The only quick and fast rule I have is that teens have to have 2 of every skill to be able to apply for a subhood college experience. If they have enough of 1 skill to get a specialized scholarship, they are allowed to do Academie LeTour. If they don't have minimum skill points, then they have to do local college and live at home (mega college hack) oR move to the 'tradeschool' in the hood and work on badge skills. I know not everyone goes to college IRL but I cannot stand leaving a sim out of an entire age stage, even if it is optional.

I'm like @AndrewGloria. I don't have rules. I can't even read all the rules of some challenges without my eyes glazing over. The Sims and I just play cooperatively together. They have as much autonomy as I can possibly arrange, and I work to set things up so they pretty much run the show. Things that happen have to fit into some kind of story that is fun and makes sense for me over time. Aging is off so the stories are very much ongoing and very far ranging and they connect across different hoods. I expect they go on living their lives when I'm not around, so I make sure they are comfortable somewhere so that can happen if I'm not playing them. Like I had a glitched sim once that took me some weeks to find the problem for. We decided together that she was dealing with some trauma and needed a break, so she went off on vacation till she felt better. I just didn't play her there till I figured out what was wrong, then I went and gave her the cure and she came home when ready. I just check on their world every now and then. If I have any rules, they are use everything that is already there (so I am far more likely to use a random townie for the story than make anyone), and everything's connected by the story.

I mostly do some loose legacies and loose Build a City type hoods. Might switch certain mods in and out to prevent the spawning of townies and pets if I don't want them. I wonder if sims can sell pets at home-based shops...

Since most of my sims lacked skills before jobs and because they just wouldn't roll wants for skilling, I've come up with a rule where if a sim doesn't have anything more important to do (like eating, doing homework or looking for a partner), I'll force them to skill.
Some of the exceptions to this rule though are rebellious teenagers (who I also just didn't know how to play), who instead of skilling will just go argue with their parents. For no reason. Because teenagers do that.

I try to get them to skill in a way that would make sense for their personalities - for example, lazy sims will swim, playful sims might swim or jump rope, while active sims might punch the punching bag or run the obstacle course if they are available, or use the exercise machines to get body points. To get creativity points, sims who are into arts & crafts will paint, sims who are into music & dance will play musical instruments or use the DJ booth, sims who are into film & literature will write novels, while nature sims will build sandcastles. Outgoing sims might gain charisma by talking to (or yelling at) the mirror while shy sims might prefer talking to birdies.

I change rules as I please in SimHampton, though sometimes my Sims convince me to reverse rule changes they don't seem to like.

At the moment, rules I have are:

Royalty

- There is a High Ruler (either a High Prince or High Princess). They live in the Palace and are expected to either give a speech every day, or delegate someone of the household to do this. (The SimHampton courts recently ruled this could be a dog, after the current High Ruler argued that people like animals and in what is currently a very quiet time - for good reasons, I hasten to add - a speech consisting of dog barks and excited tail wagging would break monotony quite nicely). They can marry who they like provided they are reasonably reputable, which is to say they cannot be wanted for any crimes, serving a prison term or have a conviction for a major crime).

The High Ruler is entitled to imprison anyone who is wanted by the law, and to make laws, provided they do not clash with anything decided by the Planning Council since the last time the Council had an election. They are required to maintain a treasury of at least $10000 at all practicable times, but must use it to reasonable extent to alleviate poverty, cover emergencies and meet people's expectations of a generous monarch. Neither they nor anyone else in the household may hold a job, though the High Ruler's family may do in-Palace side jobs such as artworks, and servants may run off-site businesses in their free time. (By custom, a servant who does this hands over all income to the High Ruler, and receives at least that amount back should they ever leave the Palace). If a servant dies in the Palace, their family receives insurance over and above the Maxis provision. A current High Ruler may not attend university, and a High Ruler that is not yet a teen at the time of accession (on two occasions, the title has been granted to a toddler) automatically receives a regent until adulthood. If the new High Ruler is a teen, it is for the teen to decide if they want a regent, and if so how they and the regent will work together. A High Ruler's duties fall to the regent in the first instance, though the High Ruler, no matter how young, may choose to do any particular duty themselves, to the best of their ability.

The Palace is empowered to employ live-in servants. They receive their own quarters, which must meet a minimum standard that exceeds the minimum required for a location to be deemed legal to reside. As a result, positions at the Palace are sought after - especially by young people, because there is a good track record of servants falling in love with and marrying members of the ruling household. Any who does so must be treated as family, and if they married the High Ruler, they may move in the rest of their family if there's space (these people must also be treated as family by the High Ruler).

The eldest child resident in the Palace succeeds to the throne if any children exist. A child who goes to university or moves out cannot succeed to the throne until they move back in. It does not matter if those children were borne in wedlock, out of wedlock, adopted or simply treated as if the High Ruler's child - all are equal in . The resident spouse of the High Ruler (in this case, only marriage/joined union counts) would be next in line if there are no children. If there is no spouse, resident siblings may inherit, eldest getting priority. Otherwise there is a succession dispute. Usually, but not always, the wealthiest family sends a younger child to become the High Ruler (because the eldest members are usually too busy being happy with whatever occupies their time to take up the job).

Planning Council

Eight Sims are elected to the Planning Council in periodic elections. Anyone who has ever been in the High Ruler's family, currently works in law, the police, crime or the military, or is a servant in the Palace, is ineligible to stand. Teenagers and older may stand, though any Young Adult who is elected must leave university to take up their post. By convention, high-ranking members of the League of Mystics and members of religious orders never stand, though no legal bar exists to their participation. Incumbent Sims' performance at election time is assessed on a combination of votes won v lost, successful introductions of motions, aspiration, number of enemies made, and involvement of scandals. Winning votes, introducing successful motions and good aspiration mean the candidate is returned without contest. Being better at these things than other incumbents may even lead to promotion. Losing votes, bad aspiration, making enemies and doing things that are considered scandalous risk the incumbent losing their post to someone else in the election.

