I am playing a regency/Victorian hood and want to create some new families and stories. I'm having a difficult time coming up with ideas since I seem to always repeat my old ones I don't mind a little crazy but generally want to stick with the social restrictions/norms common in that time period (so Sims will have to do anything frowned upon in secret...). If anyone has any ideas suggest away...

First thing you do, get a big stack of authors of the appropriate era and make reading them part of your day. It will give you a sense of how families worked.

Obviously, extended families were a thing (you'll probably want the Bigger Households hack). Unmarried daughters lived with their parents looking after them in their old age and were inherited by their nephews; residents of an entailed property might find themselves suddenly owing Head of House rights to a distant cousin they've never met, etc. Blended families were extremely common, as many male occupations were dangerous and death during childbirth was high; also, older men married younger women, often much younger, and produced second families (often bitterly resented by the first family) when the first one was nearly grown. Play around with the family trees. These things did not only happen in rich families - poor families were often huge because the guy whose wife had just died bearing his fourth child and needed a wet nurse would look next door at the widow whose husband had died and who was weaning her sixth child and needed a source of income and say: "Hey, let's solve each other's problem real fast" and she'd say; "Oh thank god," but with all those extra mouths the widower can't afford to move to a bigger place.

Servants. Even poor people had servants because there was simply Too Much Work to keep a household properly, especially if you had someone who physically couldn't work, or culturally wasn't allowed to do certain kinds of work. They often lived in and the Head of Household was considered to have authority over them similar to that he had over his children.

Unrelated adults also banded together for economic reasons. Middle aged spinsters with small incomes whose extended families didn't want them living in their houses for whatever reason went looking for other middle-aged spinsters in the same boat. Wealthy spinsters and widows who wanted to keep control of their money hired companions and invited interesting people to stay with them. A professional party guest in those days was not paid to attend one-night parties, but lived by providing charming, interesting company and being invited on months-long visits to people in large houses who basically provided room and board in exchange for being amused by conversation and always having someone around to play card games, dance with the wallflowers, play the piano, or whatever. Young unmarried men shared chambers with their friends to make ends meet. And so on. Poor families took boarders who ate at the same table and often got intimately involved.

Practically every household in David Copperfield is what we (and the assumed nuclear-family structure of The Sims) would consider non-standard. Mrs Gaskell, the Brontes, Austen, and dozens of less well-known authors can show you how it was.

Ooh I just put together an RPG game based in Regency (that I didn't end up getting to do because the host got sick) if you want some fun plot points to roll for here is the free sheet to look can be downloaded from here

A society family in ruin must make some matches to secure their financial futures. They need to avoid rumors, maintain composure and if scandal must be had they better keep it wrapped! No one wants the town gossip to get a whiff of it! Maybe the eldest son to inherit the estate is a rake, and the younger brother plots to usurp him and take the title.

Create a finishing school/boarding school for young ladies of affluence to go off to?

A boxing club for common men to bet on make fortunes.

If you ever saw Bridgerton, the whole 'social season' seems like it could be interesting to play out. Plan a series of parties or masquerades, garden parties, etc for the young marriageable sim candidates to meet. If they try to go off alone, they are starting a scandal. Have them 'check each other out' determine if they have high chemistry but maybe roll a dice to subtract the prospect if the suitor or lady has some kind of scandal in their background.

would love to see how nay of this plays out!
(also if you need ideas for fancy names I have stacks!)

There are always more poor families than rich or middle class. Some notions:

1. Fagin's gang (Oliver Twist). An adult with 7 orphaned teens or kids who steal or con the wealthy to make ends meet.

2. Workhouse - 2-3 unrelated families working for food and board for whoever owns the workhouse. Usually there is an overseer couple who feed them little and work them from morning to night.
2 Sims - overseer couple
3 Sims - mother and kids
1 Sim - elderly man
2 Sims - pair of teen siblings

3. Widowed elder mother and her 3 unmarried daughters with one female servant. Unused to any work before the father died with large debt leaving them to live off a small stipend. One daughter has a dog.

4. Army unit of a captain and 4 soldiers who may or may not be in the area long term. One might marry but live separate from his family. One might enjoy flirting and promises with too many women and get them in the family way.

5. Create a poor cousin, probably female, who is taken in by her wealthier cousins. Do they treat her as one of the family, or more like a servant?

6. Spinsters (2 women) living together as they have no family or support. Are they also lovers?

7. Large poor family with elderly mother, 2 parents and 5 children (baby, toddler, 3 kids).

8. Itinerant worker. Man who moves from household to household doing work for a season and then moves to the next place.

Hope those ideas help.

Always glad to hear of simmers who like to play with a historical twist! A look at some of my historical play styles/challenges and ROS's might give you some hints and ideas, particularly my
By George! Regency Play Style/Challenge and Regency/Victorian ROS - you can find them in the Ye Olde Challenges section of Challenges here at MTS.