Sims 2 Legacy Challenge Rules – Core

Sims 2 Legacy Challenge Rules – Core
Below you will find the original Legacy Challenge core rules.  These are the rules that were for the Sims 2 Base game only, and do not include the rules for the later expansions.  Anything in parentheses are updates to the rules as they pertain to the expansions prior to Pinstar creating the Sims 2 Legacy Challenge Advanced Rules.The Challenge: Make a family the strongest it can be over 10 generations.
The Rules: Start with a single adult sim made with the create-a-sim or bodyshop, male or female. Pick any aspiration. Assign personality points as you want.Start the family on an empty 5X5 Lot. (6×5 lot for an eXtreme start which adds 1 point to your total)When you marry or move sims in, you may only marry or move in townies or NPCs.Children may move out if you want but you must keep at least one child in the home to continue the legacy.

When children grow into teenager and you are asked to pick an aspiration, roll a six sided dice
1: Wealth
2: Knowledge
3: Family
4: Romance
5: Popularity
6: Pick one yourself (Pleasure if you have the Nightlife expansion)

This is to give some challenge and variety as you play through the generations.

The 10th generation child must be able to trace their family tree back up to the original Sim by blood.

Restrictions
You may NOT turn aging off
You may use the elixir of life, but use caution, as you may suffer the jump bug.
You may use any other normal aspiration reward objects.
You may NOT use any kinds of cheats or mood trainers.
You may NOT use any “special” objects such as the platinum-maxing painting.
You may use any maxis-made objects, and any 3rd party skins/wallpapers/floors etc.
You may NOT use the new twins or abduction patches.

No reloading after bad events such as bad chance cards or accidental deaths
Restarting after a bad bug or a glitch IS allowed. Just as using the move_objects cheat is allowed for bugged objects.

Should you be unfortunate enough to have your entire lot bugged, starting the entire challenge over again is okay. I would recommend uploading your legacy lots to the Sims 2 (sadly this is no longer an option, though you could always upload a backup of your family to a Google Drive or something similar), so if a horrid bug or glitch forces you to start over again, you can just download your own lot and start again from there. I’m uploading my family once per generation just in case.

At the end of the challenge, 10 generations or after the family line is broken, score your family on the following terms.

1. 1 point for each generation reached – max 10
2. 1 point for each $100,000 in net worth the family has – round your current net worth up
3. 1 point for each PLATINUM grave on the lot
4. 1/3 point for each family friend the family has at the end – round spare 1/3’s down
5. 1 point every time a Sim fulfills an ‘impossible’ want which is a want scoring 30,000 points or more, limit one per sim per want. There are other wants that also count for this, like “have 10 children” I’ll try to post a complete list of them soon.
6. -1 point every time a household member drops into aspiration failure, requiring a visit from the sim shrink.
7. -2 points for every inter-bred birth in the family.

Special Bonuses
1. 2 points if all 10 career reward objects are on the lot – One time only
2. 1 point for each different type of NPC that you have children with over the whole legacy.
3. 1 point for each different color ghost you have on the lot at the end.
4. -2 points for each visitor that dies on your lot.
5. 1 point for each alien born on the lot – 1st generation aliens only, children of aliens don’t count, unless it’s by abduction
6. 2 points if the birth that brings in the last generation is twins.
7. 2 points if you can get two social bunnies to have romantic interactions on the lot – One time only
8. 2 points if the ghosts on your lot can access your sims – see post below
9. *NEW* 2 points if you manage to collect ALL the different types of ghosts on the lot (see post below)

Of course there is NO way for anyone to enforce the rules or scoring, so the whole contest is on the honor system. I’m just putting this contest out here as a fun challenge among simmers, not an “I’m better than you” ego-fest. I look forward to seeing everyone’s scores while I start cracking on my own Legacy family. Good Luck!

Are YOU up for the Legacy Challenge?

82 comments

Hipsterpanda

Can you buy a house?

ImaginingMystic

No, you can’t buy a premade one. You need to buy an empty lot and build one yourself 🙂

I’m doing the legacy challenge but what should you do about having children? Isn’t the rule that you can only play the family of the heir? Should all my generations be an only child?

ImaginingMystic

In Sims 2 you don’t have to just play the family of the heir since aging stops once you leave the lot. Only the family of the heir counts for points towards the legacy challenge, but you can still move spares into another lot and play them if you wish, they just won’t count. I usually just send the spares off to college or move them out once I no longer need them and then leave them in the Sims bin.

Is the first generation the adult sim you created and moved to the 5×5 lot, or does it start with his/her chosen heir?

