Misty's Sims 3 Challenges

--INTRODUCTION

If you are familiar with White Wolf, I based some of the challenge around that universe (very loosely) as well as other vampire lore and my own twisted imagination! I have written this challenge to be very open ended in the sense that much is left up to you and how you’d like to play. You can learn a great deal more about Vampire the Masquerade (the D&D style game that was made into a video game) online. I absolutely give them all of the credit for any ideas taken from their game.

 

--GAME VERSION

Both Supernatural and University Life are needed to complete this challenge. While I’m not saying it is impossible, without the social networking skill specifically, this will be a lot more difficult. As always, there are workarounds.

 

--TERMINOLOGY The first time I use a term from the White Wolf universe, I’ll include a definition in brackets below the paragraph containing it. For example, kindred {def: vampire]. Don’t worry; I’m not going to slam you with an entire vocabulary. It’s mostly for storyline and there is only a handful or so of terms. No big deal if you forget them.

 

--BACKSTORY

What is the Camarilla? It is nothing to the masses, but everything to the elite among the kindred. Society has come to learn far too much of our kind. The masquerade, once a tightly enforced standard that kept our secrets carefully guarded, has been shattered. Now is a dangerous time for the kindred. What once protected us and kept our pray blissfully ignorant of their predator is no more. That is where we come to you. You have risen quickly in our organization. We, the inner circle of the Camarilla, hereby grant you the title and privilege of Prince of your own city. There you will rule the kindred and unite them under the Camarilla. Before we can hope restore the masquerade and return the sheep to darkness, the kindred must take control of the supernatural population there. Here is your chance. Seize it and return to us with victory or we will replace you with someone who will. Now go…

 

--[Def: Camarilla - An ancient organization of elite vampires who enforce the masquerade]

 

--[Def: Masquerade - A vampire code enforced by the Camarilla to keep existence of vampires hidden from the mortal world. Think of it as an intricate, tightly managed, masquerade ball where the prey (pretty much anyone other than vampires) are kept ignorant and manipulated while their predators stab each other in the back for power and position in the Camarilla]

 

--[Def: Prince – Title given regardless of gender) to the appointed ruler of a domain/city by the Camarilla. Princes have a great deal of control (even determining who lives and dies) and are highly respected in polite kindred society. It’s the ones that aren’t so polite you have to worry about]

 

--GENERAL RULES

 

MONEY: At the start, add as much money as you need to build or buy a mansion. Afterward, set family funds to 100,000 with the following cheat: familyfunds name 100000 (substitute name with your family’s last name). More details on how you will earn money in the masquerade section.

 

SEASONS: If you have the expansion, set the seasons as you like.

 

PETS: Optional.

 

UNIVERSITY: Optional

 

--Aging: Disable! In this challenge, vampires are immortal and do not age beyond young adult (unless killed through other methods…most likely by your command). You can age up children as you see fit.

 

--GOALS

To declare this challenge won, you must:

 

1. Restore the masquerade by following all of the instructions outlined under MASQUERADE section below. Essentially, you want to dispel the existence of vampires back down to folklore and old wives tales. Why? Why doesn’t the wolf want the sheep to know he’s there? It just makes life a lot easier for everyone (and easier to conceal shady dealings in the night).

 

2. Rule the city successfully as prince without being demoted by the Camarilla. This is outlined under ITS GOOD TO BE PRINCE below.

 

--MODS

The world of vampires is bloody…well in more ways than one. Part of restoring the masquerade involves punishing those who dare to disobey your law as Prince. You can, sometimes, show mercy and offer warnings, but some acts are punishable by death. To send a message to the kindred of your city that these transgressions will carry the ultimate price, you will have to order executions from time to time. I give you three ways to accomplish this:

 

1. DEXTER THE BEAR MOD (found here http://modthesims.info/d/372599)

 

2. Turn them human using the vampire cure potion

 

3. Come up with your own alternative

 

Ultimately, this is up to you; however, they cannot remain a vampire and can never be one again. I prefer to just have my enforcer come in with Dexter, pull out the big sword, and take care of business (permanently). It is OK to using testing cheats to remove the grieving moodlet from your character and anyone in their household (unless it’s the deceased’s widow or something).

