30 Mods for Realistic Gameplay in The Sims 4

The sims is supposed to be a game that reflects life and let’s you “play with life” as their slogan would suggest, but sometimes the game feels less than realistic. It’s a game that has always prided itself on adding weird aspects to the game, like a skeletal maid or a set of magical gnomes.

However, a ton of players are looking for more realistic gameplay options in The Sims 4 so they are able to create stories that feel more like real life, and less like they’re just playing in a cartoon.

That’s where realistic gameplay mods come in, these mods are awesome because they can add so much to The Sims 4 without having to go out and make a whole new game with actual realism. These mods range from simple things like eating faster, to more complex life tragedies. There is definitely something for everyone in this list.

1. After School Activities

The Sims 4 is really lacking in the after school activities department and our sims kids and teens really need more content focused on them in the game.

Thankfully, Kawaii Stacie makes some really great mods and after school activities is one of the simplest and best. This mod allows you to choose from over 30 after school activities for your children or teens to participate in.

While your kid’s are at these events they are going to be gaining skills based on which activity they join, as well as making new friends. It’s great and you can join clubs like a video gaming club, wrestling, anime, kpop and so much more.

Your teens and children can even come home with different moodlets giving them emotions like being sad from a bad time at their activity, or feeling focused.

2. Automatic Beards

Something that has always been unrealistic in The Sims 4 is the lack of hair growth for any sims, but especially for masculine sims with their facial hair.

A modder named flerb actually created a mod that automatically adds beards to sims as time goes on. You are able to click on the sink and actually choose to trim your beard to stubble, or a medium or large beard.

This is really incredible because it will add to the passage of time that makes The Sims feel much more real. You want your sims to feel like everyday isn’t exactly the same, so if you see hair growth on their faces it can help with that.

3. Better Romance

The better romance mod created by simler90 is a real game changer if you find creating romance in The Sims 4 to just be too easy. As it stands now it is so easy to get two sims to fall in love, to the point where you can go from strangers to engaged in just a few sim hours.

This mod tackles that by making it way harder to start romantic relationships and making some romantic interactions only available after certain things are met.

4. Custom Traits

One thing that we just don’t have enough of in The Sims 4 is traits, and we barely get new ones as new packs are added. This is making it extremely difficult to make interesting and unique sims even as we get new DLC.

There are so many modders that are able to create unique custom traits that will change up the ways your sims feel and the things they enjoy doing, and these traits will make them feel much more unique than the EA approved traits we have in game.

5. Explore Mod

Although rabbit holes aren’t the most realistic way to play The Sims 4, they really can add a bit of realism through different activities that your sims are able to participate in.

The explore mod by Kawaii Stacie adds a ton of new rabbit holes for your sims to explore (hehe, get it?) and these include things like going shopping, going to get takeout food, gambling, and so much more.

When you choose one of these things your sims are going to get a moodlet, or a fill up on their needs, or come back with an item if they chose to go shopping.

6. Extreme Violence

Before we get into this one, I know it’s not for everybody because not everyone wants to have any kind of violence in your game. But if you want realistic gameplay, sometimes there is violence out in the world, so it does add realistic gameplay.

Extreme Violence is a mod by Sacrifical Mods that lets your sims get into fights with other sims, steal their money, and even has some deadly interactions for your sims to participate in.

If you enjoy a more realistic and less idealistic type of gameplay in The Sims 4 you can definitely add this to your game, instead of playing with a perfectly happy little family each and every day.

7. Faster Eating and Drinking

The faster eating and drinking mod is an absolute must have in my game. The way it stands now, sims just eat way too slow. This means that you have way less time to get anything done because they take hours to finish eating.

This mod just quickens how long it takes for a sim to eat which unlocks more time for homework, skill gain, and just family time.

8. Funerals Mod

One big life event that does not exist in The Sims 4 is funerals. There is no way to say goodbye to your sims other than just mourning at a tombstone.

Thankfully, there is a funeral mod that can allow you to have a funeral event giving you a more realistic way to say goodbye to your sims.

9. Have Some Personality Please

The have some personality please mod is great because sims are pretty boring, and don’t really feel like they have much of a personality. This will make your sims feel more unique from one another which can make you more connected to your sims and make the game more fun.

One thing that this mod does as well is it removes idle chatting from your game, making it so your sims will choose actual interactions instead of just chatting all the time meaning they are going to have more autonomy and do interactions on their own (even kissing and fighting!).

10. Height Sliders

A big complaint from a lot of simmers is that sims are all the same height, even teens are pretty much the same height as an adult aged sim. It’s ridiculous, because no one in real life is the same height, but the sims team does it so they only have to make one set of animations to save money.

