Story Dilemma Advice Thread
 

Seemed like a good idea to make a big thread where, if you have a dilemma in your story and aren't sure what to do, you could ask for suggestions. I'll start off with one.

In the Pleasant household, Mary-Sue and Daniel divorced after both of them cheated on each other. Daniel moved out to a small apartment, leaving Mary-Sue and the twins in the house. As if that's not enough scandal, Angela, the star child, turned up pregnant with Dustin Broke's kid. Mary-Sue isn't happy about this, especially since her political career might be threatened by this.

I've thought of several ideas:
1. Angela runs off and elopes with Dustin, moving to one of the other suburbs.
2. Angela is sent off to a private 'boarding school' and the child quietly put up for adoption.
3. Angela gives birth, but everyone pretends that Mary-Sue and Daniel are the parents.
4. I wanted to put something else here but I forgot.

I do love to mess with Angela and Dustin, the latter is probably my favorite premade. Idk why but I'm obsessed with meddling in his life--but weirdly, I never let him and Angela stay together. They always go their separate ways and pine for each other from afar. Taking your initial premise, though, of course I'd let Kaylynn "accidentally" become pregnant, forcing Daniel to move her in and take care of her and the kid, just when he thought he'd be a free man again. He might hit on another service sim or two, but Kaylynn would run a tight ship, ensuring that Daniel worked and she stayed home, and would never let any of her female friends linger around the house. She might also convince Daniel to name their kid his heir--bonus if their kid's a boy.

Now as for Angela, you're right, Mary-Sue would think such a pregnancy would ruin her political career. And, when you consider that Mary-Sue and Cassandra are goods friends, it's only natural if you assumed, like I do, that the Pleasants were trying to using that connection to forge an alliance via arranged marriage between Alexander and Angela. Mortimer's only son would have a wife--a relief to the Goths as Alexander is such a loner, hardly ever makes friends, and grows into an awkward-looking teen--and the Pleasants would be tied to the richest family in Pleasantview. But Angela's pregnancy ruins that. No one would ever believe the child was Alexander's as he's too young. So Mary-Sue would adjust. Mary-Sue may or may not convince Angela to have an abortion--that can go either way--but secret adoptions have a nasty habit of coming back up to bite you. No, Angela would need a husband. Obviously Dustin won't do; he's a criminal. So what other well-to-do, well-off bachelors are lurking in the area, looking for a wife? Wouldn't it be convenient if he too, was a bit awkward looking and a loner? Yup, I'm talking about Malcolm Landgraab. Yes, Angela is a little young for him, but that's only a good thing because it means he'll have no problem producing heirs and Mary-Sue can surely convince Malcolm that he doesn't want anything to do with the Calientes--they're gold-diggers. Just look at the way they throw themselves at Mortimer. No, he must align himself with the Pleasants; they're the only respectable middle-class family with daughters of the right age that he can marry. (The Tinkers are hippies, no one takes them seriously.) No one even has to tell him about the baby since Malcolm and Dustin both have blonde hair, but if Malcolm found out, it wouldn't be the end of the world. The pragmatic fortune sim would find some way to use that information to his advantage. Letting actually getting a simmer to play him or convince Angela to have an "open" marriage. So you, see, it's perfect. And, even better, Mary-Sue would think, because Lilith can take Angela's place and marry Alexander! Two political marriages instead of one. And it would work. Mostly. Lilith might run away to be with Dirk but Angela, she's the good daughter. Someone accustomed to a certain type of lifestyle with nice things. She expects to go to college. There's no way she can afford that with Dustin. And there's no way she wants to end up in a trailer with screaming kids surrounding her, the way she sees Brandi live her life.

So Angela breaks up with Dustin but never tells him why and Dustin, heartbroken, uses the knowledge of the Pleasant-Landgraab union to make something of himself. He may or may not make it into college but he damn sure works hard to become successful. He later finds out that Angela had his kid but doesn't say anything since he knows Landgraab provided a better life for the kid than he could at the time. But, what he does do, is vow revenge. He'll do whatever he can to surpass Landgraab, to bring Landgraab Realty group down a notch or two. Maybe he'll use his former criminal connections, maybe he'll turn to the supernatural but one thing's for sure: he'll make sure those snooty upper class Pleasantviewers will never call him Broke again--literally, because after he makes his fortune he marries a girl with a great last name.

Then, later on, after Malcolm and Angela have their heir, Angela will see Dustin's success and know she made the wrong choice. Angela will try to seduce him away from his new wife because she's unhappy with her life, her marriage, her nice house, and nice things--but not with her corvette, she loves that thing--but it won't work. Dustin's moved on and only cares about getting to know his kid. So she contents herself with having an affair with the cute gardener or perhaps an old friend from college and suddenly she'll realize she's living the life her parents led.

