The Medieval Charter Challenge, ***"New!" Luxury Version 3.0***
What it says! Here it is at last -- the rewrite of The Medieval Charter Challenge by Vllygrl.
Version 3.0 is a clarified, cleaner, and more streamlined pdf document for your enjoyment. Previous versions may still be played as is, but all previous documents have been removed and I strongly encourage you to have a look at 3.0! My goal was to enhance gameplay and weed out the clunky bits and I have used the debate, conversations and questions posed by other players of the MCC as my guide in this revision. I believe you will find it easier to understand and follow, and much more self-explanatory.

I would be delighted to answer any questions or discuss any aspect of the challlenge, and see any pictures or read any stories of anyone trying the challenge!

As M3g7e has so lucidly pointed out with her awe-inspiring Warwickshire Challenge (hats off

to you, M3g7e!), this is really more of a style of play than a challenge; and the same is true of The Medieval Charter Challenge.

I throw my Medieval Charter Challenge into the ring because it incorporates aspects of the BACC, Prosperity and Victorian Population Challenges particularly which I really like and wanted to use in combination. Also, simply because I feel that the Medieval period is under-represented for challenges, so the more the merrier!


Here is my humble offering to those interested in a medieval challenge:

The Medieval Charter Challenge

Your goal is to take a small and struggling Settlement and build it up into a thriving Medieval Charter City. In the process, you will use the High Middle Ages qualities of Self-Sufficiency and Common Enterprise to:
• Build a flourishing medieval Society structure from the Peasantry up
• Establish Guilds and a thriving market economy
• Develop Science, Medicine, Culture and The Arts in your City
Through accomplishing these three goals you will earn a Charter for your city and crown a Monarch. A Charter City is allowed certain rights and privileges, granted by the King. Once you have built up your neighbourhood to the level of City (see document attachments below), you will be granted the following charter:

Medieval City Charter

 Lower taxes on citizens and lower duties on Merchants’ imports
 A City Council, Lord Mayor and Law Courts
 Peasants living within the city and self-supporting for a year and a day become freemen and may enter the Yeomanry
 The City is free from all obligations to feudal lords, and is now directly subject to the king
 You may now add your new Crowned Monarch and Castle!

For the entire challenge, see attached documents.

For a long time I have wanted to make a challenge which would incorporate the best features of some of the most amazing challenges I have played and enjoyed, was also achievable, yet interesting and fun enough to maintain my interest over time in spite of my frequently interrupted and disjointed gameplay.
Although no historian, history is interesting for me and I prefer reading historical novels and a having a historical game slant when I play Sims. However, although I have researched quite a bit and most aspects of the challenge are based on my findings, I make no claims of stringent historical accuracy in this challenge. I play it for fun and in a medieval time period, but you can adapt it to your own preference.

I have also included my medieval version of a Random Occurrence Scenario for adding drama to your game!

My Policies:
This and all of my challenges are my own original work/creations/writing. My work, including posts outlining my challenges and all documents is copyright protected, all rights reserved.
Please do not copy, reproduce, share, or upload the whole or any part of this posted challenge and/or document and/or any of my challenges and present it as your own writing, creation, adaptation, expansion or work without my permission.
As per MTS Guidelines, and as posted by MTS --
"Condoning Theft of Intellectual Property - Theft of IP is a broader term and includes, but is not limited to, the use of someone else's work, in part or in whole, and presenting it as your own. If you do use a small part of someone's work product in a post ensure that it is properly referenced (link if available) and credit given. Thank you."

Cheers, Vllygrl :D

Word is telling me that the challenge document is written in a later version of Word than the one I have. When I ask it to download something that can convert it so that I can read it, it crashes Firefox :-(

Can you tell me what version of Word it was written in so that I can try to find a programme to convert the file myself please? I really want to read it! :-)

So sorry, lauratje86! I have had a few troubles with it myself! It was written in Office 2010 and then converted to Office 2007.

However, I also have a mediafire link which might work better for you if I am allowed to post it here?

Otherwise I will have to wait until I get home tonight to repost it from my home computer which has Office 2010.

***Edited to add: I have now added Word 2010 versions of the attachments for anyone having trouble opening the first ones!

I actually have Word 2003, so I can't open the 2010 ones either :-( I'll try again to download something that will convert them for me - I know what type of files they are now so hopefully I'll be able to find something! :-)

Hi lauratje86 -- I have attached a pdf version to the downloads in the first post -- hopefully that might work for you! Please let me know if it does!

Thanks for your persistence -- I hope you will enjoy reading my challenge!

May I just ask, How do we determine how many people will be in the 6 starter families - Do we roll on it or do we start with just a male and female...? Thanks

Hi Lil'B!
Yes, the first roll is to determine how many sims in each of your 6 families.
Then you roll for

*age
*gender
*aspiration
*zodiac

for each sim.

