Sims 4 Guide: Playing Rotationally
- phdsimmer
- Jul 14
- 11 min read
Updated: Jul 15
What is "Rotational Gameplay" and why play this way?
Rotational gameplay means playing more than one household in a given save file at a time. This allows you to focus on following multiple Sims' lives, creating interconnected family stories, and growing a whole world(s) over time.
Typically, each house is played for a certain period of time (e.g. 4 or 7 days), and then you move to the next household in a set order. Rotating around each household in this way is called a "round" and players will progress through many rounds and develop generations of Sims.
You can add in new households at any time or spin off existing ones (e.g. via divorce, or as children grow up and move out to start families of their own).
Rotational gameplay leads to:
Rich, interwoven storytelling
Exploration of many different game mechanics in one save
Lots of drama and fun (affairs, secrets, feuds!)
Reduced burnout and staleness
Choosing your World(s)
If you have a lot of DLC for The Sims 4, there are many worlds to choose from. My recommendation is to pick just a couple to play with, depending on the size. In my gameplay I combined Willow Creek and Oasis Springs and called it "Willow Springs".
You can decide how strict you want to be - will you let your Sims travel to other worlds routinely or just for vacations and special occassions? Personally, I try to keep my Sims in Willow Creek and Oasis Springs for the majority of the time, but they also travel to outlying retail areas (Newcrest and Magnolia Promenade) or to the nearest city (San Myshuno). I also let my Sims vacation in other worlds too such as Mt. Komerebi, Sulani or Tartosa as well as attend University in Britechester.
Lots
You can demolish and rebuild the lots in your chosen world(s), which is particularly fun if you love to build. You can also play with existing EA lots, or update EA yourself or with replacements from the gallery. For Willow Springs, I updated EA's lots myself and re-purposed some of them which I had duplicated across my chosen worlds e.g. instead of having 2 libraries I replaced one with a bowling alley and I also changed a bar into a restaurant.
Recommended lots for your chosen world(s): teen hang out (e.g. bowling alley), bar, nightclub, park, restaurant, rec centre (Growing Together), apartment building (For Rent) and wedding venue (My Wedding Stories).
You can also use mods (see mods section below) to put your own high school and auditorium (High School Years) in your chosen world(s) if you aren't planning to play Copperdale and don't want your Sims to travel there for high school. However, this isn't a requirement and if you want to play active high school without using mods you can have your Sims go to the Copperdale high school.
Households
You can start with custom Sims or with existing EA Sims, or a mix! In my gameplay I used all of the Sims in Willow Creek and Oasis Springs and added a few additional households of my own.
Don't start with too many households as it can get overwhelming, take a long time to complete a round, and the population can quickly get too big to handle!
Start small with 4-8 households, no more than 10 even if there are a lot of single Sims.
Setting Up "Played" & "Unplayed" Households
You won't be playing with all of the Sims in the entire game, so you need to set up "played" and "un-played" households so you can manage their ageing and neighbourhood story options.
Under the household management settings make sure all of the households you plan to play are marked as "played households" by clicking the heart icon to fill it. Played households will have a green plumbob icon and can be found under the "my households" tab.
All remaining households should be marked as "un-played" (grey plumbob icon) and in the "other households" tab.
If you want to, you can also delete households that you don't want showing up in your game.
Ageing "Played" and "Un-Played" Households
You need to set up the game so that when you aren't actively playing a household, the Sims don't age until you come back and actively play them again. To do this, under the gameplay options menu change the "Auto Age Played Sims" setting to "Only Active Household". This means that only the household you are currently playing with will age and your other played households will have ageing paused until you actively play them.
The setting for "Auto Age Unplayed Sims" will be "un-ticked" for the majority of the time you are playing a round. However, everytime you are playing the first household in your round you should change it be"ticked" for the duration of that households round. This is important so that the un-played Sims in the game age at the same rate as your played Sims. Remember to turn this option back to "un-ticked" when you move onto the second household otherwise your non-played Sims will age really really fast! I keep in a note in my spreadsheet to remind me of when to tick this setting, but a post it note in a visible location will also do the job!
Don't Miss Baby Births!
In the Sims 4 pregnancy progression does not pause when you leave a household and move to another. If your Sim is pregnant, they baby maybe born and given an auto-generated name when you aren't playing the household.
Without mods, you can avoid this by planning pregnancies at the start of playing a household so they are born before you switch i.e. you want to ensure your Sim gets pregnant no later than 3 days (72 hrs) before the end of the round.
