The Wan-Goddard-Landgraab etc. DecaDynasty (complete - summary only)

[hazelnut]

This is more of a ‘how I played’ than a story because I played this dynasty quite a while back, starting not long after the challenge was posted (after seven attempts that succumbed to game-breaking bugs in the first couple of generations).  Still, I thought it might be useful to others.  Some things are going to be different, though, because there have been a lot of patches since.  In particular, story progression having been toned down almost to non-existence means that one of the things I enjoyed most about the challenge – seeing how townie families developed down the generations – won’t happen any more.  There have also been a few changes to the rules in the meantime.  This was played after Generations came out and before Pets – although I was playing with only Ambitions and World Adventures (plus a couple of stuff packs).   Sorry for the lack of screenshots – I took a lot but lost most of them in a computer malfunction.  The only ones that are left were backed up elsewhere because they were significant or odd.


Generation 1

Like quite a few other people, I started with Pauline Wan and Hank Goddard.  Because they are both close to the beginning of young adulthood at the start of the game, I left it as long as possible for them to have their first child.  Grayling was born on day nine.  (She was named after a character in Inspector Morse – although it has been pointed out to me since that she should really have been called Annette.)

Pauline and Hank stayed together very happily, although they never married.  Both had changes of lifetime wish:  Pauline became a rock star and Hank a CEO.  They were great parents and wanted more children, so Grayling was followed by a younger sister.  She was named Rosemary, because she was destined to be a gardener and cook.  (At this stage in the game, I thought I would need a utility Sim to support each heir.  In fact, most would have been fine without – and Pauline and Hank both developed a lot of useful skills.)

Rather worryingly, both Pauline and Hank were long-lived.  Hank finally died in his late nineties; at this point, Pauline started eating ambrosia and kept going well into generation 2.  She remained a party animal all her life: I wish I still had the screenshot of a very old Pauline dancing wildly with Charles Bunch, the son of VJ Alvi and Darlene (he was quite a character – a very strait-laced businessman but with his father’s purple hair rather spoiling the image).

In a double wedding, Grayling married her high-school sweetheart, Jeremy Landgraab, and Rosemary married the Wolffs’ ridiculously handsome son, Damien.  (I’d have stolen him for Grayling if the Wolffs hadn’t been homeless for a long time.)


Home: Raggio del Sole, 1 Sun Song Ave
Heir: Grayling Wan-Goddard
Traits: Loves the outdoors, heavy sleeper, angler, friendly, kleptomaniac   
Lifetime wish: Presenting the Perfect Private Aquarium



Parents: Pauline Wan and Hank Goddard
Heir on elementary school honor roll? Yes
Heir on high school honor roll? Yes

Household NPC friends:

• Nathaniel Braxton (paper boy)
• Rudolph Pedersen (repairman)
• Brandy Shea (burglar)
• Asa Gann (policeman)
• Troy Harlow (postman)
• Rasmi Tut (tourist)
• Emilio Gurley (babysitter)
• Tami Harbin (social worker)
• Yesenia Mercado (firefighter)
• Cedrick McCarthy (pizza deliverer)

Household best friends:

• Jeremy Landgraab
• Jeffrey Keaton
• Buddy Baxter
• Emilio Baxter
• Carmelo Baxter
• Jamison Hart
• Kay Tobin
• Lynn Aguilar
• Lorie Goth
• Kristoffer Swain

Unique maxed career: self-employed angler
Unique supermaxed skill: fishing



Unique opportunities (BlackOps) completed by heir:   

• A Fishy Science Project
• Say Hello to My Little Fish
• Monster from the Deep
• No Warts, Please
• Robot Fish v2.0
• Funny-looking Fish
• Heaps of Fresh Fish
• Aquarium Fishing
• To Hunt a Dragon
• Lobsters in Demand!

Building: Supermarket
Property: Stoney Falls
Property fully upgraded?  Yes
Heir adult?  Yes
Tombstone (large): Hank Goddard
Set of items of unique type: Deathfish in bowls
Total value: §17702  (I was disappointed that they’re worth less in bowls than they are in inventory but it’s a lot better than mounting them.)



Vacation days used: 3
Days carried forward to next generation: 7


Generation 2

Grayling moved in with her new husband and his older brother and found that Mortimer Goth was also living with them (I have no idea why, since his younger sister Lorie was living alone in the Goth house).  The next day, the newlyweds visited the Town Hall to change their names to Landgraab (something that would be repeated in most generations thereafter – I occasionally remembered to change the bride’s name before the wedding).

Three days later, Grayling produced her heir.  Flora was largely brought up by her uncle Malcolm, who had retired from medicine.  The other three adults were busy.  Both of the men had jobs: Jeremy had started off in the business career but wanted to be an astronaut, while Mortimer had become a natural cook and wanted to be a five-star chef.  Grayling preferred fishing to baby care.  All three of them were learning photography as well.  Since Grayling and Jeremy were well into adulthood and the other two were elders, I extended the lives of everyone except Malcolm.  Grayling had bought a food replicator with some of her lifetime happiness points and Pauline had filled it with ambrosia and baked angel food cake.  Unfortunately, I discovered too late that the family inventory doesn’t move with the heir.  Grayling went over to see her mother – I knew there was more ambrosia in the fridge.  Not any more, there wasn’t.  It had reverted to the basic fridge contents when she moved out.  So Grayling had a makeover instead.  Jeremy and Mortimer, both being brave, kept wishing for tattoos, which kept them from ageing very effectively until Mortimer learned to make ambrosia.

Grayling also had a second child, Charlotte (I still hadn’t learned about not needing utility Sims). 