Glad you are trying the challenge -- let us know how it goes!
Cheers, Vllygrl

This sounds like a lot of fun! Thanks for posting the pdf file - my laptop can read those! :-D

I think I'll give this one a try - though I will probably change a few things to reflect my personal preferences when playing the game. I intend to play with a more modern setting, as I'm not a fan of Medieval sims stuff; I get too OCD about finding the perfect custom content and never get round to actually playing!

Shall read through the rules a few more times and decide what I'm going to change, will be sure to let you know how I'm getting on! It'll be a while before I start playing, mind, as I'm currently switching to (almost) only Maxis match cc, so I've been on quite the downloading spree lately and still have lots more to go! :-) But I'm looking forward to getting started on this one! :-D

Oh good! (rubs hands together in glee!) I'm glad it sounds like fun, lauratj86 AND I am SO glad your laptop liked the pdf!

That is the wonderful thing about the sims -- we can each switch up the game to reflect our personal preferences -- long may that aspect survive! I would be delighted to hear how the challenge translates into a more modern setting -- the concept of building a city from the ground up, so to speak, should still work. I know what you mean about cc -- it's addictive!

I will look forward to hearing about your take on the challenge once you do get around to playing -- let us know how it goes!

Cheers, Vllygrl

Thanks I've printed off all the sheets and they are sitting in a folder waiting for when I decide to finally start it!

Great, Lil'B! Looking forward to hearing how it goes for you andyour lil' simmies!

Forgot to mention, I did not change the ROS document, it is the same so no need to re-download it.

Here is a long overdue update on how things are going as I play out the challenge -- would love to hear how it is going with others who are trying the challenge!

My Settlement is called Crosswise.
My families as rolled:
Gardner - Peasant
-2 Elders, Gerta & Griselda, 2 Adults, Gena & Gilly, 1 child, George & 1 Toddler, Giles.
Griselda went off to pursue a vocation in the church (edited to add: she is running a small charity hospice (a soup kitchen and new clothing changeover for vagrant Townies!) while waiting until either the convent or orphanage is needed), and Gilly up and married the Squire's 2nd son -- definately a huge social leg-up for her, so to speak, but Bentley didn't care that she was only a peasant, he wanted to marry, and there really weren't many choices. So Gerta, Gena and George struggled at first to get their market garden established, but with some long hours, hard work and a little bit of good luck, they are very close to being able to afford to buy that little green grocer's Gena has her eye on, and be able to move up to Yeoman.

Morrelle - Peasant
Marcus (a teen) and Manny (a child), have managed to keep body and soul together by foraging for mushrooms and wild stawberries in a little patch of woods near their hut. They are not moving along quickly, but they are not starving either.

Buckle - Gentry
-2 Elders, Squire Barclay Buckle, and Lady Berta Buckle, rolled up with no less than 3 sons and 2 daughters. Barton is the heir, and has been looking about him for a bride, but there are very few marriageable young ladies around the tiny settlement of Crosswise. Barton will likely have to send afar for a bride shortly, but in the meantime, he also has his hands full taking on the shire as his father retires, and then also finding a husband for his sister Blissot. Beatrice is still a child, but he knows it won't be long before he'll be trying to get her settled as well. Youngest brother Baldric has expressed an interest in the church, while middle brother Bentley had no patience waiting for his brother to find him a bride and very efficiently found his own bride, a peasant, which provoked a great deal of tedious fuss, but Bentley was able to ignore that in his happiness to wed and establish his own home.

Sprat - Peasant
Selina, an Elder, has the raising of her 3 grandsons Sel (Teen), Jack (Child) and Sam (Todddler). She immediately taught them to fish, and the family has been very successful in their catches, well on their way to one day perhaps opening that fishmonger's that Selina dreams of.

Lemon - Peasant
The orchardist Lemon brothers, Landers and Leon, were the best of friends until Landers went to marry his betrothed, Nessie Nightengale, and discovered that Leon had whisked her out from under his very nose. Landers was in a rage at losing pretty Nessie (and her tidy little dowry) but Nessie's father Ned only shrugged and said "What can you do? They were in love!" and then offered his second daughter, the much plainer and less dowried Nadya. Landers married her on the spot in a major snit, particularly once he discovered that Leon had been mining with Ned and had raised enough money to buy the little house and tavern down the road and set himself up in fine style as a taverner (Yeoman).

