«Sims 3: New Accomplices»

Grim can be such an ass.

Since I installed the newest update for the Sims 3, story progression has been actually working and there's a flood of new sims in the neighborhood. So Grim (being the Emperor of Evil) has some new "employees" (accomplices in crime).

One evening Grim went over the the house of one of his new employees (we'll call him George) and peered into the window. The wife spotted him. She wouldn't let Grim in the house at first. I suppose I don't blame her. You see the Grim Reaper peering in your window at night, inviting him inside isn't the first thing on your mind. George though had little choice to let Grim in. It's the equivalent of your Mob Boss coming for a visit, you don't turn him away for anything... Unless you want to "disappear".

Grim helped himself to dinner, and chatted with George's wife a bit. They got into a bit of an argument about what direction the moral compass should point... Turns out she had the Good trait and Grim has the Evil trait. Grim attacked George's wife, stole candy from their 3 babies, then proceeded to keep everyone up all night.

George's teenaged son thought Grim was pretty cool. Being the mean-spirited bastard that he is, he laughed as Grim beat up his mother. George didn't seem to mind, either. Or if he did, he wasn't about to show it. In the morning Grim returned home, with a better picture of who he has working for him.

It's all about keeping your underlings in check. They need to know who's in charge.

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«Back to The Sims 3»

My last post about my Sims 3 Legacy was way back on November 24th, 2009. That was a longer than intended break. It took me a little while to figure out where I left off with my Legacy Challenge family.

Although I'm playing with the Matriarchy rule, the immortal Grim Reaper is still the silent head of the family, and has been since the 3rd generation (I'm up to the 8th generation now).

Richard achieved his lifetime wish of being a Chess Legend yesterday. He really has turned out the be the family Genius. I plan the 9th generation to be small, so I won't get all the lifetime wants before the 10th generation. This means I won't have a perfect legacy score. But at this point, who cares? I'm holding off on any expansion packs until I finish the legacy.

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«I Can't Believe It's Not Fabio!»

Up to generation 8 in my Sims 3 Legacy. Little Emily was born!

Stacy grew up and got married to Alex. Alex reminds me so much of Fabio Lanzoni.

Click image to view full. "I can't believe it's not butter!"

They had a daughter they named Emily. She has blue smurf-skin like her mother. I plan on having a large 8th generation, so more children should follow once there's room in the household.

In a lot of ways, I'll be glad when I reach the 10th generation and this is over. The game is starting to get repetitive and a little boring. I'm probably just burning myself out. The only thing that's kept me going this long is the Grim Reaper's collecting escapades. Bugs and plutonium are not the only things he's collecting.

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«Radiation Protest»

Once again, this is about my Sims 3 Legacy¹.

The Grim Reaper just acquired another plutonium rock, and when he sent it in to get smelted and purified, he got 5 ingots back! That makes a total of 7 bars of plutonium, I'm aiming for 15 of each metal. Click an image to view full.

As you can see, I have 15 of every metal now, except plutonium.

I think the public has taken notice. I found a group of sims in front of the city hall protesting radiation.

No worries, the Leader of the Free World (aka the Sim President) is David, and he's secretly evil and in league with Grim. He'll make sure this little protest goes nowhere.

^1: Why do I keep saying that this is about my Sims 3 legacy? Because there's always that one person that didn't read any of my other posts and they ask what game this is in.

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«Cindy the Nympho»

Recent major events in my Sims 3 legacy. Nearly a lifetime has passed since I've talked about the family other than Grim.

Vernell became a Master Thief for the same organization that my Grim Reaper is the leader of. Grim was so proud of his granddaughter. Grim never really got along with his daughters, but Vernell and Grim were best friends since she was a baby. When Vernell was 88 days old (an elder), she managed to steal the priceless Golden Llama statue; long believed to be theft-proof. The statue now sits in Grim's chambers within the organization. She received an amazing $209 an hour raise for the feat. But alas, she died of old age the very next day.

Vernell and Buck had children obviously, named Cindy and Lori. Lori is the older sister and is the heir. She grew up and married a Smurf. No, I'm not joking...

