Welcome to the fourth edition of Pass the Plumbob—a monthly series celebrating the creators and community figures and their voices and talents that help shape The Sims community. From custom content creators to gameplay modders to Simfluencers, this is a space to explore their journey with the franchise and their creative process, showcase their creative contributions that make them special, and learn more about them as community members. Each month, I'll be sitting down with a community member and having a conversation about the mark they've made in our community. For our next feature, I'm excited to Pass the Plumbob to Charly Pancakes!
Charly Pancakes' official logo (Source: @CharlyPancakes on X)
Charly Pancakes is a Sims enthusiast and custom content creator. With over 18,000 followers on X and over 88,000 subscribers on Patreon, Charly Pancakes is the creator of some of the most beloved custom Maxis Match build/buy content in The Sims 4.
-
Tell me about your earliest memory with The Sims. What brought you to the franchise initially?
My earliest memories with the franchise go back to the early 2000s, when I was in elementary school. I remember playing The Sims 1 and 2 at friends' houses or more so watching them play. Sometimes we would create our sim-selves and try to build a house, but by the time we would actually play, a lot of time had passed and I’d have to leave. but I remember being fascinated by the game immediately. At home, we had a PlayStation 1, but I was more familiar with jump & run games than something like The Sims.
The first time I actually owned a Sims game myself was with The Sims 3, which came out when I was around 14, and I immediately went and bought it for myself. My laptop couldn’t really handle it and the loading times were insane, even though I only ever had the base game but I still enjoyed it a lot, especially the building and furnishing part.
Did you find yourself leaning more into building and furnishing as your experience with The Sims franchise developed?
Yes, but I definitely leaned more into furnishing. The building part was something I only really got comfortable with when I got into TS4 more in recent years. It was really the interior design that caught me. Around the age of 15 or 16, I came across The Sims 3 CC on Tumblr, and that opened up a completely new world for me. From that point on, I mostly used The Sims as a kind of building and furnishing simulator rather than a life simulation, even though I am always interested in new gameplay mechanics and from time to time also enjoy some regular gameplay.
Did you have any particular kind of style when it came to interior decor?
In The Sims 3, I loved building and furnishing lofts with industrial elements. I mostly played with single sims and imagined they'd live in a trendy loft with brick walls and a mix of string lights, vintage rugs, and eclectic details. Looking back, that was probably the first interior style I gravitated to.
Tell me about your content creation journey. How did you start creating custom content for The Sims?
It was around the time the Get Famous DLC came out that I got really into The Sims 4. Since launch I gave it a shot every now and then but this time, I got hooked on the build mode and started watching a lot of speed builds by creators like SimLicy and Devon Bumpkin, just to name a few.
At the start of the pandemic, the time I spent playing Sims increased and I had already been sharing builds online for a while. I was posting screenshots of houses on Tumblr and had a Patreon mainly as a place to share my creations outside the gallery.
At some point I came across tutorials on how to create objects for The Sims 4. I don’t remember one specific moment that triggered it, but I started experimenting out of curiosity. At first, I mainly made recolors for my own game and tried to understand how custom content was made. That curiosity eventually led me to download Blender and dive into tutorials, the Sims 4 Studios forums and a lot of trial and error.
You have some of the highest quality, Maxis Match custom content available for The Sims 4, ranging from your Precious Promises set to the Maple & S. Construction Set to the Chalk series. What was your inspiration for some of your most popular works?
Thank you! That really means a lot to me. A big source of inspiration comes from simply playing the game, often without mods. That’s usually when I notice what feels missing to me or where I think certain objects could fit into the existing game. Other than that it‘s a mix of limitation, observation, and personal need. Especially with my earlier sets, my ideas were often shaped by what I was technically able to create at the time. I had to adapt concepts to my skill level, which naturally influenced the direction of those projects.
With 'Precious Promises', which was a collaboration with Pierisim, we wanted to create a rustic wedding setup that felt elegant and soft, with a countryside aesthetic. We worked with shared vision boards. The set ended up having a slight Mediterranean feel, which may also have been shaped by Tartosa from My Wedding Stories, since we were working on the set around the time that DLC came out.
