About the open relationship how would Brooke feel about it?
Regarding Sugar, I'd play her alone to see how she'll be doing all by herself. She played she lost after all. Actions should have consequences.

So tough.
On the one hand, Evan and Sugar are married. Those vows are supposed to mean something - what's the point otherwise (A big party!!! maybe? haha).
So I feel like Evan, realizing that his wife doesn't want to leave him, should really try with her again.

But as pointed out, he's not in love with her anymore he's moved on. So it's NOT likely to work out.
And Brooke is going to feel hurt that he makes that choice, which will compromise his chances of being with her in future.

Extended eventual divorce, but more unhappiness first, with Brooke marrying someone else.
Everyone is miserable! That sounds like a fun path to take.

I think they should divorce, Evan really should've set things straight before dating Brooke, but what's in the past is in the past, and this marriage clearly isn't going anywhere. The kid would definitely go with Evan, so maybe Sugar could get a new job and try to stand on her own feet again, though if she has any close friends I think she should move in with them for some time, if anything for moral support.

If you have been following my thread about voting in my game, you'll know the most recent vote is about Beau Broke and what kind of cult he's going to found.

I had 3 options, and ended up with a tie!

So now I need some advice on how to combine the two options: a SEX cult and a SACRIFICE cult.

The sex cult took babies born from free love situations and made them devotees to the cult who brought money through their labour and thus whoever gave them up earned the option for resurrection.
The sacrifice cult had you offer up a person to be sacrificed to the Cow Plant and thus earn resurrection.

I'm thinking Sims can become devotees either by being given to the cult as children or entering as an adult. Some positions, like child-minding, are sacred. Other positions, like gardening or painting, contribute but are not sacred. If a member of the cult (not a devotee, but a believer who lives a normal life) dies and the cult wants to ressurect them, then a non-sacred adult devotee would be sacrificed to the Cow Plant.

Does that sound like a fair combo? Any other suggestions?

Alright, I have a dilemma of how to approach this thing.

So, in my Crystal Pleasantview (the hood I talk about in the What's Happening in Your Game Now thread), I'm trying to get sims with their three bolt match, as it's something I've never done before. Since three boltage is quite rare anyway, I have settled for two bolt, too.

The couple I'm conflicted on is actually Skipp Broke (Unborn Baby Broke) and Ophelia Nigmos. When they were teenagers, Skipp had his first kiss with her via ACR and kept trying to persue her after that, regardless of her lack of interest. Eventually, they did fall in love via ACR and Ophelia even rolled the want to go steady with him. At some point, Ripp shared his first kiss with her while she was in love with Skipp, and even though she still kept that steady want for Skipp, she was scared of being rejected by Ripp.

This dilemma was solved during Tiffany's graduation party, where Ripp tried to squeeze her and she rejected him in favour of smacking lips with Skipp. I had the pair go steady after this. They're still dating and they have just graduated from college.

What's the issue? They are only one bolt. I find this really wholesome and cute (don't usually care about lightning bolts anyway), but I'm feeling bad as Ophelia has recently found someone she triple bolts with; Beau Broke. The same Beau who lost his first love at a young age to a house fire.

Beau is crazy about her; heartfarting over her every time she's in the room and is relatively nice to her. She has the want to marry Skipp, though; she rolled it while in college. I don't know what to do...

Half of me wants to give Beau that happy ending, but that would be at the cost of Skipp, too. Another half of me wants to do that 'bolts aren't everything' approach and keep Skipp and Ophelia together, but seeing triple bolts in the relationship panel is so satisfying.

Given that Skipp and Beau are brothers, I wouldn't let her date Beau. This would likely rip the Broke family apart completely.
Are Beau and Skipp close?

Has she had any romantic wants or actions with Beau?

I rarely have triple bolts in my game either, but with my limited experience of them and ACR, it will be hard to keep those two apart. Of course, Ophelia could try to deny her feelings for Beau and go ahead with marrying Skipp--that might lead to further drama on down the line. However, sometimes we don't know our own hearts in college; we tend to fall for the first person who shows us love and affection, when they may not be the right person.

So I see two alternatives: Ophelia follows her heart and tries to let Skipp down as easy as she can, or she goes forward with marrying Skipp and possibly puts herself in a situation where she will later have an affair with his brother if ACR ever has its way. I don't know which way I'd play it if it were me, but knowing Beau's history with loss, I think I lean toward the first option. It's better to break off an engagement than to end a marriage.