In the Legacy rules, you're not allowed to marry any sim that you create, but their game-generated offspring are fair-game. I created a blue-skinned couple with the last name Smurf. They had a child named David Smurf, and it is David that Lori married. They then had twins, Nora and Stacy. Nora has regular color skin and Stacy has blue smurf-skin. Both Lori and Cindy did not inherit the jet-black skin color from Vernell. I wanted to keep things interesting, so I went for another odd color.

Cindy, being the younger sister and having both the Great Kisser and Commitment Issues traits, turn out to be quite promiscuous. She obtained the Heartbreaker lifetime wish: to have 10 different boyfriends. Let's just say she went through 10 guys pretty quickly... She's already achieved her lifetime wish!

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Remember, you can reference the family tree if you start getting the names mixed up.

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«Resume Evil Domination»

Again, this is about my Sims 3 Legacy.

Grim has re-focused his time to his collecting, and it paid off big-time. In one very good night, he found a Trilobite Beetle, a Rainbow Beetle, and... Plutonium! The plutonium was the only metal he was missing, so now he's completed the Metal Collector challenge. He will now routinely get additional ingots returned in the mail. Too bad you can't do anything more than put them on display. Grim is the Emperor of Evil, I'm sure he could find some nefarious use for plutonium. Click an image to view full.

He just so happened to get an extra ingot of plutonium in the mail, they are the green bars¹ on the table.

The two beetles completed his beetle collection, and he's already completed his butterfly collection. How that helps him dominate the world I have no idea.

The beetles...

...And the Butterflies, a collection to make even Looney envious.

^1: Yes, plutonium in real life is a silvery white color. But so are most metals. In the game they gave it a green color to make it stand out.

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«Plotting His Evil Domination»

I changed 2 of my Grim Reaper's traits. It just didn't make sense that he was the Emperor of Evil, yet didn't have the Evil trait. I know, changing traits is probably against the Legacy Challenge rules. Strictly speaking though, it is not specifically listed in the rules that you can't use the Mid-Life Crisis reward perk. Besides, they're more like guidelines than actual rules, right?

Now Grim can get to plotting his evil domination of the world.

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The other trait he picked up is the Bookworm trait. It's the family trait of my legacy. He's surrounded by bookworms, so I figured it would be best for him to fit in.

The two traits he dropped were Grumpy and Insane. So now he has the traits of Bookworm, Brave, Evil, Good Sense of Humor, and Inappropriate.

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«Headless Evil»

The Grim Reaper in my Sims 3 legacy is not without a few glitches. I don't think it was ever planned to be able to have the Grim Reaper in your family like I do.

First off, he has no head when in some work outfits! For example, here's Grim in his work outfit as the Emperor of Evil.

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Yikes! Though I guess it suits the job.

Another glitch that is quite beneficial is the Grim Reaper does not age (as I mentioned earlier). Right now he is "younger" than his granddaughter. This allows him to accomplish things that a regular sim wouldn't be able to in their lifetime.

The last major glitch I've noticed is rather annoying. He can't call or invite anyone over. Despite the fact that he's good friends with half the neighborhood, the game says he doesn't know anyone well enough to call them.

Oh well. I'll take the bad with the good. The immortal lifespan is well worth it!

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«Vernell the Thief»

Vernell (from my Sims 3 legacy) is well on her way. She has a beautiful set of traits, and I am taking full advantage of them.

I've always wanted a Grim Reaper statue in my family's backyard graveyard. However, the statue can only be bought on community lots (not household lots). There is a way to get it though... You need a Kleptomaniac sim, and it just so happens that Vernell is one. I sent her to the town graveyard and after stealing some random guy's remains, she stole the Grim Reaper statue in the graveyard. Then you can go back home and into buy mode, where you copy the statue with the eyedropper tool. You can then return the original.

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Vernell married some hot-headed jackass named Buck. He doesn't really have any redeeming traits. Buck is the type of guy that would come home drunk and beat his wife. There weren't many options for a mate. My neighborhood is dying, they're mostly all old people now. I have the game patch to thank for that. The patch fixed the problem of random children appearing in single parent households. However, I think those random children were needed to maintain the neighborhood's population.