ImaginingMystic

The first generation starts with the sim you create and move onto the lot 🙂

Hai… Uhm. Just curious but would it be braking any rules if I started my sim off in Uni? I’m very new to the Sims 2 and I’d like this head start. I would go into the dorm with the least amount of people and only the only relationships I’d have would be friends/best friends (no girlfriends/boyfriends). So is that okay? Or am I asking too much. So far I’ve only had one family with one toddler… And I used cheats. I’m still very new to Sims 2 but I’d like to have ago at this challenge 😀

ImaginingMystic

You can absolutely start them in Uni 🙂 They do go home with a lot of money, but you should be able to get rid of most of that when you buy the largest lot.

[…] the challenge!  I won’t rehash the rules, but if you want to read them the core rules are here and the advanced rules are here.  And we have some handicaps too.  The first one is Matriarchy, […]

Can Alien babys be heirs ?

ImaginingMystic

Yes they can provided they are born from a male founder or heir. They don’t count if they are born from the spouses.

Hello there I am so excited I found your webpage, I really found you by error,
while I was browsing on Bing for something else, Regardless I am here now and would just like to say kudos for a tremendous post and
a all round exciting blog (I also love the theme/design), I don’t have time to read it all at the minute but I have book-marked it
and also included your RSS feeds, so when I have time I will be
back to read a lot more, Please do keep up the awesome
b.

Visit my weblog; the sims 4

Love this, so difficult though, my sim randomly had twins and now is so tired she had to hire a nanny to watch them when she’s an elder and has hardly any money xD

ImaginingMystic

Ahhh yep, the joys of starting a Legacy xD

How do u get children with out a partner if it is a female

ohnoitskanin

you have a double bed and if their relationship is high enough u can select try for baby

ImaginingMystic

Sorry, I missed the original question. But what ohnoitskanin said is correct! Simply try for baby if you have a double bed and if their relationship is high enough!

hello!!! I’ve started my legacy and i’m at the second generation already! My question is the first couple had too many children 5 boys!!! but I wanted a girl to be the heir since I started with a woman…so know who should be the heir? Maybe the firstborn or should I adopt?

Pinstar Legacy

What succession laws did you pick before you began? The laws should always narrow the field down to one child.

is there something in the game that i can write which heir i want?? Or is just who i want to be the heir? I don’t know the heir rules. Will you inform me please?

Pinstar Legacy

The “Living Will” succession law option will give you the greatest amount of control over your heir, so if choice and control are important to you, use that one.

what i am asking is this : is there an option IN the game that i have to click in order to tell the game who i want to be the heir??? Or i just make the selected heir stay in the house and send away all the other his/hers brothers and sisters???

ImaginingMystic

There is nothing in the game that has to be clicked as the Legacy Challenge isn’t an official part of the game. You just have the heir stay in the household.

Am I allowed to move spares into a pre-made house since they don’t count towards legacy points?

Pinstar Legacy

Absolutely

Thank goodness. The two spares for my second generation of my legacy (which I themed as a Blonde Ambition one) moved into Apartments. It just makes it so much easier to play them if I don’t want to play the heir for a bit. Actually it’s good to play the spare because it would be cute to have the kids of the spare and the kids of the heir become friends you know

Hi,

Just started the legacy today, but I don’t understand all the rules. Not because I am new at Sims 2, but thereis a sort of language barracade (ah oh). So few questions:

1. What do you mean with this restriction: “You may NOT use the new twins or abduction patches.”
2. What does NPCs mean?
3. What is a PLATINUM grave, and how can I turn a grave into platinum?
4. What do you mean with ‘Impossible’ wants? Is that the grand wish a Sim has?

Ok, one more thing, I never actually played very long wih one family. Evertime I played Sims I started a new family. That’swhy I am signing in for this legacy. BUT, because I never stayed very long with one family, I didn’t know gohst has different colors (and I am playing Sims for years so ashamed haha). How do you influence the color a gohst could get?

Last question: I also used A LOT of cheats and that is how I get my twins. Can you get twins “the normal way” and how?

Pinstar Legacy

1. Memory is a bit fuzzy, but there there were patches to the game you coudl get that would let you make twins or get abducted at will. Those need to remain random.
2. Non Player Character. Specifically those in specific professions, like the maid or repair man. Non-family sims who just live outside of town are called “Townies”
3. A sim must die an old age death while in platinum aspiration. It will reward a special grave.
4. Some wants are extremely hard to hit, but not literally impossible. A prime example is “Have 10 children” for family sims.
5. The normal way involves lots of luck. Good luck!

Thanks! This is very helpfull 🙂

Would it be okay to use cheats to remove the “Prof.” part from the name of a professor a Sim marries?

