So I have decided to set up three mini-megahoods, and the biggest one contains Pleasantview (the suburbs), Desiderata Valley (the fantasy/superhero/themed area). Riverblossom Hills (the countryside), Belladonna Cove (the city/rich and poor districts), and Sim State University (the college).

I'm not really enthused at all by BC, or the sims in it. It seems to me that it suffers a bit from Sims 3-ism. There are too many families (11 compared to 5 or 6 in other hoods) and they are all, in my opinion, a bit bland. I'm not keen on that whole "I'm rich, so I'm going to dress stuffy and formal all the time" thing. I was really disappointed to find that the apartments included in the lot bin were copies of the BC apartments, too.

If I install it as the second downtown, using empty DT as the first and then deleting it, it should install with no sims. I'm considering doing this, because I like the overall look of the hood, I am just bored with the sims in it. I wouldn't be short of sims to move in, as I'd have the graduates, as well as some other sims I'll probably move around a bit.

I haven't yet decided whether to add the "extra" bin families (Roseland + Crittur, Ottomas + Ramaswami, Picaso + Cooke, Gavigan + Goodie + Newson, Kat, Kim) to this one, or Strangetown/Downtown/LFT (which is also of course suffering an empty downtown area for the time being). I could split some of them by EP.

Gaah! What should I do?? The only thought I have had is that I could have all of the rich families buy businesses, and that might make them more interesting to me in terms of the challenge, especially with makeovers, and it would be cool to have community lots owned by real sims. And the other thought is the gender balance of single sims, for breeding/partnering purposes later on, which I am yet to work out - I'll do that shortly. There are certainly some interesting facial genetics in BC.

Can anybody tell me their favourite BC sim stories, bearing in mind I'm not including the sim bin families, only those already placed. Or do you think I should just go with the empty hood option?

Stock market crash and they all lose all their money.

I actually really like the BC sims, more so than most of the other premade 'hoods, especially RH and DV. They've got some nice conflict going on, especially with the Cordial sisters and between Justin and his parents - my Clevelands recently moved to Pleasantview without really considering how Justin would feel about it, esp. as regards being away from Tara; faced with the prospect of being stuck in Boringville with his parents until he can afford to move out, he's decided to rebel by joining the military and being shipped off to Strangetown barracks. I love the cheap apartment block with the bar on the roof - most of my graduates are there 'cause it's cheap, along with Ripp Grunt, who ran away from home, and I like the sense of community that's being fostered by grot.

I've also been having fun matchmaking for Armand DeBateau, since he rolled a golden anniversary LTW for me, and now Tara's left for college he's having lots of fun running around his fancy-ass (ugly) penthouse naked with Gretchen Chin. He's definitely going down the investment route, too - ultimately I want all of my uberhood's apartment buildings and businesses to be sim-owned, so the rich sims like Armand and Mortimer are a great place to start with that.

I've also been having fun with Timothy Riley and Vivenne Cho, mostly because Timothy is an arsehole but Vivienne forgave him and married him anyway (when Vivenne got fired and tried to talk to him about it, he stuck his fingers in his ears and changed the topic). I'm sure that'll come up again at a later date.

I've only just started playing BDC recently but I do adore the sims there!

Jason and Marissa broke up due to Jason's non-heterosexuality. He's happily now engaged to Tom Freshe and they are doing quite well, unlike Marissa. Her brother ran off with the family fortune and a pirate!

Timothy and Vivian were engaged - until Sally realized that Etsu wouldn't be like a sister anymore but really would be her sister and she'd have to share her daddy with other people. Plus, the whole different class started to really get to Vivian and the engagement was called off.

I didn't like the Belladonna Cove Sims until I played them. It took me a few rotations of my megahood before I actually enjoyed them,

Now I'm trying to remember who the original Belladonna Cove Sims are, freshly-graduated Sims and newly weds moving out of their parents homes tend to move into Belladonna.

Baldwin: Benjamin and Isabel have been rolling wants for children since the beginning, but for some reason they still haven't had another. Both their children are now teenagers, Marcus is currently trying to date Buck Grunt - who can't decide between him and Jill Smith. Sofia, despite being a knowledge sim, she had a bit of a rough time woohooing around the town. She got pregnant with a teen townie with red hair and her parents asked her to move out and live with her Grandpa (I know, he's her grandpas brother but I don't know what that makes him. Great-Uncle maybe? anyway) Carlos Contender - mainly because after he woohooed 20 women and got platinum, I got bored of him. She had a daughter named Patience Contender (last name changed so she would inherit the Contender house) and is now planning on getting her life back on track by going off to college next rotation.

Cho: Before Timothy could even make a move on Vivian, she was already head over heels for her blind date - Mitch Indie. They got married and had two children together - Kujo and Kurou. Etsu is now a teenager, and is of course a knowledge sim just like her best friend Sally. Both will be going to college soon.

Cleveland: After going through a bit of a rough patch, Marissa cheated on Jason with both Carlos Contender and Malcolm Landgraab IV. She managed to get pregnant, she told Jason the child was his and he was ecstatic. Their relationship was saved! Then Marissa gave birth to twins Calvin and Coral. Both of which had blonde hair, but tanned skin. Jason knew for sure that they weren't his. Still trying to fulfill his want for another baby, he decided to cheat on Marissa as revenge. He went on a blind date with Miranda Capp. Marissa caught him and they broke up. Jason moved out and after being a bachelor for a while, got into a relationship with Jessica Peterson and now they live together with her son Kale. Malcolm Landgraab IV found out about his illegitimate children and decided to raise Calvin as his own with his wife and their son Malcolm V. Justin is now an adult and is waiting for his fiancé Tara to come back from university so that they can get married before he gets moved to Strangetown by General Buzz Grunt's orders.

