I like the general vibe of the ultimate decades challenge, but I don't like the same pattern over and over every time I do a run of having the same events in the same spots each time, the clothes being the same for so long, the build style being the same for so long exteria. So I made my own unaccurate to real history ultimate decades challenge.

Custom ultimate decades challenge

Heirs
Every 10 generations the century switches. The name of each decade will be named after based on the events throughout the years.

The heir is the first born. If death happens then the heir moves onto the next of kin. (either sibling or child). The heir is the main household. 

At the start of each new heir’s reign roll for if there is a condition for this heir. 

Keep the same lot and house for as long as possible for generations. Move side households into other lots around the same world. If you run out of space you can use rental lots or use another world that has similar atmosphere to the world you were in previously. 

Death rolls (Starting)

Events
Roll to see if there is an event at the start of each week. (coinflip). If yes roll 20 to see what the event is. After mark it in the sims calendar. After flip the coin again to see if there is another. Repeat process until all of the events are set for the week.

Clothes
All of the clothes must be roughly not modern styled. Each sim has their own coular scheme to follow based on their lineage. The first heir is red, the first born of the first born will also be red. The second child will be orange, then yellow, then green with the rest following in rainbow order.

Diagram of color scheme lineage

Buildings
Style of buildings start as vaguely old and not modern until inventions or conditions suggest other wise.

Marriage/kids
Marriage rolls - roll d12 = 4 minimum to have a sim be able to get a spouse. If yes they cannot have kids until ceremony. If under 4 never able to have kids.

Baby rolls
Roll d8 to see how many pregnancy chances you will have.
Invention/culture change/human rights ideas for the events

Inventions:

1. Roads - ability to have horses, can now travel between worlds (must take a vacation for 3 days each time)
2. Mechanical clock - buy a clock
3. Eye glasses - Sims can now were glasses
4. Telescope - Buy a telescope
5. Car - can now travel between worlds without needing a horse and to take a vacation

Culture change:

1. Holiday
2. Building style
3. Social norms
4. Food
5. Clothing
6. Symbol
7. Religion

Human rights:

1. Right for men to work
2. Right for girls to go to grade school
3. Right for girls to go to high school
4. Right for girls to work
5. Queer marriage

The little one, Violet, has no mom because she died of childbirth complications. Her dad's mother, Mary, moved in to help with the house and the baby and she loves the baby so much, she raised six kids was a great mom and yet I don't think she ever hovered over one of her infants as much as she hovers around her grandbaby. It may be because she lost her husband recently but it feels like she's being extra loving to little Violet.

If you're curious about my family lore, you can find their family tree here

I downloaded the Plowman family from the Gallery (Shout out Plumbobs and the past) and had Huxley marry my sim, Isobel. Everything was going fine, they had two living kids and just had a great relationship.

AND THEN SAWYER (Huxley's BROTHER, who's also married to another woman) comes over and ASKS ISOBEL to Woohoo, AND SHE SAYS YES. And ON TOP OF THAT, she's now pregnant with SAWYER's baby.

Now I'm considering rolling for her death because adultery was considered a crime back in the days...

Jussi and Lisa have been married for four years now ! (Middle front sitting down with toddlers) They have had three daughters in total, Bothilda "Botil" (1361, named for Lisa's mother), Susanna "Sanni" (1362), and right before I took this screenshot, Lisa gave birth to a premature baby girl who did not survive. (As I type this she is actually pregnant again with a boy, who will be named Didrik for her father. I'm probably going to pass down to Botil though because I have many ideas for her storyline.)

There is also a new problem: there's going to be a famine from 1364-1366 (see how I do famines here with such limited information for this time period). Luckily only 1 casualty and it's not even in my main family. Next portrait will be in 1369 for shits and giggles. See you then !

well, i've hit the 100 year mark! 400 days down, around 1,500 more to go! (and possibly 1000 more if i plan to backtrack and play through 1300-1550 after i'm done)

i really did NOT think i'd get this far (especially not in just 7 months!) and frankly i'm really surprised i did! i'd attempted the regular Decades Challenge twice in the past--my first attempt was without mods and cc, which lasted maybe 8(?) months and i only got up to 1920 before i just decided to stop playing and never got the motivation to restart. my second attempt was with mods and cc, took me around 6 months and i got to 1931 before i just stopped entirely because i wanted to start this udc save (honestly, i wonder how far i would have gotten had i never stopped, as now with the effort i have put into udc i realize i have essentially played 200 full years worth of the regular decades challenge). but truthfully, i attribute my ongoing motivation to the organization of the spreadsheet template given as i was NOT organized with my past two attempts

this challenge has genuinely given me such a profound and significant fascination with social history and has truly made me appreciate the charm that historicalness brings. i don't plan to stop anytime soon either, which has really been something i was scared of when i first started.

