Build the Decades Challenge

This is the Tumblr page dedicated to the Build the Decades Challenge created by @cyazurai. If you decide to play this challenge, please tag it with #ts4btdc! If you would like me to reblog posts here so others can find it, please let me know. <3

[btdcsims]

Now, we get to the real meat of the challenge. Here I will put down all of the 1600s-specific rules, and how you need to start the challenge. If you want to start earlier, however, I suggest taking a look at Morbid's rules for the 1300s to the 1600s, it shouldn't be too hard to take those and integrate the BACC style rules.

Getting Started

Alright, I know I've already made a getting started post, but this is specific to the 1600s. Once you have all the stuff set up that the other post laid out (starting world, households), you can move your households into any lot. Your mayor must move into the largest lot in your chosen world, and you have free reign to give them as much or as little money as you want, build a house, or get a house from the gallery. Your upper class citizens may start with anything from $100k-$200k. Your middle class citizens may start with anything from $25k-$100k. Your poor citizens may start with anywhere from $5k-$25k. And finally, your destitute citizens must start off with no money whatsoever and no house, and must find a way to pick themselves up from the ground.

All houses must have the lot challenges Off-the-Grid, and Simple Living. You may have any other challenges except Reduce and Recycle, Landfill Lot, or Spooky, until you unlock them. As for the lot traits, you may have any lot trait except Eco Lot, Study Spot, University Student Hangout, Oceanic Paradise, Island Spirits, any from Get Famous, any from Vampires, Good Schools, Science Lair, or Fast Internet.

For extra fun, you can roll to see what ages each of your families start at, but you can also just give them an age you think works well.

For the very first rotation of each newly placed family, you do not need to roll that year to see if they survive. Even newborn babies can survive this first year, it's free. But the next rotation/year is when their first death roll must happen.

This is not going to be 100% accurate to any particular country - you may start wherever wish, so I'm not going to put in any specific rules related to the area. For example, the first colony in America was founded in 1607, but the settlers came in 1620, and my challenge starts in 1600. I don't care, because it's not necessarily America that everyone is going to play in, and so we start in 1600 with the option to start earlier or later for anyone who wants to.

No one except the Mayor may have a career at the beginning. After all, this is a brand new settlement, no matter where it is. Your sims need to establish themselves.

Set up a tax system. My suggestion is to look up the tax rate of your intended area at the year you're in, and decide what % it will be based on that and the personality of your mayor. You can be as realistic or unrealistic with this as you want, as long as you remove some amount of money from your sims' coffers every year/rotation. (My plan is to have a base of 5% of their simoleon balance at the end of each rotation, and increase/decrease that percentage based on the personality of my current mayor.)

You may only have 1 orphanage per every 10 households. So if you roll to have 2 orphanages at the beginning, you must reroll for one of those. Also, this does mean that after you get your 11th household you may get another orphanage. Your matrons may not marry, because they are dedicated to the raising of orphaned children. (This does not mean that they may not have children out of wedlock, scandalous though that might be.)

There are many things you may not have until you unlock them, so you will need to read this whole post to find out what you may or may not have.

Pets are allowed, but there are no vets yet, so keep that in mind.

[btdcsims]

Starting this challenge will be a bit more like a Build a City Challenge than like a Decades challenge. First, you will need to either start with a blank save, or actively bulldoze all the lots and delete all of the sims in the save (unless you plan to use them in your households). The only exceptions are destination worlds, such as Granite Falls or Selvadorada, but since this is a Decades challenge, you still might want to change the buildings to fit the decade you’re in when you visit them.

