Did you know that there are over 60 premade households in the Sims 4? With that many characters, there’s bound to be some interpersonal conflicts brewing around town. If you live for the melodrama or you’re just looking for new ways to play the game, this is the list for you!
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Calling All Drama Llamas!
Many households in the game have been suggested to have melodrama, but unfortunately not all of them have been properly programmed to reflect that. Whether they have been or not, you have the power to stoke the flames of conflict even further with your gameplay decisions. We’ve ranked the 15 best families to play with if you specifically want to cause tension, and shake things up in your gameplay. Let’s spill some tea!
15. The Prescott Household
Widow Mei Prescott is the principle of Copperdale High, and holds her daughters to a high standard of educational achievement as a result. Her children, Molly and Amy, are both resisting these expectations in different ways.
Molly tries for her mother, joining the chess team in school, though she has a mischievous streak that allows her to let off some steam. She secretly wants to become a musician and she keeps a guitar hidden in the attic where she can sneak off to practice under her mother’s nose.
Amy on the other hand has straight-up rebelled against her mother and though just a child, is already mischievous and a thief. She gets along well with her family for the time being, but that may change as she grows and resists her mother’s pressure more and more. Being so spunky at such a young age tells us there is strong melodrama potential in this sim.
14. The Fyres Family
A happy couple with two children, Dominic and Moira Fyres have nothing to worry about, for now. Their daughters Siobhan and Morgan are members of different social clubs that happen to be sworn enemies, and while the girls are fine when the game begins they’re bound to develop problems if they spend enough time at club events; each club encourages being mean to members of the other. Since the sisters are living together, whatever melodrama happens at those meetings is bound to spill into their home life sooner or later!
13. The Pleasant Family
Angela and Lilith Pleasant are identical twin sisters with very opposite personalities. We first met them in the Sims 2, where Lilith resented her sister for being treated as the golden child while she herself was often neglected by their parents.
They seem to be okay with each other as they attend college in the Sims 4, but with such opposite personalities it would be easy to stir up those old conflicts again. In addition, a younger version of the family was added to the gallery that includes their parents (although in this version everybody gets along), so you could even go back in time with them and get the melodrama started early. Angela was always the black sheep of the family, after all.
12. The BFF Household
Summer Holiday, Liberty Lee, and Travis Scott are all roommates. Their household states that Liberty and Summer are both developing feelings for Travis, though they are all acquaintances at game launch. Travis has common interests with both women and could easily be set up to fall for one—or both—of them. Get these sims flirty and let the melodrama begin.
11. The Bailey-Moon Family
Entertainer Thorne Bailey and writer Octavia Moon are a celebrity couple recently embroiled in melodrama, after it was leaked that Octavia has been the one writing all of Thorne’s songs. Despite the leak, Thorne still has a rabid fan base and it seems that some of them have grown jealous of his wife, harassing her through the mail. Octavia copes with the fan abuse by drinking juice and has developed a bit of a habit. Will they stay a strong united front or will the scandals and jealousy cause a rift?
10. The Vatore & Straud Families
Vladislaus Straud founded the town of Forgotten Hollow, and over a century later the Vatores joined the neighborhood. Vlad was actually the one who turned Lilith Vatore into a vampire, who trained with him until their falling out. Both Lilith and her brother Caleb do not like the idea of drinking plasma from innocent sims and disagree with Vlad’s penchant for breaking into unsuspecting sims’ homes and draining them without their consent.
The households don’t actually have any relationship when the game launches, despite their bios indicating conflict. If you need a reason to make neighbors into enemies, these are two households that are perfect for the job.
On top of this, the Vatores are also cousins with werewolf Lily Zhu, with whom they also do not have a pre-established relationship. Lily misses her family and depending on if you want to rekindle their relationships or have a full on occult war, either way the melodrama is sure to follow!
9. The Pancakes Family
Bob and Eliza Pancakes are in such a strained and melodramatic marriage, they have seperate bedrooms! Bob is lazy but skilled and Eliza is ambitious but unemployed. Their personalities are total opposites and they don’t have any common interests. Why they’re still married is anybody’s guess, but this is a couple just screaming to get divorced.
An updated version of the family was released on the gallery where they have a child together but are no longer in love at all. Despite that, they’re still married and friends. Will baby Iggy bring back the spark they once shared, or will their eyes (and hearts) start straying and looking elsewhere for love? They say it’s never a good idea to stay together for the kids, after all.
8. The Charm & Amicable Acolytes Households
It’s not actually stated why beef exists between these two households, but there is animosity between Darryl Charm and Tomax Collette. There are two distinct guesses as to why they could be feuding, and if you want to follow one or both of those avenues you will definitely conjure up some major magical melodrama!
Reason number one is that they may just be competing. Hot headed Darryl comes from a family line of magicians and perhaps he’s vying for the top spot of the best magic master around. He may be threatened by newcomer Tomax who is motivated to ascend the ranks by competing with his roommate Grace over who levels up first. Darryl is also a snob and may just not respect Tomax for being “new blood.”
The other potential cause, which is way more fun, is that Darryl might be jealous of Tomax. Why? Because Tomax is friends with Emilia Clark, who happens to be Darryl’s fiance. Now that the game includes an attraction system, we know that Emilia finds Tomax to be extremely attractive and though there’s no romance between them now, it doesn’t seem like it would take much nudging to start one!
7. The Langraab & Zest Families
Johnny Zest has been completely disowned by his family, the Landgraabs, for choosing to drop out of school in pursuit of an entertainment career. They have no relationship whatsoever despite living near each other (likely due to Johnny being left so destitute he can’t afford to move away) and don’t show on each others’ family trees. It would be so juicy to see Johnny excell in his career, and when his money-hungry mother decides to talk to him again, he responds with nothing but hostility.
