My BACC Rules
Hey! It’s me again coming to you with yet another set of rules for a challenge that’s already been done by others. I liked what PleasantSims, MaraLetsPlay and TeaAddict did for theirs but I wanted to personalize mine.
So these are the rules that I will be following for this specific Sims 2 BACC. Some of these rules are inspired by other rulesets (mostly the three simmers mentioned above). Feel free to use this ruleset for your own game.
Please note, rules may be added, removed or modified at any point in time. My main focus is getting to know my sims and telling a good story. I’m not the type of simmer that maxes everything as quickly as possible.
I’m playing with these rules for the first time and may feel the need to tweak them as the challenge progresses. I want this to remain fun and driven mostly by the sims’ individual stories. If at any point I start getting bored of a certain aspect or if things start to feel a bit repetitive or stale... I will change things up.
The rules are available under the cut.
Starting Out
Start with however many played sims you want. I’m personally starting with 15 sims and here’s why.
It’s a lot more than most simmers have started with in the past, but since I don’t allow unplayed townies in my game I thought having a nice gene pool early on would help me immensely down the line. I also figured it’d keep me from getting bored if I have a lot of different households to play through, each with their own storylines and dynamics.
Another option is to roll a 12-sided dice to figure out how many sims will be moving into your ‘hood. Divide them into houses or put them all together on one lot. It’s up to you.
Please remember, in my version of the BACC, townies/unplayed sims are not allowed. All of my sims will be played rotationally.
Service sims such as maids, police officers, firefighters and delivery sims can become playable upon moving into a played household — either as roommates or romantic partners.
Roll a 10-sided dice to figure out how many simoleons your household(s) will be beginning with. Everyone gets the original 20,000 simoleons and up to 10,000 simoleons extra depending on the # rolled.
Once you’ve set up the financial situation, you are allowed to build your initial house(s) with the basic necessities. I choose to begin my ‘hood with electricity.
A phone.
A refrigerator, counters and stove.
A toilet, sink, shower/bathtub.
Enough beds for all sims in the household.
A couch, a bookcase, a TV and a hobby item or two.
Once you’ve built your original house(s) you will no longer be allowed to go into the build catalog on residential lots — at least not until your sims have access to computers. There’ll be more info on computers later.
Careers
I will be maxing the # of positions in a career at 10. The odds of me actually getting to the point in the challenge where I have 10 sims in a single career are pretty slim, but it’s better to establish rules right away — just in case!
If careers have a * next to them, it indicates my custom careers.
Adventure: The first position is unlocked when a sim-owned museum opens up in the 'hood. New positions open up every time sims discover a treasure chest while digging.
Architecture: A position opens up each time there is a multiple of 10 business lots in the 'hood.
Artist: A position is opened every time a sim maxes the creativity skill.
Athletic: The career is unlocked for one sim once there is a player-owned sports-themed community lot in place. A subsequent position opens up each time a sim maxes the body skill.
Bartender*: A new spot opens every time there's a new bar in the ‘hood.
Business: A new position opens up every time a player-owned business of any kind reaches rank 5.
Cleaning*: A new spot opens up every time a sim maxes the cleaning skill.
Criminal: A new position opens up every 5th burglary or every 5th charlatan pickpocket.
Culinary: For every 1 café or restaurant in the 'hood, 1 position is made available. Pick between culinary and pizza delivery, you can’t unlock both!
Dance: The first position opens when a player-owned dance studio or nightclub reaches Rank 5. Subsequent positions open up every time a sim maxes enthusiasm in Music & Dance.
Education: A position in the career opens up every 10th child that is born in the 'hood.
Entertainment: A position opens up every time a sim maxes the charisma skill.
Exterminator*: A new spot opens every time 5 sims get the flu from cockroaches.
Firefighter*: The first spot opens up after 3 fires. After that, a new spot opens every time a sim dies in a fire.
Gamer: A position opens up every time a sim maxes enthusiasm in Games.
Intelligence: A position opens in the Intelligence career whenever a sim reaches the top of the Military, Criminal, or Science career.
Journalism: A position opens up every time a sim maxes enthusiasm in Film & Literature.
