The Mayfair Challenge is still a bit in concept phase. Please feel free to leave messages for me about this with a PM or a guestbook entry at my SimsResource profile.

This challenge is named in honor of the Mayfair family from Anne Rice's books, a family famous for intermarriage, fabulous wealth, and for demanding people carry the last name of Mayfair to inherit. While it is not necessary to use the surname Mayfair in order to participate in the challenge, I will continue to use the last name Mayfair to illustrate points of the challenge.

The goal of the Mayfair Challenge is to have 10 familes in the neighborhood, all of whom eventually will have a child related, by surname and blood descent, to the Prime Family. In my neighborhood, the prime family is the Mayfairs. In addition, this cannot be done by breeding any of these ten families out of existence.

You should end up with each of the 10 families having a child in it with the surname Mayfair who is descended from the Mayfair Matriarch (the female of the origin family). You should also end up with at least one household bearing each of the Origin Surnames in your town.

Starting the Mayfair Challenge

Create a new neighborhood and 10 married couples. These should be male/female couples without any children.

When creating couples, let the random generator choose the Zodiac/Personality to the starting member of the couple. Choose the aspiration but make it fit the personality (no Popularity sims with Outgoing scores of 1, for example). You can select the spouse's Zodiac to be compatible with the spouse.

When I created my starter families, I let the automatic character generator determine the skin color I would start with for the family, to create some random neighborhoodwide diversity. I didn't keep the random faces though (yuck)

Prime Family: One couple is your Prime family and will be the subject of the challenge. My Prime family name is Mayfair, and thus I will use this name in the examples to refer to the Prime family.

The female in the Prime family is referred to as the Matriarch.

Origin Family: The other 9 couples will be referred to as Origin Families. Each of the Origin families should have a different surname. These are the Origin Names.

Move the 9 Origin couples onto lots of any size. You may build a small starter home for them first if you prefer, but you are limited to the original 20,000 simoleans.

The Mayfairs must move into a 5x5 lot. (Don't worry, Mayfairs -- this is okay. Read on). The 9 Origin families are welcome to move to bigger houses and lots when they can afford them. The Mayfair lot must remain in the familiy.

The Mayfair Challenge Rules

To complete the Mayfair Challenge, each of the 9 Origin families must produce 1 offspring who:

• is a descendent their Origin Family (and probably others)
• is a descendent of the Mayfair Matriarch AND
• bears the Mayfair surname

In addition

• there must be at least one household in town bearing each of the other 9 Origin Names.

This means you will need to have each family produce at least 1 child, grown up to adulthood, who marries a Mayfair descendent and produces offspring. Some families will have to be played for more than 1 generation, especially depending on how your gender balance goes. It also means you need to do this in such a way that the family name is preserved -- in other words, without marrying a name out of existence.

There are, of course, several rules.

A. THE MAYFAIR PRIVILEGE
B. MARRIAGES AND THE PRIME FAMILY
C. CHILDREN
D. ALIEN RULES
E. CHEAT, HACKS, AND SAVES
F. FAMILY EXTINCTION
G. MISCELLANEOUS
H. POINTS

A. The Mayfair Privilege

Since the Mayfairs in the Anne Rice books were fabulously wealthy, it seems fair that the Prime Family of the Mayfair Challenge should have similar privilege. Thus, the Mayfair family and ONLY the Mayfair family may make unlimited use of money cheats. Go build yourself a mansion.

ONLY legitimate Mayfairs may use the Mayfair Privilege. This means they must be:

a. legitimately born descendents of the Mayfair Matriarch

AND

b. must bear the surname Mayfair

Descendents of the Mayfair Matriarch who do not bear the Mayfair surname cannot use the Mayfair Privilege.

B. Marriages and the Prime Family

1. You may not marry any members of the Origin Couples to Mayfairs. (The Origin Couples are your original 9 non-Mayfair couples you created to start the challenge). Only their offspring may marry into the Mayfair family. The Prime couple must remain married to one another.

2. When a child of an Origin family (male OR female) marries a Mayfair, he or she must assume the last name of Mayfair by marrying on a Mayfair lot. They may move out after the marriage is done, but they must marry on this lot and become a Mayfair.

