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Sims 4: Surrogate Sim Challenge

Do you like pregnancy gameplay but don’t want a bunch of kids to raise? Do you want to help other Sims achieve their family dreams? Are you a supernatural sim who wants to see the world populated with your kind? Then this just might be a challenge for you!

There are multiple ways to set this one up and play it. The bones come from a Sims 3 challenge that I adapted to my Sims 4 game. You can find the original at https://modthesims.info/t/586655.

I use mods in my game and I will outline how to incorporate those alongside guidelines for vanilla gameplay.

I developed this with female sim surrogates in mind but this is the sims so your surrogate can be a male if you want to use cheats/mods that give you that option. I also developed this scenario for a starting age of young adult. If you prefer to start as a teen I recommend lengthening the teen lifespan to be equal to that of a young adult if you are able to do so. That will give you get an equal amount of time to complete the scenario using either option.

The scenarios and/or measures of success are guidelines, feel free to adjust to your liking/gameplay style.

The challenge is considered complete when your sim reaches adulthood or achieves the stated “measures of success” for a given scenario, whichever comes first. At that point you can do with them as you please but I have included a post challenge idea at the end.

Scenario Suggestions

Base Game Friendly Scenarios:

The Original Scenario: A young naive sim is convinced by their deadbeat mother that selling their babies is the way to make money to support themselves and their mom.

Measure of Success: In this scenario success is measured by reaching adulthood with a total net worth of 200,000 simoleons.

Tragedy Leading to Necessity: This story starts with a young male Sim who was on track to become a professional athlete until an injury in his teens shattered his dreams. While in recovery he met his bride to be, they got married and had a baby shortly after. Sadly his struggle with depression following the accident left him unable to hold down a steady job.

His wife loved being pregnant and raised their child on stories of how amazing pregnancy was to the point they became obsessed with it. Overall the couple was happy but struggled on 1 income. They also were never able to have another child. In her desperation to have another baby the mother Sim had a secret affair and eventually her dream came true. Sadly her secret was revealed and while the male sim ultimately forgave his wife he never quite bonded with the child (the younger child should not be listed as his care dependent).

Tragically the mother died when the 2nd child was a toddler (do this in game if you want the ghost hanging around for some added interest) leaving our surrogate sim to raise their sibling and care for their father, whom they have a strong relationship with. They decide that surrogacy is the way they want to support their family after their mothers death.

Measure of Success: You are able to move into or build a house/apartment worth 100,000 simoleons, you maintain a good relationship with your father, your sibling achieves the happy or top-notch toddler trait and is at least a B student.

Pack Based Scenarios:

Eco Lifestyle Pack: your Sim is the child of a freegan who could never bring herself to forsake her values to make a living and has always struggled to get by. When she was young she thought surrogacy would be a way to help others and raise herself out of poverty without compromising her ideals. Unfortunately a surprise, complicated pregnancy early in life left her infertile. She raised her child on her beliefs and now the child is going to do what her mom could not.

Play this scenario on one of the storage container lots in Port Promise and make it more challenging by only allowing your Sims to survive on what they can grow/scavenge/obtain for free/craft at the community lots using bits and pieces.

Optional Gameplay Elements That Fit Well With This Scenario:

Off the Grid Lot Trait (Base Game): Minimal water and electrical resources

Simple Living Lot Trait (Cottage Living Expansion): Require ingredients to cook all recipes

Reduce and Recycle Lot Trait (Eco Living Expansion): Active management of trash output

Laundry Day Pack: Add wash basin/clothesline laundry requirement

Measure of Success: You achieve a net worth of 100,000 simoleons, have established all 3 community lots, and Port Promise has a green eco footprint.

University Pack: Starting from little or nothing your Sim decides to become a surrogate to pay their way through college without incurring any debt.

Measure of Success: Your sim graduates with honors, no school debt, and is rank 3 in the organization of their choice. For this scenario it is acceptable if your sim ages up to adult before graduation.

Any Supernatural Expansion Pack: Your sim is a supernatural sim who has decided to use surrogacy as a way to populate the world with their kind. While some supernatural sims have other ways of doing this, maybe your sim feels conflicted about turning adult human sims to vamps, or they are an alien raised to be an inseminator who decided rather than using abduction and impregnation of human men they wanted to take a more direct route. Whatever the reason, how many supernatural offspring can your sim birth and send out into society without being discovered?

Measure of Success: Your sim has at least 10 children (not including miscarriages if you use a mod that gives a miscarriage chance) and their supernatural nature is not discovered during the challenge.

The Setup:

Starting Out: Regardless of the scenario the setup for this is intended to be a rags to riches story.

