New Hopes Challenge

In this challenge you play as an indebted, poor, family who live in a village where the health standards are very low. As a result of the poor healthcare, children often do not make it to the next life stage. There are two ways to combat this. Have lots of offspring and hope some survive! or spend your time in careers improving the health and general living standards of the village.

There are different types of restrictions that you can lift through achieving certain positions in particular careers that need your help (Similar to the apocalypse challenge). This does not have to be a generation long challenge as day to day life entails a lot of stress due to constant raising of children and rolling the dice. However if you do choose to make this multi-generational it may become slightly more relaxing as you lift more restrictions.

You'll probably be working to repay a loan that builds up interest as you go and focus on having a surviving heir to carry your family to the next generation.

CC to download http://cyjon.net/node/147 while not necessary (you could calculate the loan manually etc.) it makes the loan part of the challenge much easier.

Starting off:
1 couple
2x3 lot
Start with a $20,000 loan in the loan jar (this is NOT in your family bank account and you can not use this money)
Once moved in Set cash to $5000.
Rules & Restrictions:
You may only purchase beds with the lowest energy rating (base game $300 single /$450 double bed) This can be overridden by the slacker career benefit (more about this below)
No Stoves (overridden by level 8 cooking benefit)
No aspiration rewards (overridden by science career benefit)
Freetime aspiration benefits must be earned (explanation later)
No Adoption or pets
No going on Dates
If moving in townie/other sims you must remove all the money they bring and add $10,000 to the loan (you may not use this money, remove it along with the money brought in by the townie/sim)
You must delete Mr Humble's computer unopened, no freebies here
Generally you can do whatever you like unless explicitly stated otherwise(read through careers section carefully)

Loan Rules (dealing with the loan)
Set the interest rate on Cyjon's loan jar to 6% (assuming you are using it, otherwise calculate manually daily). The loan jar will automatically charge interest daily.

When the highest earning sim returns home from work you must repay a total of at least half your total household cash to the loan jar- provided your family funds are more than $1000 (no spending and then selling items back to avoid paying the full amount). If you have less than $1000 at this time you need not make this payment.

If the highest earning sim in the household does not work on a day you must still make your loan payment (if >$1000 in bank account) when they would have returned home from work.

You may not use this to take further loans unless specifically instructed to, however you may make extra repayments to your loan at any time.

You may have to increase the loan when a sim grows up, details are below.

Growing Up Rules
As a part of the challenge sims may not make it to the next life stage- when their birthday rolls around you must roll two dice (combine the totals for the score) to see if your sim will survive or not.
Transitions:
1) Baby -> Toddler: must roll a 6 or higher to survive
2) Toddler -> Child 7 or higher
3) Child -> Teen 8 or higher
4) Teen -> Adult 5 or higher (more rules see below)
5) Adult -> Elder no dice roll, they survive automatically (extra rules below)
Reducing Death Possibilities & Survival Points:
Your sim may earn survival points which will be explained later.
1) After rolling the dice you may cash in 3 survival points to reduce the number required to survive by 1. (only once per dice roll, no cashing in 6 and getting -2). E.g. Bob is growing up from a child to a teenager. He rolls a 7, normally this means that Bob would die- HOWEVER if he then cashes in 3 survival points he can reduce the score needed to survive by 1 so that a 7 would be sufficient (8 minus 1 =7)
2) Learning X toddler skills (For freetime nursery rhyme counts as a skill) will prevent death when number X is rolled. E.g. if Bob learnt how to walk, talk and was potty trained and rolled a 3 when transitioning from one life stage to the next he would survive. HOWEVER this would not save him even if a number lower than 3 was rolled. This applies to EVERY age transition e.g. in the example above Bob would never die from rolling a 3 no matter how many times he did when transitioning between life stages. If X, the number of toddler skills your sim has learnt, is a number that is already safe (can only apply in the teen -> adult), ONLY then is the number directly below it (X-1) also safe for this sim. E.g. Bob has learnt 4 toddler skills and his mother has unlocked the level 8 medicine benefit, This would mean that Bob would only require a 4 to survive as opposed to a 5. However because 4 was already a safe number because Bob had all 4 toddler skills he now only requires a 3 (X-1= 4-1=3)
3) Medicine Career Achievements/Benefit (see career achievements)
4) Also take note of Education and Criminal career level 8 achievements

