Transylvanian Twist - a TS2 Monster Mash challenge

[madeinsixam]

This is my first time attempting a challenge on here! I've got a loooot of time right now because I'm home with the flu It turns out time was indeed necessary because things have gone a bit sideways!

The mini-challenges I'm attempting are:

* FAMILY FRIENDSHIPS - As a family of outcasts, your black sheep's family really need to stick together. If all immediate family members of the black sheep (parents, siblings, grandparents, pets) are best friends with your black sheep by the time they achieve their final lifestate, you get +10 points per friendship! However they MUST be best friends with every family member to get these points. A family of the parents, and one sibling can earn +30 points if they're all best friends. However, if the black sheep has a bad relationship with their sibling, you can't achieve these points because they are not friends with EVERYONE.
* PORTRAITURE - Have a portrait/photo/selfie/etc. of every family member! +15 points
* BEFORE AND AFTER - On top of the portraiture challenge, paint a portrait/take a picture of the black sheep each time they gain a new lifestate and hang them up in the house! +5 points for every lifestate portrait.
* HOUSE EXPANSION - Have a room in the house themed after each one of the black sheep's supernatural lifestates! +10 for each room.
* FAMILY - Your vanilla sim founder wants a family! They must find a partner and have at least three children. These children don't need to be the partner's (all can be the results of alien abductions, for example). +25 points
* STRANGE FRIENDS (TS2) - Build a servo, or find a bigfoot friend for your family! +10 for one, +20 for both.
* WICKED (TS2) - The black sheep's family wants to be special too! Get three different sims in the family to become witches. +10 for your infallibly good witch, +10 for your atrociously evil witch, +10 for your true neutral witch.
* LITTLE LOT OF HORRORS - Obtain a cowplant, and keep it in your black sheep's garden. It is not allowed to be fenced off, so keep an eye on it! +10 points for obtaining it, and TS3/4 players can earn another +10 points for keeping it alive until the end of the challenge.

Chapter 1- I was working in the lab, late one night...

Spoiler:

This is Bob McMahon, the founder. He believes in conspiracy theories, namely, that aliens walk among regular Sims. He had no intention of getting left out and thus, after being rejected from the Army for being emotionally unfit, he came up with a plan. He would create the ultimate monster sim, his very own child, and make his mark on Simkind.



He moved into an empty lot with just 4800 simoleons to his name and built himself a shack. At least the free computer helped out AND his shack has a roof.



I sent him to the local park to meet some new friends... and maybe something more. After all, what better cover for his activities than having a seemingly perfect family? A wife, kids? Unfortunately, the local park was full of thief NPCs having a day off, the Charlatan guy, and a bunch of random weirdos. Worse, Bob was not attracted to any of them. At least he could make friends!



He was behaving like a complete weirdo when he spotted Mortimer Goth! He couldn't pass up the opportunity to befriend this local big shot.



He did become friends with Mortimer and something more with Cassandra. He had two attraction bolts with her! I guess it would make sense for her to reciprocate since she's not known for her great taste in men. True, Don Lothario has a job and a house, but is it such a stretch that she would date the local bunker-dwelling conspiracy theorist?

Bob asked her to move in as soon as possible, and she did. I had to no idea she'd bring that much money with her! I don't think I've ever moved her into someone else's house. I wasn't super happy with this at first, thinking it would make things less challenging, but it would prove important down the line.



They could now live in a nicer bunker, complete with spare rooms for kids. Because Cassandra wanted a baby. She also wanted to get engaged to Bob, which she couldn't, because she was still engaged to Don. She had to invite him over and break things off...



I (wisely, I thought) had her invite Don when Bob left for work as a security guard. They argued a lot but in-between they're spontaneously kiss. Breaking up was taking longer than I thought... and then Bob arrived from work, just in time to see his live-in partner smooch the guy she's technically engaged to. Oops



Bob found solace in looking through his telescope and rolling the want to stargaze. This was, of course, fortunate, what with him planning an alien baby.

I decided to give Cassandra two more opportunities to break up with Don, figuring I'd move her out if that didn't happen. She managed it!