 

--THE MAKING OF A PRINCE (SETUP)

 

STEP ONE: You will need to create a household including the Prince, family, and staff using the following guidelines:

 

[-The Prince-]

Appearance: The Prince must be excellently dressed, professional, and have devilish good looks (or ravishing beauty for the ladies like myself).

 

Required Traits: Your Prince must be Ambitious, Charismatic, Snob, Genius, and Workaholic/Evil. I would not truly consider using Good as an alternative. You’re either an evil SOB…or maybe not so much, but you aren’t the poster boy for the Catholic Church. You’re a blood sucking predator of the night ruling your own city with the Camarilla’s iron fist for goodness sake! If you’re not going the Evil route, Workaholic is a good substitution.

 

Lifetime Wish: Do not choose turn the town. You won’t be doing that in this challenge.

 

Celebrity Star Level: You must have a star level of 5. Even the humans in this city know you to be a person of influence. You’ll need to be in the VIP rooms at the swankest night spots in town. You can use "testingcheatsenabled" to set your rating at game start.

 

Skill Requirements: Charisma (10), Logic (10), Social Networking (10) (You are the only kindred in your city who may use the social networking skill to manipulate relationships), and Athletics (5) (or better). You were promoted by the Camarilla because you already possess these skills so they should be there at challenge start. I took my Prince to University, earned his degree in Business, and maxed the needed skills there before starting the challenge officially.

 

[-Family/Staff-]

 

Your Spouse: Optional. If you choose to have one, they must be socially perfect, attractive, and well dressed. They may accompany you to social appearances if you wish. It goes without saying that the prince cannot marry outside of the kindred and the spouse must have excellent traits (proper, snob, etc.). Plan a lavish and expensive wedding with honeymoon at a luxury resort if you like!

 

Children: Optional. Children must be pure of blood (kindred). They must also be well behaved, well dressed, etc. The rest is up to you. Declaring a thin-blood child as yours is scandalous and will get you removed as Prince. Not saying you can’t have them in secret, but bring them into your home and you are done for.

 

--[Def: Thin-Blood: An individual born (not turned) and only one of the two parents is a vampire. They are heavily looked down upon and sometimes hunted/killed and tagged as abominations.

 

Butler: Not an “official” member of your house but still valuable (mostly for cleaning). Keep in mind they will still prepare food (which is nice for human visitors, useless for you). You may substitute with a human sim to be your maid and emergency blood bank if you make your Assistant a vampire.

 

Personal Assistant:

Restrictions: This should be a human (for feeding purposes) but you may use whoever you like

 

Traits: Proper, Ambitious, Supernatural Fan (if human), Charismatic, Snob

 

Responsibilities: His/her sole mission in life is taking care of #1….you. She summons the Primogen to meet with you; she checks the paper (and the weather) to make sure you are scheduled at the appropriate social events throughout the week and has an umbrella waiting just in case. Your PA also plays a roll in the “Masquerade” section below.

 

Required Skills: Charisma (5), Logic (5), Writing (5), Social Networking (4) (to get the Sim Finder).

 

Enforcer:

Restrictions: These are the strong, silent types. They should have their own uniform (designed by you). Something with sunglasses might work well. They are your guards and your eyes and ears in the city. You may have as many as you like and they must be vampires. Create two to start the challenge (you can add more later if you like).

 

Traits: Athletic, Brave, Disciplined (whatever else looks good to you).

 

Responsibilities: These guys carry out your will. If someone breaks Camarilla law, the enforcers must be sent to fight and subdue them (more on this later). If you declare “final death” on a kindred, your enforcer will carry out the execution.

 

Required Skills: Athletics (10), Logic (5)

 

STEP TWO: Regardless of what city you choose, they must have several very nice clubs, venues, etc. for you to meet your weekly social event quota (described below). My choice for this was Bridgeport. I added a few venues and moved everyone that was in the wealthy part of town to the other side of the bridge leaving 8 vacant homes there. I placed my Prince in the most expensive and used the reset to set up my vampire houses (per the MASQUERADE section).   It is wise to turn story progression OFF to avoid people moving out of the houses you placed them in.