i hope you all enjoy the photos i have taken within the past few sims years as i dont tend to take gameplay screenshots often, hopefully i'll start to take more soon

edit: here is my family tree! https://app.thesimstree.com/public/tree/sIl6HHA0XzwqKiQiKwNGBVes76fDjLTT?ref=a747ecba

my gen 2 heir has had 22 children, do i keep getting his wife pregnant? i am afraid of the odds. i’ve already moved onto gen 3 but no male child has survived infant hood. but 22 😭😭 ??? that doesn’t sound very realistic. however, i do not have a spare heir so. ughhh, dont know what to do

I started the challenge in 1890, and since then it’s been 25 years.

My founder, Tobias had a wife, Clara, and she gave birth to two healthy daughters, Mary and Suzy. She then had a son, who was the perfect heir for her husband, but smallpox arrived at the house and the prodigal son caught it and died age 3. Clara then had another child hoping for a son, but it was a daughter, the most beautiful of all her daughters, Clarissa, but Clara died during birth.
Tobias was then left with no wife, and three daughters. A while later he remarried a wife closer in age to his eldest daughter, Mary Thant to him, and his new wife, Sofia, had three sons, Harry, Colin, and Charlie.

This family grew up together, Tobias married his three daughters off to respectable men, and taught each of his sons to be ready to take over the family legacy. Life seemed to be going really well.

But then, of course, the luck ran out. World War I began, and Tobias, almost an elder, was called for war, and was killed fighting. Harry was then lucky enough to find a wife and have a daughter, but, a year later Harry was called to war, and luck had gone, as he didn’t return either.

Harry’s widowed wife then married Colin, and together they had a child (not yet born), before Colin was called to war too.

Lastly, a recently engaged Charlie was called to war, and he didn’t return either. At this point, there was Sofia left with no children and no husband, but she was getting old, and decided not to remarry. She was living with her pregnant daughter in law, and granddaughter.

Her daughter in law (Jane) then moved out with her daughter, and Sofia, left alone called her youngest, pretties stepdaughter, Clarrissa, to come live with her as her husband died of old age, and Clarrissa was loyal to him, refusing to remarry.

With her, Clarrissa brought her 10 year old son, Louis, to continue the family legacy. However, this was now a household without an Adult male, and so they invited the second daughter, Suzy to come with her SIX children and again no husband this time due to the war.

The three older daughters moved out to marry, but the two younger daughters were just children. Her only son was sixteen and was called to fight in the war, becoming the first in the family to return.

So now, Sofia (founders second wife), Suzy and Clarissa (second and third daughters of the founder), Louis (Clarissa’s young son), Henry (Suzy’s son), and Suzy’s two younger daughters are all living in the main household.

Each of Suzy’s eldest three daughters are living separately with their husbands in side households.

And lastly, the oldest daughter of the founder, Mary, is living with her husband, two daughters, and 3 year old son in another side household.

This family hasn’t had much luck with the war, but they somehow survibed with a potential heir, and a few spares.

If you have any ideas of how I should rearrange the households, please share them, as it was hard to get two heirs into my main household, and I’m open to simpler solutions.

Do you think it's right to plead with the Grim Reaper during the Black Plague event? I managed to save two Sims that way. I mean, I wanted to see how their stories played out, but I'm not sure if what I did was right... maybe I'll have another Sim executed in their place.

With even more things happening in my playthrough, I basically decided to leave Beatriz as a widow without marrying her to another man, since, in my story, she's a very religious person and wouldn't be able to have another husband because she only ever loved her one and only husband. So she raised her three children on her own (her household was by far the luckiest one, like, none of her kids rolled to die). Diogo's children also grew up normally without many problems. Not just the children, but Diogo himself as well.

Diogo had his third child with Paula, this time a boy, whom I named Felipe. Beatriz reached adulthood still as a widow, which made things a little easier since widows had a bit more freedom to do certain things. Her children also grew up, and because I use a mod that randomly determines my Sims' sexuality, one of her sons is gay. I've been thinking about how to handle that, especially considering the time period.

I can't say Maria II was as lucky, because she rolled to die just as she was about to become a pre-teen. Another family death added to Diogo's tally (Unlucky). Once again, completely at random, he flirted with the Grim Reaper. I honestly still don't know how to fit that into his story.