Bob and Cassandra began to patch things up and I even caught them kissing!



SUCCESS! Bob was abducted by aliens not long after!

[madeinsixam]

Chapter 2 - My eyes beheld an eerie sight

Spoiler:

Bob was, of course, pregnant. He and Cassandra got married in their kitchen really quick, because that's true love



It was not an easy pregnancy. Poor guy was constantly exhausted.



He soon gave birth to a baby girl, Dorcas.



A new baby meant Bob and Cassandra could now be exhausted together



Dorcas soon grew into a toddler. Bob quit his job so he could focus on raising his child, but it was still a major struggle and the house was constantly littered with bottles. On top of working, Cassandra had to help out. (Bob was also weirdly bad at teaching toddler skills compared to his wife. I didn't know that was possible?)



At least Dorcas managed to grow up well!



Bob obviously needed to get his child into private school, and of course the first attempt failed. It was very difficult for him, even though the second attempt was successful.



Cassandra still wanted a baby of her own. Her attempts at trying for baby with Bob were unsuccessful, because there was a glitch going on where they'd teleport to the side of the bed and stand there. Apparently it's an ACR issue! Fair warning, this playthrough was actually plagued by weird glitches I never encounter in my main save and I'm not sure why. I'm playing this in a clean version of Pleasantview but maybe that's not enough?

What taking care of Dorcas, Cassandra's maternity plans were put on hold. A few more glitchy attempts later and I just used a mod to let her get pregnant. Her pregnancy was smoother than Bob's and she ended up giving birth to another girl, Bella.



This is Dorcas's room, by the way. I gave it an alien theme to attempt the mini-challenge where you decorate rooms based on lifestates.

[madeinsixam]

Chapter 3 - My monster from his slab began to rise

Spoiler:

Dorcas had a pretty uneventful childhood (though I kept watching for the werewolf, in case he showed up and she could get a head start on befriending him) and grew into a teenager. She rolled the popularity aspiration and I also used a randomiser for her turn-ons/offs.



Dorcas kept going out in an attempt to make friends and have fun, and she was weirdly good at taking care of her needs while out. On her first night, she managed to go partying TWICE, stopping at home only to shower. I'm impressed.



She managed to befriend BOTH the good and bad witches, and successfully persuaded the Good Witch to give her powers too.



The vampires were nowhere to be found. At least Dorcas was having fun, I guess!



One night, she was hanging out at a dive bar when a strange sim sat next to her. The Countess! Dorcas wasted no time trying to befriend her.



Cassandra, presumably tired of hearing Bob's rambling about his plan and not focusing on Bella at all, influeced the Countess to turn Dorcas.



I love Dorcas's new look!



In theory, I have a mod that stops the vampires from autonomously turning others, but maybe that's only from NPCs. Or maybe it was just the consequence of asking a stranger to turn her teenage stepdaughter into a vampire. Either way, the Countess bit Cassandra, who did NOT handle it well at all. The Countess was not invited back.



Bella was just not having a good time. She's just not the brightest Sim, I'm sorry to say. She had a hard time learning her toddler skills. As a child, she was REALLY BAD at autonomously caring for herself. She'd have low hygiene and complain about it but wouldn't just go take a shower. Even Dorcas, who is a slob, managed to do that!



Bob and Cassandra became elders, pretty much ensuring I'd fail the family mini-challenge. At least Bob did cute things lik teach Dorcas how to use telescope.

[madeinsixam]

Chapter 4 - It caught on in a flash

This is the chapter where everything goes downhill

Spoiler:

Someone kept kicking over the trash can, causing a whole outbreak of the flu that never really went away. Bob was the first, but not the last, to succumb.



I discovered that Bella was the one kicking of the trash can. This means she indirectly killed Bob and started a mini-epidemic. She became a lot more interesting to me and I gave her a makeover.



It didn't take long for Cassandra to die while attempting to clean a kitchen counter.

The two girls were now on their own, which they took as an opportunity to do things like upgrade the couch. At least they were comfortable enough, since their parents had really good life savings.



I love her!

