Hmm! This is a problem I've not come across before, MilkyMilk! I'm stumped!

@vllygrl -I've planned for that to come up in mine as it's a colony and some of the new settlers to my colony might be first nations couples joining the colony and others might be from Africa coming as service sims and another is convicts being sent over on exile instead of sent to prison.IIt can be convicts being sent over in any case and brining in others from a distant land to be in service is another option even if the challenge is set in Old World Europe instead of a New World colony like mine is.

@TadOlson: Excellent suggestions - you've thought ahead with your colony, and these ideas could work for many simmers!
@MilkyMilk: Welcome to the MCC and I'm glad you're enjoying the challenge! Sometimes, depending on how the dice rolls go, some families will have a founder and his adult (or teen) brother or cousin, so same surname. According to challenge guidelines, these sims would belong to the same class, and would move out and create their own homes and families. This is one way you would have "other" peasants, because even if brother #1 is fortunate to move up a station, his brother #2 does not get to ride on his coattails and move up at the same time; brother #2 has to do so on his own merits. Also, it is not that easy to move up, especially for peasants, so not all your peasants will be so fortunate! If you find it is too easy, make it harder for them! Add some ROS's that might add unfortunate events to their lives or make the rules/guidelines stricter!
Also, see TadOlson's excellent ideas above - first nations couples or singles, service sims, convicts and I would suggest second round immigrants as well, can all join your settlement at some point as needed. Also, as your settlement grows and moves to the next level, new sims are added.

Hope this helps! Have fun! Cheers, Vllygrl

@vllygrl I've been using history to inspire me on growing my colony in the new world and immigration did happen in Old World Europe with some fleeing a war torn territry to find safety and that meant they changed their home if a war broke out in their homeland and forced them to leave.I also know that some began to prosper in Tudor times and that some colonies in the New World were actually established in the 16th century as a way of leaving famine and crop failures behind when weather patterns in Europe changed because a volcanic Eruption altered them.

I've been deliberating for years over whether or not to try this challenge -- too intimidated both by the rules and putting together all that medieval CC -- but I've finally decided to take the plunge.

I decided I'd rather start off with the landowner present as the town is growing. Therefore I would start off with the castle occupied with a noble family instead of the gentry, but they wouldn't be crowned monarchs until the settlement earns their "independence" by becoming a full city. I thought I could use the Besieged! scenario to play out a sort of war of independence that allows them to break off into their own kingdom. I hope that doesn't mess up the challenge too much. Are nobles still allowed to marry sims from the convent/military barracks?

There are a few things I'm a little unclear about. There's no option for crops when setting up the peasant households. Does that mean peasants can't be farmers? I like to set up my towns so that they're only allowed to eat what the community has grown or caught, so ideally I'd like to start with a few farms. Of course the yeoman families are allowed to have gardens and orchards, but there's fewer of them, especially if one of them needs to be set up with the hedge tavern.

Another thing is the artisans. According to the checklist I'd need a piper, juggler, street performer, bard, and minstrel. I'm at a loss as to how to make all these roles distinctive. Sims can't really make money with juggling, and I'm not sure what a piper would be doing besides playing instruments, which sort of makes them a minstrel? Is it the social caste that makes them different?

@delonriel -I'm not too worried about that as my first couple to start my colonial settlement in my apocalypse challenge is to lead by default and the same applies to my TOT challenge since both are in the 16th century and are colonies in the new world.My first settlers get the largest lot size because they have to farm the land and live on what they grow or catch from hunting.Social classes are only the background of the sims and mean little except for those sent over as convicts and that means nothing after they've served their sentence.