Chemistry isn't everything. Love matters more in a long-term relationship (and will increase chemistry over time). I get that you're trying to match chemistry because you haven't done it before - but if this one makes you uncomfortable, don't do it. Even if you're using ACR, you can friend zone them, right? Beau having a crush on his sister-in-law can give him a worthwhile romantic character arc without their ever so much as flirting, as he restrains his impulses out of respect for the couple and the marriage tie, learns to love unselfishly, and moves on to someone else with the inappropriate crush tucked away somewhere, a little echo of Courtly Love.

I don't know why people claim three bolts are rare. I get them all the time. Lots of my people have multiple three-bolt matches. If you want to set them up, it's only a matter of paying attention to all three influences on chemistry - star sign, primary aspiration, turn-ons. A Family Aries is likely to triple bolt with any Family, Fortune, or Knowledge Taurus with compatible turn-ons and no relevant turn-offs. If you routinely give people turn-offs that won't be activated much and turn-ons that will, and steer compatible aspiration/sunsign combos together, you'll get all the triple bolters you want.

I'll go to the "bolts aren't everything" route.
I've had couples who started with negative bolts to double bolts.
I'm too tired to elaborate but I'm with Peni here even if I don't pay attention to star signs.

ETA: I just had Charles who booty-called Isabelle. They had negative bolts when she arrived. After some romancing, they're now two-bolters.
He's grill cheese while she's romance.

I have noticed that bolts don't make a huge difference in who Sims seem to prefer in terms of partner choices. I don't pay a huge amount of attention to them. I only use them if someone wants a generic date and I'm trying to narrow down who they want to ask out, I might go for the one with the most bolts. But their wants will trump their bolts if they have specific romantic wants for someone. I also don't have a lot of experience fiddling with chemistry because I treat it as immutable in my game and I never use that potion they all get to change turn-ons.

ACR seems to use the chemistry for autonomous actions, though, which is why I mentioned it. I have an older version of ACR because I don't have all the EPs, so I don't have the friend zone option. I do have the mod that lets you ask someone to just be friends for similar situations, and it works pretty well, but there's a chance of it tipping back into love. Sorry if I gave outdated advice!

So I guess the question is, does Ophelia have wants for Skipp or Beau? That's how I'd make the choice.

It seems to me that if you look in the fears panel, you'll find the most important pixels for the subject-"Death of XX" usually will bring their mood down considerably, which indicates to me that they're emotionally invested in that pixel.
I'd guess that if they're not married to each other or others, you should pursue an relationship if possible.

I can't remember how close Beau and Skipp are; I want to say they're close, but I could be getting them mixed up with Dustin who they're both close to.

Beau constantly heartfarts over her and tries to interact with her all the time, but that's standard sim behaviour, I suppose. He's mostly rolling hobby based wants, so I can't judge by wants. They've not been for Ophelia, though.

Ripp on the other hand, and yeah, I mean Ripp Grunt, constantly rolls wants to flirt with Ophelia... Don't know whether to let him try and risk friendships getting ruined.

I won't be able to get 'round to Skipp until I'm in round 6, but last I checked, while in college, he just had influence and hobby based wants. His fears consisted of just being enemies with his friends, forgot who specifically.

Ophelia has a want to marry Skipp, because I locked it as soon as she rolled it. Then, I noticed her chemistry with Beau, which lead me to this dilemma. She also has a want to enter the education career track, which is irrelevant here. Rest of her wants are hobby based, I think. As for her fears, I can't remember, I'll have to check tonight. She might have a fear about Ripp, but, again, I might have to check tonight.

I would just have sims make sure to stay true to the partner they're in a committed relationship with or they might both end up deciding to go their seperate ways if it's clear that it's not going to work out in the long term before the marriage.I've had sims become BFF's before they get the want to start romances and to get married.
The drama in my BACC is about how my sims are preparing for the upcoming winter and about them surviving in a new town out in the raw wilderness out west in the 1840's as the settlers come out west looking for free land.

I have a complicated situation with the Gavigan family and NPC burglar Gordon King.

