Sacrifices for the Grey Lady

This is how I handle my overpopulation right now. I think it can be worked into a decent challenge… but I thought that about my other two, too… so, one last try?
The whole thing is inspired by the Hunger Games, only I could´t bear children die, so this one uses adults/elders as sacrifices.
Stage 1 and 2 outline the challenge. If you are like me, you will want the option to end this scenario and restore peace to your simsworld. Stage 3 and 4 deal with a possible way to achieve this.

Backstory:
The Grey Lady is a benevolent Saint who is venerated for protecting children from death by fire – or so we humans believe. But in outer space the „Greenlings“ follow a different tradition. They, too, have a legend of a grey lady with the same function, only theirs requires regular sacrifices. Unwilling to kill off their population to ensure child protection the Greenlings raid „primitive“ worlds, using the natives as sacrifcial lambs. And they have turned their eye on earth… (The Aliens may just be an evil cult that has come into power if you do not like the sci- fi theme)

You need:
- A neighborhood, either a Maxis premade or a downloaded one. Don´t use this scenario with your beloved main `hood!
- The log rolling contest from Bon Voyage or any other means to simulate duels between sims
- Rodney´s Death creator or any other means to kill sims at will
- Visitor Controler or any other means to restrict your arena lot to adults/elders
- Simlogical Flexi School plus School changer if desired

Stage 1 – Invasion
Familiarize yourself with the families in your new neighborhood while you apply the following changes to their households:
- Any adult and elder military members will die the next time they go to work. And they HAVE to go to work when an alien invasion fleet appears over the capital. Teenage military members will instead get arrested and must be ransomed. Move out the teens in question and put them on a prison lot with a phone and computer (they must be contactable by the new government). The ransom is 20.000 Simoleons or any other sum you find reasonable. You may also include the prison lot in your normal rotation. Teens imprisoned will be treated well and even recieve some schooling. The aliens are cold-hearted, a little desperate, but they do not enjoy being cruel (They are „Lawful neutral“ if you are familiar with D&D).
- No electricity except on community lots. Remove all lamps, computers and everything powered by electricy. You may keep the items in your cellar (i.e. inventory). The stuff isn´t broken, it´s just out of power.
- Exception: Every household needs a stereo to recieve orders and assigments from the new rulers. The batteries that come with it are not compatible with any human-manufactured model.
- Showers and plumbing may or may not work, it´s for you to decide. I allow my sims toilets and wooden bathtubs at least.
- No stoves or microwaves, though you may have one grill per household. If you have a cc medieval stove use your own judgement if your families may use that or not. Most of us don´t have one in the garden, but a particular family who´s into history/re-enactment might.
- No cars. They get destroyed during the invasion and must be sold (assume you salvaged at least some still good parts). Exception: If you have a repairable car from Freetime on your lot, you may keep working on it. It´s lacking fuel, so it can´t be driven, but used for woohoo.
- No jobs. Sims may cancel their jobs or simply not go to work until they get fired. In some cases (pregnancies, sims with lots of paid vacation days) it´s beneficial to keep the job as long as possible. Just make up some kind justification, for example a dancer could recieve income from videos she has posted on the internet.
- No businesses (including home). You may keep them, just do not play them. People are far too scared to think about recreational shopping now.
- Sims may visit com lots to shop for food and clothing (no electronics!) or use crafting opportunities to make at least a little money (Robots are forbidden). It´s unsafe to leave the house while it´s dark, though, and you may want to leave home in a group if possible. Feel free to add more restrictions on travelling!
- No school. It´s simply too dangerous to send your kids and what would they learn there anyway? School is for indoctrination now, not education.
- No npc or service of any kind. Fire them the next time they show up on your lot and pretend they were never there in the first place.
- No fire alarm, sprinkler or burglar alarm. Out of batteries.
- You may read any newspaper section except the job offers. There are none.
- Aspiration rewards are allowed.
- Magic and supernaturals are allowed.
- Weapons (including Voodoo Dolls and damaging spells) are allowed as long as they are not employed against the nobles (who they are will be explained later). Any assault against those results in instant placement in the League of Fire (more on that later).
- Servos have been reprogrammed to serve the aliens if you played them as mindless robots. If they had self-consciousness they must be played just like the rest of the population.
- No vacations. The aliens control travel and humanity has not yet earned their trust enough. But vacations are great to keep morals up and refresh the gene pool, so the aliens promised to re-introduce them later.
- No university education except for nobles. That said, teenagers may still go to college, only not to study. With all the restrictions in place the college subhood is a great place to enjoy all the pre-invasion luxury our parents always talk about. Every dorm has full electricity and there are no restrictions on travel on the campus. Students may not leave campus, however, so build them some nice com lots there! Mainly campus is for finding a partner. Sims may not choose a major, so they must leave campus after their sophomore year.
- A depression hits the financial market. All household money is divided by 100 (yes, two zeros. That´s really a hundred, not a typo. I´m sure I gave you enough typos throughout the document already^^) due to inflation.
- (I´m positive that I have forgotten some restrictions to be added later)

