Legacy writing
Nov. 5th, 2008 08:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
strangetomatoWriting a chapter for The Round Robin Legacy has been an interesting challenge. I have so much respect for story legacy writers now. It's hard to take all the nonsense that can go on in a sim generation, and the mundane routine of it all, and spin it into a coherent and interesting narrative. I'm curious to hear about the working methods of other legacy writers, since I know a few of you who follow my story write one. Do you impose a story on your sims, and direct them in certain ways? Do you add more story details later, about things that didn't even really happen that way? Or is it all straight delivery of the facts, but through a narrative lens?
I'm easily more interested in legacies with an overarching vision that extends beyond gameplay. I don't read a lot of legacies, but the ones that I do follow all have detailed plots that include things that would never happen in the game. For direct reporting on the gameplay, a commentary style seems to work better (at least for me), like when people do outtakes.
Following that logic, I went into this with an idea in mind, based on the facts of the character, and playing through has mostly followed my expectations, with a couple of nice extra details and ACR surprises. Then, because it's so linear, I broke it up about halfway and changed location and play style completely. I'm not even sure if moving in the middle of a generation is allowed, but it didn't give me any sort of advantage (in fact, I left a hefty portion of Nyssa's money in her first apartment, which I left decorated, so I could shoot some scenes images there later for the story). It annoys me to take a lot of pictures while I'm playing, so I'm going to go back and recreate some of the important scenes later with help from InSIM. Does anyone else do it that way? I figure it saves on a lot of unnessesary documenting.
The pacing is a little difficult for me too. Most family sagas take a whole movie or novel to follow a generation, so tackling one in a short story feels rushed to me. It's a very different sort of story than I'm used to... like an episode of This Is Your Life. It takes some getting used to.
The most fun has been from technically following the legacy rules. I really like having that limitation, and the story can still work around the actual facts of the gameplay. I don't think I'd want to work this way all of the time, but it's been interesting for a change of pace. Usually, I take some inspiration from the gameplay, but it's much more open, and there are no rules. If I want to cheat for money to make the Worthingtons rich, I can. I don't have to work up from nothing, over and over again. I realize that most legacy players don't even follow the rules, so maybe it's not all that different.
If you write a legacy, or have attempted one but couldn't get into it, I'd love to hear your thoughts on it.
.
On a completely unrelated note, I had about about six inches of my hair cut off today. I went from long, flowing hair to a short, blunt-cut bob. I look a lot younger. Like I'm fifteen, but in a good way. I really like it.
I'm easily more interested in legacies with an overarching vision that extends beyond gameplay. I don't read a lot of legacies, but the ones that I do follow all have detailed plots that include things that would never happen in the game. For direct reporting on the gameplay, a commentary style seems to work better (at least for me), like when people do outtakes.
Following that logic, I went into this with an idea in mind, based on the facts of the character, and playing through has mostly followed my expectations, with a couple of nice extra details and ACR surprises. Then, because it's so linear, I broke it up about halfway and changed location and play style completely. I'm not even sure if moving in the middle of a generation is allowed, but it didn't give me any sort of advantage (in fact, I left a hefty portion of Nyssa's money in her first apartment, which I left decorated, so I could shoot some scenes images there later for the story). It annoys me to take a lot of pictures while I'm playing, so I'm going to go back and recreate some of the important scenes later with help from InSIM. Does anyone else do it that way? I figure it saves on a lot of unnessesary documenting.
The pacing is a little difficult for me too. Most family sagas take a whole movie or novel to follow a generation, so tackling one in a short story feels rushed to me. It's a very different sort of story than I'm used to... like an episode of This Is Your Life. It takes some getting used to.
The most fun has been from technically following the legacy rules. I really like having that limitation, and the story can still work around the actual facts of the gameplay. I don't think I'd want to work this way all of the time, but it's been interesting for a change of pace. Usually, I take some inspiration from the gameplay, but it's much more open, and there are no rules. If I want to cheat for money to make the Worthingtons rich, I can. I don't have to work up from nothing, over and over again. I realize that most legacy players don't even follow the rules, so maybe it's not all that different.
If you write a legacy, or have attempted one but couldn't get into it, I'd love to hear your thoughts on it.
.
On a completely unrelated note, I had about about six inches of my hair cut off today. I went from long, flowing hair to a short, blunt-cut bob. I look a lot younger. Like I'm fifteen, but in a good way. I really like it.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-11-06 01:29 am (UTC)Although I've said many times that I'm an awful cheater regarding my Legacy, I DO follow some of the rules of the challenge. For example, I never use the aging on/off cheat or use Insim to add days to a sim (except with the Elixir, which is allowed). I also don't use money cheats, so everything that is seen on the main legacy house has been bought with the money that has been earned through gameplay. Same goes for the career and aspiration rewards.
I give money to the spares, though, because once they leave the main house they are no longer constricted to the Legacy rules (and I also age their kids for my spare stories or to synch them with the current heir's children).
The rules I've ignored are the no marrying playable characters (although I re-created Lilith, Bella and Puck as townies, but once I married Buck into the family I broke the rule), the no hacks rule (come on, I'm a hack addict! :D) and I'm sure there are a million others I can't remember right now. I wanted to keep all my ghosts in the lot, but my computer didn't like the strain from them. Maybe once I move my family back to a regular lot, I'll bring them back.
As far as storytelling, I have a vague idea of what I want for the plot, but I keep playing the lot the normal way, just adding the elements that could unchain the event I want. For example, back at the beginning I wanted Beau to cheat on his girlfriend Renee and marry Lucy, so I brought her to Strangetown along with her cousin Lilith, hoping that through normal play (and considering their high chemistry) they'd fall in love. But Beau never fell in love with Lucy, and actually ended marrying Lilith.
Right now there's an alien conspiracy planned for my current generation. I have no idea when is it going to happen, though, because I just created the "evil" aliens and set them free as townies. I hope that sooner or later my teen heir is going to meet them at a community lot (or they are going to walk in front of his house), and then I'll see how will they relate and go from there. I also didn't plan to introduce Ninjas, or to have my sims become movie actors or rock stars. That came from their LTW, their interests and their "One True Hobby". So in a way I just develop the story from the gameplay of my legacy, trying to fill the spaces with explanations for their random actions (or plot holes) and creating situations according to my plans, but always ignoring their outcome.
And since I installed ACR, things have become even more random!
The biggest limitation with a Legacy is the character development. Because I don't mess with my sims' ages, time is always moving, so I often have to rush some things before they age. Many times I've been criticized because I rush my romantic relationships, but I did that mostly because if I had spent more sim days for that, then the sims would become too old to spawn children, and that's the point of a legacy, to continue the family line.
When I have scenes set in remote or special locations, I usually clone my sims for the pics I need, but most of the time I just take too many pics of my random gameplay and then select the ones that make more sense according to my story. I sadly have to ditch the ones that make commentary legacies so funny, but I really can't do that kind of legacy. I'm not funny at all.
Phew! I guess that's my game play in a nutshell.
Hee, you are very brave for cutting off so much hair at once! But I'm glad you liked the result. The one time I cut my hair short was actually because I had no other option :P. And I look older with short hair, I have no idea why (maybe because I'm curly?)