)
- No allergy vaccinations allowed (Seasons)
- No plastic surgery allowed
- May choose to have public or private marriages
Peasant Class
- No money cheats
- Any of the sons can be heir **
- No service NPC’s, servants or butlers
- Each family must pay taxes (Follow the tax system) ¤ #
- Peasants are not allowed to own real-estate (Amb) or vacation lots (WA)
- The following lifetime rewards are not allowed: Discount Diner, Professional Slacker, Complimentary Entertainment, Bookshop Bargainer, Vacationer, Haggler, No Bills Ever, Professional Simoleon Booster, Entrepreneurial Mindset, My Best Friend, Watering Hole Regular, Always on the List, Inheritance
- Children can not attend any boarding school (Gen)
- Children may not go to school
- No allergy vaccinations allowed (Seasons)
- No plastic surgery allowed
- All animals have to be strays. May not purchase animals and may not “Breed mare” at equestrian center
- Animals may not live indoors
- All peasant marriages must be private
- No skill-advancing toys for toddlers allowed
- All money over 5 000 simoleons goes to the resp. noble family ¤
- Peasants may not attend skill-gaining classes
Church #
- The town must contain at least 1 church and or graveyard (community lot) and at least 1 monastery (residential)
- Use money cheat to have enough for the household to move into the monastery and buy the church/graveyard community lot
- The monastery household should start with up to 1000 simoleons, no more
- All the money from church taxes must go to enhancing the church lot or giving to charity, the monastery should be kept modest
- Members of the church are not allowed to marry or have children
- To keep the monastery household going, one member of any class per generation must move into the monastery household
- No servants, no butler and no service NPC’s
- The following lifetime rewards are not allowed: Discount Diner, Professional Slacker, Complimentary Entertainment, Bookshop Bargainer, Vacationer, Haggler, No Bills Ever, Professional Simoleon Booster, Entrepreneurial Mindset, My Best Friend, Watering Hole Regular, Always on the List, Inheritance
- No jobs allowed, only self-employment (Amb)
- No allergy vaccinations allowed (Seasons)
- No plastic surgery allowed
- All sims that move into the monastery are now allowed to read skill-gaining books (no matter which class they originally come from)
Career Rules
One person per class per generation may take whichever job they choose
Careers available for everybody (including servants): Angler, Gardener, Inventor, Painter, Photographer, Sculptor, Vintner, Writer, Band (LN) and Mixology (LN)
Royal:
Architect, Business, Criminal, Ghost Hunter, Journalism, Law Enforcement, Military, Political, Science, Sports
Noble:
Architect, Business, Criminal, Education, Firefighter, Ghost Hunter, Journalism, Law Enforcement, Military, Political, Private Investigator, Science, Sports
Merchant:
Business, Culinary, Criminal, Education, Film, Firefighter, Ghost Hunter, Journalism, Medical, Music, Private Investigator, Stylist
Peasant:
Culinary, Criminal, Film, Firefighter, Ghost Hunter, Medical, Military, Music, Stylist, Daycare
Random Events
Every 4 rounds, throw a dice to choose one of the following random events:
1. Religious Crusade: Everyone must pay extra tax towards the church. Royals and Nobels pay 25%, Merchants and Peasants pay 50%
2. Plague: Roll 1 dice to see how many sims die. You must afterward kill that exact same amount of sims in game, they must be from at least 2 different classes.
3. War: Everyone must pay 25% of all their money to the King.
4. Golden Age: One free skill item for each household. (Easel, guitar, chess table, etc.)
5. Religious Uprising: Everyone must deposit all their skill items into their family inventory, and must never move them out of there, therefor, forcing them to buy new ones.
6. Royal Assassination: Roll a dice: 1, 2, the king dies. 3 and the queen dies. 4 the royal heir dies. 5 anyone (even servants living in the royal castle) dies, you pick who. 6 the assassination attempt fails, no one dies
Optional Rules
- When a child is born and on every birthday up until and including when they become a child, roll a dice, if the number is 1 the child dies. Killing a child is not possible in The Sims 3 without using a mod. This rule can be used when using a mod, for example with Nraas Master Controller
% Succession Law **
- The first-born legitimate son of the household is the heir
- Next in line are the younger legitimate sons in order of birth
- Next in line are the legitimate daughters in order of birth
- If there is a Queen regent (a female has become the heir). When she marries she has two options, either her husband will become the King and ruler or he will be a prince and she will continue being the regent
- If a Queen regent dies unmarried without children, next in line for the throne are her cousins (in the order of the succession law), who then may move back into the household
¤ Taxation Law
I use NRaas Storyprogression mod to allow me to pay taxes continuously and when I feel my lower classes are holding too much cash, I make them give a gift to the upper classes.
Thanks to the Generations EP, it is now possible to give gifts to other sims, in RKC that means paying taxes. To maintain an economical separation between the classes, lower classes must pay taxes to the upper classes. Remember that your sim has to be friends with the sim they are giving a gift to.
- The paying classes are: merchant and peasant
- The receiving classes are: royal, noble and church #
- Each paying class must pick one household of the noble class, the royal household or the church, in an even manner
- To pay taxes, buy an item, place it in the family inventory, interact with the sim you want to pay taxes to, and select the "Give gift" interaction
Points
Count up all your points when at least one family from each category reaches 5 generations.
