Hobble-Darnell Townie DecaDynasty

[hazelnut]

Is Curry going to supermax riding?  You're brave if so - although Alex managed it in her DecaDynasty.

[Beks]

I'm loving this so far! I tried a Townie DecaDynasty once and failed in my first generation, so I've been afraid to try it again ever since. This is one of my favorite challenges to read, though! I'm excited to see all the townie babies and to see Curry as a toddler. (Also, I'm such a fan of the food naming theme. And the paint chips? BRILLIANT.)

[CeresIn]

Welcome Curry! I like the name. I didn't know that asking for a raise between two controllable sims worked, but I didn't often give two of my sims the same career so maybe it's that. Hopping that Vallari's child is a boy so Curry has more options.

[farbe]

I've never had promotions work with a boss inside the house. Thank god though! And thank god for townie babies. We believe in you, Curry, just don't mess up.

I had never tried it before, having never had a boss in the house before, but I'm relieved it worked!

Is Curry going to supermax riding?  You're brave if so - although Alex managed it in her DecaDynasty.

She sure is!  I've done it in a few Immortal Dynasty attempts and it's a challenging supermax but a really fun one.  It helps that I can pretty much start as soon as Curry hits teen, since there is only one opportunity for riding - I'm not concerned about missing out on skill level-based opportunities.  I'm not sold on what her secondary skill will be for opportunity harvesting, or whether I'll put her in a rabbithole career for that purpose.  Still have to think some on that.  It will also depend on what I want later heirs to do - I only have a couple of skills that I'm certain I want to use as unique supermaxes.  I have some time, though.

I'm loving this so far! I tried a Townie DecaDynasty once and failed in my first generation, so I've been afraid to try it again ever since. This is one of my favorite challenges to read, though! I'm excited to see all the townie babies and to see Curry as a toddler. (Also, I'm such a fan of the food naming theme. And the paint chips? BRILLIANT.)

Aw, thank you!  I had another attempt in Sunset Valley years back where I tried using the Working Friends household (moving Xander Clavell in to romance Ayesha Ansari).  My plan was to have the first collection be skill certificates and have each adult contribute two.   But that house is just not suited to child-rearing at all and I was unprepared for just how much micromanagement getting all those skill certificates was going to require, while ALSO trying to get enough cash saved up for properties.  Just not a great plan all around.

Welcome Curry! I like the name. I didn't know that asking for a raise between two controllable sims worked, but I didn't often give two of my sims the same career so maybe it's that. Hopping that Vallari's child is a boy so Curry has more options.

I'm also hoping for a boy from Vallari!  Johnny may also be racking up a few more romantic conquests for potential spouses but I'm not telling just yet! 

[hazelnut]

She sure is!  I've done it in a few Immortal Dynasty attempts and it's a challenging supermax but a really fun one.

I wondered, given her name .  Good luck!

[farbe]

In the interval between Curry's birth and her toddler birthday, the rest of the household really focused on skilling.  But it wasn't all work.

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For the first but certainly not the last time of her infancy, Curry got stuck in her mother's, uh, assets.  That doesn't look entirely comfortable!

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The following morning, I noticed Honey was four days to elderhood, so she visited the salon for her first tattoo.  What else would it be but a butterfly, given the real-life inspiration for Honey?  I'd forgotten that the salon offers tattoos for half the price of the spa!  The things you don't remember when you've played by the rules of various challenges that forbid life extension for so long

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Johnny mostly played guitar, but he did find some time for other pursuits.  Shortly after the message arrived that Vallari had borne him a son named Leonel, he put the moves on Oriole Byrd, with chimes ensuing.  Unfortunately, I didn't get a single interesting screenshot of Chuck.    It's nothing personal!  He just didn't do much other than change diapers, go to work, and grind athletic and logic skill - which paid off.  He reached level 5 so that Curry won't need to worry about making the honor roll.  Her dad can tutor her.

