#isby

[cyazurai]

Anonymously Autonomous: an Autonomy Based Legacy Challenge

For The Sims 2, The Sims 3, and The Sims 4

Have you ever played an ISBI (I'm Surrounded by Idiots) legacy, or an asylum challenge? Was it something you enjoyed, but felt a little ick about the name, and the premise being that the sims you don't control are "insane," "crazy," "erratic," or just in some way just stupid? Well, you're not alone! The autonomy in these games isn't great, but can make for some really chaotic situations that you'd never get if you controlled every single sim most of the time, so it's fun to occasionally play a game where your sims are allowed to just be their little chaotic selves. And I want to help facilitate the chaos because maybe I'm a little bit of a Watcher of Mischief myself. If you're interested, keep reading!

Basic Concept

If you know the ISBI and Asylum challenges, you know the main premise: you can only control one sim in your household. In the ISBI Legacy, your founder will eventually "pass the torch" on to their heir, who will become the next sim you can control, and you will no longer be able to control your previous sim. It's very simple. There are other rules, and some versions even include the addition of points, but that's the basic idea.

For AAL (Anonymously Autonomous Legacy), at the bare bones, it's the same exact concept: one single sim you can control. But I decided to do something a little different with this, as well, because I didn't want this to be just a renaming of the ISBI. I want it to be its own thing. And what that thing is is:

Randomization.

The sim you can control will not necessarily be your founder or heir at all times. When you only control one sim, it will always be that sim you control, but once you have multiple sims in your household, after a set period of time you have to Spin a Wheel with all of your household's eligible sims on it to pick what sim you will control during the next set period of time. Sometimes, you will get the same sim multiple times in a row. Sometimes you might never even get to control your heir. It will all depend on the wheel (or dice roller, or number randomizer, whatever you wish).

Interested? Good!

General Rules (for Sims 2, 3, and 4)

Create a YA sim of your choice. If you are playing TS2, you may start either as a YA in university, or you may start as an adult to start their life right away. They can have any personality, likes/dislikes, turn ons/offs, whatever you want.

If you want to start off with randomization from the very beginning, give them a spouse, and spin the wheel to decide who you play as from the beginning.

Use whatever age span you want to for this. However, short might make this even more difficult that it already will be, so only use short if you want an extra challenge.

You may not use money cheats.

Move into a lot using whatever money your family has. You may not give them more money to build them a nice house.

Optional: Move them into the biggest lot in the game (whichever iteration you're playing), and do some lawn living. If they still have a lot of money, reduce their money in a way you see fit - remove it through cheats, or purchase a really expensive item that serves no practical purpose.

Next generation begins when the heir becomes a YA.

Non-heir children may stay in the family home however long you want.

Autonomy Randomization Rules

Once you have more than one sim in your household, you must decide on a specific timeframe in which to randomize who you will be allowed to control and how long you can control them.

An example of what I mean by this is if you have four sims in your household. Let's call them Matthew, Frankie, Shawn, and Sky. Matthew is the founder, Frankie his wife, Shawn a child, and Sky a toddler. You input their names in the wheel, and spin it. The wheel lands on Shawn's name, so for that entire week, he is the only one you are allowed to play.

When you have a sim chosen to be the only one you can control, that is the only sim you may select. You may not select other sims to check their inventory, to check their needs, etc. Their needs and everything are a mystery to you. If they genuinely seem to be stuck, you may reset them however your particular iteration allows you to do so.

You may use your own timeframe for selecting a random sim, but I have come up with my own in case you want to use one of mine.

Weekly Randomization: On Sunday at 8 am, spin the wheel. From that moment until the next Sunday at 8 am, you will control only that sim.

Seasonal Randomization: This is similar to the previous one, but if you play TS4 and play with 14 day or 28 day seasons or have some kind of mod or cheats to modify the length of your seasons. On the first day of the season at 8 am, spin the wheel. From that moment until the first day of the next season, you will control only that sim.