Contender: Carlos woohooed his way through 20 women, resulting in 3 sons he doesn't know about. He then got given the secondary aspiration of Family, and is raising his great-niece and her daughter Patience. His new lifetime want is to send 3 kids to college. Which is doable, even though he's not aware of his 3 children... and I'm not even sure I want to send any of them to college.

Cordial: Kimberly got pregnant with Carlos Contender's babies very early on in the game (same time as Jessica Peterson). She had twins Samuel and Daniel who both share Carlos' love of sports. Raising the twins brought the twins even closer, and also away from magic. When they became children, Samantha moved out and got married, having children of her own.

DeBateau: Nothing much really happened. Tara went off to college not long after Armand married Samantha Cordial. They had quite a few miscarriages before Samantha gave birth to quads; Beaumont, Barbie, Bell and Bobby. They're a handfull, and the house is now stupidly too small to contain them all. I'm hoping to move them into another house when they become children.

Green: Gabriel and Chastity started up a 'friends with benefits' deal, which was all Chastity really wanted, however Gabriel was left feeling upset and heartbroken that she had no interest making anything more of it. Chastity found out she was pregnant, and Gabriel asked her out, which she refused and said that they were just going to give the baby up for adoption and continue life as if nothing happened. She eventually gave birth to Zaharah Green-Gere. Who was fostered by Brittany Upsnott while the orphanage was being built (it was finished when she was a child). Chastity and Gabriel never went back to how they were before, they mainly avoided each other around the house. Gabriel visited Zaharah a lot, and there met Brittany's old sorority sister Tiffany. The two got married this rotation and I think Tiffany is pregnant. Gabriel invited both Zaharah and Chastity to the wedding, Zaharah came and ignored her father, only talking to Brittany for most of the day until I actively started forcing Gabriel to interact with her. She didn't seem to like him very much though because even when Gabriel was 60/50 relationship with her, they still weren't friends. Chastity is currently living with her newest woohoo-buddy Gunnar Roque.

Patel: Ana gave birth to Maida Patel and after that became depressed, she was always mopy and sad. They adopted an old dog, Esquire, but all he did was destroy the house. Eventually Ana and Ramir decided it was the tiny apartment that was making them so depressed, so they moved into a newly built apartment below the Ramswarmis. There they adopted another dog, Dakota - who they bred with Esquire and the puppies (Sire and Esquire II) were born a few days after Esquire die of old age. Ana then gave birth to son Karan, and is currently pregnant again. I'm also considering having her adopt one of the Ramswarmi's children... they just keep having them until they have a male... and so far they've had 4 daughters. 1 of which was taken away because they didn't care for it. They ask Ana to look after their youngest daughter becaue they don't care about her.

Peterson: Jessica had a child with Carlos Contender, Kale. Soon she moved to a trailer in Pleasantview. Then she met Jason Cleveland and they now live together in DV. Oh and she has 2 dogs - Ollie and Allie. Dad and daughter. Jason has one dog, Tucker. Who I will probably breed with Allie when she grows up.

Riley: Timothy fell head over heels for Cassandra Goth. They moved into a house together in Belladonna cove and have had a son named Harry. Sally enjoys having a little brother, though she was really rooting for Timothy and Vivian. She's still best friends with Etsu and they visit each other often. Sally had a thing for Alexander Goth for a bit before he got a girlfriend, she then moved on to Xander Roth - he refuses to go steady with her, but she's not too bothered. She wants to max out 7 skills, and has got 3 scholarships from uni regarding her skills in cooking, cleaning and Logic and 1 for her A+ report card. Cassandra is pregnant again, they're hoping for a daughter... mainly because Sally is going off to uni soon so they want to redecorate her room because Harry's is only just big enough to add a crib in.

Rutherford: Geoff threw a few parties. Originally I intended Connor to get with Lola Curious and Geoff to get with Heather Huffington, but then Nina came round and well... I was pretty surprised when the cut scene of Connor and Lola was a cut scene of Connor and Nina! Connor was refused by Lola. He was alone for a while, until he met Natasha Una. She was so fascinating to him and eventually he moved in with her and adopted her adopted son Lester. She's either pregnant, or just had a child last rotation. If she did the child was most likely named after cheese. Connor, after numerous flings, did end up going out with Heather Huffington, she moved in with him with her daughter Ellie Huffington for a bit, until Kevin Beare wanted to raise his daughter with his new wife Monica. Then Heather and Connor had a son, Maddox.

I personally love Belladonna Cove. It’s my second favorite ‘hood (after Pleasantview). Which is surprising because when I first checked out it I wasn’t all together excited about it.

But then I started thinking up storylines and trying to figure out who the characters are. There’s actually a lot I’m doing with the residents right now.

DeBateau - Armand had recently married gold-digging girlfriend, Murphy Cartier, much to the chagrin of his daughter, Tara, and Rose, the family’s live-in housekeeper (who also happens to be in love with Armand, herself).

Jealous Murphy always picked on pretty, sweet Rose until the other woman had no choice but to eventually move out. Tara, who sees Rose as the mother she never had, is furious with Murphy and never misses an opportunity to irritate her. She wishes her father would divorce the “skank”.

She might just get her wish because Murphy is now pregnant by her lover, and Armand’s best friend, Geoff Rutherford. Should Armand find out. . .well let’s just say it won’t be pretty.

Tara’s also began her first serious relationship with the recently brought back Fricorith Tricou. Will she be able to remain dedicated to getting into a good college or will first love consume her entire life?

Rutherford - Speaking of Geoff, he’s enjoying playing the field and has no plans to settle down right now. Poor Murphy might find herself all alone should Armand discover her deep dark secret.

Weir - Geoff’s friend, Connor, has moved out of the house and into his own apartment. He’s rapidly rising up the ranks of the Business track and is currently dating windowed mother, Summer Seasons. He’s planning on proposing to her very soon. (Honestly, they’re one of my favorite couples considering how sweet - yet surprisingly frisky - they are with each other).