Flora started on her specialist skill as a teenager, which turned out to be a mistake.  She supermaxed gardening three days into young adulthood, thanks to the gardens established by Pauline, Hank and Jeremy.



Then she waited for the opportunities… and waited.  She’d reached level ten of the gardening career, so I swapped her into science until her lack of handiness became a problem.  She hadn’t had any work opportunities from science, anyway, so she changed jobs again, to the business career.

By this stage, I’d finally realised that I didn’t need to keep Charlotte as a dynasty slave, so left her to do what she wanted, which was cooking.  I was paying so little attention to her that it was a surprise when she came home from work with a fridge.

Finally, Flora’s Black Ops started arriving (for gardening as well as her job) and she was able to move in her last week of adulthood.  I think if she’d left gardening until she was a young adult, she wouldn’t have had this problem – a lot of the gardening opportunities seem to be related to skill levels.


Home: Landgraab Estate, 10 Summer Hill Court
Heir: Flora Landgraab
Traits: Loves the outdoors, friendly, couch potato, green thumb, lucky
Lifetime wish: The Perfect Garden
Parents: Grayling and Jeremy Landgraab
Heir on elementary school honor roll? Yes
Heir on high school honor roll? Yes

Household NPC friends:

• Mortimer Goth (ghost – this was when they were still allowed as NPC friends)
• Shaunna Dugan (paper girl)
• Kami Black (social worker)
• Racheal Naylor (repairwoman)
• Mimi Michaels (pizza deliverer)
• Raven Jack (firefighter)
• Misti Gomez (policewoman)
• Beatrice Vu (maid)
• Dommithilde Ruelle (tourist)
• Garret Meyers (postman)

Household best friends:

• Mason Bernal
• Mortimer Goth
• Maureen Salas
• Jevon Salas
• Igor Oakes
• Angelica Aviles
• Racheal Naylor
• Shaunna Dugan
• Willow Herrmann
• Shea Poirer

Unique maxed career: self-employed gardener
Unique supermaxed skill: gardening


(I'd decided to keep the heirs' career rewards and skill certificates on display in their properties - which meant that quite a lot of them ended up decorating loos!)

Unique opportunities (BlackOps) completed by heir:   

• Stinky Bugs
• Outside Reading
• Uncommonly Good
• Outstandingly Rare
• Merging Towards Overtime
• Scientific Documents
• The Omnificent Plant
• Outstanding Tasting ingredients
• Great Plums
• The Fruit of Life

Building: Science Centre
Property: Central Park
Property fully upgraded?  Yes
Heir adult?  Yes
Tombstones (all large): Grayling Landgraab, Jeremy Landgraab and Mortimer Goth (Malcolm wasn't around long enough to earn even a medium-sized tombstone).
Set of items of unique type: Photographs
Total value: §108635





Vacation days used this generation: 11
Total so far: 14
Days carried forward to next generation: 6


Generation 3

Flora married Mason Bernal and followed her mother’s example by getting pregnant on her wedding night.  Mason was living with his parents and brothers in what had once been the Working Friends household.  (In fact, at this point, there was still a Working Friends household somewhere else in town, consisting of Madison VanWatson’s children and grandchild.)  I felt that there were more Sims in the house than I wanted to juggle, and moved out the parents and teenage brother.   The older brother, Torrance, was a gift for what I had in mind for this household: ambitious, workaholic and evil, so he stayed.

After the usual interval, Flora popped round the corner to the hospital and came out, unexpectedly, with twin girls.  Helen was the first to be named and so was heir, although Diana somehow lost a day at the toddler stage and ended up being a day older.  Flora ran home from the hospital (in high heels!) carrying Helen, while Mason, rather more sensibly, walked back with Diana.  About five minutes after arriving home, Flora was pregnant again.  This time she had a boy, Jack.

Oddly, even though Mason's mother, Sara, had been about to age up to elder when she moved out, she managed to give birth to a story-progression daughter about a week later.  Young Destiny was at school with her nieces and nephew and became a family friend.  Her descendants were around for several generations.

I think Flora must have been rather bewildered by her family – there she was, a respectable Landgraab, with a husband and brother-in-law who were both criminals.  It was probably just as well that she didn’t live long enough to see all three of her children grow up to follow in their footsteps.  Torrance eventually became Emperor of Evil; the others all chose the thief branch of the career.  I’d originally intended Helen to go for the Physical Perfection LTW, which I hadn’t yet played (hence the name) but she rolled a wish to become a Master Thief when Mason got his final promotion.  In return, he wished for her to become a master criminal (23000 points with his ambitious trait!)

Since I needed all of the others to be alive and active for the whole time I was playing this household and someone had to provide a tombstone, poor Flora didn’t have her life extended at all.  Mason and Torrance had regular doses of ambrosia.  I’d learnt from my mistake with the previous move – this time a replicator full of ambrosia was left out on the deck behind the Landgraab house.  I was a little worried that a burglar might walk off with it but it was fine.  I left a teleporter there, too, and that proved very useful for members of later households who were in that part of town and needed to get somewhere else quickly.

Incidentally, this house had the worst plumbing ever.  None of them were clumsy but it kept breaking.  Both Mason and Torrance completed the Plumber challenge without trying, which finally fixed the problem.

Helen became the first (and, it turned out, only) heir to finish her requirements as a young adult and had to wait a few days before she was old enough to move on.


