The Simshas captured imaginations for over 20 years thanks to its whimsical world and potential to create. One of the many ways to tell storiesThe Simsis through the various fan-made challenges: each one comes with a set of rules that the player follows to make gameplay inThe Simsmore challenging. There are many challenges in forThe Sims 4, with the most well-known challenges being the Legacy Challenge, the 100 Baby Challenge, and the Decades Challenge.
The Decades Challenge is simple in concept, where each generation takes place in a different decade, starting in 1890 and ending in the 2010s or 2020s. The Decades Challenge isn’t aspopular asThe Sims' Legacy or 100 Baby Challengessimply because its restrictions and rules are more complicated than the average challenge, but it’s still considered one of the iconic challenges ofThe Simsand its popularity is widespread, with a lot of mods and fanmade content online to facilitate it. Rather than overarching general rules that govern all the generations from beginning to end, the Decades Challenge has a different set of complicated social, technological, and gameplay rules for each generation.
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The Rules of the Decade Challenge For The Sims 4
The Decades Challenge orients the world ofThe Simsin the USAduring the Challenge, and so all the events of and social norms of the 20th century are applicable to the USA only and not to other places in the world during the same time period. The rules also include restrictions such as who can inherit property, who can marry, and who can work. Female Sims aren’t allowed to work in the first few decades, Sims aren’t allowed to marry outside their race, and Woohoo outside of Try For Baby isn’t allowed. All daughters must move out of the household once they’re married, and only sons or husbands of the daughters can be the next heir.
Because the 20th century saw several wars, there are several times the maleSims of the householdare expected to go to war, and may not return home. This is done through the Cowplant, which needs to be grown by the main household before the 1910s decade when the First World War takes place. All male family members who are Teen, Young Adult, or Adult, including the heir, eat one cake from the Cowplant. The player then makes a dice roll for each Sim; dice rolls that land on even numbers means the Sim returns from war, while odd numbers mean they died.
Changing The Sims 4’s Decade Challenge’s Rules
Male Sims that died in war need to eat an additional piece of cake from theSims' Cowplant, resulting in death. Male Sims who do return from war need to return traumatized, and so need to be given one of the following traits: Gloomy, Hot-Headed, Clumsy, Insane, Lazy, Mean, Paranoid, or Noncommittal. These rules apply for all the major rules the USA was involved in over the 20th century, including World War Two, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. The oldest daughter must participate from the Korean War in the 1950s as a volunteer nurse, with the same drawbacks as the male Sims.
The Decade Challenge goes far deeper than aesthetics, and affects gameplay in several key areas. As it’s a video game and self-imposed challenge, players are free to change the rules as they see fit, and may want to change the rules that pertain to inheritance, interracial relationships, marriage, and who gets to work. Some suspension of disbelief is also necessary, as the rest ofThe Simsworld continues as normal, while objects like computers and cellphones are necessary for gameplay and can’t be avoided.Sims 4lot featureslike going off-the-grid and using off-the-grid objects help with realism, and are encouraged for the earlier generations of the Challenge.
The Sims 4is available on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