Elected Planners live at the Planning Council Offices and hold regular meetings, which must start with all 8 members present. They may hold down jobs and run off-site businesses. Planners can and frequently do resign at any time. No children or younger may live at the Offices.

Teenage Sims and older are eligible to vote, should they so choose, unless they are currently in prison or exiled. University Sims typically are among the most likely Sims to vote. Sims in Polgannon can vote but usually don't because Polgannon is part of the United Kingdom; their people thus insist voting in a second jurisdiction's election is at least weird and possible illegal (legal opinion has been sought but not yet provided, since the lawyer in residence is not a specialist in constitutional law). Sims in Tristan do Simha have not yet had an election to vote in (last election, nobody knew the island existed), it is confirmed they will be able to stand, as well as to vote, but as a semi-autonomous island, it is anticipated that any voting turnout will be low.

The Law

Sims at high levels of the Criminal career, or who appear to be engaging in conduct the High Ruler or Planning Council has stated to be illegal to the point of carrying a prison term, can be imprisoned if there's space in the prison and an officer of the law catches them, or alternately held in the Palace cells if a member of the Palace arrests them. The name and crime is on permanent record. The prison has been recently redeveloped to allow two prisoners to share a cell, which has basic amenities plus an easel and garden. Prisoners pool their efforts together to earn their way out. A prisoner with a good behaviour record may be allowed to do "rehabilitation" work.

If imprisoned in the Palace, criminals are sent to the Palace servant ranks immediately after completing their sentence, but are as free to leave that job as anyone else. At the prison, criminals completing their sentence must serve probation, where they must meet a condition set by the prison staff (usually, to get promoted at a job, but sometimes something else if it is more relevant to the crime in question) before they can finally leave.

SimHampton University

SimHampton University is open to all teenagers, but they must pass an imaginary exam called the SUET. This is administered periodically. Playable students at A- level are assumed to be capable of passing the SUET (I cannot see non-playable grades, so if I choose to send a non-playable to university, I assume they passed the SUET).

There are no tuition fees, however students are required to start in the dorm (there's only one right now). Students may leave to live in a rented house, or found/join a Greek house, on becoming sophomore (although pledging is permitted at any time, and non-playable students are not bound by this rule).

Elves

Some Sims are elves, and some choose to live as elves. While the elves can't really control who tries to live as an elf, they do control who is "close enough" to being an elf to enroll in elven school or to be accepted in the Télanen community as an ambassador (the only two stumbling of elven society that a Sim wishing to become an elf is likely to encounter.while living in SimHampton). Elven schools and ambassadorships are only open to "full" elves or half-elves. Confusingly, this is decided not by parentage but by physical features. A full elf has at least three of: green eyes, heavily slanted-downwards eyes, recognisably pointed ears, visibly pointed chin and thin, pointed nose. A half-elf has two of those five features. So yes, a Sim with no elven parents, who can trace their conventional Simmishness back a hundred generations, who happens to have green eyes and a pointy chin is allowed the perks of being a half-elf. Provided, that is, that the Sim is not a zombie, vampire or Plantsim (other life states are fine).

Elven school is residential and has a carefully-controlled curriculum including cloudwatching, going to regular school, swimming, gardening, stargazing, eating simple food and being close to nature. Certain elven tenets (including vegetarianism, non-violence, no loose long hair or makeup, not storming off when asked to do things, avoiding any non-autonomous use of electric technology more sophisticated than a telephone and not calling in services such as maids or gardeners) are expected to be adhered to. The reward is that at the end of the teen years, students get all the wants and locks associated with going to university, plus a "counterfeit" diploma (in elven tradition, elven school is university), plus are allowed to use as much elixir as they like provided they remain adults.

An elven ambassador is a job which comes with a stipend (from the Télanen government) but has no working hour obligations. As long as no elven rules are broken in public, that Sim is paid for doing whatever they like.

I'm playing Build A City Challenge so i go by those rules, with little bit of own mixing. I use Nepheris' ruleset.

FUNDS

My sims have to pay funds in many cases, but most importantly to Mayor family (Taxes), to placeholder University sim (Uni-related funds) and to current graveyard owner (when a sim/pet dies and you want to send them to graveyard). I also recently added one for Adoption as well, so you have to send your Adoption funds to the Orphanage owner as well.

JOBS

Sims can only get jobs that are unlocked via the BACC rules. ie. You can only unlock Music when you place three instruments onto community lot, or you can have one sim to go to Journalism career when someone else tops their career track. This of course makes some of the jobs feel little repetitive but i think it eases the process of deciding the job for the sim, since you don't have too many choices in the beginning.

ROUNDS

Every household must be played for five sim days and if in uni, two uni years (i know, it's very long playthrough in uni but it makes the process quicker) per rotation. Households that have sims that don't age don't count to this (so i can play those only like a day or something)

HEIR SYSTEM

There always must be a heir to mayor titles like Mayor, Graveyard owner, Orphanage owner etc. I go by the rule that anyone can be any of these, but in my playthrough the Mayors so far have been from the same lineage, which makes it easier age-wise.

RANDOMIZING

I try to randomize as many aspects in my gameplay as possible. When i create new sims, i throw the dice for most of the aspects like aspiration and turn ons/turn offs. When a sim kid grows into a teen, i throw dice for aspiration then too. Plus i use Random Occurence Scenarios as best as i can. I like randomness in my game.

I would say I have minimal rules, but they're developing as I go. I don't have any written down so this is off the top of my head.

Absolutely no money cheats. I make sure my neighborhood has ample apartments and starter homes as cheap as $5000, because I also have the no20k so my Uni sims often return quite broke. Uni sims are required to work in cafeteria/barista if they wish to acquire some savings for after graduation.

Because I micromanage I don't need to worry about motive cheats. I do what I'd consider an exceptionally well job of keeping everyone fed, entertained, bathed, etc.

Uni majors and jobs can only be ones that the sim either rolls a want for themselves, or if they get fired or something and have no job wants, a job associated with their aspiration. I've also modded myself which careers are linked to which majors. So if they want a particular job through their LTW they'll need to do a major associated with it.

