Acting Career (rabbithole) with no fame system and 7 branches

UPDATE (6/28/23): The career files have been updated so that having a degree in Drama advances an entering Sim immediately to Branch selection and increases their chance of early promotion.

Have you ever wanted your Sim to have a career in acting, but didn't want to tackle the Active Career or the Fame system? Then Screen Actor is the custom career for you!
It takes thousands of actors to make films and most of them aren't stars.  But many make a fine living, especially if they specialize in a particular genre and develop their talents and connections accordingly. This career represents and honors those actors' professions.

Although they start out as generic low-level background actors, participant Sims are soon faced with a Branch Selection of SEVEN different film genres.



So, the Screen Actor career is really seven careers in one!

Each branch requires a different level of Acting to advance and distinct thematic skills (see below).  The promotions rewards are similarly thematic , including: 

• Career-useful Objects (e.g., a telescope for SciFi actors or exercise equipment for Action actors); 
• Thematic Decor (e.g., a romantic painting for Romance actors or a rocket sculpture for a SciFi actor); 
• and Custom Objects (e.g., framed posters from genre films with appropriate optional emotional auras). 

Other promotion rewards also include appropriate :

• Preferences (e.g., Romance actors enjoying Flirtation and Drama actors having Drama as their Favorite Movie Genre) 
• Standard Traits (e.g., Romance actors gaining "Beguiling" or Comedy actors becoming "Hilarious") 
• and Custom Abilities (e.g., Horror actors being less affected by Fear or SciFi actors being able to tell who is an Alien).  

Each branch has a different salary path; the more Acting Skill a genre requires the higher the salary will eventually be (although this will not be reflected at the start of the branch, only at the point at which higher Acting Skill becomes necessary). The career neither generates nor requires Fame, so you can play it with the Fame system off, if you prefer.

More On Salary Paths


Each branch features separate work outfits for each level (52 in all!), balloon sets, and individual icons for custom interactions and moodlets.


An example of a custom icon for a special interaction.

Even without anyone in these careers, this mod adds conversational interactions to all Sims who meet certain criteria (either due to their traits or situation) for enjoying a particular genre of film.  For example, Romantic Sims will be able to Discuss Romance Films or two Geeks will be able to Enthuse Together About SciFi.  Seeing what films you can discuss and with whom will give your Sim a sense of other Sims' interests and traits.


Similarly, the mod creates a Preference Category for Film Genres, available to all Sims regardless of whether you have anyone in the Screen Actor Career. Since liking a particular genre is a good indicator of how you approach life, choosing those preferences will result in different emotional reactions not only to particular media but to many interactions as well.

The new Film Genre Preference Category
Disliking a genre will render a Sim ineligible for certain related social interactions, in a perfectly natural way (e.g., a Sim who wants to Analyze Horror Films won't be able to do so with someone who dislikes Horror Films).

The career also comes with the optional (highly recommended!) bonus of a thematic NPC, who has already transitioned from being a successful genre actor to being a celebrity in the regular Actor Career: Damian Maffei.

"The Face of Fear", as the press call him.

He's pretty easy to talk to for a 5-Star Celebrity, since his "lore" is that he was first a Horror genre actor and is therefore empathetic to Screen Actors.


This why he wears lots of purple, the color the game uses for the Fear Emotion. And because he looks great in it.

He's the "patron saint" of Screen Actors; he's like a more colorful and less annoying Judith Ward. 

But then, everyone is less annoying than Judith Ward.

His presence on the scene has many special effects on Screen Actors, depending on their genre and level, and others, too..  Like the social interactions mentioned above, Damian Maffei will bring some verve to your gameplay even if you have no Sims in the Screen Actor career.



Pictured: verve.

Mr. Maffei is not a generic super-maxed NPC. He has his own strengths, limits, and preferences.

Dogs love him, for example. And he has a strong dislike for Winter Holiday music.

Recommendations:

• The career draws from a great many packs, expansions, etc. If you lack anything major (such as the Vampire, Werewolf, and Alien expansions), it won't work well for you (if at all). The Movie Hangout pack is strongly recommended and, of course, although Fame is not used, the career depends on the Acting Skill so Get Famous is a must.
• Actors can practice acting with other Actors, so making a couple Screen Actors roommates works well, especially if they are in different branches, which will drive them to develop different skills.
• There are several fun powers and abilities lurking as rewards in the careers, so be on the look out for them. With one exception, these abilities are NOT traits and will therefore evaporate if your Sim leaves the branch of the career that is granting them.
• Keep Mr. Maffei away from cats, Judith Ward, and Winterfest.

This mod is dedicated to all those underappreciated talented hardworking genre actors who make every film we watch possible; get to know some of their names, if you can!