However, there is an awesome height slider mod that allows you to change the height of your sims as well as change the height of their neck. This will help make your sims feel more realistic and like they are actually different from one another.

11. Invisible Fence

If you’re a builder you know the struggle of building a gorgeous home for your sims with a nice winding pathway leading to the front door and when you go into live mode your sims completely ignore it and cut through the grass to go a direct route.

This mod allows you to add an invisible fence around a pathway so that your sims have no choice but to go through the actual pathway instead of walking straight to the door through the grass. It may seem simple, but it gets the job done and makes the pathways feel useful.

12. Life’s Tragedies

One thing about The Sims 4 that is extremely unrealistic is that there are never any random tragedies happening to your sims. The Sims 4 always feels extremely happy and positive and keeps your sims thriving 99.9% of the time.

A mod called life’s tragedies by Sacrifical Mods adds actual random tragedies to your sims lives. These tragedies range from things like getting hit by a car, getting sick to the point of it threatening their lives, and so much more.

When playing with life’s tragedies I find that I get more attached to my sims and care about them more because something bad can happen at any time, instead of them surviving until they are an elder.

13. Lower Salaries

One mod that I never thought I’d need is 50% Lower Career Salaries. Why would we want to earn less income? Well, sometimes when you have sims getting promoted all the time you can end up with tons of rewards and tons of money and have thee nicest furniture and a completely updated kitchen.

If you want your sims to struggle, this mod is perfect for you. It will automatically make it so your sims earn half the amount of money so they can struggle for much longer than the game allows normally. This makes the careers feel much more realistic and makes raising a family so much more difficult.

14. MC Command Center

MC Command Center will forever be a the top of my must have mods list for The Sims 4 because of just how powerful it can be. It allows you to change so many things about the game, including disabling the monster under the bed, gets rid of crazy townie outfits, and adds a ton of interesting cheats you can use.

Another awesome thing is that MCCC will make it so that empty houses in the world are automatically filled with other sims and all families in the houses around the world are going to move on with their lives. They’ll have kids, get married, and live their lives without you having to control them making the world feel more vibrant.

15. Meaningful Stories

The meaningful stories mod by Roburky is a great option for your game because it totally overhauls the mood or emotions system in the game. It makes small changes to different moodlets and changes the way they affect your sims which totally makes your sims feel more real.

This is awesome because it will add long-lasting buffs that will last way longer and be stronger. Sometimes in The Sims 4 you can have a sim who gets cheated on and then two minutes later they are in a happy mood because they eat a vegetable and go into a nicely decorated home, and that’s just not realistic.

16. Miscarriage Chance

I know that this mod won’t be for everyone, and losing a baby is a hard and very real thing that happens to thousands of women around the world each day and is so devastating. So, I totally understand if this mod isn’t for your gameplay.

However, miscarriages are a very real and common thing that happen and some players want t see that gameplay in The Sims 4. With this mod there is a chance that your sims are going to go through a miscarriage and lose their baby, which will give your sims long lasting sad moodlets.

17. More Best Friends

Something that is extremely silly in The Sims 4 is that your sims are only able to have one best friend at a time, and becoming best friends with someone new eliminates their previous best friend. This means that you can’t be best friends with your partner and your actual best friend at the same time, which has always bugged me.

The more best friends mod allows you to have multiple best friends in your game at any time, and also makes the cooldown for becoming best friends way shorter so you aren’t waiting forever to make more best friends!

18. Passionate Romance

A part of The Sims 4 that has always been lacking for me is the romance interactions in the game. I really miss the more goofy interactions in The Sims 2 like goosing and snuggling in bed. The passionate romance mod by Sacrificial is a great mod for adding new romantic interactions to the game.

In addition to romantic interactions your sims are also able to take new romantic selfies that w ill end up in their inventory so you can throw them up on the wall to cherish forever.

19. Pregnancy Overhaul

Pregnancy in The Sims 4 is a really unrealistic system, and needed a huge overhaul and thankfully LittleMsSam created the pregnancy overhaul mod to help with this. There are so many things that this can do, the first thing is that you can choose to have no huge pregnancy belly letting you choose a different type so they look a bit less ridiculous in game.

It also removes the pregnancy walk style in game, and removes the inability for pregnant sims to do a ton of things including bowling, taking mud baths, swimming, and more. They even added an optional part of the mod where there is a chance for a sim to die from childbirth which happens sometimes in real life and definitely adds some realism to The Sims 4.