 

STEP THREE: Build or place a mansion that will accommodate the Prince and his family/staff. Included should be some sort of grand office for the Prince to conduct business and the home must be decorated with at least four portraits and four sculptures of the Prince. Painting/sculpting

 

--IT’S GOOD TO BE PRINCE

 

YOUR AUTHORITY: Being Prince of your own city is the kindred’s version of royalty (at least according to the Camarilla). For this reason, I am going to leave a LOT of this challenge up to your discretion. You may even set up some of your own laws for the city (if they are consistent with the challenge) and play as a tyrant or tolerant. Specific laws that you must enforce (handed down by the Camarilla) will be discussed in the MASQUERADE section. “Virtue of Tradition” grants you full authority of the following:

 

[-Allotting hunting grounds-] It is your right, as Prince, to determine where vampires can and cannot hunt for humans. If you wish to declare a particular club as “no hunting here” then you must be prepared to enforce that law. Many kindred don’t appreciate the Camarilla coming in telling them what to do. If you want to declare, for example, the Ice Lounge as Camarilla hunting only and a vampire is there who isn’t Camarilla, you’re going to have to deal with them. Guidelines for judging kindred who break laws will be discussed shortly but deciding on appropriate punishments is your call.

 

[-Protecting the Masquerade-] It is your responsibility to enforce the masquerade. You ill either receive a message that someone is woohooing with an occult (meaning a kindred is having a romantic relationship with a human) or is suspected of being occult (they took a bite out of someone in public). The woohooing punishment is up to you, but being caught by the press (accused of being an occult) is a required death sentence.

 

[-Judging the Kindred-] Whenever a kindred violates the rules that bind (your rules), it will be to your discretion how they are to be punished (whether warnings, imprisonment, death, etc.). First; however, the kindred must be caught and subdued:

 

Step One - Calling a Blood Hunt: Traditionally this would be like putting a price on someone’s head. For the Sims, it means using social networking (relationship editor) to make someone hate your guts. Use this on your enforcers (and anyone else if you want to be particularly mean) so that they can immediately fight the offending sim on sight.

 

Step Two – Locate the Offender: This one can be tricky if they are rarely at home. You may try using sim finder twice per day to see if you can haul them in (assuming you know enough about their traits, etc.). If not, you’re going to have to send enforcers out looking for them.

 

Step Three – Confrontation: Confront them in a private place; doing this publicly would be violating the Masquerade. If this gets into the press, you will have to pull out all the stops to bury it. One of your enforcers must fight the individual and win to “subdue” them. If one fails, send in another. If all of your enforcers fail, then you can engage them or let them go free.

 

Step Four: Judgment - If they are beaten, you may either add them to your family (temporarily) to bring them into custody (recommended) or kill them there if their crime demands it. If you choose to have your enforcers do the deed there and there is a witness, the Camarilla will be furious with you and will remove you as prince.

 

[-Council of the Primogen-] Primogens are the elders of the great houses you bring under the Camarilla (more on this later). You are required to meet with them (as a group or individually). I had my assistant summon each to my home for personal meetings throughout the week and chatted with them for an hour.

 

[-Social Obligations-]

 

Appearances (2 hour minimum): You are the Prince and you are expected to make the appropriate appearances out on the town. That means showing up at hot spots, the best clubs, etc. You must (unless urgent Camarilla business intrudes) make appearances at three weekly events. These include hot spots at the ritziest clubs, art museum, performances at nice venues, etc. You can even have yourself scheduled to stay weekend at a five star resort (nothing less will do). Be creative and have fun with it! These appearances are a necessary evil to building your reputation as a public figure.

 

Other: Occasionally have your assistant schedule in some fun stuff like a massage or makeover. These aren’t considered required like the appearances above, but add a nice element to the gameplay.