+1 point for each generation
+1 point for each set of natural twins (no fertility treatment)
+1 point for each heir to the throne who marries another royal
+1 point for every merchant who marries a rich sim
+1 point for each family friend the royal family has
+1 point every time a sim fulfills a unique lifetime wish
+1 point for every sim who has all possible recipes
+1 point for each sim with a complete collection of fish/bugs/gems
+1 point for each royal that becomes a top celebrity
+1 point for each sim that maximizes one of their skills, and masters all challenges of the associated skill
+1 point for each unique type of color ghosts in your town graveyard (the ghosts have to be a member of either of the playable households)
+2 point for each natural triplets (no fertility treatment)
+5 points if all LFW are fulfilled at least once during the span of your game
+10 points if every heir for all classes is the first born son **
-1 point for each heir that marries below his or her class (Exception: 2nd generation royal family heir)
-1 point for each visit from the Repo Man
-1 point for each infant, toddler, child or teen that gets taken by the Social Worker
-1 point each time you change a sims aspiration using the mid-life crisis
-1 point for each visitor (non-playable sim) that dies in one of your playable household lots
-2 points for each sim that was purposely killed
-2 points every time a sim faints (from tiredness) or wets themselves
If you are not playing for points feel free to bend the rules a bit to fit your playing style, but don't be afraid to try something different than you normally do!
* Disregard if playing a modern RKC
** If you choose to play a matriarchy, then the rule should apply for the opposite sex
Resources
Neighborhoods
Castle Keep
a medieval neighborhood with custom world by auntielynds.
Dracul Isle a medieval neighborhood by JudySims
Avalon a medieval neighborhood by votenga
Darthtopia fantasy world by Picasso (Contains CC)
Rownshire small pre-modern world by Pink Rabbit
Story Progression & Aging
I use NRaas StoryProgression mod that allows me to set Story Progression on individual households.
You can play with aging on and storyprogression off, keep track of how many days you play each family and rotate the families. If you play with storyprogression on then alternate as much as possible between the families.
Warning, if your sim is pregnant and you have story progression on, if you switch families the baby will be born while you are away
Read up on story-progression on/off and aging on/off:
SimGuruLyndsay's Blog
Getting started
Setting up this challenge may require a bit of work, to make everything smooth and balanced. Since I've been trying this out for a bit before settling for a play-mode, here is how I did it
Set Up The Neighborhood
1. I downloaded a custom pre-made world (without sims in it)
2. I removed the residential lots that I intended to play with and saved them to my library
2. Edited the buildings to suit my liking (before moving in any sims)
3. Then I added some "townies" that I've created myself or downloaded, tried to cover different careers, ages, etc.
4. I picked a "townie" household to play, turned story progression on and played for a while (this way, NPC's and townies moved in automatically to fill out the jobs etc.)
5. Added my playable lots
6. Added my families and did a "set-up round"
Set Up Round
To get everybody in the neighborhood settled before I started to play, this is how I did:
1. I turned aging off
2. I moved in the first family, got them to join the careers I intended them to have
3. I moved in the next family and the next until all the families where settled
4. When it was time to move in the monastery household I also used the money cheat to make them owners of all the church related community lots (I have 2 churches and 1 graveyard in my neighborhood)
6. I also solved this issue
5. When I was ready with this I turned aging on again
Tutorial for changing active household with Nraas Story Progression
Of Kings and Castles - The Kingdom of Castle Keep by Tota
The Stone Kings by Nirar
Kingdom of Afallon by Whiteee
Kingdom of Praveen by Sims Forest
TS2 Royal Kingdom Challenge Stories
The Kingdom of Tapria
Rock Valley
The Kingdom of Silvetia
I just started getting together my blog and it's been a lot of fun. Now I'm playing a bit and building my story.
Let me know if you put together a blog or thread about your project and I'll link it from here
Danevbie Legacy 8.24
I get what you mean, I had a lot of fun building lots for the neighborhood and I really love building too I linked my blog under the Royal Kingdom Challenge Stories post, but here it is again:
Of Kings And Castles
serendeppity,
thank you for leaving me a comment on the blog, my first comment too
I also really like the renaissance era, and wish I had a full outfit, I did a French renaissance RKC while playing TS2. Although, staying true to a theme is hard while playing sims.
I don't have a specific thread for my blog, but I usually post on my page when I put out a new chapter, I was also thinking on posting here on this thread, since it isn't very active
My outfit is pretty versatile since I have a couple different skirts, and the bodice is reversible. My awesome hat got sun-bleached though. But I guess the faded look is probably a little more 'realistic'.
It is hard to keep up with this sort of theme in Sims
Danevbie Legacy 8.24
I.III The Perfect Plan
Danevbie Legacy 8.24
I.IX Matters Of Esssence
I hope you like it
I.X Following The Holy Path
Enjoy!
I.XI Patience Is A Virtue
I hope you like it.
I.XII For Whatever The Future Holds
Minez,
thank you, I have used other sims in previous stories, so I might do that if I find someone interesting
MadameLee,
this is a tricky question. If I remember correctly the Swedish Queen regnant didn't want to marry because she didn't want to step down as regent... Need to look more into that I guess
Thank you for bringing it to my attention.
I.XIII Making a Family
I hope you like it
I've updated the succession rules regarding the queen regent now, thank you for your tip
wow, thank you I'm so happy you like it
Let me know how it works out for you and if you find any difficulty, I've tried to give some tips and so, but maybe you come up with something to add too.
I'd love to read another RKC too