Homes are always inherited - I put way too much effort into making them beautiful and homey for them to just end up empty. If there's multiple siblings the house goes to the youngest. This also helps so that elders don't die alone because there's at least one child there with them (to inherit the house and wealth muahahaha)

If it's something that can be reversed/undid/fixed I can't just quit without saving. Meaning if a sim dies prematurely and I want them back I have to get another sim to resurrect them. I will cheat to unlock the career reward if there's no family or friends in the paranormal career to unlock it. Because I don't like to have sims change jobs.

Aspiration for new teens is randomized unless I strongly believe they suit one over the others. Except romance - I'll change to pleasure because I despise romance sims Turn Ons/Offs are also randomized although I have a preference for the hair color ones as it makes it easier for me when finding them a mate.

I tend to prefer career based LTWs, and I'll re-roll it if they get something ridiculous like have 20 puppies/kittens which most likely doesn't fit into their current life. I aim to have every sim complete at least one LTW, but I'm not going to change their whole entire life around.

Rotations are played in one week intervals, always ending somewhere between 7pm Sunday and 8am Monday. So long as they've aged on Sunday but not too late into Monday that half the day is already gone.

Sims have free will, but I also intervene a lot in an effort to make them all the most well rounded sims possible. Everyone has a wide range of skills, always having a minimum of 3 in each. So when they don't really have anything to do instead of playing on the computer I might choose to make them study cleaning instead. My sims have little free time. I do tend to micromanage.

Homework is done immediately after returning from school. This is something I followed irl when I was in school. I believe it's more efficient to do your homework right away before you get started doing something else, so I make my sim kiddos do this as well.

All sims have a sometimes cheated 100/100 relationship with their pets because it genuinely makes me sad to imagine a scenario in which a pet dies without being the bestest of buddies with the entire house.

All pets have collars because I'm obsessive.

Sims don't get married or have children unless I am 100% certain they've found the one because if they divorce or anything then there's another sim that I don't really even actually care about that I have to then play in the rotations because they're a part of the overall story at that point and need to age. I can suspend disbelief with the townies and whatnot but once integrated into the family they'd need to be played and I don't wanna do that so don't get married unless I'm super duper sure they're right.

Every toddler must be walked, talked, and potty trained because I look at memories a lot and I want to see all three of those memories. They're only taught a nursery rhyme if rolled a want.

Teddy bears are intentionally cornered in locations where adults can't grab them and drop them in a random room. So they're more decorative. I'm sure there's a no autonomy mod for this but meh.

No owning businesses or going on vacation because it interrupts the flow of time too much for me. University is played through in one real life run. I only play that sim in Uni until they've graduated.

Everybody goes to University because my parents didn't give me a choice so you have to too! (btw I'm happy I went)

If a family has pets they have at least two. I believe this in real life as well that pets should always have a friend so they're not alone while the people are at work/school all day.

If/when possible sims live in a house with one more bedroom than number of children I intend on there being. This so that when the house is inherited, if that child has lots of children of their own that there's hopefully enough rooms. I haven't had to worry about this yet, but generally the goal is not having to need to move.

No supernatural because I really just can't be bothered.

The main family is the only 'playable' family in the neighborhood. Everyone else is townies. This I implemented because I've heard other people who play rotationally say that it eventually gets to a point where there's too many families to play. Right now I have 4 houses. It'll be 6 when two kids move out, more if Alessandros has more kids. While it's still possible that it could get to be too many, I believe that by only playing one core family that the increase will be slower and more steady.

Ages are kept track of so nobody accidentally gets older than they should be. So long as the order of a certain generation is correct I don't care too much about the actual age. (for example, Sakis must be older than Theo who is older than Stelios who is older than Stefania who is older than Alexia.....Sakis needs to turn into a teenager before Theo does)

I think that's all my rules. I can't think of any more.

WANTS AND FEARS

Wants are always taken into account. I try to steer the storyline in certain directions, but if the Wants (and Fears) of the involved playables aren't compatible with my intentions, I'll take that as an indication that I need to find other ways to get my goals.

With rare exceptions (old set storylines when I first started playing and family duty), Sims will only take a job if they want one or if it's for their LTW field...unless they have a "make lots of money" LTW, which counts as an "any job field" one, or -- escape clause here, allowing them the joy of wage slavery while also getting custom careers more use! -- if they are in red aspiration, have no fillable wants, and want to buy things that they can't afford. However, if offered a job through secret networking, they can only turn it down if they're already employed in their LTW field or, if unemployed, currently have no money-related wants or fears (buying things and getting a pet, but also fearing repossession of their stuff) and do not have a money-making LTW, or, of course, one involving the offered field.

Sims only deliberately work on skills if they either want to gain a skill point, max the skill in question, or get a promotion and need that skill to do so. Of course, there is inadvertent skill-building done in everyday life, especially when the Sim in question wants to do things (like swimming or cooking) that build skills.

If a Sim wants to make, serve, or eat a certain kind of food, they're going to do that as soon as they're the slightest bit hungry if they know how to and have the right equipment. (If not, it might be time to go out to eat...) This includes Grilled Cheese Sims, to the frequent despair of everyone they live with.

FOOD

Good food does not get thrown away! Anyone who finishes eating while I'm watching them should clear up any food that is not likely to be eaten immediately (servings at empty seats, the serving platter when everyone has a plate) and put it away as leftovers. This can include half-eaten meals, but I'd prefer for someone else at the table to eat that half sandwich or whatever got left behind. If there is a pet who will eat the stuff, partially-eaten meals may somehow wind up on the floor...

Unless they want to make or serve a specific dish, hungry Sims consider leftovers the first option, only cooking if there's nothing suitable available. If they want to eat a specific dish, they still have to see if there's any of it as leftovers. This is something of a relief to the households of Grilled Cheese Sims, as at least it lows the build-up of leftover grilled cheese somewhat.

Everyone has favourite things and things they will not touch and should not have prepared for them. This is most notable with vegetarians, but should be accounted for by a thoughtful cook about to prepare a group meal. This leads to a variety of foods being eaten.