Green - Gabriel finally confessed his feeling to Samantha Cordial. The pair are living together in a cute little apartment and happily in love. They want to get a little more established in their careers, Samantha - Medical and Gabriel - Education, before they become engaged. Gabriel recently became a Good wizard, thanks to his girlfriend, and the pair are enjoying a very magical life.

Kimberly, Samantha’s twin, has decided to go down a darker path, becoming an Evil witch. But that hasn’t wrecked the sisters’ friendship. Surprisingly they’ve grown closer, though Samantha does wish her sister would’ve taken a different path.

Kimberly’s began a new relationship with the newly resurrected Kiernan Tricou. Their relationship is growing hot and heavy and Kimberly’s looking for more. Unfortunately Kiernan is a Romance Sim with a roving eye. Better hope Kim doesn’t find out because you know what they say about a witch scorned. . .

Cleveland - Marissa is doing everything she can to make the Clevelands as formidable as the DeBateaus. She’s bound and determined to be THE queen of real estate in Belladonna Cove and has thrown herself into getting her firm off the ground. She’s been working so hard that she tends to neglect her husband, Jason. Unfortunately for her, he’s starting to have eyes for his male co-worker and fellow detective.

Marissa continues to try and mold Justin into her perfect image of him, though her son keeps fighting her at every turn. Though she worried his potential relationship with Tara DeBateau might effect his schoolwork, the idea of being related to the most influential family in Belladonna Cove was too grand to pass up. It really stuck in her craw when he instead turned his attentions to creepy, gothic and brought back from the dead Gvaudoin Tricou. She keeps trying to drive a wedge into their relationship but young love just won’t be denied.

Those are just a few of the families and storylines I’ve worked out so far. I have many ideas for the Rileys, Chastity Gere and Jessica Peterson, along with my CAS sims.

I'm quite enjoying BDC at the moment. Vivian and Timothy got happily married a while ago and I can't recall too much about them. Kimberly got knocked up by Armand, and then her sister tried to kiss him at her nephew's birthday party but got rejected. Kimberly's now married to Armand, who bores me a little so I'm having him buy holiday homes in every vacation subhood to visit once per rotation. Jason and Marissa are quite into each other but I've had Jason (Cleveland) flirt with Jason (Larson) on the sly. Their son is dating Jules O'Mackey and that's going well, although I intend to have Jules hate-crush on Sandra Roth. Chastity wants 20 lovers, and when I find a sim with that LTW, they all date each other, so she's seeing Chloe Curious (and Carlos, and Natasha Una), which is a bit dodgy because Chloe slept with Gabriel too. Jessica married Ajay Loner and moved to Strangetown, but her crappy little trailer was loads of fun to play. And the Patel's are madly in love and one of their twin's has the plague.

Ha I have played them a bit. I played them in my megahood, which is imploding because it's the old, corrupted kind. Here's what happened to them last time (and what I found boring/interesting). - Just in the interests of sharing. Unfortunately no story has tempted me yet!

Baldwin: I actually like this family a lot. They are probably the ones I would miss. They moved to Pleasantview and became friends with the Goths. Sophia is a sport-loving tomboy, but her parents want her to be interested in classical music. They encourage her brother in sports, which makes her feel resentful. They just found out they are expecting again, as Sophia turns into a teen. I think she might feel even more pushed out and rebel.

Cho/Riley: Got married, moved to a house with a garden, adopted a dog, had a baby (boy). They are okay, but there are other stepfamilies I could make, so I'm not madly enthused.

Cleveland: Justin is gay, as is Tara. That is how I interpreted their "special friendship" in my game - they helped each other with that whole discovery, finding their way around the college LGBT scene, etc. Justin's parents don't yet know, because they wouldn't really approve. He just graduated and lives in a different apartment block after they gave him money to get started. Marissa became a couple's therapist and helped the Pleasants get their marriage back on track. I enjoyed redecorating their apartment. But mostly all three of them are snoresome to play. Justin's genetics are pretty unique, so if I played him again, I'd like to have him breed biologically somehow - whether as a sperm donor, (For Tara? There's a storyline I could get behind, especially with Armand's jawline in her genetics....) or perhaps a plantsim, alien abduction, use of a surrogate, alien blood partner who can impregnate him. None of those are massively jumping out at me, apart from now the idea of a collaboration with Tara where they wind up co-parenting, or each raises one blood sibling more like cousins, with their respective spouses.

Contender/Peterson: Jessica became pregnant to Carlos, so she moved in on a platonic basis to share the raising of their son, Wayne. Carlos continues to hold wild sex parties. If he dies before Wayne reaches adulthood, Jessica is permitted to live there until he is 18 at which point ownership switches to him and he can do what he likes. Hmm, okay, I guess this is pretty interesting.

Cordial: Samantha married Armand and now lives with him. Kimberly moved to Veronaville in order to become a witch, and owns a little poodle. I had her become a witch, but then realised that witches are quite boring, it takes forever to get enough reagents to have them cast spells, and they can hardly do anything interesting anyway. Affecting motives? Who cares! I'm feeling quite uninspired with her too.

DeBateau: Tara went to college, Armand married Samantha, who also had a couple of miscarriages in my game. She didn't become a witch. Tara moved back home with her university girlfriend who then got made into a townie. I think Armand bought the general store in Belladonna. But nothing ever happens.

Green: I don't find the chemistry between these two very convincing at all. They bought a robot station and now own several cleaning and aquabots, which I hadn't made before (and found out that they are mostly pointless). Chastity rolled Romance/Knowledge in my game, and, I think, 20 simultaneous loves, so due to a combination of wants I had decided to have her learn robotics until she can create servos and then sell them/keep them as an army of sex robots. Gabriel kind of wanders around making robots, reading, playing the remote control car and not doing anything at all interesting.

