*Just a disclaimer, I apologize ahead of time if I offend anyone with this post. I'm not trying to bash anyone's religion or deliberately hurt anyone's feelings, after all its just a game and am not taking this too seriously*


Any who, now that thats out of the way, I have a couple new teen sims who have the LTW to be a cult leader and I need help coming up with ideas! I know I'm jumping ahead considering they just turned into teens but hey, these type of people don't just become crazy all of a sudden, its gradual and little characteristics starts when they're younger. Plus if I need to build anything for it I'll have to start planning it soon.

I'm looking for something that's easy to do in game without having to completely download a buttload of CC/mods for it. My first idea was an FLDS type of situation. I can have them have their own area off the corner in Bluewater Village far away enough from the 'main' area without being completely isolated. Since the two teens are women I was thinking it could be a reverse FLDS belief system but might be hard to do once I start overthinking the basis for their beliefs

Or maybe I can do something with supernaturals like Vampires or Witches. Leaning more towards Vampires since witches seem annoying every time they come on to a lot. Or maybe an alien obsessed cult where they try to constantly get abducted and have their babies because they think they're the 'superior' race. (Very likely since one of the girls has the alien skint tone)

...Or maybe a community that lives completely off grid that grow their own food and everything like the Amish! It can be as silly as that, I just want it to be something where if I see that sim on a lot I go "oh man, they look a little different they probably belong to that cult" ..or maybe they look perfectly normal but their cult does something bizarre that only the members know about.

I don't know, I'm just trying to get other ideas to play around with in case someone else thinks of something cool. Most of my research led to religion-based cults (Flds, Jim Jones & etc) but that seems really hard to incorporate into the game. At least with flds I can dress them a certain way for it to be obvious that they're 'different.' Looking forward to reading some of your ideas!

Cults are one of my favorite things to play.

I make the leader both romantic and charismatic. One aspect of real-life cult leaders is their charisma and charm. And unfortunately, many have used the charisma and charm for less-than-lofty goals. Sometimes, though, I use Romance as secondary, and use Business first. I like the "family" to be self -sustaining.

This is one of the exceptions where I go with a large lot from the get-go. My compound/headquarters/etc. starts out with the single Sim in a shack who uses charm and charisma to lure in members. I do not use a polygamy mod. In my mind, though, the leader is most likely polygamous. Definitely polyamorous. As others move in, the shack expands.

Farming is a main money-maker for me. Some members have actual jobs such as artist, and sell their works in their spare time. In time, the leader opens a small store on another lot, and teen members work there. The leader's adult protégées also take on multiple members, have offspring, home-school if there are enough pupils (that does require cc, though).

The protégées and their families move to nearby lots and open other businesses. A large portion of the profits go to the leader. The leader reserves the right to visit a business or residence without warning, and expects superior treatment. A member would never think of serving the leader cereal for breakfast!

Good point about the charismatic quality!

I was thinking of having them live in a nice sized home at first until they got enough money and members to build an apartment later on as their compound. I like the home schooling part too but may be too much of hassle so I may just have them go to school but not be allowed to go to the school that I play. After all we'll need to meet people in order to convert more sims!

Do you have any pictures of your compound? I'd love to see it.

I had a religion in my game at one point that was something along these lines. I called it Rohelinism - there's more details about it here and here, as well as some pictures and a description of the traditional Rohelinist wedding ceremony here.

I never played it as a cult, as such, but I wanted to! However, I have a tendency to hop between neighbourhoods, and I never stuck with one 'hood for long enough to really get into playing any Rohelinist sims. The religion did include a (fairly) complex social hierarchy, based on the sims' gender and how many green-skinned/part-alien/non-alien sons and daughters each sim had. Basically, being a man with several green-skinned sons made you high ranking, being an elderly female sim with no children made you low ranked. Males ranked higher than females, until they became elders (and could no longer become pregnant if abducted by aliens. Family was considered very important (at least, reproducing as much as possible was considered very important, and reproduction was generally expected to occur within marriage (or through alien abduction!)) and many of the sims had Family aspiration for their primary or secondary. If I'd played it as a cult I would've considered some kind of communal living arrangements, where the kiddies were raised by everyone, though higher ranking offspring (green-skinned males and females, or part-aliens without green skin) may receive more individual attention from their parents.