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«Ghosts of Family Members»

So, in my Sims 3 legacy the ghosts of dead family members are starting to get in the way. Every night they all come out. I liked it better in the Sims 2 where only some of the ghosts would come out in a given night.

Vernell had a birthday and 8 ghosts swarmed into the kitchen. They all wanted cake. By the time the ghosts took their slices, there was no cake left for my regular sims.

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The other problem I'm having with the ghosts is they sleep in my beds. There's no way to wake them up, either. So the sims I'm controlling can't even sleep some nights. The ghosts also have a way of breaking things.

The color of the ghosts shows how they died. White is old age, purple is starvation, orange is burned alive, and blue is drowned. There is also yellow which is electrocution, but I don't have any of those yet. Yes, that blue one is Jerad.

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«Screw Ferby»

So it turns out you should never trust a sim named Ferby. He cheated on Annabel Lee and had a child with someone else. If she were to have married him, I would have been forced to take the bastard child, too. So Ferby will not be in the family tree.

Instead, Annabel Lee hooked up with a firefighter named Jerad. Here I'm trying to size down the family and they go and have twins (Carla and Vernell). She actually wasn't even married to him at the time of their twins' birth. Both turned out jet-black like their mother.

Sabrina moved out and she took one of the twins (Carla) with her. So I'm left with just Vernell and a slightly smaller family I have to take care of. So I'm happy.

As far as Jerad is concerned, he has served his purpose. He's useless to me now. I've already achieved what his lifetime wish is with a different sim, so I can't get that point from him. Looks like even though Jerad has the Lucky trait, great misfortune will come his way *wink* *wink*.

Oh and Vernell's two traits, Evil and Genius: randomly selected as per the Legacy Challenge rules. I swear...

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«Elvira Fed to the Timestream»

Elvira has been fed to the timestream (in my Sims 3 legacy). That means she's left the household (and thus my control). She accomplished everything I needed her to quite quickly. So I let her get married to a sim named Loren Meador and move in with him.

I was getting too many sims in the family anyway. There is a maximum of 8 at any given time. I needed to make room for Ferby and the next generation (when she's born). Besides, I'm getting tired of controlling such a large family.

I've read that some people had a tough time achieving the Golden Tongue, Golden Fingers lifetime wish within the 90 day lifespan. Elvira completed it while still a young adult. The key is to start with playing the guitar for tips in the park. You'll end up being friends with nearly everyone in town. Then you don't have to worry about the friend requirements to master the charisma skill. Just read the charisma skill books.

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«Goodbye Lillian, Hello Ferby»

Update on what has transpired with my Sims 3 Legacy.

Annabel Lee has grown into quite the teenager.

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I think she's already got a mate picked out for when she becomes a young adult. The guy's name is... Ferby.

The game randomly picks names for any new sims I'm not directly controlling. But come on, Ferby?! Seriously?! I had a bit of a fit when I saw his name. Although his stupid name is why I'm going to pick him to be the father of the next generation. That and he's a Ginger (red-haired).

I had fed Jake to the timestream a while back (this means he moved out of the house). It wasn't that big of an issue, so I don't think I said much about it when I did it. Well, old Jake was over visiting and he up and died of old age.

Lillian, the last survivor of generation 2, lingered on for quite a while. Her life was a contradiction to her traits. She was an artist (a damn good one at that) that hated art. She spent nearly every waking moment of her elderhood painting. All in all, she made over 260,000 from her artwork. That's a good chunk of the total family worth. Finally, at 113 days of age, Lillian died of old age. She can finally rest and never paint another painting again.

Linda and Bonnie both became elders. Somehow even though they are twins, Linda ended up being a day older than Bonnie. They also both achieved their lifetime wishes.

The Grim Reaper, as I have found out, does not age. He'll remain a young adult indefinitely. This means he'll survive long enough to be able to see his great-great-great-granddaughter get old. The Grim Reaper will still be around when the 10th generation is born and the legacy challenge ends.

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«The Unwanted Child»

Once again this is about my Sims 3 Legacy family.

Bonnie's and the Grim Reaper's first child, Veronica, turned out with normal skin color. Not the jet-black skin I wanted. The Grim Reaper, obviously not happy about it and not attuned with the idea of being a father yet, attempted to sacrifice his first born in fire.

