This thread is mainly "target" simmers who play TS2 without townies/npc's or at least not moving them in and being someone who never play townies for various of reason, this is something I keep debating about myself.

One part disliking it due to real life opinions such as Ive a very large family. Although we don't keep contact with them, everyone know eachother as far as third cousin or 3rd cousin once removed, as my 2nd cousin once removed had a "oppsie" child recently and her mother had her at 16 ) since we were young. Its social acceptable but its seen as a taboo where I live (and not speak of being creepy). Dating your sibling's even in-laws (or even your best friend) are also seen as a bit "creepy". So Ive installed Fauwle's hacks that disable romantic interactions with your distant relatives.
But since a Sim world without a large weed pool, its very easily to fall in the trap where everyone is someone's in-law, especially if you play with many kids which is something I prefer. Also my hood are also leaning towards the more "old-fashioned" way of relationships so technically, it wouldnt be a taboo for the little sims.

It would probably solve the weed pool dilemma, but in my mind, I find it a bit creepy. Little bit similare to debates like teen pregnancies and homosexually
(which for homosexually, Im not against but find it awkward if another girl started to flirt with me. I do allow teen pregnancies in the game as its part of the hood's story)

As result, Ive ended in a love-hate relationship with this issue. What about you?
Do you allow your sims to get married to their 2nd cousins or sister/brother/1st cousin-in-law's?

That's funny I was just thinking of posting something like this lately because I have several sims who are attracted to distant family members. Like when there's a generation gap between teens but they're still related but they still want to woohoo with them.

I don't play without townies completely but if I can avoid my sims marrying one I do. I'll definitely keep an eye on this thread to see where others think its okay or if its crossing the line

It could be worse - without the hacks an in a previous hood I had sims who were 2-3 generation apart who wanted to woohoo with eachother and I think they were very distant cousins as well. Like the girl were in her teen and the guy in his 50's.

Fortunately I friendzone that kind of situations with ACR (which only make it worse!). . One "cougar", golddigger or in-law marrying eachother here and there, Ive no issue with, but when it gets a bit awkward when many sims get attracted to other sims who are 20+ older than them. I use somewhat relastic age system, so for vanilla or aging off simmers this wouldnt be an issue. I guess.

Age wise, I have a female sim who is romanically involved with a single dad (who wont get married but lives together). I had to friendzone her with ACR because her "almost stepson" is only 19 years younger amd I bet the son will get attracted to her at some point otherwise....

For me, if they're far enough away from each other in the family tree that the default game settings let them be romantic, then I'm just like "sure, whatever"

The way I look at it, is that the only reason people think incest is bad is 1) children born from incest can have genetic defects and 2) if it were legal, it would be easy for parents/older relatives to groom and take advantage of younger relatives. (It's the same reason it's illegal to marry a step-child - they're not blood related, but the step-parent is an authority figure and in a position of power and coercion)

Humans naturally build a disgust towards sexuality with close family (parents, siblings) to stop inbreeding, so that makes sense that you can't do that in the game.
I personally would never knowingly have a romantic relationship with even a distant relative, but I think if you're like 3rd cousins or farther, it's not that bad or morally sick.

In answer to the question in your title - yes, it's not a thing over here. Not that I've had many sim marry second cousins.

In one of my old games, I had a brother and sister who were aliens and I made them have a baby just to see how their family tree would look like with the baby in place. The baby was awkwardly placed, like it was trying to connect the as mother and father and yet also Uncle and Aunt. I deleted the game but I read somewhere before that incest can cause corruption in family trees. Can anyone say if that's true for sure? Cause if it is, then looks like my Joffrey Baratheon look alike won't be joining my game anytime soon.

No.

If need be (all sims do not have to be in a relationship in my game), I will create more sims for a neighborhood before allowing them to get involved with family members...no matter how distant. The ick factor is just too much for me. To each their own.

If they're not closely related (grandparents, siblings, parents, children, uncles/aunts), I think it's fine in my game.