Sims with under $100 ready cash cannot cook on communal grills, as they cannot be assumed to have the food to cook. However, nothing is stopping them from, if they have sufficient influence points, influencing someone not in the household to do so and then grabbing as much of the food as they can.

Vampires aren't supposed to eat mac and cheese! Or raw hamburger, for that matter. Well, they might dabble autonomously despite mods allowing them to feed off of humans without turning them, but any vampire I see consuming anything but specifically vampire-oriented food and drink will be assumed to be hungry beyond reason and either told to find someone to feed off of if controllable or influenced to do so if not.

FINANCES AND PROPERTY

If a Sim wants and can afford something, they'll probably get it -- regardless of whether they should be able to afford it, i.e. whether they're going to suffer financially afterwards. Hey, you can always make up the price of that cell phone by freestyling for tips outside the store, right? (Wrong...) Exceptions are controlled substances (see below) pets when they already have too many and aren't explicitly the hoarder type, stuff that there is absolutely no room for (car in an apartment or bowling alley in a small house, although either of these could be considered indications of a desire to move) or lot-specific restrictions for speciality "community residential" lots like the police station, hospitals, or homeless encampments (for example, the police station should not have a bar, and certainly not a bubble blower -- sorry, Paris Prince!).

CONTROLLED SUBSTANCES

The bubble blower solution is "funny bubbles" which is de jure only legal in Riverblossom Hills. However, this is not much enforced on university campuses or on the specific Downtown lots that have bubble blowers grandfathered in. Just don't offer a puff to the police or General Grunt and you should be fine. (Although some residents of Riverblossom have done just that!)

"Juice" is slang for booze, but bars do serve non-alcoholic drinks to those who desire them. The juice cans from the fridge are just that, literal juice, because there is also explicit alcohol in the form of some custom drinks I have, which is cause for a fight if someone's drinking it who shouldn't be. And then at the far end of the scale is the actually intoxicating stuff that usually only turns up at Greek House parties because its effects are so often highly disruptive -- which is, however, completely legal as long as the imbibers are old enough.

HEALTHCARE

SimNation has a remarkably effective system of socialized medicine that was actually an accidental effect of my having no20khandout. Two hospitals currently exist in my megahood -- a larger one Downtown, and a smaller one in Strangetown. Both are residential lots with two doctors residing at them, operating as "home businesses" in order to hire outside employees; both were endowed with "motherlode money" to buy the lots, but most of the money is in the building and furnishings. They have ticket machines set to the lowest price, and operate at a slight loss, which the more prosperous Downtown one can handle; the Strangetown one mostly makes up for it by selling stuff at its pharmacy, which ranges from deco medicine that is a stand-in for one use of the SimWardrobe disinfection sprayer, to working pregnancy tests, glasses that signify that the buyer needs glasses, and even tattoo overlay boxes that permit the buyer's use of an overlay of choice from said box. Those, however, are only sidelines...

Sims who need medical attention move out of their households (taking whatever their share of the household funds is with them) and into one of the hospitals. This means most Sims who are soon to give birth, as well as Sims who have been involved in accidents or incidents (fire, lightning strike, elevator crash, maniac mobster with a machine gun...you get the gist) and came out of it with needs low enough to indicate severe injury, ones who have had near-death experiences for other reasons, and a few who are very ill (although those are locked in isolation without any face-to-face contact at the Downtown hospital, because a mysterious disease spreading through the hospital would make matters much worse). Most of the injuries lead to either scar makeup/overlays or none-too flattering facial reshaping with an odd hybrid of the surgical station and plastic surgery station that I found somewhere a long time ago. Upon recovering (or having the baby, or staying around long enough to give credible time to recover from their injuries) the patients move back home this time taking their share of the hospital's "household funds". This makes sense to me thus: If they had more money in their household funds than the hospital did, they have enough assets to pay at least partially out-of-pocket for their stay, and the hospital gains money from their treatment. If it's less, insurance pays, and if it's significantly less, also provides assistance to the clearly needy household to cover expenses associated with the treatment. Visitors paying the ticket fees can be considered taxes, which presumably pays for the insurance.

Inpatient mental health is handled similarly, with an asylum (actually intended for the Asylum Challenge) with two resident staff members Downtown. A chicken-dance-and-shrink breakdown in front of three non-friends is cause for commitment; while this may seem harsh, most Sims are far into chronic aspiration failure by the time this happens. Funding works the same way as the hospitals, with the exception that the asylum is not a business -- the patients don't need that sort of disruption! -- and received a larger initial endowment to accommodate that.

The asylum is played as a variant Asylum Challenge that takes Want-based gameplay to the extreme. Patients are entirely uncontrollable except to directly fulfil Wants, and that only if their needs bar is not red; if it is, they are entirely to their own devices. Given that the kind of aspiration failure that would get them there tends to involve most or all significant wants being unfulfillable, this presents a problem. Patients will only be released once reaching full platinum aspiration, and if they are caught having another chicken-dance-and-shrink breakdown at the asylum, they are candidates for ReNuYuSenso Orb therapy and will receive it at the start of the next one-day rotation. This has a high likelihood of resulting in Grilled Cheese aspiration, but at least that is easy to get to platinum...

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

This is really a case of the less said the better. There's a prison Downtown using Inge's prison system. There are two courthouses and a mechanism for trials involving multiple scored outings with the outcomes calculated to find the verdict. It all works very well...and the results suck. Worse, they suck in a way that is anything but unrealistic. Someone has been sent to prison for insulting the ex-police chief and then daring to defend herself when he tried to beat her up for it; aroiund the same time, two other Sims who were known to have committed heinous crimes got off with a hand-slap and an outright acquittal. There's no flaw in the internal logic of the trial system, even though it turns out being a very formalized popularity contest. I can't really ditch it for that, because I can't come up with a better system, and because to be honest, neither the mechanism or the results are really inaccurate. It's an element of the broken world that is all-too-easy to simulate, even by accident, and I haven't even incorporated pickpocketing (from the Kleptomaniac trait in the trait system) into it yet. Obviously there should be consequences for being a known thief, but I can see ways it will lead to even more inequity...