Patel: Moved somewhere else, I don't remember where. Are currently having and being overwhelmed by multiple babies, they also seem to breed nannies (borked hood anyone? ) I guess they might be more interesting when the children grow up, but right now, nope. Although I hoped to get some cultural approval/clashes in the future with a marriage between one of their children and one of the Ramaswami children.

Rutherford: Connor married Lola Curious-Smith and they also moved to Pleasantview. Geoff is very uninteresting to me. I was trying to save him enough money to buy a community lot, but he doesn't want to do a lot of work on it, so he has to wait.

So I suppose, I need inspiration for: The Cleveland and DeBateau parents, the Cordial sisters, Gabriel Green, Geoff Rutherford, and Connor Weir (since he won't have Lola to marry in this incarnation.) Perhaps I could accelerate the Cleveland and DeBateau parents' ageing and stick them into an old folks' home together.

Ooh ooh let me retcon that - I did not see the two posts before mine. I like the idea of having several sims with the 20 lovers LTW join some kind of polyamorous relationship.

I'm surprised that so many people see Jason Cleveland as being secretly gay - I hadn't thought of that before! That's interesting....and Marissa as a formidible businesswoman!

I think his gender preferences are preset to be gay.

If you do the 20 lovers poly thing, look into anti-jealousy mods or be careful of those Downtown outtings you get on the first night. Carlos got invited downtown and Chloe Curious, Nina Caliente, Chastity Gere, Gabriel Green and Natasha Una all showed. Their relationships are all tangled and it's a miracle no relationships imploded, although Chastity did reject several people.

And yeah, Jason's gay, but it's one of those things you only see by poking around in SimPE - two romantic interactions with his wife is all it takes to undo that. Much as I love this game, I gotta say it's not great where canon LGBT relationships are concerned.



Tara's adopted though, so Armand's jaw shouldn't be an issue.

Ohh - I didn't notice that! Hmmm.

Yup! He broke up with Jessica partly because of the cheating, but also because he wanted an heir and she didn't want kids. So when she left, he adopted Tara. If he has kids with someone else, you could have some interesting conflict with Tara worrying that he'll reject her in favour of the new kid and not getting along with them.

Good idea

OK I have worked out gender ratios. I have counted only unmarried sims. All ratios work on a F:M basis.

In the Pleasantview based hood, without Belladonna.
Adults + YA = 18:16
Teens + YA = 12:13
A + T + YA = 24:20
Kids + toddlers = 2:4

With Belladonna Cove:
A + YA = 23:22
T + YA = 13:14
A + T + YA = 30:27
Kids + toddlers = 5:5

The bin families add (singles): 1 AF, 2 AM, 1 TF, 2 TM, 2 CF, 5 CM (again including toddlers with kids).

Strangetown totals are:
A + YA: 14:14
T + YA: 10:11
A + T + YA: 15:17
Kids: 1:1

Any thoughts on where I should place the bin families? Or perhaps I ought to skip them from the mini-megahoods entirely, and do the "Binned binnies" challenge? :D

(Edited to make figures clearer)

Jason's gender preference starts out as being slightly for males, so playing him and Marissa as in a bearding relationship is one way to make them interesting. It also explains why she's so invested in Justin's success.

I have not played Belladonna Cove properly, just enough of the genderswapped version to get through that phase of my Uberhood Challenge. The Genderswap changes the power dynamics a lot, the backstory that sets up my Challenge does so even more (the Idealistic Conservatives are in charge; birth control, abortion, and divorce are illegal, but paternity testing is mandatory even for married women, and fathers are legally required to live with their children unless they do a whole song and dance repudiating all their rights for the court), and the characters were very uncooperative about meeting my challenge protagonist, Rhett Hart. So my experience may not be helpful - except insofar as my example may make you feel freer about changing the rules of the game to make things fun for you.

I wanted Rhett to knock up Amanda deBateau in her helicopter, as it would have been interesting in terms of both story and genetics, but she caught him with somebody else before he got to that point (she is a savagely nasty woman scorned! If Armand was half as overbearing with Jessica, no wonder she ran!) and then Beth Rutherford got pregnant right out the gate. I was playing Beth as the spoiled princess, with Connie Weir as her BFF/minder, the sidekick who helps her friends out of scrapes in return for a place at the cool kids' table. Well, she delivered on that! I needed to get Rhett out of BC, so as soon she got pregnant she moved in with him and they moved to Desiderata Valley, where Beth could telecommute from "Takemizu" while Connie covered for her at work and to her theoretical highly-conservative parents. Beth is a Virgo, and back in her own home she cleaned up, but as a pregnant lady she expected to be waited on hand and foot. She ignored the child on site, treated the existing baby and toddler like dolls to be played with or ignored according to whim, she treated the nanny (an excellent nanny, who potty trains!) like a robot maid, and after her first attempt at cooking resulted in scorched food she refused to try again, finding all kinds of excuses to let the action drop out of her queue when I told her to do it. Rhett was working long hours, doing most of the child care, most of the cooking (the nanny cooked, too), and trying to keep Beth happy with flirts and backrubs and tickling, and she was spending most of her time taking bubble baths, dancing, and complaining about the mess. I (and Rhett) were willing to cut the pregnant lady a lot of slack, but by the time little Geoff was born I was so ready to be done with the Beth Experience! And Rhett's life got easier the moment she walked out the door, even though he now had two babies and a toddler to deal with. (I'm turning aging off during pregnancy in the interest of getting through the challenge.) Meanwhile, Connie was clearly pining after Rhett herself, calling and visiting, rolling wants to see him when I checked back in with her household. When they were both invited over for Geoff's toddler birthday, the first thing he did was crawl up to Connie and demand attention, clearly confused about who his real mama was. When I play their house, she drinks too much.

