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Instructor
Original Poster
#1 Old 5th Oct 2019 at 1:45 AM
Default Storytellers: Do you usually have a single "protagonist" or many main sims?
I'm thinking about this since I always have that one sim that I put a lot of effort in and one of their offspring. The characters around her are only there to be a part of my story like siblings, romantic partners and parents once the main sim becomes a teen. I could've made an interesting story about siblings and even outside the nuclear family but that's too much work. Story progression is here to fill the gaps. Maybe if Sims 3 had an album like S2 and S4 other sims could've had a chance to have their own story.
How do you play your game?
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Mad Poster
#2 Old 5th Oct 2019 at 2:01 AM
Most of the time I use one protagonist, but I sometimes experiment with POVs. I guess it depends on how you want to tell the story. Sometimes you can tell everything from the POV of a single character, but other times the story may be better told from different angles. It's really up to you.

In one story I've used first-person for the main protagonist (the person telling the main part of the story, anyway) and 3rd person for when I'm telling the story from someone else's POV (at the moment just 2 main and 2 supporting characters if I remember correctly), because the "me" person isn't always there to tell the tale, and doesn't always know what is happening. The story could probably have worked fine as either 1st or 3rd person POV for all the characters, but started out as 1st person, and for some reason didn't quite feel right as 1st person for the rest of the characters so I kinda stuck with the slightly strange POV because I liked it. This way lets me play around in the heads of different people, and perhaps get to know them a bit better than if you're just seeing them from the outside. But I try to limit it down to as few characters as possible so it does't get too confusing, and there are a few I don't want to do a POV with at all because of reasons. Sometimes, a character is best viewed from the outside.

For sim stories I've mainly used TS2, but I stopped using the album function probably 10 years ago. I guess it works for keeping track of ingame stories, but it's not very practical if you're writing up a story you intend to post somewhere. Outside of the album function, there's no real difference in how you'd make a story for the 3 different games (either take pictures and write text, or write first and take pictures after, depending on what kind of story you're doing - a challenge or legacy isn't quite the same as a planned story with a plot).
Mad Poster
#3 Old 5th Oct 2019 at 2:52 AM
Mine are like soap operas with various perspectives, mainly with perspectives on heroes versus villains. Any neutral or antihero stories are usually relegated to interludes that give backstory to certain characters.

Personal Quote: "I like my men like my sodas: tall boys." (Zevia has both 12 and 16 oz options)

(P.S. I'm about 5' (150cm) in height and easily scared)
Instructor
Original Poster
#4 Old 5th Oct 2019 at 10:40 AM
Quote: Originally posted by PANDAQUEEN
Mine are like soap operas with various perspectives, mainly with perspectives on heroes versus villains. Any neutral or antihero stories are usually relegated to interludes that give backstory to certain characters.

Really? I never really had an antihero. My stories usually have only character development. The closest to antihero was my main character being jealous to her golden child sister snd being fake friends to her. Or my previous gen teen who let her boyfriend bully her overweight sister who was there for her sister when she used to be bullied herself. I mean this sounds like a childish high school drama because my sims were teens at the time. Now I'm looking forward for some tragedy.
I was wondering if you play the game alot as much as you take screenshots and if everything's accurate like on the story?
Mad Poster
#5 Old 5th Oct 2019 at 2:08 PM
Wiki:
Quote:
An antihero or antiheroine is a main character in a story who lacks conventional heroic qualities and attributes such as idealism, courage and morality. Although antiheroes may sometimes perform actions that are morally correct, it is not always for the right reasons, often acting primarily out of self-interest or in ways that defy conventional ethical codes.
Examples: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_...onal_antiheroes


Antiheroes, or giving characters negative traits can add some drama and more interesting dynamics to a story. Maybe the antihero has redeeming qualities, or perhaps something happens to the person that causes them to have those negative traits. It's often interesting to see how the things happening around the character and the choices they and others make will affect the story as a whole. I often like to explore the backstory of a character, sometimes as small snippets within the full story. I also love weaving in things a reader wouldn't really notice until it suddenly becomes important later.