I take it all on a case by case basis. In laws aren't off limits at all. Step relatives are off limits under certain circumstances (if a Sim was raised by their stepparent, they can't get involved with anyone in the stepparent's family). I haven't run into the issue of blood cousins wanting to date yet, but I think I might let it happen as long as the relation was very disstant and the Sims had no way of knowing they were related. Like no hooking up with someone from the family reunion, but if 5th cousins from branches that haven't spoken in generations want to date, I'd let it play out.

I generally just accept the in-game restrictions, but if second cousins have been close through family ties (family events or grew up on the same lot) those relationships are family and won't become romantic (I use ACR to friend-zone them, and sim blender to remove any crushes). If those cousins were unknown to each other until being brought home after school as a teen, and the game isn't restricting it, a romantic relationship might be OK. As for sibling-in-laws, if a pair of siblings in one family both were involved in relationships with siblings from a second unrelated family, I'd let those continue as they aren't related by blood. I had one family where two of their children eventually ended up marrying David and Sharla Ottomas - the older one hit it off with David at university, and the younger kept bringing Sharla home from high school. Both fell in love during the same rotation, but didn't even realize they were seeing siblings until David finally called home to chat. Other in-law relationships would be on a case-by-case basis, and off limits if it feels too close and creepy, but OK if the connections were distant enough and the relationship with the other family members wouldn't become strained or odd.

The worst I've had in my game was following an alien abduction. My alien sim grew up in a large, happy house, and he eventually fell in love with and married Gavin Newson. Gavin was then abducted and became pregnant. So, the baby was both step-son and half brother to my alien. I downloaded a multi-PT mod to try to avoid that happening in another 'hood.

Kings and queens have done it - why not Sims?

In many places in the USA you can marry a first cousin, never mind second and so on. I know at least one person who married an in law after the death of her spouse. I don't see anything wrong with it. If it bothers you, don't do it.

What is wrong with second cousins marrying? Many places allow first cousin marriage although that is a little too close for me.

The only time my sim tree got really muddled was in the challenge family where one brother had 2 kids with the poly tech, but his BIL also had a child with the poly tech and then one of the great gradkids had twins with the poly tech. This was back before I really thought about just who they were having all these alien babies with. Then I was like, ah the grandkid just had twins with his great grandfather.... I kept closer check after that.

As Sims don't have genetic implications caused by even Siblings having kids too, I wouldn't do it anyway (unless I am wanting to see the strange effects on the family tree that can result.) mainly because of my religious and moral standards which I try to upkeep even in this video game.

In saying that though I did intend for a alien colony to populate from four families, Eventual inbreeding would have been necessary. It fell apart after 2 generations.

Unknowingly I had a Sim get involved with his first cousin once removed. After realizing it I was uncomfortable at first, but I did some research and found out that type of marriage isn't uncommon around the world, it isn't even illegal where I live, it wouldn't be banned by my Sim's religion, etc. So I let the marriage go ahead and I'm OK with it now.

I drew the line at a Sim becoming involved with his ex-wife's grown-up daughter (the wife and daughter are the pre-made plant Sims). He has lightning bolts for her, and I think that is creepy because he raised her as her father, so I rarely let them even meet. For the most part I wouldn't worry about in-laws getting involved. I like soap opera drama.

I had a second cousin couple in my original game. As far as the story was concerned, they met as teenagers. They liked each other, got married, and had ten children.

My rule is based on how people behave in reality - anyone who knew each other well while at least one of them was a young child don't get romantic. So if a pair of second cousins get to know each other when they're young they don't get married - but if they first make friends as teenagers they can. Similarly step-siblings who grow up in the same house can't be romantic, but if they become step-siblings as teenagers and live elsewhere they can.

I see why some people think second cousins getting romantic is weird, but why the restrictions on pairs of siblings marrying? How many people actually get to know their sibling's spouse's family? Wouldn't you just see them at the wedding, and then very occasional large family meetings... not exactly close...

My Mayfair Witches family survived pretty long, although I didn't get to Julien, who may have imploded the family tree. I looked into the subject for a bit when I started that neighborhood, and the common opinion seemed to be that it'll make the family tree look weird, but nothing worse. Family members would show up as duplicates in the family tree (like Petyr as father and grandfather to Charlotte), but there were no duplicate sims. Of course, that's just my very limited experience and I did that neighborhood before many things about corruption were known.


