This is an “I’m Surrounded by Idiots” Challenge for the Sims 3. The idea is that only one sim per generation is under user control. The rest of the household is left on autonomy ALL THE TIME. Hijinks ensue.
Duration
This is a quick-form alphabetacy, if that’s the name. One birth per letter of the alphabet rather than one generation per letter. This means that multiples all get the same letter. (I am never going to play a 26-generation challenge. I’ve been playing a 10-generation one for six years.) The challenge is complete when the Z-child reaches YA.
Inheritance
The heir for each generation will be the child with the most interesting face. This will probably be decided by an heir poll, but I reserve the right to make an editorial decision.
Gameplay
The ISBI ruleset I’ve decided to work from is probably the most permissive interpretation of an ISBI, but hey why not?
1. One user-directed action per idiot per life stage.
2. I may drag and drop as I like from inventories.
3. When the household moves into a new home or I replace beds, I may send each sim to bed once to tell them where they are supposed to sleep. After that, they’re on their own. Now that we have the University Life patch, I may assign bed ownership without controlling any sims, and I can do that whenever I like.
4. I may interact with pop-up menus and dashboard buttons. This includes work/school tones, answering prompts from phone calls, accepting Opportunities, pushing the button to complete an Opportunity, etc. For example, if an autonomous sim receives an Opportunity to take an object someplace, I may click Accept to the Opportunity, drag the item into the sim’s inventory, and click the dashboard button to fulfill the Opportunity. I may not, however, direct the sim to do anything from an action menu.
5. I may repeat autonomous actions that were dropped due to a glitch or illogical route fail. It should go without saying that I may do anything necessary to resolve a glitch.
Special house rules:
1. If possible, the entire legacy will be conducted on apartment lots.
2. Autonomous sims may “choose” to leave through autonomous action. This includes getting pregnant, getting someone else pregnant, autonomously proposing to someone, being asked to move in with someone, breakup from cheating, or something else the game dictates that makes sense. If so, I may take control of the sim to get him/her married and/or moved out to to correct location. Simply wishing to do these things doesn’t count. Only autonomous actions can be interpreted as a choice to leave.
3. I consider breaking up a romantic interest that a spouse sim brought into the marriage to be a single autonomous action, no matter how many actions it actually takes. I do have to have my autonomous action for the life stage available to do it, however. Leftover romantic interests wreak havoc on relationships, and they deserve some extra attention.
4. I may not buy the “No Bills Ever” reward for anyone in the household. Likewise, the household can’t invest in lots around town to generate income.
5. I intend to play most of the game in apartments. I haven’t done anything in apartments os far, and I like the idea of having townie neighbors wandering around in common areas where autonomous sims can interact with them. Because of this, I can buy anything I like for common areas using RestrictBuildBuyinBuildings false. Happily, this *does* spend my household’s money.
6. One of my sims got a call inviting her out on a date. She accepted, and she was automatically routed to the date. Later, an idiot sim got a call inviting her over to a friend’s house. She accepted, but she didn’t automatically go. I’m considering this a bug, and in the future, I’ll probably send the sim to the location.
