I just started a Let's Play for this challenge and thought I would post it here so others can join in on the Challenge as well.

Here is a Link to my First Let's Play if you are interested in checking it out. Let's Play Sims 3 - Castaways Challenge - Episode 1

I would love to hear everyone's feed back and suggestions for other lots.


Castaways Challenge
This challenge is a castaways challenge where 6 friends went out on a boating trip and their boat crashed and they were stranded on this deserted island. They now need to populate this island and build a new community.

Set up you town
Demolish items on all lots, the actual lots can stay, but all buildings and furniture items must be removed. The random bench is okay. You can also keep a cemetery. If you keep other random lots your castaways cannot visit those lots at least not until the 3rd generation.

Demolish all of the other lots in the town. You can leave a couple of fishing spots open but they cannot have any furniture or grills or any such thing on the lot.

Garden of Eden
You may set up one or two lots that will be you Garden of Eden lot(s). You may put as many plants as you like on this/these lots, but you may not sell anything harvested from this/these lots for simoleons. You may also place spawners for seeds, but you can only sell harvestables that come from your home lot.


Creating your castaways

Start with six friends, in the young adult life stage.

Randomly choose your traits for each character. You can swap out two traits from what is randomly picked. One of the traits must be eco-friendly. The other trait can be anything you like. I highly recommend at least one of your Sims is an angler and another is a green thumb. You can pick any lifetime wish that you like for each character.

You can set the lifespan to anything you like, I suggest long or normal to long 100-125 sim days. You will struggle for the first generation and you need have enough time for each couple to start a family. See below about when you can start a family for each couple.




Home lot & Starting Supplies

Any lot of your choosing

Provide each young adult with a sleeping bag and/or tent and a bicycle and place a fire pit on the lot. You can also provide some additional activity type items, but do this with caution, think about what the group may have had on the boat with them that could have been saved. Suggestions would be football, frisbee, etc.

Set family funds to zero.

Start earning money

In the beginning the only way to earn money is to Farm and fish.

Once you have harvested your first batch of crops you, and you have enough money, you can start purchasing items. Only the Cheapest Refrigerator and Stove can be purchased until appliances and electronics have been established.

Once an item is purchased it can not be sold back to have use of the money for another object. If the item isn’t in use you can store it in the family inventory, so be cautious when making your purchases.

I highly suggest a shower before the refrigerator or any other item. A toilet is my suggestion for the second item to purchase, but in order to have a toilet you must be able to put up a small room in which to house the toilet, otherwise your Castaways will be shoeing the other Sims off the lot so they can use the bathroom.

Plus, you cannot use Quick meals and you must have the ingredients to make the dish no buying from the refrigerator. So be sure to stock your refrigerator with plenty of food. In fact, you might not want to get a refrigerator until you have a counter so that you can make up a bunch of food to store in the refrigerator, because if unwatched your Castaways are likely to take advantage of the Quick Meals. Try to prevent this.

When you have enough funds you can purchase a painters stand or any of the other sculpting, inventing or other crafty or musical type objects (no electronics), but remember once you purchase them you can’t sell back items to get the money back. If the items are not in use you can store them in your family inventory.

No picking of wild flowers or collecting for the money. At least until the third generation.

You also can't harvest for profit from other lots, you can only replant or eat what is gathered. This is only the case for the first two generation, the third and future generations can start profiting from stones, gems, insects that are found around town. But they still can not harvest from the Garden of Eden for profit.

Any presents received from wedding must be used in the house or left in the family inventory these items cannot be sold, but if it is electronic or something else that hasn’t been established, it must stay in the family inventory until that category of items is in play.

Your couples can get married anytime you like, but they cannot start their family until you have built a small cottage with all the essentials listed bellow, including room for 2 children. You can start building as soon as you have enough money but no baby until ALL the essentials are met.

Essentials:
Toilet
Tub/shower
Sink
Stove
Refrigerator
Counter
Table and chairs
Two twin beds or two bunk beds
Double bed
Crib at least one
Potty seat
Two bedrooms
Couch or two chairs

Starting a Family

Once you have all the essentials met you can have your first couple start their family. All babies must be eco-friendly. I know there will be children born that you can't control the traits, so try to control as much as you can.

School: Once the first baby is born, you need to set up a school and have one of your Castaways join the Education career. One of the parents of the first child should be your teacher.

Then have the same couple try for a baby again. As soon as you know that the month is expecting the other two couples must immediately move off the lot to another empty lot leaving the first couple to fend for themselves. The other two couples can take with them whatever they like except the essentials that were purchased for the cabin, including harvestable items that they can sell to start building their cabin. Be sure to take a couple of tents with you when you move out, especially if you don’t have the funds for a small one room cabin.

Try to save enough money before the first child is born to be able to have enough money to at least build an outhouse on the new lot for the other two couples. Otherwise you will yet again be struggling until you can build a bathroom.

Repeat the same procedure as above for the second couple. Your final couple will be the family you continue to play as you rebuild your town.


Social

You can associate, befriend and romance the NPC, but not for the first three couples. Once your second generation is ready to start dating and getting married they can associate with the Natives, but not until then. It is preferable that the second generation repopulate with the other children of fellow castaways, but eventually you may run out of options.

It will be difficult, but your Castaways should not use their cell phones until electronics are unlocked. If you catch your Castaways using the cellular phone then try to get them doing something else to distract them.

Lifetime Rewards
Do with what you will. Except none of the tangible rewards can be used, such as teleportation pad, hover bed, food modifier, etc., and especially not inheritance. Also, you can't use any of the age potions and such.