However, babies in the Sims have an uncanny immortality. The crib Veronica was in burned, yet she was untouched.

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Next, the Grim Reaper attempted to abandon her by some old dumpsters behind the Outstanding Citizen Warehouse Corp. building.

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Eventually, Child Protection Services got wind of this mistreatment and took Veronica away to live in a different household. Meanwhile, Elvira was born. Also regular skin color. This time Bonnie convinced the Grim Reaper to keep her. Fair skin or not, the legacy must continue.

The Grim Reaper, however, wanted to finish what he started with Veronica. When she turned to a child he tracked Veronica down and invited her over. He already had a deathtrap planned for her; and she fell right into it. Children as not as fireproof as babies. The Grim Reaper finally succeed at sacrificing his firstborn in fire.

Perhaps the Sim Gods are as perverse as the Grim Reaper himself. For right after the sacrifice, triplets were born. Finally the Grim Reaper had his jet-black skinned daughter, Annabel Lee. He's been taking special care of her since her birth. The other two are named Sabrina and Sidha (pronounced "shee" or "SHEE yeh").

Surprisingly, the Grim Reaper does not have the Evil trait, despite his behavior and occupation (Emperor of Evil). He does have the Inappropriate and Insane traits, though.

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«Grim Baby»

Out of death comes life. Bonnie and Grim Reaper had triplets. One of them is a jet-black Grim baby! I had all but given up hope of getting one of those! I named her Annabel Lee Zenge. She is SO going to be the next heir.

The Grim Reaper holding his little daughter, Annabel Lee.

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I went through a lot of trouble to get a Grim baby. It's the whole reason Bonnie went through the trouble of courting the Grim Reaper. I had read it was possible to get a jet-black sim if their father was the Grim Reaper. So I wanted to get one.

Here's Bonnie holding her little black bundle of joy.

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More on their other 4 (normal colored) children in a later post.

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«RIP Burton»

Burton (from my Sims 3 legacy) has died. He was a Hit Movie Composer and a loved celebrity. He drew crowds where ever he went. He died of old age at 94 days old.

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Burton had an odd mix of traits. He was a Workaholic, yet Family-Oriented. Somehow he managed to excel at both. So far, other than my founder, he has been my favorite member of the Zenge family.

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«Sims 3: Grim Reaper»

Let me tell you a little story about Bonnie from my Sims 3 Legacy family.

Bonnie marks the 3rd generation of the legacy. She was born with bad luck, a bad luck that seems to radiate to those around her. One day, when she was just a child, she was playing in the central park of Sunset Valley. Perhaps out of curiosity, she wandered across the street near the theater; and watched as an old man died on the sidewalk.

A crowd gathered, and an ominous figure rose from a dark cloud gathering on the ground: the Grim Reaper came to claim the old man. Many in the crowd, as expected, ran in fear at the sight of this shadowy figure. Bonnie however, watched in awe as the Grim Reaper performed a ritual to call the soul of the old man into the afterlife.

When he was finished, the Grim Reaper did something unexpected. He walked over and sat on a bench in front of the nearby bookstore. Bonnie, perhaps a little too naive for her own good, decided to approach this mysterious dark figure. She sat on the bench with him and introduced herself.

The Grim Reaper is misunderstood by most. He was kind to little Bonnie and laughed at her jokes. Perhaps he was nice because she approached him with no preconceptions, no fear or prejudice. Just when Bonnie thought she had found a new friend, the Grim Reaper faded away as quickly as he had appeared.

When Bonnie became a teenager, she got to meet the Grim reaper again: when her grandmother died. The Grim Reaper, having recognized Bonnie, stayed for a bit after taking the grandmother. He consoled Bonnie and told her that her grandmother's time had come, she had lived a long full life. The he faded away as before.

It was not long before Bonnie's grandfather's time came, too. Once again the Grim Reaper came and one again he stayed briefly to talk with Bonnie. The Grim Reaper had become Bonnie's one true friend in life. Someone she could depend on in a time of loss.

Some time went by and Bonnie began to actually miss the Grim Reaper. Then one fateful day Bonnie's bad luck caught up with her when she was cooking. It's quite surprising how flammable hot cooking grease is. Before Bonnie knew what happened she was engulfed in flames. This time, the Grim Reaper came for her.