Or at least that's how it'd go down in my game.

Instead of trying to hid the scandal, which she knows will fail and then become an even bigger story, Mary-Sue could try to turn the whole situation into a political opportunity. She can start a program for teen mothers, fund a drop in center for troubled youth such as Dustin, and push her image as a great mom with a family going through trying times. Angela could be so relieved she's not in trouble that she goes along with it all, but Lilith could find her mother's act phony and their relationship takes a further hit. Mary-Sue can then have to deal with another potential scandal with Lilith running away, or her mother could buy her cooperation somehow, or Lilith could move in with her father or with Dirk.

As of tonight, I've got a story dilemma, too:

I've added two barracks to my medieval town - one is military, one is police, and both forces have men and women on them. I'm playing the police lot in a fairly hands off way, just directing sims to fill wants and to deal with needs when necessary. I'm playing the military lot in a slightly more guided way - sims have to clean when anything is dirty, and there are brief drill/training activities each day for the sims that aren't at work, but otherwise I'm leaving them mostly alone, too. On the military lot, Nicole Bowman (fortune/popularity, personality 7-1-3-6-8) and Thomas Banner (popularity/family, personality 4-9-4-3-5) had risky woohoo in the stable's haystack (cc bed) after only knowing each other for a day, and she became pregnant. The two of them autonomously fell in love shortly before she popped and both started rolling wants to get engaged. They've done that, but now I don't know what to do with them. Nicole is the only sim on the lot that wants to top the military career, and Thomas wants to top law enforcement. I'd originally intended for all of the police and military sims I'd created to stay on the barracks lots until either one year passed or they reached career level 5, but I'm open to allowing some to live off in other housing (such as married quarters apartments).

Current ideas:
1. The baby is either given up for adoption or temporarily cared for by others in the town. The parents hold off on their wedding until the year is up and at that point they marry and start a family. The baby (child) either stays away or returns to them.
2. She's kicked out of the military and lives in her own house until Thomas finishes his service and they can marry. At that point he's entitled to remain in the military but live where he chooses - she might rejoin the military, but may have to live at the barracks while he's at their home with the child. She might also find work other than military.
3. They marry but remain in the barracks until fairly high in their careers - they would share the largest room. The baby stays there too, and is raised surrounded by military and starts working at the barracks as soon as possible. If other children end up born on the lot, an actual nursery could be created - there's a couple of empty rooms that have no clear purpose yet.
4. Sims still trying to complete their mandatory service who are married could be permitted to move to married quarters (an apartment lot) with their family and still serve.

Thank you for starting this thread.

Love that idea! As for your dilemma @stitching, I'm leaning toward option 1 or 2 because of my style of play. For me, the military is all about culling sims and having a place to get rid of all those extra sims in a household. (I'm trying to keep my neighborhood small.) So definitely no ACR in the military because they're all about hunting down supernaturals. There'd be strict consequences if sims got pregnant in my military and there's definitely no babies allowed on the lot.

Also in my game, to leave the military, after their term of service sims have to roll to see if they make it out alive. Thus even if a poor sim survives all the patrols during his service and doesn't die during a fight with a supernatural, he might not live to tell his glorious war stories. When up for retirement, my military sims are supposed to roll a number between 1-100. Even means they get to retire from the military, i.e. move out of the base and do whatever they like, and odd means they go down in flaming glory and die in battle. Hmm, I forgot how extensive my military rules are. I should probably go playtest them fully. I have like, four pages of notes.

Anyway, I'd probably kick the lady out of the military in a dishonorable discharge--she loses her job, pension, etc. and is blacklisted for a bit--and have the other sim stay in the military but pay child support. Of course, he'd have to be disciplined too somehow. Perhaps several rotations on latrine duty or something. Then when the kid grows up he or she will have an interesting relationship with a dad who is absent a lot of the time because he's in the military.

I should add a bit of interesting info here: I said that both Daniel and Mary-Sue were cheating. Mary-Sue was cheating with none other than Malcolm Landgraab himself.
Also thanks to a hack I have, I believe by Chris Hatch, Mary-Sue is furious with Angela right now. It's a bit sad really because Angela is trying to get her mother's attention and her mother keeps rebuffing her.

As for the medieval barracks thing: Perhaps the parents could try to hide the pregnancy from their superiors and then drop the baby off at a random household. But the superiors find out (gossip spreads) and kick her out, so she goes to find the baby again. But the baby is already happily adopted. That could make an interesting story.
Or perhaps the superiors find out and force her to either voluntarily resign or take a potion that induces miscarriage. (I don't think there's any CC like that and you'd probably just use the SimBlender to terminate pregnancy but you can pretend.)