Classes and books
No classes or books until you unlock those venues.

Chickens and cows - Must be on the island for at least two weeks, and then at that point I would say that the Castaways have done enough exploring to find free range chickens to use for food. Eggs can not be sold for profit, they can only be used for food or to let the chicks hatch. I haven’t played with cows so be responsible when it comes to using cows.

Science Center - Once gardening and fishing have been mastered by any sim, you can set up a Science Center. This can be accomplished by multiple sims. Just like with the school when you open the science center one castaway must immediately join the science career.

Logic skill - once science center is unlocked you can take a logic class and then be able to purchase the chess set, telescope and any other logic skill items.

After logic is mastered you can also purchase the peg toy box and activity tables.

Master of Cooking: When cooking is mastered you can also purchase the kid stove.

Junk yard -

Computer/electronics - can be purchased once logic skill, handiness and inventing have been mastered

Grocery store - once gardening has been master, but you don’t have to set up the store right away. Remember that you will need to have a Castaway man the store so either the person who mastered gardening will become a part-time employee of the grocery store, or their teenage child. Be selective as to when you set up your community lots.

Town Hall - Can be established once all three couples are established and they all have at least 2 children each. Again once this is established one Sim must become a member of the political career.

Library and/or book store - when writing skill has been mastered. All skill books will now also be unlocked. Obviously this can’t happen until electronics have been unlocked.

Graveyard - You may have already kept this in your town, but if not then when a Castaway dies you can set up your graveyard. A relative of the deceased Castaway should become a part-time employee of the graveyard.

Police station - Can be set up once you have had at least 3 burglaries, but you can wait longer if you like, because the same applies that you must have a Castaway become a member of the police force.

Warehouse - Once the Police career has been mastered

Art gallery - when painting and sculpting have been mastered

Stadium - fitness mastered. The mastering Sim will become a member of the athletic career.

Gym - once athletic career has been mastered

Military base - handiness mastered. The mastering Sam will become a member of the military.

Diner/Restaurant - when a 2 or more sims masters cooking skill, at least one Sim will need to join the culinary career

Hospital - Once the Science Career has been mastered. Remember to have a Castaway join the medical career

Pets - Can be introduced once a Sim befriends a stray/wild animal.

Pub - when a sim masters mixology, mixology station can be purchased after cooking is mastered

Business towers - Once the political career has been mastered

Consignment store -

Equestrian center - Once a sim has mastered the riding skill

Fire station - After there have been at least 5 fires on a home lot.

Movie theater - Once music has been mastered

Master of Music: Once music is masted you can purchase the xylophone




Other Lots: Here are some other lot types that you might want to consider adding to your town. If you have suggestions as to the qualifications to when they can be added I would love your in put. And Please feel free to let me know if I have missed a key community lot.


Small Park - once there are at least 8 children in the community

Large park - once the third generation have started having children

Spa

Juice bar

Swimming pool

Karaoke bar

Fishing lot / hatchery -

Salon

Elixir shop

Coffee house

Performance park

Community garden

Dog park - once a dog is fully trained

Cat park - once a cat is fully trained

I was contacted by someone who started this challenge and she had a bit of a glitch with the first families not following through with the pregnancies after she moved the other castaways to another lot. The wife was pregnant before she left, but when she went to visit the first family the baby had never arrived. To prevent this from happening you may have your other castaways stay on the same lot until the second child is born. Then move them off. This may have been a glitch with her game, and you may not experience the same problem.

I also ended up turning off pets for now because she also had a problem where the first family adopted 3 dogs as soon as she moved off the lot as well.

Oh, I love Castaway challenges!! I'll give this one a go soon, the rules are much more demanding than the last ones I played by. So, it should be a blast! :D
Quick question, would playing witches be considered too cheaty? What with their access to produce to plant, a ton of collectibles and motive charms, I'd suspect yes...
I'd suggest allowing parks and fishing lots early on in that your sims should have maxed gardening, fishing and have enough fish on them to stock ponds. Story-wise, they'd have to meet those requirements to be able to build a park.

Ooh! Yay! Where do I sign up?! *bouncing up and down with excitement*

Equestrian Center: @ least 2 sims with horses leveled enough to compete + 1 sim lvl 10 riding skill in horsemanship must open center to compete (said sim may count as one of the competitors)

Cattery- sim must befriend cat and train to level 10, then open cattery (if that's a job? Please excuse any indescrepencies, Sims 3 is still relatively new to me)

Dog Park- same as Cattery

Park: once so many (#?) Or all 6 children of 2nd gen ar e children, minimum

Transportation: when to intro them to the game? (Cars, boats, planes)

Well you do have a couple of parks/fishing spots, if you have set up your gardens of eden.

What do you suggest for unlocking parks? I think there should be some sort of requirement, I just haven't thought of what it should be yet.

Thanks for the great suggestions. I haven't ever trained a cat or dog, well maybe briefly, so these are great suggestions. I also like the idea about the park. I will make these changes to the rules and update them above.

Okay, I was under the impression that the Garden of Eden was there to get you started on gardening. I suggested that fishing and gardening should be.maxed in order for your sim to "build" a park, but maybe that's too easy. There could be a financial deduction (familyfunds) thrown in, or that anything you build/buy on there has to be taken from your home lot (add to park, delete on home lot). Personally, I wouldn't tie this to a career, but reaching l10 of gardening or fishing career could also be a requirement.