Once your world is empty, you need to figure out what world you’ll want to live in. Yes, you could make your sims first, but knowing what world you start in might influence the sims you decide to make. For example, if you start in Mt. Komorebi, you might want to dress them in traditional Japanese garb. Not all worlds will be available at the beginning, and I will get into this a bit more later, but the only worlds available to start out in from the very beginning (1600) are:

Brindleton Bay

Glimmerbrook

Granite Falls (if you have the All Worlds are Residential mod)

Henford-on-Bagley

Mt. Komorebi

Newcrest

Oasis Springs

Tartosa

Willow Creek

Windenburg

Chestnut Ridge

Now, you might be wondering why I chose the worlds I did. It’s because they’re the most realistic for the decade that I have chosen the challenge to start in - ordinarily for the BACC, you would need to unlock spellcasters to unlock Glimmerbrook, but I feel it would be unfair to keep it locked when it’s such a perfect spot for decades gameplay, especially if players do not want to have spellcasters in their decades game. You will be able to unlock the other worlds later, but most of them will require a certain period of time to pass first.

Once you know where you’re starting, you need to make your sims! This is going to be fun!

Unlike the regular BACC where you decide the exact number of starting sims with a dice roll, the BTDC will determine the number of starting households with a dice roll, as well as the number of sims in each household, and the wealth/type of household. Seems like a lot, I know, but it’ll be worth it, I promise. You will never get the same start twice with a system like this!

You will start off with 1 household already, and that household will be wealthy by default because they will be the mayoral household. The patriarch of this household will be the mayor of your town. But now you need to decide how many other households will be joining the mayor on this adventure, and that is when you will need to roll a 6 sided die. Whatever number it lands on is how many side households you will start out with. 

For example: If you roll a 3, that means you will start out with 4 total households.

Next, you will roll for the amount of sims and type of household. This will require a 10 sided die. If you roll an option for the mayoral household that doesn’t make sense, you may freely roll again until you get an option that does make sense. However, for the rest of the households, you may only roll once. If you get an option you dislike, you will have the opportunity to turn your luck around later just by playing the household.

Single sim

Married couple

Two siblings

Single parent & a child

Single parent & 2 children

Two parents & a child

Two parents & two children

Grandparent, parents, & 1 child

Elderly parents & married couple

Orphanage with 1 matron and 3 unrelated children

Now, these starting sims can be of any age - if you roll for an orphanage with 3 children, that doesn’t mean they all need to be of child age. The only ones that must be a certain age are the elderly parents and the grandparents - they must at least be adults, although elders would make the most sense.

The next decision that needs to be made is the wealth//status of each household. This will only require a 4 sided die. Once you have your number of households and the size of each, you will roll to find out their status - the only exception is the mayoral household, because they are a naturally wealthy noble house.

Destitute (think extreme rags to riches)

Poor/peasant

Average/middle class

Wealthy/upper class/nobility

And with that, you should have your households all planned out. If you feel like you didn’t do it correctly, I will put an example of what I rolled under here so you know what to look for:

Mayoral Household + 6 households (rolled a 6) Mayoral household: Wealthy, two parents and a child (rolled a 6) Second household: Single poor sim (rolled a 1 on the d10 and a 2 on the d4) Third household: Single destitute sim (rolled a 1 on d10 and a 1 on d4) Fourth household: Poor single parent and child (rolled a 4 on d10 and a 2 on d4) Fifth household: Two wealthy/noble siblings (rolled a 3 on d10 and a 4 on d4) Sixth household: Middle class grandparent, parents, & child (rolled a 8 on d10 and a 3 on d4) Seventh household: Poor parents with two children (rolled a 7 on d10 and a 2 on d4)

[btdcsims]

Life expectancy wasn’t always as high as it is today, and as such, unfortunately, we have to take that into account with this challenge. Each decade will come with different life expectancies, based on any information I was able to find on the subject.

I gave a lot of thought to how I wanted to do the death rolls, because I don't want to directly copy any of the other decades challenges. They are unique, and while imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, I don't want to directly copy. So I decided to take my favorite parts of all of them, and kind of mix them together into one.. amalgamation.

Now, these death rolls are not the only times you will have to roll for death, because there will be events through the years that may kill your sims. That will be included in a different post.

At the first of every new year (rotation) of a household, you must roll for every household member to see if they survive to the next year. Likewise, when a woman is having a baby, roll to see whether she and the baby survive the birth using that century's rolls (using the mother's age roll for her).

