I always paid attention to my sims' personality. In addition to additional DNA strings regarding both looks and mindset, I also have a routine for picking Traits, Aspiration and Likes/Dislikes, which I'm sharing in 3 articles.
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| Finally a teenager! It's time to pick the better Aspiration! |
These details are somehow passed down from parents to child helping me narrowing down the options, but also with a chance of personal uniqueness. This way siblings will often have some personality details in common, but not without a chance to stand out as the family's unique gem - positively or negatively. I love it when siblings resemble their parents in how they behave and react.
While Traits cover a sim's actions and behavior, we can say Aspiration says something about their personal goals and dreams. I never tried hard to achieve their Aspiration goals, but I always found this personality detail very useful for defining them as individual characters. So, here's my routine deciding how parents affect their children's Aspiration!
Child
It's less complex than the Traits. Already as a Child, a sim will pick a temporary Aspiration, limited to Active, Creative, Mental and Social. I don't see this as a very bold thing, as most children will explore all four areas, but going by free will they might build skills related to their childhood aspiration a bit faster. A child with the Active aspiration will often get higher Motor skills than say a child with the Mental aspiration. I might allow for the Mental child to work harder in School, and the Social might tend a bit more to building relations, but this will all develop rather loosely.
I often choose their temporary aspiration based on their Toddler trait and the child's first real Trait (read about how I set Traits). Seeing those two details together, might indicate what kind of child this could be. A wild toddler might get childhood aspiration Motor, a charmer might get Social butterfly, and so on. But then there might also be conflicting personalities because their first real Trait will normally be set by a parent's trait - what if a Charmer gets the Loner trait? Or a Wild gets the Lazy or Bookworm trait? In my head the Aspiration is like a focus, not necessarily including success. The Active child with the Lazy Trait might want to join sports, but might have problems motivating and succeeding. That would probably be quite realistic, too, leading up to an interesting story. Most of those who start an athletic path will fail becoming a pro Athlete. I find conflicting personality details way more interesting, but they might require some more notes or I might forget all those possible ideas before I get back to the household on my never ending rotation.
Teenager
When the real Aspiration is set on a teenager's birthday, the sim will already have 2 Traits, normally one from each parent. I might have some understanding of what direction their personality is taking. I also like to think that each family might have a typical way to deal with life, and I do specialize them further by allowing a child to select Aspiration only from the father or mother's Aspiration group.
These groups refer to the main categories as seen in CAS. KNOWLEDGE and POPULARITY are groups with a high number of Aspirations (depending on your added packs) The group ATHLETIC is a bit dull because there is only one Aspiration. If you have few packs, you could always combine some of the smaller groups.
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| Most groups have numerous options. |
I simply use a dice to decide their group: 1+2+3 gives dad's Aspiration group, and 4+5+6 gives mom's group.
If dad's Aspiration is in the KNOWLEDGE group and mom's Aspiration is in the FAMILY group, all their children will get their Aspiration from either KNOWLEDGE or FAMILY. No child will get their Aspiration from another group, but they can choose their Aspiration freely within their group. This way children can very well get an Aspiration that non of the parents have, but they will be enough connected to allow me thinking they were slightly influenced by parents.
Doing this long before the child needs to select its specific Aspiration, might help me to give them matching Traits up to this point, but I normally prefer to wait because I like the more complex personalities, too. In a family where both dad and mom has Aspiration from the KNOWLEDGE group, I might give children the MENTAL childhood aspiration, but only when I see no clear direction elsewise.
Siblings can have the same Aspiration, but I often see a path of uniqueness when referring to the mix of Traits - including Childhood and Toddler traits, although they are no longer active. And I might refer to the child's skills, too. If Social skills are low and dice chooses POPULARITY group, the teen will probably not choose the Party Animal Aspiration, but can very well dream of becoming a Leader of the Pack, or an Actor. Some times there won't be a lot of logics to the mix, just like in real life - things just happen to be, and the story unfolds while moving forward.
* * *This way my typical household will cover just 2 Aspiration groups, but each household member might stand out as unique. One Aspiration Group might even become typical for a family, like the Smiths were all very Knowledge minded through several generations. Or most members of the Jones family focus more on Creativity than other families. It might add to the story where a family runs a successful family business, or where one family member wants to choose a different direction (say a less suitable Uni degree) which breaks with family traditions. It also helps me seeing the families apart from each other as they will mostly have "their own thing" going.
Please share a tidbit from how you decide your sims' Aspiration.
Building a Sim's Personality (1 of 3): Traits
Building a Sim's Personality (2 of 3): Aspiration
Building a Sim's Personality (3 of 3): Likes & Dislikes
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