Some thoughts on dwarves forming new goals: this could be a huge mechanic for massive characterisation of dwarves.
First off, if a dwarf finishes a goal, s/he forms a new goal that is equal or harder. OK, cool, whatever. Mentioned already.
More importantly, new goals can be spontaneously formed by several kinds of experience in a dwarf's life:
traumaUrist's friend dies, and she forms a new goal related to her friend's death. Some examples:
Friend was killed by Mog Bloodwater, a goblin spearman. Possible goals formed include:
- Kill Mog Bloodwater
- Kill (medium number) goblins (or maybe specifically goblin spearmen)
- Kill (small number) goblins from mog's tribe
- Become a speardwarf
- Destroy (number) spears
etc. Alternatively, if Urist was a metalworker, her goal might become to create 50 statues, and all her statues would be statues of her dead friend. Many more possibilities exist.
Further, if her friend died some different way, Urist would form different goals, eg. to become a Proficient Swimmer if he drowned.
Masterpiece defacement/theftI love this idea. So, Urist has become a Legendary metalcrafter. Then, a kobold thief steals her masterpiece tin goblet! WTF! Urist forms a goal related to this. It might be the goal of killing kobolds; it might be a goal of keeping a kobold in a cage in her apartment (Armok only knows what she'd do with it); it might be a goal of building more masterpiece tin goblets to replace that which was lost, although that is a bit dull. More are possible, needless to say.
Similarly, say Urist is made a masterpiece engraving. Then, furniture hauler Uvash Carvehate builds a statue on top of it. Urist may, through goals, form a vendetta against Uvash. Perhaps she creates the goal of defacing/destroying two of Uvash's masterpieces, or locking Uvash in a cage, or - and here we get nuts - what if Urist formed the goal of starting an illicit relationship with Uvash's spouse? I think the mechanics of that kind of thing are nearly in place, here.
Some other possible influences that could spawn new, complex goals include:
- Having a child or new sibling or spouse, or starting a new romance
- Surviving a serious injury
- Being in a cavein
- Being imprisoned for a long time
- Coming into possession of an artifact item (One Ring style goals welcome!)
Another thought I had was goal-related relationships. Simple enough. If Urist's goal is to become a legendary metalcrafter, she might change her relationships to other dwarven metalcrafters of significantly higher level. Specifically she could be either Jealous of them, or Admiring. Essentially, if she was friends or at least a positive aquaintance with the crafter before, she becomes Admiring when that crafter begins to achieve the things Urist only dreams of. If she didn't know the crafter, or didn't like them before, she becomes Jealous. How exactly this influences her behaviour could be a big topic in itself.