Right now, dwarf children are "just there", to paraphrase Toady. Their appearance and some attributes are carried over from their parents, but by and large they are just helpless, free-roaming dwarves until they hit maturity. We've even come to love them, and define our own vision of dwarven parenting, based on their incomplete nature. Most of a dwarf child's non physical stats are set at birth.
There's room for dwarven children (and children in general) to become more interesting. Rather than having them all acquire some basic farming skills (which is just a place holder), or become legendary by a lucky mood, players should get to watch the children of their fort mature and change over their childhood.
So the question becomes....what would make them grow? What would cause them to change? How much is what they'e born with, and how much is what they learn?
It's the old Nature vs. Nurture debate. And since legions of anthropologists, developmental psychologists, sociologists and others haven't come to a firm consensus on which one is dominant, I doubt we will either.
Most will say that it's combination of both. Nature refers to the biological and genetic factors that influence behavior and development. Nurture refers to the behaviors and traits that children are either taught or learn by observation/interaction with others.
So what I propose is something like this.
1. Birth
At birth, children inherit what they do now: physical appearance and some attributes.
In addition they get:
ONE behavioral from either of their parents.
TWO mental traits from either of their parents.
ONE random, non-physical trait. The genetic x-factor so they aren't clones of their parents.
Whether these traits are dominant or recessive doesn't matter atm. How heritable a trait is in this version is based on where it shows up in the raws.
The total number of traits a dwarf baby could have would be capped, and the cap would increase when they mature into a child. A child's cap would be the same as an adult dwarf's cap, since they should be on par with other dwarves when they mature.
2. Trait acquisition and change during childhood
Again we come back to Nature vs. Nurture.
Nature-based trait acquisition is problematic for me because it's something the player doesn't see. As a baby, certain behavioral traits don't get a chance to manifest (because babies just drool, sleep, poo and cry in RL.) When a child grows, they can start expressing those traits which have been there the whole time, but only now have a way to be seen by others.
To a player though, this just looks like "Urist McBabyPants is now a child. 'Oh, Urist McBabyPants seems to be anti-social now. Thanks Nature!'" It's change and development of a sort, but it's the least interesting kind from a game play standpoint.
Nurture on the other hand is the bread and butter of development, IMO. And it makes the most sense for game play. Seeing children interact with others, seeing them follow people around, try unsuccessfully to do grown up stuff...these things show the player the connection between what the child did, and the dwarf they eventually became.
Nature still needs its place though, but it's delicate thing to simulate. Are people born with personalities they can't escape? Is someone born to a "violent" set of parents guaranteed to have violent behaviors later on in life, even if they're never raised with their biological parents? Is intelligence something you're born with the potential for, but you have to develop in your lifetime to really excel at? Or is your total potential in anything (spacial awareness, kinesthetics, intelligence) ultimately defined by genetics?
We know the physical body is mutable with work to a certain point, but the extent which non-physical traits are has always been in question. We know if you've got a short, skinny build...you can work out and become ripped...but you're never going to get taller.
IMO, Nature sets the terms, and from there Nurture allows an individual to bend or break the terms early on in life. So, I think those few traits picked up at birth, and maybe one other over the course of their childhood, should be the limit for how many traits a child inherits from their parents. Perhaps the value of inherited traits can start out pretty high...but be subject to change later. Read on.
2a. Trait hardening
As children, we are sponges for information. We acquire new information and grow brain matter at the highest rate we ever will in our lives. So it follows we're also highly impressionable. As we get older (read as, in our teens), our ability to learn starts to decline and our opinions, behaviors and natures harden against change.
In DF, I think this should be represented by all traits being flexible in childhood. Their scores can go up, they can go down, and they can do so by large amounts. Job skills should be earned at a higher than normal rate. When said child hits maturity, their traits "harden" to change and their skill gains go back to adult levels.