He was sad to see his friend's burnt body laying before him. The Grim Reaper decided to refuse to do his duty and perform the ritual. He instead returned life to Bonnie's body and took it upon himself to look over her. "For when you die, I will return life to your mortal coil. I cannot bear to lose you," he told her.

From then on, though morbid as it may seem, whenever Bonnie wanted to see her friend all she had to do was attempt to end her life and he'd be there to return it. This went on for some time, even into Bonnie's adulthood. Finally one day after drowning herself in the pool, she asked the Grim Reaper if he'd move in with her. He accepted.

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Now, the Grim Reaper has fathered the next generation of the legacy and is part of the Zenge Family bloodline.

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«Zenge Family Tree»

I've made a family tree for my Zenge family. That way it will be easier to keep tack of everyone in my Sims 3 Legacy.

Erick has died. He outlasted his wife well beyond what I had expected. He survived to 101 days old. He lived a full life and accomplished everything I had planned for him, and then some. He ended up being quite the cook, maximizing the cooking skill before he died. Now I truly feel as though I'm playing a legacy. All of generation 1 is dead.

I have a mate for Bonnie. In fact, she's pregnant with Generation 4. However, until the baby is actually born her mate isn't part of the bloodline officially. So I won't say who it is yet.

I'll be updating the family tree as often as I can, so expect to see new information there.

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«A Moment of Silence»

A moment of silence for Zelda Zenge, my Sims 3 Legacy founder. She has passed away at 92 days old. (lifespan set to 90 days)

...

It's almost a beautiful thing when a Sim dies of old age. Her husband Erick, 2 days older than she was, is still alive. That's him near the bookcase.

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She didn't quite achieve everything I wanted her to. She had written 25 books and was working on a Masterpiece of writing when she died. I only wish she would have survived long enough to finish it. Her life was rather shorter than I expected. She was a Vegetarian and had completed the Marathon Runner challenge; both of those were suppose to extend her life. Yet she died before her husband who had neither of those.

At least she was surrounded by all her family when the Grim Reaper came for her. From left to right: Jake (son), Zelda (the ghost herself), Lillian (daughter), Grim Reaper, Linda (granddaughter), Bonnie (granddaughter), Burton (son-in-law), and Erick (husband).

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Legacy Point total of 16.
Generation: 3
Lifetime Wish: 4
Portraits: 5
Net Worth: 2
Aspiration: 2

Creepy enough for you yet, Monique?

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«3rd Generation Was Born»

Another update on my Zenge Family Legacy for the Sims 3.

Lillian grew up, got married to a black man (Burton) and had twin girls! Linda and Bonnie. Oddly, one is black and one is white. Here they are fresh from the hospital, they just got home.

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Now I get to be racist and decide if I want the white baby (Bonnie) or the black baby (Linda) to be my next heir for my legacy.

This makes my founder (Zelda) and her husband (Erick) grandparents now. And they look it, they've aged into elders. This also marks the furthest I've ever taken a family tree in a Sims game. That's right, despite the fact I've played all 3 Sims games, I've never had any of my Sims become grandparents - ever.

The back story of how Lillian met Burton is kind-of interesting. She met him and I liked his traits (Workaholic, Genius, Neat, Family-Oriented, and Hopeless Romantic). However, he was already in a relationship with someone else. She got "friendly" with Burton then asked him to break up with his other lover. Little did I know he already had a kid with this other woman. I didn't find that out until she married him. So little Linda and Bonnie have a teenage half-sister that's living in a different household. It's of little concern, because the half-sister is not blood related to my founder, and so she doesn't count for anything in the Legacy Challenge.

I've made some headway points-wise. I've got 3 portraits painted now, I'm still missing Jake (the uncle of the babies) and Burton (the father of the babies). My founder and her husband both achieved over 100,000 aspiration points, so I got points from that. I know, it's going to get tough to keep track of who's who and how they are related¹...

Legacy Point total of 10.
Generation: 3
Lifetime Wish: 2
Portraits: 3
Net Worth: 0
Aspiration: 2

^1: So it's not so tough to keep track of, I made a family tree!

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