If horror and death is your thing, look no further. This challenge is all about survival in an extremely haunted house with an added dash of merry killing and financial constraints. You need University to play this challenge.

Context and Plot Twists
You are a teen runaway just returned home. You spent a long time being alone on the road, and you can feel it in your very bones, but you are happy to be home. The argument about the toaster is forgotten and forgiven, and the only thing on your mind is to see your family again. You sprint up the driveway, but stop. The door just swings in the wake of stiff breeze. It clouds your vision. The hope that was bursting in your chest is tested, but you cautiously proceed. The lights are all off, almost as if there was just nobody home. But it feels different, and you know it. You walk in and notice the furniture splayed, trying to block the walls, the very ground has been torn up in circles, water spilled everywhere, salt spilled in more places. The house, though normal on the outside, is a warzone, and as you carefully advance through the house, you see the reasons why.

There are graves. 6 of them, all members of your dead family

You also find a strange creatures – seemingly part plant and part cow, if there was a stranger sight, with utters full of liquid that seeps so delectably that you just have to take a sullied cup and drink.

After one taste you are hopelessly addicted.

There is also a mystical – telephone? You wondered for a moment how an inanimate object could look so menacing, but a prank call to the only number it dialed sent uncontrollable shivers down your spine.

You take in all these sights, all of these… bodies. The gravity of the situation weighs in on you, but after so long alone, so very long, you can't bear to leave. Therefore you shack up for the night. Your old room is right where you left it, although you must shuffle through desperate debris and kick the fallen couch out of the way, and you shuffle under the blankets for the first night.

It does not last long. You are awakened an eternity later to nothing. It doesn't feel like much, but your eyes pop open. This isn't nothing but a feeling you reassure yourself. A cold feeling of creeping intensity. You don't get up, you don’t move, but it advances on you. From the corner of your eye there is a figure. It shambles, skewed to an angle, limping. Moving so slowly. Something like an eternity passes, and it still hasn't reached you. It’s just coming. You can’t move, you can hardly breathe. Your eyes blink for just a second – and it’s right there. Your mother. Your heart breaks, but fear overcomes you as you rapidly kick away. She shrieks and writhes in derision and anguish and you're pretty sure you copy her. It lasts but a second and she’s gone. You sink into bed, feeling suddenly very older.

A few things become clear that night, and in the morning you pay another visit to the strange telephone. The gentleman on the line puts some things into perspective and you sit back silently, contemplating.

Your goal: Bring back your entire family.

Part 2. Never allow yourself, or anybody, to be scared by a ghost again. You felt your life nearly slip out of your grasp, and you are nearly positive that another terror may be the end.

You only had the faintest notion of how you were going to do this. It was a little ridiculous if you were perfectly honest with yourself. The logical part of your mind rebelled against the idea, but you persisted. The nectar from the plant was too delicious, and the promises on the phone were too good. You had to do this, just like you knew this had to be kept quiet.

A knock at the door interrupts your thoughts. You resist answering it, but you eventually give in. You cautiously peer out the door to find three ladies from the neighbourhood looking curious as ever. They are far too cheerful for you at the moment, but something calls you to let them in. You accept it. They flood in like they own the place, one immediately heading for the piano and putting up a tip-jar, the others begin to talk to each other, ignoring you. You seethe, but accept it, again. This was happening for a reason, you console yourself. You decide to ignore them, heading to the other room, the one with the beast in it, and realize belatedly that you are being followed. One of them is behind you, wide-eyed and gullible, you spin, seeing them staring directly into the candle of the cake. This is bad. They dive at it. The monster eats them. Just like that, and things begin to spin.

You watch with horror as the utters fill. The creature is happy. The others stream in, alerted by the screams. They look confused, they look. They look, and something snaps in you. You see them, as if for the first time – and you welcome them into your arms. You're not quite sure if they screamed twice. From this, you realize

You will never hit your adult birthday. The cow-plant will be fed, and you will continue drinking from it until your goal is met.

It is dreary, very possibly psychotic, but you continue. Most importantly, you keep quiet. Very few escape your house, except a few selected few that you choose to alleviate the aching loneliness. Time passes. You finally hold your mother in your arms again, as you get used to seeing her again as she was. The man on the phone was kind in accepting your offer. You are happy to see her alive. However, you notice something about her, she is sickly. You get cold. She touches your face, smiling sadly. You see that:

Resurrection makes working a regular job impossible. No members of your newly living family may get jobs, however, you find they can assist you in other ways.

