[gaming] Sims 3 ISBI Legacy: The Chaos Legacy 1.1 (LJ Only Post)

[seeksadventure]

Opening: I’ve been playing Sims regularly for years, at least since Sims 2 was first released, but I’ve never actually tried to write up anything before, mostly because I am a super impatient player. I don’t use hacks or custom content, I don’t take pictures, I don’t do anything but play and sometimes text my BFF with ridiculous things my Sims have done. (One time, a horse walked through a wall, got stuck in the house, and I had to destroy half the side to get it back out again. BFF got plenty of texts after that.) (Also, one time a werewolf and a fairy had babies, and I wanted them to be Fair Wolves.) (Didn’t happen.)

But I’ve been reading alittlestrange's and thestalkysims' legacies, and they’ve inspired me to give it a try myself. I’m doing an ISBI challenge for this legacy, because I have plenty of other games where I play all the Sims, but I don’t think I’ve ever continued playing an ISBI legacy past the first or second generation. Too impatient. We’ll see how this goes.

I'm even more grateful for all the entertainment I've experienced reading legacies, because it is a ton of work. I thought it would be a lot of work, but it is even more than I ever expected. My hat's off to all the people who do this regularly, and all the joy they bring their readers.

Note: I play on a laptop, and don’t have an external mouse, so my angle control is spotty, which definitely shows up in the photos. I don’t have custom content (though, as you’ll see, there are some hacks that I’m considering), and I play with the walls partially down most of the time. This is my first time trying to take Sim photos. It’s a struggle. Also, I cuss quite a bit, though I’ve toned it down in my writing.

You could say I’m tempting fate by calling this the Chaos Legacy. In fact, I am intentionally tempting fate. Bring on the chaos!

(Spoiler: Part one has very little chaos, alas.)

More than 100 pictures and nearly 4000 words in this first part. Let’s do this.





Meet Abby Chaos. I basically randomized everything about a Sim (though I changed some of the clothes I couldn’t stand looking at for hours on end), gave her an appropriate name, and here she is. I used random because I didn’t want to put a Sim I was already attached to into an ISBI, in hopes that things would be more interesting if I didn’t care a ton.

Spoiler: I started to adore her from pretty much day one, so A+ plan, Carla.

Abby is: flirty, loner, neat, vegetarian, and frugal. I’ve never played a vegetarian or a frugal character before, so it will be fun to see how those traits effect playing.



This is the crappy first home she just bought, fully furnished because I hate she hates to decorate. She wants to be a world renowned surgeon as her lifetime want, and has other things on her mind. It has two bedrooms, one bath, and an open-plan kitchen/dining room/living room. Also, you’ll rarely see walls. Better get used to that.

Pretty flowers, though.



The very first thing she autonomously does is play with magic. Because she’s a witch. She must want to be magic in the operating room, as well as her front yard, very subtle home.



HELLO CREEPY MASCOT GO AWAY NOW. As if the llama suit isn’t creepy enough, that strut is terrifying.
Poor, poor Abby. She just has no idea. Look how happy she is with her magic. Poor girl. Little does she know what’s coming for her.

(… Not just the mascot, either.)



The very helpful paper girl whose name I didn’t get dropped off the paper so Abby can job hunt, but she’s too busy being insulted by the mascot. Well, this legacy is starting at a real high point, isn’t it? Go away, creepy asshole mascot.

You’re a witch, Abby! Kick his butt!



It did not go away. Carla is agitated. Abby decided to befriend it. WHY, WOMAN, WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO DO THAT?



Finally, the chance to sit down and look for a job. First try, found a job in the medical field, as an organ donor. Umm, Abby, you know you only have so many organs to donate, right?

Good grief, this place is ugly. That color scheme, the darkness of everything – ugh. I Abby will have to suck it up and redecorate once she has some money.



Oh, look, more autonomous playing with magic. It’s so shiny, and her faces are delightful.



Welcome Wagon. Jocasta Bachelor (that is quite a name) is in yellow on the left, Tori Kimura is in green on the right, and Monika Morris is in purple in front of her. Already, this is too many people for me loner Abby.



Awkward or not (so, so awkward), Abby tries to make small talk.