My increase-difficulty rules are varied but they're only the ones that I can get mods to enforce for me, because I just can't stay honest even though I want a more difficult game. (I use maxmotives when I get frustrated with something to this day. Though to be fair it's basically just with OFB play). I've got basically as many difficulty-increasing mods as I can find and reasonably get to work together.

In terms of the self-enforced rules that I adhere to... I like to build a neighbourhood from the ground up from a legacy founder, though not in a full challenge style. I only allow myself to add subhoods when sims have need for them-- so I start with my neighbourhood founder, his kids are allowed to spawn the college when they need it (semi-empty, I'm not interested in fighting with making things like ss lots so I use a cc university hood that comes empty of npcs but with all the relevant community lots and some dorms already built), their kids can spawn the downtown (fresh and empty, not a prebuilt downtown) after they graduate college themselves. Downtown has to be relatively full before I can spawn any more new living subhoods. Vacation spots are spawned in as Maxis made them, one per generation, but only generations that chose to take vacations. If the first generation never goes on vacation but their kid does, the kid can only spawn in one spot even though he's generation 2. If his sister wants to take a vacation, she doesn't spawn a new vacation spot, but her kids could, ect. Usually it takes me four or five generations before I get all three vacation spots because the first two generations are too poor and busy for me to do a vacation. I play on a three-day rotation from the moment the first person moves out of the founder's house to keep everyone the proper ages.

Beyond that, my rules are pretty loose. I generally follow Sims big wants, but not super strictly. I roll for all aspirations, most turn-ons and turn-offs stay as whatever the game rolls except if I really don't want those turn-offs (like my legacy heir rolling a turn-on for robots will probably get that changed, though not necessarily. I've been doing the "try not to change them" long enough I'm pretty good at not even looking until after I set it.) The one exception is if the sim's life goal is one of a particular aspiration besides the job ones, like "have x kids" or "woohoo 20 sims" (because I have the mod that allows any sim to roll any ltw regardless of aspiration for some variety), then I can chose their secondary aspiration to be the one that their ltw is connected to if I want. Otherwise, that gets rolled too. So that sims roll more varied wants for me to follow, sims have to put their first aspiration point after they become a teen into getting a secondary aspiration.

My current hood got some rules, one day rotation (uni one semester/rotation) and I am quite restrictive with Cas-families. If teens go to uni they leave four days before they would become adults (this is a loose rule and some have stayed longer or shorter in the hood) and stay eight days at uni, unless they get kicked out. I am rigid about the age from baby to beginning of the teen life span but from ya to elder it's so many days. If someone going out a lot during uni they might graduate before the housemate who just stays in, it will even out eventually. And that sim might age to elder before but still be alive to see those younger die from old age. That's life.

My rules are less for the hood and more for the households and individual Sims. The legacy family (now failed due to marrying playables) must have hood ties with all of the households, one family can not lock wants and this is passed down to the children even if they have changed last name, very sloppy sims (1 or 0 in neatness) can not be directed to clean or shower, one family must be "perfect" (best friends with each other, learn all toddler skills, a+ grades, private school, at least five scholarships, teens must go steady with a three bolter, always eat breakfast together etc etc), one sim must change her career every week and the list goes on.

One thing most of them have in common, Friday is date night and have high priority, Saturday is usually a party and Sunday is extended family dinner (usually party scenario so they all go home at the same time), birthdays and weddings are all celebrated and every pregnant Sim get a babyshower (outing).

Other stuff:
- sims support local businesses and prefer to go to owned lots
-pets are elder when they are brought (unless they get a job due to wants) (I also age pets)
-only a want for employment or a ltw in a field opens up the possibility to look for a job

My game rules really only apply to my medieval hood.

Four classes - Royal Family, Noble, Peasant, Slave.

Job Rules - Royal Family can only work in distinguished careers, including custom careers. Military, politics, natural science, are all distinguished careers. Nobles can work in distinguished careers or slightly lower careers, including custom careers. An example of a slightly lower career is Artist. Peasants can work in less respectable careers such as culinary. Slaves can only work in the criminal career. Women cannot work, but can earn money painting or farming.

School Rules - Royal Family must have all sons go to school until they age to adult. Nobles must have their sons go to elementary school, but can choose to let them go to high school. Peasants have the option of sending their sons to elementary school, but it's not required. Peasant boys cannot attend high school. Slaves cannot go to school. Girls cannot go to school. It's medieval times, so university doesn't exist.

Marriage Rules - Royal Family can marry other members of the Royal Family or nobles. Nobles can marry Royal Family, nobles, or peasants. Peasants can marry peasants or nobles. Slaves cannot marry. If a woman is discovered woohooing with her lover, she marries him, regardless of class unless he is a slave, in which case she also becomes a slave. If one or both is already married, they automatically get divorced from their current spouse(s) and are demoted to slave class. Women take their husband's last name. Marriages are arranged by the oldest male family member. If a woman has a good relationship with the family member arranging her marriage, she might be able to convince him to allow her to marry her preferred husband. Otherwise, her father/brother/cousin/whoever decides who she marries based on how it will affect her family. A woman's skills and background determine her dowry. Older daughters have more dowry than younger daughters.

Concubines - The head of household can have as many concubines as he wants. Concubines must be slaves.

Inheritance Rules - The oldest living son inherits everything, with some restrictions. A man's children with his wife inherit before his children with his concubine. Only sons inherit. Any child born out of wedlock will never inherit except for one circumstance. If a family only has daughters, it dies out and is replaced with a new one EXCEPT for the royal family. The royal family is the only family that allows daughters to inherit in the event that there are no sons. Inheritance for the royal family will go as far back as necessary until a suitable heir is found. If there are no legitimate children [unlikely] then children born out of wedlock are considered until they can find a new King/Queen to rule. If this somehow fails, then the oldest noble family becomes the new royal family.

