The Orphanage Project - Rules
There have been several requests for the rule set for this game. First, I need to clarify that this isn't a challenge as some of you have called it. Challenges in this forum are special games; they are designed by Metropolis Man and have very specific rules and scoring. What we have here is a game I designed for my own entertainment, with rules that evolved over the course of the game. So let's avoid any possible confusion with the official challenges and call this a project. I think the right name for this project is The Orphanage Project, and have added that term to the title of this thread.
The idea originally came from my realization that I hadn't really explored adoption in Sims 3. The actual story line, of course, is based on a pair of spoiled siblings who are thrust into the role of do-gooders not by choice but because they are trying to keep their father's vast fortune from slipping through their greedy fingers. That's the motivation for the two main characters. I'm sure you can all imagine different scenarios for your own Orphanage Project. It would be quite a different story if, for example, you started with characters who really wanted to do good deeds.
The basic rules were set out in Cornelius' will: the twins must work to support themselves, they must donate to charity, and they must take in orphans. The will also specified that they must make the orphans happy and give them a good start in life. And they had to achieve their own LTW. They were also not allowed to take anything with them from their present affluent life, not even their clothes. The estate, courtesy of Mr Payne, provided them with a run-down shack and enough money to buy a couple of decent beds (because I didn't want to deal with the game bugs that can come from cheaper beds. No bed bugs allowed in my games).
The idea was that the twins had to do everything themselves - be totally self-sufficient - so that meant no maids, butlers, babysitters or repairmen. As for the adoptions, they got the first child as soon as they could afford a crib, and the others came along as soon as there was a place for them to sleep. Initially I aimed for a household size of 7 (leaving room for visiting lawyers and rabbits, also to allow the kids to marry before moving out) but later I changed to 6 so the married kids could try for baby with their spouse before leaving home.
Donating to charity was pretty much on the same basis. They really couldn't afford it right at first, but the expectation was that they would donate as soon as possible and as much as possible. Initially it was a couple of times a week, but in the last half or so of the game both Pippa and Sebastian were donating every day. They got a big windfall when Malcolm moved in with 14 cars in his inventory; selling all those cars allowed the twins to raise their charitable donations to $1000 a day for the rest of the game. They did have a few money trees (4), but I didn't allow them to make money through investing, collecting, or any of the other ways to get rich. Now that I think of it, they harvested the money trees but never actually sold the money bags. The idea was that they would make their living by the sweat of their brows. I did have Pippa play for tips a couple of times but stopped that because she was making too much money. I really didn't want them to get too much money as that would have defeated the purpose of the game.
I played the game on Epic lifespan because I didn't want Pippa and Sebastian to be old when the 10 weeks were up. Because of the epic lifespan, I had to make rules for aging up the orphans to allow them to grow up. Here's what I came up with:
1. Babies were aged up after 3 days.
2. Toddlers had a lot of tasks to complete: learn to potty, talk and walk, of course. And they had to read or have read to them all the toddler skill books. By the end of the game I was also requiring them to complete the pegbox and xylophone, although the earlier orphans didn't have that expectation.
3. Children had to have one day on the honour roll.
4. Teenagers had to have three days on the honour roll and maximize a skill. If they were really close to maximizing a skill (95% or so of the way to the next level), I might age them up so they wouldn't have to go to school the next day and could finish up their skill instead.
5. Young adults got a job, got married (except for two who stayed single), tried for baby, and moved out. The goal of making the orphans happy was a little harder to define at first because I didn't know what was realistic, but they all had at least 25,000 happiness points when they moved out so the expectation wound up being that they would at least have Steel Bladder and Dirt Defiant.
Because of the epic lifespan, children and teenagers were allowed to have one special friend age up with them when they had their birthday.
I originally planned for the game to go on for 12 weeks but changed it to 10 mainly because I wanted something that would be clearly different from the official challenges, which often run for 12 weeks. Ten weeks seemed to work out about right, with all the objectives being completed at the beginning of the tenth week. It should be possible to do it in less time, but frankly I wasn't in a big hurry as I was having too much fun.
I gave Pippa and Sebastian traits that I thought matched their characters. They both had to be Good so they could donate money. I gave each of them a useful skill-related trait - Sebastian - Natural Cook, and Pippa - Handy. The rest of their traits were: Sebastian - Snob, Party Animal, and (for reasons I don't remember) Suave Salesman or whatever that one's called. Pippa's other traits were Snob, Party Animal, and Dramatic. These traits made child-rearing challenging at times but not impossible, which was what I wanted. When they got SWAPped partway through the story (Midlife Crisis) they changed those three traits for - I think - Friendly, Family-Oriented and Charismatic.
There was one other rule I had for myself that didn't affect the gameplay but really affected the look and feel of the game. That rule was to accept whatever clothes and hair the game gave the orphans as they aged up. I took it as Social Services providing their clothes and free haircuts. The only time they got new clothes or hairdos was just before they moved out on their own. And, of course, the time Sebastian brought back the t-shirts from Barnacle Bay. The only time the household got new furnishings was when they were really needed, and up to the last week of the game I avoided matching things and instead sought out items that looked mismatched, used, damaged, dirty, or old. I wanted the house and its inhabitants to look like they didn't have much money to spend and had to make do.
There are a lot of talented builders here in the forum, but I'm not one of them. The house Pippa and Sebastian lived in was deliberately designed to look cheap, dirty and ramshackle. I think it succeeded. Then it gradually improved over the 10 weeks as things were cleaned up or replaced. Probably most of you have never tried to build a shack like this, but really - it was a lot of fun! If you try it, I think you'll agree.
By the way, I don't have Late Night installed so obviously none of my characters were vampires. I think making them vampires would considerably detract from this game. Because vampires learn so quickly, having the children maximize a skill would be too easy which takes the fun and the challenge out of it. What you do in your own game is, of course, your choice, but my rule would be - no vampires.
I think that's everything. Sorry this write-up is so very long! If I've missed anything, please ask. And good luck to everyone who starts their own Orphanage Project. I think you'll have fun with it. Thanks for the interest. If you do start an Orphanage Project and write about it, I hope you'll identify your story as an Orphanage Project as I definitely want to read it.
By the way, you and I are fortunate that we live in comfortable surroundings and can entertain ourselves by playing an Orphanage Project in Sims 3. But when I was considering a name for this project I googled "Orphanage Project," and what I found was the sobering reality of just how many orphans there are in the world. One website gave the following numbers: "Every 30 seconds 2 children become orphans. There are more than 100 million orphans worldwide." I know a game is just a game, and that's all it needs to be, but it doesn't hurt for us to be aware of those less fortunate than ourselves, and to help when we can.
Edit: I realize that I neglected to cite the source of the quote in the last paragraph. Shame on me! The quote comes from a website called "The Orphanage Project".