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But nothing truly exciting happened until the night before Curry's birthday, when a unicorn called Neptune spawned quite literally in the Darnell-Hobble-Johnson front yard.  I really hadn't planned on gunning for a unicorn, but given that the household has three horses, this was too serendipitous to ignore.  Honey was the first one to roll a wish to greet Neptune and made it all the way to friends status before 5 a.m, whereupon the unicorn disappeared and an exhausted Honey dragged herself to bed for a nap.  Neptune even blessed her around 3:30 a.m., in response to an apple offering.  And poor Chuck - he was inside comforting a screaming Curry while his girlfriend was making friends with a magical horse.  Some people get all the luck!

The instant 7 a.m. rolled around and I could use a cake on Curry, I jumped at the opportunity, even though it meant dragging an exhausted Honey back out of bed.

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What an adorable kid!  I think the only thing Curry got from Chuck was her skintone, which looks oddly green - I had to pick very pink clothing to balance it out.  Otherwise, I think this is what you'd get if you aged Honey down to toddler - the hair, the eyes, the lips, and possibly the nose (though I find it hard to tell noses on Sim toddlers).  As soon as she aged up, both Honey and Chuck rolled a slew of wishes to teach her her toddler skills.  Who wouldn't want to dote on a child this cute?

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Johnny asked for another promotion, and Honey obliged.  Whether it was because of her daughter's birthday, the unicorn blessing, or just the goodness of her heart, Honey agreed a second time!  Now Johnny is only one promotion behind Honey in the rock star track.

[Trip]

I think the nose is Chuck's but it'll be Curry's duty to tell us. Just don't mess up the honor roll! And on the flip side of things, I've never gotten a sim's tattoo done at the spa.

[butterfly]

Curry is an adorable heir, she will for sure break one of those two boys' hearts when she's older.

[farbe]

I think the nose is Chuck's but it'll be Curry's duty to tell us. Just don't mess up the honor roll! And on the flip side of things, I've never gotten a sim's tattoo done at the spa.

Thanks Trip!  It's so fun to do some new things in this file - and some things that I haven't done in a long time.  Curry's a child now, and not to spoil anything, but I concur about it being Chuck's nose 

Curry is an adorable heir, she will for sure break one of those two boys' hearts when she's older.

Aw, thank you!  She's a total cutie and already has so much personality.

[farbe]

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Curry's toddlerhood was uneventful from her point of view.  After learning to walk, talk and potty, a dollhouse appeared, and she did almost nothing but play with it for the next five days.

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During her infancy, Curry's crib had lived in a nook by the front door.  An additional challenge I'm setting for myself throughout this DecaDynasty is to make only minimal alterations to the townie houses.  No razing the entire thing and rebuilding from scratch - they have to live with what they've got, and any expansions need to make sense with the existing house.  While 192 Horseshoe Loop is a large, spacious lot that has plenty of room for the many horses Curry will need to own and befriend, the house only has two bedrooms (one for Johnny, one for Chuck and Honey) and not much room for expansion.  So a few days after she aged up, I sold the dining set - after all, there's a picnic table outside and I don't have Seasons - and converted the dining room into a bedroom.

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Before...

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...And after.

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Johnny rolled several wishes to teach Leonel (his son with Vallari Chandra) his toddler skills, and I'd hoped the same would happen for Leeann Bird (his daughter with Oriole).  However, he's been completely consumed with Leonel and hasn't popped even a single wish for Leeann. 

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In other pollination news, I kept thinking about Kim and Felipe Marshall, and how close I'd come to choosing them as my founders.  There was a chance that they'd become elders before their child was a teenager and they'd disappear from the map, but I had the power to help them achieve their dream.  So Felipe came to live with the family for a few days, and in due course Kim gave birth to a son named Omar.  I keep being tempted to have various townies join the family for pollinator purposes, but there's enough else for me to focus on and I now have eight descendants of original townies floating around.  Never say never, though - Charmaine Hopper's purple-streaked hair keeps calling my name, and Calvin Riffin has always been a fixture of my Appaloosa Plains files.  It feels odd to be playing without him!