Three women talk, one lurks in the background on her phone. And Abby is the one who is bad with crowds?



Abby looks miserable while Monika and Tori make friends right in front of her, and Jocasta ignores them all. What could be so important on your phone, Jocasta? And why are none of you interested in Abby? She’s awesome! And that would have made the spouse hunt super easy.



Everyone else is having fun. Abby is miserable. Look at that face! I love her little loner self already.



Look! Loner people can push themselves to be social, they just pay for it later.

Abby: I hear there are ghosts in this town, and ghosts go “woooooooo” just like this. True or vicious rumor?
Monika and Tori: WTF.



First cooking attempt. Sim mac and cheese is pretty hardcore, no opening a box filled with noodles and powdered cheese for them. Nope, she actually has to chop up the cheese. With a big knife. Maybe you should be a little less zealous with that –



-- knife. She cut herself. Oh, my poor girl. Look at that little face.

(I spend a great deal of time playing with the walls on cutaway, so the kitchen wall is down for that reason. I’m also not used to playing this close to the Sim. It’s a little hard to get used to, especially without great camera angle control.)



I assume that’s red pepper flakes, which, along with hot sauce, is what I add to my mac and cheese, though no one else in my house can stand that kind of heat, so I can only doctor my own bowl now. Boo.

And I suddenly want to go make mac and cheese. Thanks a lot, Abby.



Well look at that, a decent looking bowl of mac and cheese. I’m so impressed she didn’t burn it. (Also, this might be where she learned the cooking skill for the first time, but apparently there is a setting for screen capturing the UI messages, which I did not have on at the time, so boo. A whole play session missing them. I am trying to remember everything as I write this.)



Of course, she immediately set her food on the counter and abandoned it for the bathroom. Okay then.

(And based on this, she clearly has not yet learned the cooking skill, so never mind.)



AUTONOMOUS HAND WASHING OMG SO ADORABLE.

I don’t remember ever catching a Sim autonomously washing their hands before. This is too, too cute. And it adds to the realism of the moment. (Though, unfortunately, so does Sims not washing their hands. I’ve seen far too many people walk out of the bathroom without doing that. Gross.)



She’s so excited to sit down to her first meal! I’m excited for her. She’s adorable. Also, look at the bookcase in the background. How sweet that she keeps a picture of her parents there.



So excited she nearly chokes to death on it, ending this legacy on the very first night. Thanks for that, Abby. Thanks.



And autonomous dish washing!



And autonomous reading!



Though I totally jacked her desire for comfort reading and made her skill instead. She needs logic points for her new career, and she rolled the want to both learn the logic skill and read a book about logic, so two things can be fulfilled with one action. Two birds, one stone.



When she was exhausted and it was nearly midnight, I sent her to bed so she could sleep before her first day of work. She took the time to autonomously put away the book, which is adorable but not all that useful, because now I can’t make her read it from her inventory while out and about town. Fail, Abby. And win.



I actually let her keep most of the random clothes she had on in Sim builder, including this nightgown, which is covered in adorable little sheep. She probably counts them to help her sleep.





She dreams about work all night. Dedication, she has it. Well, that or a big case of nerves before her first day, but her sleep seemed peaceful. No startled wake-ups or anything. (Do nightmares happen in Sims 3? I know I’ve seen them in S2 legacies, but I don’t know about S3.)



Autonomously making the bed! Though I’d rather she managed some food before work, so maybe STOP BEING SO CLEAN.

I can’t believe I’m saying that on day 2 of an ISBI legacy. I’m sure I’ll be demanding people be more clean soon.



And then she takes the time to conjure an apple. A regular one, at least (not that you can tell from this picture), so she’s just having magical fun and not trying to poison me herself.



Rather than eat, she grabbed a book about wolves (werewolves?! Yes please) from the shelf and sat down to read. I can’t even hate on her for this. I’d rather read than eat too.



And she’s off to her first day at work. In an outfit that does not look super appropriate for a hospital setting, but okay, whatever. Those shoes are horrible, and I hate the capris color, and that shirt, while not terrible, is really dark in pictures, but you do you. Also, she doesn’t look thrilled.

(I think, after two Sim weeks of staring at her expression, she has RBF [resting bitch face], which I do too. She’s my mini-me!)