Personally I write first, then take pictures, and occasionally do minor edits to make the story fit the pictures better if something didn't work out while taking the pictures or if I had some other ideas. I mostly write with the limitations of the game in mind, but if there's something I can't do in picture format I may just leave it as text and skip to the next picture.
Instructor
Original Poster
#6 Old 5th Oct 2019 at 2:56 PM
Quote: Originally posted by simmer22
Wiki:
Antiheroes, or giving characters negative traits can add some drama and more interesting dynamics to a story. Maybe the antihero has redeeming qualities, or perhaps something happens to the person that causes them to have those negative traits. It's often interesting to see how the things happening around the character and the choices they and others make will affect the story as a whole. I often like to explore the backstory of a character, sometimes as small snippets within the full story. I also love weaving in things a reader wouldn't really notice until it suddenly becomes important later.

Personally I write first, then take pictures, and occasionally do minor edits to make the story fit the pictures better if something didn't work out while taking the pictures or if I had some other ideas. I mostly write with the limitations of the game in mind, but if there's something I can't do in picture format I may just leave it as text and skip to the next picture.


I know what antiheros are lol. I always think of Deadpool as an example. My protagonists always have some shitty traits and moments but there nice people in general.
I don't write my stories, they're like a picturebook usually days or months apart but you can tell what's happening, they always fit with my game unless there aren't mods for that. For example, my main sim the moment is a rockstar drug addict as well as her husband, they're basically like Kurt and Courtney. Despite that they're amazing parents to their daughter. The pictures chronologically show their home life vs partying and world tours in circles and their deteriorating appearance...
Scholar
#7 Old 6th Oct 2019 at 2:45 PM
I'm currently working on a random legacy so my protagonist is the family. For the first generation, I was following the founder closely and then as she had children, I started to incorporate things about them. Now in the writing, they're growing up and I'm transitioning things more to the heir. I'm finding the writing hard right now because she's in the criminal career in the thief branch and I don't know very much about that. One of the things I've maintained about her is that she's a decent person with a deep disregard for the rule of law. So to me, that means she would be involved in an illegal business like a numbers racket where she can't see the harm. But her LTW is to fully explore 6 tombs in each location, and a numbers racket wouldn't involve much travel. I've come to the idea of smuggling wine out of France to the rest of the world to get around import/export caps and tariffs, money laundering, fencing stolen goods, and smuggling artifacts.

Her husband is very handsome and very bland man who thinks he's got the perfect wife and home-life. He knows that she used to be wild, but thinks that she's settled down over the years and that the business in the states is all there is. They go out pretty often and she's always welcomed warmly by the owners of the bars, clubs, and restaurants she supplies the alcohol for. She goes on international business trips often. He would be horrified if he knew the true extent of the business as he is a proper, law-abiding citizen.

The founder's section was all about community building, creating a family, and shucking off the past. It's hard to find the theme for the second generation. Plus I've got some world-building things that I don't know how to incorporate in the story-telling. I want to create the feeling of passing time in this legacy and a changing world, but I don't quite know how.

The Mayflies Legacy- a Random Legacy Story
Field Researcher
#8 Old 7th Oct 2019 at 3:55 AM
Ooo good question. I never really thought about it, honestly. Most of my stories are just... odd, and never get finished. Tend to like the apocalypse ones myself, to write. Lately, though - been working on one that's a mesh of Lovecraft horror, Supernatural, historical characters and whatever the fruit is going on in Twinbrook. I do a lot of multiple POVs - from the villain to the minions, to the crime family in Twinbrook, some of the premades' stories, my historical sims' POVs, the main character's POV, and the POV of the Supernatural characters (Castiel, Dean, Sam, Death and Gabriel so far). I also weave in little things here and there to keep the story interesting. Right now, the main villain is a thousands-years old vampire, with Egyptian origin, who has basically been a minion of a couple of Lovecraftian Gods (Nyarlathotep and Dagon) and is trying to bring Yog-Soggoth back in order to wake the Old Ones. He ran afoul of some Romani people in the 1400s, got his butt bricked and staked, but since he's not a "normal" vampire, he's been on a quest to destroy the last remaining member of the Romani family, who is on her own quest to destroy him, with help from historical people from her past lives/guides that Death has resurrected for her. Natch, this brings in Team Free Will and it's about to get oogly. Well, once I get off my butt and shoot Chapter 6 (I've got it storyboarded out to like, chapter 28, on paper. I have issues. Many issues. LOL).

and really, (edited to add) this entire story that I've been working on for a couple of years actually started when my game borked and my playable sim suddenly found herself not married to the man she was, but with her lover instead. Freakin nuts.