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"And this woman says she's family-oriented??"

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Honey has been befriending the children of townies, both to collect best friends for the household and in the hope that they and their families stay put for future spouse/pollinator purposes.  Here she is with Ariane Fox, the child Cheyenne Fox is carrying at the start of the game. 

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After several days of dollhouse-playing for Curry and mad-dash skilling and promotions for the adults and horses, Curry had her next birthday on Sunday afternoon.  Johnny had the wish to throw a party and he's about 15k short of a medium tombstone, so I obliged.  Can you believe this is the first birthday party I've ever thrown in ANY game file?  I don't usually have my Sims throw parties! 

I forgot to get any screenshots, but Neptune the unicorn visited the house on the night before the birthday and Honey was able to ask Neptune to move in.  She's not yet BFF with Shadow (Chuck's horse), so she'll have to work on that and then wait for Neptune to reappear.  If trends are anything to go by, it'll probably happen on the night before Curry's teen birthday

Anyway, what you really want to know is how Curry looks as a child.

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I think the slightly odd look to her mouth is the way Honey's lips look on a smaller face.  And that's definitely Chuck's nose there!  Glad to see there's something of him in Curry's looks

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After blowing out her candles, Curry played a game of tag with Johnathon Parrot (the child Jazlyn is carrying at the start of the game).  Somehow they made it all the way to friends before he needed to go home!

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But predictably for a newly-minted Equestrian, all Curry really wanted to do was clean Shadow's dirty hooves.  Right after her birthday, she rolled wishes to be friends with all three household horses and I'm only too happy to get her working on that!  After all, it's part of her supermax. 

[Nella]

Curry is so cute! Ridding as the first skill is great choice, challenging but that what makes it fun.

[Trip]

The good ol' pollinator hustle. It's trickier with homeless women because you can't impregnate them without moving them into a household first but I endorse acting on those impulses. Plus I've never seen a kid from Calvin that I disliked.

Giving my long life vibes to Shadow and possibly Freebird (she's a better show horse than she wants to be) and townies it'd be convenient to have in the bloodline.

Also we once calculated it on the forums and if an adult townie has a baby right before aging up to elder, 17 days is actually how long it takes to age up to teen and let's be real, the game loves to fast-track townie kids out of the baby stage or even further.

[farbe]

Curry is so cute! Ridding as the first skill is great choice, challenging but that what makes it fun.

Thanks Nella!  I agree    I've supermaxed riding before, but it's always a nail-biter... and it's fun to watch the Sim do!  I'm trying to prioritize skills that I either haven't supermaxed before (and are possible to supermax), or skills I always enjoy watching my Sims supermax. (Hint: I am very unlikely to have someone supermax writing, unless I get desperate.)

The good ol' pollinator hustle. It's trickier with homeless women because you can't impregnate them without moving them into a household first but I endorse acting on those impulses. Plus I've never seen a kid from Calvin that I disliked.

Giving my long life vibes to Shadow and possibly Freebird (she's a better show horse than she wants to be) and townies it'd be convenient to have in the bloodline.

Also we once calculated it on the forums and if an adult townie has a baby right before aging up to elder, 17 days is actually how long it takes to age up to teen and let's be real, the game loves to fast-track townie kids out of the baby stage or even further.

Thanks Trip!  I've given Shadow and Freebird some horse granola, so hopefully that will help slow the ageing some.  I've never messed with pet lifespan before, and it's going to be tricky to manage here because Curry needs 10 horse best friends.  In my experience, the easiest way by far to do that is to add all the horses to the household at some point so you aren't chasing down horses.  That unfortunately means that I am either going to have to let Shadow, Freebird and Skeedaddle die at some point, or sell them to the equestrian center.  Which is a shame, since they all (and especially Shadow) have lovely traits and very high skills.   The game is a little bit ahead of the updates right now and Shadow has something like 16k happiness points, so maybe she'll be able to buy Young Again for Pets, but I definitely can't give it to all three of them. 