Interesting, she gets a carpool to work. Witches tend to fly their broomsticks everywhere, so I wasn’t certain she would actually have a carpool. Not a terrible car for career level one, but that driver looks super grumpy.

(Then a bunch of screen caps where I thought I was catching notifications that popped up. Mostly about her having her first day at work and what her level one job actually is, which I will have to fill in at a later time by looking it up online somewhere. Awesome.)



After work. Still not happy. This is the career you wanted! It will fulfill your LTW!



No carpool home, though! Broom time. At least she looks slightly happier here.



Back at home from her first day at work, she autonomously takes a bath, and I realize I may have to include some mods, because, while I don’t actually care about taking pictures of naked Sims, she makes the most ridiculous faces while bathing, but I can’t get a good angle on them with the giant black censor bar.



Clean enough for her own approval and back in everyday clothes, I send her off to the Papyrus Memorial Library to see if we can meet anyone without overwhelming her with people. That was a big fail, though, because she’s already throwing up warnings about too big a crowd around her (not that you can see it w/out the UI capture, damn).

Also, look, the library seems to have lost its roof. (I assume because there’s a second floor, which I didn’t notice at the time of playing. We’ll have to go back.) Pretty flowers and brickwork on the entranceway, though.



Abby: *toomanypeoplemustbecomeonewiththedoor*

That looks painful, Abby. Also, in everyone’s way.

Photobombers: *sure get dressed up for the library*



What’s the first thing she does? Sit down and read a book SHE BROUGHT FROM HOME. (The wolf book.) On the one hand, *facepalm* and on the other hand, OMG WEREWOLF WOLF BOOK FROM HOME RATHER THAN SOCIALIZING, I LOVE HER.




I make her start greeting people whose names I (mostly) fail to get because it’s supposed to be in the screenshot. Fail, Carla. Abby is clearly as awkward and adorable as ever during conversations.



Next person she greets is Xander Harris Clavell, whose name I only have because, spoiler, he shows up later, too. He looks just as awkward as she does, and also, that is not a beanie, but a baseball cap worn sideways. My god, why, man?

Abby does not look thrilled with him, but he seems super excited to talk to her.



By this point, she is way over-socialized and her fun meter has dropped like woah, so I sent her home, where she promptly found a raccoon and wanted to watch it for awhile. Sorry, work tomorrow, things to do.

Cute little raccoon, though. I just wish the lighting was better.



Still the carpool in the morning, no broom, though from the skeptical way she’s looking at the driver, she’d rather be on her broom. I imagine it’s a bit like a motorcycle, at least the way the Sims ride it, and I agree, I’d rather be on my bike than boxed inside a car. (Even though I also have a car I love.)

(More screenshots of UI messages, and I can’t remember what any of them are to save my life. Probably about meeting people at work, and various descriptions of the options she can do while at work, which include meeting and hanging out with hospital staff because they might have to operate on her someday [… comforting], as well as doing her boss’s paperwork.)



After changing back into everyday clothes, I sent her to the Sunset Institute of Modern Art, still on a spouse hunt. (She’s not shown any interest in anyone and not rolled any wants related to people at all, except for a very general desire to flirt. Alas, she is the founder of this legacy, and we need an heir and a spare, at least. Get to looking, honey.)

… not the kind of looking I meant.



She is enthralled with this display outside the building.



She met Marty Keaton (wrote down names this day, and notes about people for my own reference, but it is coming in handy), who she very quickly learned has a wife, Justine. See ya, Marty.



Xander is here today, too, and at least thinking about love when she greets him, so I decided to have them talk for a bit. Just in case.

(Sim art is interesting.)

Bunch of talking here, building friendship points, but eventually she learned that Xander is single (and that he’s in the criminal career, working as a decoy).



Then the flirting begins. Doesn’t she look thrilled? Sorry, dearheart, but we need an heir.



Xander looks happier about it, at least. And at this angle, you can see that stupid cap.



WHY ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT CLOWNS WHILE FLIRTING THAT IS NOT OKAY. Dude standing way too close to them seems to agree (though I think he’s just looking at art on the wall behind them.)