Law: A position opens up every time an even numbered position is opened up in the law enforcement career.
Law Enforcement: A position opens up with every even number of criminal positions, so there should a 1:2 ratio of cops to criminals.
Medicine: The career opens up once 5 sims have gotten an illness. Subsequent positions open up every time the population reaches an increment of 50. (50, 100, 150, etc.)
Military: The first position opens up when a sim maxes enthusiasm in fitness AND science. New positions open up every time a sim reaches rank 5 of the military career.
Music: The career opens up when a music store opens in town. New positions open up every time a sim maxes enthusiasm in Music & Dance.
Natural Science: A position opens up whenever a sim earns a golden garden badge.
Oceanography: A position opens up whenever a sim earns a golden fishing badge.
Paranormal: The career opens when there is a community cemetery lot with at least two graves in it. A new position opens up every 10 graves.
Pizza Delivery*: A spot opens up every time a restaurant opens in the ‘hood. Pick between culinary and pizza delivery, you can’t unlock both!
Politics: A position is available when the 'hood is founded. Only one opening available at a time. Elections are held upon the current Mayor’s passing.
Repairman*: A new spot opens every time a sim gets maximum enthusiasm in tinkering.
Science: The career is unlocked when a sim maxes out their logic skill and their science hobby enthusiasm. A new position is unlocked whenever the logic skill is maxed.
Slacker: A position is opened with every 5th sim-owned business in town.
Show Business: A position is unlocked whenever a sim maxes the slacker or entertainment careers.
Social Worker*: A spot is unlocked every 3rd child that gets adopted into the 'hood
Please use your own discretion when giving your sims jobs. If you’re focusing on telling a story, you might want to go for realism and refrain from using careers that wouldn’t be feasible in such a small ‘hood. If you don’t care and just want to give your sims whatever pops up in the newspaper… then feel free to do that. If you want to lock careers altogether and use my rules, you can do that as well.
Services
Adoption: 10 babies must be born in the ‘hood.
Animal Control: The Law Enforcement Career must be unlocked.
Bartender: There must be a bar in the ‘hood.
Butler: A fortune sim must complete their lifetime want.
Caterer: There must be a restaurant in the ‘hood.
DJ: There must be a nightclub in the ‘hood.
Exterminator: A sim must get the flu from cockroaches.
Gardener: A sim must get a gold talent badge in gardening.
Grocery Delivery: There must be a grocery store in the ‘hood.
Maid: A sim must max out the cleaning skill.
Matchmaking Service: A romance sim must complete their lifetime want.
Nanny/Babysitter: The Education Career must be unlocked.
Obedience Trainer: There must be a pet shop in the ‘hood.
Pet Adoption: There must be a pet shop in the ‘hood.
Pizza Delivery: There must be a restaurant in the ‘hood.
Repairman: A sim must get maximum enthusiasm in tinkering.
Businesses & Community Lots
Your entire ‘hood should be completely empty at the start of the challenge. You should only have your initial houses and a park (your only free community lot). Do not build businesses or community lots before playing through your first rotation.
The way you’ll be getting items from this point forward is through sim-owned businesses. If you want baby supplies or pet supplies, you’re going to need someone to open up a store that sells those things. If you want a bar in town, one of your sims will have to own it.
You cannot use buy mode on residential lots but you can build freely on community lots and owned businesses. You are only allowed to use build mode on residential lots once you’ve unlocked the architecture career. After that you can expand your home, paint the walls, add floors, do some landscaping, etc.
There are no limits to what types of businesses a sim can run or how many they can own at once. If they’ve got the simoleons to afford the lot and buy the merchandise, they’re free to do whatever they want.
You can build community lots such as parks or beaches that aren’t owned by sims if you have the tax money to afford the construction. You can only create one public community lot per rotation (provided you have the tax money). A rotation is when you’ve played through all of your households once (usually for an entire season, which is 5 days).
What qualifies as a public community lot?
Park
Beach
Graveyard
City Hall
Courthouse
Everything else should be owned by a playable sim.