Time passes a little quicker after that. Sometimes you laugh and wonder how old you are, but it hardly mattered after so long. The graves piled up after a while you noticed. You arranged them meticulously, putting one in every room. Making sure there was always a grave in every single room. All of them. Always to remind you. Your family waited. Every day you took your mother to mourn them. Soon thereafter you found great joy in the living sight of your father again. You mourn together. That was a good day. A few days later you notice that the reunion your parents experienced was a little more – erm – enthusiastic than you anticipated. It appeared as though you will be getting a sibling.

The night seemed longer.
---- ---- ----
Starting out…

Make 7 CAS Sims. You must include
• Your main character (a teenager – or even a child or toddler if you intent to play a while pre-challenge. See next bolded point)
• Two fertile parents
• Four other Sims. You have complete liberty here, but bear in mind, if you intend to create and kill children, be quick – and most importantly, don’t let the social worker get them. (This is absolute. If they do get taken, you must undo it by going back to your latest save)

Prep Time: Officially, the challenge begins when all but your main character is dead. That being said, before this, you may take as long as you like to build your house, or just play the family before this. This period extends for as long as the teen’s lifespan, or, if they are a child, the time it takes them to become a teen. You are not limited by challenge rules before you start, and may do whatever you want to prepare. If you use money cheats to build your house, upon starting you must reduce your funds to 1000. (To do this, consider the cheat familyfunds NAMEOFFAMILYINCAPS 1000, if you were not aware of it already).

Obtain the cow plant and Resurrect-O-Nomitron using unlockCareerRewards. Do not use anything else except for the two objects. Extract and delete them if the temptation is too great.

The House: Must look reasonably normal on the outside. This means you may not have a full outdoor kitchen or other weird looking furniture all by itself outside. These points are flexible, but your goal is to be discreet. As a rule of thumb, if it is visible from street level and will attract unwanted attention, it is not allowed, use your discretion. That being said, all architectural structures are allowed to be as funky as they please. (Please, do this challenge in a hippie house actually. Perhaps enough neon will do the trick for that safety problem...)

The Ghosties: Every room must have a urn, and ghost in it. Kill merrily to accomplish this, but there are point deductions in place if you kill a friend or lover of the main character. The definition of room here is that it has four walls surrounding it and gives protection from the elements. Outdoor spaces and attics are excluded.

When a family member is resurrected, the room that they occupied must be occupied once more before sun-set.

IN SUMMATION:
Over the course of the game, the main character must resurrect their entire family. Once they are back alive, you win. If your main character dies, you lose. All characters that are scared by ghosts must die. Resurrections may be accomplished by any means.

Thou Shalt
• Have all family members mourn at a grave every night. This may be done individually or as a group.
• Have a child and raise it properly. There are points for good birthdays.

Thou Shalt Not
• Allow the main character to age to adult. If they do, you must undo it and prevent it.
• Allow resurrected family members to have a job. This does not include activities which raise money without going to work.

Expansion pack Exclusives
You May
• Use any aspiration reward object you can earn.
• Create a pet. They may serve as a companion and be treated as exempt from the challenge. If a ghost scares them, they are ok, and they may do what they wish.
• Use the Genie Lamp.
• Create a Servo and all other robots. As they are not human, they are invulnerable to ghosts.

You May Not
• Open up a Business
• Go on Vacation

Supernatural Conditions (yay or nay)
Yay
• Vampire
• Werewolf

Nay
• Zombie (big point deduction)
• Plant Sim
• Witch

Point scoring

Start with 100 points

+10 per good birthday
+10 per friend
+50 per best friend
+50 Private school admission
+50 Completion With Supernatural Condition (and anybody may suffer)
+50 Normal House Bonus
+50 Themed House Bonus ---> i.e., serial killer lair, asylum, hippie commune, daycare...
+100 Collect 50 ghosts on your property
+300 Collect 100 ghosts
+500 Completion without any age defying methods (Good luck with that...)
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+1000 Incorporation Bonus
-----> Awarded upon posting to the forum. If you incorporate the challenge into a story with words/pictures/believability and good context, and go through the gauntlet of peer review and self assessed artistic integrity, you get points! So if its your thing, make your sims organic, don't just plunk them down on a lot and play fetch with casper, give them a backstory, give them wants and fears -- and probably incredible anxiety. Make them yours, and I give you points.
---