The girls settled into a little routine. Bella was very slow at doing homework, so Dorcas would do hers while Bella worked on recovering from the flu and practicing her robotics.



Bella was still having a hard time, however. Her flu seemed incurable and she often felt the need for more social interactions (less so than her Popularity sim sister, but she's a Romance sim, so) and they often went wrong. Like when they brought this kid home from school who kept chasing her around just to poke her, possibly for being an orphan with a monster sister. Rude!



The situation was not at all helped by the ghosts floating around the house. One night, Bella woke up after being scared by a ghost. Did she die of fright? Flu? Low needs? Who knows! But she died.



Dorcas pleaded with the Grim Reaper and succeeded! Bella was saved!



Or not. Bella proceeded to die AGAIN, this time in the middle of eating.

[madeinsixam]

I forgot to mention: I use a mod that makes TS2 vampires behave more like in TS4, in the sense that their needs decay normally when they're indoors during the day but they're still harmed by sunlight if this goes outside. I hope this is ok since the challenge is open to TS4 players as well. (Of course, TS2 vampires being TS2 vampires means they still run outside for the randomest reasons )

Chapter 5 - The party had just begun

Spoiler:

I wasn't sure what to do after Bella's death. Was the challenge over? Should I cure Dorcas's vampirism and just have her figure it out? Could I get her to ask an adult sim to move in? As luck would have it, and I'm not even joking, the matchmaker dropped off a genie lamp.



Of course, Dorcas immediately asked for Bella to come back to life. She also asked for money. Bella got the final wish and asked for the power to cheat death, which seemed useful since she's already died twice.

Things were pretty much back to normal after that and Bella was mercifully cured of her flu.



I redecorated the kitchen to make it look witchier (it's where Dorcas's cauldron is), even though I realised I'd removed some of my witchier CC.




Dorcas mostly spent her time studying magic. She learns quickly, so it didn't take long for her to reach the maximum level.



Bella was still working on robotics, in the hope that she'd be able to craft a Servo one day. After coming back from the dead twice thanks to her sister, she was committed to carrying out her late father's dream of turning Dorcas into the ultimate supernatural Sim. Unfortunately, she was still having a hard time with her social life.

It should be noted that bringing Bella back to life meant she was now starting her teenage years all over. I was looking forward to her finally being an adult and getting a job, but nope. I quickly turned to a strategy where Dorcas still did their homework but they'd sometimes skip school on alternate days.


SOMEONE was still kicking over the trash can... one at least one occasion, that someone was actually Dorcas.



Using her powers, Dorcas turned Bella into a witch as well.



Bella embarked on the path of darkness and unfortunately suffered from a bad bout of acne.

Dorcas was cured of her vampirism and could grow up alongside Bella.



FINALLY, the girls were about to become adults. Bella almost never got any of her wishes, but she'd wanted to buy a phone for ages, so I sent them shopping. Bella got a phone and an mp3 player, Dorcas a music player of her own and a handheld console.

[madeinsixam]

Chapter 6 - The scene was rocking

Spoiler:

Bella became an adult first and promptly had a breakdown.



Please enjoy Dorcas's thematically-appropriate outfit!

Unfortunately! I didn't realise I'd left in a mod that turned Sims to young adults without them necessarily attending university. For some reason, "graduating" didn't work. I tried aging them up and they became elders, so I had to age them back down. It was a mess.



Anyway, the alpha werewolf was just not showing up on the lot. A quick Google search told me that trees don't just increase the odds of regular wolves visiting your lot, but the werewolf as well! I may have gone overboard with the trees.



It worked!



Poor Bella was suffering from a horrible glitch that made her head just not match the rest of her body. With just some socialising, she was able to gain enough influence points to ask the Countess to turn Dorcas. And yes, that meant the Countess being invited back, though she was asked to leave immediately after.



After having Bella intensely study magic, it was time for the next step: turning Dorcas into a zombie. Dorcas died easily since she was happy to go build a snowman in broad daylight.



That was successful, and Dorcas kept working on her friendship with the werewolf.



Things were going pretty well! As an aside, I wish we could adopt him.



