I always start with one young adult woman, that I always make her in couple with a pre made sim, sometimes she just have kids(never more than 2) with them but never have a chance to be officially with them.
When I'm bored with my family I do a SimBrother

Taking 8 people in a house, that they can't go out of it, do a Big Brother with them. I don't manipulate them so much and by the relation they got together I count the vote of the evicted ones (sometimes I kill the evicted ones, sometimes I just put them in a close room with a bed, a fridge, a shower and a TV)... I know I'm crazy.