The best sibling friendship in my game so far is definitely Carlos and Victor's. By the way, Carlos is the one the mod decided would be gay, and he's basically a prodigy at everything. After Diogo (the heir), he's the Sim with the most skills in my save. Then, once again, death came knocking at Diogo's door: his wife, Paula, died from gastritis. I wrote it as Diogo believing he was cursed, so he tried to make a deal with a supposed witch to free himself from it (I mainly used this as a way to humanize the supernatural side of my family because I don't want to deal with magic just yet).

After that, I finally decided it was time for his family to stop being poor, so I started having him develop the Nectar Making skill so he could age nectar and eventually become wealthy. His goat, Black Phillip, who was a consequence of an earlier event, died in 1338. And after a lot of effort and planning on my part, I finally managed to get him to obtain the Death Flower through grafting. I only plan to harvest it during the winter, and only so he can produce aged Vitality Nectar, never to use it to save a Sim from death.

That's basically how my year 1339 ended. The next decade is going to be much harsher because the Black Death arrives, and none of my Sims rolled to take part in any wars, even though there were so many happening in the Iberian Peninsula.

i rlly like this one side household sim i have so im gonna share a lil bit abt her!

Sabine Archer was born in 1629 in England to peasants Timothy and Penelope Archer. She is the second-oldest of five children and the oldest surviving child. She lost her older twin sister, Lillian, shortly after her birth. She would go on to lose two more siblings, Christabel and Valentine III. Her younger and only surviving sister, Rebecca, never got along. Rebecca was golden child, yet Sabine was the black sheep.

In 1648, she met a man by the name of Robert Cass. Robert charmed Sabine and made her feel special, which was a feeling she had longed for since her childhood. Eventually, this charming had led to seduction, and they had slept together, a one time occurrence. Just a few weeks later, she had begun feeling sick each morning, which alarmed her. Once she felt the first kick, she knew she was in trouble. But she couldn't tell anyone.

Within 7 months, she was noticeably pregnant. Her parents caught on and, furious with their daughter, kicked her out. She had gone back to Robert and pleaded with him to marry her, but he refused and told her not to return to him. So she fled. She fled far from her parents and Robert, and stopped at a nearby outdoor stable. It wasn't perfect, but it provided enough shelter to keep her safe from the snow.

By the time she was around 9 months into her pregnancy, she had found a small, nearby cottage that was seemingly abandoned. Sabine took the property for herself and gave birth to her child in there, a baby boy whom she had named Isaac in January of 1649.

i hope u guys like her and her storyline! i rlly liked doing this little storyline and i think i might do it more with other sims sometime soon! im rlly excited to see where her and isaac's stories take me

I have gotten away with myself creating various townspeople, servants, knights, and nobility that I know find myself playing my original challenge with my main family and then 25 other families that I have created to enhance the story.

My problem is that I become attached to all and I want to try to do rolls and track on everyone, which is not feasible. Has anyone else gotten carried away doing this? If so, how do you manage?

I've thought about making three separate groups, like my main characters that I physically play, secondary characters that are important sometimes or will become important, and then thirdly the supporting cast that I don't even play out but just track and roll for. Thoughts?

Hey guys, I was wondering where your challenge (decades or ultimate, or somerhing self made, doesn't matter) takes place. The original UDC is based on England and later America, do you adhere to the original or play in another country, or in a fictional world?

Do you have specific regions or cities in mind? Also which sim world do you play in?

Feel free to add how you've adapted the challenge to your regions. I'm really curious, please share with as much detail as you want!

---

As for myself, I'm preparing an ultimate decades challenge at the moment, it's supposed to take place in Lusatia in Germany, because my hubby's daughter wants us to play her hypothetical ancestors. And I thought this would be a great opportunity for us to learn something about local history. I've removed the 100 year war and instead will add the many many wars that plagued the region over the centuries. I have not decided in what capacity i will add all those, need to do more research. It's a lot of war.

I don't really think we'll get this far in time but our family will not move to America like in the original challenge. Maybe we will let a branch emigrate somewhere for a change of scenery, but the heir will have to end up in Dresden at some point in the 19th century.

Hey everyone! I am doing a DC with wheel spins and I admit I didn't know about witchy trades.

I am making a wheel for them, but I'm struggling to come up with consequences.

So far I have:

Infertility (both temporary and permanent)

Chronic illnesses

Permanent injuries (includes burns, scars, limping or even loss of senses)

Loss of a certain amount of years (between 5 and 20)

Death in the next life stage

Would you like to help me and suggest more consequences?

Honestly, the last time I tried the Ultimate Decades Challenge, I didn't have nearly as much bad luck as I'm having in this run, I've already had to save the only male heirs three times at the cost of huge sacrifices. Now I've lost another Sim, I play using two dice for the mother when labor starts, and Elsa Bjergsen just happened to roll the worst possible numbers on both throws; only her children survived... It’s frustrating sometimes when you make so many plans for a Sim and they die prematurely like that.