Yearly Randomization: If you want more time with a single sim, this one is for you. On the first day of Spring at 8 am, spin the wheel. From that moment through all of Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter, you will control only that sim. On the first day of the next Spring at 8 am, you will spin the wheel again.

Age Span Randomization: The next time your current sim ages up, spin the wheel. So if your founder starts as a YA, spin the wheel when they age up to adult. If the next sim is a child, you play them until they age up to teen, and so forth.

No Randomization: This is an option. If you only want to control your torch holders, you don't have to randomize who you control at all, you can just control your founder then heirs, as long as you only ever control one sim at a time.

Random Randomization: This one would be rather difficult to keep track of, but if you want to, you can use either a number randomizer, or a dicer roller, or some way, to pick how many days you will control your current sim. When you first start controlling a sim, you will roll to find out how many days you may control that sim. Once you move onto the next sim, roll once again to find out how long you will control that sim.

This is all of the timeframes I can come up with right now, but if you have any ideas feel free to message them to me!

Another rule about the randomization is that you may roll the same sim multiple times in a row. You may not remove your current sim from the wheel - whatever sim you get is the one you play.

The sim you control doesn't need to be related to your family. If they are a controllable sim in your household, you must put them on the wheel. If you move in your best friend? You may end up controlling them more often than your own sim.

Optional: If you are going to be posting your legacy on Simblr, or somewhere else, and want to really follow the "anonymous" part of this challenge, keep the sim you are controlling a secret from your viewers! See if they can guess which sim is being controlled, maybe have a poll every time before the next switch just for fun.

General and Iteration-Specific Rules

The first thing I'm going to talk about is what sims are eligible to be put on the wheel, depending on which game you are playing.

The Sims 2: The sims eligible for being the controllable sim are as follows: toddlers, children, teens, young adults (if you send them to university), adults, and elders. All occults/supernatural beings are also eligible, if they are in your household. If you use cheats to control babies or pets, you may also add them to the wheel.

The Sims 3: The sims eligible for being the controllable sim are as follows: babies, toddlers, children, teens, young adults, adults, elders, cats, dogs, and horses. All occults/supernatural beings are also eligible, if they are in your household.

The Sims 4: The sims eligible for being the controllable sim are as follows: infants, toddlers, children, teens, young adults, adults, and elders. All occults/supernatural beings are also eligible, if they are in your household. Also, if you use the mod that allows you to play pets, you may add them to the wheel as well.

You may play however you would normally play, except that you are only allowed to play one sim at a time.

Mods and CC are allowed. You may even use mods that improve autonomy if you so wish.

For any of the games, you may set things up to make life easier for you. For example, I suggest using the baby monitor in TS3 if you end up having to play as a baby - that way, you can use it to call attention to yourself if you are in need. For TS4, I suggest using MCCC to make more things autonomous, like gardening and repairing items. Things like that.

When controlling a sim, you may use their reward points to purchase things. Even if they are rewards that will help you greatly, nothing is off limits. Use whatever advantage you are given.

Nothing in the build/buy modes are off limits either. If you want sim death, feel free to build the horrors. If you want to keep as far away from death as you want, you don't even need an oven. It's up to your discretion.

Also, how do you choose an heir? You can choose an heir any way you choose. Whether you choose the one you like the most, have an heir poll, or use one of the Succession Laws from the official legacy challenge, any way you prefer is fine.

What is the Goal?

Your goal is to get to the 10th generation, and will end when the 10th generation's youngest child ages up to YA. You may play further than this if you please, but that is the main goal.

However, this is not as simple as you might thing, and that is why it is your only required goal.

Because you will (probably) be randomizing which sim you can control, it's not always going to easy to keep your heirs alive, or even find your heir a spouse/significant other to have children with. After all, if you can't control the heir, how can you find them someone to love?