Pinstar Legacy

Cheats that alter strictly visual aspects of the game, such as a sim’s name, are always allowed. As are mods/custom content that has a pure visual effect.

Does the heir/heiress have to marry to bring in the next generation? Sorry if it is in the rules, and I just didn’t see it. :/
Also, I had to move an heiress home from college to replace the original heiress, who died in a fire. Is there a penalty for that in the Sims 2 Legacy challenge?

ImaginingMystic

Nope! My founder in my Sims 2 Retro Legacy didn’t marry. She moved someone in, but never married him (though they do have a son together), she then proceeded to cheat on him with 3 other men and had babies with them as well (gotta love Romance Sims! LOL). You don’t even have to move in another Sim if you don’t want to. If you have a female founder/heiress she can simply use “baby daddies” from around the neighborhood. It makes it more difficult as it prevents you from getting more money with a second income, but that sometimes makes it more fun!

ImaginingMystic

Whoops, I missed the question about college. I will need to ask Pinstar about that one as I am not sure.

Perfect! Thanks. =]

Ok, I have a question… My Romance sims get a bit risque and I have “wild sex” cheats to provide more interactions (yeah I get bored easily with the humdrum Maxis interactions). Is this allowed in a Legacy challenge?

Pinstar Legacy

I don’t see why not.

What is the wild sex cheat? Or is this a Sims 3/4 thing?

ashleighanne90

It’s an animation mod for The Sims 2 that allows you to see your Sims having sex in various positions. Very R-rated, but doesn’t necessarily break the challenge rules as long as you don’t use the features that allow strangers to do the wild sex interactions and build up relationships first as normal.

ashleighanne90

I’m playing the advanced version of this challenge right now with a bunch of handicaps (two of which I’ve already broken by accident and I *think* two might conflict a bit, Technophobia and the Paranoia one, but oh well, it’s my first time playing the advanced version so I’m cutting myself a bit of slack and counting it as long as I don’t actually give up on trying to uphold the handicaps). It’s extremely challenging and fun and I’d like to thank you for posting it!

The only issue I’ve had with it so far is the breed strength thing. I made a cat in CAS with my founder then later adopted another cat to be her mate but no matter how long I let them play together or what I tried to do to influence them to like each other, all their interactions were negative and they just hated each other. Eventually, my female cat was getting close to being too old to have kittens so I ended up cheating up the two cats’ relationship for the sake of getting some kittens out of her before she turned elder, buuuuut I’m pretty sure that’s not allowed, lol. I just didn’t know what else to do to keep the cat’s bloodline going. It was a last resort cheat for me.

I also got a visit from the gypsy who left the genie lamp, but I’m not sure if I’m allowed to use it so it’s just been sitting there in the yard doing nothing.

ImaginingMystic

Pets are sooooo difficult to breed in Sims 2. I usually just keep pets for fun, but skip most of the pets related Legacy Challenge rules because they make me want to pull my hair out.

I don’t believe the genie lamp is allowed. Whenever I get one I just toss it into someone’s inventory. Most of the wishes are pretty stinking powerful.

ashleighanne90

Thanks for the reply! I think the genie lamp will just stay a lawn ornament and I guess if you don’t even bother with the pet breeding because it’s that hard, I’ll consider it okay for me to cheat up pet relationships as a last resort option to continue the pet bloodline, lol. I can easily handle all the other pet challenges without cheats but I really have no way of controlling whether my pet and its mate will like each other or not so that got frustrating.

ImaginingMystic

Haha yep, that’s fine. I confirmed it with Pinstar. He even said that he’s become more lenient with Sims 2 and Sims 3 rulings since he doesn’t really remember much of it anymore. So go ahead with the cheat! I’m certainly not going to judge, breeding pets in Sims 2 makes me want to pull my hair out xD

Hey Pinstar,

Are college grads/dropouts allowed as heirs/heiresses? I’ve had accidents where the heir died unexpectedly, and I did not want to quit the challenge, or restart (in the instance of a new ghost color, haha).
I hope so! Let me know if there is a penalty for that.

Pinstar Legacy

Yes

[…] break from playing Sims to take pictures and actually play to play. The legacy loosely follows the legacy challenge rules and though I’ll probably cheat a little, I’m mostly playing for fun and writing a loose […]

Well, I was looking for something new to do with my TS2 and just found!
I’ll try this one and later, maybe, the advanced. OMG, this seem to be a easy to go nuts recipe. I love it!
Can’t wait to create my founder sim.
(Registered at the forum as Lynnë.)