There's no reason the spoiled-royalty-and-sidekick-eating-leftovers dynamic can't work with guys, too. Geoff Rutherford makes the messes; Connor Weir cleans them up. Connor is the instrument through whom babymamas are paid off, scandals are covered up, husbands are distracted. But there's this one girl...

I didn't play the Green/Gere household much, because Gabriella Green was clearly not one bit interested in getting seduced when I finally was able to get her and Rhett onto the same lot; however, looking at it, I could see a similar, more equal, dynamic in that household, and it's even hinted at in the bios. Here you have a Romance wild child - someone who parties every night and hooks up a lot. Play that one with a short attention span - don't lock any wants, but fulfill as many of them as you can, without regard for the consequences. In fact, push the consequences. She wants a date - call for a date, arrange them in chemistry order, and pick the highest-bolting one she hasn't banged yet, even if he's married, or the father of someone she's already banged, or obviously disastrous in some other way. She rolls a want to buy something - spend their last dime to get it. Meanwhile, you have the serious Knowledge best friend. He's the one finding the way to get the bills paid and running interference between her and her dates when things go south. Don't get them together romantically - that's boring. This is far more interesting as a best-friend setup. What does he get out it? Well, he gets to have a life! Don't let him do fun stuff or fulfill non-serious wants without her input. He never goes out, anywhere, unless she drags him out. He never initiates a conversation unless she pushes him to do it. She's the one bringing his patents to the attention of investors, doing all the selling in the robot store, introducing him to prospective dates and talking him up to them, buying him clothes that don't make him look like a 70-year-old professor, cutting his hair for him, making sure he eats something besides caffeine drinks and cheesepuffs. (That doesn't necessarily mean she cooks; she can be the one ordering pizza or Chinese, or setting up a casual group and taking him to a restaurant, where she orders for him - "Don't listen to him, waiter, he thinks he's eaten his greens if he's had a bag of M&Ms. Chef salad for him!")

Jessica Peterson is given a bum rap in her bio. She and Armand should have discussed the issue of children before they married. When he got dogmatic about it and tried to force her to have a child she didn't want, of course she divorced him! Okay, no fairy tale for her - what now? Now she gets out of the trailer on her own, makes a life on her terms, and no more relationships in which all the cards aren't on the table from the start! My male Jesse Peterson could have been looking for an elderly sugarmama to avoid the whole kid issue with, but Jessie Peterson needs safe, reliable birth control and a firm set of rules. Sugardaddies are traps, not refuges, for her. She gets a job, she makes her own friends, maybe she founds a business. She gets out of that crappy trailer, on her own, and if she ever remarries, she'll have a prenup as long as her arm.

I saw very little of the others, sorry. What follows is random brainstorming.

Maybe the Cordial sisters take a scientific interest in witchcraft and have divvied up the workload of study, but are committed to helping each other explore their new abilities. Maybe they want to found a supportive, communal coven - that could be fun! First they max their knowledge, and then they start teaching their friends the Ways of Light and Darkness, and they set up a cult compound, maybe with a Bigger Households hack or maybe with an apartment set-up. They could be a Group Marriage and hold children in common, raising them to be witches. Go down that road and you have all kinds of possibilities. Are they a real religion, with dogma and ethics, or are they a Cult of Personality? They could both get into the Paranormal career. They could have strict rules, with violaters expelled or subject to terrible penalties. They could pass themselves off as one being, the two faces of the Great Mother/Destroyer!

Carlos Contender dates all the old ladies in the Megahood. Heck, all the old men, too - why not? Dora Ottomas needs a break from raising twins! He could found an exclusive Swingers' Club just for elders! Give that niece of his something to be really embarrassed about!

Peni - Wow! You always create such great stories, but I never imagined such possibilities for the Belladonna Cove crowd! I am seeing Jessie in a whole new light - and I adore the cult of witchiness idea.

I definitely saw Connor and Geoff along the same lines you did, so Geoff got boring when Connor was no longer there to clear up his messes. But perhaps that gives me an excuse to make him MORE messes. Bigger, more dramatic.

I play Jessica much like you do, Peni - she's learned from the travesty with Armand, and is now happily single running a car dealership. I suspect she won't ever have a kid since it's not really a priority for her, but if she does, it'll be on her terms.

Yep, I figured Armand's baby-rabies was a big part of why she ran too, and the cheating was so she had a reason to divorce him fast before he started messing around with her birth control or something. No woman likes to be thought of as a broodmare above anything else. She met Ajay Loner, who was almost as poor as she was, and between them, they managed to buy a tiny place in Strangetown. And then she rolled a baby want of her own and I think having a partner who loves and respects her choices is the reason why she changed her mind.

Awww, well, in fact my decision has been made for me. As Belladonna Cove in the clean uberhood requires mansions and gardens to work, I can't add it! At least until I decide to go full on UC, anyway

Hmm, more choices! I could either create this one with BC as the base hood, or split them, giving me a great excuse to download Braniana....

