Chapter 3: Life Goes On

(Apparently I am not doing so well at the story aspect of this, so for a while we'll do the "here's what happened" style.)

Bob became a police officer, since his skills were a fairly good fit for it.

I really like the uniforms.  They probably get hot in the summer, though.

Shortly after that something...odd...happened.  A strange structure appeared in the yard.  Bob, of course, went to investigate.

Some strange man in a Tron-like suit came out and told Bob that he was from THE FUTURE.  He even said it like that.  Bob could totally hear the italics and everything.  Bob was skeptical, but, being ever curious, he stepped through the portal.

The future seemed interesting.  What seemed really interesting were the fact that, for some unknown reason, the city hall of the future kept records of winning lottery numbers.  Seemed like an easy way to solve their money problems.

Bob won $115,000.  He was overcome by guilt, though, and ended up donating most of the money to charity - namely a fund that had been set up to ensure that Sims didn't ruin the planet.  They were calling it the "Plan the Future Fund" or something.

The rest of the money went to plan a nice little wedding for Elias and Erlina.

And we all know what comes after the "marriage" part in this rhyme....

Chapter 2: Settling In

Chapter 2: Settling In

Appaloosa Plains was...different than what they were used to.  Seeing horses downtown, for example, was certainly not what they were used to.

Bob dusted off his degree and used it to get himself a job as a patrol officer.  The police captain didn't believe the date on it, at first, but Bob managed to convince him it was legitimate.  Heating up the captain's coffee with a quick spell probably had something to do with it.

Elias finally made things official with a ring, which made everyone happy.

He sheepishly said he'd been waiting until he had enough money to buy something decent, although Erlina privately thought that he was making sure that her great-grandmother wasn't going to turn him into a toad again.  Lynn had finally confessed, defensively adding "He totally deserved it!".  Bob made a point of taking Elias aside and reminding him that one does not antagonize female witches, especially during the full moon.

Chapter 1. A New Beginning

Chapter 1. A New Beginning

"Why here, anyway?  It's the back end of nowhere!" Erlina exclaimed as they drove through town.

"That's why," Bob said, his clipped tone the only sign of his irritation.

"No one knows us here," his wife Lynn quietly said.  She'd been unnaturally quiet ever since they got the news that they'd lost everything due to some bad investment decisions...mostly on her part.  Their financial advisor, who was a cousin of the Landgraabs,  had assured them that the high-risk investments he recommended would pay off big, and she hadn't questioned his judgement.  Of course, he wasn't exactly wrong.  They "investments" had paid off big, after all, just not for the De la Sangre family.  The advisor, on the other hand, was probably living the good life in Lunar Lakes or somewhere else with no extradition laws.

They'd sold the house and pretty much everything in it to raise as much money as possible.  Most of that went to lawyers to defend the family from the other people who assumed that the De la Sangres must be in on the swindle.  Thankfully they were exonerated, but their money and social standing were gone.  Lynn had fallen into a deep depression, so Bob decided that moving somewhere that no one knew them, at least until the scandal died down, was a good idea.  Also, Appaloosa Plains had a much lower cost of living than Sunset Valley.  Of all their descendants, only their great-granddaughter Erlina decided to come along.  The rest of them had their jobs and would recover easily enough.  Erlina was at loose ends, though, and thought the idea of starting over was a grand adventure.  She was just happy that her best friend and childhood sweetheart Elias agreed to come with her.  Everyone knows long distance relationships don't work!

The last of their funds went to purchasing a fairly large lot outside the town.  They could have gotten something more livable in town, but that would have meant being near people, which Lynn definitely did not want.  They were paying cash for everything, of course, as their credit rating was a wreck....and the cash did not run to beds.  So their first night in Appaloosa Plains was spent in tents.

"Snow.  Of course," Bob was heard to mutter right before he fell asleep.

Time passed, as it was wont to do.  Bob was happy to find a small community of witches in Appaloosa Plains.  They even had an alchemy shoppe, which was masquerading as an "herbal medicine and natural foods" store.  Bob ended up doing a fairly brisk business in invigorating elixirs and flasks of sleep, for some unknown reason.  They never sold for a lot of money, but it did add up.

Good thing, too.  The family was used to having a lot more personal space, and sometimes tensions flared.  And when people have handy magic wands, it can be awfully tempting to use magic to take your irritation out on someone.

Luckily a little cure elixir fixed him right up, although Bob never did figure out whether it was his wife or his great-granddaughter that did the deed.  Elias flatly refused to talk about it, and both witches denied that they would ever do such a thing.  Although Lynn's blithe assertion that, "well, I'm sure he probably deserved it," combined with the fact that Elias started generally going out of his way not to antagonize Lynn, made Bob suspicious.  He was a bit encouraged if it was his wife.  She'd been depressed since their reversal of fortune.  Perhaps her spirits were picking up.

Getting Started - Appaloosa Plains

There's something you should know about me.  I build the most boring houses EVER.  So you will see a lot of boxy homes with very plain walls.  They're functional, though!

The money went further than I thought it would - they actually do have a fairly functional house.

Note they ran out of money before they got any beds, though.  I bought them some tents just in case, but if they're diligent about making some cash they should be fine by sleeping time.  With three witches in the family, if all else fails, I can conjure apples and use the transmogrification spell to hopefully transform them into more valuable things.

Now, let's meet the family and find out some more about them.  Here they are again, for your viewing pleasure:

Bob, the handsome blond in the red shirt, is the patriarch, and Lynn, in the green, is his wife.  They had three sons, Cailan, Connor, and Carver, who remained in Sunset Valley.  Erlina, on the far left, is Bob and Lynn's great-granddaughter and the young man to her left is Elias, the childhood sweetheart she talked into relocating with her.