Re: the pregnancies, I did not know that!  There's hope yet for Omar.    Thanks for all your encouragement!

[Chubling]

Go Curry! She's so cute and yeah, big lips tend to look weird on children. At least she doesn't have the creepy lip hole they can get.

Riding seems very hard! It's on my list of things I want to try to supermax but I'm too much of a coward!

[farbe]

I have very few photos of Curry's childhood.  Probably because she spent the vast majority of it being tutored and sucking up to the horses.  But it paid off on both accounts.  She made honor roll on the fourth day of school, and by the time her teen birthday rolled around, she was friends with all three horses and had popped wishes to become best friends with them.  Here are a few screenshots.

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Here are Teresa Pelly and Davin Blanco, who I found hanging out at the junkyard.  Nice, safe place for a couple of kids to play, I'm sure you'll agree    Usually townie families move into smaller houses via story progression; the Sports Spice and Everything Nice household actually moved into a bigger one on Sweetapple Ridge Way, next door to the Pellys.  I plan to let Curry decide who she likes best for a partner, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't interested in that nice house!

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Curry went to Johnathan Parrott's house to do homework one day - he's also got nice digs.  Of the four boys in town, she's closest friends with Johnathan and with Leonel Chandra.  I keep hoping Vallari will move them to a bigger house, but not yet.

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Here's Connie Bedlington as a (very hungry) teen.

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I accepted the Scavenger Hunt: Precious Metals opportunity for Curry, since riding doesn't have very many opportunities (and the ones it does have are special community event opportunities).  The Appaloosa Plains combined rabbitholes can sometimes be iffy, but this one complied and Curry got her first unique opportunity.  Chuck did the actual collecting for her. 

Speaking of which, the collection still isn't completely settled for this household.  Riding trophies aren't included in the official list of valid collections, but even if they were, they have no value and wouldn't add much to my score.  Not that I'm going for any records, but I do want to have an actual score to submit!  I'm not looking to spend any time traveling while the family is in Appaloosa Plains and I don't want to use anything that would potentially be an easier collection for a later generation (like fish or sculptures).  But Johnny and Chuck will soon have plenty of time on their hands - metals and small animals are looking like distinct possibilities.

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Time for Curry's birthday!  One last look at the pigtails.

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I love how Chuck's nose completely changes the look of what is essentially Honey's face.  Look - I even put the shag hairstyle on Curry, and you can definitely tell the difference:

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Pre-makeover top notwithstanding

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The first thing Curry did as a teenager (after eating her birthday cake, of course) was autonomously mount Freebird, so I took that as a hint and she went to register for the Horsewoman career, gaining two points of riding skill on the way.  I love the panicky face that Sims who have no riding skill make!

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And I love, love, love Appaloosa Plains.  This screenshot... *chef's kiss*

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Meanwhile, Honey and Chuck had both maxed out their careers and fulfilled their lifetime wishes.  So they popped on their formal duds and Chuck popped the question.  Moments later, they had a private wedding, and each were another 10,000 happiness points richer.  They'd both been hanging onto wishes to marry one another, plus nonspecific Get Married wishes.  Honey Darnell became Honey Hobble - but Curry remained Curry Darnell because I didn't want to waste precious horse-befriending time on a name change she had been Curry Darnell since birth, and anyhow, this way she'd have one initial in honor of each parent.

Johnny was eating leftover birthday cake at the picnic table and, despite still being Honey's romantic interest, had absolutely no reaction.  I'd been hoping for some drama, but no dice.

And later that night...

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...the household gained a new member.  Welcome, Neptune Darnell.

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I didn't write down Neptune's traits, but I do remember he's Clueless.  Definitely going to have to fix that one.    Either way, this will be a great boon to Curry's budding equestrian career!