There´s one big exception:
- Any full or hybrid alien will have been absorbed into the hive mind a few hours prior to the invasion. Their knowledge of human psychology greatly helped along the attack. The hybrids have been named princes/princesses and put to rule over the humans. Their new mindset makes the hybrids see nothing but servants, probably pets, in their erstwhile family members and they now agree to everything their masters have in store for humanity. Households with one or more such ennobled sims can be played normally without any restrictions or requirements - except for the inflation, they cannot escape the loss of money. It is recommended to buy the nobles a large telescope, so that their supreriors may summon them now and then for new orders (aka abduct those sims).
- You may have several species of aliens in your game (multiple PTs or simply storytelling decision). In this case only those associated with the invading star empire will recieve the special treatment. F.e. I have the Maxis Greenlings and my own custom aliens with the custom ones being treated just like the rest of the subjugated population by the Greenlings.

Stage 2 – Sacrifices
The government is no more, gangs compete for turf in downtown (but also provide at least some measure of order) and pretty much every household in the countryside has been made into a fortress. Fear and mistrust are abundant. Well, that´s not quite right. There is one rule that is enforced strictly: The sacrificial games.
- Each household has to desginate one adult or elder member as their champion. The champion must be marked in some way ( a tatoo, hairstyle, clothing… whatever you like as long is it is used exclusively for the champions).
- Every adult or elder townie is automatically considered a participant in the games.
- The participants start out in the League of Water.

- Build an arena on a community lot, preferably one local arena for each subhood. An arena requires:
A statue of the Grey Lady
The log rolling contest or whatever you substitute for it
Perhaps a small shrine if your sims are religious
A means of banning teens and children from the lot
Toilets, food stalls, souvenier vendors or even seats for spectators are not encouraged by the Greenlings, but since such things are hard to stopp add them at your convenience.

- A season lasts 5 days. During each season the champions may be called to fight in the arena. The chance is 1 in 6 the first day and increases by 1 each day.
- Champions must travel to the arena and challenge a sim of their coosing. They must engage in a log rolling contest.
- If the champion wins, he returns home with a prize (see table below)
- If the champion looses, he is considered drowned. The sims must return home and be killed by drowning. He may remove the champion´s mark from his body beforehand (this represents the aliens allowing the humans to give their kinsman a dignified burial).
- Sacrifices can not be brought back from the dead as long as the aliens rule earth, not even as zombies.
- If the champion wins and the opponent was a townie, you do not need to kill the townie in most cases. If it was a well known character that has made an impact on the neighborhood storyline (like Gordon King in Pleasantview or the infamous Goopie), he should be killed, but if it was just a random passer-by of no consequence, save yourself the trouble.
- After a win the chance for a new battle resets to 0 in 6.
- After a loss the chance resets to 1 in 6 for the new champion.
- Champions may voluntarily choose to fight in the arena, but only once per day (for a maximum of 2 fights per day if the champion chooses to fight on a day where he has to according to the die roll)
- If a champion witnesses a playable sim engaging in log rolling when he arrives at the arena, win or loose are REAL. Visit the household of the playable as soon as possible and adjust things accordingly (either by killing a sim or by granting them their prize). That household´s battle counter is not reset, however. It remains exactly as it was.
- Should a playable sim in any way reject or try to avoid the fight (that happens a lot to me due to routing issues or champions tossing a coin at the shrine, contracting poison ivy and starting to scratch when they they should fight) that sim is transfered to the League of Fire and must join the appropriate household.