Home: Metropolitan Lofts, 270 Sunnyside Blvd
Heir: Helen Bernal
Traits: Athletic, disciplined, friendly, ambitious, brave
Lifetime wish: Master Thief



Parents: Flora and Mason Bernal
Heir on elementary school honor roll? Yes
Heir on high school honor roll? Yes

Household NPC friends:

• Susan Carmichael (postwoman)
• Teri Magana (firefighter)
• Anthony Ferris (policeman)
• Alaine Elam (paper girl)
• Celina Guajardo (social worker)
• Marty O'Brien (babysitter)
• Lukas Burchett (pizza deliverer
• Roderick Dewey (repairman
• Victoria Alicea (maid
• Karima Maloof (tourist)

Household best friends:

• Conor Salas
• Bert Salas
• Michael Salas
• Abbey Dorsey
• Edgar Robins
• Victor Bernal (Mason’s younger brother)
• Cale Adkins
• Arnulfo Cheney
• Rolando Cheney
• Celina Guajardo

Unique maxed career: Criminall (Thief)
Unique supermaxed skill: Athletic



Unique opportunities (BlackOps) completed by heir:   

• Going Pro
• Secret Techniques
• Bounce the Crowd
• A Package for You
• Chinese Delivery
• French Delivery
• Presenting a Portfolio to Clients
• A Better Criminal
• Grabbing the Llama
• The Complete Circuit

Building: Stadium
Property: Gym
Property fully upgraded?  Yes
Heir adult?  Yes
Tombstone (large): Flora Bernal
Set of items of unique type: criminal career objects taken home
Total value: §97625



Vacation days used this generation: 10
Total so far: 24
Days carried forward to next generation: 6

[hazelnut]

Generation 4

Helen married Conor Salas, a would-be hit movie composer, who lived in the Wainwrights’ old house with his father, Bert, and brother, Michael, who were both policemen.   I wonder whether they ever found out what their relatives by marriage did for a living?  Bert got moved out at once; Michael, who was a technophobe, was kept around for a while.

Before he became part of the family tree, I’d thought Conor was the son of Maureen and Jevon, who had been best friends of Flora’s – but it turned out that there were two unrelated Salas families in town.  (Even more confusingly, Michael later married a Salas from the other family on story progression.) 

In keeping with tradition, Andi put in her appearance three days after the move.  She was followed by a younger sister – but for slightly different reasons from the first two generations.  The plan was for Andi to supermax handiness, so Clio was born clumsy and became a frugal technophobe as she got older, taking over the sabotage duties from Michael.  When she’d broken enough things around the house, she had a midlife crisis and acquired much better traits.

Conor was fated to be the tombstone provider for this household, so he had a happy but natural-length life.  Helen raided the replicator at the Landgraab house regularly and spent much of her time board-breaking in the newly constructed basement, where she could also keep a watchful eye on her older daughter’s inventing bench.



Andi was my favourite member of the family, possibly because she was so straightforward to play.  As a genius with an equally brainy dad, she got through the school requirements with no problem – and handiness has to be the easiest supermax in the game, especially with other Sims providing you with a constant supply of things to mend.  As always, the inventing career seemed interminable but she finally got through it.


Home: Minihaus, 53 Maywood Lane
Heir: Andi Salas
Traits: Genius, eccentric, lucky, handy, born saleswoman
Lifetime wish: Monster Maker


(The game named Andi’s first SimBot Bert with no help from me.  Obviously it was keeping track of the family tree  ).

Parents: Helen and Conor Salas
Heir on elementary school honor roll? Yes
Heir on high school honor roll? Yes

Household NPC friends:

• Gerardo Hobbs (paper deliverer)
• Dwight McFadden (babysitter)
• Mindi Agee (repairwoman)
• Dirk Sampson (pizza deliverer)
• Freddy Felix (social worker)
• Scottie Ashton (policeman)
• Kirsten Neal (maid)
• Colleen Peoples (postwoman)
• Kiley Friend (firefighter)
• Grim Reaper

Household best friends:

• Trenton Goodman
• Quinton Byers
• Cortney Gifford
• Ray Molina
• Deshawn Blackburn
• Mindi Agee
• Willis Coe
• Freddy Felix
• Jackson Pierson
• Camilla Paulson

Unique maxed career: self-employed inventor
Unique supermaxed skill: handiness





Unique opportunities (BlackOps) completed by heir:   

• Research Project
• The Boiler Room
• Technical Arguments
• Hygienation Hijinks
• Exposition on Explosion
• Master Invention
• Try the Traps
• De-Worming
• Teching Up the Spa
• Bring Back the Jams

Building: Criminal Warehouse
Property: Library
Property fully upgraded?  Yes
Heir adult?  Yes
Tombstone (large): Conor Salas



Set of items of unique type: Gems (tiberium)
Total value: §396819



Vacation days used: 2
Total so far: 26
Days carried forward to next generation: 14


Generation 5

Andi said goodbye to her mother and sister and moved in with her new husband, Trenton Goodman, who had been living alone in the Alto mansion.  Shortly after the wedding, Andi told him she was expecting a baby.  He thought she was being boring – I’d forgotten he disliked children.

Margaux Goodman was, above all, a snob.  Well, she was the spoiled only child of a rich family.  She took up nectar-making as a teenager and had achieved her lifetime wish of a bottomless nectar cellar before her young adult birthday.



With no skill opportunities available for nectar-making, she started learning charisma and went into politics.



I had left charisma as a free skill for this dynasty but all of the others had started learning it after supermaxing their main skill.  They all had enough contacts to complete most of the challenges the first time they talked to someone after unlocking the skill.  With a single exception, the charisma opportunities were still free, so Margaux completed several of them in addition to her career opportunities.  The exception was talking to the ants at the science lab, which I’d rather stupidly let Grayling accept.  Of course, it kept popping up for Margaux .

