Triggered event chains

Each template holds a trigger predicate over state, a selection weight or mean time to happen, an immediate effect block, options with effects, and calls that schedule follow-up events with delays. Hooks such as yearly pulses, births, or deaths evaluate eligible templates and fire them. In Crusader Kings III, events do not fire on their own: on_actions, decisions, or interactions call them; an on_action can fire a list of events, weighted random_events, or the first valid one; and trigger_event schedules a follow-up such as days = { 7 14 } later, so a chain carries saved scopes and flags across months. Europa Universalis IV and Stellaris use the same Paradox script family; Frostpunk and Banished use simpler condition-fired events. Unlike a storyteller director, which paces generic incidents, chains carry authored story state forward. Inputs: state predicates and flags. Outputs: effects, flags, and scheduled events.

The simulation seems to notice what the player did. A rival's illness leads to a succession dispute, which leads to a war invitation. Players feel stories unfolding from their situation, learn to set up conditions for chains they want, and dread chains they recognize.

• trigger specificity: broad pulses versus narrow state predicates
• weights, mean time to happen, and random delay ranges between links
• branching factor and how many chain steps carry state forward
• whether follow-ups re-check conditions so chains can fail when the world changes
• cooldowns and once-per-game flags that limit repetition

• Players see the same chains every playthrough once the event pool is exhausted.
• Chains ignore world changes made between links, producing contradictions such as an event about a ruler who has died.
• Broad iteration in frequent pulses (the CK3 modding wiki warns against every_living_character in pulse on_actions) causes late-game slowdown.
• Authored text quality caps depth, because each branch must be written by hand.

• Chains link otherwise separate systems, such as health, inheritance, and war, into multi-year storylines.
• Overlapping chains on the same characters produce compound situations that no single template described.
• Modders extend event pools until mods conflict on shared hooks.

• Can a language model write follow-up links conditioned on the actual state reached, keeping chains coherent with world changes?
• What fraction of authored chain content could be replaced by generated text while keeping effects hand-tuned?