You will have to use whatever sim you are allowed to play to your advantage. If you can't play your heir, use the sim you can play to bring eligible sims to the household to meet your heir.

Another reason that the goal is simple is because sims are not the brightest bulbs in the box, or the sharpest tool in the shed (I had to say it). Some of your unplayable sims might very well die to something silly, like eating too many jelly beans (TS3) or starving to death. Some babies, infants, toddlers, or children may be taken away by social services. Some pets might be taken away as well.

Optional: If you want a little extra challenge, you can add the generational goal that you have to try to complete your heir's LTW/aspiration before they die.

"What is the fail condition for this challenge?" You may be asking. There is exactly one fail condition: every sim related to your family in the household dies/is taken away. So, realistically, this challenge is very difficult to fail. If you only have one related sim left in the household but there are relatives out in the world and you want some insurance, feel free to bring the family back into the home. Whatever you can do to not fail? Do it.

And that's all I have for now! I haven't put together points or anything, or a score card, because I know people don't really play challenges for points anymore. But, if enough people want to play for points, I will add a scoresheet/scoring section.

If you have any questions, please message them to me or comment on this post, and I will answer your questions to the best of my ability!

If you decide to play this challenge, please tag it with #SimsAALC so that I can see it!

@ts4challengehub

[sterina-sims]

Anika's older brother and gen 2 spare, Aryan Prasad, and his family throughout the years.

[storiesbyjes2g]

3.176 Cheese

The park kind of reminded me of Tartosa. Every inch of that place is carefully designed, and not a blade of grass is out of place. It also has love-themed statues and topiaries perfect for taking selfies, and we took enough to post on Social Bunny for the next month, heh.

[magiccruumbs]

The many faces of Moni

[danganphobia]

namari college au tidbits pls,,, i wanna know abt her my silly resident butch lesbian queen

ooh... my gay ass knows namari is a college athlete. so is laios. im feeling... rugby :). she's dating one of the head cheerleaders (kiki) they're literally like. thee top hottest couple.

she's a massive gymhead so when she's not practicing for games she's probably at the gym. she does jiujitsu. toshiro does kendo and aikido (i'd imagine he'd do a martial art that requires using bamboo swords in a modern au setting, but knowing hands-on combat techniques would also be invigorating for him, so he'd seek a sport that does a mix of both weapons and close combat) so by default they met each other and often practice sparring sometimes. they became fast friends.

namari's a huge dnd nerd so when she heard there was a club she was one of the first to join. she was surprised when toshiro showed up because as long as they've known each other she didn't think this sort of thing was his thing. she underestimated that by heart every single person in this au is a fucking nerd, even the jocks. (i'm looking at you, laios).

sometimes toshiro goes to see her games for support when he has free time on his hands. he prefers to go with somebody (like laios, or kabru) because when kiki and namari and together namari is making it known her beautiful gf is the only thing on her mind right now. code word for you're probably going to get third-wheeled if you hang out with the two of them, ever.

senshi doesn't like junk food on the table. when he isn't around she and kabru get the party big macs and fries and they eat it quickly and dispose of the crime scene before he comes.

[simminnikas]

Johnny and Nix have a deep conversation about their relationship now that he's a ghost.

Should she spend her energy on grinding to find out what she can to bring him back? Or should she move on?

She does have the toddlers to take care of. Hell, if you think about it, she has to take care of the entire family that's stuck in an ISBI Save after all.

He leaves her for the night, and she goes to mourn what could have been, flopping on their bed to try and rest before the twins wake up.