I hadn’t supermaxed nectar-making before.  Vizard of Vine was a bit of a pain but I made her turn down travelling opportunities until she’d completed it.  The other challenges were fine.

Soon after Margaux aged up to young adult, Andi and Helen both died, within a few hours of each other.  The Sims were nearly as sad as I was.

As Leader of the Free World, Margaux had made it her job to know everyone in Sunset Valley – but potential husbands were decidedly thin on the ground.  All the men were either too old, too young or relatives.  Maybe she’d just have to wait for one of the younger ones to grow up.  Grace and Marcus  Monk had recently moved into town with their teenage son – would he grow up soon enough for Margaux to marry him?  She kept her options open but young Darius looked promising – and the Monks’ seaside home, once occupied by the Frio brothers, wasn’t too much of a step down for someone who’d grown up on Summer Hill.

Fortunately for Margaux, Darius proved to be quite close to growing up and she was able to move on from making inspiring speeches to something more romantic.

Most of the heirs threw wedding parties but Margaux’s is the only one I still have pictures of – because of an unexpected guest.







Grimmy loved the wedding.  I kept expecting him to pull out a little lace hankie.  He was certainly going “Aaawww!” a lot.  At the time, I didn’t realise why he was there.  I think the camera did pan across at one point but I thought I’d just knocked the mouse.  It was only when Margaux read the paper the following day that I realised he had come to take an uninvited guest – but not one who was unknown to me:  Shaun Bernal, Destiny’s grandson.


Home: Villa Alto, 20 Summer Hill Court
Heir: Margaux Goodman
Traits: Good, friendly, snob, party animal, charismatic
Lifetime wish: Bottomless Nectar Cellar

Parents: Andi and Trenton Goodman
Heir on elementary school honor roll? Yes
Heir on high school honor roll? Yes

Household NPC friends:

• Jerome Norris (repairman)
• Ariana Kenney (policewoman)
• Darren Archer (burglar)
• Amun Aswad (tourist)
• Corinne Magana (paper girl)
• Grayling Landgraab (ghost)
• Lacy Quintana (pizza deliverer)
• Annemarie Shorter (adoption worker)
• Randall Bostic (babysitter)
• Lyle Fernandez (postman)

Household best friends:

• Darius Monk
• Kaitlin Kenyon
• Noemi Rhoades
• Joyce Finney
• Jereme Finney
• Alfredo Gifford
• Jayson Salas (Clio’s son)
• Janna Cherry
• Peijing Sao Hing
• Ricky Dye

Unique maxed careers: Self-employed nectar-maker and politics
Unique supermaxed skill: Nectar-making



Unique opportunities (BlackOps) completed by heir:   

• Policing the Paper Trail
• Tough Negotiating
• Let's Dine
• Chat with the Police
• Getting to Know… You
• Looking for a Friend
• In the News Tonight
• Bestest Friends
• Lobster Crisis
• As a Leader Should (in China)

Building: Spa
Property: Cemetery



Property fully upgraded?  Yes
Heir adult?  Yes
Tombstone (large): Andi Goodman



Set of items of unique type: Inventions (masterful time machines)
Total value: §20240



Vacation days used this generation: 3
Total so far: 29
Days carried forward to next generation: 21


Generation 6

After her eventful wedding, Margaux settled into her new life with Darius.  His ageing parents were unceremoniously kicked out but then moved into the house across the road, once owned by Claire Ursine.

Margaux went back to Villa Alto to visit her father (and, not entirely incidentally, spend some time in the basement with her nectar machines) but he wouldn’t answer the door.  She tried to go down to the cellar anyway – after all, the stairs were in the back garden – but found she couldn’t do that either.  Fortunately, all was not lost.  Andi had also upgraded the machines at the Nectary, so Margaux took a quick trip to France.

She gave birth to her heir, Sienna, a few days after her return.  Again, the couple wanted another child and, as with previous generations, they wanted another daughter.  Sienna and Autumn were both artistic and loved painting.  Sienna was also drawn to photography, while Autumn preferred music.

Like her mother and great-grandmother, Margaux had to manage without ambrosia.  Since Darius was so much younger, there was really no question about who would provide the tombstone.  So Margaux retired from politics and lived out her days throwing parties and donating to charity, while her husband worked his way through the international espionage career and her daughters painted.




Home: Ocean Vista Cottage, 7 Sun Song Ave
Heir: Sienna Monk
Traits: Loves the outdoors, artistic, photographer's eye, perfectionist, friendly
Lifetime wish:: Visionary

Parents: Margaux and Darius Monk
Heir on elementary school honor roll? Yes
Heir on high school honor roll? Yes
 
Household NPC friends:

• Keri Stanley (firefighter)
• Aileen Havens policewoman
• Rudolph Stacy (burglar)
• Katina Catania (pizza deliverer)
• Lydell Childers (paper boy)
• Jeanette Queen (maid)
• Charissa Clark (repairwoman)
• Mindy Cleary (postwoman)
• Guang Chung (tourist)
• Raphael Steen (social worker)

Household best friends:

• Cornelius Franklin
• Chadd Jarrell
• Alfonzo de Jesus
• Jake de Jesus
• Alysia Hope
• Nathaniel Hare
• Lynnette Collazo
• Kristopher Rosales
• Kristoffer Golden
• Francisco Adamson

Unique maxed careers: self-employed painter and photographer (she also reached the top of the business career)
Unique supermaxed skill: painting



Unique opportunities (BlackOps) completed by heir:   

• Deliver a Painting to China
• Paparazzi!
• Visa Photograph
• The Sphinx
• Fresco Fest
• Oh and Bring Gifts
• The Study of Art
• Making Nice with the Newsies
• The Dragon Cave
• A Fun Gathering of Suits

Building: Theatre
Property: Art Gallery





(I went a bit mad upgrading the Art Gallery - I wanted to use the stuff from World Adventures.  Given that I was generally trying to keep the file size down in this game, not very sensible - but I seem to have got away with it).

