Rules and Storyline for The Color Spectrum Challenge for The Sims 4

The “Not So Berry” challenge for the Sims 4 created by LilSimsie and AlwaySimming inspired this one. It has a similar structure, but I have tried to make it completely different at the same time.

Like the “Not So Berry” challenge, you have a backstory and several goals for each generation. Also, the generation heirs embody a specific color somewhere on the light/color spectrum. I decided to start with black, as the absence of color, and go through the visible light spectrum until the challenge finishes with white, a combination of all colors in the visible light spectrum. I wasn’t entirely sure where brown was supposed to fall, so I placed it just after black since that’s where it seemed to fit the best.

The gen two heir of my own play through and their siblings doing homework after school.

You don’t have to necessarily make your sim’s hair, eyes, or skin color match their generation’s color, though you can if you’d like. I was thinking of it more as that color is the sim’s favorite color, so it’s probably one you would find throughout their wardrobe and how they decorate their home.

I also thought it would be fun to see a vague plot running throughout the generations. The original heir starts the challenge with a fairly tragic backstory with the odds stacked against them. Each following generation grows progressively more settled, stable, and healthy. Each heir’s growth and flaws influence the next generation.

As a helpful note and to tie the overarching plot together, have each generation write in a journal and make sure to have each heir collect the journals of the previous generations. You will need them to complete the final generation's challenge.

I don’t have anywhere near all the packs, so many traits, aspirations, careers, skills, and collections are not included. The packs used include Seasons, Cats and Dogs, Get to Work, City Living, and Parenthood.

* Note: While play testing, I discovered notebooks revert to unused following the death of the sim that owned it. But I still had the 10 Gen Heir write in all the others once and pretended they were reading it for the sake of the storytelling.

​Generation 1 - Black

You were left orphaned when you were just a toddler. No one ever told you what happened or anything about your birth family, and you don’t remember anything from before you entered the foster system. Unfortunately, you have suffered from undiagnosed kleptomania since your early childhood. Your tendency to swipe random objects led your foster families to think the worst of you.

No one ever really bothered to teach you manners or much of anything useful, and you ended up bouncing from one foster home to another until one day, you couldn’t take it anymore and ran away with nothing but the clothes on your back, what money you managed to squirrel away doing odd jobs, and a determination to work your way to the top by any means necessary.

Because of the way you grew up, your fondest dream is to adopt as many kids out of the foster system as possible and give them a better life than you had. You know the route you ended up taking wasn’t the best, so you promised yourself you’d do whatever you can to hide how you are supporting them from any children you adopt and be the best parent you can be along the way.

Traits: Kleptomaniac, Slob, Evil
Aspiration: Public Enemy
Job: Criminal

• Start as a teen with the kleptomaniac and slob traits. Move into an apartment furnished with only the cheapest materials. The maximum starting materials are: 4 lights, 2 counters, a stove, a fridge, a toilet, a tub, two sinks, a couch or sleeping bag, and a trash can. Reset your money to $1. Keep this apartment until you become a young adult.
• Master the criminal career and complete the public enemy aspiration.
• Master parenting, mischief, and photography.
• Adopt at least two children.
• Have an eight sim household at some point in your life.
• Complete the snow globe collection.​

​Generation 2 - Brown

You grew up in a loving but chaotic household. You are grateful for being adopted before being old enough to remember your time in the foster system. You are even more grateful to have had a parent who understood how hard it is to live with and manage mental health issues. 

However, you kind of wish they hadn’t had so many kids. You escaped into the outdoors as much as you could and found your most peaceful moments while out fishing, but that didn’t stop you from developing a dislike of children in general. (They’re just so noisy and messy, something that triggers your anxiety and makes your mental health worse.)

You moved away from the city hoping you’d find happiness in a quaint, rural environment and took an office job to have regular times you could go fishing to your heart’s content. You never planned to have children at all, but sometimes life happens. You might as well make the best of it.

Traits: Loves Outdoors, Erratic, Hates Children
Aspiration: Angling Ace
Career: Business

• Start as an infant or toddler adopted by generation 1.
• Move “out to the country” upon becoming a young adult with a maximum of $17,000 starting funds. (If gen one's family funds are under $34,000, take only half when you move out. You have to leave some for the rest of the family and other kids after all.)
• Master the fishing, gardening, logic, handiness, and charisma skills, and master the business career.
• Complete the angling ace aspiration and the fish collection.
• Have only one child and reach parenting level 5 solely through raising them.
• Go fishing every weekend, and take a fishing trip in each world you have access to at least once. (Include the Forgotten Grotto and Sylvan Glade.)

​Generation 3 - Red

You never had the relationship you wanted with your parent. They tried their best to be a good parent and hide their stress from you, but you saw it anyway. It didn't take you long to figure out it was kids being around rather than work like they'd always say, so you never brought friends home from school until you were a teenager.