Start homeless or set your Sim(s) up on an inexpensive starter lot (ideally less than 15k with furnishings). After placing your sim in the world you will cheat the available household funds down to anywhere from $0-$2000 (explanation for the big range here in the “getting pregnant” section).

Optional Setup: Start with only 1 outfit per category/per family member and reuse some clothing pieces across different categories. Only plan new outfits once a “year” (1x every 4 sim weeks or at the start of the season you begin in if you own the Seasons expansion), at which point you will add a new outfit to the next slot for each category. This way the household will randomly mix and match between their outfit options as time goes on.

The Surrogate: Your surrogate sim will start as a young adult (or teen if you prefer). They are the responsible party of the household. They support the household through surrogacy, cleaning, cooking, repairs, and caring for their sibling if using that scenario. They may have any traits and any aspiration you choose.

Your Parent Sim (if playing with one): Your parent should be an Adult or Elder sim. They should not have a job. Otherwise you may play the parent as you see fit but this challenge is about your surrogate so I recommend leaving the parent Sim to their own devices for the most part.

If playing the Eco Harbor scenario the parent should have the freegan trait and if playing the Tragedy/Necessity scenario the parent should have the gloomy trait. Otherwise they can have any traits and any aspiration you choose.

Your surrogate is intended to be the primary caregiver of the home. As such it is recommended that if the parent autonomously chooses to help out around the house you may let them but you should not force them.

Your parent sim does not have to remain a part of your household for the entire challenge but there should be a gameplay scenario involved that explains why they are gone. If your parent dies during the challenge you can still achieve the success measure for all scenarios as long as for the Tragedy/Necessity scenario your father dies while you and he have a good relationship.

Your Sibling Sim (if playing with one): Your sibling will start out as a toddler. They can start with any trait you choose. As they grow up I recommend using random chance for their additional traits but you don’t have to. Your sibling should remain part of your household until young adulthood, at which point you may choose to have them continue living with you or move them out. If your sibling dies during the challenge you can still achieve the success measure for the Tragedy/Necessity scenario as long as, if they have reached or passed the age in which a requirement is specified, they have met the requirement.

General Notes:

At any point you may move the household off their initial lot and into nicer digs or renovate your current lot as you can afford it.

Your sim may enter into a relationship during the challenge. If you are playing a scenario where a measure of success is net worth your sim should not combine their income or get income assistance from a partner sim until the challenge is complete. If you want to marry and bring in a partner sim with $0 you can do that but then your partner sim should not have a job until the challenge is complete. If playing the supernatural challenge you may choose to reveal your true nature to them but they should not find out by accident.

Your sim may have children of her own, to raise, during the challenge if she chooses.

Becoming a Surrogate (i.e. getting pregnant!):

No matter which way you choose to get pregnant, I recommend not trying to get pregnant more than 1x/day.

Feel free to mix and match these “insemination” options as time goes on.

If using a method that costs money upfront you can start with more money in the beginning to cover the cost of the initial procedure or let your sim seek odd jobs at first to save up the funds for the initial attempt. You can also use the money cheat to reimburse the cost of the procedure if you’d like. I did this only if my sim successfully got pregnant.

Without Mods:

You’ll be getting pregnant the “old fashioned” way. You’ll have to get the romantic relationship up high enough with your chosen Sim to make them interested in “donating” for the “procedure” (and if they’re married their spouse may not be amused!).

With Mods:

There are a few mods I have used that give you other options for getting pregnant.

MC Command Center (MCCC): This option is a sure thing so if using it I suggest using a random number generator to determine each time if the “procedure” was successful. The random chance below is meant to mirror the standard try for baby success percentage.

Generate a random number between 1 and 10

1-2 Not Pregnant 3-10 Pregnant

Lumpinou Woohoo Wellness: This mod has 2 options that come from the Alternative Pregnancies module.

The Surrogacy option. The big upside to this is that it’s designed with this gameplay in mind and adds some extra gameplay features related to surrogacy. The big (in my opinion) downside to this is that the surrogate pregnancy buff will disappear when you travel to another lot. Your sim will still be pregnant but without the buff they will not have the 2nd/3rd trimester pregnancy walkstyle. The buff can be manually reapplied using MCCC, if you use that mod. The buff for the next trimester, or labor, will appear even if the one for the previous trimester is not showing.

Artificial Insemination option: There are 3 tiers here which are meant to simulate different real world artificial insemination options. Cost ranges from $500-$1500 dollars and each has a different success rate.