Played Sims
Townies are not allowed in my version of the BACC. You can use mods to disable them or the visitor controller to keep NPCs and townies from your lots. An exception is made for service sims once they’ve been unlocked.
There are different ways to move in new playable sims. You can add a sim every time:
A new sim-owned business opens up in town
A new household gets added to the rotation (made up of existing playable sims).
A sim completes their aspiration
You desperately need new genetics in your ‘hood.
Until your population reaches 25 sims, these new playable sims will not get any simoleons when first moving into the ‘hood. It’s best to place them with an existing household. You can use the No20kHandouts mod or edit the family funds in SimPE or with Sim Blender.
Simoleons & Taxes
This section is optional and works best if you use a spreadsheet.
Once your population has reached a total of 25 sims, you can begin to roll a 10-sided dice to see how many simoleons your new playable sims will get upon moving into the ‘hood, 1 being 1,000 simoleons and 10 being 10,000 simoleons.
Another way to do this is to give your new playable sims simoleons from the tax pool. In this case, you can give them however much you have available.
Your Sims don’t have to pay taxes until you’ve got 10 total households and 3 local businesses in your ‘hood.
Once you’ve reached that point, each household will have to contribute financially to help with further ‘hood growth. The households must pay on the first day that they are played during each rotation. A % of their household funds is deducted and added to the community pool.
Sims must pay taxes...
10% of their household funds.
12% of their household funds if they are business owners.
7% of their household funds if the household consists only of retired sims.
5% if their household funds exceed 100,000 simoleons.
Sims may donate extra simoleons to the tax pool if they feel inclined.
Sims receive benefits only if they have under 1,000 simoleons...
Pregnant sims get 100 simoleons from the government if they are still pregnant on tax day.
Parents get 100 simoleons if they have between 1 and 4 underage (meaning baby, toddler, child or teen) children in the household.
Parents with 5+ underage children living in the household get 200 simoleons.
Unemployed sims get 100 simoleons if there are no employed sims in the household. Business owners do not count as unemployed.
If your sims have less than 100 simoleons (before receiving benefits) in their household funds, they are exempt from paying taxes that week.
Sims that do not pay their taxes (and have more than 100 simoleons) may be penalized however you see fit. You may send them to your prison lot if you have one in your ‘hood.
If you use Monique’s Hacked Computer (which I highly recommend) then household funds include simoleons that were put away through the online banking feature.
Computers
Once you’ve opened up an electronics store in your town, sims will finally have access to computers. These unlock a ton of new features for your sims to enjoy.
One of these perks is finally being able to use the buy catalog… but there are still limitations. These are put into place to encourage shopping in local businesses.
With computers, sims can now shop online… but delivery to such a remote ‘hood isn’t cheap. Sims are only allowed to purchase 3 items per household every rotation. Everything else you have to purchase locally. Whether or not there is a computer, sims cannot purchase an item from the build catalog if there isn’t a store in town selling those types of items already.
For example, you cannot shop for pet supplies online (in the buy catalog) if you don’t have a pet store established in the ‘hood.
Until there is a grocery store in town, sims will have to grow their own produce so that they can stock the fridge. There are no restrictions on garden plots. Sims can plant any seed they have access to.
Sub-hoods
Each sub-hood will cost 500,000 simoleons in taxes. The adventure career must be unlocked before these become available.
University
A university sub-hood is available when a sim maxes the education career. 500,000 simoleons in taxes must also be donated for the cause.
I’ll be honest with you, I don’t really play with university that much. I don’t know if I will be sending my sims there once I do unlock it... but we’ll keep the option available!
Other / Misc.
Fire Alarms are unlocked after 3 fires. Burglar alarms are unlocked after 3 burglaries.
Only one sim in the ‘hood is allowed to dig for treasure during an entire rotation. For example, if a sim from Household A dug for treasure during that rotation, then Household B and Household C cannot do it until the following rotation. So choose wisely!
Money Trees are only allowed for fortune sims OR sims with nature as their one true hobby. One money tree per sim. If a sim has the fortune aspiration and the nature hobby they get to have two.
Smart Milk is only available once sims have unlocked both the science career and the education career.