Well, Abby seems pretty pleased after they say good-bye. Are you sure this is the guy you want? Have you seen the way he wears his hat? *sigh*



Second dinner in her new house! I think this is autumn salad, and it seems her knifework is improving fast.



More logic skilling, still haven’t earned that first point. Mostly I took this to show (a) she’s trying out a new chair (spoiler: she tries a new chair every time) and (b) look, she actually has a landline! Amazing.
Finally earned that first logic skill point, she made no happy face at it. RBF for sure. I love her.



As exhausted as she is, she takes the time to put away her logic book, and then yawns like this three times in a row. That face is amazing.



Despite all the yawning, she doesn’t go to bed, but instead sits down with that damn wolf book again. I’m pretty sure this is Sim Carla. How did I randomly end up with a Sim that matches my personality? Oy. This is a little bit creepy, game. (But a whole lot of awesome.)



Already dreaming about begging for a promotion. Look, I’m sorry you can’t spend all your time skilling and cleaning yourself and your surroundings, like you want, but we need an heir!



More autonomous hand washing the next morning, this will never get old. (Not like that work outfit. Ugh.)



After a number of empty screenshots, which may have involved a promotion, though I doubt it, and definitely involved an opportunity card to go watch a chess master at the bookstore and increase her logic skill, I sent her over to the bookstore to do just that. Instead of taking her broom, she ran the few blocks from work. You don’t have any working out skills, Abby! Maybe we should look into that, once we find you a spouse.



She did earn a bit of logic from it, but by the time it ended, she was so exhausted she came out looking like this. I’m so sorry. Go home.



This is the next morning. She tried to read when she got home last night (that damn wolf book again), but was actually too tired to put it away when I sent her to bed. Too tired to clean! That never happens to poor Abby.

This morning, she’s eating yogurt, I think, and it is early enough that the full moon lighting effects are still in place.



I was taking screenshots to show autonomous dish washing (because autonomous cleaning is adorable to me, apparently), when I noticed we have a peeping tom at the spare bedroom window. Not entirely sure what you think you’re going to see when she’s never even walked into that room yet (it will eventually be the nursery and then the kids’ bedroom), but WTF, dude?



Abby noticed him too, and immediately headed out to shoo him away. He took off running, and even though he literally ran right past her, she didn’t react.



Instead she stood around in her pjs shooing the wall. You’re the torchholder, honey! You’re not supposed to be doing stuff like this!




A little magic practice before work. It’s always so pretty. I wish she had a LTW related to magic, because I think it would be fun to spend more time growing that skill.



Finally took a picture of where she works. It’s kind of pretty, for a hospital. That’s not her carpool out front; I think it belongs to one of the doctors. Shocking, I know.



Honey, you look horrified to have been at work. This is the career you wanted! Why are you making me feel bad?



After dinner, Abby autonomously recycles the newspapers. I love your cleaning obsession, dear girl.



Then, of course, she plays with magic some more. Oooh, shiny lights.



More logic skilling, mostly just to show you (a) she’s tried a new chair yet again, and (b) look, she still hasn’t put up the wolf book.



While she attempted waffles for the first time the next morning, I noticed that Sims simply toss the egg shells off to the side. Either she’s making an impossible shot to the trashcan with them, or who cares about neatness, throw it away, throw it away!

So weird.



Unfortunately, this is as far as she got before the carpool arrived. So that’ll be nice and ripe by the time she gets home from work.





First thing she does when she gets home is roll the want to clean the entire house, starting with finally putting away the damn wolf book, taking out the trash, and recycling more newspapers. Abby, I love you, but if you keep autonomously cleaning everything, this won’t be much of an ISBI challenge. I can only hope things will be more chaotic after the uncontrollable spouse and kids exist.



And then she played with more magic, and looked a little fiendish while doing so. Are you a good witch or a bad witch?



More logic skilling, in yet another chair. I can’t decide if she’s obsessed with learning for its own sake, or if she just really wants that promotion.



Then a very quick nap on the couch, because …



… it’s party time!

I love her shocked little face at the reminder text.

Abby: You want me to WHAT?! MORE PEOPLE? WHY DO YOU HAAAAAATE ME?



