Rotational Medieval Gameplay Part 1 - Lifespan and death rolls
Sul sul, just wanted to share some lifespan settings I have made for my own medieval save file that I play rotationally.
First of all, I only play rotationally. And the numbers below may scare you if you do not, and I advice to not use these settings if you just play 1 or two families at a time. I made it for my save file because I need more time than the original Ultimate Decades Challenge of "4 sim days equals 1 sim year". I found it frustrating that time would pass so quickly when playing other families. I also found that I would grow tired of my ultimate decades challenge after the first 3 generations because I lost interest in my sims as it was too death roll heavy and quick in moving through time. Felt like a never ending birthing sim. I play anywhere between 4 - 12 families at a time. All equally important with deep plots and lore stretching across the families. So to make time for all of them I play with 28 sim days to a sim year. I do not rotate at a specific point between families. I stay with each until I get bored and move on. I am not focused on moving through the decades but rather having a really slow story telling and time to explore different ways of living within a medieval time amongst all social classes and setting up relationships and feuds for future generations to come.
I decided to make a series of posts explaining my rules and ways I find interesting medieval gameplay within the sims 4. This is the first part going over my lifespan settings and death rolls. Enjoy!
Neighbourhood stories set to off.
Season Lengths 1 sim week per season
This equals to 1 sim year being 28 sim days (I know I am insane).
Time passes by keeping track of weeks passing. It never stops, you continue counting weeks/years as you play other families and side households. It cannot be paused.
This also means one sim year gets every season within one year. I will in future posts talk more about why this slow form of gameplay is crucial for me and all the wonderful gameplay implications it has.
I do not use MCCC. Everything below is kept tracked of manually in an insane google sheet. Some settings regards to fertility is made by using mods.
Life Stages age spans and sim day lengths:
Baby: 0 to 1 years old - 28 sim days
Infant: 1 to 3 years old - 56 sim days
Toddler: 3 to 6 years old - 84 sim days
Child: 6 to 12 years old - 168 sim days
Teen: 12 to 18 years old - 168 sim days
Young Adult: 18 to 30 years old - 336 sim days
Adult: 30 to 50 years old - 560 sim days
Elder: +50 (roll D20 to determine years left to live)
Yes these numbers seem scary, imagine a 84 day toddler stage! But I am playing rotationally. So it never really feel more than a regular life stage length because I keep swapping between families. Again I have no rules or set lengths for how long I play each family. Usually 3-7 days. Sometimes 28 days straight. It all depends on my mood and the plot. But any aging continues in the background as I play other families.
I prefer to do the life stage death rolls at the START of a life for every possible life stage. This way I know which child is most likely going to make it into adulthood and not invest time/love in the wrong heir and also write interesting plots for if/when a family member dies so it can all be knitted into a more dramatic story than just a dice roll. I write all rolled numbers down in my spreadsheet so I wont forget.
If you do not want to roll everything at once, but do it the traditional way at each birth day going into the next life stage then I recommend don't just cheat kill them immediately but try to write it into the plot for them to die at some point in that new life stage. It will make death and grief more powerful to have a story behind it.
I don't like too much random death so my numbers below reflect that, at the same time I use modifiers to my rolls that is based on my actual gameplay, that way any death roll that does happen feels related to gameplay. I talk more about example of modifiers in the last section.
If one roll any of the following numbers for each life stage the sim will die at that specific life stage.
Baby: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 (25% chance of death)
Infant: 1, 2 (10% chance of death)
Toddler: 1 (5% chance of death)
Child: 1 (5% chance of death)
Teen: 1 (5% chance of death)
Young Adult: 1 (5% chance of death)
Adult: 1, 2, 3 (15% chance of death)
Elder: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 (25% chance of death)
There is a risk being pregnant and giving childbirth, especially in medieval time. So these are the risks I play with when it comes to pregnancy.
Since one year is 28 sim days, then a pregnancy last 21 sim days (needs to be changed using mods)
Death Roll chance for each childbirth & fertility (D20):
Young Adult Mother: 1 (5% chance of dying during childbirth)
Adult Mother: 1, 2 (10% chance of dying during childbirth)
With this also comes with a risk of becoming infertile. So after each childbirth death roll a second D20 roll must be made to determine chances of infertility.
D20 roll of 1 or 2: Permanent infertility.
D20 roll of 3 to 5: Temporarily barren. Need to wait 28 sim days before next pregnancy can go ahead to recover fully.
D20 roll of 6 to 20: Healthy childbirth no negative effects to fertility.
So in classic DnD dice rolling, don't be afraid to add modifiers that increases or decreases any roll pending how your gameplay has turned out - especially if it is starting to feel a bit stale. Lets say your pregnant sim has super high herbalism/naturalism skill. You can say that gives them a +2 bonus in a pregnancy/fertility roll making it hard to get a 1 with a D20. But at the same time, maybe she gives birth during winter and you had a bad harvest in autumn so her pregnancy hasn't had the right level of nutrients. That might add a -3 to your roll both for mother and baby that makes potential rolls more riskier. You an take this even further when doing rolls for the other life stages if you want actual gameplay to impact chances. Maybe your child sim has had 3 ailments throughout that life stage, although all cured maybe that gives them a -2 on their next life stage death roll. Alternatively maybe you want this to actually cause immunity so it actually gives a +5 to all future life stage death rolls.
Basically I love making death rolls happen less, but when they do I consider all gameplay within my save file that could impact these to make it reflect my playstyle and make it more personalised to the family. Modifiers is something I urge you just to make up before you make a roll pending your story and your willingness to risk your sims life.
The queen giving birth could have better condition giving birth than the peasant milk maiden.
So as an example, the adult queen is pregnant. She gives birth. You roll a D20 for her childbirth death. It is sadly a 2 she will die. But she is a queen, living in excellent conditions with better medical help so we can say that gives a +1. So that makes the 2 a 3. She survives. Next up, D20 roll for fertility. It is a 10+1. She fully recovers with no impact for fertility. Now move on to do the rolls for her new born to see which life stage they survive. Write those numbers down for this new family member. add modifiers as you play and let your gameplay help impact their chances of survival whilst still having the risk of a dice roll.
All this is just examples for death rolls related to birth and life stages. I will do another posts of things that are related to gameplay, specific historic or seasonal events.
Also if you are keen to start your own medieval save file, please do check out my empty starter medieval save file on my Patreon. I also got CC free historical builds on my gallery EA ID Rivercute.
