Settlers of Simtaan 1.06

Week 6

Random Event: The community wants to hold a block party!  Host a house or dinner party with in your next event roll and receive at least a silver rating.

This is an exciting time in Simtaan. The existing families, eager to welcome the Sylvesters, are happy to plan a party to celebrate. Not only that, but Annie and the other family leaders decide that now is the perfect time to add a church to their small community. 

The church is finally constructed on Monday. This is St Bartholomew's Church, which will be a great gathering place for the community with its fairgrounds and children's play area. 

View across the street to the church. 

View of the fairgrounds and part of the cottage. 

View inside the church down the nave.

Word of the improvements to Simtaan's community infrastructure spreads, drawing more new residents. Bryant and Lucille Midgen move their family into the nearby Cottage Am See, which just barely has space for their twins Ashley and Evan and Lucille's widowed mother, Jocelyn.

On Tuesday, while the children are at their first day of school, tensions reignite between Annie and James. In fact... they get into a huge fight. 

Annie, though the loser of the fight, now openly despises her husband. By Wednesday their differences seem completely irreconcilable, and Annie decides they must cut ties. 

James isn't happy about it, but moves to Havisham House across the river. 

The planned day for the block party is Saturday, and Annie has a lot to do securing introductions to all the colony's new residents and  issuing invitations. She also spends some time learning some new recipes she hopes will make a splash among her neighbors. 

Some visits are easier than others. Mary Brown, she learns, is actually Evil.

Saturday, it turns out, is also Annie's birthday, so she serves cake as well as garlic noodles and her new tofu-chicken dish at the block party. It might not have brought the roof down, but it wasn't a total disaster either, and she has plenty to be proud of. 

Poor Bess catches a cold during the party, though, and by the next morning she has passed it to her brother Brick. There isn't much to be done for either of them. But Bess's own birthday is coming up, and Annie invites neighbor Max Sylvester to visit for the afternoon. He and Bess met at the party, and they seem to hit it off again. 

First, though, is the triplet's teenage birthday. Coming so soon after a neighborhood event, it's a small affair. Brick, still conscious of his responsibilities, forms an aspiration to have a Successful Lineage. Boomer wants to find his Soulmate and Butch would rather focus on Bodybuilding. 

Settlers of Simtaan 1.05

Week 5

Random Event: There are problems with the building permit office and Annie will need to mount a very convincing argument if she wants to move forward with the construction of the church this week.

Despite a late-night cram session to work out every possible flaw in her pitch, the demands of three toddlers and the extensive kitchen garden are too much for Annie, and the building permit office is unmoved. She will have to try to convince them again next week about the church. In the meantime, she continues working on grafting plants in her garden.  

Tuesday is the triplets' birthday. Everyone is glad to have those days behind them. Annie's consistent attention to parenting has enabled her to become a mentor and shape her children's futures. Brick is now the presumptive heir of the family, and the pressure manifests as an exacting perfectionism in everything he does. His brothers take a more laissez-faire approach to life, with Boomer having a creative flair and Butch being very physically active. 

All the kids having breakfast with mom.

There's only a little bit of time for the kids to all be the same age, though, because Wednesday is Bess' birthday. Her early interest in the outdoors leads to a lifetime aspiration to be an Angling Ace. 
Having so many people in the house means there's certainly always someone to talk to, and though James frequently says something to upset someone, now there are plenty of other family members to smooth over ruffled feathers. There's even time for Annie to have her friend Steven over for dinner on Friday! (Possibly to discuss the futures of their children... ;) ?)

Toward the end of the week, surprisingly, James proves persuasive enough to convince another family to move to Simtaan. Meet Magnus and Magdalena Sylvester, who bring with them his aging mother Mary and their three children Max, Katelin, and Meredith. They move into a lovely home with plenty of room at Coorinberg Cottage.

A big family!

Bess, having nursed a strong dislike of her father over the years, immediately spends a great deal of time over there. 

Settlers of Simtaan 1.04

Week 4

Random Event: James held another garage sale and sold off the collectible figurines this time. Annie had a really rare one, too!


