How To Use The Sims 2 Tombstone of Life & Death with Pics

The tombstone of life and death, sometimes abbreviated to the tombstone of L & D, is a debugging object available in The Sims 2. It’s named after the object model – a tombstone that appears when it spawns.

I personally use the tombstone most often to age up babies who won’t age up and to add adopted Sims to the family. But it has many uses that are quite helpful for storytelling.

Uses of the tombstone of life and death include:

• Getting back a missing Sim
• Adding a neighbor to the family
• Triggering an age transition
• Viewing an age transition cinematic
• Creating a new random Sim of any age and gender
• Impregnating a Sim by another Sim
• Speeding up a pregnancy
• Impregnating a Sim with an alien baby
• Having a baby with the Grim Reaper
• Making friendly with everyone on the lot
• Showing parent and sibling relationships
• Renaming Sims
• Make Sim a child of a family member
• Aging up a baby
• Viewing a baby’s birth cinematic
• Turning baldness on or off

Click any of the options above to be taken to that section for a more in-depth explanation. There are also a few more options that don’t really work (see the end of the post). The lovely Anthony will help us demonstrate. But first…

How to Spawn the Tombstone of Life and Death

Here’s how to get the tombstone of Life and Death to appear:

1. Open the cheat console by holding down CTRL + SHIFT + C.
2. Type in “boolprop testingcheatsenabled true” without the quotations and press Enter.
3. Hold down the SHIFT key on your keyboard.
4. Right-click on any Sim.
5. Click on “Spawn.”
6. Click on “Tombstone of L and D.”

Now a tombstone will appear just next to your Sim on the ground. You’ve done it. Congratulations!

Get Family Member

If you’ve ever accidentally deleted a family member – or had to delete a family member due to a bug, you can get them back using by selecting this option from the pie menu. You’ll be presented with a selection of Sims available for “the gettin’.” (That’s how we say it in the south.)

Click on one of their names and they’ll be magically returned near the tombstone.

You can also use this function to teleport over any Sim in the neighborhood and add them to your household. The Sim you teleport over will then have an instant relationship with all the Sims on your lot…because they’re now members of the household.

Anthony has teleported over two Sims from my tutorial ‘hood. He now has an instant relationship with them as shown in the picture above. It’s a bit cheaty, but it’s an easy way to establish relationships if you need them for story purposes.

However, since the Sims are now in your household, you’ll have to move them out again if you don’t want them to stick around.

Add Neighbor to Family

Choosing “Add Neighbor to Family” will do just that. It will teleport over ANY sim (or pet) in the neighborhood and make them part of the household just like “Get Family Member” above.

WARNING: This option will allow you to add ANY Sim in the game to your family. DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES choose any of the forbidden Sims (universal NPCs) including Mrs. Crumplebottom, the Grim Reaper, etc.

You can view a full list of unsafe NPCs on the Sims Wiki. I know you’re tempted to live out your weird Grim Reaper fantasies, but trust me. It’s not worth it. You will corrupt your game.

Pretty much all of the Sims that show up on the first and second pie menus are off limits. Just don’t choose any NPCs if you aren’t sure. Stick with created and premade playables and townies for your creepy experiments, okay?

Sims added to the household with this option will have their ages reset to the beginning of their life stage. For example, Alexander Goth is 4 days away from becoming a teen. Add him to your current household and his age will reset back to 8 days before becoming a teen.

Age Transition

The next option is just called “Age Transition.” If you choose this option, the selected Sim will automatically jump to the end of their life span and they will age up automatically in about an hour afterward.

If you get an Object Error Message after making the selection, just choose “Reset” and then the transition will happen.

The age meter will fill up and your Sim will be ready to age up in an about an hour – in Sim time, of course.

Those are God’s tears. He’s disappointed in Anthony for cheating his way to adulthood, and also, you know…that face.

Age Transition Cinematic

This option does the same thing as “Age Transition” but you’ll get to see the cinematic too, and it happens automatically instead of waiting an hour.

You can trigger the “Age Transition Cinematic” any time of day or night and your Sim will age up immediately. It will be just like any other age-up. If they’re transitioning to the teen life stage, you’ll be able to choose their Aspiration, turn-ons, and turn-offs too.

This is helpful for when you don’t want to throw a birthday party but still want to see the cut scene.

Let’s try it on Anthony.

As he stands among the family he’s stolen so he doesn’t have to feel so all alone, he ages up to a homely adult with no friends besides the ones he’s forced to be near him. What a tragedy…

Create a New Random Sim

The next several options on the pie menu are for creating new Sims. You can choose any age or gender from toddler to elder. You can also create a baby, but you’ll have no choice of the gender.