Belladona, not my favorite hood, but I'm very fond of some of the residents.
The Baldwins: Isobel, the mother, is very invested in her kids and kind of neglects her husband. She's your helicopter mom stereotype. Benjamin, the father, is the sexiest man in the megahood (all my female sims bolt him, go figure), and is very faithful to his wife. The kids aren't fond of their mother's smothering and her choices of activities for them. Uncle Carlos is there to help get his niece to back off the kids now and then, or at least take them out for a few minutes of less pressure, and he's rich and might leave his money to them and she could use it to further their careers . . .
I play the Clevelands as a couple who got married because they were friends and the social climate at the time was unaccepting of homosexuals, and for Jason to have the career he wanted he needed a wife. They love each other but aren't and never were in love with each other, and they are okay with that. Well, Marisa is a little in love with her husband now but there is absolutely no way she would ever admit to it because that would hurt him. Nope. Not gonna happen. She'd like Tara as a daughter-in-law and thinks her son is silly to think romantic love is necessary for a successful marriage, after all, she and her husband are very happy. (She is probably right about the latter half of that, but Tara and Justin are not compatible.) Marisa runs low-end convenience stores in the bad parts of the megahood and dresses as masculine as she can because she thinks it makes it easier for her husband to act conventionally socially affectionate if she's not rubbing femininity in his face. He's not aware of this: she's his amazing best friend, he doesn't have a hang up about giving her a hug and a kiss.
The Patels: This is my favorite family of the bunch. Ramir got into politics because he was a whistle-blower, revealed massive corruption at the institution he was a janitor at, and got drafted by the opposing party. Not to his tastes, but he's there anyway. Their kids are adorable, Ana is the ultimate family sim.
Rutherford/Weir: Geoff makes weird kids, but hey, he's a male romance sim. Nina! Chloe! Catherine! Fresh meat! Yeah, pretty much that. (It's something about his mouth/nose distance or facial length. He didn't do well with Jodie Larson or Patricia Wan.) Gotta have a few solidly unattached playboys around for the solidly unattached playgirls. Some of my romance sims are married and faithful, some are married and cheating, some are in open marriages, some refuse to be involved in clandestine relationships if the would-be partner has a spouse or fiance. Connor needs a good spouse, someone he can support and care for, but for now he's keeping Geoff out of disasters like getting fired.
DeBateau: Armand has good chemistry with Cassandra Goth, if you're looking for a sim with similar desires (lots of babies) and similar history--wealthy, betrayed by a spouse . . . Tara can be quite interesting, like any teen. I like to give her a romance secondary. She's plenty smart, she was old enough by the time she was adopted to have spent some years in either a bad home situation, a bad foster care situation, or a bad orphanage situation. She can be quite cynical and willing to use other sims to get whatever she wants. I've also had Armand adopt other kids: Brittany, the red-headed child from Pleasantview, and the boy (name varies) with red hair from Bluewater Village.
Jessica Peterson. She's a wanna be criminal mastermind. Armand was an introduction to people with wealth she could target. Too bad he had the sense to have a pre-nup: she knew before they married they would end in divorce. (In my Widespot attached megahood, Rich Mann's going to have to keep an eye on her, because Junior.) She meets Rainelle Neengia and moves to Strangetown (Rainy's in the military) as her roommate in hopes of stealing some important military documents she has a buyer for. But she's not a spy. Really. (and this gives Kirstin Loste, military intelligence, an opposite number.) Her secondary is pleasure. She might just be a sociopath, but she's certainly in control of her own life. Obviously I see her pretty differently than the other players on this thread. She's one of the few sims I'd consider letting act to fulfill a murderous want (inherit from, see ghost of while still living, or drink sim).
The Cordial twins--okay, don't know what exactly EA was thinking here, making them sort of Pleasant twins clones and sort of not. Don't really like them as they ship, prefer to send them to other parts of the megahood and break them out of their pseudo-Pleasant-family life. Don't particularly like either of them with Armand, and I've tried both of them. Do like them as spinster cat lady schoolteachers. Being knowledge sims they can be pretty happy with that life.
Gabriel and Chastity--funniest ever playthrough was when Chastity just really wanted woohoo and ACR found Gabriel there and willing, and then there were chimes . . . they tried really hard and made it work as a family.
Chos I move one way, Rileys another. That set-up just drives me nuts. I like either family on their own, but not fond of mixing them together. When you use Tarlia's megahood pieces the apartment families start out in the family bin. I am very happy with that, especially with these two families. Particularly, Tim Riley dotes on his daughter, and I can't see Sally wanting a step-mom, even the nicest step-mom in the world, so I let her antagonize any woman Tim brings home. Daddy's all hers. Etsu's pretty much a baby, and Vivian is one of those sims who just keeps getting fired, so they have their own problems and Viv hasn't got time for a boyfriend.

