I am a modder, I am a lover of mods I know. But others aren’t and some actually can’t have mods in their game because they are on console or for other reasons.
This is a guide for things to do in your game without mods.
Tip #1 Don’t be scared of drama
This is such important advice. There are so many people I know who don’t understand why their game is boring, yet they want their sims to have the best life possible with the least amount of drama or unexpected surprises. You need to embrace the drama. I know this sounds weird but it really is for the best.
I also don’t necessarily mean put your sims into the pool and close a gate around them. I mean let your sim die from crazy situations that are out of your control, like a fire. Have mean sims that mistreat people whenever they can. Create some cheaters sims, and break families apart. Get some family/sibling rivalries it really does give a history to your sims especially if you play generation-long games.
Tip #2 Play around with traits
A lot of people might use the same traits again and again for every single sim. You should change it up. I do think the traits in the game are lacking to a certain extent though so another piece of advice would be to use your imagination for certain traits. For example, if you have the snob trait, you can make your sim perform mean interactions with everyone who is below their social class and be kinder to everyone above. You can use traits as a stepping stone for your sims.
I am pretty sure there are some traits in your game that you never choose. Go ahead and choose those. Create a personality for your sims based on those abandoned traits.
Tip #3 Add different life stages into your game
If you usually only play with a few life stages in your game then it’s easy to get bored. Play around with other life stages. One thing you could do is a playa save where you have each life stage in the house. This could create some fun dynamics. It could be a family where you have the grandparents in the house down to the toddler. You could add different traits to each of these sims, they don’t all have to be nice. One of them could love mischief and always prank people in the house. The grandparents could have tension with their in-laws. You could create tension between siblings.
If you add different life stages it opens the door for a bunch of new dynamics you can play around with. This is great for drama and interesting gameplay.
Tip #4 Try some of the available challenges
I feel like challenges have kind of been forgotten now, but they shouldn’t be. They can be really fun. Here is a comprehensive list of the Sims 4 Challenges. Some of the most iconic ones like the 100 baby challenge are really fun and you should try it if you already have not. https://simscommunity.info/the-sims-4-challenges/
Also, one thing to remember, is you can change these challenges around to fit what you want. The rules don’t exactly have to be the same. That’s what's fun about the challenges: you can morph them into your own thing.
I also recommend looking at the Legacy/Generational challenges. In my opinion, those are the funner ones, and it feels super rewarding to complete them.
Tip #5 Those skills you never tried or that career you never tried, try it
Last but not least, there are lots of unexplored skills and careers in the game that remain untouched. Skills like gardening skills or writing skills can add a lot of interesting takes to your game. You could make money out of a gardening career. You could also try to make money out of catering.
You could also try to flesh out your piano or violin skills. Write songs and sell them. This could be a goal your sim works towards and they might struggle because they don’t have the funds to pay bills, so they have to focus on getting money to be able to focus on their true passion.
Conclusion.
Mods are definitely not the be-all and end-all of the Sims 4. Before finding out about mods I used to play the game for hours and it’s still very much possible to enjoy vanilla gameplay!
So what do you plan on doing to spice your game up?