-1 Every day that passes
-50 Friend dies on lot
-100 Lover dies on lot
-100 Sim being scared by a ghost
-100 Social worker visit (+20 for successful plea)
-500 Zombie creation

Also, I think this goes without saying, but please, don’t use a hack if you think it is going to interfere. My policy is use whatever custom content you have acquired to give you an edge in the challenge, but certain things, such as that computer that lets you get talent badges quickly, are off limits. Think, things that make the challenge less long and less prone to suffering. Do not use those things. But I can’t police you. The main point of this challenge is to make a ghost proof house, or at the very least, make living in it bearable. Stay within the spirit of things .

Also, I sort of blanked at the point scoring system. So if anybody can think of really horrible things to score points for we can totally add them in! I want to see scores and stories here people!

*Edit 5/24/2014* Added in Incorporation Bonus, ghost count bonuses, house theme (or normal bonus). With more to come. Perhaps electable handicaps with bonus.

Sounds challenging and fun, I think I'll give it a go. Your introduction is extremely well written and it's always nice to see some good prose in second person.

Thank you so much! I hope you have a good time strategizing! (I've been sitting on the story for a while so thankyouthankyou!).

Decided to keep track of this on my livejournal. The story isn't that great and was meant to add filler/context between the pictures more so than to entertain.

Here's the furnished house.

Meet the family and see the face behind the voice.



I just wanted to thank you for that.

And it's my pleasure.

definitely going to do some adaptation of this. I may start with YA, play him or her thru uni and have them marry an enviornmental scientist, get the rewards, have kids, etc...It would be a long way to do it, but it would be fun.

@Sanypsia
Wow WOW! Just award yourself like, 1000 points for the prose element (seriously, do it. Imma add that shit to the point count, call it an incorporation bonus. Something like points for preserving the artistic integrity of the sims involved and organically evolving the story in a pleasing, and public!, manner). That is the best. I like the house too, and I just gotta say, you're going to have a hell of a time with that sucker full of ghosts. I'm stupidly proud of you right now. (also thanks for putting the pronunciation of your name in your signature...)

@A.G.Doren
I know, right? The long way is the way to go in my mind. Not to mention the emotional attachment that you may be developing towards the sims in the meantime -- that way there's more screaming and crying for everybody. Now that, is priceless. Kudos for not using cheatcodes too, I've always thought those were copouts.

I like it when my sims feel more like real people with friends and connections to the other people in the neighborhood and I've been wanting to do more supernatural stuff lately. I'll prolly download some special grungy content to use as the house sinks into disarray. This seems like fun. The scenario you described has a very specific type of personality and since I am doing a storyhood I think this family might make a nice creepy edition to my hood. I'll try to post update to my LJ or my tumblr.

@Viva1994 Many thanks. Lots of virtual hugs for you!

It's been slow going in Harvest Bay, because they're part of a rotation that's been tacked onto Tranceale (my main 'hood.) I have a lot of pictures, though, and a story for them too. It's just a matter of organizing the pictures and typing the prose. I do have the first part up, finally.

You can find it here.

Did I miss the part where you explain how NOT to be frightened my ghosts? In some of my haunted houses, ghosts wake people up all night! And I don't think putting bedrooms on the second floor helps.

Hehehe, that's where this gets a little difficult. How to ghost-proof the house, right? What this means is that a conventional house doesn't work. From what I've experimented, it's a very particular dance of moving Sims through buildings and locking the ghosts in. Thankfully, from what I've seen, on a lot full of ghosts, there's a maximum of three of them out at once on a given night, depending on how old they are. So that's a little less to juggle. Where age comes is at the beginning you may not have ghosts at all some nights, but as you continue, they're more frequent, and in my opinion, more pissy. And with more real live sims you gotta keep them away from...

But I digress, I left the 'how-to' part out on purpose. That being said, if anybody wants to see what I've come up with to keep my flock safe, just ask, and maybe that'll give you a few ideas.

Aieeh! So excited, keep it coming please!