Really? Well, I guess Mary-Sue will just have to marry Malcolm herself. You could always go for the tried and true "I'm not paying for your college unless you put that baby up for adoption," but it's not nearly as intricate.

@ihatemadatoryregister : I definitely think Mary Sue would make her give the baby up for adoption. Mary Sue was adopted and look at her now, independent woman rising the political ranks sleeping with a "handsome" rich bachelor. Those warning that it could come back to bite later, that would make it so much better! Ship Angela off to boarding school/military school (in my old uberhood she ended up with (Tank?) Grunt, they had a lot of chemistry together) and get the baby as far away from Pleasantview as possible. If I was doing this, and were writing it as a story for an audience i'd put the baby up for adoption, and a little later have multiple families adopt babies, so that way at first you don't know where her baby ends up, and you don't find out till the features start to show themselves through story progression.

@stitching : My favorite of what you presented is Option 3. Not sure how realistic you're playing so I don't know if dishonorable discharge is an appropriate option. But it would be cute to have a kid around helping almost like a little mascot. Then one day, their parents die but now the child has no one and remains at the barracks, finding their new family in the other military officials. Once old enough they enlist themselves, work up the ranks and eventually leads the military, and conquers many surrounding nations and becomes one of the most decorated and celebrated military leaders in history. From humble beginnings to a grand legacy!

At least those are my 2 cents...

#3 is what most people used to do back in the old days lol and it would especially make sense for a aspiring politician! Eventually down the line Angela may begin to have regrets when the baby is a child and can blackmail her mom (who should be well known and respected by then) to give her whatever she desires or else she'll go straight to the press with the truth!

Another interesting thing came up: Angela suddenly began rolling wants to apologize to Lilith. I had her do that about a dozen times in a row (maybe a little overkill) and now they're not enemies anymore.

How stubborn do you think Angela's personality is? Yes, I also think that Mary-Sue would ship her off, but how would Angela handle that? Would she run away with the baby before or after she arrived to the boarding school? If she did, how would she handle life as a struggling poor mother? Would she ever let Dustin know about the baby? Would she ask her father for help? Would Daniel beat up Dustin?

So of course, I make this no easier with more questions.

Angela's giving you the cue there. She and Lilith run away and raise the baby together!

Oh, do 4! Do 4!



But yeah I did the same thing with Angela and Dustin. She had the baby and went to college. Left it with Brandy to raise. Brandy was married to Malcolm Landgraab at the time. Then she left him when he cheated on her with Dina and all of a sudden, Dustin and Angela's son was living in a house with Malcolm and Dina who got married.

Oh, I forgot to mention that both Daniel and Mary-Sue died in a fire...a mysterious fire caused by CC bomb thing that just showed up for no reason. Hmm...

I second this!

I think that's what #4 was supposed to be.

I'm voting for 4

I'm starting to lean towards #4 as well - moving Angela and Lilith out and moving them to another subhood. Perhaps Belladonna Cove or Widespot, as those two are 'geographically' the closest to Pleasantview.* Brandi Broke (who i headcanon was also a teen mother) would be supportive of her new grandchild, moreso than Mary-Sue anyways.

* I've actually put a decent amount of thought into the area in general and why there's desert subhoods and coastal subhoods in the same megahood. Basically - the megahood is somewhere on the California coast, and the deserts (Strangetown, Sedona, and La Fiesta) are on the other side of the mountains with the rain shadow effect.

4 4 4 4 4

Anyone else have a dilemma? this is a fun thread!

I hope someone has one soon.

Voting for 4.

In the middle of the night, the girls locked Mary-Sue in her bedroom, quietly packed all their furniture in their inventory, and took off. They had the taxi take them to Belladonna Cove and drop them off there, where they wandered around for a few hours. At the coffee-shop, Lilith noticed an ad: Apartment for rent at Bella Park Condominiums. While Angela ordered another coffee, Lilith called to inquire about it; the landlord seemed to understand the urgency of her appeal, and offered to meet them within the hour.

Even though it was only a few blocks, it seemed endless for Angela, with her belly swollen and feet aching. The apartment was tiny; a one-bedroom, but the dining room was big enough for a second bedroom. Happily, they accepted, and got to work setting up the furniture.

Mary-Sue awoke the next morning to find her door locked. Fortunately, she was able to get it open before she resorted to crawling out the window. She headed upstairs to yell at Lilith again, only to find both girl's bedrooms empty, all the furniture gone. Then she went downstairs and called Malcolm Landgraab.

I'm glad the landlord was so understanding!

....How does Mary-Sue Landgraab sound to you?

run while you still can malcolm

Too late. They're already engaged.