Hello Everyone,
This is a long overdue post to tell everyone about some exciting news: ergbennett has created a fabulous Sims 3 adaptation of the MCC! I can't say enough good things about her adaptation - suffice it to say that she has done a terrific job and I am so excited about this - I am very interested to hear how Sims 3 players react to it and if they start playing it!
ergbennett is also known as gnomeofinvention on Twitch, and Ravenwood streams are every Saturday at 12:30 pm MST so you can find out more about her adaptation there. My thanks to ergbennett for taking the time to make a Sims 3 adaptation of the MCC!
Psst...!!! I also know of a simmer who is working on a Sims 4 adaptation of the MCC!!!
Happy Simming,
Vllygrl

Hello and welcome, delonariel!
I'm glad you are taking the plunge to try the MCC and please don't be intimidated! There have been many interpretations over the years by various players who have decided to play the MCC, and I've always had the attitude that they are really more guidelines than hard and fast rules, so change and add things as you wish! No one "fails" this challenge, it's not so much about keeping score and adding up points to "win", but more about enjoying your game through a Medieval perspective which lends itself to great storytelling! AND about having fun!
Having said that, I will try and address some of your questions: first of all, I love your back story structure of using the noble family as the landowners, using Besieged! as a set-up for the family breaking off into their own kingdom, and then finally being crowned the monarchs of the region. No, it won't mess up the challenge at all -- it sounds like your unique and individual interpretation and approach and actually kind of an exciting beginning because the family will be very motivated - will they use their power for good or evil? Will they be benevolent rulers, or harsh overlords? Can't wait to hear more!!!
Nobles could marry a spouse from the convent or the military barracks, perhaps it would become part of your storytelling to invent a back story for the noble or gentry resident of convent/barracks who then marries into the noble family?
I initially set up the challenge so that Yeomen would be the market gardeners of the settlement -->City. This is because Medieval peasants would not have owned land so could not have grown any significant crops, and most likely would have been serving the landowners in the area anyway. Yeomen owned land, and had the resources to grow crops, using peasant labour even. One Yeoman market gardener to start with will be enough, perhaps he will have a brother or son who will assist him or start their own farm! If that doesn't seem like enough since you will also want a Yeoman family for the hedge tavern, you can add another Yeoman family to create a market garden. Remember, this starts out slow and is meant to build over time, so you don't have to have everything in place from the beginning - Medieval communities had many hardships during their development.
Artisans require a little creativity and perhaps some mods to set up. Artisan Occupations are those in which the Sim should be able to make a little money -- maybe not enough to live on, so you might want that Sim to be part of a family and not living on their own. The Sim should not also be employed in a career occupation at the same time, which is why they are in a different category.

Piper, Juggler, Street Performer, Busker -- these artisans are basically street performers, and can earn money by performing on community lots for tips (play for tips), or by performing on the stage (on a community lot).

Bard is a Poet/Writer (NOT a musician) and performs for gentry and nobility in their homes, think live poetry performance; you can use Mog’s “Become an author ... without a computer” mod; as well as have them perform on the stage.

Minstrel – an individual or member of a musical band i.e.: a Musician, who can make his or her living by performing for gentry and nobility in their homes or by performing on the stage.

Interesting thread about Playing Instruments as a Business at MTS here: http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=445643

I hope this helps explain things a bit better, but please let me know if you have any other questions!
Happy Simming,
Vllygrl

Thank you for such a quick and detailed response! That did in fact answer all my concerns and makes perfect sense. I wasn't familiar enough with medieval history to understand the difference between peasants and yeomen. I've been blessed (?) with several very large families, and since yeomen children don't go to school, they should be able to produce quite a lot of crops. I decided to start out with a market gardener and beekeeper/orchard. The beekeepers will also be the brewsters, selling lemonade which I'll pretend is mead or cider. Hopefully they'll eventually be able to afford the hedge tavern. If not, I'll give it to the third yeoman family. I use maxis crops which grow very slowly, so I'm sure the artisan roles will be very welcome in the future to bring in a few more bucks to farming families.

I especially like the option of being able to buy land with the nobles for the peasants to work on! That way I can also support future peasants who wouldn't be able to afford their own homes otherwise.

With the nobles able to marry from the bachelor households, I won't have to worry about the family dying out. The lord's mother is going to be heading the convent so she's in a good position to vet any girls who might join her family.