When transitioning from a teenager to an adult there are extra considerations:
If successful, the teen will have no further use for their survival points and they must be scrapped (i.e. can not be benefited from via the use of Criminal level 8 achievement).
Furthermore upon growing up they increase the household debt by $10,000. (This is done by borrowing an additional $10,000 from the loan jar and then removing this $10,000 from your family funds- as with the starting loan your may NOT use this money.)
On the plus side it is now possible to cash in your education points. Every two education points can be cashed in at any time for this sim to receive a promotion. (however this requires the use of the boolprop cheats so you may wish to play without it- to do this enter "boolprop testingcheatsenabled true" shift click on the newspaper and select job level)

Transitioning from Adult to Elder:
Increase the loan so that the New Loan = Old loan + Old loan/no. adults and elders in the household. E.g. Bob has now grown up into an elder. There are currently two other adults and 1 elder aside from Bob in the Household. The current loan is $6,000. Hence the new loan is $6,000 + (6,000/4)= $7,500 because there are 4 adults and elders in the household (including Bob) and the old loan was $6,000.
Effectively you are doubling "your share" of the loan.
It will be a long time before this happens.

Daily Roll
You must roll two dice for each sim at 7 AM daily. Each score has a specific outcome which varies by life stage as follows:
Elder Sims do not roll
Adult Sims:
2- Death mark
3, 4 - may not try for baby today
5,6- may apply for job today
7- claim one aspiration benefit (If you don't have FT then do nothing)
8,9- may apply for job today
10,11 May not go to work today
12- Clear Death mark
Babies, Toddlers, Children, and Teens:
2- Death mark
3,4- nothing
5,6- receive one education point (see above for use)
7- claim one aspiration benefit (If you don't have FT do nothing)
8,9- receive one survival point (for teens instead reduce interest rate of loan by 1% for today ONLY)
10,11- nothing
12- Clear death mark

You should keep track of the following information- the number of death marks, survival points, and education points that a sims has. A good place for this is in the sim's bio. As you can not access a baby's bio you will just have to remember this until they grow up.
You could also note down the number of aspiration benefits this sim is entitled to.
If your sim has 3 death marks they must die. Remember if you get a 12 you can remove on of that sim's death marks.

On the first day of the challenge you perform this roll immediately (an adult sim must roll a 5,6,8, or 9 to apply for a job even on the first day)

Career Achievements
Your sims may go into any career to earn money, BUT getting to level 4 and level 8 in particular careers will unlock special benefits.
Medicine:
Level 4 Benefit- if a sim dies (fails the dice roll) while transitioning life stage you may re-roll the dice and if a 8 or 9 is rolled the sim will not be killed
Level 8 Benefit- Reduces the score needed to survive a life stage transition by 1, e.g. for Child -> Teen required score is reduced from 8 to 7.

Culinary (mainly useful if seasons is installed):
Level 4 Benefit- allows gardening patches to be bought
Level 8 Benefit- allows placement of a pond to allow fishing and purchase of a stove

Business:
Level 4 Benefit- reduce loan interest to 5%
Level 8 Benefit- upon becoming an adult teens only take out a $5,000 additional loan instead of a $10,000

Slacker:
Level 4 Benefit- allows household purchase of the Basegame $450 single and $950 double bed
Level 8 Benefit- removes all household bed restrictions

Law (or Law Enforcement if you do not have seasons):
Level 4 Benefit- If any sim in the household scores a 3 or 10 on their daily role it has no effect for that sim
Level 8 Benefit- Daily role for 4 or 11 also have no effect for any sim in the household AND instead rolling a 3 or 11 now allow your sim to claim an aspiration benefit (FT)

Science:
Level 4 Benefit- Permits use of aspiration rewards costing 14,000 points or less (for any sim)
Level 8 Benefit- Permits use of all aspiration rewards (for any sim) *elixir of life may only be purchased once per sim

Education (or military if you do not have seasons):
Level 4 Benefit- upon daily roll of 5 or 6 Babies, Toddlers, child, and teen sims receive two education points instead of just one
Level 8 Benefit- upon daily roll of 8 or 9 Babies, Toddlers, child, and teen sims receive two survival points instead of just one