Nightengale - Peasant (yes, I know, this makes 5 peasant families - oops!)
Elders Neri and Norbert were lucky enough to find a likely vein in the hills ages ago when they first wed, and now their son Ned continues to mine it successfully enough to keep the family fed and housed, though perhaps not moving up any time soon. Ned's wife Nellye is the midwife, and is likely to supervise the births of her own grandchildren quite soon. Her youngest is Nyla, a Toddler.

So far, everyone has been able to pay their taxes, tithes and rents, although a couple of families had to do some frantic digging the night before Quarter Day in order to make up the shortfall! The Treasury stands at $20,100 so far, so definately enough to build a village square, which will be my next step, as well as bringing the other families along and finding a bride for the Squire's son and heir Barton, and a husband for his daughter Blissot. A few things popped up -- what to do about gifts from networking aquaintances and the wishing well from the garden club -- I decided that both should be non-taxable benefits from hard work and work associations.

More updates later, forward to hearing updates from some of you!

Cheers, Vllygrl

My playstyle is similar to this but not exact. I've just graduated my first young women from Dame Barbara's House for Genteel Girls.

Ellen has achieved her own objective of moderate education, and her family's aim of husband-hunting. The other (CAS YA) has studied well, and hopes to find herself a mate once she hits the real hood. She has acquired starting badges in several areas and will be able to turn her hand to a range of crafting businesses.

I also graduated my first Seminary student - he declined to take final vows, and has set himself up as an artist. He has very little furniture, but the future looks bright - he sold his first painting, and his tonsure has grown out.

Great progress in your 'hood, aelflaed! Good for Ellen hitting two birds with one stone, and your other young lady will be most eligible as a bride with a clutch of badges to bring in income to a future husband as well! I meant no disrespect to your seminarian, but I'm afraid I did laugh out loud to hear his tonsure has grown out! rofl! He must be vastly relieved, and it surely presents a better image for a would be artist! Good luck with the paintings!

Adam didn't mind being a novice in the abbot's house, but once he got to the Seminary, the world got wider...and he discovered girls. (No, not at the Seminary, but at community lots.)

Hi, I decided to give this challenge a try One question so far ... when creating your founding families what dice are we using to determine how many sims are in the starting family? A six sided dice?

Tricia

Hi again, Tricia! I am so excited you are trying my challenge! Yes, I use a 6-sided die for rolling the founding families. Let me know how it goes!
Cheers, Vllygrl

So far I've created two of my peasant families, but haven't started playing yet. Still lots to download. What is the visitor controller hack? Is it http://www.modthesims.info/d/289271 or http://www.modthesims.info/d/288291 or another one completely?

So far what I enjoy about this challenge is that you're not just starting with six different couples. Each starting family will be different.

The visitor controller was created by TwoJeff's over at Simbology. You can get it here: http://www.simbology.com/smf/index.php?topic=17.0

I just went and looked it up, since there was some confusion in my post over on Warwickshire.

Thanks, M3g7e for answering Tricia so quick -- I'm afraid I've been very sick and falling behind a little in my simming! Blah .. . .
Yes, Tricia, that is one of the things I got a little tired of in the VPC -- always starting with couples. That is one of the things I really liked about the Prosperity Challenge, and why I incorporated it into mine -- the variety in families is great and keeps things hopping! It also expands the whole storyline in a most satisfying way!
I hope your downloading is going well -- there is such a wealth of wonderful, wonderful medieval cc out there it is really a fun part of playing this period!
Cheers, Vllygrl

Hope you feel better soon Vllygrl!

Thanks very much, M3g7e ! I have had a really rough go with viral bronchitis and the worst asthma flare-up I've ever had -- due to our late spring there was a sudden upsurge in pollen combined with snow mold -- makes for a nasty duo!
The good news is that for short periods when I'm able I have been progressing with my game, I just tire quickly.
I'm almost at the Hamlet level, I just have to make a Yeoman and a Merchant family and move them in and then bring them into the rotation, then I've made it!
Cheers, Vllygrl

Good for you!

I'm trying to decide which of the current teens will marry each other. I had to add another peasant family so there would be some choice - otherwise every girl of every class would have had to marry a peasant Cornhill boy! I've also decided townies count as peasants, so marrying a townie won't increase the family's rank. Maybe families should pay a fee to release such 'foreign' peasants from their previous lord.

Hi aelflaed!
Yes, usually peasants would have to buy their freedom, so that makes sense. I, too am finding that with the random rolls for starting families, I don't have a very even gender ratio, so I am having to add families as I go.

One thing I find works well with the Warwickshire Challenge is to add a Convent full of marriageable female novices of various ranks because I don't tend to let my playables marry Townies (in my game I consider them vagrants, a sort of gypsy clan, so they have little or no status ). I plan to do the same in Crosswise right away, with the additional bonus of a Monastery full of marriageable male novices.

Cheers, Vllygrl