Originally I planned to create a factory window set for Maple & S. Constructions. Inspired by industrial architecture and some of my favorite in-game windows and CC, like the Moschino windows and Peacemaker’s Loft Living Brick Set, which I used constantly long before I even started creating CC myself. As the project evolved, it turned into a large sash window collection that could work across different architectural styles.
The 'Chalk' series came from a more material-focused place. I wanted to create a kitchen that felt simple and slightly soft, without being overly stylized. It wasn’t originally planned as a multi-part set, but I spent a lot of time refining the shapes and proportions, especially since kitchens were still a big challenge for me. A large part of the process went into designing the tile set. I wanted a wide variety of swatches and patterns, so I researched many real-life tile designs before settling on a selection that felt very Maxis Match and fairly contemporary. I didn’t lock it into a single style. Depending on the swatches and context, I think it can read very differently in different interiors.
Overall, I try to stay close to the original Maxis/Sims-style. I also spend a lot of time looking at interior design references, researching materials and furniture and watching both interior designers and Sims creators on social media. Seeing how others build and furnish spaces in The Sims is also very inspiring to me.
During your content creation journey, did you have any hard lessons or experiences that helped shape your future self?
One of the biggest lessons for me has been learning to deal with perfectionism. It’s a huge privilege to earn money this way, but it definitely comes with its own challenges. I never expected to earn money from creative work and for a long time that idea actually scared me.
I’m very self-critical when creating objects and often feel the urge to keep refining things forever. Finding the balance between adding detail, staying true to the Maxis Match style and not burning myself out is an ongoing process. Learning when to let go of perfection and just move forward in a healthy way has been really important.
Another challenge is managing my energy and discipline. Sometimes I fall into intense hyperfocus and ignore my own needs and other times I struggle to even start because I put so much pressure on myself and worry the result won’t match the idea in my head.
At the same time the positive feedback I receive when I share my creations gives me a lot of confidence in my creativity. I hope that over time this will help me trust myself more and feel more secure in what I do.
That's completely understandable and honestly, it is a testament to the quality of the work you put out there. You have over 85,000 Patrons on Patreon. Your work is incredible and has found homes in so many players' games. Out of all of your creations so far, do you have a favorite?
Thank you so much! Whenever I think about it, it feels unreal to me that so many people follow me on there.
My favourite CC item I made would probably be 'The Candle' I made as one of my first ever objects. It’s a scented candle that boosts a Sim’s mood, similar to other decor that gives moodlets when it’s placed in a room. You can also drag it into your Sim’s inventory or live drag it for easy use. It’s not very complex, but I like it because functional objects are still something I don’t create very often. Objects with gameplay features are especially exciting to me and I am always amazed by functional items as creators like RAVASHEEN and PandaSama for example create them.
I have many ideas for smaller mods and would really like to create more of it. That’s why one of my biggest goals is to learn more about coding in the future.
The Candle is definitely one of my favorite creations of yours as well. The design is so universal that I find it fitting perfectly in every house I put it in as well as for sale in retail stores I’ve created. As we wrap up the interview, what’s one feature or object you would love to see added to The Sims?
I’m very happy to hear that The Candle is still useful for you, too. I like the idea to have it in retail stores, that sounds fun!
It’s quite hard to pick just one object, but to stick to the theme I'm again going with more gameplay functionality. Two things that I’ve always really liked from older Sims games are newspapers and landline phones. So I'd probably choose one of those.
It was very disappointing when the retro phones we got with one of the reward events ended up being purely decorative. But I was really happy that the alarm clocks turned out to be functional. I think small everyday objects like that can make a huge difference.
Thank you to Charly Pancakes for being our fourth Pass the Plumbob feature! Make sure to check out their incredible work at the links below. All of their custom content is available on their Patreon, for free, and their latest set, Lofty, is available now in Early Access!
Welcome to r/TheSims, the #1 subreddit for The Sims franchise and community. we've created this notice board to serve as a central hub for announcements, updates, useful links, information, and more! We will no longer be creating monthly newsletters and we will be using the Notice Board concept moving forward.
The Notice Board will be updated regularly, so please check it often in accordance with Rule 1: Consult the Community Highlights Before Posting. When the Notice Board becomes too old, or significant announcements must be made, we will replace it with a new post.