In this way, Nature takes a role, and so does Nurture, where one sets the terms while the other can break them. But, depending on things turn out, a trait that a child inherited can be even further influenced by their life experiences....say if you have a violent-natured child who watches a lot of combat drills, and grows up to be even more violence-oriented as an adult.
The mechanics are already there for this. Skill rusting was added in this most recent version, and I think it would be small step to apply the same kind of logic to traits.
2b. Trait Acquisition
Two methods: Learning and Life Experience.
Learning happens in both stages of childhood, as does life experience.
Learning
Children should learn in different ways at different stages of childhood. As babies, they shouldn't be 'doing' a lot, but watching and listening and taking in stuff. As a child, then they start getting involved, do work, learn in traditional ways ect....
There are three methods of learning: seeing, doing and listening.
As babies, dwarven children only engage in "seeing" learning.
As children, they learn by seeing, doing and listening.
Seeing is the most basic way children acquire new information. They see things they've never seen before, they watch people doing stuff they've never done, ect...
To get things started, children first need a "target" that they learn from. How they pick a target can be based on a lot of factors: family relations, randomness, personality likes and dislikes, whatever. I suppose their target might even be something non-dwarf, like a pet, or a toy.
Once a child has a target, they can reference what their target is doing and what traits they have, and begin adding quantities of that job experience or traits to their own stats. (Or in the case of a toy, it might just increase a trait value the longer it's played with.) Modeling and imitation is how children begin to learn anything. They would follow people around, and some of that time would be spent seeing useless things, like people sleeping. But it would give a child a lot of different inputs and their stats would fluctuate over time.
Doing happens when children mature to the next stage. They undertake tasks just like now, only their potential task list expanded to most everything. So they might try to forge something, or craft something, milk a cow, go mining, gather, haul, ect... They should exhibit a preference for what they're already best at, but they shouldn't be limited to just their one job. They're still experimenting after all. Some trait hardening sets in at this point, both because it's realistic and because children will actually be getting job xp.
Listening is, without creating some crazy dwarven school system, sort of an extension of how social skills increase. Dwarven children that spend their time around others increase social skills at a quicker rate, but they also can pick up new personality traits or change existing ones, and job skills. This would represent older adults trying to educate a child in an informal way, and also sets up some peer modeling and early childhood friendships.
At the child stage of maturity, children would do all three types of learning. They'd attempt work, follow people around and watch them, and engage in conversations. Each time they would select a target, in some cases the target being a job, and select a new target when the job is completed or when they need to eat, sleep or take a break.
3. Life Experiences
The other side of the coin in development is a child's life events that impacts who they become. Traumatic experiences are the big factor here. The death of loved ones and friends, being attacked, getting injured getting surrounded by something they dislike, starving or dying of thirst, witnessing lots of death...these are all things that would leave lasting impressions on young children.
This would be a chance to introduce new and different traits that wouldn't normally occur from fortress life. They don't have to be wholly negative either. They might even be mitigated by personality traits the child already has.
Ex: Child A is attacked by the last surviving goblin of a goblin ambush and wounded. Because they the trait "never gets discouraged" they gain "confidence" from surviving the attack.
Child B is attacked by the last surviving goblin of a goblin ambush and wounded. The child gains "timid."
Child C loses a sibling to a rabid hoary marmot. The child gains the "is often sad" trait.
This would also be a chance to introduce psychosis in a non-magical, non-mood way. Compulsive disorders, PTSD, paranoia, agoraphobia, the list goes on.
To recap~
Stage: Learning Modes: Trait Hardening: Rate of Learning Skill Rusting:
Baby Seeing None Crazy-High (150%?) No
Child See/Do/Listen Mild (20%) Accelerated (125%?) No
Other considerations:
Dwarven Schooling. A system where children can learn in a player controlled way is the next logical step.
Social groups: DF Talk #8 talked a lot about the future of social groups. Unions, religious groups, ect... These all pose interesting questions (and drama!) for dwarven children. Do they automatically become members of their parent's groups, like citizens? Do they have to choose to join them? What happens if they make a choice that is diametrically opposed to their parents?