 

Special Note - You do not slum it, ever. You should be driving a nice car (or in your limo) and living in a lovely mansion. This is all part of the “masquerade”. If you fail in social graces, you are not worthy to be Prince. If you show up at a club that’s dead or decide to pop in at “The Grind” for a beer, hang it up now. The Camarilla may overlook one or two little “oops” moments but that’s about it. If your assistant is doing his/her job, you should only be at the trendiest spot rubbing elbows with the rich and influencial.

 

[-Your Entourage-] When you leave, it should never be alone. At bare minimum, at least one enforcer should be with you at all times. There are those out there who would love the opportunity to get to you. If you choose to leave home unattended and come across any kindred who are not Camarilla, you will have to fight them. If you lose, you will be disgraced. If the Prince loses 3 fights the challenge is failed as you will have lost the respect of the city. No one will attack you if you have protection.

 

[-Plasma-] Tradition dictates that the Prince consumes plasma from sims only (no juice/fruit). The other kindred in your house are up to you. Always do this in private. If the paparazzi catch you on film taking a nip from someone, you’re in trouble (see further guidance under the Masquerade section).  Furthermore, your price is from the first house (below) Ventrue, they have a discerning palate.  That means they do not feed on the poor or homeless.  Anyone that looks like a bum is not an acceptable meal.

 

--THE MASQUERADE

The Masquerade is a carefully woven illusion that has been broken. The Camarilla wants to restore it (after all, they make a tidy profit on enforcing vampire law). A plan has been executed to do just that and you are tasked with carrying it out. Above all, hide the existence of vampires. Acts committed by the kindred of the Camarilla to reveal us to public eyes is punishable by death.

 

GAINING INFLUENCE: When the challenge begins you are provided with 100,000 simoleons by the Camarilla. You must take this money and invest it (become a partner) in local business to gain a foot hold and build your reputation in the human world. You should invest wisely as you will not be able to hold a job for this challenge (being Prince IS your job) and you will have to survive off of the revenue from your investments. How much you spend of the initial money is totally up to you.

 

SEVEN GREAT HOUSES: You are tasked with establishing seven strong houses/clans in your city for the Camarilla. Each house must contain a minimum of 3 kindred. They may include already existing kindred who owe fealty to the Camarilla and/or those you have turned and placed. At the end, only these 7 houses may contain kindred. Kindred outside of these houses who refuse to yield to the Camarilla must be eradicated. Here’s how it’s done:

 

1. At the beginning of the challenge, activate testing cheats, shift click on your mail box, and choose the option that lets you know everyone in town. This is essentially your intelligence report on everyone in your city.

 

2. Locate a vampire on your contacts and summon them to a meeting.

 

3. Use social networking (if you like) to raise their relationship with you to friend (or get to know them the old fashioned way).

 

4. Once they are your friend, ask them to move in (you’re essentially asking them to join the Camarilla).

 

5. If they decline, then they must be taken care of by your enforcers (no vampire can exist in your city who is not Camarilla).

 

6. If they accept, then you may go into edit town and assign them to one of the seven houses based on the list below.

 

7. Note that you can turn humans and place them in a House; however, if they say no to being turned then you’ve revealed yourself to them and they must be taken care of quietly by your enforcers.

 

8. Do not turn too large a quantity of humans. You’ll need them for part of the masquerade section.

 

New kindred you have recruited must be assigned to a house based on their personality with the end result being a minimum of 3 like-minded individuals in the same House. The first person you recruit should be identified as the elder (leader) of that house. If a sim seems to be a fit for than one House, place them where you believe they belong. They do not have to have every trait listed to go to a house, just appear to be a good fit.

 

House #1--Ventrue: Ambitious, intelligent, business and politically minded individuals who seek wealth a power.

 

House #2--Toreador: artistic and beautiful (you can modify their looks in CAS if you like). They can also be flirty and real heart breakers. They are often in entertainment fields (music, actor, etc.)

 

House #3--Gengrel: Loners, animal lovers, or anyone else that can't be paced in the other houses

 

House #4--Malkavian: The insane, neurotic, and generally mentally unstable (yes, we have a special place for them)

 

House #5--Nosforatu: The thugs of your city including thieves, can be mean spirited, would steal candy from a baby sort. They are unattractive (edit them in CAS).