Adultery - Men have WAAAAY more leeway with this because his wife and family depend on him. If a woman catches her husband cheating, she may or may not report it to keep her social standing. It doesn't work the other way around.

Slave Jobs - Slave men are used as laborers, farmers, and gardeners. Slave women are used as governesses, wet nurses, maids, basically everything that has to do with raising children and housekeeping.


...And these are just the basic rules!

Jo, I am definitely going to try this motivation system. Sounds like the perfect way to get some skilling/career chasing diversity in my neighbourhoods! Do you use any variation when their aspiration is assigned? I'm trying to think up scenarios for a highly motivated pleasure Sim whose wants are usually to play on the couch, or how a non-motivated Knowledge Sim would survive without some potential aspiration hit. Or do you factor their motivation into whatever aspiration they are eventually assigned?

I do use the Secondary Aspiration calculator for both first and second just to see what it says. I don't hold myself to it though.
I also use personality. I wouldn't set a shy sim as popularity no matter what the calculator says or a playful sim as knowledge or a mean sim as family. Pleasure sims have to be playful. I play with all the aspirations but romance the least. I have to force myself to make at least 1-2 per generation. Sometimes the game throws a surprise, normally very tidy sims will score well above 8 but I have a couple of kids who are so lazy and playful this generation that one is average and the other is low. So to be pleasure the sim has to be quite playful, over 5 points but if that is paired with being tidy and active it would be possible for them to be highly motivated and pleasure, my thoughts would then be highly motivated in what way? Maybe a highly motivated criminal or romancer? Uni could be a place to party while they hack grades, romance prof's and get others to do their work. They do well in life but that doesn't mean they have to get all those things on the up and up.
Motivation doesn't always = smarts. The uni cow if you have ever seen their personality is quite a wild and normally would be very low. I think she is something like -10 (I married her in) but while I play her hands off as low I see her as smart but stubborn rather than stupid.
https://pleasantsims.com/sims-2-sec...ion-calculator/ I don't use grill cheese. been there and done that and even as a secondary it takes over.

Oh that calculator looks fab! I've just been rolling so far but I like the idea that this has a bit more logic to it. Thanks for the tips

No rules in my hood.

I usually go into a fresh save thinking that I'll play the game without cheating. That lasts for about twenty minutes or so, and then pure chaos reigns across the land!

What are game rules?

Just getting into playing again, got inspired by all of you to try a mostly wants-based play with only a few rules intended to advance the game when I feel like wants may not get me there. I have found that this works best by not being a slave to the specific wants, but rather getting a general sense of what the Sim wants and pointing them in that direction. So if a Sim has a lot of minor interaction wants, I figure they are lonely and want to go out. If they have a lot of wants to buy things, I figure they might need to get a job, remodel a room in their house, or even look for a bigger home if they can afford it. This has made things a lot of fun and has really helped expand my storytelling.

Here are some specific rules I've come up with, but I'm still refining them:

I don't attend to Sims needs, with some exceptions. I let them do that themselves. I will, however, help them out if they have a big want. For example, a Sim wants to get promoted, so I figure they need to go to bed early the night before and eat a good breakfast. Or if someone's having a party, they may order in a pizza or make some cookies, depending on the type of party. After Sims build a skill, it makes sense they'll want to use it, so they'll probably serve a meal after studying cooking or clean the bathroom after studying cleaning. I will direct pregnant women to drink an energy shake because they seem to get really stupid about feeding themselves.

Only rich Sims can hire maids and gardeners without getting the specific want to do so--they live in the rich section of Pleasantview. All Sims can all the exterminator regardless of want because otherwise the bugs never go away.

Sims get a job if they have the want to do so, they want to earn money, or they want to buy things, or if they don't have enough money to pay bills and get groceries. I'll try to get them the specific job they roll a want for. Otherwise, I pick a job based on their general personality. Sims go to work autonomously, if they want to go, or if they need to go to accomplish a goal or earn money. Otherwise, I let them oversleep or don't make them go to work. I play all chance cards and pick options based on a dice roll (odd is the first option, even is the second).

Elders retire if they get the want or if it seems to fit who they are. Elders can throw an anniversary party of they get the want or it's a LTW. Only retired elders can adopt a pet, grow a garden, buy a toy or flower bench (never robot), or put in a fishing pond, because they need something to do with their time. Otherwise, I can't be bothered. I mostly ignore pet wants or I take the Sim to the park for some nature time and socializing.

Sims buy things only if they need it for a specific purpose or they have the want. Usually, I'll try to remodel a room based on what they want to buy rather than just buying a lot of random stuff, and I'll only do that once per turn because I don't want them to spend all their money. They do not get to buy things that won't fit in their house or do not make sense (like the DJ booth--they may get a stereo or go out to a club instead).

Sims only go on a date if they want to ask a specific person out. Generic wants for dates are interpreted as a want to hit the clubs and hit on people. Woohoo happens through ACR (a lot!), if they want to woohoo with a specific person, or if they want to try for baby. Generic woohoo wants they can take care of themselves.

Sims only get engaged or married if they have the want to do so. Generic marriage wants are enough to get engaged if the Sim is already in a relationship. Sims only throw a wedding party if they have the want; otherwise, they "elope." Sims can ask someone to move in if they are best friends or in love AND it makes sense for the story (such as asking an elderly relative to move in). Married/engaged Sims have to break up with their partner before they can move in with someone else.

Babies are made via ACR; Sims only adopt if they have the want, but if they are infertile, that's just bad luck. Babies are named with the same first initial as their mother if she was an original playable (exception: Lilith's babies start with M to distinguish from Lucy--I try not to repeat letters; Kaylynn can be made playable and have K babies). Otherwise, babies are named with the father's first initial. This helps me keep track of their family lineage.

Sims can break up with their partner if they aren't in love anymore or are always fighting AND it makes sense for the story. If one Sim apologizes and the other accepts, they should probably at least try to work on the relationship. Sometimes married Sims just grow apart, though; that's life. I found a mod that allows the Break Up interaction at any time and this has made it so much easier for storytelling. Some Sims get engaged way too quickly and regret it later.

