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Dizzardy's Thread of Supernatural Ideas
May 19, 2020 at 8:07 pm<div>*warning, massive post incoming* (blame coronavirus)</div>
<div>I want to start by saying, I know a potential Supernatural/Occult expansion for Paralives is a long long way off but I also know that it’s an aspect of life simulation that excites me a lot…so I have a lot of ideas building up that I wanted to share. I’m not worrying too much about feasibility here, I’m just going to describe my ideal supernatural life simulation and throw everything on the table.</div>
<div>Core Concept</div>
Key Words – Special – Hidden – Discovery – Otherwordly – Unexpected
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- The “Supernatural” is special and hidden, it’s not something dumped on every street corner. (sims 3 I’m looking at you) You have to make an effort before it’ll be revealed to you. (and even then it won’t reveal itself all at once, it should be like an onion or one of those nested russian dolls) It could be very on the nose and literally have a skill tied to “Connection to the Supernatural” or “Magical Senses” but I feel like it would be better if this was a hidden skill that develops as your Para discovers and experiences the Supernatural.
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Bottom Line: The Supernatural world doesn’t go out of it’s way to find you. You find it.
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<b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>Further Concepts
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- The Supernatural world has two layers, the physical and spirit realm. Even if your Magical Senses skill is maxed out you still won’t be able to interact with the spirit realm unless specific conditions are met. So for example a parafolk with a maxed out Magical Senses skill can see Vampires or Werewolves (physical) but not necessarily ghosts or other dimensional beings. (spirit) The spirit realm is kinda like the “supernatural” for supernaturals.
- A “Supernatural Council” would exist that basically acts as the police/government of the supernatural world. Each member of the council would be a different (physical) occult type. Think of the three head witches from The Sims 4: Realm of Magic to get a general idea of what I mean.
</div><div>Traits/Personality</div>
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- Magically Blind (this para is unable to learn the magical senses skill)
- Magically Sensitive (this para gets a starting bonus to the magical senses skill and develops it faster)
- Ghost Sight (This para can see ghosts at all times, may also have further abilities like being able to talk to them. May have a unique interaction with an ouija board)
- Sweet Blooded (This para is more likely to attract the attention of Vampires)
- Occult Nerd (sorta like the equivalent of “Supernatural Lover” from the sims, they don’t necessarily believe the occult is real…but they are a big fan of occult stuff)
- Weirdness Magnet (Strange things are more likely to occur this para, kinda like the “unlucky” trait in the sims 3 but for supernatural occurrences)
</div><div>Magical 5th Season</div>
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- This season is only experienced by occult sims and occult pets. That is to say only occult sims will be active and experience story progression during this season.
- For human paras, it will appear like nothing unusual has happened. They will go from Winter to Spring…instead of Winter to Magic Season to Spring.
- Human paras during the magical 5th season do not move and can not be interacted with in any way.
- Holidays celebrating occult sims and the supernatural world occur during this season.
- It’s possible that certain magical plants would only grow (or grow best) during this season. (also if “collectibles” are a thing in para, like fishing or bug catching etc this could be a season where you can find unique collectibles)
- The neighborhood isn’t forced to have this season, it would be an optional toggle.
</div><div>Supernatural Weather</div>
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- Death/Ghost Fog (An unusual fog descends over the town, during this weather condition supernatural parafolk or parafolk with a high enough “Magical Senses” skill can see ghosts.
- Forget-Me Snow (A strange snowfall that temporarily erases all of the paras relationships)
- All Searing Sunshine (An extremely rare weather type in which the sun can affect vampires, even when they’re indoors, the only way they can avoid it is by sleeping through it in a coffin or using magic, also causes an increase in sunburns among the general population. Objects might also randomly catch fire, though this would be rare.)
- Full Moon (I’m a little hesitant with this since it seems to step on the sims toes however I think it could just be the case that Werewolves transform on a full moon, keep it simple)
- Supernatural weather could be prevented through the use of magic, for example paras could be protected from the all searing sunshine on an individual, lot-based or neighborhood based level. So if your witch was powerful enough they could cast a powerful spell across the whole neighborhood to basically negate the effects of a supernatural weather as soon as it appears. If they’re weaker/have less ingredients they can protect individual paras or all paras on a specific lot.
</div><div>Pets</div>
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- Dragons (on the same level as dogs, cats and horses. They would probably start as an egg and then have a baby and adult form, with the adult being a lot bigger)
</div><div>Other Pet Ideas</div>
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- Hellhound (If you try to resurrect your pet dog, there could be a chance it returns as a hellhound instead)
- Phoenix (If your pet bird dies of old age and you have a high enough “Magical Senses” skill there’s a chance your bird becomes a phoenix. Can set fire to parafolk they don’t like and can also rescue their owners from burning to death. (although that might result in them reverting to a regular bird again, not sure if that works with Phoenix lore)
- Jackalopes (They’re like rabbits with antlers, they’re cool)
- Frog Prince/Princess (I think it would be funny if there was just always this random option to kiss frogs and very rarely doing this causes them to turn into a parafolk)
</div><div>Misc Pet Ideas</div>
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- Occult pets may also provide magical ingredients for witches. For example a Phoenix may shed a “Phoenix Feather” or a Dragon might shed a “Dragon Scale”.