Property fully upgraded? Yes
Heir adult?  Yes
Tombstone (large): Margaux Monk
Set of items of unique type: Nectar
Total value: §51101



Vacation days used this generation: 4
Total so far: 33
Days carried forward to next generation: 27

[hazelnut]

Generation 7

Sienna married Cornelius Franklin, who shared her love of art – he wanted to become a Descendant of da Vinci. This household was rather different from the previous ones – it was a group of six adults.  The old Langerak house was full to bursting, even before Sienna announced her pregnancy.

Several of her new housemates had appeared on Sienna’s list of qualifying best friends but Alysia Hope didn’t get on nearly as well with the others as she did with Sienna.  I never found out why, but her relationship with all of them was about as bad as it could be.  She was kicked out almost at once.

Kristoffer Golden and Kristopher Rosales were a couple.



On the day that Penny was born, Kristoffer proposed to Kristopher and they had a private wedding soon after.  After adopting a baby boy (named Christopher, naturally ), they moved out.

That left Sienna, Cornelius and Penny, together with Lewis Milligan and Lynette Collazo.  Lewis was another aspiring five-star chef; Lynette was working part-time at the supermarket but was clearly much better suited to her dream job of professional author.  Lynette’s room was converted into a bedroom/study and she quit her job; Lewis slept downstairs for a while, in what would later become Penny’s room.  Soon, Lynette and Lewis were an item and, not much later, husband and wife.  They had twin daughters, Aisling and Caitlin (if I'd expected them to have twins, I'd have avoided rhyming names ).



This is the only picture I have of them all – the day Lewis achieved his lifetime wish and retired.  (From left to right, Lynette, Cornelius, Penny, Lewis, Sienna, Caitlin and Aisling, looking rather taller than normal.)

The three girls grew up as friends.  Penny, who loved books, was determined to become a journalist; Aisling, the quiet genius, was headed for medicine and Caitlin, the extrovert, wanted to max charisma and guitar.  All four adults extended their lives a little, until their children were self-sufficient, and then gave in gracefully to the passing of time.



I’d thought Margaux had a difficult time husband-hunting but that now paled into insignificance.  The family tree was now ridiculously complicated.  Trying to trace through to find out who was a relative became mind-boggling enough to require a pencil and paper.  I’ve since exported it from the final (and only surviving) save as a GEDCOM file.  Even though a lot of branches have fallen off (the Bunches, Alvis and Wolffs no longer appear, for a start) there are still well over two hundred family members.

The obvious candidate for the next spouse was Jonathan Arevalo, one of Penny’s colleagues and her very best friend – except that he was homeless.  All of the men with houses were either married with children or were relatives (or both).  Eventually, Penny settled on Archie Adler, who wasn’t completely unrelated but was a very distant cousin.  Despite being a couple of generations later in the family, Archie was already old.  Still, that wouldn’t matter once he had access to ambrosia.  Penny zipped through her remaining requirements but then, on the day she was ready to marry, the warning popped up that Archie was out of time.  As soon as it was late enough to visit, she rushed over and proposed.  They were just about to have a private wedding when Grim appeared.  If only he’d waited another hour or so.

After she’d finished grieving for her lost love, Penny started looking around again.  She was beginning to run short of time.  Then she met Miguel Hare.  Again, he was a distant relative (in fact, he was Archie’s great-uncle).  He was old and his personality was thoroughly unpleasant but Penny and I were both desperate by now.  A whirlwind courtship was rapidly followed by a private wedding and Penny moved into her new home and old family seat, the Landgraab mansion.

(Under the current rules, Miguel wouldn’t be a valid choice for spouse, since he had a grown-up son, who was living with his mother, wife and baby in the Wan-Goddard house.  Miguel appeared to barely know the woman whose child he’d fathered, so I assume it was pure story progression and probably wouldn’t happen now anyway.)


Home: Tilelicious, 14 Sierra Tango Street
Heir: Penny Franklin
Traits: friendly, couch potato, bookworm, family-oriented, ambitious
Lifetime wish: Star News Anchor

Parents: Sienna and Cornelius Franklin
Heir on elementary school honor roll? Yes
Heir on high school honor roll? Yes

 Household NPC friends:

• Alyse Goncalves (tourist)
• Waylon Beavers (burglar)
• Betty Pendleton (firefighter)
• Kyla Coburn (postwoman)
• Katina Catania (pizza deliverer)
  
• Aileen Havens (policewoman)
• Uriah Sizemore (repairman)
• Katy Harrison (maid)
• Clark Stamper (paperboy)
• Marion McMahon (adoption worker)

Household best friends:

• Miguel Hare
• Jonathan Arevalo
• Abner Tapia
• Athena Harrington
• Kenneth Klein
• Maura Brinson
• Alyse Goncalves
• Percy Pratt
• Lorna Milligan (Aisling’s adopted daughter)
• Maura Culp

Unique maxed career: Journalism
Unique supermaxed skill: Writing
Unique opportunities (BlackOps) completed by heir:   

• Channel Surfing
• Deliver a Book to Egypt
• Deliver a Book to France
• Extra-Curricular Activity
• Writing for the Enemy
• A Tad Vague
• Just Business
• Hit Needed
• City Councilman Counsels to the Contrary
• Add a Little Drama

Building: Bookshop
Property: Consignment Store
Property fully upgraded?  Yes



Heir adult? Yes
Tombstones (large): Sienna and Cornelius Franklin, Lynnette and Lewis Milligan



Set of items of unique type: paintings
Total value: §66815





Vacation days used this generation: 3
Total so far: 36
Days carried forward to next generation: 34


Generation 8

On the wedding night, I suddenly noticed the groom’s age.  He was 96!  I was quite happy to let him die of old age but the rules said the parents had to be living together at the time of the heir’s birth.  Life fruit might help but he really needed an insurance policy.  Fortunately, there was a deathflower bush in the garden of the Alto house, so I dragged him out of bed to harvest it.