So after being introduced to sims 2, I chose Delilah Sharpe, from Academie le Tour to test drive the game. She lived alone in her own house, and a knowledge sim in uni, easy peasy. She fell in love with Edwin Sharpe and all was well. Till she gained a cooking skill point and decided to make crepes Suzette. RIP Delilah. But by now I was addicted to sims 2 and test drive plans was long forgotten. How will geeky Edwin ever find love? So I created her doppelganger. But there was one difference. Her LTW was to become Chief of staff. Anyway. She stalked Delwin like crazy and finally got him to go out with her. Then he shifted in with her and they both had biology career LTW so they graduated together, got married, and had Delwin, who just like the name is a perfect combination of both. Roxie Sharpe meanwhile graduated with her boyfriend and got knocked up right out of uni. Jonah repeatedly got wats of romancing other sims and had cheated on Roxie a few times. He was caught romancing a neighbor by a pregnant Roxie who went ahead and had a revenge affair with another neighbor. They could have remained together if not for the twins (Robyn and Hannah). The apartment was tiny and all jonah wanted was woohoo with 10 sims. So Roxie left and arrived at his brother's, who was expecting, with twins. Delilah did not care for that at all. But family is family. So the 3 adults cared for 3 babies a while. Roxie got up on her feet moved to sentinel apartments, where she became friends with Vivian. Vivian by now had married Timothy and was expecting. She had Elsa (from Etsu and sally) and later Sia. Both she and timothy got to level 9 in their careers over time. Roxie married Toby London, who worked at Ramirez's and they opened a cafesaurent where toby could cook and Roxie could perform. The girls helped in the beginning till they left for college. They had another cousin, Elina (Edwin inside, Delilah outside). Back to Jonah Powers. He had several affairs with townies, one of whom moved in with him (Lora Copur) and gave birth to Maya. Jonah did not care again. But this time, neither did Lora. Maya was adopted by Mitch and Max Indie, who fell in love in Academie le tour and got married. Mitch became a super cop and Master toymaker while max became a car designer and businessman. Their business, Go Daddy sells custom cars and toys. They are super rich and live in Boothbay Apartments (made over and customized for 4 families: Goodie, Indie. Newson, and Picasso) I wanted one apartment lot with many kids and families because I felt bad for the Newson's. The goodies, an old couple became like grandparents for all the small kids: Maya indie, Pablo and Leo Picasso, and the Newson's. Maya is a popularity sim who wants to be a journalist. She is gay but denied it for a long time, unlike bubbly Sia. Pablo is a pleasure sim who loves to paint. Leo is a knowledge sim who loves robots. Hannah is a nice money sim who wants to be a Criminal and Robyn, a true mix of jonah and Robyn, is a grouchy sim who wants to be a rockstar like her fiance, David Ottomas. Delwin and Elina are both knowledge sims who feel passionately about the environment. Delwin wants to be a natural scientist and Elina wants to be an oceanographer. But Delilah has a pupil in Sally (family sim) who wants to be a doctor like his dad and future mom in law. Gavin Newson waits for everyone to grow up and starts uni at a whopping 29y. He is dating Etsu Cho. a Money sim who wants to own 5 top-level businesses. Ginger too waited with Gavin and had an affair with Connor as a teen. She found a way to express herself in cooking for the siblings and turned a new leaf. She is now dating Tommy Ottomas and is going to bake fresh delicacies out of her father-in-law's farm produce. Beautiful, athletic, and shy Gabriella is an ambitious Popularity sim who wanted to be a General. She hell in love with her senior, Justin Cleaveland who is now engaged to her while her sister Georgia, an ambitious, creative, and hardworking sim has managed to get Justin's uncle, Geoff Rutherford, ready to settle down. Sweet shy and studious Gallagher is a knowledge sim who wants to be an architect. He is dating Elina while his younger brother Garrett, a pleasure game-loving sim is in love with Elsa. See it yet? It's a family tradition after all. Jessica loses her job and turns to crime. Her attempts to get Carlos to dump Kimberly and marry him go in vain when Carlos falls in love with Chastity, too. Chastity just "loves love'. She becomes best friends with Samantha Ottomas who has moved in with her large family next door. Jessica doesn't care for the constant crying and neighborly babysitting obligations but the 2 women have a common enemy when Jessica catches Peter and Chastity. But Chastity is unstoppable. Or love is. Either way, Jessica is caught in a burglary while Carlos is busy with chastity. Samantha bails her out. But now Jessica is desperate, On her friend's advice, she seduces Carlos and in an attempt to be certain tries the cheesecake remedy that Dora tells her. And indeed it works. Life gives her another chance. Carlos marries her and she has twin boys, James and Charlie. Jessica makes good on her second chance and is the perfect soccer mom wife till Carlos dies. She becomes a counterfeiter and launders her money in the home gym training center in Carlos's name. After his death, she marries Connor Weir, who hasn't had luck with the girl of his dreams. although Jessica is done with a commitment for life, she agrees when Connor offers to move in and take her name. Someone to help the boys go through university applications and school grades. Both Jessica and Connor reach level 10 of their careers. Further away from the hustle and bustle of the city, the cordial sisters become witches. Samantha starts dating Gabriel, Chastity of course wants to outshine her and starts dating Geoff, which pisses off his roommate for some reason. Connor is looking for a perfect girl and a perfect family. Who better than the good witch? He tries to woo Samantha who misses her absentee boyfriend so much. Connor isn't the one to kiss and tell but Geoff must know he had a girl over. And so does everyone else. Chastity casually mentions it and Gabriel is heartbroken. After all, how was she to know? Gabriel is always in his books as usual. Kimberly on the other hand is not happy. People say she is a jealous one! Who followed who into the Rutherford house? She knows Geoff and she are done with each other. Her next interest becomes Carlos Contender, who has been eyeing her and her best friend, Chastity. while they do make a fun trio, the desperate Jessica and her friends leave no stone unturned in vilifying her as a home breaker Meanwhile Samantha can't seem to reach Gabriel, who has buried himself in work, and neither can she make herself fall in love with ever respectful Connor. In his desperation, Connor invites Samantha to another of Geoffs parties hoping for the same outcome. But now that Tara too is off to university and Jessica having twins, Armand's life has become a melancholic dark grey again. The shimmering glow of the infallibly good witch is irresistible to him. And how can she resist a good soul in need of an uplift? Armand did not waste time. Within months they were married. and pregnant on their way back from honeymooning in the East. Kimberly couldn't believe she lost at a game she had started. Had Armand married her she would have been a gold-digger and yet Samantha isn't somehow. Her partner in crime, Chastity too seemed to be avoiding her. Lonely and jealous, Kimberly became greener and walked into the welcoming arms of Jonnah Powers, the handsome and powerful evil warlock. By the time Samantha returns, She too is pregnant with Jonah's child. Meanwhile, Jonah has already moved on to dating Frances, the evil high witch. They together have the power to overthrow the good witch. Back from honeymoon. pregnant Samantha learns of the murder of Phoebe Adams and rushes to punish jonah and Frances. She loses and miscarries as a result. Armands world turns a darker grey. They move to a modern city bungalow where he could have a library and an office so that he can care for his recovering wife. Kimberly for the first time is truly torn. When their parents died the sisters had realized the importance of family. They had vowed that their differences would never cross generations. And now the father of her unborn child is directly responsible in Samantha losing hers. Jonah must be stopped. The next morning, the bodies of Lora Copur and Jonnah powers are discovered from the place. While everyone is eager to thank Samantha, Samantha gladly points to the real hero. Kimberly turns a new brown leaf and becomes a senator. She has Kenan whom she loves dearly. While his mother is busy, his auntie Samantha is glad to escape the gloom of a huge empty house and pamper him. Surprisingly Samantha conceives again within a year. This time she has twins. Sara and Sebastian. Armands life is no longer grey even as his hair turn the same shade. Back in downtown, Chastity is on her way to fulfill her lifetime want of having 20 simultaneous lovers as well as being a professional party guest while Gabriel has disappeared even deeper in a sea of books. Chastity doesnt understand what the big deal is but it hurts to see Gabriel punish himself like this. She stays home one night determined to talk to him. One thing leads to another and the ACR takes over. Chastity is pregnant. She doesn't want the child but she knows Gabriel would. She cannot bear any more silences and they talk and talk. After spinning around in circles chastity decides to have the baby but not marry Gabriel. She has Rachel. She asks her vampire lover to make her into one and stays with him in the house of fallen trees. She returns when the Count is burnt to death but by now Gabriel has left and so has Rachel. Rachel was growing up and had started to ask questions. The house was full of chastity's pictures and the roses collection she had made to count her lovers. Gabriel had always appreciated the light of knowledge and Kimberly had always been a young dark green..until now. Now when he looked at Kimberly even he could not deny the golden charm of her confidence and pragmatic leadership was attractive. He found himself struggling to answer questions about chastity while he wondered how Kimberly manages to answer questions about Jonah. At Kenan's birthday party he and Kimberly spent hours talking until there was nothing more left to talk. They are not the most perfect family but they do seem to be happy. Kenan, Rachel, Sara are popularity sims. Kenan wants to be in politics, shy Rachel wants to be in Law. Sara wants to be a dancer while Sebastian just wants to have a family. Soon after Rachel grew into a teenager kenan went off to university and Rachel decided to spend her some time with her mother. Kimberly became the Mayor and Gabriel the chief of staff. They got married just as kenan is starting final year. Ottomas twins Emily and Lilly seemed to have bonded with contender twins Charlie and James. Sebastian is in love with pleasure-loving Francesca Baldwin, who wants to be a novelist While fortune minded Marcus has eyes on Sharla Ottomas, another fortune sim who wants to open her own boutique. The last family is the Patels. Ana had money-minded Aamir, followed by future superstar Ranbir, after which her affair with Connor lead to family sim Kabir. Aamir wants to earn 100000 and sees both a business and a life partner in Hannah Sharpe. Ranbir wants to be an actor and is deeply in love with Sara Debateau. Kabir hasn't found her, but he is made for Naina Goodie, who was adopted as a teen by Faith Goodie after Herbert passed away (needed someone to inherit travel photos I've spent so much time on). Tara is now CEO and is taking over Armand's business as the twins leave for university. She has had affairs with a secret society member, her butler, and Pablo Picasso whose brother Leo is destined for Sofia Baldwin.