</div><div>Occult Life States</div>
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- The “Basics”: Vampires, Werewolves, Ghosts, Fairies, Witches, Mermaids (I won’t go into detail on these right now but I might make another post about them) On one hand I don’t want them to just copy the sims, but I also feel like there are some staples here that can’t not be included in a supernatural pack.
- Zombies (I don’t really like zombies but if they were included I’d like them to be similar to how they were in The Sims 2, in the sense that they’re the result of a failed resurrection. However I think they should have a greatly reduced lifespan and “die” again within a number of days.)
- Shapeshifters (Paras with the ability to take on the appearance of other paras, pets or maybe even inanimate objects. If a shapeshifter (A) takes on the form of certain para (B), then interacts with another para (C), that para (C) will develop relationship points with the para the shapeshifter is impersonating (B) and not the shapeshifter themselves (A). Paras with a very high “Magical Senses” skill might be able to see through the shapeshifters disguise though.)
- Conduits (Parafolk indefinitely “possessed” by otherwordly dimensional beings (think eldritch horrors but maybe slightly less “dark”) You can still control these paras, but it’s more like you’re controlling the eldritch horror instead of the para themselves)
- Telekinetics (Think of the movie Matilda. These paras would have the ability to move things with their minds and perhaps also read the minds of other paras)
</div><div>Misc Occult Life State ideas</div>
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- Similar to how occult pets work, occult parafolk might also provide ingredients for witches to work with, like “Zombie Drool” or “Vampire Blood”. They may be impossible to obtain without a strong relationship though.
</div><div>Non-playable Occults/Cryptids</div>
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- Chupacabra
- Lake Beast (basically the Loch Ness Monster)
- La Llorona (From Latin American folklore, specifically Mexican. La Llorona is known as the wailing woman who steals children away and attempts to drown them….that might be a bit dark but the idea could be the tweaked)
- Yeti/Bigfoot (Sims already did it so I’m a bit “eh” on this idea, but I think a Yeti that only appears in winter could work. Paralives could go for the white fur depiction rather than the brown fur one the sims went with)
- The Kraken
- Ghost Ship (or Ghost House Boat, since the base game will have those)
- This could be an opportunity for the devs to get really creative, like have a goofy kids toy that actually turns out to be a real life cryptid.
- There could be a hobby or club that involves finding evidence of and catching pictures of cryptids. I think that could be a really fun feature. Sorta like a Paralives version of Pokemon Snap.
</div><div>Occult Occurences</div>
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- Parafolk can be possessed by ghosts, those with “Ghost Sight” are more likely targets. Players lose control of the para during this time. This is only temporary.
- Perhaps during the “Ghost Fog” it would be possible to resurrect a deceased parafolk by finding a special Spirit Door and bartering with those on the other side to bring the deceased parafolk back to life. (A failed attempt might result in the deceased para temporarily returning as a zombie)
</div><div>Miscellaneous Items/Features</div>
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- Magic Doors/Walls (Doors that only appear to supernatural paras or those with a high Magic Senses skill and walls that can be passed through by supernatural paras or those with high Magic Senses skill (let’s go diagon alley!)
- Spirit Doors (Doors that only appear to paras with the “Ghost Sight” trait or during Ghost Fog weather)
- Fence of Normality (A magic fence that when placed around a lot, changes its appearance to a generic looking home to non-supernatual paras or those with low “Magic Senses” skill. This could also be invisible if you didn’t want a fence, I just think it would be cool to have some way to do the whole “This looks normal from the outside but inside the barrier it looks completely different” trope)
- There could be rabbit hole schools that you can choose to send your supernatural child paras to. For example a magic school or a night school for vampires.
</div><div>I don’t expect any of this to make it into an eventual supernatural expansion pack, I’m just throwing ideas at the wall for fun. My main hope is that any supernatural expansion pack we do get has a sense of mystery and discovery. I feel like that’s the main thing that’s been missing when it comes to supernatural stuff in the sims. (aside from maybe the original Makin Magic for Sims 1)</div>
Edit: Is there some reason why the formatting is messed up?
I uploaded my ideas to pastebin as well if the weird formatting is too annoying: https://pastebin.com/2Ab7hJJ2
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5 Replies
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There’s a lot to unpack here, some things I like and some things I like less. I’m just going to tell you my favourites! I love “ghost sight” and some parafolk always seeing ghosts others can’t see. That’s just… so cool. I’m always on board for dragons. I’ve also been a fan of cryptids in the game since someone introduced me to them on the Paralives discord. I think though that you’re right to say that La Llorona is too dark – I don’t see how that would work, but who knows! Overall, thanks for your thoughts, this was interesting.
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I like the idea of having a Supernatural council that consists of one representative from every supernatural being in the game plus an ordinary human in cases where a decision for the town has to be made (after all, this council aims for peace among the creatures). I am not a programming expert, but wouldn’t it be “heavy” to add too many supernaturals? We all want a game that won’t lag when supernaturals spawn or do something crazy…
I also will find it interesting if, let’s say, a vampire falls in love with a witch and have a kid on their own. How would the genes play? Would the child have one more dominant supernatural trait, or a mixture of both?
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I find some things that you have enumerated such as the traits for example really interesting and other things like La Llorona less, but it would be good to have some of the things in the Supernaturals DLC.
There are already other posts about Supernaturals, maybe you take a look there so that it doesn’t repeat if you decide to make another post about the Supernaturals itself. 🙂
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