The dice were behaving particularly oddly when I rolled for my families, and I've ended up with a settlement consisting almost entirely of women, with two adult men out of 38 sims. One family of seven consists of six females and one male toddler! There are a few male teens and elders, so I'm thinking there must have been a war recently. I have so many toddlers that I might have to open up the foundling home early, but I'll see how it plays out.

Given how very many daughters I have, I also wanted to ask about the Artisan Apprenticeship. How does that work? Do they move in with an established artisan, or simply spend time with them and then enter into that profession themselves? Is that what the apprenticeship fee is for? 4k sounds like a lot for yeomen and peasants to be able to afford.

I'm using an edited version of the Veronaville map with the river widened to one day make room for a port so they can ship their goods. I can't wait to get started

I've found a few custom careers here like a farmer career that could serve for sims working on a landowner's farm as farm laborers or for convicts who got shipped over to work until they've served their sentence.I also have most sims having to make money without taking formal jobs at first when the colony is too small in population to support jobs except for a few options being available part time.My colonists get homesteads and become farmers at first and some are crafters or working in a trade.

Thank you so much for the shoutout! I've finally finished a sort-of-final draft of my adapted rules and started a new thread here: Medieval Charter Challenge for Sims 3 . I'd love to hear feedback from any Sims 3 players who try it out.

Quick note: I'm taking a break from livestreaming the challenge (streaming a different save that's modern and not medieval), but I'll get back around to it in January. I finished my first rotation with my town at level 2, and I'm getting close to unlocking some more lots. Can't wait to get back at it.

You're welcome, ergbennett, and thanks for the update! I'll be checking out your MCC for Sims 3 thread and looking forward to your MCC for Sims 3 livestream continuing in January.
Cheers, Vllygrl

Hello there! Just finished downloading every possible Sun & Moon mod, and made a detailed Google Sheets with my wallet, family controls and step-by-step of the Settlement to the City in my native language, to make things easier for me. It's been almost three weeks since I'm prepping my game & organising myself for the challenge! @_@
Some things are a little hard to understand for me, maybe because some context in english is passing through me. One question I have (and may be silly) is: how do the yeoman farmer get money? Can he actually sell his production in build mode/from inventory?
Because every other Settlement family has a way to get money, even Peasants can sell 2 items at home, right? But the farmers don't get a home shop or a community lot to seel their production. I'm wondering how I'm gonna pay taxes xD
Same about shepherd/hersmen.

Also, I've made a quick read in the thread, did anyone find a way of bills stop showing up?
The mailman already don't go to my lots, but I still get the message that bills are pilling up (and don't even have them anymore to pay for it @_@)

Hope someone answer soon, its been almost a year since this thread had news
Thanks so much! ✨

I've downloaded no more repoman Mods and have hacked trash containers that can be enabled for thowing the bills out like trash.I would allow the yeomen ranks to sell things their farms prodice or that they crafted as mine won't have regular jobs as my town of Riverview City is being established in the earlier part of the 16th century as a colonial settlement of the new world aka North America in the colonial era.I'll also put in a halved bills Mod as they don't get charged high taxes as their colony lacks in services and amenities as it's getting started.
Mine is mostly about the classes being their history and background so it would affect how well they do as colonial settlers like the travelling folks would prosper and farmers from the old country and farm workers would do very well while the upper classes might struggle.Country settlers might manage better than city dwellers who wouldn't know about storing food and stocking up for the winter.

Hey guys, how ya doing?
I cant seem to sell anything in my home business. It gets very glitchy, i have to show items at least 3 times so the action is completed (sims reset all the time), and no one buys it anyways. The only person who bought anything was a townie, not from my neighborhood, so I'm wondering if it has something to do with my familys - traits, money, controlling mods... I really have no idea. Anyone had some similar issue or can give me some light of what may be happening?