I love that idea Laura! It definitely reminds me of the flds with the rankings based on who has the most kids.

I also have a multi-pollination technician mod so the alien offspring could eventually have offspring with each other as well so the alien look can be more prominent.

Edit: I also like your other nature-based lifestyle from that thread.

I like the idea of them being self-sustainable on a lot, grow their own food, cultivate their skills and hobbies all in the 'compound' - I made a neighborhood campus awhile back and one of it's potential uses could be that of a cult with dorm-like lodgings and a cottage for the 'cult leader'. Take a look for any layout ideas for building your own cult complex.

Instead of going out, I think they would just try to befriend any sims that walks by and get them to join. Also, to get more...unsettling they could all wear the same type of clothes or all dress in the same color of clothes, or all have the same hairstyle, so when you see them, you know they are a full fledged member of said cult. They drank that kool-aid.

Someone came over to my house and used the gussy up mod on Komei - turned him into wearing these white flowy pajamas and made him have blonde dreds and he looks like a cult person walking around my neighborhood now.

LOVE IT! Its perfect once the cult gets a certain size. I really try to avoid gigantic lots though but I may let this one slide. :D

Yeah you can start small and always grow the cult to a large lot. Thanks for the compliment on my lot - but it does have a lot of custom content so I thought it could be more of an example of how to structure a big lot for a larger cult down the road

Alas. I have long nuked that neighborhood. I think that's the one where I read on a very old post here that it's perfectly fine to convert a residential lot to a community lot and back again while actively playing it (a few years ago and before I got BV ... not the thread from last year), and when I realized I corrupted my hood, kaboom. I was moving to Windows 7 and wanted to start fresh, anyway. So my cult leader and his followers, unfortunately, did perish.

There are so many great robes out there if you want to be a little more mystical, and amongst the fashion stuff and revealing outfits, some very plain ones. Right now, I have a cultist in training, and she wears one of the scarves/kerchiefs I saw on Almighty Hat's site.

One caveat ... I try to avoid any semblance to a known religion. I would hate to post a picture here or anywhere else of a cult member engaging in bad behavior while wearing an article of clothing identified with a certain religious group. That's just not how I work. Almighty Hat's site is a treasure trove of great headgear, many scarves/kerchiefs there are pretty generic, and the stuff is well-made.

First off, you should never have to apologize for anything that you feel.

Secondly, in my game there is an old man who would kidnap kids near his home (he lives next to the playground). He makes them paint day and night and sells off their paintings for profit, sometimes he would let them take a break by allowing them a little TV but most of they time...they are working hard. He keeps them in the basement and feeds them once a day. It's actually a lot of fun, but sometimes i feel bad lol.

His wife teaches them to read, and when they reach college level...he sets them free so they can go to university. When they have kids they will send the kids to his house so the kids can learn to paint. Sometimes they will scrub his floors and do his gardening, but mostly everyone is very grateful for his generosity...he teaches kids how to be artistic.

Aww thanks, I just didn't want anyone to think I was 'bashing' or anything if I had mentioned certain religions/groups. People can be weird about that sort of thing sometimes. I mean, I hiiiiiighly doubt anyone from the Flds or Amish would be on here but just in case I had mentioned other groups I didn't want them to think I thought they were in a cult, just that they have cult tendencies.

Years ago I was laughing hysterically over a story by ephemeraltoast that involved worship of the potty god. It was remarkable how often that red toddler's potty came up in sim conversation. I suppose your cult could also centre round veneration for some everyday object, perhaps a plant or tree. There are plenty of tree huggers.