Grim turned up just a few hours before Chantal was born (again, Grim, why couldn’t you wait a bit?)  Miguel duly presented him with the flower and returned to the beginning of the elder life stage.  Now what?  My plans for this generation involved a large, happy family; mean, hot-headed Miguel just wanted to pick fights.  So Penny divorced him (being mean-spirited, he didn’t even mind) and he moved out.  A few days later, she married Jonathan – and this time, she had a big wedding, surrounded by her family and friends.

Penny and Jonathan had five children: another girl, Freya, followed by four boys.  I was going for maximum lifetime happiness points with this household.  Penny already had a large number, from all those big writing wishes.  She’d spent some on the usual workplace rewards (Attractive, Multi-Tasker and Office Hero) and on No Bills Ever, which I bought for all of the heirs, but all of the rest were saved to be spent on objects at the last possible minute.  Jonathan wanted to be a scientist, so he switched jobs and was eventually able to provide a few extra moodlets with his experiments.  Thanks to Mortimer and Charlotte, the house already had two chef’s fridges, which was a useful bonus.  One was kept in the kitchen and the other upstairs in the room that became the nursery, giving the babies and toddlers a head start on their happiness points.

Chantal was destined to be the sculptor of the family.



Michael, her eldest half-brother, combined sculpting and writing, while Freya became an explorer, using up a number of the vacation days carried over from previous households in the course of achieving her Seasoned Traveller LTW.  The younger children were all outdoors-loving bookworms (for all the ‘read X books’ wishes) and most of them obligingly rolled the Perfect Aquarium wish as soon as they learnt to fish.

Again, the only screenshots I have left of the non-heir members of the household are the odd ones, so here are Freya sinking through the floor and the two youngest, David and William, trying to share a cot.





In fact, I rather overdid it with this family.  Three or four children with the right traits and lifetime wishes would probably have been enough, although wishes for and about all those kids did give Penny and Jonathan an impressive number of happiness points.  I ended up moving out the younger children as a group as soon as they were old enough and concentrating on the eldest three.

Living in the house for the second time did mean having to cope with the four resident ghosts.  They were actually quite helpful – Mortimer often cooked meals and Malcolm retained his fondness for children and took care of quite a few night-time feeds and nappy changes.  Less usefully, Jeremy usually slept and Grayling mostly played on the trampoline.






Home: Landgraab Estate, 10 Summer Hill Court
Heir: Chantal Hare
Traits: heavy sleeper, couch potato, kleptomaniac, ambitious, savvy sculptor
Lifetime wish: Living in the Lap of Luxury

Parents: Penny and Miguel Hare
Heir on elementary school honor roll? Yes
Heir on high school honor roll? Yes

Household NPC friends:

• Fabian Torres (maid)
• Mortimer Goth (ghost)
• Tyra Mahon (pizza deliverer)
• Regina Ellis (postwoman)
• Nicholas Block (repairman)
• Jarred Cloutier (fireman)
• Quiana Lively (paper deliverer)
• Grim Reaper
• Bonnie Colombo (policewoman)
  
• Charissa Crist (social worker)

Household best friends:

• Kurt Owen
• Justin Hong
• Spring Grossman
• Zachary Sweet
• Aric Bernier
• Forrest Hope
• Noelle Meyrick
• Rosie Everett
• Elijah Pham
• Julia Kowalski

Unique maxed career: self-employed sculptor (again, she went into business afterwards, just for the opportunities)
Unique supermaxed skill: sculpting
Unique opportunities (BlackOps) completed by heir:   

• Amateur Olympics
• Sculpt a Suspect
• Larger Than Necessary Doorstop
• Personal Sculpting
• Your Best Work
• Delivering the Green
• Help the School
• Eating Contest
• A Farewell to Paper
• The Banquet Centrepiece

Building: Diner
Property: Summer Hill Springs
Property fully upgraded?  Yes



Heir adult? Yes
Tombstone (large): Penny Arevalo


                                            Penny on the left, Mortimer and the Landgraabs on the right

Set of items of unique type: lifetime happiness rewards (teleporters)
Total value: §150000



Vacation days used this generation: 15
Total so far: 51
Days carried forward to next generation: 29

[hazelnut]

Generation 9

Chantal finished her tasks without fuss and married Kurt Owen, an aspiring astronaut who lived in a smallish house between Mosquito Cove and the Sekemotos’.

I’d originally been planning to do guitar as a supermaxed skill at some point but the problems that some of the heirs (notably Flora) had encountered with opportunities rather put me off it.  Since no-one had reached more than level 3-4 in cooking, I changed my mind and made that the skill for the next heir.

Chantal followed in the family tradition and produced Madeleine three days after her wedding.  Maddy remained an only child, because the house wasn’t really big enough for more (and after two large households I felt like a rest).


                                                     Maddy and Kurt demonstrate their synchronised yawning

Maddy was one of those large-eyed Sims who produce goofy expressions at a moment’s notice.  Like this:



Chantal spent almost all of her time sculpting.  Kurt went through the military career to fulfil his lifetime wish and then joined his wife in the large shed I’d put up to house the sculpting stations, although he never managed to make anything approaching the value of Chantal’s best pieces.