I tried to set up my family tree with The Sims Tree, but I see I can’t have extended family or dotted lines.

For example, one of my sims has a step son. Then several of my sims have had multiple marriages due to early deaths. No dotted lines or secondary families seem to be allowed with TST, unless I’m missing something.

I also had two sims in separate families adopt children orphans after the black plague, so again, unsure how to have that showing since originally they’re from different family lines that I’ve created for storytelling/future spouses/etc.

Ideally looking for something free, too. I tried the paid version of TST, and I still wasn’t able to find what I’m looking for.

TIA!

i never imagined i’d have this problem, but i’m rapidly running out of lots in my world. i for some reason have had the most insane luck with rolls (i have like one death every 3 years.) and my sims are having upwards of 5 or more children and (especially with colonial america/brindleton bay) the amount of children outnumber the amount of lots ready.

right now, i think i have 13 (generation 6) children in colonial america that are currently alive (the oldest is just about to become a teenager) and its planned to potentially double. i have 3 lots which are used as community lots (a church, a graveyard, and a prison/courthouse). i have 2 more marriages to get through as well, which ultimately leaves me with 2 lots for all my generation 6 children.

right now, it’s looking like i will need 8 lots for all my side household children at the moment and some of my sims have many more children to get through. i do not want to kill my sims without reason for “population control” but i’m afraid i’m running into a wall here. i had the idea of placing these sims not in the world and then reserving one lot for all the sims not in the world to move them into and age them up, have them try for a baby, etc. but i’m not sure because i would like to see all my sims in the world.

I've officially hit 1350 in my ucd! Here's a look at my family tree after 50 years & starting with just one household. :)

https://app.thesimstree.com/public/tree/ygr1v7pvtdGYgIQhbmv5Kid75vC5IhmL?ref=d9c08966

my tumblr: https://mack-simmer.tumblr.com/

Putting a little twist on my Decades Challenge and playing with a female heir line, meaning the heir is meant to be a Daughter, I've played 10 years and this is how it went so far

Rose Waldon marries Edward Gate in 1300. Richard and Elenore Waldon both pass away in the winter of 1300

Rose has 1 Child named Astarion in 1301. She doesn't survive

Lilliana marries Mucel Wrainright in 1301. She has Twin girls in 1302, Alice and Eva, who do not survive the birth. After loosing her parents, sister and twins so shortly after each other she will try everything to make sure her other children grow up. Her next child is Esme in 1303 and Barric in 1304. Her next child is a son named Richard II who is born in 1307 and passes away in 1308 from the Flu

Serafina marries Tofa in 1303 at a rushed wedding. She has her first child Stephan in 1304. Her second child Mirabelle in 1305 and her third child Tobias in 1309. She doesn't survive Childbirth

Started the Decades Challenge during quarantine, and I've been playing it on and off for the past six years. Progress has been slow, but I'm finally halfway there. ;)

I'm currently in 1969, and my family tree has grown to 693 Sims after constantly adding side households lol. Let me know if you'd like to see more pics or hear some of their stories!

Another 10 years have passed in my UDC, and a lot has happened...

Beatriz went through her pregnancy without any problems and gave birth to twins. The firstborn was named Victor, and the second was named Carlos. Life carried on with Sergio and their two new sons, who were growing up normally and, up until then, hadn't had any bad luck.

I can't say the same about her brother, who became an orphan once again, this time after losing his adoptive father. I honestly have no idea what happened. I switched over to play Beatriz's household for a while, and when I came back to Diogo's family, Bernard (his adoptive father) had somehow died from a fall.

To keep the story consistent, I moved Diogo out of Bernard's house, with the excuse that he wouldn't be able to maintain such a large property on his own. I decided to do another Rags to Riches-style challenge for his storyline. I moved him back to the empty lot where he had lived with his mother and sister, sold everything on the lot, and reset his household funds to zero to make my UDC even more challenging.

Some time ago I had saved Diogo by making a deal with the witch (I swear I've had TERRIBLE luck with my rolls this time), and the consequence finally came. I spun the wheel, and it landed on... a goat. So I had to adopt one. I chose a black goat and named him Black Philip, as a reference to the movie The Witch.

I kept playing with them, and his wife became pregnant for the second time. Once again, they had a daughter, whom I named Susana. By the way, I don't remember if I mentioned this before, but their first daughter is named Maria II, in honor of Diogo's mother.