However, using a mod (MC Command Centre, see mods section below) you can be prompted just before a baby is born and quickly switch to witness the birth and name the baby. In the "MC Pregnancy" settings section set "pause on playable labor" to "on".
Game Settings
Many of the gameplay settings in the options menu can be set to your personal preference and there are very few that are specifically required to play rotationally except the ageing options for played and un-played Sims as outlined above. Here are my personal settings:
Gameplay Settings
Autonomy: Full
Show Wants & Fears: Ticked
Build Mode Items Grant Gameplay Effects: Un-Ticked
Lifestyles: Un-Ticked
Death Inventory Handling: Ticked
Allow Romantic Invites and Requests: Ticked
Allow Friendly Invites and Requests: Ticked
Allow Automatic Breakups: Un-Ticked
Disable Autonmy for Selected Sim: Un-Ticked
Burglar Visits: Enabled
Maximum Sim Count: 200
Animal Ageing: Ticked
Neighbourhood Stories: Ticked
Pack Settings Menu:
Sims Begin Opted Out of Fame: Un-Ticked
Enable NPC Voting: Un-Ticked
Enable Eco Footprint Gameplay: Un-Ticked
Enabled Dust System: Ticked
Limit Werewolves to Moonwood Mill: Ticked
Enable Acne: Un-Ticked
Self Discovery: Ticked
Career Layoffs: Ticked
Enable Rental Unit Events: Ticked
Hide Units by Default: Ticked
Enable Gallery Sims in Cupid's Corner: Un-Ticked
Enabled Only Favourited Gallery Sims in Cupid's Corner: Un-Ticked
Enable Occult Sims in Cupids Corner: Un-Ticked
Enable Heirloom Creation: Un-Ticked
Enable Small Business Dilemmas: Ticked
Fairies limited to Innisgreen: Ticked
Enable Balance & Imbalance: Ticked
Enable Luck: Ticked
Neighbourhood Stories
To keep control of what is happening with your played households, it is important to have neighbourhood stories turned off for played Sims.
It is up to you what you want to do with un-played households. I recommend you turn neighbourhood stories on for un-played households and leave it running in the background so that your world progresses and doesn't remain static.
In my game, I have neighbourhood stories turned on for un-played Sims. However, if there is a specific un-played Sim that one of my played Sims is dating or if there is a household I am planning to bring into my rotation at some point then I will turn off the neighbourhood stories for that specific household just so nothing happens to them via neighbourhood stories.
I have all neighbourhood stories options on, except for move in/move out so I don't lose track of where people are, but this is a personal preference.
How many days should you play per household?
How many days to play is completely up to you! Some players like to swap relatively quickly to keep things fresh (3-4 days), some like to play longer to really progress the household story (5-7 days).
I play 7 days Monday-Monday when I play solo. On livestream, I will do 4 days just to keep things moving for the audience.
When to Rotate?
In The Sims 4 whenever you leave one household and change to another all of the Sims in the household will all be present on the lot, even if they were at work or school. To prevent them always being late and losing performance change household at around 3-4am as this avoids most Sims working hours and school hours.
Tip: Play your households and rotate in a certain order and for the same number of days per round e.g. Pancakes > Goths > Spencer-Kim > Caliente > Landgraab and then back to Pancakes again for the start of the next round.
Do I need a spreadsheet?
You don't need an tracking spreadsheet for rotational gameplay, but it is worth noting down the order in which you play and checking off a household when you've completed it so you can keep track of where you are between play sessions. You can do this in a notebook, exel or any format that works for you.
Lots of rotational players love spreadsheets and so do I, but it's not necessary and if you don't find tracking and looking at data fun then don't worry about it!
Not sure what to track? Just keep a record of what is important/useful for you to know about your world(s) and your households. You can always add and remove things as you go and develop a system that works for you.
Ideas of things to track if you do want to start a spreadsheet: Household order, Household name, Sim first and last name, age, aspiration, traits, degree, career, career level, hobby, sub-hobby.
Ageing System
You can play with the EA standard ageing system or use the MC Command Centre mod (see mods section below) to set your own ageing system.
My current ageing system is: babies (2 days), infants (3 days), toddler (4 days), children (7 days), teens (14 days), young adult (21 days), adult (28 days) and elder (14 days+).
Do I have to play wants based?
Lots of rotational players will play a "wants based system" where they only do what their Sim "wants" to do. Some players also consider their Sim's fears and also work to avoid fulfiling them.
In The Sims 4 the wants and fears are not as well developed or interconnected as The Sims 2 and can be a little random, especially with the vanilla EA wants and fears system (see mods section below for alternative improved versions).