However, keeping distance between your friends and yourself made life rather lonely, so you spent as much time as you could visiting with your grandparents. Your youngest aunt/uncle became your best friend with all the time you spent over at their house, and the feeling of connection you had there permeates your happiest memories. Maybe that’s why you always stayed a little childish, even into adulthood.

Traits: Art Lover, Mean, Childish
Aspiration: Painter Extraordinaire
Career: None - Make money only through painting, writing, or busking.

• Become best friends with your youngest aunt or uncle.
• Move into a Needs TLC, Spooky, or Gremlins apartment in San Myshuno and stay in that apartment throughout your young adulthood.
• Master the painting, baking, and handiness skills and complete the painter extraordinaire aspiration.
• Try all 27 recipes at the City Living food stalls.
• Cut ties with your parent when you have children, and don’t let your kids meet the heir from generation 2.
• Have at least three children, and have all of them age up with four positive character traits. (Do not send them to preschool/kindergarten if you are using the better schools mod.)
• Save up enough to give each child at least $10,000 starting funds when they age up into a young adult.
  
• Build and maintain close relationships with your children and grandchildren throughout your life.
• Complete the poster collection.

​Generation 4 - Orange

The reason your parents and your grandparent from generation 2 had a falling out was always a mystery to you, but your parents made sure you had a great childhood and learned how to manage your emotions early on. You tend to be happy-go-lucky most of the time as a result and love making others happy. Because of your temperament and love of spreading joy, spending your life as an entertainer was a no-brainer. 

While your mischievous nature and the continual fatigue and discomfort from a chronic illness make keeping up with the hours and maintaining relationships difficult, you love your career and the life you built. You work to balance what you want to do and what is physically possible while finding creative ways to work around your weak points. 

(The lazy trait in this generation is a stand-in for some of the symptoms most chronic illnesses have: i.e. fatigue and discomfort that worsens with physical activity, not actual laziness. It’s just the closest I could get since we don’t have physical disabilities in the Sims.)

Traits: Cheerful, Goofball, Lazy
Aspiration: Chief of Mischief
Career: Entertainer

• Complete the chief of mischief aspiration and master the entertainer career.
• Have four failed relationships throughout your life.
• Master comedy, cooking, mischief, piano, violin, and guitar.
• Marry a slob and maintain a well-kept home and garden despite this and how crummy chores leave you feeling.
• “Pay” $3000-$8000 in “medical bills” each Wednesday after becoming a young adult. (Use a random number generator to determine the exact amount.)
• Live in four worlds over the course of your life.

​Generation 5 - Yellow

Growing up as the child of a successful entertainer, you grew accustomed to the finer things in life. Too bad your chosen career takes a long time to build up to a decent wage. You love your job, but the pay makes creating the life you want so much harder.

Seeing your parent struggle to find love squashed whatever romantic sentiments you might have had as a child, and you quickly become frustrated in your attempts to build the life you want. So why not marry for money?

Traits: Creative, Materialistic, Foodie
Aspiration: Master Chef
Career: Mixologist

• Master the mixologist branch of the food career and complete the master chef aspiration.
• Move out as soon as you become a young adult with only $5000 in starting funds.
• Marry a well-to-do adult or elder while a young adult and stay with them until they die. (If they had children before you married them, grown or not, the home and half of the household funds are to be reserved for them as their inheritance and does not count toward your home/reserve for requirement five.)
• Master the cooking, gourmet cooking, mixology, and charisma skills.
• Build a home worth a minimum of $100,000 and have $50,000 in reserve.
• Move to another world following the death of your spouse.

​Generation 6 - Green

You always admired your parent’s dedication to discovering everything they could about food and mixology, but you could never understand how they managed to stick with one interest. ADHD might make some things more challenging, but it also gave you a deep love of many different things. 

You have ping-ponged from one hyperfixation to another and back again throughout your entire life. This transience helped you build a little skill in many areas, but it also gave you a fear of commitment. You get restless and stressed out any time you find yourself spending too long with a hobby, a job, or in a relationship.

Traits: Bookworm, Bro, Noncommittal
Aspiration: Freelance Botanist
Career: Athlete, Gardener, and Business plus one of your choosing

• Wait until reaching adulthood to have your first job. Gen 5 is definitely the kind of parent to tell their kids that school (and skill-building) is their job.
  
• Reach level 5 in the athlete, gardener, and business careers and reach at least level 3 in one more of your choosing.
  
• Have five romantic relationships throughout your life. Get engaged at least once and break up at some point during the wedding event.
  
• Have a meticulous garden from young adulthood until completing all of the other requirements of this generation.
  
• Reach level 8 in six skills and level 5 in three others.
  
• Master gardening, fitness, and logic.
  

​Generation 7 - Blue

Books were something that was never lacking in your childhood home. Reading and playing chess with your parents are some of your best memories from growing up before perfectionism drove you to bouts of depression. A need for constant mental stimulation drives you to become a scientist, and the desire to recapture that childhood joy fuels your desperate need to write and share stories with the world.