Criminal:
Level 4 Benefit- On Mondays Wednesdays and Fridays you may "swap" daily rolls between any sims on the lot. E.g. Bob's mum Jane (an adult) rolls a 4 on her daily roll (she may not try for baby), while Bob (a child) rolls a 7 (receive an aspiration benefit). Since it is a Wednesday, Bob and Jane may "swap" their rolls so that Jane has Bob's roll of a 7 (receive one aspiration benefit) and Bob has Jane's roll of a 4 (nothing because Bob is a child).
Level 8 Benefit- The level 4 benefit now applies on Sundays in addition to Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
ADDITIONALLY education points can be traded in 2:1 for survival points E.g. Bob had 5 education points and 2 survival points and failed his transition roll by one number. Cashing in 3 survival points would allow him to survive, as detailed in ways of avoiding death number 1. However instead if the level 8 criminal benefit has been unlocked for the family he may trade in two of his education points to make up the third survival point which he requires.
FURTHERMORE younger children may spend the survival points that belong to their OLDER siblings. E.g. Bob has an older sibling Steve, who has 2 survival points. Bob is transitioning from a toddler to a child and rolls a 6. However he requires at least a 7 to survive. Since he is only one number short of surviving he may cash in 3 survival points to live. Unfortunately Bob only has 1 Survival point. However with this benefit he may spend Older sibling, Steve's 2 survival points so he has the required 3 survival to survive. (Remember when transitioning from teen to adult you discard survival points, so we can deduce Steve must be a child or a teenager at the time).

Architecture (or athletic if you do not have FT):
Level 4 Benefit- This sim may dig for treasure as an adult
Level 8 Benefit- This sim may dig for treasure as an elder (and an adult)

Politics:
Level 4 Benefit- Level 4 & 8 career benefits for all OTHER (NOT POLITICS) careers are now achieved at level 3 & 7 respectively for this sim (if they change careers) and their spouse ONLY.
Level 8 Benefit- Level 8 career benefit now achieved at level 6, and level 4 at level 3 for all OTHER careers for EVERY sim in the household.

Any benefits unlocked remain EVEN if your sim changes career. HOWEVER benefits do not remain for the household if the sim who unlocked the benefit dies or moves out. E.g. Bob had achieved level 4 slacker, level 8 medicine and level 4 architecture. His son is still alive who has currently achieved level 4 medicine.
Once Bob dies, the household loses the level 4 slacker benefit, so they must sell any beds of improved energy ratings. The level 8 medicine benefit is lost but the level 4 benefit is retained because Bob's son has achieved medicine level 4 as well. The Level 4 architecture benefit had no effect on the household anyway but only on Bob.

There is no set end of the challenge, you just keep playing.

Tips
Remember the daily roll
Record points/marks in sim bio
Use boolprop to kill sims quickly/give earned career promotions
Do not keep toddler/child gravestones in lot ( Chuck in inventory or move to community lot)
Grow babies up before killing them(Babies are not proper sims)

I think this challenge has a lot of potential but is too complicated for me personally. I like a roll for survival challenge, but not doing it everyday, and I'm not into calculating exception points.

I'm thinking I'll play as a military state type situation, where men have to join the military and have a 1 in 10 chance of death weekly unless they have 10 body skill points. Access to healthcare is limited so babies have a 1 in 10 weekly chance of dying before they hit teen. Just to keep it simple.

I love the sound of this!! As soon as I have some free time this weekend I'll give it a go. Thanks for putting in so much hard work to create a new challenge!

Interesting concept. I'm starting a new hood based off both a Medieval City Challenge and a BACC. Each of my starting families have an additional challenge. I've modified this one to work in my game. My peasants are limited to what careers that can be in depending on the level of the town, so I changed a few of the careers by adding ones that my peasants were allowed. I also did a bit of research on mortality rates and changed them to make them not so harsh. Typically rates of infant mortality is way higher than childhood/toddler mortality. Considering these peasants also need to pay rent and their liege lord in addition to the loans this could be quite challenging. Thanks for thinking this one up. Here are my changes:

New Hopes Challenge (Modified)

In this challenge you play as an indebted, poor, family who live in a village where the health standards are very low. As a result of the poor healthcare, children often do not make it to the next life stage. There are two ways to combat this. Have lots of offspring and hope some survive! or spend your time in careers improving the health and general living standards of the village.

Starting off:
1 couple (instead using father and daughter and saying 1st move in does not take a loan, due to the random family dynamic I rolled)
2x3 lot
Start with a $20,000 loan in the loan jar (this is NOT in your family bank account and you can not use this money) Once moved in Set cash to $5000.(making this 15000 loan with $5 as per peasant money rules MCC)

Rules & Restrictions:
You may only purchase beds with the lowest energy rating (base game $300 single /$450 double bed) This can be overridden by the slacker career benefit
No Stoves
No aspiration rewards (if can get asp benefit, may instead get Asp reward)
Freetime aspiration benefits must be earned
No Adoption or pets
No going on Dates
If moving in townie/other sims you must remove all the money they bring and add $10,000 to the loan (use as tax/rent money for MCC)
You must delete Mr Humble's computer unopened, no freebies here (Again can use as rent/tax money for MCC)
Generally you can do whatever you like unless explicitly stated otherwise