(Although a sleeping bag is set up and claimed by Gemini, she sought out her sister, I'd like to think to comfort her, sim logic states: the bed was empty)

Simmer's Note/SN: Two days later, Nix got an anonymous I really like you message/txt. (I of course forgot to get a screen grab) She turned him down politely, choosing to focus on her kids. (This SimGoddess says there is potential)

Game Stats:-

Torch Holders: 2

Single Births: 2

Self-Wettings: 2 (TH)

Pass-Outs: 5 (TH-3, NTH-2)

Multiple Births/Triplets: 1, Twins: 1

Failing School: 1

Skills Maxed: 5 (TH-4, NTH-1)

Unused Satisfaction Reward Points: 3

Accidental Deaths: 1 (TH-0, NTH -10)

[celeryartjas]

Working a piece of my SWTOR Agent, Isbie... Sketch plan done! (It's a revamp of a 10 year old piece, IYKYK.)

[stimboard-radio]

View Monster - Lemon Demon stimboard

✭ with early 2000's/ retro toy stims

✫ RQ'd by @clarisse-isbi !

+ | - | +

+ | - | +

+ | + | +

(p.s. it was kinda hard to find 2000's toy commercial stims so I had to compromise and take some from the 90's and 80's, I hope the stimboard is still alright !)

[marmiteprinter]

After dinner, everyone got into their PJs (or just stayed in their underwear, in Bunty's case). Annabelle and Melvin made up quite sweetly in the kitchen and Bunty reacted exactly how any teenager would if they saw their parents kissing.

"Urgh, gross! Do you guys have to do that in front of me?!"

Annabelle chuckled. "We're allowed to kiss, Bun. You'll feel differently when you have someone of your own."

Bunty rolled her eyes. "Yeah, whatever. Parents making out will always be disgusting. Get a room or something."

The adults locked eyes and grinned. "Okay," Melvin said, and they headed into their bedroom.

"GROSS!"

Bunty went over to the TV and set the volume to maximum. Then, even though there was no couch and she had been tired earlier, she stood there watching the TV until about 3am. Great job, Bunty.

[keoni-chan]

🎶 Y’all ready for this? 🎶 

It’s time to officially meet our ISBI founder and first torch holder; Maureen Morgan. Maureen is a Fortune Sim, with a lifetime want to Earn § 100.000. yay.

I’m assuming everyone and their grandmother knows the rules of an ISBI, but in case you don’t, you can read about the rules I’m following here. 

[echoweaver]

After that, I was pretty tired, but there was so much I wanted to do while the house was quiet. So I tried this bottle of stuff that I got in the mail. I think it was a free sample of something.

I felt great! Now I don't need to sleep! Time to upgrade the dishwasher.

[spell-bloom]

Some thoughts after 4 in-game days of ISBI with Lazlo,,,

- I SEVERELY overestimated how sims take care of their needs. I accidentally clicked on Vidcund and his Hunger bar was at the BOTTOM. Bro was inches from death and he kept himself alive with drinks.

- This might be a mod conflict but sims that hold babies act so braindead, it's like their autonomy gets turned off. They only start doing things after an in-game hour or so, it really reminds me of simulation lag from TS4.

- Cooking a big thing of one food item and stuffing it in Lazlo's inventory, then pulling it out and calling for meal is a big strat I picked up. Thankfully, he is nearly at max level for Cooking !

- Even if there are leftovers in the fridge, sims barely go and grab them and would rather starve and die or live off drinks.

- I now learned that woohooing in an elevator doesn't give the "had first woohoo" want. Strange.

- Might also be a mod conflict, but Pascal and Vidcund refused to sleep in beds until I told them to sleep in them. Pascal would pass out on the floor and Vidcund would sleep on the outdoor chair outside.

[sterina-sims]

Anika Prasad and her family throughout the years.

[storiesbyjes2g]

3.171 Happy birthday to ya

When it got closer to party time, Sophia and I moved the couch to the backyard for more seating options. Our parties always end up fragmented with some sims eating in the house and others on the patio. My goal is to keep everyone together, so hopefully this will help. We also moved the picnic blanket and put the portable crib outside to accommodate the little ones. Because we're friendly again, I invited Yasmine and her girls, but she declined. She doesn't know the other guests and didn't want anyone asking questions about Stacey. I completely understood but feel bad for her. This spellcaster business has really trapped her and the girls in their home.

