Happy Fourth of July for USA readers!
I’ve been coming up with a system on how long residents of Millwood will live, and think I’ve gotten it to a point that I’m happy enough with it to share.
I always liked EA’s original idea that those that age up poorly will likely have less years to enjoy retirement. With Ethan aging to elder in just 2 1/2 years, I really wanted to get my idea ready for implementation.
I decided to roll for all my current elders, and am pleased with the varied results. I’ll be using Ethan as an example at the end to avoid spoilers of my current elders. His household will still get played at minimum one more time before his 60th birthday, so he still has time to try and make some healthy changes.
I do not want my elders living past 100 years old. Sure it happens in real life, but it’s not common, and I will say that it is very uncommon for Millwood residents. Shucks.
I’m doing this via the dice method, this die roll is handy if you don’t have dice at hand. The bottom row is a custom one so you can just plug in your number there and roll.
When someone turns 60 they are given a base number of 18 that can then be added to and subtracted from. If they lived a perfectly average, non-spectacular life then they will be able to live to 78 year old max if they happen to roll a d18. I think that is a nice average age.
If you’ve lived a good life, then there are opportunities to add to that d18. On the opposite side, if you made some bad choices, then there are penalties.
HEALTH
George McCarthy is looking fine at seventy-four thanks to his active wife, Mandy. If you are fit you get to add 10 points to your base score.
Average/Overweight – If you are average weight you neither gain nor lose points for it. If you happen to be overweight then you are penalized 5 points.
FITNESS HOBBY
John Russo isn’t passionate about fitness, but he knows it’s important to be health conscious, and so he has been diligent about his workout. You can gain 1 point per skill point in fitness, maxed out at 5 points. So John here gains himself a bonus of 3 points to his base for his fitness.
No penalty for having no fitness.
PRE-DESTINED HOBBY
Of course it’s not only just about health, you have to know how to kick back, relax, and enjoy yourself some downtime. If you have excelled in this, and have at minimum 5 skill points in your pre-destined hobby, then you gain a bonus of 3 points to your base score.
Mandy’s pre-destined hobby happens to be fitness, so she will gain points under the fitness category above, and this one as well. Her 6 fitness points will gain her 3 bonus points for her pre-destined hobby category and the max bonus of 5 points for the above fitness category.
FAMILY
Having strong ties to your family relations is another opportunity to add to the score. If you have 0 relative enemies, and are friends with at least 65% of your blood relations, then you get a bonus of 5 points.
You can ether just use the family icon and do your very closest blood relations, or you can include great-grandchildren, and the spouses of your family members. I prefer to include the entire brood, as grandchildren of all generations make the world more sweet.
Mandy is friends with just about *every* single sim in her extended family, including their spouses and respective girl/boyfriends. So she earns 5 points in this category.
Enemies – Those with family enemies and strife are docked 3 points for all that added stress they’ve had to endure over the years. People can only be expected to pick up their trashcans so many times before their blood starts boiling!
ANIMAL FRIENDS
Fido needs some credit too. Elders with an animal companion are more likely to see higher years than those without, and so it’s the same for pet owners in Millwood. Friendship with a household pet gives you a bonus of 2 points. You can see above that Mandy’s dog, Sydney is ranked number 4 on her friend list. You’ll also see Juno (Hazel’s dog), but she doesn’t count as they don’t live in the same household.
GOALS
Lifetime goals can give a sense of accomplishment, and so those that have done well in their careers/life can receive a bonus of 2 points. And those that have reached their Lifetime Want are given 3 points.
Lifetime want is easy to know, but career is at your discretion. I felt that Myra with her many successful businesses has had a successful career, and so she receives the bonus. It’s not necessarily getting to the top of the ladder, but an overall feeling of having had a career of success, or a life of that.
For instance a devoted Mother might find her success in raising her family, and having them turn out well in life. Nicole is in line to receive the bonus if her younger ones mature well, Mandy certainly received it.
POVERTY
Those that live below the poverty line are more likely to struggle in life which may mean they don’t visit the doctor frequently enough, or have enough healthy choices for food, or live without some of the general comforts in life, not to mention the stress of never knowing if you have enough money for bills. Spending a longtime below the poverty line wears a person’s spirits down, especially if they made it to 60, and haven’t found their situation improved upon. This is a 4 point penalty.
I will be configuring the poverty income every 4 years when I do taxes. For the 2019 taxes I will be calculating the poverty line based on actual cash/savings account numbers, and then set the poverty line at 25% of that number. This way it will be more accurate for those that live on rental properties.
Example if the average household’s cash/savings amount was $70,000, then the poverty line would be $17,500. If you fell below that line when you turned 60, you would be living at the poverty level. If you were living in a combined household, I would take into consideration the entirety of their life. Ethan can’t suddenly mooch off his children and expect to not get penalized here.
I am certain that my average cash/savings will be less than that though as Millwood is not an industrious town. I will retouch on this when I get to November 2019 in game when it’s time for taxes again.
Breakdown List
Base – d18
Bonus Points
Fit – (+10)
Relationships – (+5)
Career – (+2)
LTW met – (+3)
Fitness Hobby – (+1 per skill point max of 5)
Destined Hobby – (+3 if you have 5 skill points)
Friends with Personal Pet – (+2)
Penalty Points
Overweight – (-4)
Poverty – (-4)
Poor Relationships/Enemies – (-3)
Ethan is feeling nervous about this new system with his impending birthday. I will use him as an example, because it’s not set in stone yet for the guy.