Carry on and keep us informed about your cult Starting a cult is very logical once you have a cult leader in the game, I mean, who would not want to use (misuse/abuse) that? I have thought about a rather large residence on a tiny island, with perhaps two or more small lots for extra cult members, but I have no cult leader yet (the one with the wish, though, is doing military duty and will be there soon).
Charisma is needed for the paranormal career

Years ago the two common themes done as cults were the potty god and the bunny god, Llama and cow also were around. As music2ologist mentioned it was 'toast' who did the potty god and pretty sure it was Candy who did the bunny. This is going back to 2007-9 on Boolprop forums. Good times. Those stories were saved to Clock watching for anybody who is newer and not part of the community back then, worth a read, you will have a good laugh.

Thanks @gazania, I bookmarked a few things that I liked on that site you recommended.



I think I'm close to figuring out what I'll choose to do, I'm just having trouble on deciding if I want them to wear anything to distinguish them from the rest of the neighborhood. I really want them to wear pioneer or just modest style clothing but it just seems so silly since the whole alien thing is so futuristic haha! And I'm not a big fan of sci-fi styled clothing

What about face paint. Coloured dots or something.

That's a good idea, I was thinking about looking for tattoos too like of stars or the moon.

I would never have thought of creating a cult! But now I'm thinking it would be fun and easy to have a cult dedicated to worshiping a Grilled Cheese God.

I do cults/communes, but I do them as entire subhoods. They usually get too big/overwhelming to have everyone on one lot, plus I don't really like playing large lots, if I have to keep track of everyone. Although it doesn't have to be that way, of course, if you don't let the members breed and you don't have the members actively recruit others to their "cause." Sometimes, I'll start one when someone becomes a Cult Leader, but oftentimes I just feel like playing that way, so I'll have a born-in-game Sim who seems "the type" start one. Sometimes I do them a little more "seriously," and like real-life cults, but oftentimes they're just built up around something silly, usually a characteristic that the leader has, which could be something like a supernatural trait but could be as mundane as hair color or eye color, so that the object of the cult might be to collect all the blond(e)s in the neighborhood or something. Or all the Nature Sims. Or all the "whatever" kind of Sims.

I'll also do religion of sorts in my neighborhoods, with their own set of rules that the practitioners live by, but they're never like any real-life religion and they're not necessarily cults, either.

And I now know what to do with my Grilled Cheese Sims!

My Curious-Smiths run a sort of cult. At least, they actively recruit, they have unusual values, and they make leaving very difficult, so that'd hit the big points.
Full aliens have the highest status (this bemuses PT, because he doesn't care, but the Curiouses helped him, so whatever they want goes). This is followed by part-aliens, then by those who have given birth to part-alien children. Pascal needs that baby to take over his father's legacy. Lola and Chloe both have better things to do with their time. Lola's happy to let the group support her, but she wants to be a mover and shaker in SimNation's legal system. Chloe finds that organizing anything, let alone their family, is likely to interfere with organizing her date book. Jenny would rather raise her babies, but she figures Johnny's the heir apparent, and that Pascal should just be keeping things going until Johnny finishes college.

They're big on kids, especially alien kids. Any woman who marries into the family is doomed to lower status (except for whoever Johnny and any other alien boys marry) because she can't have part-alien babies. They are also the adoption agency's family of last resort. "Dr. Curious, we have two teens we can't place. Do you think . . .?" "Sure, bring them on out. Lazlo? Run down the hill and see if PT and Jenny can take one! Vid, change the sheets on the spare bed!" "Oh, thank you so much, Dr. Curious!" And they treat the children well, so there are no real complaints to be heard.

The SimNation government doesn't endorse them, but they find them useful, and since all alien sims are required to live in Strangetown, the government effectively does most of their recruiting for them. Think of the plight of a single male sim, with newborn, forced to relocate to Strangetown or give up his baby. And here are these folks ready to take him and the baby in, no questions asked.

I think my future cult will all wear orange clothing.

Hopefully not these ones. XD https://www.modthesims.info/brow...tag=prison&gs=1

Charity, why not? It is bright enough to make them quite distinctive. And if one of them turns up on a community lot, I will know : cult member trying to escape!!! Alert!