Dorcas didn't have much to do, so she found a job in the Natural Science career (cowplant reward!). She was glad to start working on her skills right away.



I redecorated one of the bedrooms with a vague "zombie" theme. I gave it a dirt floor and some posters, plus a creepy drawing. Not very good, I know

Poor Bella still looks weird. I tried some suggestions I found by Googling but nothing worked.



I also decorated this room to have a vampire theme!



One evening, I suddenly saw the werewolf running around like this (so cute, though)...



Sure enough, Dorcas had been turned!



With her lycanthropy came a newfound love for the outdoors, which is fortunate. For one thing, we're going to need plants to turn her into a PlantSim. I also want to add more stuff to the yard to make it a "room" themed after Plantsims.

[madeinsixam]

Chapter 7 (final) - Get a jolt from my electrode

Spoiler:

Bella was finally good enough at robots to make a Servo! Her name is Cassie (short for Cassandra). It seemed like a cute thing Bella would do.



This is what the house and the yard look like so far.



Cassie must have stopped her chores to go peek through the telescope, because the next thing I knew, Mortimer was barging into the house to yell at her.



Cassie rolled the wish to flirt with Dorcas! I guess it makes sense, since (like Bella, her creator) she's a romance sim.



I'd never seen it before, but under "admire" there's an exclusive Servo interaction called "tune up". Cute!



They make a cute couple!



This was apparently not enough for Cassie, who decided that what she really wanted was to make out with 3 different Sims.



"You could have taken up playing the violin, remember when you wanted a violin? But nooo, you had to start a relationship with the Servo I made."



Things were kind of boring, so when another genie lamp (!) was delivered, I figured I'd bring Bob and Cassandra back to life. I have no idea if that counts towards the family mini-challenge or not.



I expanded the house to include yet another room and gave it a woody theme with some posters of the Moon. That was my attempt at a werewolf theme lol.



Dorcas and Cassie became engaged, but Cassie was afraid of marriage. It happened anyway, in the kitchen where Dorcas's parents also got married. Beautiful.

(And no, I don't know why Dorcas decided to walk around in her underwear at all times.)



Awww, he's drinking from the puddle. Too cute!



I don't know if Bob and Cassandra being brought back from the dead invalidates the family mini-challenge or not, but just in case, I decided they should adopt some kids. This is Lisa.



Dorcas got along with her pretty well!



And this is Ramin.



Dorcas was able to become friends with them both very quickly, meaning she's now friends with everyonein the household!



The plants outside were now infested enough that Dorcas could go spray them. The trees are so densely placed I couldn't take a proper picture.



JUST as the day was breaking, Dorcas finally became a Plantsim! She seems very pleased.

I'll be back shortly with pictures of stuff like the portraits

[madeinsixam]

Final scoring!
+20 for finishing in two generations
+60 for achieving all lifestates
+10 for other supernaturals in family (witch sister, Servo)
+10 points for learning to walk and talk as a toddler
+30 points for siblings

Mini-challenges:
- Family friendships: failed, as Dorcas wasn't best friends with all the family members by the end of the challenge. 0 points
- Portraiture + Before and After: completed, see pictures below! +15 +30

Spoiler:

- House expansion: completed all but Plantsim, +50
- Family: +25
- Strange friends: Servo, +10
- Wicked: failed
- Little Lot of Horrors: failed

Total points: 260

Thank you for reading!

[peachy123uk]

I do like the monster challenge it is great fun, and doesn't take too long to do.

[madeinsixam]

I do like the monster challenge it is great fun, and doesn't take too long to do.

Yup, it didn't take very long so it seemed like a good way to start

[B. Scirocco]

You had a roller coaster ride of good and back luck in this run. It was pretty unlucky having four deaths in quick succession like that, but good thing you got a lamp so soon after. That aside, good job completing the challenge!

[madeinsixam]

You had a roller coaster ride of good and back luck in this run. It was pretty unlucky having four deaths in quick succession like that, but good thing you got a lamp so soon after. That aside, good job completing the challenge!

Thank you! Those deaths were definitely unexpected, but I think it's twists like that that make Sims challenges so fun and unpredictable