Mary Gavigan cheated on her husband Nathan for the first time when their second son, Zeke, was still a baby. Nathan caught her at it and was upset and fell out of love, but was remarkably restrained - he didn't go after the other man, and it was easy to keep him and Mary living together politely until his fury wore off. Mary had another affair with a different man later which Nathan didn't know about. I think they've stayed together for the sake of the children despite the end of love and trust in their marriage. Mary's relationship with Nathan is 72 and his with her is -6, but he never attempts to annoy her.

Gordon King was caught burgling the house of the town's Chief of Police, which meant an end to his criminal ways. I decided I'd rather attempt to rehabilitate him than send him to prison, so he was placed with a family that has at least the outward appearance of stability. I gave him the goal of repairing his bad reputation, getting to level 4 of every skill and making 5 best friends before he could consider himself a full member of society again; he's not there yet, but he's also used his 10 neat points to make himself very useful around the house, and he played with young Isaiah and helped to bring up little Zeke, so the Gavigans have been happy that they gave him the chance.

Then, in today's session, Mary's take-what-I-want nature set itself on Gordon and she seduced him into bed. Nathan arrived home from work while it was going on, but he was so exhausted he went straight to the narrow bed he's slept in for years and fell asleep without noticing anything from the next room. Gordon developed a crush on Mary when she kissed him and emerged from the covers fully in love with her, but after getting out of bed his first action was to take out the trash - I interpret this as him signalling that the trash is where he feels he belongs after behaving so abominably towards his hosts. I had him go straight to the newspaper and find his own place. Mary sprinted down the stairs and ran outside in her nightie to wave to him as he left, but there was no arguing with his guilt and regret; he had to remove himself from the situation.

Now I have the questions of what to do with Mary and Nathan's loveless marriage, and where Gordon should go next. Mary and Nathan have been each other's One Sim in ACR the whole way through, due to the marriage flag I suppose, but Mary hasn't let that slow her down, while Nathan has been celibate since the first affair. However, Mary now has wants to talk to, dance with and give backrub to Nathan, while Nathan only had "buy thing" and hobby wants... except for a locked want for a kiss, which Mary fulfilled with a non-romantic autonomous Family Kiss shortly after Gordon moved out. This suggests she wants to get back together, but should Nathan be receptive? Or, as their younger son Zeke will be a teen tomorrow, has their motivation to stay together for their kids just hit its expiry?

Gordon has moved out with very little to his name. He can't buy even the smallest house, but he's well-skilled and friendly and tidy with an excellent public reputation. Unfortunately most of his non-Gavigan friends are townies and can't offer him a place to stay; the exception is a rich woman - neighbour of the Chief of Police who busted him - who was the first to overlook Gordon's criminal background and include him in conversation. She might be willing to take him on as a live-in servant, or alternatively gift or loan him enough money to buy a tiny house to start anew in. Gordon is still two skill points and one best friend away from completing his rehabilitation, and will miss the Gavigan kids whom he had to leave without explanation.

Should Gordon attempt to make his way as a rich lady's servant until he's made his goal, then move out on his own? Or should he let her set him up a place of his own, perhaps with strings attached? (Not those strings, though - the rich lady is a lesbian.) Should he try to avoid Mary Gavigan and let her make a mess of her own life and marriage, leaving him out - or see her on the sly - or should I cancel his love flags and set him free of her snares? Should he try to keep contact with Isaiah and Zeke? Should he get a job in the criminal career and relapse into his old ways, or do his best to overcome this setback and become respectable?

@Pebblerocker -He'd have another option of being able to move into a subsidized rental in one of my custom apartment lots even if it was just a boardinghouse to rebuild his life and he'd even be able to take any full time or part time job since my game is heavily Modded.I'd have him choose the subsidized housing in the boardinghouse until his skills were up and have him join military.

I have a dilemma. Elijah Goth--He dated two women all through college, Aisha Pleasant and Elizabeth Ng. He never seemed to prefer one over the other, and on dates he would regularly roll wants to marry them both at the same time. He tried telling Elizabeth he wanted to just be friends since Aisha was his booty call, but she kept coming over autonomously, and they fell back in love. Then he got the hots for Celine Pleasant at a wedding and they went on a date. Then he got Aisha pregnant, so I figure that's who he'll marry. I had him ask Aisha on a date, and he rolled wants to marry all three of them. Aisha abruptly ended the date because he wasn't letting her see to her needs and went home. Then he wanted to invite Celine over, so I figured let's do that and see what wants he gets. After Celine came over, Elizabeth showed up, and he had wants for both of them that he then proceeded to fill, with neither of them getting at all jealous. So maybe Elijah is not a waffler, but is actually poly?