Please be sure to consult our Rules & Guidelines, as some rules were recently updated or changed, so make sure you're familiar with them. As a member of this community, it is your responsibility to regularly review the rules and guidelines and ensure your communications are aligned.
As always, if you have any questions or concerns, Message the Mods!
Consider joining us on Discord. We have countless active discussions with over 4,000 members. It's also one of the easiest places to find tech support and help with The Sims.
We've also provided the link to the official Sims Discord server, if you'd want to join that one, too.
FYI
Sometimes, posts go into a queue to be manually reviewed. If you do not see your post immediately after submitting it, this is why. Please read the automated message you receive and please DO NOT message the mods asking where your post is. We will not be responding to these messages.
Sometimes posts are automatically removed incorrectly. The AutoModerator is not and never will be perfect. We manually review anything that has been automatically removed. Please DO NOT message the mods asking why your post was removed erroneously. We will get to it in the queue when we are able to.
Lastly, the rules are posted in the same place as every other community on Reddit. Per Reddit guidelines, it is your responsibility to read the community's rules before engaging. "I didn't know," is not valid in a court of law and is not valid here. The rules are written clearly and concisely. If, for some reason, something is still not understood, use the Message the Mods feature and ask before posting.
The Sims News & Updates
The Sims 4: Royalty & Legacy expansion pack was released on February 12, 2026.
The Sims 4: Silver Screen Style and The Sims 4: Tea Time Solarium kits were released on February 12, 2026.
The Lost Legacies event begins on February 3, 2026 and will run until March 15, 2026.
There has been a recent update and mods have broken. UPDATE YOUR MODS. Please do not submit posts about broken UI, etc. This happens with EVERY update and you should know this by now. You are responsible for managing your own mods folder.
Posts asking "which mod is causing this?" or "what mods are broken?" will be removed and temporary bans will be issued.
Megathreads
We are re-introducing megathreads to r/TheSims after numerous requests and feedback provided in the previous Community Survey. Megathreads will be used to consolidate discussion on a specific hot topic to ONE central place to avoid cluttering up the entirety of r/TheSims.
Any posts that are made outside of the respective megathread will be removed and the OP will be redirected to the appropriate megathread.
If we observe continuous behavior of ignoring the assigned megathreads, temporary bans will be issued.
The Meta Flair
We have added a new post flair called 'Meta.' You may use this flair for any Sims-related content that doesn't necessarily fit the criteria of the other flairs. This includes, but is not limited to: clothing, tattoos, gameplay videos, real-world references to The Sims franchise, etc.
We have updated our No Piracy rule after internal discussion; instead of outright permanent bans, we will be issuing temporary bans for initial offenses. Permanent bans will be issued for repeat offenders or people blatantly circumventing the rule. Moderators will use their best judgement. There will be no warnings issued for violations of this rule. The rule itself remains unchanged: the discussion of the topic is prohibited and sharing/requesting information on how to find and use pirated content (including website names, links, etc.), is prohibited.
"Abandonware" is included in this rule. Base game conversions are also included in this rule. Patreon custom content/mods and/or custom content/mods locked behind paywalls are NOT included in this rule; knock yourselves out.
Piracy is both illegal and against Reddit's policies, therefore we will follow these regulations to the letter. We are not paid nor sponsored by EA and to be honest, we couldn't care less if you pirate the game(s); just have the good sense not to announce it at every opportunity. There is no prize nor reward for doing it and no one cares, so keep it to yourself.
r/TheSims sees the same posts every day asking, "What pack should I get?", "Should I get X or X?", "What kind of computer do I need?", etc. These recommendations can vary depending on what you're planning to do in your game and in reality, it all comes down to what YOU like opposed to what others think you should get. As such, we've created a comprehensive guide that will allow you to make informed decisions based on your gameplay interests, Build Mode and CAS styles, and new features with each pack. We've also put together a recommended hardware specs guide for those inquiring about computers and laptops.
Please note that this will be updated as new packs are released and as such, any and all posts asking "What to Buy" questions will be automatically removed and the OP will be redirected here.
Not sure if you saw my post from a couple of months ago about a realistic genetics mod I was working on. If not, you can find it here. It’s ready for beta now!