Loan Rules (dealing with the loan) If FF is>$1000, pay ½ to loan each day at time when head of household gets hoe from work every day even if not a work day. (I think I'm using this as they way they pay their liege lord taxes, so slightly higher taxes than the rest of my peasants)

Growing Up Rules Age transition survival rolls
(history : childbirth 2% up to 15%, to toddler about 25%, to childhood-about12.5%, to teen about 6%
Example Children of Edward the I: of 19 — 1 still birth, 4 infant death, 4 toddler death, 2 child hood death, rest to adulthood)

Age to 2d6 = realistic number to survive
At birth 2=miscarriage, 12 =miscarriage/mother death (about 5% ‘stillborn’ rate)
To toddler 6+ (about 27%)
child 5+ (about 16%)
teen 4+ (about 8%)
To adult 3+ (about 3%)

Reducing Death Possibilities & Survival Points:
Your sim may earn survival points which will be explained later.
1) 3 survival pts = 1 pt above the number rolled (may not be stacked)
2) If you roll the same number of toddler skills you learned = survival (If the number of skills is higher than what you need knock the number you need down by one. This number is always a safe number))
3) Medicine Career Achievements/Benefit (see career achievements)
4) Also take note of Education and Criminal career level 8 achievements

Age Transition loans Add to loan
Teens +$10,000 (2 education pt = 1 promotion at any time (Survival pts useless unless have crim lvl 8))
Elders Loan+ loan/no. of people in house

Daily Roll
You must roll two dice for each sim at 7 AM daily. Each score has a specific outcome which varies by life stage as follows:
Elder Sims do not roll
3 death marks = DEATH

2d6 ................. <adult ............................... Adult
2 ................... 2......................................Death Mark
3,4 ................. nothing......................... CANNOT Try For Baby
5,6 ..........1 education pt........................... MAY apply for job
8,9 ..1 survival point (teens education point)..MAY apply for job
7 .............CLAIM asp benefit................CLAIM asp benefit
10,11.................Nothing............................ CANNOT go to work
12..........Clear 1 Death Mark..................... Clear 1 Death Mark

Track the following information: the number of death marks, survival points, and education points that a sims has. A good place for this is in the sim's bio. As you can not access a baby's bio you will just have to remember this until they grow up. You could also note down the number of aspiration benefits this sim is entitled to.

Tips
Remember the daily roll
Record points/marks in sim bio
Use boolprop to kill sims quickly/give earned career promotions
Do not keep toddler/child gravestones in lot ( Chuck in inventory or move to community lot)
Grow babies up before killing them(Babies are not proper sims)

Career Achievements
Your sims may go into any career to earn money, BUT getting to level 4 and level 8 in particular careers will unlock special benefits.
Benefits remain if sims change career but not after they die.
There is no set end of the challenge, you just keep playing.

career ........................................................Lvl 4 ..................................................................................Lvl8
Medicine/natural science .....May reroll survival roll and survive on an 8, or 9...................Reduce score needed for each life stage by 1
Culinary ................................... Allows gardening plots .....................................................Allows pond and a stove
Business/show biz....(teen loan $8000 elders = loan + loan/2xno people in household..........Teens only take $5000 loan, elders no added loan
Slacker/entertainment.....Can purchase single bed up to $450 or double up to $950.....................No comfort restrictions
Law/ law enforcement......Daily role of 3 or 10 = no effect.......................................Daily roll of 4 and 10 has no effect roll of 3 or 11 allows asp benefit
Science/artistt...................May use asp rewards under 14000.....................................................May use any asp rewards
Education/military...................Double education points earned.......................................................Double survival points earned
Criminal.........MWF can swap daily rolls between household members...........SMWF can swap, education can trade survival at 2 for 1, younger may spend older sibs survival pts.
Architecture/athletic...May dig for treasure as adult*may always dig as teen................................May dig as elder and adult
politics........Benefits achieved lvl 3 and 7 instead of 4 and 8 for this sim and spouse....Benefits other than politics areachieved at level 3 and 7 instead of 4 and 8 for all household

Ok, complicated. Am I not seeing the part about HOW to make someone die? Even babies & toddlers?

You could use boolprop to spawn the Rodney's Death Creator and then kill them using it. You would have to age up a baby to a toddler before killing them though. Also be careful what death type to use on a toddler (make sure it's one they could actually die from, I think fright works) or send the grave to a community lot otherwise things can go a bit weird.