Unfortunately, you work yourself into a massive burnout that ends both your science and writing careers one right after the other, making the end of your life a budgeting challenge.

Traits: Genius, Gloomy, Perfectionist
Aspiration: Bestselling Author
Career: Scientist

• Master the scientist career and complete the bestselling author aspiration.
  
• Master logic, handiness, writing, and gardening.
  
• Complete the feather collection, and visit Sixam.
  
• Have all your children age up with the emotional control and responsibility traits.
  
• Retire upon reaching level 10 of the scientist career and live only on your pension and continued royalties. Save enough to give the next heir $10,000 in starting funds when they age up while leaving enough for the rest to live on.
  

​Generation 8 - Indigo

Your parent was a creative and introverted homebody, and you were born their polar opposite. Creativity has never been your strong suit. But you love people and crave company, be it from friends, romantic interests, or strangers.

While you may have started studying comedy in an attempt to help your parent’s persistent depression, you fell in love with making people happy via the only creative outlet to work for you outside of cooking. You toyed with the idea of becoming a comedian as a teen, but despite your outgoing nature, you get horrible stage fright. It’s much easier to talk to a camera than a venue full of people staring at you, so you found a career in social media a nice compromise.

Traits: Outgoing, Neat, Romantic
Aspiration: Friend of the World
Career: Social Media

• Master the social media career and complete the friend of the world aspiration.
  
• Never develop writing, painting, or any music skills past level 3. 
  
• Master comedy, video gaming, charisma, mixology, gourmet cooking, and baking.
  
• Have two failed relationships before marrying an unflirty sim.
  
• Get divorced after your spouse catches you cheating with someone you met while working from home.
  
• Have your relationships with the heir for generation 9 become strained following the divorce. Whether this happens with any other children or not is up to you.
  
• Live in five different worlds during your life.
  

​Generation 9 - Violet (Purple)

Growing up traveling around with your social media influencer parent gave you impeccable taste and let you build your social skills. You love them, but you never quite forgave them for cheating on your other parent. Your relationship was never the same after they got divorced, and you swore you would never let something like that happen to your family again.

As much as you might not like to admit similarities these days, you are just as outgoing as your estranged parent. As much as you love cats, being alone with none but your pets for company is one of your biggest fears. You want nothing more in the world than to be surrounded by family and friends who are happy, healthy, and successful.

Traits: Good, Cat Lover, Snob
Aspiration: Successful Lineage
Career: Style Influencer

• Master the style influencer career and complete the successful lineage aspiration.
  
• Maintain full friendship and romance bars with your spouse from your wedding until one of you passes.
  
• Maintain close friendships with all of your children and grandchildren.
  
• Master writing, photography, charisma, and painting skills.
  
• Have at least one cat from the time you move out of your parent’s household until you die.
  
• Live in a different world than the one the gen 8 lives in once you move out.
  

​Generation 10 - White

You had an almost picture-perfect childhood and parents who encouraged your interests and passions even though that old, familial restlessness resurfaced in you. Ever shifting obsessions molded you into a jack of all trades, but you love that about yourself and wouldn’t change anything.

Your teenage rebellion was born from the sheer boredom of a “too perfect” childhood, and it became your biggest regret. You got caught up with the wrong crowd and in over your head. It took years, but you eventually worked your way out of the hole you got yourself into and turned things around. The guilt eats at you at random times throughout your life, but it’s a dirty little secret you will take to your grave.

One of your intellectual whims led you to discover and devour every old journal you could find in your family library. Reading about the incredible journey your family took over the last several generations as each learned and grew from the lessons taught by the one before awed and inspired you as you lived yours.

Traits: Geek, Music Lover, Active
Aspiration: Renaissance Sim
Career: Criminal, Tech Guru, Doctor

• Reach at least level three of the criminal and tech guru careers, and reach at least level 8 of the doctor career.
  
• Complete the renaissance sim aspiration.
  
• Master two instruments, video gaming, logic, and rocket science.
  
• Go from best friends to enemies with two of your childhood or teenage friends, i.e. the ones who led you into that ill-fated teenage rebellion.
  
• Build a rocket during your adulthood, and visit Sixam to fulfill your dream of recreating one of the adventures your great-grandparent had.
  
• Read the journals of all previous generations. Only read the one of your parent and grandparent following their deaths.
  

Play on normal lifespan, or give it a shot on short lifespan if you want an extreme challenge. Mods such as MCC Command Center, Better Schools, Slice of Life, or Wonderful Whims are fine to use, but avoid skill, money, and needs cheats. The exceptions are "resetting needs" in the event of glitches, randomizing a spouse's skill levels to even out the skill lag unplayed Sims have when using the Better Schools mod, move objects, the original money reset, and cheating your money down each Wednesday for the orange gen.

I hope you enjoy the challenge.

If you happen to do let’s plays, drop me a link. I would love to see what you make of the play through.

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