ETHAN’S SCORE
Base – d18
Bonus Points
Fit – (+0)
Relationships – (+0)
Career – (+0)
LTW met – (+0)
Fitness Hobby – (+0)
Destined Hobby – (+3)
Friends with Personal Pet – (+0)
Penalty Points
Overweight – (-0)
Poverty – (-4)
Poor Relationships/Enemies – (-3)
(BASE) 18 + (BONUS) 3 – (PENALTY) 7 = (DIE ROLL) d14
So I would roll a d14, and let’s say it comes up as a 12, then I would add 12 years to Ethan’s elder base age of 60. So I would mark down in my notes that Ethan would die at 72 years old, which would be the year 2034.
If anything is unclear, just let me know! Otherwise this is my new system for coming up with elder deaths, and has been put into effect immediately.
MILLWOOD 
I love the D&D roller. I use that for my death rolls, as well. They’re not quite as detailed as you’ve got here, but I do take into consideration living in the city VS the country and life difficulty! I don’t roll against a base number, I just roll a death chance over a period of days. The husband helped me work that one out.
This is really cool. I like how you’ve made the hobbies factor in. It makes sense that fitness would give more time and bad/unhealthy relationships would do the opposite. I think it all makes perfect sense!
Poor Ethan. The deck is definitely stacked against him! He needs to get out there and make some changes, lol.
Thanks Mao, you’ve played D&D before right? It’s where I got my inspiration. We used to play years ago back when 3rd edition was brand new, but learned on second edition with all that crazy adding and subtracting. That’s where I got my inspiration. I did this whole system for Ethan! I hope he feels honored! 😉
So do you add the random number or the bonus and penalties? With Ethan if the base is 18, hence 78, but add/subtract his points (-4) for 74 years. Or do you just add the 12 years?
The base 18 is what I roll if they have no penalties or additional points. With Ethan I added and subtracted from his 18, then took that score of 14 to roll. So he still could have rolled a 2 and died at 62. Or he could have rolled a 14 and died at 74.
If I didn’t roll, I had the majority of my elders dying around the same time. The roll gives a random chance to it.
If I suddenly find myself with an issue of sims rolling 1s and 2s, then I’m going to consider ether rolling 3x and using the average number or weighting the number in that program we use for ROS. It was not an issue this time, I got a good range, that also felt was realistic.
Mandy is going to live into her 80s or 90s, and that makes sense to me. Regina will not live as long, being overweight, and not gaining much for hobby points, because she is so wound up in serious and work that she never takes the time to do something fun.
Using a score of X to roll, is this something special with the D&D die?
Apple Valley
It’s not something you have to use with special die. Is that what you mean?
I mean, you say die roll 14 and then you roll a 12. So is die roll 14 something special with the D&D die?
Oh there are special die but I don’t believe there is an actual d14 die. That’s why I use the website I linked to above. The bottom row is a custom die, so you put the number in and it will use that number as your die, and give you the result on the right.
O, ok. I just thought that you random roll. I don’t use D&D die, just my rand function in excel, but I do like how everything has a consequence. Not sure if I’ll implement it. I don’t like knowing exactly when my elders will die, the whole 1 sim day left for several sim days helps me to make the most of their remaining time.
The dice is the same as a random roll you could easily use excel if that’s what you preferred. I can see liking the surprise of deaths, I haven’t played that way in years. I like knowing so I can plan around it, if it’s feasible. Like weddings or engagements.
This is really interesting and innovative! I’ve never seen a death rolling system before but I love the idea.
One question: do you only tally everything up right before (or right after) they age to elder? Most of this stuff stays quite static, I guess, but are there any benefits for a Sim who ages to elder with no fitness enthusiasm but later maxes it out, or is it too late? And vice versa, what if a Sim ages up as overweight but loses it all as an elder? It does seem simpler to just go on their status at the time they age up but I’m just wondering how you handle this.
Thanks Carla! Right now I am planning to just keep it static, but will change things at my discretion, cause I’m all about that freedom. If I found an elder sim that suddenly became fit, and found themselves devoted to fitness, and all it entailed, then I may give them a bonus. If I were to do that, I would take the health bonus, and just roll that to see how much they would add to their years. Right now I’m not intending to do that, but I can’t say it won’t happen in the future.
I’m excited, I have a wide range of death ages, and one that is very possible to see great-great grandchildren, which I think is awesome! My kids knew their great, great, great aunt for a few short years, so I’m excited to have someone with that length of life. The average age is in the high 70’s, and 80’s, for what I rolled for my current elders, and I think that’s a good average.
I see – it sounds really great! I’m going to have to think about implementing something like this myself, once I get my game up and running again. I wasn’t sure if I would, when I read the post yesterday, but I really like the idea of a Sim who’s lived a good life living longer than one who hasn’t and using something other than aspiration (because ALL my Sims age up in platinum these days) to determine it.
Yes, I didn’t like aspiration ether for that same reason. It’s been Ethan all along, I’ve been thinking and mulling this over for a very long time, because when he aged up, I did not want him to have the option of living to 95! For one, I don’t want to play him that long, and two, he doesn’t live a good life at all. If you do changes or whatnot to it, let me know, I’d be interested in what your ideas are!
Just thought I would post again and tell you I used this system this morning! I did it first on Madelyn, seeing she’s aging to elder this birthdays but I decided to test it out and change some other sims’ lifespans too. Seeing they’re all CAS now, they’ve all been reset anyway.
I have to say, I really like this system! I went into it thinking I would adjust if I felt the need to but I really love the way you have it as is. The sims I’ve done so far seem “right”, if that makes any sense! Thanks again for sharing this!
Thanks Carla, I’m super excited that you enjoyed the system, and that it felt right for your Sullivan sims too! Makes me happy to contribute, seeing how much inspiration I have found with you! Hopefully the sims you rerolled weren’t getting too much less time! And I hope Lake only got MORE time added if you had to change his at all!