Apart from my baby aging up, I'm most excited about having Dub and his family in our home for the first time. Between the deaths and parenthood, it's been super hard for us to connect lately. I guess I was naïve enough to believe it would be easier being in the same city, but life keeps proving it doesn't matter where we are. Life is going to life, and that's that. I suppose I'll have to be more intentional about hanging with him too.

"You got it smelling good out here, bro," a voice says from behind me.

That Henford accent is unmistakable, and I was so glad to hear it. I turned around and embraced him.

"Wassup, man! Did you find us okay? Welcome! Finally!"

"Right? Took you long enough!"

"Don't even play, man. You know how life is sometimes."

"Sure do. This house is nice! And the view!"

"Thanks. If you're able to stick around later, I'll give you the tour. Hey, where's Maia? Is she coming?"

"Yeah, she's running a little late. She's just finishing up a project for a client."

"Ahhh. See? San Sequoia has been good to you already. I'm glad her business is picking up."

There's no way Dub showed up alone, so I looked around for Tambara, knowing she couldn't be too far behind. I spotted her toddling across the yard, trying her best to catch up with her daddy.

"She's getting to be extremely independent these days," Dub said when he realized I was watching her. "She won't even let us pick her up anymore. I don't mind that so much, but waiting for her really slows me down."

"She'll get faster," I said, thinking about Desiree's determination. "Just give her time."

Tami and Desi look nothing alike, but I see glimpses of the immediate future in her proud face and wobbly gait. I want Desi to grow up and change the world, but I can't part with my little girl. At the same time, I'm anxious to see her continue to grow. I love watching her smash these milestones like the boss baby she is. Ugh. Fatherhood is just a melting pot of contradictions. How can I be happy and sad, proud and scared at the same time?

Tami finally made her way over to us, so I waved.

"Hey there! Do you remember me? I'm Luca. That's a pretty dress."

Her face lit up, and I knew it didn't matter if she remembered me or not. I was currently her new bestie. Flattery works at all ages, hee hee.

"What do you say when someone gives you a compliment?" Dub asked.

"I know," she shouted.

Me and Dub had a good laugh. She's so precocious, and I love it. Kids really do say the darndest things, and I can't wait to hear what Desi will have to say. Hopefully that's not a be careful what you wish for situation, heh.

"That's right, Tam," I said. "You better know it."

"How are you holding up?" Dub asked, wiping the smile off my face.

"I'm good. As good as I can be, rather. It gets a little better every day."

"I'm glad to hear it. I can't even think about what that's going to be like."

"It might sound morbid, but you should start thinking about it, man. It's the shock that's hard to get over."

"You play dollies with me," Tambara shouts.

That was probably supposed to be a question, but she's too excited about her new, big friend and it's too cute.

"Oh, no," Dub says to me. "You start that and she'll never let you go."

She's adorable, looking just like both of them. I hope she and Desi will like each other. It'll be a shame to have them fighting or snubbing each other when we hang out.

"You can play with Desiree later, okay?" he says.

"Speaking of... We should probably get this show on the road soon. Let me finish these ribs."

(makeovers and family photos below!)

Dub and fam by @mysimsloveaffair

[magiccruumbs]

Fall in Riverview 🍁

[cyazurai]

Thinking about making an updated version of the "I'm Surrounded by Idiots", ISBI, challenge that works for either TS2, TS3, or TS4 (all of them I mean). It would work for all of them, and it wouldn't seem like it was making fun of those with mental disabilities like some people feel the ISBI does.

I would call it the Anonymously Autonomous Legacy and I'd change the rules up so it couldn't be called "just an ISBI with a different name."

I already know the main gimmick of the challenge too. Will I post it? Maybe. Doubt anyone but me is interested, but it would be fun to write it up.