I've tried to play a number of times, but I hate the lots too much. And sakshi and Sunee....OMG!

Baldwin: Benjamin became a top secret researcher for the military and moved his family onto the army base for awhile but then shortly afterwards he retired. Isabel stayed the homemaker focusing on getting Carlos Contender to behave and doting on her two children. Marcus is in university. Sofia married Benedick Monty and they inherited Monty manor and the family restaurant empire. Benjamin and Isabel have been rolling wants for children since the beginning, but for some reason they still haven't had another.

Riley-Cho: I love Timothy and Vivian together so they married immediately. They tried for a child of their own and finally had a daughter together after several miscarriages. Etsu struggled through school and pushed back on becoming the musician her mother wanted her to be, but made it to university. I can't remember who Sally is dating (Tina Traveller maybe?) but Sally just wrapped up university.

Cleveland-Rutherford: Sadly, poor Marisa and Connor passed away pretty early due to 'the illness' that spread around town. Jason remarried a much younger wife, Hope Defirrd from the Emerald Heights player created hood. He booted Justin out of the house to college and then pushed him into the military to make something out of him. Justin doesn't really enjoy being there but seems to have a natural knack for it and might be in line to be general someday. Geoff continues to the play the field, trying to schmooze his way up.

Cordial: Kimberly and Samantha helped the Rotspatz family from Emerald Heights to form a witches coven which has rules that behave similarly to a religion. They each have their own roles to play as leaders and are focused on recruitment for the coven. Kimberly has a son with an atrociously evil warlock npc and Samantha has a daughter with Don Lothario. Both of their children will be witches as well once they are old enough.

DeBateau: Tara woohoo'd with Vincent Moore from the Bitville player made hood and had a child out of wedlock. Both Vincent and the DeBateaus wanted to keep this a secret so Armand told everyone that Tara's baby was simply his newest adopted daughter. Vincent also passed away later from the illness. Tara ended up marrying Isaiah Rotspatz from Emerald Heights and has no contact with her father or daughter. Armand married Ginger Newson who is living quite the cinderella story going from orphan to supermodel/wife of one of the biggest CEOs in the megahood.

Green: Gabriel passed away from the illness (the illness knocked out a bunch of my megahood). Chastity joined the military and is married to Mickey Smith from the Four Corners player made hood. They have one adopted child together and have kept it together, but neither one is in it for the long run.

Patel: Ramir wanted Ana to be a housewife while he pursued his political career and for awhile Ana played her part. She had three children by Ramir. Ana got tired of being at home with the kids so she went back to work. Ramir decided that if she wasn't going to be a loyal housewife, that he would leave her. He married a townie named Ethel and claimed custody of the children. Except, on the day that he intended to kick Ana out of the house, he died in a fire leaving Ana and his wife to settle the ownership of the house. Both Ana and Ethel remarried. The eldest child is now in college and the two younger children live with Ana.

Peterson: Jessica made it pretty high with her career in the military and then died of the illness. She enjoyed her freedom as a single woman until the end.