The Landgraab family is also rife for melodrama within their own home. Husband Geoffrey is a good sim and working as a detective, meanwhile his greedy wife Nancy is working in the criminal career and keeping it secret from him. It would be a shame if Geoff found out…imagine the scandal!
6. The Sterling Rico & Greenburg Households
Knox Greenburg—and to a less passionate extent, his moms—is an extremely eco-conscious sim whose main motivation is to clean up Evergreen Harbor in a green and environmentally friendly way. His neighbors Bess Sterling and Jules Rico, on the other hand, have big plans to develop the area and over-industrialize it. They already have a dislike for each other and you can increase that melodrama by stoking their negative interactions as well as advancing one or the other household’s plans for the type of place Evergreen Harbor is going to be.
5. The Markovic & Laurent Families
There are several reasons why the Markovic and Laurent families are at odds, both personally and professionally. Mateo and Lucia Markovic have been engaged for a long time, but they keep putting off getting married. The couple blames the stress of working and trying to advance their reputation in the wedding industry as the reason they’re too busy. They already have a child and Lucia has already changed her last name, so at this point they have even less motivation to tie the knot.
The Laurents have been in Tartosa for generations and run two very lucrative businesses, stirring jealousy from Mateo Markovic. It doesn’t help that Hector Laurent and Lucia Markovic used to date, and still have tension between them. Did we mention that Hector’s wife Hilary is friends with Lucia? Yes, he broke up with Lucia and then married her best friend. If that doesn’t scream melodrama to you, we don’t know what will!
4. The Ito Family &…everyone
There are only 3 premade families living in Mt. Komorebi and there’s conflict between all of them. Naoki and Megumi Ito are former star athletes with two children, Kiyoshi and Nanami, both of which they want to follow in their medalist footsteps. While the children are athletically inclined it seems that neither of them are interested in following their parents’ dreams, which could be an issue.
Naoki is a ruthless land developer and he really wants to push the mountain toward a more techie tourist hovel, raking in simoleons the whole way. He has previously clashed with his neighbor Shigeru Nishidaki, a crotchety old man and guardian of the area who wants the mountain left alone. To make things even worse, Naoki’s son and Shigeru’s granddaughter are harboring a secret romance that neither rival is aware of…for now.
Megumi Ito has history with Shigeru’s wife, Sachiko, who used to be besties with Megumi’s mom. The two are good friends despite their husbands’ rivalry. Megumi also has her own potential melodrama going on with their other neighbors, the Akiyamas.
See, Megumi used to date Kado Akiyama and while she’s still hurt from the way things ended, she wonders if there might be a flame still burning between them. Kado is content in his life now, or at least that’s what he says, but his wife Jenna doesn’t seem to be as convinced. Jenna has doubts about their marriage and occasionally sneaks off to the coast to get time to herself and clear her head. All in all, the Ito’s have the power to stir things up in Mt. Komorebi to an extreme extent!
3. The Caliente Household
The Caliente family has existed since the Sims 2 and melodrama has always followed them. In the Sims 4, Don Lothario has recently moved in to be with love interest Katrina, who lives with her two daughters Dina and Nina as well. Despite this info, Katrina and Don don’t have any romantic relationships established when the game starts.
There are several ways you can mess with these sims. Katrina is looking for “the one” meanwhile Don is a serial romantic, so if you pair the two of them up infidelity is bound to happen. Dina and Nina are closer in age to Don, have romantic traits, and have been involved with Don in previous versions of the game. Not to mention, Don can get involved with sims outside of the household, too. Will there be a caliente catfight in this house? That’s up to you!
2. The Watson Family
The Watson family starts off with tension already brewing between husband Thomas and wife Rahmi. They inherited a large farm from Thomas’ elders and he moved them and their 3 kids out to the country to live the simple life. The big problem is that Thomas is a lousy farmer, and he takes that fact very personally.
Rahmi has already started losing feelings for her melodramatic husband and his inadequate crops, and had an affair with the village mayor Levina Chopra that ended in disaster. Things are awkward between the couple with no sign that Rahmi wants to fix things.
Their eldest daughter Rashida hates living in Henford-On-Bagley and is plotting her escape with a new beau. Her love interest happens to be Rahul Chopra, the mayor’s son! Looks like the Chopra’s really want to break up this family!
1. The Goth Family
Okay, this one is kind of cheating because the family is perfectly happy in the Sims 4. But, if you know your Goth history, you know that the family has been fraught with melodrama for the past 20+ years. In previous versions of the Sims, Bella Goth was suspected of having an affair with Don Lothario before being abducted by aliens, only to end up in a completely different town with no memory of her previous life. Meanwhile, Mortimer moved on and dated Dina Caliente, while Cassandra ended up engaged to…Don Lothario! It was even discovered that there was a snow globe featuring Bella & Mortimer hidden in the Sims 2’s files that was smashed!
In the Sims 3 Bella somehow ended up dead and alone with a completely different personality in Lunar Lakes and it’s never been clarified how she got there. Childhood versions of Bella and Mortimer also exist in the base game, so there seems to be some time traveling shenanigans going on. Needless to say, there’s a lot of melodrama fodder for you if you want to stir things up with the current version of the family.
In Conclusion
On a surface level the Sims 4 seems like a happy little life simulator where everybody gets along, but if you look deeper you will find oodles of melodrama lurking below the facade. Infidelity, deception, moral conflict, and more are bubbling beneath that shiny plumbob veneer, and with a little poking you can get it to bleed through. Enjoy your tea, and happy simming!