Baby: Roll a D4, if it lands on 1 the baby dies that year

Infant: Roll a D6, if it lands on 1 the infant dies that year

Toddler: Roll a D8, if it lands on 1 the toddler dies that year

Child: Roll a D12, if it lands on 1 the child dies that year

Teen: Roll a D12, if it lands on 1 the teen dies that year

YA: Roll a D20, if it lands on 1 the young adult dies that year

Adult Roll a D20, if it lands on 1, 10, or 20 the adult dies that year

Elder: Roll a D8 every year until they reach 60 years old, then roll a D6 every year until they reach 70, then roll a D4 every year. If any of these rolls lands on 1, the elder dies that year.

Baby: Roll a D4, if it lands on 4 the baby dies that year

Infant: Roll a D6, if it lands on 4 the infant dies that year

Toddler: Roll a D8, if it lands on 4 the toddler dies that year

Child: Roll a D12, if it lands on 4 the child dies that year

Teen: Roll a D12, if it lands on 4 the teen dies that year

YA: Roll a D20, if it lands on 4 the young adult dies that year

Adult Roll a D20, if it lands on 1, 10, or 20 the adult dies that year

Elder: Roll a D8 every year until they reach 60 years old, then roll a D6 every year until they reach 70, then roll a D4 every year. If any of these rolls lands on 4, the elder dies that year.

Baby: Roll a D8, if it lands on 1 the baby dies that year

Infant: Roll a D8, if it lands on 1 the infant dies that year

Toddler: Roll a D6, if it lands on 1 the toddler dies that year

Child: Roll a D8, if it lands on 1 the child dies that year

Teen: Roll a D12, if it lands on 1 the teen dies that year

YA: Roll a D20, if it lands on 1 the young adult dies that year

Adult Roll a D20, if it lands on 1, 10, or 20 the adult dies that year

Elder: Roll a D8 every year until they reach 60 years old, then roll a D6 every year until they reach 70, then roll a D4 every year. If any of these rolls lands on 1, the elder dies that year.

Baby: Roll a D8, if it lands on 1 the baby dies that year

Infant: Roll a D8, if it lands on 1 the infant dies that year

Toddler: Roll a D8, if it lands on 1 the toddler dies that year

Child: Roll a D12, if it lands on 1 the child dies that year

Teen: Roll a D20, if it lands on 1 the teen dies that year

YA: Roll a D20, if it lands on 1 the young adult dies that year

Adult Roll a D20, if it lands on 1, 10, or 20 the adult dies that year

Elder: Roll a D12 every year until they reach 60 years old, then roll a D8 every year until they reach 70, then roll a D6 every year. If any of these rolls lands on 1, the elder dies that year.

Baby: Roll a D12, if it lands on 1 the baby dies that year

Infant: Roll a D12, if it lands on 1 the infant dies that year

Toddler: Roll a D12, if it lands on 1 the toddler dies that year

Child: Roll a D12, if it lands on 1 the child dies that year

Teen: Roll a D20, if it lands on 1 the teen dies that year

YA: Roll a D20, if it lands on 1 the young adult dies that year

Adult Roll a D20, if it lands on 1 or 20 the adult dies that year

Elder: Roll a D20 every year until they reach 60 years old, then roll a D8 every year until they reach 70, then roll a D4 every year. If any of these rolls lands on 1, the elder dies that year.

[btdcsims]

If you’ve never played a Decades challenge before, you might not know, but often you have to control the lifespan yourself, and this challenge will be no different.

From the start of the challenge, aging for all of your played sims will be turned off, because you will need to keep track of time yourself, for which I have created a handy-dandy spreadsheet (that also includes some other aspects of the challenge that  will be addressed later on in the rule page). The spreadsheet is located: right here. (Use “make a copy” or download if you want to use it.) When I have an actual example of how I do mine, I will post it here.

Now, for an actual explanation of the timeline and aging:

I have set this version of the challenge to start in 1600, because that gives more time to enjoy the historical aspect of the challenge.

Even though I have the rules starting in 1600, you can start whenever you want to. 

