Victorian Servitude Challenge

Hello all! I’ve wanted to do something like this for a very long time. I looked for a pre-existing challenge, and all I could find along the same vein as what I’ve come up with is The Hired Help Challenge (http://modthesims.info/t/538452 ). This is a great challenge on its own, and it is definitely a simpler version of what I’ve come up with! The way Hired Help is structured, it sets up one sim bouncing back and forth between different kinds of servitude, i.e. nannying, cleaning, repairing, cooking, gardening, etc. The concept for mine is a different sim for each of those jobs, living in the same house, serving the same Upper-Middle Class family in the Victorian era. The result it somewhat a combination of the Hired Help Challenge and the Victorian Population Challenge (which I could not for the life of me find a link to, but all due credits to the creator of that super fun and creative challenge).

There are a LOT of rules to this challenge, but that’s only because I very much wanted it to be historically accurate. Of course you don’t have to follow all of these rules, and you surely can modernize it if you want. But if a researched, historically accurate, well thought out challenge is what you’re looking for, then here it is! I’m definitely a sucker for period dramas (Downtown Abbey being one that highlights servitude), and hopefully there are some simmers out there that are too! This article (http://www.waynesthisandthat.com/servantwages.htm ) breaks down the hierarchy and role of servants in the 1800’s. It helped me sort out which types of servants I would be using, so thank you to the author. Alright, let’s get to it!

Starting Out:

-Create five sims; these will be your servants. They may have whatever traits you like, although they MUST have the specific traits/genders required of their job (which we’ll get to after this). These sims should have period appropriate, servant-looking uniforms (custom content is your friend for this!) for everyday wear and some not too fancy clothing for formalwear.
-Next, create two sims, a male and female. These will be your newlyweds, your Master and Lady of the House. Get the female pregnant immediately; she should already be pregnant when the challenge officially starts. Dress them in wealthy clothes appropriate for the period. After all, they are Upper-Middle Class.
-If you want to make things a bit more difficult for your maid, you can give the couple the “Slob” trait. This is not required, however.
-Give them a nice home furnished appropriately, using as much money as you want to make it. Be sure to include servant’s quarters!
-After the house is made, set household funds to 10,000.
-The Master, Lady of the House, and their children may only eat freshly prepared food for every meal. Therefore, they should not have access to any fridges.
-On the contrary, servants may only eat leftovers. Therefore, they (aside from the cook) should not have any access to a stove.
-This challenge should be played from the “point-of-view” of the servants, so try your best not to click on The Family. Have free will turned all the way up, and just let them do their thing. Servant sims, however, should always be monitored to make sure they’re actually doing their job.

Job Specific Rules:

Groundskeeper
-Must have "Green Thumb" trait.
-Responsible for caring for the garden.
-Must be male, any age teen-adult.
-Day consists of gardening and taking care of needs when necessary.

Lady's Maid
-Must have "Friendly" trait.
-Must be a female around the age of the Lady of the House.
-Responsible for helping the Lady of the House with menial tasks/being friends with her. Must become best friends with the Lady of the House as soon as possible.
-Day consists of keeping the Lady of the House entertained and taking care of own needs when necessary.

Nursemaid
-Must have "Family Oriented" trait
-Must be a female, preferably starting as a teenager. (In the article I linked above, it said that most nursemaids were around 12-14.)
-Responsible for feeding, changing, and playing with babies, toddlers and children. Also responsible for teaching toddlers all skills (walking, talking, potty train), and for helping children with homework.
-In addition, nursemaids must improve their logic skill to level five before toddlers become children, so they can tutor them in various skills. Then, they must become level ten before the children become teenagers, so they can tutor them after they age up. (The nursemaid is going to double as the governess when the kids are old enough.)
-Day consists of caring for/teaching children and taking care of their own needs when necessary.

Housemaid
-Must have "Neat" trait.
-Must be female, any age teen-adult.
-Responsible for cleaning of all sorts (dishes, puddles, etc.), making beds, doing repairs, and laundry.
-Day consists of doing above mentioned and taking care of their own needs when necessary.

Cook
-Must have "Natural Cook" trait.
-Either gender, any age young adult-elder.
-Responsible for cooking all meals that the family eats, including making baby food (even though that blender isn't exactly period appropriate). Must bake all birthday cakes and wedding cakes. Must cook extra food with many courses if the family is having company. Must cook every craving lady of the house has when pregnant.
-Since this is the least demanding job of them all (as far as Sims go; in real life, cooking three meals literally did take up the whole day back then), the cook must spend his/her free time learning every recipe the game has to offer.

Other Rules:

-All friendships/relationships between staff members must only be built when everyone has completed their work for the day. Example: the cook has made all the meals, the maid has finished cleaning, the whole garden has been tended for the day, the nursemaid has put the children to bed, etc.
-If you have both males and females in your staff, they can have relationships/get married/have children of their own. This was actually a common occurrence, especially in big households with many servants. But as stated above, the relationship must not be a priority. Work comes first, then relationships.
-The Master, the Lady of the House, and their children must not have access to the kitchen, the laundry room, or the servant's quarters.
-Nobody may have access to the kitchen except the cook.
-Nobody may have access to the laundry room except the maid.
-Nobody may have access to the nursery except the nursemaid (and the children of course).
-I know all of those^ may be a bit obvious, but we know how sims love to do things that we as storytellers wish they wouldn't. Specifying sims for certain doors is going to help a lot in this challenge!