KS Explore (note this mod has not been updated in awhile): Once you have your license one of the available services is an artificial insemination clinic that is open 24 hours a day. Each attempt will cost $350. I did find one issue with this option, when the procedure was successful I was not able to take the pregnancy test. If this is the case you can wait it out or cheat your sim into the first trimester.

Pregnancy Duration

If using the Lumpinou surrogacy mod surrogate pregnancies are set at 2 days by default. I went with this and updated my game to make pregnancies 2 days regardless of the insemination option I chose. Whatever you choose I do recommend keeping pregnancies short, no more than 3 days, the goal here is to have lots of pregnancies/babies!

Pregnancy Aging

You can play this challenge with any lifespan settings you prefer. You can also play with pregnancy aging on or off. Pregnancy aging turned on adds another layer of challenge.

Choosing Your Surrogate/Surrogate Family

I recommend picking this based on random chance.

Without Mods:

Generate a random number in-between the number of available, populated, residential worlds in your game, going from left to right. The number generated is the world your surrogate family will come from.

Ex. for the base game let’s assume you’ve populated Newcrest. In this case you would generate a number between 1 and 3. If it returns 1 then your surrogate will come from Willow Creek.

Next generate a random number in-between the number of families with eligible male sims in residence. You decide how to number the families and what age range you consider eligible to donate. By default young adult through elder sims can try for baby. The number generated is the household of your surrogate family.

Finally, if necessary, generate a random number in-between the number of eligible males in the household, from oldest to youngest. The number generated is your baby daddy!

With Mods:

If using any of the mods I mentioned in the getting pregnant section you will be presented with a list of eligible sims to choose from. Generate a random number in-between the number of available sims. The number generated will be equal to the sim at that spot in the list. That is who will donate for the procedure. Depending on the mod your baby daddy might be a baby momma!

Note: If you prefer you can choose only to be a surrogate for single sims/same sex couples. Not doing this can lead to some interesting outcomes with EA or MCCC story progression turned on. I personally found that to be part of the fun but its up to you!

Making Money

A goal of the challenge is to make the majority of your sims money through surrogacy. Other than odd jobs initially to save up for the first insemination attempt if needed your sim should not have a regular job during their surrogacy journey. However, if you’d like you can have your sim engage in skill building activities that generate revenue.

Surrogacy Fee For Service

If using Lumpinou’s surrogacy option your sim automatically receives 8,000 simoleons per pregnancy. You can use this amount for all methods but to make the math easy I suggest using 10,000 simoleons for any option that does not auto generate a payment for services rendered.

In addition to this sometimes the prospective parent(s) would like to see a certain outcome to the pregnancy and will tip you if you are lucky enough to deliver. You will determine the prospective parents preference for both the number of babies and gender of babies.

The breakdown below is based on the standard 3 max babies per pregnancy setting but you can modify this if you prefer to play with the option for 4 or more babies per pregnancy turned on.

Be careful if you play with 4 or more multiples allowed and choose to donate to married heterosexual couples with story progression on (the household you are sending your offspring to needs enough household slots to accommodate them after all!)

Total Number of Babies

To determine parental preference for the total number of babies born generate a random number between 1-3 (or more if needed). If you give birth to the desired number of offspring you will get a 5,000 simoleon bonus.

Number of Fetuses:

Singleton

Twins

Triplets

Sex of the Babies

Next, to determine parental preference for the sex of the babies generate a random number between 1-2. If the prospective parents desire a twin or triplet pregnancy outcome you will generate a number for the desired gender a corresponding number of times (i.e. if they want twins generate 2 numbers, one for each baby). You will get a bonus of 2,500 for each baby of the desired sex.

Baby Gender:

Female

Male

Final Payout Calculation Example:

If you generate a 2 on the quantity (twins) and generate a 1 and a 2 on the gender (one girl, one boy) then your sim ends up having a single girl, the payout would be as follows:

—10,000 (base rate)

—2,500 (for the girl gender roll)

After Birth:

If using the Lumpinou surrogacy mod the base fee will be automatically deposited into your household funds and you will add any bonus fees manually using the money cheat. Otherwise you will use the money cheat to add the fee for service and any bonus to your total funds. You will then send the child to its new family (using mod features if using the Lumpinou mod) or using the manage household options.

Subsequent Pregnancies:

After your sim gives birth I recommend not trying to get pregnant again until the new baby buff that you receive expires. This will simulate the after birth healing period for your sim.

I have provided additional recommendations related to subsequent pregnancies based on various mod buffs in the mods to add extra realism/challenge section.

Note Regarding Your Surrogate Children:

Babies born in the sims start out with a high relationship with their parents by default. This means if you send them off to their new home while they are infants they will be considered friends and interact with you as such.

