What Life & Death adds
Life & Death is an expansion pack for The Sims 4 released on October 31, 2024. It follows the full arc of a Sim's life, from personal bucket list goals through death, grief, and the afterlife. Sims can plan funerals with over fourteen activity options, write wills to assign heirlooms and guardianship, and grieve in four distinct ways based on their traits and relationships: Denial, Holding It Together, Anger, and Blues.
The pack introduces the Thanatology skill, three new traits (Macabre, Chased by Death, and Skeptic), the Ghost Historian aspiration, and a new death type: Death by Murder of Crows. Sims can also keep a pet crow and collect tarot cards.
Careers and the afterlife
Two career paths center on death. The Reaper profession sends Sims to the Netherworld Department of Death, starting as a Grimtern and working toward full Reaper status. A recent patch restricted Grim Reaper recruitment to Sims with the Macabre trait. The Undertaker career splits into Mortician and Funeral Director branches.
Dead Sims can stick around as playable ghosts with their own progression through the Ghost Mastery system. Ghosts earn experience points and choose abilities like Dream Weaver for giving beneficial dreams or Levitator for poltergeist-style interactions. They build up Fear or Goodwill essences depending on how they treat the living.
The Soul's Journey system ties bucket list goals to a rebirth reward. Sims who complete enough of their bucket list can be reborn with the Burning Soul trait, carrying forward childhood skills and traits from their previous life.
Ravenwood
Ravenwood is the pack's new world, split into three neighborhoods where the boundary between the living and the dead is thin. Crow's Crossing is a village with gravesites, crypts, and a Mysterious Merchant, and it hosts Ravenwood Family Day and the Celebration of Life festival. Whispering Glen is a countryside area with ruins and community garden plots where the Moon Revelry festival runs nightly. Mourningvale is a ghostly neighborhood centered on the Baleful Bog and Bell Tower, home to the Thinned Festival and an Afterlife Anonymous meetup.