Hard to see, but the second she arrived, she changed into her bathing suit (apparently this is a pool party), and then stood in the shadows like a creeper herself. That’s a great way to make friends. Two thumbs up.



She’s been rolling the want to socialize with a supernatural, so I had her greet this fairy, Jamie Jolina. She’s single, and they were hitting it off for awhile, despite Abby being stressed by the giant crowd of people all around her. (Four. There are four other people actually standing there, including Jamie, and one walking away.)



Until she admitted that she was uncomfortable with crowds, and it turns out Jamie is a party animal and was absolutely disgusted by that. Well screw you too, Jamie. Time to go home, Abby. I know you prefer it there, with your books and your things to clean.



Oh, man, too much time socializing exhausted her so much she ended up with stink waves around her. She rolls the want to bathe herself until clean pretty much the moment the bar drops from full, so this is extreme for her.

I’M SORRY! WE NEED AN HEIR AND A SPARE. That’s the rules. I’d much rather you spent your time skilling and being a grumpy loner!

(It isn’t until I’m writing this that I realize I could have just had her adopt a couple kids and said to hell with all this socializing. I’M SO SORRY, ABBY.)



Second attempt at waffles in the morning goes well, though Abby can apparently grab hot things without oven mitts. Useful, I guess.



Quick trip to the bookstore to buy some things, because she’ll need the next logic book soon, and she’s been wanting to learn new recipes. When she got home, she looked around like this, all askance, because…



Abby: The sink! It is filthy! FILTHY I TELL YOU!

Oh, honey.



So she scrubbed the hell out of it.



It’s the weekend, so I had her give Xander a call. At first, we tried to invite him out for a date, but apparently she doesn’t know a single Sim well enough to invite them to another lot. Useful. Then we just invited him over.



They talked, they flirted, they flirted, they talked, and then, finally, Abby got her first kiss. You’re too cute, darling, even if I think you could do way, way better. (The screencaps were all super boring. There’s not a lot to see during the talking and flirting part. She never makes a new face!)





There was some cute here, though, kissing, face stroking, whispering in the ear. Sweet, huh? Looks like Abby found a spouse and can get this legacy going, right?



NOPE.

Abby, who is terrible with people and super awkward and yet apparently liked this ridiculous boy, asked him to be her boyfriend, and HE REJECTED HER. BURN, YOU ASSHOLE. BURN.

He has “commitment issues.”



She conjured a poisoned apple as he left. I feel you, Abby. WE WILL POISON HIM SOON.

So, that’s where we’ll end. One Sim week down, one potential spouse down –the only person she’s really enjoyed speaking with, even though they don’t have the little chemistry message that pops up when certain Sims first meet – and I am so frustrated for my girl. How could he reject her? SHE’S ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE, GRUMPY MAGICAL LONER CLEAN FREAK THAT SHE IS.

Harumph. I told you he was bad news, Abby. I TOLD YOU.

Next time: Can Abby find love, or do we adopt and say screw all this socialization?

Torch-Holders: 1
Life-Time Wish Achievements: 0
Social Worker Visits: 0
Accidental Deaths: 0
Number of Special Tombstones (non-old age) vs. Total Death Count: 0/0
Pass-Outs (except fainting when someone sees a ghost): 0
Self-Wettings: 0
Fires: 0
Fights: 0
Reach top of a career: 0
100,000 (One tally for every 100,000 simoleons in your net-worth. Check build/buy mode for this number.): ? (Forgot to check this before shutting down the game.)

1.2

Comments

[thestalkysims.livejournal.com]

Woo! You're ISBI-ing! I love Abby's horrified reaction to the disgustingly filthy sink. Her face was just "... seriously? How is the world supposed to keep on turning when sinks are this dirty?"

It's scary how Carla-like Abby is. WOLVES, WOLVES, WOLVES!

I don't see what the harm is in adopting, actually, because Abby would have to take care of the kids without an ISBI spouse to help, but she'll still need a nanny, and they're even worse than spouses when it comes to helping with the baby.

Also, she is living in the house I always play when I fire up TS3, and she went to a party at a house one of my sims robbed while playing the Kleptomania Challenge. Thanks to a super-aggressive hack, we stole their car.