In case you're wondering how Bob and Lynn are still adults, it's all about the wonders of variable Sim aging. Bob has purchased an age freeze potion and as such is immortal, and Lynn has been dosed once with a fountain of youth elixir.  She's been quoting Queen at me, though (Who Wants to Live Forever?) so I have a feeling that she will either pass on or choose not to move next time.

Once I moved them in I of course immediately got them started making money.  Lynn is an author, so she's off to the library to write a book.  Elias is planting seeds because his LTW is the Perfect Garden LTW - one note here. I do have the no zombie mod because I cannot STAND zombies.  Not specific to Sims, either.  I've never liked them.  You can infer from this that I have no use for Walking Dead or any of the zillion ZombiePocalypse books out there.

Erlina, after cleaning out the nasty fridge, is off to get a job at the diner.  She has the recipe maven LTW, plus her topping out the culinary career gets me that oh so wonderful Minus One Kelvin Fridge.

All the prepared food went bad in the move. I"m thinking it's because this is one of the cheapest fridges.  We'll see what happens next move.  Hopefully I'll have the Minus-One Kelvin by then and this won't happen again.

Bob is making friends and influencing people.  Right now he's chatting up the consignment store proprietor.  He has a good consignment store reputation, so he's my designated seller of things.  I probably should not have sent him along as he's quite skilled and can easily make money, but I like him, so he comes along.

See?  The consignment store proprietor is just fascinated.

Well, that's the set up, long-winded as it was.  I've never been known for being laconic, though, so this is nothing new.  Next we shall begin the story portion of the program.  I'll attempt to communicate interesting game tidbits through the narrative, but you may see some fourth-wall-breaking posts from time to time.

Introduction, and some housekeeping stuff

Hello to anyone who might be reading this!  This blog is to record my experiences while playing the Sims 3 Around the World Challenge.  In case you're wondering what I'm doing, details can be found  - here -

I tend to fall into a similar rut as the one Moza describes, meaning I am usually found in the same neighborhood.  I do usually favor Moonlight Falls - my current family is in Sunset Valley as an attempt to break out of that rut, actually.  So I am going to take this thing on.  I've never even played in some of the worlds that I have, and that's just not cool.  The creators went to a lot of effort on these, and I should at least give them a fair look, right?

As I said, I already have a family, and I'm quite attached to them, so I'm going to take them around the world.  They're at a reasonably good place for it.  My YAs are just about to graduate from University, so that is a bit out of order, but not too bad.

I don't have as many worlds as some Mozas I could name, but I do have enough to make this interesting.   Nine, to be exact.  Appaloosa Plains, Bridgeport, Dragon Valley, Isla Paradiso, Midnight Hollow, Moonlight Falls, Riverview, Starlight Shores, and Twinbrook. I'll probably be getting Roaring Heights, so that will make an even ten.

A little about my play style: I generally don't cheat.  I have the story progression mod and a couple of minor tuning mods and error prevention mods, but that's about it.  I like supernatural sims.  Three of the four sims you're about to meet are witches, in fact.

 The family is currently in Sunset Valley, so what I'm going to do is make that be the final world on the tour, as their first move will be moving out of Sunset Valley.  Who says you can't go home again?  Hopefully they'll come home in triumph rather slinking back in defeat.

The family currently has just over $200k in family funds.  Well, that's hardly fair, so we'll just take that away once they move.  We'll say that there was some unnamed catastrophe and the shame of it is making them wish to make a fresh start somewhere far, far away.

I'm also going to attempt to write up their lives in story form.  Some of you may remember that I did that once upon a time with the De la Sangre family.  This family does have the same name, because I am nothing if not nostalgic.  However, these De la Sangres are only the spiritual descendants of my Sims 2 family of the same name, as I really suck at CAS.  Believe me, if I could have recreated Dathan, I would have.  I'm also a bit rusty with doing this, so do bear with me while I get back into the swing of it, please.

Note to self and anyone else doing this challenge: Move the ones you don't want going to the new town out of the house before you do the big move.  It doesn't let you choose - it just takes the whole household.  I knew that, too, but I forgot.  Thankfully I did have enough sense to save right before the move.  Also, when you do a move to new town from within game, the new town doesn't have the EP-specific lots like the fire department, etc.  So once you have moved, take a moment to place these lots.  This also means that if you have anyone who is in a profession that needs one of those lots, like fireman, they're going to lose their job.  Something to keep in mind.

Now, let's meet the Sims!  They've just arrived at their new home, 1005 Pomona Promenade.  I'm more or less playing legacy rules here, so they're getting a 50x50 lot.  I would do a 64x64, but that tends to get laggy for me.

From left to right we have Erlina De la Sangre, her boyfriend Elias Gage, Erlina's great-grandfather Bob (Bob is immortal because he's my favorite Sims 3 sim - he'll be along with us for the whole ride if I have anything to say about it.) and Bob's wife Lynn.  Lynn is a self-sim - remember what I said about Bob being my favorite?  Of course I hooked up my self-sim with him!  Last, but not least, is their cat, Alabaster, who is already off exploring this big empty lot, aka one really BIG litterbox.

I'm really amused by the fact that the two youngsters look all hopeful, while Bob and Lynn look quite a bit less so.

The lot I bought them was about $5,000, and if we're assuming they were left with only $20,000 after the...incident...that caused the move, buying the lot left them with $15,000.  I can't remember exactly how much the lot was, so I've set their funds to $15,000 even.  We'll see how they do!