If you want to minimize this age them up to toddler and use cheats or MCCC to change the relationship level to acquaintance before sending them off. Do not do this if using the Lumpinou surrogacy mod as that expects you to send them off using mod features while a baby. If using Lumpinou you’ll just have to consider the surrogacy process akin to an open adoption.

This is it for the basic challenge guidelines.

You can stop here or keep reading for information on other mods that work well with this and a post challenge gameplay suggestion.

If you give this a try I’d love to hear about it! Did you use one of the suggested scenarios and if not how did you set this up? How many children did your sim have/with who? What happened to them after their surrogacy journey was over?

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Post Challenge Gameplay Suggestions

Either during or after the challenge develop a relationship with all your children. Can you eventually find all your offspring, befriend them, and host the mother (or father!) of all house parties?

Mods That Add Extra Realism/Challenge to the Gameplay:

Little Ms. Sam (LMS) Pregnancy Overhaul mod: This mod does a few things but the one I like the most is the option to choose the size of the pregnancy belly. Just like the miscarriage chance you pick one belly size to apply to your game at any given time. If you do not choose one of her belly options you will have the default EA belly. Like the miscarriage mod you can choose to use this however you like. Use 1 belly size for the entire playthrough, cheat to know the total number of babies upfront and adjust the belly size based on the number of fetuses, increase the belly size as the number of pregnancies stack up and your sims body responds to being pregnant more quickly/her stomach muscles are weaker, it’s up to you!

Lumpinou’s WooHoo Wellness: I’ve talked about this mod a lot already but in addition to the options to get pregnant the mod also has options related to gameplay once you are pregnant as well as various options related to relationships, paternity, etc. This is a modular mod so you can pick and choose what gameplay options to introduce.

Healthcare Redux: This mod introduces health based complications to your game. It’s a modular mod like WooHoo Wellness so you can choose just the pregnancy package if you would like. This introduces a prenatal care system, potential pregnancy complications, and the risk of induction/C-Section. It also introduces some realistic afterbirth buffs.

If when using this mod your sim ends up having a C-section a 3 day buff will be applied to her after birth related to the procedure. In this case I recommend waiting until the buff clears to simulate healing (and trust me, her pain will be evident!) but you may try to get pregnant again right away if you prefer.

Wicked/Wonderful Whims: If using a mod like Wicked/Wonderful Whims that introduces periods; if your Sim starts her period between pregnancies I recommend letting the period complete before attempting to get pregnant again.

KS Slice of Life: Another modular mod, pick and choose which packages you want to add. Nothing directly pregnancy related here but the social and healthcare options add a lot of interest to the game in general. If you use the social package of this mod however your surrogate children have a high chance of finding you and calling/coming to visit randomly as they get older.

MC Command Center (MCCC): As its name implies this is a command center for your game introducing multiple gameplay tweaks. In addition to the ability to generate a pregnancy you can also turn on an option that will give you additional pregnancy related buffs.

PandaSama Realistic Birth (Paetron only at this time, public release coming soon): This mod is not recommended for use with Lumpinou’s surrogate pregnancy option since that is designed with the idea that you are not supposed to accompany your sim to the hospital for the birth. If you use the Lumpinou artificial insemination option you will have no issue. If you use this mod you pick your birth method during the pregnancy and have the option to choose a natural birth, a C-Section, or to use the surgical machine as usual. You will experience a period of laboring in the hospital and then your sim will go into the birthing area to give birth using the chosen method. Choose whichever birthing method you prefer. Does a twin/triplet (or more) pregnancy always dictate a C-Section in your world? Are vaginal births after C-Section an option? Will you leave the birth to random chance using random number generation? The choice is yours!

KS Explore: The insemination clinic is the main pregnancy related piece of this mod but it introduces a large number of rabbithole based adventures for your sim to experience. As mentioned previously, this mod has not been updated in awhile.

Trigger Warning: This Final Mod Contains mention of Miscarriage and pregnancy loss

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Little Ms. Sam (LMS) miscarriage mod: This mod has multiple risk chance options for miscarriage and you pick one to apply to your game at any given time. You can choose to use these however you like. Use a static risk chance for the entire playthrough, cheat to know the total number of babies upfront and adjust the risk based on the number of fetuses, increase the risk as the number of pregnancies increase and your sim gets older, you decide what works best for your gameplay.

If your sim miscarries you can choose to try again to get pregnant right away or wait. I recommend waiting at least 24 sim hours from the time your sim loses the baby, simulating some time for her to grieve and for her body to heal.

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