[carlamlee.livejournal.com]

I know, I'm so charmed by Abby and yet at the same time, a little bit disturbed that the game rolled Sim!Carla without any help from me.

I tend to use this house when I play this neighborhood, mostly because it starts out cheap and because it is just a rectangle, I can expand it without having to know anything about actually building houses in the Sims.

Stole a car? That's impressive!

[alittlestrange.livejournal.com]

Wow, you're doing a legacy, and an ISBI at that! Coolio! And I'm so happy to be part of the reason you decided to try taking pictures/writing a legacy. It is a ton of work, and the most tedious part for me is editing the pictures. But it's so much fun to play, and it takes my mind off of other crap. I'll have you know I only read TS3 stuff written by my friends, mostly because I'm unfamiliar with anything other than TS2. I'm interested in seeing how a TS3 ISBI plays out. I've heard that each new generation of the Sims franchise is a little less stupid than the previous?

I can see why Abby quickly grew on you! She is so cute with her face-pulling and non-social ways, even if the latter makes it difficult to start a legacy! Fortunately she's the one you can control, so she shouldn't suffer too much.

I don’t actually care about taking pictures of naked Sims, she makes the most ridiculous faces while bathing, but I can’t get a good angle on them with the giant black censor bar.

Sometimes the censoring does get in the way of an otherwise good pic! I did away with the nudity censoring because my brain doesn't like the way the little mosaic box in TS2 glitters and flashes at me. I find it way more distracting than nudity!

So you're basically playing your unintentional self-Sim, in a way. Good thing you like her! My self-Sim seems to enjoy humiliating me. X)

Oooh, pretty magic! I so want to play a witch, but I never get an opportunity!

It isn’t until I’m writing this that I realize I could have just had her adopt a couple kids and said to hell with all this socializing.

Adoption! Now there's an idea! Is that allowed by TS3 ISBI rules? I have it ingrained that the heir must be related by blood, but that's probably ooooold legacy rules, and who follows those anymore?

[carlamlee.livejournal.com]

I think it's probably true each generation of the Sims franchise is smarter than the last, because I can't get my ISBI to include much stupidity or chaos at all. BOO.

Still fun, though.

I've never actually played a loner Sim before, and it is super interesting. I really like seeing the ways the various traits actually influence how the game feels while playing that Sim. Abby is always over-socialized at work, which is so realistic for a loner! And Heir was always over-socialized in class, poor thing. (I've played into Gen 3 so far, so trying not to be super spoilery. I don't know how you manage not to spoil things for the Ducklings especially; when I write up the posts, I keep wanting to reference things to come.

I have no idea if adoption would be allowed under ISBI rules, and I'm not going to check, because if it wasn't, it would just upset me, because there's some implication there that adoption doesn't create a real heir, and I deal with that attitude enough in actual life, I don't need it in something that's supposed to be fun. I'm half tempted to adopt a bunch of kids for a generation just to see how the adults deal with that. I'll put chaos into this ISBI somehow!

The magic is super pretty, isn't it? I've never paid super close attention, which is a huge bonus to playing a legacy for posting; I'm always looking for picture opportunities, so I see a lot of the little details I miss during regular play. That's pretty awesome. I think I'm going to work more supernatural characters into the legacy via the spouses, just to see what happens. Apparently different kids in the same generation can inherent different supernatural abilities based on the parents, so I could have, say, a witch and a werewolf. It will be interesting to see how that would work.

[alittlestrange.livejournal.com]

Oh hey, I didn't know you'd played ahead. I did that with the Ducklings because I wasn't sure at first if playing a legacy was something I wanted to commit to, as you may have seen me mention throughout the course of the legacy. It is really hard to keep from spoiling things, especially during my brain's more senile moments. Sometimes something so funny happens and I want to share it right away, but then I remember it will be a long time before anyone else will see. At least I'm not as far ahead with the Dimwits!

I can't believe anybody in real life still has that kind of attitude about adoption! :\ People. And yeah, in the game you should always do whatever will make it the most fun for you, because it's supposed to be fun!

Apparently different kids in the same generation can inherent different supernatural abilities based on the parents

That sounds really interesting! I hope you'll be able to incorporate more supernatural into your legacy, because I'd love to see how that goes.