Maddy graduated from the toy oven to the real one and then went to work at the bistro.  Soon after this, Kurt looked up from his sculpting and went transparent.  Grim had only just left the lot when he came back again:  Chantal followed her husband within the hour.  I suppose it minimised the mourning but it was still an unpleasant surprise.

Once she’d settled to living on her own, Maddy had no problems with her requirements and was ready to move soon after her adult birthday.


Home: Cozy Craftsman, 28 Sim Lane
Heir: Madeleine Owen
Traits: friendly, heavy sleeper, excitable, natural cook, charismatic
Lifetime wish: Culinary Librarian

Parents: Chantal and Kurt Owen
Heir on elementary school honor roll? Yes
Heir on high school honor roll? Yes

Household NPC friends:

• Raymond Hannon (repairman)
• Lance Perdue (policeman)
• Wilson Whitfield (burglar)
• Issac Brewer (paper boy)
• Raymond Russell (postman)
• Marianne Stark (pizza delverer)
• Robin Oakley (maid)
• Gaylord Koffi (ghost)
• Serge Depardi (tourist)
• Britta Bonilla (firefighter)

Household best friends:

• Quinton Silverman
• Percy Dunlap
• Neil Sylvester
• Lois Bernier
• Shavon Bernier
• Kristi Bernier
• Simone Alston
• Norris Fraley
• Saul Childress
• Marianne Stark

Unique maxed career: Culinary
Unique supermaxed skill: Cooking
Unique opportunities (BlackOps) completed by heir:   

• Create-a-Crepe
• Some Fine Crepes
• Learn a Recipe
• We Love Falafel!
• A Catering Fracas
• Spying on the Cuisine
• From One Chef to Another
• Burgers for Sims in Uniform
• Perfection From the Pan
• Neighbourhood Grill-A-Thon

Building: Bistro
Property: Pinochle Pond
Property fully upgraded?  Yes



Heir adult? Yes
Tombstones (large): Kurt and Chantal Owen

Set of items of unique type: sculptures
Total value: §138724



Vacation days used this generation: 3
Total so far: 54
Days carried forward to next generation: 36


Generation 10

Maddy married Quinton Silverman, who was living with his newly widowed mother in the house next to Agnes Crumplebottom’s.  Quinton, incidentally, was the lightest sleeper ever.  Even after he earned the points for a midlife crisis and became officially a heavy sleeper instead, he still leapt out of bed every night if there was any noise at all or if Maddy went to bed after him (which she usually did, being a chef). 


                                                                                Quinton in typical pose

Since Maddy had been the only member of her household, I was expecting her fridge to go with her but the family inventory was empty when she arrived.  Maddy was you’ve-guessed-it shortly after joining the household and soon after Sophia was born she was bulging again.  Paul was destined to be the collection-gatherer for this household, using up the vacation days that had been so carefully hoarded.



Sophia was headed for a logic supermax.  I’d left it until last, hoping to get out of it somehow, but now I was stuck with it.

The children easily made the honor roll in school, thanks to tutoring from their granny.  Although she’d been in her late eighties at the time of the wedding, Quinton’s mother was soon feeling much younger under the influence of her daughter-in-law's cooking.  Antonia wanted to be a world-renowned surgeon and was already at level four of medicine when Maddy joined the household.  With her bookworm and genius traits, she had no trouble achieving her wish.  Regretfully (she was a lovely Sim), I let her die the second time she aged up, so that she could provide the final tombstone.



Maddy and Quinton had a third child, Matthew, largely to give Sophia someone to tutor.  Sophia became a chess champion and then followed her grandmother into medicine; Paul became a Great Explorer, revisiting the tombs that Jeremy, Mortimer and (especially) Freya had explored and picking up the relics.  He didn’t quite get a full set: the adventure chain that leads from China to the Landgraab Château didn't fire.  Having done his duty by the family, Paul married and had kids, not necessarily in that order.

When she'd completed her school-tutoring hours with Matthew, Sophia tutored her father in logic.  (He was a scientist with the Tinkerer wish, so that worked out well.)  When Quinton reached level ten, poor Matt got tutored again.  At least he made good use of it, going into the forensic branch of the police.  He eventually made his escape, moving into Christopher Steel’s old house.



Sophia completed her requirements a week after her adult birthday.  She had a fiancé, Angel Morrow, and I had been planning to carry on for an eleventh generation to see whether I could supermax guitar with someone when it no longer mattered, but the bugs had just become too unbearable.  Sometime, Sophia may be cloned for further adventures.


Home: Wagner’s Repose, 250 Redwood Parkway
Heir: Sophia Silverman
Traits: heavy sleeper, good, genius, lucky, bookworm
Lifetime wish: World Renowned Surgeon

Parents: Quinton and Madeleine Silverman
Heir on elementary school honor roll? Yes
Heir on high school honor roll? Yes

Household NPC friends:

• Raymond Hannon (repairman)
• Holli Vickers (policewoman)
• Kim McAdams (burglar)
• Issac Brewer (paper boy)
• Raymond Russell (postman)
• Cecil Muse (pizza delverer)
• Robin Oakley (maid)
• Gaylord Koffi (ghost)
• Yu Xiang Jun Fai (tourist)
• Edwin Reilly (firefighter)

Household best friends:

• Angel Morrow
• Matthew Silverman
• Paul Silverman
• Sunny Silverman (Paul’s wife)
• Rob Hay
• Charlene Malloy
• Kristi Bernier
• Maximus Arrington
• Timmy Jamison
• Starr Rankin

(A lot of the friends are the same as the previous household’s, since Maddy was still alive and many of the NPCs seemed to have stopped ageing.)