3. Mayfair children must marry on a Mayfair family lot or lose their place. A Mayfair who marries one of the other Origin Families on a non-Mayfair lot not only loses the Mayfair surname, but also the Mayfair Privilege. Offspring of this family must marry back into the Mayfair family proper and assume the Mayfair surname to be considered back in play.

Example of 2 and 3:

If Tom Aldridge marries Anna Mayfair on her lot, he becomes Tom Mayfair. This family can exercise the Mayfair Privilege and their children are in play for the challenge.

Tom is considered a Mayfair by marriage, not by descent, so if he divorces Anna before they have children to marry someone else, he is no longer considered a true Mayfair for purposes of descendency or Mayfair Privilege.

If Tom Aldridge marries Anna Mayfair on his lot -- not the Mayfair mansion lot -- and she becomes Anna Aldridge, she is no longer considered a Mayfair. This means she cannot use the Mayfair Privilege and their children are not considered Mayfairs for the purposes of the challenge. One of their children will have to marry a "legitimate" Mayfair.

In the case above, Anna would be seen to be "rejecting" the Mayfairs and therefore is written out of the will, so to speak.

4. ONLY MAYFAIRS (those bearing the Mayfair name) are considered "legitimate" descendents for the Mayfair Challenge. By the end of the challenge, the bottom of every family's tree must contain Mayfairs who are related by descent from the Mayfair Matriarch.

5. A Mayfair may never marry another Mayfair. Only a person with one of the 9 Origin names can marry a Mayfair.

In the case above with Tom Aldridge and Anna (Mayfair) Aldridge, their Aldridge child may marry a Mayfair because he is no longer considered one, even though Anna was a Mayfair by descent.

6. Marriages should only occur among your 10 Prime/Origin families. Townies and NPCs are not marriage material. (But you already knew that). Any Sim marrying a townie or NPC is considered "out of play" for the challenge.

7. No divorces allowed between parents with children. Divorces prior to children being conceived are OK.

8. Only "legitimate" offspring born within a marriage are in play.

9. Stepchildren of Mayfairs are not Mayfairs.

10. Throughout the course of the game, you should not end up with any surnames other than your original ten.

C. Children

1. Each family in every generation may produce only two (2) children. The family may only have one child, but not more than two.

2. If you get twins on the second pregnancy, only the oldest twin may marry and produce offspring. You may not choose which twin will marry -- only the first one will marry and the second one will not. (The first twin is the one who is born first and appears above the second twin in the family list).

3. If you get a third child by accident (due to a small random chance of getting pregnant on just WooHoo), the third child is considered "out of play" and may not marry or produce offspring.

4. Aliens have their own set of rules. These are listed below.

5. Only children born in a legitimate marriage between a male and a female are considered in play. Adopted kids are not related by blood to their family and thus cannot fulfill the rule of being related to both their own family and to the Mayfairs.

Note: Gay and lesbian couples are, of course, fine, but since they can only adopt, their offspring are out of play for the challenge. They do add diversity to a neighborhood, though. The only exception to this is that a gay male descendent of the Mayfair matriarch abducted by aliens CAN be back in play with his/her alien offspring See Alien Rules. This is a game about blood descendency, after all.

6. Teen aspirations are at your discretion. You may either choose aspirations that fit your child's personality, or you may randomize them as you wish.

7. If a child dies prior to adulthood, the parents may have another child to replace him/her if they are still young enough to do so. If they are too old to have more children, live with it.

D. Alien Rules

Aliens are acceptable in the Mayfair Challenge only if they fit into the following rules:

1. An Alien born to a Mayfair by marriage (rather than a Mayfair by blood) is not a Mayfair and cannot be considered such for the purposes of the challenge. This includes an alien child born to the male spouse of the Mayfair Matriarch.

Example: Anna Mayfair marries Tom Aldridge, who becomes Tom Mayfair when they marry. Tom is abducted by aliens and has an alien son named Yob. While Yob's name is Yob Mayfair, he is not a true Mayfair because he is Tom (Aldridge)'s child and not Anna's. He, thus, is not related to the Mayfair Matriarch by descent and is not considered a Mayfair for the purposes of the Challenge.

Yob can be married off to another Origin family and their child can marry a "true" Mayfair. Yob cannot marry a Mayfair because, as stated above, someone with the Mayfair surname cannot marry another Mayfair.