Just select the age and gender you want from the menu and a new Random Sim will appear near the tombstone. The Sim will have a random name unless you create a baby. Babies are simply named “Baby Girl” or “Baby Boy” and you’ll have to change their name yourself.

Look! Anthony has reproduced asexually – like a bacteria.

This option can be used for a variety of story-telling purposes – such as adoption – or if you just want to create some random townies for your ‘hoods. I often create Sims this way if I need a certain gender or age to experiment with for tutorials or screenshots.

The Sims you create are not genetically related to your family, although they will be moved in to the household and have instant relationships with all Sims living there. If you don’t want the created Sims living with your family, just move them out or make them townies using a mod like the Sim Blender.

Simulate Genetic Merger With…

This option allows you to impregnate any adult Sim – male or female – by another Sim of your choice.

Select “Simulate Genetic Merger with…” and then you’ll have the option of choosing the second parent for this unholy union. You can use any Sim in the neighborhood regardless of age or gender to donate their genetics.

You can even choose the SAME Sim and he or she will have a baby with themselves. If you choose the same Sim as the second parent, you will always get an opposite-gender clone of your Sim (a la Brandi Broke).

RELATED: How to Have a Baby Girl in The Sims 2 With and Without Cheats

Now that Anthony’s all grown up, it’s time for him to have a child of his own – the natural way…sort of. I’ve chosen Anthony as the second parent because I have a morbid curiosity to see what a female version of our subject will look like.

Speed Up Pregnancy

If any Sim on the lot is pregnant, the option to “Speed Up Pregnancy” will show up in the pie menu. Select it and the Sim with give birth in just four hours instead of three days. They will get both baby bumps and give birth in that span, so be ready!

Now that Anthony is with child, we can accelerate his pregnancy and get this child into the world faster. He’s crying because he realizes the fate that’s about to befall him. (I had to reload the lot so he’s wearing different clothes in the picture above, in case you’re wondering.)

After four hours, Anthony’s body contorts into something words cannot describe and he pops out baby girl Antonia – his clone and daughter. I bet she’s gonna be a real looker when she grows up.

Make Me Alien Pregnant

If you need an alien baby NOW and don’t have time to wait for an abduction, the Tombstone of Life and Death is at your service. You can impregnate both male and female Sims with alien babies using this method.

Once selected, the other parent of the Sim’s baby will be the Pollination Technician for that neighborhood. Your Sim will otherwise have a normal pregnancy – unless you choose to speed it up. And soon an alien baby with half your Sim’s genetics will be born.

Anthony got lucky and gave birth to alien twin girls! Now he’s the proud single father of three babies thanks to the Tombstone of Life and Death.

Have a Baby with the Grim Reaper

Yes, you can have a baby with the Grim Reaper in The Sims 2. But you have to do it the correct way. The Tombstone has what you need. Follow the sound of its sinister whispers…if you dare!

Here’s a run-down of the steps:

1. Kill a Sim on your lot – NOT the one you want to get pregnant, obviously. Use Rodney’s Death Creator to do the deed. Create or use a random townie to use for this, unless you just really need to kill off an annoying playable or something.
2. Once the Grim Reaper shows up, click on “Simulate Genetic Merger with…” You may want to pause your game to do this so Grim doesn’t get away. He can be slippery when you’re trying to harvest his genetic material.
3. Choose “Grim Reaper.”

Your Sim will now become pregnant by the Grim Reaper.

Anthony shows us how it’s done in the picture above where he cruelly kills off his father – Placeholder Griffin – to beckon Grim from the netherworld. (Yeah, I named his “dad” Placeholder. That’s how much I care.)

TIP: To spawn Rodney’s Death Creator simply SHIFT + Click on your Sim and choose “Spawn,” the same way you spawned the Tombstone. Another Tombstone will appear. This is the Life and Death creator.

The Grim Reaper will show up in the child’s family tree as the second parent. As you can see above, Anthony is the first parent and Grim is the second parent of the fourth baby.

This is a useful trick for story-telling, especially if you’re setting up a backstory for a new neighborhood and you wanna include some Reaper Mystery. Can I trademark that? Reaper Mystery? Hmm…

Make Me Friendly to Everyone Here

This option does exactly what it sounds like. It makes your Sim friendly with everyone else on the lot – giving them an instant score of 90 lifetime and 90 daily relationship. There’s a catch though.

Your Sim must at least greet the other Sims or the relationship will not show up on the relationship panel. After a single interaction, they will then become friends. So it basically makes it very easy on your Sim. Just talk to everyone once and they’re instant friends.