20. Realistic Reactions

The biggest annoyance in The Sims 4 is that your sims are never reacting appropriately to crazy events in their lives. If a sim is caught cheating on their spouse the one who was cheated on will be angry, but it is easy for other moodlets to take over and the anger will go away quickly. Plus, most of the time the cheating sim doesn’t even react.

The realistic reactions mod will do a total overhaul to sim reactions when sims are cheating in the game, and will react if there are sims in their family fighting with each other. Children and teens will even react and be sad when they learn of the cheating happening in their household.

21. Risky Woohoo

One very, very real aspect of life is that there is always a chance that you can get pregnant from woohoo in the real world. However, in The Sims 4 the only way you can get pregnant is if you try for baby.

The risky woohoo mod makes it so that your sims have a chance of getting pregnant without trying for baby. Also, this mod adds fertility issues and pregnancy difficulties making everything more realistic.

22. Sim National Bank

The family funds system in The Sims 4 is extremely simplistic but totally unrealistic and it sucks for realism in the game. This sim national bank mod will allow your sims to control their personal bank accounts and take out loans from an actual sims bank, which is awesome.

23. Simda Dating App

Something from The Sims 3 that I am begging for a return is the online dating system, but for now we have the LittleMsSam Simda Dating App mod that can help you find love.

This mod allows your sims to go on dates with strangers, go on blind dates, or even just choose to have a one night stand. This is so fun because you don’t have to go to a public place and hope an eligible bachelor or bachelorette will show up and it just ends up being Nancy Landgraab and Judith Ward.

24. Slice of Life

The slice of life mod is one of my must have mods that is always in my game when I’m playing for fun because it just adds so much to the game. There are a ton of small changes added with this mod, like appearance changes when your sims are feeling emotions (i.e., looking teary eyed when they are sad or getting rosy cheeks when embarassed).

This mod also adds the Myers Briggs personality system to The Sims 4 giving a new type of personality to your sims. This also changes up the mood system where a sim who is feeling playful and takes a bubble bath won’t become very playful, they’ll start feeling silly, giving it more depth.

Slice of Life also adds an option Menstrual Cycle for your sims adding a beautiful monthly gift that can give your sims cravings and cramps and that adds a ton of realism.

25. Slumber Party Mod

Something that I still can’t believe we don’t have in The Sims 4 is a slumber party or sleepover event type for ours sims. Children in the real world are always having their friends stay over, and it was a huge part of my childhood so I hate that it doesn’t exist.

Thankfully, this sleepover mod will let your sims throw a sleepover with 1 or more friends and you can have them hangout overnight which is always a fun time. Such a simple, but effective mod.

26. Stretch Marks

One real thing that people in the real world deal with is stretch marks and these can be a serious hinderance to many people. In The Sims 4 your sims always have perfect skin, and this is just unrealistic.

The stretch marks mod allows you to add stretch marks to your sims under the tattoo category and can make your sims feel much more real, especially if they are pregnant or have recently had a baby.

27. True Happiness

The true happiness mod changes the way your sims interact with being happy. It changes it to make your sims default mood no longer happy and will only actually feel happy if positive events happen in their lives.

28. Ultrasound Scan Mod

The ultrasound scan mod lets your pregnant sims go off and get an ultrasound to see an image of their baby and even find out the gender. This is just a rabbit hole event that will cost you 75 simoleons but it really makes pregnancy feel much more real.

The best part is that you will get a photo of the ultrasound scan to put it on the wall in your home and keep it forever if you want!

29. Unlisted Phone Number

A small thing that always bugs me in The Sims 4 is your sims getting random phone calls from people they’ve never met, or have a small relationship with. The unlisted phone number mod makes it so that your sims have to exchange numbers with another sim for them to have the ability to call them. It also makes it so you can revoke the phone number if you no longer want calls from that person.

30. Wonderful Whims

One of the most popular NSFW mods in The Sims 4 is called wicked whims, however, the creator recently released a mod called wonderful whims where you get all of the goodies without the NSFW content making it available to people who want a more PG type of game.

This mod adds so many interesting aspects to the game. My favourite? The attractiveness system where you can define your preferences and let you have a specific type in the game instead of just being attracted to every sim in the game.

This mod can also add a menstrual cycle, birth control, and so much more that changes the way the game works. It’s a really great mod!

Final Thoughts

Writing this list of realistic gameplay ideas really made me want to redownload all of these mods and just play the sims for an entire day, so I hope you get as much enjoyment out of this list as I did. These mods really do have the ability to add realism and real life scenarios to the sims 4. Happy playing!