Anyway, my sims for the most part don't marry second cousins or such, because I feel like in a close family they'll have grown up together and wouldn't think about getting married. Other stuff might be reserved for drama.

I didn't even know there was a taboo about siblings in-law dating. That one's fine in my game.

Your rule makes sense to me. As for pairs of siblings marrying, it depends on the dynamics within a family. For the most part, it's fine and in the sims it rarely would bother me, but I have known a few couples in real life with younger siblings that they are close to. After marriage, they continued to be close and the spouse became close too. In one family, the younger sibling was a teen and the new brother-in-law had acted as a big brother for years before the wedding. As a child, the teen had hung out at the future brother-in-law's parents house (then-teen sister was supposed to babysit little brother, and they just hung out with boyfriend and his family). The teenage brother was really close to the parents of his brother-in-law and they all saw each other as family. For them, it would have been uncomfortable for a romantic relationship to develop between the brother and one of the other in-laws. It comes back to knowing each other when young and developing a family-like relationship - but if that family-like relationship isn't there, then romance can happen.

They are not people. They are pixels and this is sandbox game. So you can set up your own rules and follow them as you wish. The only reason why game makers did set up family ties and restrictions was that we are using family tree and it can messed up very badly.

Ovenhole.
I didnt meant it was a taboo when I mentioned it in the first post, more like it would be awkward. Its just a personal preference as my relatives are rather close and reunions could be rather awkward if the they dating their brother/sister in-laws.

Annaminna
Im aware they are pixel and not humans, but usually simmers play them like families in real life rather than playing like barbies you know? (unless of course, its a twelve years old or something who plays it. ) If people didnt', there wouldnt be no need with age content on forums like this one when it comes to sims nudity and their "woohoo" interactions. I mean I wouldn't exactly cry if a sim died, but I would feel "icky" if a sim grandpa hitting on his daughter in-law or two lesbian or siblings making out. At least to me, it doesnt matter whether they are pixel or not, I would still feel awkward from it. But then again, not everyone get bothered by it.

As has already been said, it's your game to play as your please and to apply your religious or social or personal restrictions according to your comfort level - it's entertainment. I don't want to go all serious - it's a game and it wouldn't be fun if players had to do what makes them uncomfortable - however, equating same gender relationships to incest bothers me more than matches between cousins or in laws. Enough said from me.

Where I live, first cousin marriage is legal, though not really practised at large. I've got two rather large families in Cresdale (Marshalls, with 10 children and 17 grandchildren and couting; and the Kraemers where their daughter started having children as a teen, currently has 9, and I wouldn't be surprised if she ends up with something like 12 overall) and I think I'm going to have to practise cousin marriage there in order to avoid the branches spreading out too much. Either that, or really restrict on who is allowed to have children

Having a look at the family chart on this page, I think once it gets to third cousin relationships I'm probably going to have a hard time remembering that they're related. Second cousins are likely fair game, first cousins once removed is probably on a case by case basis.

I'm not too worried about it though -- in all my simming years I've had one instance where I've gone "if they weren't first cousins they'd probably be attracted to each other" and one where I've been legitimately squicked out (sim A became a teen, has sim B as a half sibling. Sim B has sim C as a half-sibling. Sim C turns up on Sim A's top list of who they'd find attractive in the 'hood. No biological relationship, but I considered them half-siblings even if the game didn't).

Okay, Jill Smith and Buzz Grunt had a daughter. Pascal adopted a boy. Pascal is Jill's uncle. So the daughter would be the 2nd cousin to the boy?

They are engaged in college together because the game didn't recognize it. Or maybe because it was Jill's daughter. So it would be like me hooking up with my cousin's kid. I allowed it because he is obviously adopted. But I dunno if I would allow with actual blood relations.

As a funny side note, Buzz had adopted him first but lost him when I realized I would like the kid to be a Curious better. Also I had Pascal and Circe briefly married and I wanted proof of the marriage in the family tree. So at one point this couple were SIBLINGS. But he's very obviously adopted. (He is dark skinned in a total white/green family )

Also I have no problems with in laws hooking up. Do it all the time.

This is a game and if the game allows it then I allow it.