The boys are named Brick, Boomer, and Butch. See them below in order from bottom right. 

On Wednesday Annie catches a cold that lasts until Friday. 

Every hour passes like a year. 

Somehow the family perseveres.

n.b.: I'm bending the 'Arts and Commodities' restriction for the boys as toddlers, because I needed to be able to distinguish them and my internet was out while I was playing this so I couldn't DL more thematic CC. Everything for toddlers is so bright!

WIP: Church

Been working on this Peteran (Norman)-style chapel and churchyard for Simtaan at the large Dresden House lot.

Since there's so much room, the lot will also include a cottage for the priest, a fairgrounds, lots of overgrown woodlands, and some ruins.

Settlers of Simtaan 1.03

Week 3

Random Event: Bess, though she is only a toddler, feels that she cannot bear the responsibility of becoming the next Heir. Annie knows that she must, somehow, give her daughter a sibling.

(IRL: I wrote up some new Restriction Unlocks and Random Events for this challenge, which I am now playtesting. Read them here.)

Annie redoubles the effort she puts into her marriage and actually finds most of the plants she needs for her garden. Here she is in a rare moment of peace:

The addition of Blarffy the Bear to the household actually has an unforeseen benefit--it gives James a safe outlet for his anger other than knocking over the trash can. But perhaps inevitably, he begins to aggravate his daughter as well as his wife, lecturing her and denying her requests for hugs at random. He doesn't laugh at her young attempts at humor and in fact only made one attempt at parenting at all:

Annie's continuing attempts to get through to James improve her people skills in general so much that by the middle of the week she is able to convince a new family to join hers in Simtaan! Mara and Steven Kearney move into the nearby 'Rustic Residence' Lot with their young son Jorden. 

Excitingly, Annie becomes pregnant again! Bess has her birthday and grows into a child who loves spending time outdoors, especially keeping her mother company while she works in the garden. Later in the week, James and Annie celebrate their shared birthday and enter middle age.

With a lot of patience, Annie finally finds all of the domestic wild plants she needs for her garden, and begins experimenting with grafting them.

Not long later and after a difficult labor at home, Annie gives birth to a baby boy!
Wait...
Make that triplet baby boys.
The homestead enters hell on earth.

Settlers of Simtaan 1.02

Week 2

 Random event: James held a yard sale while Annie was out fishing and sold her burgeoning collection of fossils. Perhaps it is fortunate there was only one item so far.

After a difficult pregnancy full of back aches and shouting, their daughter Bess is born early in the week. She soon proves to be an inquisitive toddler who loves her toy ducky and disdains the large plush bear it took much more effort to acquire. Annie must give up most of her time fishing and searching for new garden plants far from home in order to focus on child care. James still yells and talks to the toilet frequently, but is at least surprisingly helpful when it comes to potty training. However, other than that he is not any kinder to his daughter than he is to his wife.

Things between the couple have deteriorated to the point that Annie begins to contemplate divorce when she is most upset. Only her natural optimism and love for her daughter buoy her spirits.

Settlers of Simtaan 1.01

Week 1

Annie and James are eager to start their wedded life at the new colony of Simtaan. Their homestead at the so-called "Summer Home" lot in the future neighborhood of Windenburg is modest but promising, offering easy access to natural resources and plenty of space. Annie wastes no time in throwing herself into the hard work of setting up a garden and fishing for fertilizer, while her husband spends most of his time talking to himself or the surprisingly chatty commode. Other than that, there is not much to do in this new world but wait for the plants to grow and... make babies. Annie does want children, and decides to try before her marriage of pragmatism dissolves into a complete shambles.

The short-tempered and less-than-stable James has a third favorite pastime, and that is yelling at his wife. No matter how much effort Annie puts into their relationship, it seems doomed to failure. He always seems to know just what to say to ruin any progress they make and leave her hurt and angry.

Soon Annie is pregnant, however, and she hopes that a child can give her the love her marriage so decidedly lacks. 

What a charmer. He has so many winning qualities. I'm sorry, I can't even maintain the sarcasm.