List of prices (use a D20 or draw lots, expand as desired):
1 - Computer
2 - TV
3 – Any other electronical entertainment object
4 – As many candles as you wish for your household
5 - Sprinkler
6 – Fire Alarm
7 – Burglar Alarm
8 - Car
9 – Job (full time or part time)
10 – Faked diploma OR a household member may study at college (not just visit)
11 - Stove
12 - Microwave
13 – Vacation permit
14 – License for a business
15 – Toy stove
16 – Coffee machine
17 – Coccoa machine or kitchen mixer or juicer
18 – Dishwasher or Trash compactor
19 – MP3 Player of Handheld
20 – Part time job

Please note that these are options only. If the sims lack the funds to actually book their vacation or buy the TV, they have to wait till they have enough money. Prices can also be transfered to friends/relatives.

Special rules for college/Earth League:
- Do not build an arena at campus, simply give them a uge swimming pool with up to 8 diving boards.
- Young Adults fight in the League of earth. They do not need to be marked, as every YA is a participant.
- The fight is simply a swimming race. Whoever is the fastest wins a full scholarship and may study till graduation. For fairness you may want to have two winners, one of the men and one of the women.

Special rules for the League of Fire:
- Participants are put into households of 8 persons each.
- Furnish the households like you would a gladiator school and cheat them all the the money you like.
- The sims must train their body and emergency reflexes (the Fire prevention skill), which is actually rather silly knowing how these fights go… the sims expect a fight, but the so-called League is more of a trial by ordeal.
- At the last day of the season place two hot tubs and put the sims inside. Now use maxmotives on them, turn off aging, turn on free will and wait. The last person to remain in each of the whirlpools wins a price for their household (roll on the table). The others meet Rodney´s death creator (fire).
- Sims may get striken by lightening or ignite from overheating. That´s perfectly acceptable to the Greenlings. There doesn´t have to be a survivor. It´s just a courtesy to the humans.
- The two winners now to duel on the rolling logs, as there can be only one survivor. The looser drowns, the winner may return home now.
- If you have less than eight sims, you may roll a die to see who gets a free turn:
7 – One 3-person group and one 4-person group, otherwise normal
6 – Two 3-person groups, otherwise normal
5 – Four in, one waiting. Last to remain in the hot-tub duels the one who waited outside.
4 – Last to remain in the hot tub wins.
3 – the first to leave dies, the other two duel.
2 – A normal duel.
1 – Instant survivor. Lucky bastard!
I agree that the hot-tub-lottery is rather embarrassing, but those sims are considered religious offenders by the Greenlings. If you´d like to keep things serious, you can invent any semi-random system like drawing a circle around the sims, turning on free will and killing everyone who leaves the circle.

Stage 3 – Connecting
The games continue into the 2nd season. There are some who come to enjoy the games, spectators and fighters alike. That´s humanity for you… But there is also one very succesful champion who resents what (s)he has to do. This person understands that humans must work together and cast out their fears to change things.
- Choose one household with at least one arena victory. The main character of this household becomes your neighborhood´s benefactor (In my game it is Daisy Contrary with her brother Rick, sister-in-law Sophie and niece Mildred). The Greenlings are so impressed by his/her performance that granted every priviledge of a noble to that household!
- Cheat the household a free computer. Everything else you wish to have, you must pay for normally.
- Visit downtown and buy cellphones. During this season the benefactor must give them to other playables as presents, building up a network.
- After you have played through the season with the benefactor, the other households can buy phones again. However, they have to pay the benefactor 150 Simoleons per household member beforehand. Use money cheats or mods, whicever suits you best. The money can also go to a foundation that was created by the benefactor, if you do not want that household to end up uber-rich.
- Offspring of the benefactor´s household will do their best to graduate from college and enter the paranormal career. Once the aliens are driven back, they can revive the victims.

