More Awesome Than You!

I originally posted this at a different forum, but I just thought I'd get some opinions from here as well:

I've read many, many Legacy stories (and other challenges) where the founder or their children have three or more children, and the others are referred to as 'spares.' Now, there's nothing wrong with this, but I feel guilty about having a child only as a "spare" to the heir, so here's my idea:

As a supplement to the Legacy Challenge, you are only permitted to have ONE pregnancy per generation. I was going to say one child, but you can't really help it if you have twins. Or can you...? With the multitude of ways that you can influence the number of sims your sim has, another rule is that you cannot use the Cheesecake option, and if you happen to have the Triplets & Quads hack, you are required to choose the number of babies and always choose only one (so if you happen to have the Random Only version installed, you either have to replace it with the other version or you cannot play this particular challenge). In this way, those who happen to have no hacks in their game actually have the greatest chance of bearing twins.

You are also permitted to adopt, but this would count towards your one child per generation rule. You can birth a child or adopt, but not both. Naturally, this would excuse the 'genetic lineage' requirement from the original Legacy Challenge.

The only exception to this rule is in the case of alien abduction. As was the case with twinning options, you are not permitted to influence the chances of abduction in any way. So if you have any hack or item installed that increases the odds of abduction, you will be required to remove them when you play this particular challenge. However, you are allowed to have a hack that allows teens and females to become pregnant from abductions in the slight chance that they happen to be the ones abducted.

ETA: I have decided that since natural Alien Abductions are so rare (generally speaking), if a member of your household gets abducted/impregnated and you already have one child (or one on the way), you may keep the alien child without incurring any penalty in that instance only, and only one time during the entire Legacy.

So to sum up, you play this exactly like the Legacy Challenge, but with the following additions:
1. Regardless of the age or gender of the pregnant sim, you are only permitted to have one child or pregnancy per generation within the household (note the only exception regarding abductions). This means you can either have your sim birth a child, or you can adopt. Not both.
2. (a). You are not permitted to alter what child (or toddler, or baby) you want to adopt by having another family give theirs up for adoption.
2. (b). Similarly, if anyone in the neighborhood has had a baby/toddler/child taken away by the social worker, you are no longer permitted to adopt that age group unless you have a completely different family adopt the child(ren) that was taken away.
2. (c). If you have your baby/toddler/child taken away by the social worker, the challenge is over and you have failed. This is to prevent people getting around the 'One child per generation' rule.
3. No use of any hacks or cheats that will increase your chance of twins (or more).
4. No use of any hacks or cheats that increases the chances of alien abductions, but you are allowed to use a hack to allow teens and females to become pregnant from abductions. I'd personally be wary about allowing teen pregnancies, though.
5. If you happen to have the InTeenimator installed and your sim suffers a miscarriage, you can either try again or adopt a child.
6. Accidental pregnancies happen occasionally, but if your sim accidentally gets pregnant after they already have a child, you can either choose to take a -2 point penalty if the pregnant sim moves out before they give birth (and hence they are no longer a part of the challenge), or a -5 point penalty if they remain on the lot. The only exception is one instance of alien abduction.
7. Genetic lineages aren't important here, so adoptions and alien births can be counted as the heir.
8. If your heir(ess) dies before they produce an heir(ess), the challenge is over and you have lost.
9. This probably goes without saying, but there is to be no reloading after a birth or a bad event. This means that if you desperately want a female heir and you gave birth to a boy, tough luck.
10. If you really want your founder/heir to have more children, you certainly can, but I'm going to institute a penalty for each successive one (and they still cannot be born on the lot). Let's say, -5 points for every child after the first one born in a generation (regardless if they're born off lot or not). Remember: the intention behind this challenge is to limit yourself to only one child per generation. If you have more, you may as well be playing a regular Legacy.
11. Another reason this is called the Tough Luck Challenge is thus: if your heir(ess) and/or their spouse has a children-specific LTW that you can't fulfill with these rules, tough luck.
12. No resurrecting anyone at all. Ever. Under any circumstance.
13. *Optional* If you want to make it a little bit harder for yourself, you can add this goal as well: over the course of the ten generations, try to achieve all Lifetime Wants (with the exception of children-related ones, naturally). It can be achieved by heirs or spouses alike. Heck, you can even use people you've just moved into the household solely for their simoleans if you want. Add 10 points to your final total if you can achieve this. Due to the limited number of sims in the household, you can have each sim achieve two different LTWs if you want, but not three or more.
14. I have decided to add this bonus:
The Sheer Dumb Luck Bonus: Add 10 points to your final score if you only birth one gender during the entire ten generations. This is not alterable, hence why it's called Sheer Dumb Luck. Note: if you start with, say, a male founder and only birth females from then on, you will receive this bonus; it's regarding the gender of the kids born into the family, not including the one who started it.

Is there anyone that would have any interest in something like this? It would require a lot of willpower from those (llike me) who have a tendancy to have several children per family.

ETA: I have added a few rules. Be sure to re-read the rules in case they've changed. More specifically, I've altered the penalty you receive for additional children born on or off the lot.

This would be mildly amusing or challenging if it weren't so pathetically easy to get access to the resurrection technology. Ban that, as well, otherwise it's hardly a challenge. Just a tweak to make legacies slightly duller.

Hmmm, never thought about that at all. I will specifically mention that as well. Thanks, Rohina.

you should update rule #8 to reflect the no resurrection rule.

Done. Thanks.

This would work rather well with the new version of Casual Romance.  There could be no "Try For Baby" allowed and it would be up to the couple whether or not they conceived and how many times.  That's how I'm playing my game now and it's working great. 

I think I'm going to add one optional goal in this here challenge. Be sure to check out the last rule (in about two minutes).

Does having just one child make the game more difficult in any way?
This is how I play anyway.  I never let any of my sims have more than one child, simply because I like straight lines and I don't want to play crowded lots.

Well, sure.  The one child could die horribly in an unforseen accident and you'd lose the challenge.  Especially since one of the other rules is that you can't save without quitting.

It's also frustrating for those people who want to keep a specific feature in the family bloodline (skintone, eye color, elf-ears, etc.). With this challenge, you only get one child, and no matter what their genetics, they are the heir, no questions asked. If they end up looking like a warthog's behind, tough luck. You're stuck with them.

Of course, for those people who normally play this way it's not such a big deal, but there are more people out there who have several children in their families than there are single-child ones.

Yes, but if you want to be Chinese, you have to eat nasty food.