Can the founder join a Greek House or she needs to found one if I want a Greek House? Also, after the second generation (as the first is only the founder) is it okay to send all the kids (heir plus spares) to uni at the same time, make the Greek House almost all family only and send all of them back to the main house instead of sending the spares off to other houses? XD

InternetAddict

Can you keep more than one child in the house? Or can only the heir stay?

Pinstar Legacy

Spares may stay if you want and have the room.

Can career rewards count towards your score if they were given as a gift from a spare who earned it?

ImaginingMystic

I believe that as long as the spare is still living in the Legacy House then that is fine 🙂

[…] started playing like this when I learned about the Legacy Challenge for The Sims 2, in which all cheats, most mods, and reloading are banned anyway. I found that I […]

Hi, I’m not new to the Legacy stuff but I am now new to modding while playing a legacy. The rules say no mods, however I have mods I find I can’t play without now (ex. Bigger Families, Harder Bills, No 20k Handouts, Triplets&Quads, and others). Do I have to play without them while I do the challenge (it’s fine if so) or can I use them? Thanks in advance!

~Maia

ImaginingMystic

Yeah, technically no mods should be used in Legacy challenges. However, if you’re planning on playing casually and not counting points then it doesn’t really matter.

What do you do if your heir doesn’t have any children? He has 20 days before he becomes an elder. Help?

ImaginingMystic

The challenge will unfortunately fail if you don’t produce children in the next generation. 20 days should be plenty of time to find him a spouse and get at least one or two children 🙂

Hi there guys,

My Question is, is that allowed if the first Generation heir is a girl, by the second can be a boy?

[…] I think I might actually play a little. Maybe I’ll even start a legacy family, now that I have hope of actually seeing it through more than a few generations before my computer […]

Can we have our legacy family live in an apartment? Sure, you have an advantage at first with higher initial funds, but the incredibly limited building space and weekly rent will take their toll eventually, and could potentially make the challenge harder in the long run.

Hi, I’m new to the legacy challenge but I read all the rules and all comments, you CAN’T start in an apartment, the most importent thing is to start in an empty lot and build your own house. If you move in an apartment it’s like moving to an unfurnished premade house which isn’t allowed…

[…] so as far as I know, the rules were never updated to fit the expansion packs later on. Like the original legacy challenge, there was a point system installed and mods were absolutely on the no no list. I personally never […]

Hi, are you allowed to use the genie lamp?

Are you allowed to use the genie?

If I remember correctly, you cannot. A couple of the wishes can be a bit overpowered for the Legacy Challenge. I remember asking for money once and ending up with waaaaay more simoleons than I should have had for a Legacy Challenge.

I began this specific challenge in Sims 2 in December 2004…seriously. I have played it off and on throughout the years, and tonight at long last, I have completed it! Seeing all these posts makes me wonder how many people actually completed it compared to how many started. I’d be interested to see! Final stats – Net worth $1,600,000; 23 NPCs in bloodline, all career rewards, all 12 ghost types and free to roam, platinum graves for all aspirations (12 total), social bunny romance once, no social workers or visitor deaths, 5 shrink visits, 1 alien birth, no inter-bred births, 6 final family friends, and all 10 generations achieved. Final score, 83 points! And many fond Sim memories. 🙂

How did you manage to have the ghosts not scare anyone to death? I just lost my only 2nd generation child (thus failed the legacy challenge) when her dead father wouldn’t leave her alone and scared her to death while she tried to get sleep.

How did you only manage 6 family friends? Actually… What is a family friend?

Are there printable rules somewhere?

TinTinKyrano

Starting this challenge during 2020 quarantine as I just installed TS2 on the computer connected to our television. Gonna see how far I can get in this simulated life since we are stuck indoors.
I’m trying to make each generation based on each Silent Hill video game since there’s about 10 and the heir being the subsequent playable character of each. Wondering if pets can be heirs? LOL

Can aspiration point “benefits” be used? (Like lower need decay, grandma chicken soup (family aspiration)), etc?

Yes they can!

What if a townie has a job already?

You can keep that job.

[…] called the Uglacy. Or in other terms, the Bad Genes Challenge. The idea was based on the original Sims 2 Legacy Challenge written by Pinstar where the main goal was to make it through 10 generations with one family tree. […]

[…] Challenges have been around since Sims 1, but really found popularity in Sims 2 when The Legacy Challenge began. Now there are a ton of challenges to choose from. All written by sims players like you and […]

I know this thread is ancient so no one might respond but if I have a gay couple and want to adopt does it have to be a baby or can they be older?

[…] Sims Challenges really became a fan’s favorite when The Legacy Challenge became available in The Sims 2. Although, they were also an option to play with The Sims 1 also. […]

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.