Sims must take care of crying or hungry children or hire the nanny if it makes sense. They cannot leave babies on the floor or outside. Otherwise, they parent autonomously or according to wants. A parent who wants to do a lot of things with their toddler will teach them toddler skills even if they don't have that specific want. Children have a set bedtime and must go to school, and they must do their homework if their grades are slipping. I try to celebrate all birthdays with a birthday party, even if it's just family and a cake, but that isn't always possible due to life.

Teens randomly roll their aspiration. Teens must go to school if a parent is awake and paying attention to them; otherwise, they can skip if they want. When teens get the popup to go to college, they must both want to and have good enough grades. All teens of the same age go to college as a cohort. They live in the dorm, which I try to keep to all playables. They must want to do their schoolwork or they won't graduate. If they make it to junior year, they can reroll their aspiration (a romance Sim may get tired of the dating scene by then and want to settle down with a family, for instance). If they are put on academic probation, they can try changing their major if it's not too late. If they do graduate, they get a graduation party. Adults who don't go to college or who dropped out have the option of going to night school and getting their degree then if they get promoted into a job that would reasonably require a college education (such as nurse).

Death is accepted regardless of reason and written into the story. Rich Sims keep graves on their lot. Other Sims move graves to the churchyard; they also do this before they move out of a house. There may be murder or suicide for story reasons occasionally.

Have you ever tried just choosing your sim's primary aspiration based on zodiac, and if your sim is playful, flipping the coin to see if their primary aspiration will be pleasure instead of the zodiac-based aspiration?

I pay little attention to zodiac apart from a means of getting more chemistry for married couples. In real life what zodiac someone is doesn't play into if you view them as hot or not. I have seen aspiration set by zodiac (Pleasant sims) and it seems to yield tons of romance sims... Fun to watch but not for my own way of playing.

I have a whole five pages of rules that I know by heart, but I keep them for reference. Most of them involve rolling a die and using sims' predetermined interests to get some more interesting facts and such about them:
- After age 45, sims will roll for hearing, sight, and get more wrinkles every 5-10 years (using some CC wrinkle overlays and a custom cochlear implant). This makes the aging process look more gradual since nobody looks like they're thirty when they're becoming an elder.
- I have disabilities! Blindness and deafness are the only ones currently to keep things simple, and are determined at birth. If they roll under a 20, they're moderately blind and need either glasses or a headset. If they roll under a 5 they're completely blind/deaf and have to have either a blind eyes overlay or the cochlear implant mentioned above. Deaf sims don't talk on the phone, react to loud noises (usually meaning they'll walk or drive themselves to work). Blind sims avoid games that involve running around, usually have fenced in yards, and get clothes with minimal snaps or buttons. If they want a pet, that pet gets to learn every command as fast as possible to act as a service dog. Generally its my disabled sims that have the highest relationships with their pets! Odds are higher for their biological children to inherit their disabilities.
- I miss the vegetarian trait from Sims 3, so I made rules for that too. Vegetarianism is determined at the teen stage and a sim becomes one if they have a 7 or higher interest in food, and a 7 or higher interest in either environment or animals (thankfully I have a lot of vegetarian cc food because base game I think there's maybe 1 or 2 actual meals that don't contain meat like grilled cheese or mac and cheese). If they consume food with meat in it, they immediately either get food poisoning or throw up. Once they age up to elder, I use SimPE to give them an extra 7 days of life left. So far that hasn't come back to bite me, but in my genderswapped Pleasantview Caspian Graves (Cassandra Goth) has just aged into an elder and will live to be 93 years old with my system, which will make him the oldest sim I've ever had.
Other than the above, I mostly just follow want-based rules as other have mentioned previously. It can get a little tedious with their hobbies, but it's still very fulfilling.

I don't like to set my Sims' aspiration by zodiac, because what I like most in the game is variety. It's not fun to me if every Outgoing sim is Popularity. Why not have a shy popularity sim? It makes for interesting dilemmas.

Aspirations for me are chosen by a randomiser, and I just make it fit with the story. If somebody rolled something I REALLY couldn't envision for them, then I might reroll. But it hasn't happened yet. I use the RandomStuff program from MATY and I have lots of different lists programmed into that (I also use it for all kinds of everyday non-sim-related things!) for aspiration, there is a Teen list, Adult and Academic. If a teenager doesn't go to uni they get a free asp reroll on their adult transition so that they can "grow up" a bit. If a sim has a life-changing experience like a messy divorce or losing somebody they really, really love, or suddenly obtaining a huge amount of money, they might get an aspiration re-roll to signify the huge change in their life. One of my sims has recently lost 3 of his 5 teen/YA children as a result of the pandemic that's occurring (this is nothing to do with coronavirus, but it is darkly amusing me at the moment that the real sickness mod gives them such a horrible cough, and decimates neighbourhoods, particularly those where people constantly interact. If only there was comfort soup in real life!)

Aspiration perks are assigned based on meeting various criteria - for example, to get the massive attraction bonus, they must actually be attractive IMO, otherwise they can get that one if they are famous, charismatic or rich. To be able to make comfort soup, the sim has to actually obtain that recipe from a real family member. Or they can get it independently if they have studied medicine or cuisine; I think those things are fair exceptions. Aspiration rewards, also, are restricted - I don't just let anybody use them, since they are way too easy to get IMO. Mainly I'll do things like give them to my scientist, witch, or tinkerer sims, or if their occupation, hobbies or experiences or lifestyle seem to make sense with it. For example, a very healthy and fit sim might be allowed one flask of elixir, to represent a longer lifespan.