Stage 4 – Breaking free

Step 1: Freeing the hybrids from the hive mind
Whenever one of the nobles gets abducted using the telescope, there is a chance that they rebel against the orders they recieve. The chance is 1 in 6 (roll a die) and increases by 1 for each abduction (counted by abduction events, not by individual). Once one hybrid sim is freed, ALL are. The former nobles are now treated like normal citizens.
The freed hybrids have brought back valueable inside-information about the Greenlings. It is now possible to act against them, provided humanity has established the network during (or beginning in) season 2. All playable households must be part of the network.

Step 2: Re-establishing human rule
Suggestions as to how the liberation can be accomplished are welcome!

My fantasy-style-solution:
- The preserved skull of Jumbok „the conquerer“ IV (the adventurer-career-reward) grants the owner the power to rule the world. Only EVERY emporer after the fourth has been named Jumbok and had his skull conserved in the same fashion – if you have several of those in your game, you need to decide which one is the true skull. If you have no such skulls a sim (most probably the benefactor) needs to gain one and put it into his inventory. This is the material component.
- The time must be right. Plain and simple: You must play through season 1 and 2 of the games and survive.
- The power of the skull must be accessed. The keeper of the skull must take it to a place where terrible crimes were committed or dark emotions are abundant. But it must also be a place where people experienced hope and unquenchable love of life. (I use an old slaves barrack, if you have prison or crime scene in your neighborhood, that would be work fine.)
- There must be a child that was born or raised in this spot present - create one in CAS if none of your sims fits the description. The child´s current age is irrelevant, it could even be an elder.
- You also need a magician who can cast the hallowing or unhallowing spell (Bellus Terrus or Corruptus Locus).
- The power that rests in the earth must be channeled through the erstwhile child. Good aligned witchs use the Sim Absorber on the victim until it goes into aspiration failure. Evil aligned witchs prefer feeding the victim to their cowplant.
- Afterwards cast the proper location-spell according to your witch´s alignment. Whoever has the skull in his posession during the casting is now rules of the continent. The magic is so strong that even the aliens abide by it and leave earth. Congrats!

There´s tons of stuff that could be added, for example my sims can try to go into exile, there´s the completey arbitray air league and some of the restrictions can be circumvented by cc or clever interpretation. Since I play this scenario according to how rules are intended to work (contrary to how they are written) I´m probably blind towards the loopholes and shortfalls, so playtesters are welcome!

Scoring:
Each player initated battle wom (Water) +1
Every transfer to the Fire League -1
Each player initiated battle lost (Water) –2
Each cell phone given as a gift to playable sims by the benefactor +2
The hybrids were freed from the hive mind +10 (-1 for each season passed, minimum +2)
The network was established +10 (-1 for each season passed, minimum +2)
Humanity was freed +10 (-1 for each season passed, minimum +2)

"The money can also go to a foundation that was created by the benefactor"
What if they just give the money back to the people?

Then they wouldn´t have to charge them the 150 per head in the first place. The money goes towards establishing the phone network, not the benefactor´s luxury living. Storywise is represents the cost for material, probably bribing some security guards of the Greenlings´ and maintaining the network, especially hardening it against electronic warfare. It´s a co-ordinated effort of the sims where there shouldn´t be anything left to give back to the people. But if there was a surplus it would best be invested into preparing the final stage, be it to purchase weapons, medicine or cars. That´s why the foundation-suggestion. So the people will see their money back, only not in bank notes, but in their eventual freedom. I hope this explanation sits better with you than the original post - thank you for making me think about it a bit more!
Game-wise the payment is there solely to challenge the player. I found that even with the initial financial cut my households bounced back into the wealthy range quite soon.

Thanks for clearing that up. I have so many sims with a lifetime want for 6 kids to graduate college and I often get a lot over 6 kids due to my trips and quads hack and my 50 people to a household hack, so this will be helpful. I'll shove them all in a sub-hood and let the games begin.