Because a BACC rotation consists of 7 days, I have decided that for the purpose of this challenge, a sim year consists of 7 days. So each rotation you will be spending an entire year with that family/household. Because of this, birthdays will always land on the same day every year. So if Elizabeth is born on a Thursday, she will always age up on Thursdays.

Now, because this is rotational gameplay, each family will have to play the same year if you want to keep this realistic. So if you have two families to begin with, let’s call them the Smiths and the Roberts. If you play the year 1672 as the Smith family, you must then restart the year 1672 as the Roberts family for the next rotation. When you come back to the Smith family, you will then be moved on to the year 1673.

Because of this, you’ll need a separate spreadsheet for each household. 

When you add new sims to your town with CAS points, you may freely decide what day their birthday is.

If you have MCCC, you may make the lifespan custom using that instead of keeping track of their birthdays, but you will still need to know what year you’re on, and you can keep track of that however you wish.

When your sim dies and you move them to the “graveyard” of the spreadsheet, the “cause of death” will mostly be something made up, unless it was from a specific event that year.

The actual ages in length are as follows:

Pregnancy: 3 days without mods, 5 days with mods

Baby: 7 days (0-1 year old)

Infant: 7 days (0-2 years old)

Toddler: 21 days (2-5 years old)

Child: 49 days (5-12 years old)

Teen: 42 days (12-18 years old)

Young Adult: 84 days (18-30 years old)

Adult: 203 days (30-50 years old)

Elder: 140 days (50-70 years old)

Puppy & Kitten: 11 days (0-1 ½ years)

Adult Dog: 63 days (1 ½-10 ½ years)

Elder Dog: 25 (10 ½-14 years)

Adult Cat: 74 days (1 ½-12 years)

Elder Cat: 35 days (14-19 years)

After each birthday, if your sim survives their birthday roll, be sure to put their next birthday on the spreadsheet to keep track of when they age up next.

[btdcsims]

For a long time, I’ve been obsessed with two different challenges: the Build a City Challenge, and the Decades Challenge (any version of it, really). While playing through the Ultimate Decades Challenge, and keeping track of my side households, I thought to myself, “wouldn’t it be fun to do this, but these side households are their own families, and I actually give them more time than just occasionally visiting them, like in a BACC?” And so I came up with this idea. I toyed with it a long time before actually deciding to write up some rules. 

Now, I will be setting up a set of rules, but these will not be strict. If you decide that some part of this challenge doesn’t fit you, please change it for your own gameplay. After all, we’re all here to have fun, aren’t we?

Please be aware before you start: There will be death. That is part of the point of a decades challenge, especially an extended one. There will be death rolls, and there will even be the deaths of young children. If you feel you can handle that, read on.

Last Updated: March 25th, 2023

With so much help from @melsie-sims! This wouldn’t exist without her help!

Challenge inspired by/based on the following:

Morbid Gamer’s Ultimate Decades Challenge: RULES HERE CuteCoffeeGal’s update of ZombieCleo’s original Decades Challenge: RULES HERE The Build a City Challenge, by Purzel and DaisyDezem: RULES HERE

General Notes to Read Before Continuing -

Unlock achievements are to be used to only unlock one things, just like the regular BACC. For example, if a sim maxes charisma, you can either choose to make that a CAS point, or you may use it to unlock a spot in a career that requires it. Either one, not both.

A lot of the aspects of this challenge will be subject to change, depending on how you choose to begin. I will be writing the rules from the POV of American settlers, but that is not a required start. This can start wherever you want it to - Canada, Japan, Mexico, etc. And the year is also optional - if you want to start in 1890 instead of 1600, to be more like the normal Decades Challenge, that's okay too. Heck, you can even start earlier than 1600!

Mods and custom content aren't necessary but I absolutely recommend using them. In fact, I will be including a list of recommended mods.

If you're having trouble with any of the rules or getting started, please feel free to either send me an ask either here or on my main at @cyazurai, or a message. If you have more you want to ask me about, too, please feel free to ask for my Discord name so we can talk on there.

If you do play this, please tag it with Build the Decades Challenge or BuildTheDecadesChallenge, either one or both - I would love to see your progress!