It depends on which town you're playng because the ones EA shipped with the game and expansions are corrupted and that kind of thing can happen in towns like the EA versions of Pleasantview,Strangetown and Vernaville shipped with the base game.It can also happen if Mods are clashing or a cheat like the sethour is overused.I've been planning to play mine in Alpine Valley which is a terrain shipped with the game though I'm having to add the sims in and start the town from scratch so I'll be daling with deserted and empty community lots for quite some time as I use Mods to allow that to be an option.The empty lots are just my way of adding realism to my town which is a colonial setllement in the new world later to be known as North America as it was being settled starting from the 16th century.

Could be mod problems, especially since you have a lot of new stuff in your Downloads folder.
This program can help:
http://www.picknmixmods.com/Sims2/N...CausedThis.html
If your sims are resetting, turn on the testing cheats and attach an error log to your post.

I've gotten some new content installed for build mode that looks like it belongs in a medievel style game and would fit right in with my 16th and 17th century colonial settlements of my challange games.I'll be using one of my new installs from today's new CC for my MCC game in Alpine Valley which is a 16th century colonial setllement in the new world.

I'm surprised I haven't perused this before! It's rad!!

Thanks very much, bob-plums! Hope you enjoy it!

Glad to see you're active around here. I also wanted to thank you for your extensive challenge. Done a couple playthroughs and now I'm currently creating my own edited version that I've been calling the FCC (Feudal Charter Challenge) in a semi-modern, fictional playthrough. Editing and adjusting as I play.

Thank you again for sharing

Haha! Yes, I still lurk a bit! You're welcome, I'm so glad you like it! I have been amazed and humbled by the number of people who've played my challenge and enjoyed it and have used it as a jumping off point for their own creativity with this game, such as you are doing! I'd love to hear more about the feudal aspect and how you are playing that.
Happy Simming,
Vllygrl

Hi Vllygrl!!
This is amazing news that you're still active. I was sure when i found this challenge after getting the sims 2 i jumped into a time capsule to over 10 years ago and I wouldn't be able to speak with anyone who is active!!!

I just wanted to say thank you so much for creating the MCC, I've found it, and it completely took over my brain for my whole sims 2 playthrough. after spending the past week focusing on this, I've laid out my beginning stages of the challenge (even got some wonderful maps from Mortia on the Keep) and am about to fully start this weekend!!! I need to roll for my families still but I will be doing 5 peasant families instead of 4 to start out like you did.

I read through this whole forum multiple times and did not see the last page ahah but i am so so glad there are active people still doing this challenge! Would it be okay to post updates on my story here? I'd like to keep them small as on the Keep I think i can do a full blown and in-depth explanation of my sims (I'm Merfana over there )

I am just so excited to get started, I can't thank you enough your challenge is just what I was looking for. I'm planning on building it up completely and then playing more afterwords to work towards the Warwickshire challenge by Heloise.

Cheers,
Merfana, Queen of Emberwyck

Hi Merfana! Yes I’m still around although don’t have much time to spend in the forums as I used to, although I’m hoping that’s going to improve in the next little while. 😁 I’m delighted to hear that you have embraced the MCC and you’re welcome - I too was very absorbed with it when I first developed and played it and then again with the update and chatting with other players about it so I can see what you’re talking about! I think it would be fantastic if you can post story updates on this thread and I am excited to read them! Thanks for your kind words and good luck creating your families! Happy playing,
Cheers, Vllygrl

Arrrgh my apologies for the super delayed response!
For the FCC I'm utilizing a loooooot of mods (don't we all XD )

The basic set up: start with 1 minor Lord - Gentry (I divide my classes into urban and rural, Gentry being the top of the rural hierarchy), 2 Yeomen, 3 Peasants. The peasants must live on an apartment style farm lot owned by the Gentry Lord, and pay their rents to them. The Yeomen get a smallish farm plot and also pay their rent to the Gentry Lord. Essentially each plot of land must be 'owned' by a lord, who must 'purchase' enough land to be inhabited. I've created an immigration and political system that grows with the settlement, eventually expanding to a subhood for the urban extension...

I may have gotten carried away with it all lol!
Really appreciate the work you put into the MCC and for sharing with us all
~Cheers and happy Simming