 

House #6--Tremere: Your great minds that are wizards of science (doctors, scientists, and lovers of technology).

 

House #7--Brjah: The athletic, brave, or service oriented in your city (police, fire fighters, military)

 

OTHER SUPERNATURALS: These are left within your control. Werewolves are our enemies and you may wish to deal with them. You may want to make a law that as long as other supernaturals are not involved in any allegations (woohooing with an occult, etc.) you will grant them residence. Or you could simply declare them all vile and have all of them quietly taken care of. MAINTAIN

 

APPEARANCES: You will be a figurehead to all of your city’s citizen’s (not just the vampires). Present yourself regularly for public events. Above all else, the mortals I your city must believe you are human. You will be well known and the local paparazzi will be following you. Your enforcers must keep them contained and you must not be caught performing any acts that would arouse public suspicions.

 

1. If Paparazzi appear at your home (and they will) you need to get them off your property by whatever means you feel are necessary before they see something you want kept hidden.

 

2. If the media accuses you in a public scandal for reasons other than occult, you must discredit them (sue them in court) or pay them off for $3,000. If this occurs more than 3 times (not including false accusations) than your reputation in the human community is smeared and the challenge is over (no one will believe anything you have to say).

 

3. If the media obtains proof that you are a vampire then the challenge is over You will get a message publicly accusing you of being occult. This primarily happens when you take a bite out of someone in front of the camera.

 

THE RICH AND FAMOUS: It is very important that you become not only a leader among kindred but known by mortals to be an “upstanding member” of their society. AFTER you have secured your 7 great houses, begin locating the wealthy and influential humans in your city. Arrange opportunities to meet with them. Become their friend. The Camarilla will present a suitable cover for you as a powerful business figure in their city. Your task is to become friends with at least one person from each human home that is wealthy or has a celebrity star level of one or more. You only need one person per home. If 5 celebrities are in one home, pick one. You must find ways of maintaining your friendship with them at the “friend” level or higher. How it’s done is up to you.

 

WIN THE HEARTS: Human and other kine (non-kindred) are weak and easily manipulated as we have proven through the generations before the shatter of the Masquerade. Start by winning the hearts of your city. Have your staff create a blog for the Camarilla. Post to it at least three times per day und obtain 2,000 followers or more. Here is the subject matter (your posts can be super brief).

 

Up to 1000 followers – Post about the prince. Positive press only. Make him or her look good.

 

1000-20000 followers – Begin disputing vampirism.

 

CHANGE THE MINDS: Cannot be initiated until at least 30 days have passed (the people must have time to know the Prince through blogs, public appearances, and positive press) and all other phases of the Masquerade (listed above) are complete.

 

1. Have a party/press conference at a nice venue and invite those you befriended in “THE RICH AND FAMOUS” above. If you have too many for one party, hold additional ones until you’ve done this in front of each.

 

2. Prepare the venue ahead of time with a stage, podium, and white board (if you have them) for the Prince to do a presentation. The venue should be set up “dinner party” style with multiple buffet tables and several small dining tables with chairs.

 

3. Have the Prince conduct a full presentation at the podium and the white board. If you don’t have these things, it will be a little harder but just stand on stage. He is presenting results of an investigation that the vampires reported were just wired up occultists or whatever you’d like. Everyone there must hear the entire presentation or be invited back. 4. It’s fine if paparazzi are there. Let them hear you (helps get out the word). Just don’t give them anything else to take pictures of.

 

SUCCESS! - [Completed all masquerade tasks] Congratulations! You have not only brought the entire kindred population of your city under your control, you’ve fooled the humans into believing you their friend and they believed every lie that came out of your mouth. It will take some time for the word the get out the general populace but your continued efforts to control the kindred and enforce the laws of the masquerade will ensure it.

 

AUTHOR'S NOTE - I truly hope you enjoy this. I worked on it for quite a while to get the kinks out but, as always, I am open to suggestions.