2. An Alien born to a Mayfair by blood (a male Mayfair descended from the Mayfair Matriarch) is considered a Mayfair and can be used for the purposes of the challenge.

3. An Alien born to any one of the other families follows normal child rules.

4. An Alien counts toward the number of children in a family. Thus, if the Alien is the first or second child, he or she can be considered "in play" for the challenge. Aliens who appear as a third child must follow the third child rule and neither marry nor produce offspring.

5. Aliens may ONLY be gotten into the game through legitimate use of the STANDARD Maxis expensive telescope and old fashioned patience. The boolProp cheat and hacked telescopes may not be used.

E. Cheats, Hacks, and Saves

1. Saves/reloads are forbidden to get outcomes you want. If this means you get a generation with 80% boys, live with it.

2. ALL cheats are forbidden, except for:

- those few cheats that fix bugs or mistakes (you can use moveobject to move bugged objects or people, or the Tombstone of Life and Death so your kid doesn't go through life with the name "Baby Girl" or "Baby Boy")

- Money cheats for the Mayfairs (see Mayfair Privilege). No other families may use money cheats.

3. All hacks are forbidden. Period.

Family extinction is defined as having no households in town bearing the Origin Name. You cannot simply marry down the families into extinction.

Well, of course you can, but it will severely affect your final score. You are docked big points for every Origin Name eliminated from your town.

There are a few other ways family extinction can occur:

1. If you lose a husband or wife among your Origin or Prime couples due to an accidental death or SPDS (Sudden Pregnancy Death Syndrome) prior to the birth of the first child, you may replace the missing spouse by creating one in the Family Maker and having them court and marry. Make sure to marry on the widow/er's lot to retain the last name.

2. After the first child is born to an Origin Family, if a run of back luck creates a family extinction (parents die, child is taken by social workers), the family is considered Extinct and it counts against your final score.

1. Play all chance cards. If you get a chance card in your job, you must play it, not ignore. Live with the results.

2. All aspiration rewards and career rewards are fair game. If you want to keep your Mayfair Matriarch alive for the whole thing, go for it.

3. All intentional deaths of Origin/Prime family members are forbidden. This includes boolProp or removing ladders from pools or suddenly "losing" doors on small rooms. You're also not to try having Sims with low mechanical skills fix dangerous electrical objects or cook with low cooking skills in hopes of incinerating them. Accidental deaths do happen, but do your best to keep all your Sims alive, whether you like them personally or not.

You are welcome to kill townies and NPCs any way you want. In fact, I get so sick of them I do it on purpose. A lot. In fact, before I started the Mayfair Challenge myself, I 'cleaned the neighborhood' by first creating a lone serial killer to kill off all the townspeople. Then I made my families and moved in. Since townies and NPC have no relevance to the Challenge, do with them as you see fit.

4. The oldest Mayfair female in a generation should always live on in the Mayfair Prime Family lot.

5. Third-party wallpaper, floors, heads, clothes, hair, makeup, etc., are all fine.

6. Third-party objects are OK as long as they do not introduce ANY hacks, cheats, or features that were not included in the original game (in other words, stick to recolors).

7. People are strongly encouraged to build their own houses to prevent accidental hacks from entering the game. You are welcome to import any community lots you like.

H. Points

The Mayfair Challenge is more about fun than points, but if you're one of those retentive folks who wants something to count at the end, here goes:

When you have completed the Challenge, tally up your points:

+1 for every blood descendent of the Mayfair Matriarch
+5 for every "end generation" Mayfair child for every Origin family (OTHER than the Mayfairs) they are related to by descent
+1 for every LEGITIMATE Mayfair alien (with alien features)
+20 for keeping your Mayfair Matriarch alive to see the end of the game
-100 for every Origin family extinction (loss of a family name due to being bred out, bad luck, and/or deaths)

Note: The Sims 2 is a registered a and copyrighted product of Maxis/Electronic Arts. The Mayfair name appears in the Mayfair Witches books by Anne Rice, which are her copyrighted property. This site claims no connection or sanction from either party and all mistakes/issues are my own. The name "Mayfair Challenge" is meant to be a fond tribute to books I have greatly enjoyed.