The Spitting Llamas

Jason spends the next two days working on his charisma and writing skills and writing articles and reviews for the paper.

It takes a lot of coffee, a lost friendship or two (because of negative stories) and being banned from the theatre for not liking the movie, but at the end of the week Jason is promoted to Weather Man.

* * *

In the meantime Benjamin is still working on his guitar skill.

He still can't join the band profession - apparently he needs to form a band before he can register at City Hall.

 

* * *

Christal Kim is now a Dealer of Destinies, so she's only one step away from achieving her LTW. (One of the last two still needed to have done it all!)

(I don't think the cristal ball helps in her career - but it does look cool!)

Christal only works on weekdays. Jason, on the other hand, has weekends off. So I can switch between them and get both of them up that career ladder.

First, Jason gets married. Another private wedding, nobody feels like making a fuss. (Well, actually I don't want to bother with trying to get good wedding pictures!)

The couple move into the Bingsly home. And of course this means Jason gets a few days off to go on a honeymoon, or settle in, or something...

 

* * *

Benjamin has asked Maggie Cherie (aka Margaret McGovern or actually Margaret Younger, these days) to join his band. They call themselves The Cherrypickers. (Or maybe "Maggie and the Cherrypickers, as Maggie of course wants to headline!)

Darrin Younger and Christal Kim agree to join as well.

 

Margaret and Darrin invite them to come live on their little farm so they can all practice together.

Benjamin puts a bed up in the attic over the garage, and Christal puts hers in what used to be the outdoor bathroom (before the invention of all-in-one bathrooms and outhouses).

* * *

I started reading up on the band skill, and apparently it's supposed to 'trigger' when your Sim joins a band. It's a toggle, apparently.
If this is so, this would mean that NRaas gets in the way, if it got toggled from -01 to 00, it won't go up again, because it's not a skill that can be leveled?

I tried disbanding The Cherrypickers and creating a new band, the Spitting Llamas. That didn't do anything for the band skill either. It's still at 00.
So I decided to cheat Benjamin up to "band skill" level 1. Now he can register as self-employed in the band career.
I never saw any kind of band skill appear in the skill journal, which some sources said should happen.

I'm not sure whether EA broke the 'band' skill or it's a mod conflict with NRaas, but I just hope the career path will still work for Benjamin.

* * *

Benjamin is now officially making money in the "band" profession. The other three are in their regular jobs and have the band as a side hustle.

Here are the Spitting Llamas - jamming for tips. (No, it's not a gig. Nobody has offered them a gig yet.)

Benjamin decides to play the keyboard, because Darrin actually needs to master the guitar skill for his LTW. And Benjamin needs to level up all other instruments, so it makes more sense for him to go with one he doesn't have mastered.

Nobody else gets their hidden band skill up from 0 to 1, which sort of seems to confirm it's a toggle rather than a learnable skill.

Benjamin manages to get his first 800 Simoleons in tips and the band has gone from Attic Act to Garage Band. He figures out that he needs to be jamming (even if he is by himself), and only tips that go into his personal jar count for the career promotion.

 

The next level he reaches is Subway Trawler. Too bad there's no subway on Winchester. After that, the Spitting Llamas become a Dive Bar Opening Act.

There are no opportunities for gigs offered at all. Maybe because there are so few stages in town, or maybe because the system is broken, or doesn't work well outside Bridgeport... There are so many ways in which EA could have screwed it up, I'm inclined to blame them, not my town!