What's That Trait Do? Chased By Death (Patreon)

The Chased By Death trait from Life and Death claims it makes sims more susceptible to death. But what does that really mean?

• The trait gives Sims a hidden buff that alters the decay of many hidden "motives" for various death types.

  • Death types have their own secret background values that determine when they happen. For instance, being poisoned by a dart in Jungle Adventure adds a hidden tracker that starts at 4320, decays at a rate of 1 per sim-minute, and applies buffs as it gets lower and lower- until killing your Sim when it hits 0.

  • The Chased by Death buff alters these decay rates. In this case, the Poison Dart hidden motive drops 2x faster when a Sim is Chased by Death.

  • The values are around 2x faster for most deaths.

• The buff also applies to Burnout: Making it both faster and slower. Both Creative and Mental fog are a number that lowers over time, and rises with certain actions. This trait makes them raise 1.8 and 2x faster, meaning actions that reduce burnout are stronger. It also makes them lower 1.8x faster. I'm not sure why it does this, but it does. It seems the goal of this trait is less "Dies more Easily" and more "Has more concern about the value of life, due to being more fragile". Thus, these sims are quicker to revitalize but also quicker to overdo it.

• There are two ways the game raises/lowers these numbers: Decay, and Stat Use. Decay is natural- it's the number changing over time on its own. Stat Use is when a Sim does something that, for lack of better phrasing, "uses the stat" we're discussing. When a sim does Creative work, it is actively "using" the stat for Creative Burnout. The buff also affects all these values for these cases, too. So if there's something that makes one of these hidden motives change when you're actively doing it, this trait will make that faster.

  • To reiterate: IF something increases your likelihood of a death, this buff makes it faster. It also makes it passively faster. Example: A moldy home gives a Sim the mold death tracking motive. It will decay over time, and eventually kill your sim. This buff makes that faster. Messing with or interacting with Mold can also take chunks off of this value- this buff makes it take bigger chunks off. Make sense?

  • Some of the actions that raise these stats are more likely for these sims. Murphy Bed failures are 3x likely to happen to them, for example.

• Sims with Chased By Death are given a small, varying-depending-on-the-death-type chance of being revived immediately after death, regardless of any other factors. While Sims normally have a 100% chance of revival if they've done things like being blessed in certain ways, having eaten certain foods recently, having a Familiar nearby, etc, these sims always get a chance of being spared.

• If a Sim is Chased by Death AND a Ghost, they have a 2-3x chance of ANY Grim pleading interactions succeeding. Pleading, giving a death flower, seducing- they all give a drastically increased chance of the plead keeping the dying sim alive.

• If a Sim is Chased by Death AND a Ghost, they will gain extra fun from being almost killed a second time. As in, shaking vending machines and nearly being crushed, being struck by lightning, etc, will give them a fun boost.

• If a Sim asks Grim about his Tablet and he isn't in the mood to speak to them they get Discovery Moment progress towards being Chased by Death- as in, they've pissed Grim off and now he wants their head...or rather, likes killing and thrilling them, based on the other behaviors of the trait.

• These Sims get a special Buff on learning new skills, because who knows when they'll die? Gotta learn it all now.

• These Sims cannot develop a Fear of Death.

• These Sims get extra Satisfaction Points if they are also a Ghost Whisperer (reward trait).

• These Sims can get a special Unfinished Business goal that involves a certain interaction with Grim.

• These Sims count as a "Spirited", "High Energy", and "Hard Worker" Sim type for characteristic preferences.

• These sims are "unimpressed" when witnessing other sims dying.

• These Sims get Wants related to improving themselves before death- Getting promoted, learning new skills, etc.

• These Sims can do a special handshake with Macabre sims.

• These Sims recieve ominous, anonymous gifts after some time has passed.

• When a Chased By Death sim provokes a pet crow, it will always respond extremely negatively. Seems like just another thing implying these sims are treated differently by Grim and aspects of death, including Crows, who are harbingers of it?

Unfortunately this trait does not make deaths "guaranteed", like I was hoping. Instead, it simply makes all of them far more common, but with a small chance of not actually going through all the way. Grim's "chase" seems to be one of playfulness, similar to the Unlucky trait from Sims 3- where Sims would die more easily, but Grim would always spare them, feeling sorry for them, and enjoying getting to "kill them" over and over.

A very fun and surprisingly in-depth idea for a trait, though!

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