I play with modded age spans, toddlers in my game have 8 days (2 days = 1 human year). I allow them to be taught to walk/talk when they have the same amount of days left (or fewer) than their active/outgoing score+2, and when active/outgoing-2 is equal to or higher than their days left stage, somebody MUST be teaching them to walk/talk whenever they are awake and not fulfilling some other need. This represents to me a fussy period where the toddler needs lots of attention, sometimes even in the middle of the night (but if the parents are able to give the attention freely earlier, they skip this inconvenient part). Also, I have the mod which allows toddlers to walk up/down stairs if they have learned to walk, and I am not allowed to look at their wants or needs panel until they have learned to talk, so I have an incentive to complete both objectives. Sometimes I give them a pacifier until they have learned to talk, so I can quickly see which toddlers have and which haven't, in a multi-toddler household! And I change them from more babyish to more toddler/young child clothes once they have learned to walk (but sometimes I'm too lazy to do this). This makes multi toddler households quite stressful, but I like it! I also try to have the parents put babies somewhere comfortable, rather than always leaving them dropped on the floor, but sometimes I just use a deco baby gym in the common places they get dropped.

There are other rules but my real life toddler is working on some skill or another at the moment and needs me again. I am currently working on a sort of flowchart for which teenaged sims are more or less likely to want to go to university.

Is 9 months too old to necro? I was bored at 2am and reading my old mts posts and noticed my ruleset has changed a fair bit since I last posted in here. I've changed the way I play a lot and adopted a lot of things from PleasantSims.

Again, none of my rules are written down so just gonna post what I remember or know I do consistently.
At the time I posted that, I was playing a custom hood I made where my family was the only family. I was playing a few households rotationally but they were all the same family. Between then and now I gave playing the Pleasantview premades a go for the first time since 2004, and that progressed into the megahood I'm playing now. Much different play style, requires a different ruleset.

The biggest change I made is I try to have as minimal of influence over who my sims are as possible, by playing wants-based and if a sim doesn't want to do x y and z, they don't. This meant accepting the fact that I'd have sims who didn't go to college, didn't complete their ltws, things like that that before I'd force every sim to do.

But anyway, ~le rules~ in a random order, just off the top of my head:

SET UP RULES
Spreadsheet Documentation
*When a sim is born, write their first & last name, how their household displays on the map, their age (B for Baby), and their generation
*When a sim ages to a toddler, write down their zodiac
*When a sim ages to a child, write down their hobby
*When a sim ages to a teen they get an aspiration using PleasantSims calculator
*When a sim ages to young adult (assuming they do) I get to check their randomly generated LTW. Sims get one free re-roll and then that's what they're stuck with, they also get body hair if they're male
*When a sim ages to adult they get a secondary aspiration using PleasantSims calculator
Lot Setup
*Everybody must have the following
**Sim Blender
**ACR Adjuster
**Batbox (vase version)
**Monique's hacked computer, which I'll cheat money for only if they can't even afford the cheapest one
**The lot pieces of my default road
**An air conditioner, which I will cheat them the extra $1000 for just because
*Every new lot I need to remember to purchase the auto-saver hourglass thing and set the save hour
Premade Setup (In case I ever start this whole thing over)
*Premade adults get degrees from the batbox if I feel they would have gone, as well as upgrade-preFT, and all the other spreadsheet setup info I mentioned
RELATIONSHIP RULES
Romance Rules
*Sims gender preference is randomized with either Sim Blender or ACR whichever I feel like at the time. The whole hood is randomized, increasing or decreasing the % gay/bi until I feel there's a big enough selection for my lgbt simmies to hopefully find somebody with decent chemistry
*Playable + Playable is the first ideal matchup, but I'll marry in a townie if I need to
*Sims get one free look at the Find A Mate Crystal Ball located at Pleasantview Public Services Office so that I know who to keep an eye out for. But it's up to them to then find those sims
*Romance sims are preferred to woohoo with other romance sims to help each other increase their counts, or with townies because the townies won't keep their memories and I can reuse them with all romance sims then. They'll only woohoo with another playable if it's through ACR or they're in a relationship at that time, but non-romance-playables are not chosen for them by me
*Sims don't date, get married, etc unless they roll a want to. I'll move them in together if I feel like they would or if they have a child or just to conserve space, but they don't have to actually be together if they don't have a want
Family/Household Rules
*I will still try and make sure everybody has a good relationship with their pets because I still feel sad about the idea of a pet dying without being best buddies with the whole house
*I will also try and keep up some sort of relationship with siblings in different houses unless they have a reason to become distant like they used to hate each other or something, like if a sim has low social I'll have them call up a family member to maintain that relationship over a random stranger they know
CHEATY RULES
Wants & Fears Rules
*There's certain systems I don't play with like Influence, so if a sim rolls an influence want such as "influence to do college assignment", I just count that as the sim wanting to do it so I'll have them do it
*I allow myself to interpret fears as wanting to do the opposite of what the fear is (does that make sense?), ie having a fear of being rejected for a flirt I'll take as them wanting to flirt with somebody
*The only want (so far) I'll flat out refuse is 10 kids because that's more sims than you could even have in a house and I don't think my new lifespan is even long enough to wait til the first batch of kids would be old enough to move out to have more
Money Cheat Rules
*I play with a shorter university length that skips over the second semester of each year, which means my sims miss out on potential grade money from that time, therefor I will cheat them extra the amount that they earned to make up for it. Helpful because I use the no20khandouts, and I feel like it's fair
OTHER RULES
Pet Rules
*If a sim with no pets rolls a want to obtain a pet/get puppy or kitten, I'll write their name down and they get first dibs from the families where a sim is breeding because of the 20 puppies/kittens ltw.
**Excess puppies/kittens from the litter will then be distributed to households with no pets where a sim didn't have a want to get one, this just because I like pets so I like households with pets better than without
*If a household has a want for an additional pet, then they can get one from the pet adoption on the phone (so that I don't feel sad that those pets aren't being used, goofy I know)
Child Obtaining Rules
*If a same-sex couple wants a child they may either adopt, or if one of the sims is a knowledge sim I'll let them have an alien baby
**Which sim carries the alien baby is determined by who has the want - the knowledge sim or the other sim, if it's the knowledge sim I'll allow them to use their "summon aliens" perk. If it's the other sim they have to go the hard way of endless hours of stargazing


If I remember/think of other things I may edit this, but it's 3:30am now so my brain has stopped working. I don't think there's anything else I do that's particularly worth mentioning.