Boomtown 7/3/21

 I was planning to move to Belladonna Cove next, which I haven't played in literal years, but I realized the reason I haven't played it in years is because I was unhappy with the rule set I have in place there.  So I decided to revamp the whole thing, keeping the parts I like and overhauling the rest.  While I was working on that I discovered the Trailer Park challenge by fuzzyspork.  Since it was a fairly short challenge, I had a go at it.  I found it to be an enjoyable light challenge.  Now that I'm finished with that, and not yet finished with Belladonna's reboot, I decided to move to Boomtown - a challenge I'm sure most everyone's heard of.  I don't remember who created it, but if you search for it, I'm sure you'll find the official rules somewhere.

The basic premise of Boomtown, for those who are not familiar, is a neighborhood with four social classes: Poverty, Working, Middle, and Upper.  In order to move up a class, there are financial and business requirements.  In addition, each class is limited to certain jobs they're allowed to take.  All the founders (I started with four) began their lives in Poverty class.  So far, only one family has moved up to Working class.  Another family completely died off as well.  The rules state that whenever a Poverty house becomes vacant (for whatever reason) it must be filled with a new family.  I have, of course, added more rules of my own to spice up the gameplay in ways that I find entertaining.  I won't detail all that now.  You'll pick it up.  I should mention though that I basically use Strangetown as a challenge 'hood.  The base 'hood is a Heroes vs. Villains challenge that I play with my daughter, Downtown is Boomtown, and Bluewater is the site of many smaller challenges.  When I finish challenges, I often roll sims over into other challenges because it just makes for more interesting starting conditions than single sims from CAS.  Boomtown is a great place to roll them into, so you'll probably see that happen often.

There are currently five households in Boomtown: Traver (P), Neil (P), Hollinger (W), Leonard (P), and Walton (P).  Each household is played for just one day before moving on.

Benjamin Traver and his daughter Butterfly are new residents.  They were rolled over from the Bohemian Hobo challenge (I think?) and were moved in to fill the household of the former Denham family, who sadly all passed away/were taken by the Social Worker.  Ben inherited all the leftover furnishings, which is a plus, but he also inherited the six graves that are present on the lot, which is not.  Haunted houses are fun, right?  We'll see if he survives.  His first order of business was to quite his job in Politics and take one in Culinary, since that's allowed at the Poverty level.  Next, he started romancing a townie woman that he knew, but though they fell in love and woohooed, she still continued to refuse him when it came to moving in.  He'll have to keep trying I guess.

Sofia Neil is one of the original Boomtown founders.  She's an elder now and the mother of three kids (technically four, but one was taken by the Social Worker), all with different fathers.  She's currently living with the father of her youngest son, her two adult daughters, teen son, her oldest daughter's boyfriend, and her grandson.  Sofia works in the Slacker career, but also owns Comandgo Emporium, which she acquired last time I played, but ran for the first time this round.  She's met the money goal needed to move up to Working class, but still needs to get her business to level 3.  Her boyfriend, Oliver, also works in Slacker.  Her kids Traci, Michele, and Nate work in Criminal, Culinary, and Criminal, respectively.  Ironically, Traci's boyfriend River is Captain Hero.  Traci and River's son Chad became a toddler this round.  Traci does not get along with her mother or Oliver at all, so when the business rank goal is met, I plan to move Sofia, Oliver, Michele, and Nate into a Working class home, leaving Traci, River, and Chad behind in the Poverty house they currently inhabit.  They'll have to make their own way.  Sofia's tired of ungrateful freeloaders.

Hopefully, I'll get through the other three households tomorrow.  Until then, Happy Simming!