Is The Sims an RPG? Part 5 (of 6)

Last time, we spoke about random encounters: how they're presented in The Sims, how they're presented in tabletop roleplaying games, and how we could approach them a Sims-like TTRPG. Essentially, through quest hooks. Things don't just happen for no reason, they happen because there's a story to be told, if the players seek it out.

For instance, we could include burglars, and incentivise players to track down the burglar to recover an item that was lost, and then throw in a moral conundrum to make recovering that item not as easy as it might appear.

I just... I miss him so much. (Courtesy of Lilsimsie, on Twitter)

To accomplish this to a degree I'd consider actually fun to play, the game world needs to have strong worldbuilding. It needs to be reactive, as well. I don't mean "the NPCs all sit around and do nothing until you come along, and then they react to how amazing you are", the world should exist on the verge of bubbling over. If the heroes don't come along, events should still unfold, but maybe the heroic thing to do is to guide events in a certain direction, or minimise harm to people who maybe aren't legendary heroes chosen to save the world? And the world and the people in it can then react to those choices, but the important thing is that they should also--even primarily--react in terms of making their own choices.

In the Fireside Chat for Arc 1 of The Wizard, the Witch, and the Wild One, Brennan Lee Mulligan sums up the kind of worldbuilding I enjoy really really well (jump to about the 19-minute mark):

The Sims accomplishes this primarily through player choices and consequences. Yes, it has choices and consequences! They're not always particularly meaningful choices, nor are they the most reactive consequences, but it's got them, and it's something I'd like to discuss.

For the choices, we first need to look at the way in which these choices are contextualised. Which brings us back to worldbuilding. This is the framework that allows players to make choices, but is also the way in which the events of the world unfold without player input.

In the Sims series, this is mostly set up prior to the events of the game starting. In The Sims 2 in particular, this setup is really strong. You jump into the game, and things happen. You're starting the game in media res, right in the middle of the action. Your choices can divert things from the intended outcome, but for the most part, all you can do is watch as the story unfolds.

Worldbuilding in The Sims, By Which I Of Course Mean The Disappearance of Bella Goth

Okay. So. In The Sims 2 in the neighbourhood of Pleasantview, everybody is sleeping together.

Don is sleeping with Kaylynn, Nina, Dina, and Cassandra.

Kaylynn is sleeping with Don and Daniel.

Dina is sleeping with Mortimer.

Cassandra is sleeping with Don and Darren.

It's messy and I love it!


Pleasant Sims, over on Youtube, has posted a video that shows exactly what this mess looks like in-game (seen above). This is "the world on the verge of bubbling over" that I was talking about. These events are HAPPENING, and you can guide them one way or the other, but it's like a freight train. You can only influence it so much.

But, what if I told you it doesn't stop there? Bella Goth, wife of Mortimer, was recently seen on the roof of Don's condo (scandalous!), and Dina is trying to marry into the Goth family to get at Mortimer's fortune.

Oh, and Bella Goth is missing.

A popular fan theory posits that Nina and Dina conspired to frame Don for Bella's disappearance, and then had their family abduct Bella.

Oh, and by "abduct", I mean with a flying saucer.


Oh, see, Dina and Nina are aliens--the grandchildren of one Pollination Technician #7, and Bella is currently a resident of the Strangetown neighbourhood. Which is full of aliens.

And then, years later, she's buried in the cemetery on Lunar Lakes. Which is in space.

Coincidence? I! Think!! Not!!!

Got four hours? Check out this video by Plumbella! The overview of Bella's disappearance is covered at the very very beginning, though. But honestly, watch the whole thing, if you've got the time.


For a shorter delve into the chaos of TS2, there's also this fantastic video by Izzzyzzz.


My god but if that's not a roleplaying prompt I don't know what is! You've got a world teetering on the edge of pure, unadulterated chaos if you don't intervene, and you've got RP prompts on top of RP prompts.

Exactly what you'd want in a roleplaying game.

Other Sims games are admittedly pretty weak in this department. In The Sims 3 and 4, you've got household biographies which seldom, if ever, have any kind of gameplay impact.

Oh, Gobias Koffi is unlucky in love? Rarely comes up. The game will automatically marry him off just fine. Oh, the Behr sisters love EDM music? Cool, not a backstory but thanks for sharing!

But The Sims 2? Oh man, The Sims 2 oozes with roleplaying potential.

But... what about consequences for those choices?

Consequences for Your Actions

Pleasant Sims touches on this in her Sims 2 walkthrough. If events aren't positioned correctly, Cassandra Goth will not get married to Don Lothario, who instead leaves her at the altar.

When enough of a Sim's Wants go unfulfilled and enough of their Fears are fulfilled, a Sim goes into what the game terms "Aspiration Failure".


In this example, Don, a "Romance Sim", is rejected by Dina Caliente because he's caught cheating. Don fears being dumped by Dina, and so his Aspiration Meter plummets. Oddly, his Mood Meter stays the same. This isn't how I remember it happening back in 2004, but I think it's interesting.


Dejected, Don suffers a full-on psychiatric crisis, and he needs to visit a psychiatrist. Or, rather, the psychiatrist visits him (again, while his mood is perfectly fine. I'm very surprised by this).


He's helped back onto his feet, and he goes about his day once more.

Ultimately, these consequences are all roleplaying ones. The Sim's mood never suffers (the thing that determines success or failure for most random events and Sim/object interactions), but the people around him treat him differently, and you, the player, are given a storytelling prompt.

Do you roleplay Don Lothario as going further off the rails? Do you completely change his entire persona? Does your Don take this as a moment for growth, where he learns to respect women and see them as peers and equals? Or does he dust himself off, and try to sleep with somebody else five minutes later? It's up to you.

This is something worth considering for an RPG. It's all well and fine to say "you get a -10 penalty to your Flirt With Anything With a Pulse skill", or "your 50% chance at using the plastic surgery machine is dropped down to a 20% chance" (as a poor mood would cause) but you can get some more interesting experiences at the table if you put the consequences into the player's hands instead of the GM's.

It's not the consequence I was expecting, but it's arguably more INTERESTING.

I think there's something I can use here. Failure, but player-defined.

Next time, on Nobody Poops on Television: Character creation, and what we can use in an RPG!

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