Somewhere in the process of looking for a new Sims LP to marathon, I ended up watching Fantayzia’s Foster Home Challenge. It introduced me to the Foster Family Mod from LittleMsSam, which sets up a fostering program in your game. The game will let you know when they have a child (or teen, or toddler) that needs a home, and if you accept your sim will go pick them up and bring them back home. The foster kids aren’t controllable, which adds a really interesting element to gameplay. Your sims can adopt them, too.
Fantayzia created a challenge based on the mod. Basically your sim couple can’t work outside the home, and at least one has to befriend every foster child before they can either adopt them or help them find their forever home. I couldn’t resist trying it out!
I spent three hours putting together premade rooms…. only to then discover that the outside looks like this. ;; But the inside is okay, and I was really desperate to actually get in some gameplay, so I decided to just save renovating the outside for another day.
So here’s the household taking their de-aging potions to reset their current age stages! Left to right: Quentin, one of the kids from the third generation of my 100 baby challenge; River, Quentin’s twin sister; Demi, River’s wife; and Addisyn, River and Demi’s daughter. The adults are all, in fact, Adults.
These guys were the first Morgan spares to come to mind when I thought about doing this challenge, and after thinking about it for a few days I decided to go with them. Addisyn is one of my favorite Morgan cousins of all time, and Quentin and River are from one of my favorite generations, so I was looking forward to revisiting them.
I pretty much immediately had River register with the LMS Foster Family Network. There is an option to directly contact the network to see if there are any kids who need homes, but it’s actually not something you can do on Sundays, so I resigned myself to spending the first day just playing through the family like normal.
Not that that bothered me! I like family based gameplay, and one of my goals with this challenge is to enjoy it in a new way. The 100 BC requires you to get so much done, and to try to do it as fast as possible, so I am looking forward to taking my time with these guys.
Addisyn has the Whiz Kid aspiration, so I’m going to actually try to see if she can max it out. I always have trouble with the reading with an adult part, for some reason, so my kids generally never make it past the first stage. But we’ll see if Addisyn can do it!
They’re also going to be my first household to have a small pet! I’ve had the First Pets Stuff pack in my game forever, but I’ve never actually had any of my sims have a rodent. Time to change that!
Catarina Lynx was the only person in the Brindleton Bay welcome wagon. But that’s okay, because as soon as I sent Quentin to greet her I realized that I SHIP IT. (I had actually been trying to brainstorm Maxis premades that would suit Quentin, but no one seemed right–which was clearly because I never got around to thinking about Catarina!)
Much to my surprise and delight, the LMS Network contacted River and told her that they had a Toddler who needed a home! I was actually worried about the idea of fostering Toddlers, since they still have that in game glitch where they won’t finish their meals, but since this was the first offer they got and I wanted to try out the mod, I had River agree. She went off the lot for an hour, and brought back little Payton!
… River, please don’t stand on the child.
River: “I’m setting up a grand reveal!”
Here she is! She’s so cute, it just knocks me out. And in that jacket she’s all ready for life in Brindleton Bay.
Me, roughly .5 seconds into Payton’s time on the lot: “WE NEED TO ADOPT HER.”
(Meanwhile, Quentin and Catarina autonomously watched that pets movie, which cracked me up when I found them doing it. So on brand for her!)
These overlapping mother-child interactions creating full family moments made my heart grow three sizes. Payton is definitely going to have to get adopted once River builds a friendship with her.
One of the reasons I’m so adamant about it is that Addisyn just moths to her. She’s constantly interacting with her, and even though they have a dining table and plenty of other seating options she tends to eat and do her homework in Payton’s room.
I’m really daunted by how Payton isn’t controllable, though. I have to kind of guess at what she’ll need based on my overall experience with Toddlers. I do at least want to get her potty trained so that there will be a chance of her more or less maintaining her hygiene, but otherwise I’m not sure how the skills will go.
Meanwhile, Quentin and River both got the Erratic trait from their mother. It’s been quite some time since the Erratic trait was in the Morgan bloodline, so I’d forgotten what it’s like to play sims with it. (Not a diss: I’m quite fond of Erratic sims.)
I’d also forgotten how much the third generation was into fitness. Quentin actually even has the Bodybuilder aspiration! And River kept rolling up wants to exercise, too.
The game issue I never saw coming: at one point Demi lost her mind and decided to pick Payton up, then put her down… in the lot next door. I intervened and had her take Payton back home. ;;;;;
One of the rules of the challenge is that the parents can’t work outside the home. I’m trying to decide if I want to stick with that or not–since I’ve been adhering to that rule for the 100 baby challenge, I’m kind of tired of it, and I’d like to have sims who have jobs outside the home again. So I might end up getting Demi a job, but for now I started her out writing. Sadie’s reign as Matriarch has taught me that writing is a great way to build wealth over time.
She self-published her first book! I’m going to make copies of each book (it’s what I do for Sadie, too) and I thought it would be cute for them to read the books to the kids. Addisyn seems to approve!
I actually did waver over importing Quentin along with River, but I adore him and I don’t like separating twins, so I did it. Even so, only a day into the challenge I can already see that it’ll feel a little easier if he moves out. Trying to keep up with a nonselectable Toddler is taking up even more attention than I’d expected! So I’m thinking I’ll build up his relationship with Catarina and get them married, and then I’ll have River give Quentin a key so that he can visit all the time.
Addisyn ended my gameplay session by waking up in the Loud phase. Great…
And I’ll end this with a whole bunch of cute family pictures:
The Morgan Matriarchy 