Rules Regarding The Family:

-The Master may have any of the following careers: Business, Medical, or Military. Any other career would be beneath the Upper-Middle Victorian class, and the Political career would mean they're in the 1%, MUCH wealthier, and would have MANY more servants than possible to play in the Sims.
-The Master and the Lady of the House must "risky-woohoo" every night (NRASS Woohooer Mod http://nraas.wikispaces.com/Woohooer ). There was no contraception back then, so Victorian families were big!
-Children of both genders must be homeschooled (NRASS Homeschool Mod http://nraas.wikispaces.com/Careers+School+Phase+Nine ). I suggest using computers disguised as typewriters when submitting homework, for authenticity. I found mine here (https://www.thesimsresource.com/dow...ter/id/1161090/ ).
-Boys may attend regular school when they are teenagers. Girls must continue to be homeschooled.
-Boys are encouraged to learn the athletic skill (unfortunately I was unable to find any Victorian themed work-out equipment). Girls are encouraged to learn art and music. Both genders may be taught their respective skills by their nursemaid/governess or by their parents.
-Both genders should eventually master the logic skill with the help of their nursemaid/governess.
-Women must not have careers; their job is to be married off. Unless they decide to join the nursing career (Either by joining the Medical career and stop advancing after level three, or install the custom career for nursing from here https://missyhissysjobcentre.wordpr...nursing-career/ . Please do note that in order to use custom careers, you must first have NRASS career mod installed.)
-If they join a career other than nursing, they will be outcast from the family.
-Women must live in the house until married, unless they join the forbidden careers. If they join the Nursing career, they must continue to live in the house. Nurses may get married and move in with their husbands, but that normally didn't happen. Nurses were nurses for life; they usually didn't have time for a spouse and a family of their own without giving up nursing.
-The eldest male must take the career of his father. Any males born thereafter may have any of the above listed careers, but they may also join the political career and surpass their father in wealth.
-Males don't have to live in the house until married, although that was usually the case. The eldest male must never move out; he inherits the house, along with the servants.
-Neither gender may marry below their station. Wealth and occupation are extremely important when marrying off the children. If a child (either gender) chooses to marry below their station, they are outcast from the family. Note on this: it may be interesting to have romance between the Master/Lady of the House's children and children of servants for some extra drama. Just a suggestion.

If you choose to play this as a generation challenge:

-Servants of the new generation may be offspring of servants of the old generation. This is recommended. However, if they did not have enough children, or if there is nobody for the children to reproduce with when the time comes, you may "hire" new help by creating new sims and moving them in, or by meeting unemployed sims around town and moving them in, or by adopting children and using them.
-The children of the servants and the children of the Master/Lady of the House may be friends as children, but should drift apart as they get older. Alternatively, perhaps a daughter to a servant can grow into a lady's maid for one of the children.
-The children of servants should start to learn their parents' job as soon as possible. They should also "inherit" their parents' given trait. Example: If the groundskeeper and the cook have a son, he should "inherit" the green thumb trait or the natural cook trait, or both.
-A note on that: it is not recommended that nursemaids get married and have children of their own, unless their charges have all grown up. Trust me, they'll have their hands full enough.
-A note on that note: The Family is not allowed to care for children of the servants. The servants may care for each other’s; for example, if the cook has a baby, the maid may feed it if the cook is busy. The servants look after their own. But they may not be any burden at all on The Family. It is not their job to take care of it.

I believe that’s it! I really do appreciate it if you actually read all of that, because a lot of thought and careful planning went into creating this challenge. I’m going to attempt this challenge in my own game in a few days! If anybody out there decides to try it, let me know! Post screenshots, backstories, and updates! I’d love to see it!

Good luck, have fun, and happy simming!

Bumping this because it was approved 29 days after I posted!

Might try this out

This looks like a really cool challenge. I can't wait to try it!

A suggestion for some drama: old Master actually sleeps with teen/ya maid and has illegitimate child(ren) who are counted as servants' children, because I'm sure it happened back then

This looks familiar. http://modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=558079

This caught my eye. One of my favorite TV series was Upstairs/Downstairs. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066722/ I've never done a challenge before but this maybe my first.

Could I send male teens to boarding school?

You absolutely could! In fact, that's pretty realistic of the time period. I only failed to mention it because I don't have generations. Great addition, thanks!

I hope you don't think I was copying you in any way. I had no idea your challenge existed! They are a little different in many ways. I made sure (with research and careful planning) that my challenge aesthetic specifically fits the Victorian Era, yours seems to be a bit more open to interpretation. If I'd seen your challenge before I made this post, I absolutely would have credited you, because you're right, they are very similar.

Hi stumbled on this and watched the first few episodes of your lets play of this challenge (which I LOVE). I'm already so excited to start my own playthrough. Just a few questions for details:
Regarding careers for daughters of the Family, could they become schoolteachers, or through mods like the Priest career, join some sort of religious organization? (I know being a nun was reserved to upper-middle class women, not so sure about Victorian era)
Also, could female teens be sent to boarding school, in lieu of finishing school?
Does the household (family and/or servants) get to do sim things like visit community lots or their friends' houses, and host/attend parties?
Can servant stations be added on to this challenge, like stable boy, butler, chauffer?