What should he do?
1. Should he stay single and date multiple women, possibly fathering more illegitimate children?
2. Should he move in Elizabeth or Celine or both and pursue an open polyamorous relationship?
3. Should he marry Aisha and give the baby the Goth name, which will likely mean he will not be able to have an open relationship? (Although I haven't tested Aisha's jealousy. Lilith has no jealousy and has no problem with open relationships, but I don't know if that would have been passed down to her daughter. But if she is at all jealous, sooner or later that marriage will have problems, I predict.)

BTW, Aisha has never rolled a want to marry him or anybody. She has another guy she's sort of interested in, but she's just not as into woohoo as Elijah is. They have been together a long time, but they are very much alike and are kind of more like best friends than passionate lovers. She could easily stay at Lilith's and raise the child there.

ETA Some thoughts about Celine. She obviously has this hidden wild side, but she has always been independent, she likes being rich, and she is very concerned about status. If she were to marry, it would probably be for status, not love. Elijah is a Goth, but he's also young, an Adventurer, and if he becomes openly poly, he'll probably lose status in the community. Celine would likely consider Alexander a more suitable marriage partner. She's sitting pretty right now, living in the big house with Angela and Dustin, so I'm not sure she'd leave that to be in a polyamorous relationship with Elijah.

@pebblerocker if Gordon is in love with Mary and cares for the two kids, maybe it's that he knows Mary and Nathan's relationship is for show and he wants to be her partner. Sure, Mary's not the trustworthy type, but the heart wants what it wants.
I wouldn't remove the love flag, and fulfill wants he has to see her.
If meanwhile she actually repairs her relationship with Nathan, all the more drama.

@sturlington I always enjoy having families that aren't just a nuclear family. If you have ACR, you can check or even change jealousy. Some have it when in love, others when in a relationship or engaged or married. You can have him in a committed relationship with all 3, all living together, and if he has multiple kids, or they have other relationships, that's okay too.

Do any of the women want to marry him? I think if he keeps rolling marriage wants about all, I wouldn't have him marry either one, because he obviously wants all of them.

If any of them wants to marry him, I'd let her ask.

Carla Cameron and Bianca Monty have a bit of a dilemma. They've been engaged for quite a while, and, on their recent dream date, they both expressed a wish for a Joined Union. Well I can give them one better than that: they can get married. Though they'll have to wait till Andrew and Julian are married. I've long since promised them that theirs will be the first same-sex marriage in my game -- it will be my wedding present to them. It won't be long now -- Julian has waited a long time to consummate his love for Andrew. ("Too long!" says Julian!)

So I think there is a good chance Carla and Bianca might get married by the end of this year. Failing that, it should be early next year. But their dilemma is where to live after they're married. Bianca has her own house in Mendoza Lane. It's a very basic little house next door to Jack Gill and Ravi Bertino. Who may not be everybody's idea of ideal neighbours, but Bianca's always got on OK with them. The house is small and basic, but it's Bianca's. And it has a double bed, where Bianca and Carla have spent many a happy hour together.

The rather eccentric house where Carla lives is also based on Maxis Downtown Tiny House, but it's been extensively modified and extended. In Custer Boulevard, near the viaduct over the Creek, it has an upstairs attic conversion, with a spacious bathroom and bedroom, reached by a spiral staircase. Carla shares the house with her teenage son Dean, and his boyfriend Harry Hastie. The house isn't hers: it belongs to Harry. All three of them started life as (CAS) townies. Harry bought the house, and invited Dean to move in with him. After a while, and entertaining her several times, Dean asked his mum (Carla) to move in with them. You might think her presence in the house would cramp their style, but the three of them have actually always got on rather well. Carla, with an adult job, and a Fortune Sim's interest in money, has transformed the finances of the Hastie home. She built an extension, which she calls the art room, onto the back of the house, and extended the garden too. She has put five money trees into the Art Room, which are making the boys' part-time teen jobs increasingly irrelevant. Carla loves her son, and gets on well with Harry too. She's reluctant to leave them, and they like having her there. Apart from the financial advantages of having an adult Fortune Sim living in the house, there's a lot of mutual affection too. When Carla was having difficulty finding a man, it was Dean who suggested to his mum that she explored her other side. Her reluctance to leave, and Bianca's reluctance to give up her independence, are the reasons for the long engagement.