As shown above, Anthony became instant BFFs with his neighbor after a single chat. Good for you Anthony!

This is useful for quickly establishing relationships at a party or when the welcome wagon shows up, etc. if you need friends for promotions. It’s very cheaty and I never use it, but it could be useful for story setup in your own neighborhoods (or if you’re just a big ‘ole cheaty cheater).

Show Parent and Sibling Relationships

Again, this option does just what it sounds like. It displays your Sim’s parent and sibling relationship (plus their spouse or partner if they have one). Anthony’s poor electrocuted father and his four baby girls are displayed when he chooses “Show Parent and Sibling Relationships.”

Each Sim will also state their NID – Neighborhood ID – just in case you need to know that information for some reason. This is the number that corresponds with the Sim’s file in your neighborhood character folder.

Rename Sim

When you choose “Rename Sim” from the pie menu, you can….rename a Sim. This one doesn’t really need much explanation, I guess.

A pop-up box will appear that allows you to type in a new name for your Sim. This will change FIRST NAME only. If you need to change a Sim’s last name, you’ll either need to do it in Sim PE or use a mod like the Last Name Copier.

Make Me Family CHild [sic]

This option will make the selected Sim a child of what appears to be a random Sim in the household.

Here, I’m forcing Anthony’s neighbor to become a family child. She became the child of his first-born baby girl. I tried the same thing with a passing townie and he also became the child of the baby. So be careful with this one. I’m not really sure how it chooses who to make the “parent” of the Sim.

In my opinion, there are better ways to make a Sim a family member – such as using the Sim Blender to move in and set family ties.

Age Baby

There are two different things you can do here, depending on which option you choose. You can:

1. Actually age up a baby
2. Create some kind of adult clone monster

If you’re trying to actually age a baby up to toddler, select “AGE Baby” with the AGE in capital letters. Then you’ll be presented with a list of the babies on the lot. Choose the baby you want to age up, wait a few minutes, and watch the magic.

The second option – “Age Baby” does something else entirely. It creates what I can only assume is a fully grown clone of a baby you already have. I could find little information about this option online so I had to do my own experiments. Here’s what I found.

I selected the first “Age Baby” in the menu and a fully grown female Sim appeared with the age-up hourglass over her head. I selected the second “Age Baby” and a fully grown male Sim appeared.

I repeated this process….a lot.

Each time I selected the first “Age Baby” a female Sim would appear, and each time I selected the second one, a male Sim would appear. Before you know it, I had an army of weird Anthony-looking clone people. But they weren’t exact clones. They had different hair, skin, and eye colors.

I have no idea what these things are. Don’t use it. That’s my advice.

And if you, dear reader, have any information on what the hell this function is doing or supposed to do, please let me know and I’ll update this guide.

CINECAM BABY

Anthony’s getting real tired of my sh** right now.

The next option is CINECAM BABY. This allows you to watch The Sims 2 Birth Cinematic. But be careful. An ACTUAL BABY IS BORN from this selection. I assume from looking at what Anthony spawned that this is a clone of the Sim giving birth.

Meet little Anthony Jr. number 5.

Turn Baldness On or Off

Why on earth you would want to do this, I will never know. Maybe you just need a quick way to make those hairy Sim heads as bald as you can get ’em. Well, this is your answer. Anthony doesn’t seem too happy about his new look…

Choose “Turn Baldness On” and your Sim will now be completely bald. Choose “Turn Baldness Off” and your Sim will have hair again. Ta da!

Setup Lot Export

To my knowledge, this option doesn’t do anything at all. Don’t select it, or do select it if you want because it doesn’t do anything.

Resurrecting a Sim (Doesn’t Seem Possible)

According to an article on the Sims Wiki, you can resurrect a dead Sim using the Tombstone of Life and Death. However, I have not found that to be true.

In my experiments, any time you summon a dead Sim to your lot using the “Add Neighbor to Family” option, the Sim will appear. But then a pop-up appears that says the Sim has died on another lot and will return in spirit to the place of his death. The Sim then disappears.

This happens on any lot I try it on – whether the Sim died there or not. And there’s nothing you can do to stop them from disappearing. They are already a selectable member of the family, but will not stay. The tip about making them selectable doesn’t seem to work.

So in conclusion, I don’t think it’s possible to resurrect a Sim using the Tombstone. If anyone knows of a way to get this to work, please leave a comment below and let us know!

That’s all, folks. Everything (almost) you could want to know about The Sims 2 Tombstone of Life and Death. I hope you appreciate how much Anthony has sacrificed for your knowledge.