It’s just been me building and testing it, so I’d really appreciate people trying it in actual saves and sending me any bugs or weird results.
The mod makes Sims inherit facial features, hair color, eye color and skin color from their grandparents, instead of just a random mix of only their parents.
It uses dominant and recessive genetics too, so traits can skip generations and show back up later.
It works especially well for legacy saves. You can use it on a multigenerational family you already have. The mod goes up the Sim’s family tree, captures their parents and grandparents, and builds their genetics from there. You do not need to start a new save.
Unzip the file and put RealisticGenetics.ts4script in your Mods folder.
Make sure these are turned on: Options > Game Options > Other
Enable Custom Content and Mods
Script Mods Allowed
Restart the game.
To make sure it loaded, open the cheat console with Ctrl + Shift + C or Cmd + Shift + C on Mac and type: rg.ping
It should show the version.
How to use it
Select the Sim you want, open the cheat console and type:
realisticgenetics
A menu will pop up with the Sim’s photo and these options:
Recalculate genetics - Creates a new genetic combination based on the Sim’s parents and grandparents. It pulls from their family’s hair color, eye color, skin tone and facial features, including their nose, eyes, mouth, jaw, cheeks and head shape. After it rolls, you can see the full breakdown, roll again or save it.
View inheritance - Shows exactly where each feature came from without changing the Sim. For example: - Nose from mom’s dad - Eyes from dad - Jaw from dad’s mom
Save genetics - Locks in the current roll. Once you get a combination you like, click Save genetics, then save your game too.
Refresh look - Use this if a Sim’s face or hair is rendering wrong, floating, or showing an old default preset.
Beta notes - This is still a beta, so there are a few visual quirks.
Always save your roll. - Click Save genetics, then save the actual game.
Age-ups can look weird. - Babies and sometimes teens may look completely messed up right after aging up. Select the Sim and type: rg.fixlook
You can also use testingcheats true, shift-click the Sim, choose Modify in CAS, then exit CAS.
Hair can look wrong after rerolling.
Run rg.fixlook or open the Sim in CAS and save.
Sims can look wrong after loading a save or lot (like an early Sims 4 Sim template). Select them, open the realisticgenetics menu and click Refresh look.
Right now, teens through adults have been tested the most. Pregnancies, births, babies and age-ups are working, but have not been tested as heavily, so I’d especially appreciate people testing those!
Looking forward to everyone trying this out, and hearing your thoughts!
My most recent "evil" thing is that I made a family; put SO MUCH time into making sure each member is PERFECT and has the right traits and careers...knowing I am going to send the mother to the afterlife as SOON as the eventual child becomes a toddler.
To make it worse...her lifetime goal is to be a super parent and her WHOLE world revolves around her future hubby and preparing for their eventual child. (And the future hubby is a hopeless romantic, super in love, one-woman-ever artist...)
7 years ago I played the Sims 4 for the last time. Back than I bought the Base game, and some expansions (get to work, get famous, cats & dogs, city living, get together and some others). But I logged back into my account and I don't any of them??
I am so sad, I paid for them and don't want to pay for them again😭 I don't have any proof anymore that I bought them :(
And also she can resurrect anyone with a wand swing, even grieving playable ghost wouldn't make sense if the ghost are in the same household but that doesn't stop the game to remind me that my Sim is grieving every day for no apparent reason.
I just updated my game after the gnome save reminder they just realsed. And now i cant start my game. I have repaired it 2 times and uninstaled it, reinstalled it.
Im so tired!! Why do they keep pumping out updates that dosent fully work.
I think something every sims player faces! I am so bored idk what to do! I played sims for a long time and now I installed some packs and bunch of mods and kits. It the beginning it was fund but then it became boring.
I always end up making a family and making babies and trying to skill up all and make them so good and smart.
No matter how I start, I end up doing this. Seems like I don’t have any creativity or something new to explore!
Just wanted to share my latest Sim - Lamine Yamal ⚽
As always - I know alpha Sims aren't everyone's style, but I personally LOVE creating realistic characters and this was a really fun project to work on :)))))
Everything you see was made by me from scratch (skin, details, edits, etc.).