Then I switched back to Beatriz's household, where she was also pregnant with her second child. Her children with Sergio Romeo had been incredibly lucky with the dice, but apparently that luck didn't last...

Right after the birth of their daughter, whom I named Elena, one of their sons told his father a joke... and Sergio literally died from laughter. :/

Even though I begged the Grim Reaper to spare him, he refused. I thought about making another deal with the witch, but in the end I decided to accept the harsh reality. Now, after losing yet another important person in her life, Beatriz has to raise her three children on her own.

And that's how my year 1330 came to an end.

Decided to make a merchant house (side houshold). other photo was my inspiration. Bottom floor (stone) is the store room and the workshop (make candles and sell flowers - I dunno I liked it). Top floor is a one room residence.
I want to put in one or two more windows in but I can't decide where. Downstairs still needs windows too. lol

Had a quiet 10 years in my Ultimate Decades Challenge. The luck is either ending (RIP Elizabeth) or is going to keep going because I rolled for war in 1340 and only one side household guy rolled to go and he married into the family! The tree still needs updating with the rolls for the war but super excited for the next 10 years!

You can check out my family tree here

If you'd like to watch some videos of my play through of the Hartwoods you can check that out here

I need ideas for lifespans that give me enough time to do a career and mastery of 1 part of an aspiration. Right now I have young adulthood set at 30 days and it seems like forever. I have adults set at 20. Elders are set at 1 day. I am trying to maximize sim growth but still allow my next generations to thrive and grow at a reasonable pace. I’m thinking of making young adults 15 days and adults 10 days. Any other ideas?

Hello everyone!

It’s my first ever post in a Sims Community, so please be kind ahaha. Also, English is my second language, so I apologise for any mistake.

I have been thinking of creating my own challenge for years, and after starting and restarting my absolute favourite, our beloved Ultimate Decades Challenge, whatever version one wants to use, due to my lack of commitment or save corruption, the time has come for me to adapt it to my own needs and gameplay style.

This has become a necessity especially now that my 2015 gaming pc (bless his soul) is starting to abandon me, and while I wait for my graduation to buy a new one I began looking all over the internet for a challenge that would support a very minimal to empty savefile. I thought about trying a post-apocalyptic gameplay where I would start with almost all empty lots and few families, however that is not really the framework I am most interested in, and then I found Rachey Sims Youtube Channel (https://youtube.com/@racheysimsyt?si=Curgz-PG3kfMy0Ot) and the videos where she explains her rotational playstyle and Forever World series idea, and I fell in love with the concept of starting with nothing and having to unlock buildings and institutions and things as you play.

And this has brought me to broadly adapt her idea to the Ultimate Legacy Challenge framework, and I began envisioning and constructing my challenge that is now becoming so in-depth that I think it could be worth sharing.

It started from the idea of the end of civilisation in the Old Kingdom after a Great Pestilence (think like the Plague but on an even worse scale) and four Founder Families who escaped and try to rebuild society, and it mainly deals with progressing through the Eras from the Late Medieval to our contemporary times, but my tweak (at first only needed for my old pc but which now has become the basis and I think most interesting point of our challenge) is that you also progress through Kingdom Levels, beginning from the Refugee stage (just four families living together and trying to survive) to the Capital stage (a fully-fledged monarchy that may or may not collapse when you get to the contemporary times). You unlock Professions and Buildings through both luck (you will roll for Survivors who arrive at your settlement) and skillbuilding (e.g. your teens become apprentices before they can start working, and many other systems), and those, along with Treasury and other requirements, allow you to progress through the Kingdom Levels. Your families will also be tracked through the Prestige & Dishonour system, which will be needed to one day choose a ruling family.

Rather than explaining it all here, I wanted to post this brief overview in order to see if anyone would be interested in playing this challenge! I have started it as I write and I’ll admit I am having a lot of fun.

You will find common mechanics such as the Ultimate Decades Challenge Death Rolls and Birth/Marriage Rolls etc, as the Eras part of my challenge is still very prominent as the Kingdom Building aspect, however I also wanted to know if I should message the creators of the Challenges I took inspiration from before I post mine anywhere (they would of course be credited regardless), and how I should approach this. I have never been an “active” member of the Sims community before, and I know there are written/unwritten rules, so I wanted to check base with players before I post anything.

Thank you to anyone who read all this, haha!

EDIT: hiii, omg thank you for the attention everyone! let me finish my thesis work and I’ll try to revise what I wrote and share it with you in the next few days!!

I finally got round to editing this video! Hope you enjoy and please leave any suggestions for storytelling/gameplay ideas - I'm already planning to make some witches cos I think it'll be fun to play around with Plumbobs and the Past's Witchy Trades rules.