I'd say that Little Fire Burning was definitely a push for me to write my own stuff - *shakes fist at @Simmer22* but it's also making me procrastinate, because the amount of detail in those pics was and still is stunning, and I want my stuff to look as detailed and as awesome. Not copying the story, but the picture style. Definitely.

Dead Ringers
Discord: RedBaroness13
Mad Poster
#9 Old 7th Oct 2019 at 10:43 AM Last edited by simmer22 : 7th Oct 2019 at 10:53 AM.
^ :lovestruc Thanks!
When it comes to picture details, let's just say I've had some practice (been working on LFB since 2008, and did some stories before that too, plus a bunch of photos before and after). It also helps a lot to be able to make CC, because a lot of the items I needed weren't avalable as downloads anywhere, and I've tried avoiding asking people to make it for me unless it's something I can't figure out on my own (otherwise I'd probably need an entire request section just for what I needed, and that would be a bit too much )
Top Secret Researcher
#10 Old 8th Oct 2019 at 12:22 AM
Quote: Originally posted by simmer22
In one story I've used first-person for the main protagonist (the person telling the main part of the story, anyway) and 3rd person for when I'm telling the story from someone else's POV (at the moment just 2 main and 2 supporting characters if I remember correctly), because the "me" person isn't always there to tell the tale, and doesn't always know what is happening.

This is pretty much how I do, as well. If a scene in the Comic has me in it, then the POV is mine (although perhaps not my POV of that exact moment, but of a later time when I'm writing it down, by which time I will be calmer.) Those scenes are the ones most likely to have top-of-the-panel narration, because I was there, and am in a position to explain the action to someone who didn't see it firsthand (and/or someone who lacks Simlish fluency.)

If I'm not present in the scene, then I try to write it from a neutral POV.

(Janet says that in her case, my neutrality fails and I make a Mary Jane of her.)
Instructor
Original Poster
#11 Old 8th Jan 2021 at 8:25 PM
It's been a while and I forgot about this thread. I'm happy at least some people noticed it and took some time to write their experience.

I'm also a huge fan of antiheroes and I think people are in general, that's the reason villains are often more likable than typical good protagonists. My main characters are usually more or less antiheroes, they usually lack some type of morals. I was so sad that I lost all of my games in S2 and S3 (especially S3) after I backed up my laptop stuff to my pc for a repairman session only for my pc to die before I got my laptop back :O!
I posted some of my characters here, my favorite were Hannah (S3) and Melanie (S2), I'll probably make a copy of them when I have more time and right now i'm more of an architect simmer.

Here is a very short summary of my fave characters:

Melanie was a poor social outcast who suffers from domestic abuse, mommy issues (her mom died when she was a toddler) and low self esteem. She used to have friends but lost them after hooking up with her bff's boyfriend. She deeply regrets it but was in the wrong for being a backstabber to her only friends and being promiscuous.

Hannah was a party animal international rockstar with drug issues and a drinking problem. Her husband was her colleague with the same problems so they were neglectful parents to their only daughter although they loved her very much. She refused to listen to her family's concern (or to listen them in general) and had it her way until her husband died when they were young adults. She suffered from depression but in the end she became clean, sober and decided to become a better mother and spend time at home with her family.
Lab Assistant
#12 Old 21st Jan 2021 at 2:35 PM
Quote: Originally posted by grandma_on_a_kiling_spree
I'm thinking about this since I always have that one sim that I put a lot of effort in and one of their offspring. The characters around her are only there to be a part of my story like siblings, romantic partners and parents once the main sim becomes a teen. I could've made an interesting story about siblings and even outside the nuclear family but that's too much work. Story progression is here to fill the gaps. Maybe if Sims 3 had an album like S2 and S4 other sims could've had a chance to have their own story.
How do you play your game?

lol i just wanted to say i love your name! grandma on a killing spree always gives me a visual.... lol
Instructor
Original Poster
#13 Old 15th Mar 2021 at 9:34 PM
Quote: Originally posted by dinadine
lol i just wanted to say i love your name! grandma on a killing spree always gives me a visual.... lol


Lol thanks, I actually wanted to post content here and on Jan 2020 I asked them to change it to my current username and they did it a week ago. Now I regret it
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