On thinking this over, I am increasingly coming to think that moving to Bianca's house makes sense. The financial transformation that Carla has brought to 311 Custer Boulevard will surely remain even after she has moved out. And her moving out will mean that a second double bedroom is available to the boys, which could be very useful when they're "entertaining" friends. Like most gay Romance Sims in the neighbourhood, theirs is an "open" relationship. And Carla and Bianca will surely still be frequent and very welcome visitors. Anyway, what do you all think?

Carla will come back to visit Dean and Harry often, so if they're having any difficulty with the adult responsibilities of running a household, they'll be able to ask for help and advice. I wouldn't have suggested an adult move out and leave teens to look after themselves, but if Harry inherited the house outright and has lived there on his own, it seems like he's capable enough. And if the boys find their part-time jobs and money trees don't support their lifestyle, the spare bedroom could provide space for another flatmate - perhaps one who's part of their social scene rather than another generation.

How much room is there to expand at Bianca's house? If she doesn't mind Carla making some alterations and isn't too attached to seeing her place stay the same, perhaps Carla's Fortune sim income could make Bianca's house a little less basic, more comfortable, more to their joint personal taste. Space for hobbies, perhaps?

Or, the third option, the two women both leave their current houses and choose a new home together, one that suits what they want out of life. That's if Veronaville has any suitable properties on the market right now...

@AndrewGloria -I've had sims either modify homes to suit them as their lives changed or move into bigger places if they couldn't adapt their home because it was on a small lot and expansion wasn't possible on that lot.I've even had sims moving downtown or out to shopping districts in past games and I won't turn my nose up at the idea of placing an empty lot and building a new custom home on it if sims need a move and nothing suitable is available and there's room for another lot.I would add another shopping district if there's no space for another lot and the really need to move house.

Definitely move to Bianca's house! Let Dean and Harry have some time alone, and the girls can visit. :lovestruc

I don't think Carla needs to worry about the boys' well-being: they have you looking out for them as well.

I'm going to get a bit meta here: one of the reasons I like Inteen is that it fixes the disproportionately long teen period into a young adult period for non-college bound sims. So my teens shift to acting as young adults in their later teen years, which fits much, much better. It sounds to me like Dean and Harry are in that 18-21 period of life, where they really don't need Mom breathing over their shoulders, just need her a phone call away if they encounter some mind-numbingly stupid bit of bureaucracy they can't navigate alone (I have a real teen starting that age--the one who shares your birthday). If I'm right, that they're eighteen year old teens, not thirteen year old teens, they probably have all of this pretty well handled, or if not, they know where to go to get help when needed, and they can have Mom over every night for dinner, or she can have them over, since it's not as if she's moving far away.

I think Carla should move with her fiance, and they should have the boys over every day they want.

I'm playing the Newsons, and Georgia and Garrett have just aged up to children, and Gavin's become an adult as well. Up until now, none of the Newsons have gone to school, since I doubt Gavin or Ginger could have enrolled them without alerting the authorities to the fact that they were living without an adult. Now that Gavin's an adult, he could theoretically get legal custody over his siblings and enroll them all in school. However, if he does that, it'll come to light that he kept Gabriella and Gallagher out of school. Should he keep his siblings out of school and away from any interaction with the government? Or should he send only Georgia and Garrett to school and try to hide the existence of the others? Send them all and risk getting the kids taken away? Something else?

Oh I like this! It's a tough question!

Part of this depends on what your government is like is your community. Would they take all 4 kids and give Gavin a black mark?
Also, who knows they are in town? Like could Gavin legit claim his parents died more recently than they did and claim his siblings or would it be impossible to separate it?

Or maybe they need to stay hidden AND Gavin needs to move out to start a legit claim process while Ginger fakes the info that the kids are in a legit foster situation and once Gavin accomplishes certain goals (gets a level 3 job, has 5 skill points in cooking and cleaning, etc) he can adopt them.
Maybe an odds situation of a daily dice roll to see if their deception is discovered.