Unique maxed career: Medicine
Unique supermaxed skill: Logic
Unique opportunities (BlackOps) completed by heir:   

• Pile of Permission Slips
• A Little Give and Take
• Fixing the Celestial Slump
• Co-worker Problems
• Senet Strategy
• Logic 101
• Tutor Me, Please
• French Puzzler
• Safely Burning Bridges (chain)
• Emergency Testing (chain)

Building: Hospital
Property: Crystal Springs
Property fully upgraded?  Yes



Heir adult? Yes
Tombstone (medium): Antonia Silverman

Set of items of unique type: Relics
Total value: §41417



Vacation days used this generation: 44
Total days used: 98


Challenge finished: week 99, day 1
Total value of collections: §1089078



What Sophia Did Next

[Beezy]

Wow. Your the first person to finish this! Congratulations! 

[Ricalynn]

Congratulations on another dynasty hazelnut!   When did you finish this?  You could have told us a long time ago without ever having done a summary you know. 

You'll be getting the customary PM from me as soon as I get a minute. 

[ArianaJade]

Congratulations on finishing, especially as the first person! I had the same problem as you with my gardening heir and opportunities. And wow, I can't believe your file lasted 99 weeks! I've had to swap towns twice because my computer just couldn't handle it.

I love the idea of having stuff displayed in their properties too, and the picture of the synchronised yawning.

[saltpastillen]

Wow! I'm so happy to finally see someone finish the DecaDynasty. The summary was absolutely riveting reading.

It's interesting about your challenges in finding a spouse that wasn't a relative. Now we are always bemoaning the fact that story progression is broken, but in this kind of dynasty maybe that's a good thing? At least you know you aren't related to the new townspeople.

Congratulations!

[Margerita]

Congratulations on finishing your dynasty. 99 weeks? I hope mine takes nowhere near as long to complete...

[MarianT]

Wow! Congratulations on finishing! I can't believe someone finally made it to the end. Applause, applause!

[Metropolis Man]

Wow. I am super impressed, hazelnut! The Townie Decadynasty is two years old now and you are the first player to finish it. You should be really proud of yourself. Congrats! 

[hazelnut]

Thanks for the congratulations, everyone .

99 weeks? I hope mine takes nowhere near as long to complete...

I had the same problem as you with my gardening heir and opportunities. And wow, I can't believe your file lasted 99 weeks! I've had to swap towns twice because my computer just couldn't handle it.

Just over 98 weeks, in fact (day 1 of week 99), which is clearly much better .  And the 98 days' travelling  .  It did feel like a very long haul at times, although, in real-life time, it was by far my quickest multi-generation game.

I think I was just very, very lucky with this file.  I do seem to get some games that are particularly stable and others that are completely the opposite.  It got very buggy at the end but was mostly surprisingly well-behaved.  I was trying to keep everything very simple to minimise the problems but that did have the side effect of making the game less interesting to play.  The CrumpleSteels are far more fun .

It's interesting about your challenges in finding a spouse that wasn't a relative. Now we are always bemoaning the fact that story progression is broken, but in this kind of dynasty maybe that's a good thing? At least you know you aren't related to the new townspeople.

I think it probably would be an advantage .  I liked seeing the townies going forth and multiplying but it really was a problem at times.

Of course I am now thinking of playing another one under the current rules and with a lot more expansions...


Meanwhile, I finally realised that I could go back into that last save, pick up the tombstones and use genie wishes to bring people back.  It hadn't occurred to me before (I'm really bad at cheating).  So here are pictures where you can actually see what the Sims look like:


                                                                       Grayling (generation 1) and Jeremy


                                                                       Flora (generation 2) and Mason


                                                                       Helen (generation 3) and Conor

This is Helen's twin, Diana.  I'd always thought they were identical apart from the hair colour.  The graphics settings were probably too low for me to have picked up on the difference in their eyes.



                                       Andi (generation 4)
The game seems to have forgotten that her husband, Trenton, died, so there was nothing to revive and he's the only one missing from the line-up.


                                                                       Margaux (generation 5) and Darius


                                                                       Sienna (generation 6) and Cornelius


                                                                       Penny (generation 7) and Miguel

I hadn't realised before how alike Sienna and Penny were (and I'd completely forgotten what Cornelius looked like as a young man).
And this is Penny's true love, Jonathan:




                                                                       Chantal (generation 8 ) and Kurt


                                                                       Madeleine (generation 9 ) and Quinton

And finally, Sophia (generation 10).  I always think of her wearing that jumper; I'd forgotten she had another outfit).


This is the simplified version of the family tree (i.e. only heirs, siblings and spouses):

[ladyaya]

Those are some amazing sims, will you post any of the heirs to the swap shop?

I also notices that from gen 4 to gen 10 they all carry the same nose and mouth, although from gen 5 to gen 10 they carry down most of the facial structure.

~Anna

[ratchie]

A huge congratulations for being the first person to complete this challenge.

Rachel

[hazelnut]

Those are some amazing sims, will you post any of the heirs to the swap shop?

I also notices that from gen 4 to gen 10 they all carry the same nose and mouth, although from gen 5 to gen 10 they carry down most of the facial structure.

~Anna

I hadn't thought of it but I could, if you want.  Which would you like to see posted there?

They are oddly alike.  I knew I kept getting the same hair colours but I hadn't seen their faces in enough detail to spot the other similarities before.   Maybe the game was trying to save memory or something...

A huge congratulations for being the first person to complete this challenge.

Rachel

Thanks, ratchie