Playing wants based is not necessary or enforced. It's up to you whether you want to play wants based or play out your Sims lives exactly how you want to. In my Willow Springs gameplay I use a semi-wants based system where I do routinely check and use a Sims wants, aspiration goals and bucket list to guide me in playing out their life, but I am not exclusive with them.
The main aim is to enjoy yourself and not let things get stale, so try different methods and see what works for you!
Gameplay Rules & Randomisation
Gameplay rules are rules you set for yourself and may include the randomisation of certain game aspects. Gameplay rules are not required, but can be useful. I use them to make things more difficult, to restrict certain gameplay elements and to make different life stages more distinct. I also use them to avoid my perfectionist habits e.g. sims always getting A grades, sims always getting to the top of their career.
There are no set rules and you can decide what you want for gameplay rules and to randomise yourself, but examples include:
Only Sims with an A can do a distinghuished degree at University.
Elders cannot live alone and must move to a community retirement home.
Only adults and elders can set and work on a bucket list and Soul's Journey (not YA's).
Only teens can use Social Bunny.
Sims can only work on a skill if they interact with a skill building object autonomously or have the want/bucket list goal to build a skill.
All traits are randomised when a Sim ages up and unlocks a new one.
Aspirations are all randomised when a Sim ages up.
A Sim's sexuality is randomised when they age up to a teen.
Random numbers/dice are rolled to give Sims a hobby (also a sub-hobby if desired) e.g. music, then the sub-hobby is piano.
I have a complete guide to my personal Sims 4 rotational gameplay rules here if you are interested!
Make Use of Clubs! (Get Together)
Clubs are a great way to get the Sims in your world(s) socialising, dating, practicing hobbies and more! You can use the EA clubs that come with Get Together or create your own.
Ideas for clubs include:
Age based clubs
Hobby based clubs
Singles club
I also use a mod (see mods section below) so that I can add infants and toddlers to clubs.
Do I have play active school? (High School Years)
You can absolutely choose to play active high school, but it's not required. Active high school is a great way for teen sims to meet and start to form friendships or even find their first love. There is also lots of opportunity for drama!
For my Willow Springs gameplay I pick and choose when I want to play high school. This will depend on the household and teen Sims within it. Sometimes I'll play active high school every day for a certain household, othertimes I might skip days.
Should I play University? (Discover University)
You can absolutely choose to play University, but it's not required. University can be really fun and it's great to see the kids that have grown up in your world(s) head off and start their independant life! However, it can be time-consuming to play University and there are some things to watch out for. In The Sims 4, it's important to play a Sim throughout the entirity of their University life from enrollment to graduation as time doesn't pause when you switch households and you risk them ending up on academic probabtion or being expelled if you leave their househould, play another and then come back later.
I use a mod (see mods section below) to shorten University so it can be completed with 4 credits. I will enroll my Sims in University and get them to take 4 classes or 3 classes and an elective in one term.
If you have mutliple Sims to send to University you can put them in one house or dorm together. You can also stagger groups of students starting University and complete each group at a time.
I also use cheats so I don't have to wait for my Sims to get an acceptance letter for University, this means they can head off to University as soon as they are reach the end of their teen years. To do this:
Press Control-Shift-C on your keyboard to open the cheats window
Type in "testingcheats true"
Shift click on your Sim and select "Pack Cheats-Expansion Packs"
Undedr the University menu click "Enroll in University"
Useful Mods
I have a list of all the mods I use in the Sims 4 here if you are interested to see it. However, below I picked out what I consider some of the key mods to play rotationally in the Sims 4. None of these are completely necessarily and you can play rotationally without then if you do not use mods.
MC Command Center (including woohoo add on) - this allows you to set a custom lifespan and get notified when there is a birth about to happen in your world(s). There are many other options but these are the key ones for rotational gameplay.
Venue Changes and Custom High School Add On - this allows you to have a high school outside of Copperdale.
Hopes and Fears Mod plus add-on No Fulfillment - Overhauls The Sims 4 Wants and Fears.
Personality Mod plus Personality Add On - This mod adds assignable Sims 2 personalities into the The Sims 4 and Sim's will generate the associated wants related to them. The add on provides three more assignable personalities.
Hobby Mod - This mod adds assignable hobbies into the The Sims 4 and Sim's will generate the associated wants related to them.
Custom Wants Mod (required for other mods)
Lot 51 Core Library (required for other mods)
Whim Overhaul (this is an alternative wants overhaul mod which conflicts with the one linked above, so pick one of them).
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