I use the HQ Mod, custom sliders, and a lot of manual sculpting to achieve the look.
No AI face or 3D heads were used - just a loooot of time, Blender and patience 😅
Would love to hear what you think or any feedback! xx
I built a base game stater home, at first I was alright with it but now I’m noticing things that are making me dislike it, how are we filling gaps so it doesn’t look so bare? And on the inside I struggle to make my walls look decorated 🙃
Please drop some building tips 💛
I felt the need to post this as a warning for anyone considering buying The Sims 2 Super Collection from the Mac App Store to play on newer Macs (especially Apple Silicon like M1–M4).
As a long-time player who has been using The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection on PC regularly since 2017, I decided to give the Mac port a try on my fanless M4 MacBook Air. It has been a absolute nightmare, and Aspyr should be ashamed for still charging money for this terrible port!!!
Here is why you should avoid it:
Zero FPS Cap (Extreme Overheating): Aspyr never bothered to implement a frame rate limiter for modern hardware. The game uncaps itself and pumps out up to 500+ FPS in the background. Because the MacBook Air is fanless, this turns the laptop into a literal toaster within minutes and causes severe thermal throttling.
Disappearing Custom Content (CC): The macOS file sandboxing and strict open-file limits regularly mess up the Downloads folder. CC literally deletes or unlinks itself from the game out of nowhere. I’ve played UC on PC for nearly a decade and never experienced anything like this.
f you have a PC I highly recommend you to stick to The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection. Don’t waste your money on Aspyr’s lazy, abandoned cash-grab that hasn’t been properly updated for modern Apple hardware.
Sims 4 keeps crashing and every time I verify integrity of game files on steam, then launch the game I get this popup
Only thing that could be malware that could infect the launcher is mods, but I make a point to only download mods from trusted sites only. I had mods installed, then when TS4 wouldn't open and keep crashing, assuming it was a mod to fuck up my game I then decided to just delete my mods folder entirely to start fresh. I opened it just to make sure it was running again and have been having trouble with this for a few hours now
Is this just windows security marking it as a false trojan?
As title states. I have my sims autonomy disabled because the Sims 4 is the way I micromanage things, especially for things like legacy challenges. I'm currently working on an MHA legacy challenge, barely even started, and my game is freaking out. I take a second on 1 speed to figure out what to do next and my sim decides to go dance or paint. I'm starting to lose it because last I checked, even if you set autonomy to full, as long as you disable autonomy for selected sim, that shouldn't matter. And yet here I am, with my heir selected, and he's decided to dance and paint with zero input from me!! I don't know what to do and tbh I'm mostly here to rant about it. If anyone has any idea what fixes this, that'd be helpful
Any ideas because I feel like I wanna add more (anything is welcome!)
I’ve been loving making these character sheets and have been wanting to make more but none of my friends have ts4 so I’ve been making characters purely for this 😭
Haven't played since I was a kid (sims 2), when I last played the game was paused while playing other families. Is this a "new"/sims 4 thing? Can I turn it off? Very disappointed I missed it, didn't even know twins or triplets where possible! The fam already had 3 kids before lol.
On top of that they got auto-named to Ulysses, Pierce and Trevon 😭 I know you can change names in "plan outfits" but doesn't seem to work with infants. Any other way to change it or do I just have to wait, get used to the names and then feel too weird about re-naming them? Maybe I should just keep the names for the lolz! 😂
exactly what it says. I’ve had this pc for a month and have not downloaded any version of the sims before today. I downloaded it off the EA app (reluctantly because all my packs are on there) and on the first boot it told me it failed it launch, cleared cache and all sessions in project manager, repaired game files, same thing. so fully uninstall Sims 4 and EA and I go to Steam to download it there, I figure I won’t have my packs but whatever I just wanna play the game. Clicking the game shortcut on my desktop takes me to the EA launcher, tapping play button next to Sims 4 (which is a new version because it says I have no packs and 0 hours) there will give me a “launching game…” bar and then EA will close and open again. No game running, no pop up, no error code, nothing. Someone please explain to me how I cannot play the game I have over 15 packs in and 500 hours in on a fresh install and brand new pc with no mods at all installed. I’m actually at my wits end with this shit
