So, I'm not really interested in talking about DW's nature. This topic is about taking a well worn concept, NPC progressive goals (DW known as Portents), and combine it with another well worn concept of degree of success (DW known as Moves).

I'm going to avoid timekeeping calculation for now and focus on trying to merge these two concepts together for an NPC automated program. These are things GMs already do, but I want to see if I can structure a progressive goal string as a bullet point system with DoS branching and DoS. Who knows if it will be successful? But let's try and see if something useful is born!

So first, what's a Portent? A string of progressive goals to a final result. One can use Motivation, Steps, and Goal, but DW uses Impulse, Portents, and Doom! I'll use both to give example of such:

NPC - Mayor of Whoville
Motivation/Impulse - stay in power as mayor
Steps/Portents -
1. Ingratiate self with elite power structure
2. Public campaign promises (more jobs, keep out dangerous foreigners, etc)
3. Give favors to elites in return for campaign support
4. Manufacture an external threat crisis
5. Rally scared populous for continued support
Goal/Doom - Get reelected as Mayor of Whoville

Moves are structured as degree of success, with a simple three-part division: good stuff free and clear, good stuff with sacrifice, and bad stuff. This will be used later, when combined with Portents, to branch goals to contingency plans. But before then an example of Moves:

Climbing a Tree
Good - 1. Climb to top, and 2. Don't get hurt
Good - Choose only one of the above, or sacrifice some gear to get both
Bad - Get neither, and lose some gear

With definitions out of the way in the next post I'll attempt to merge both to create an NPC automator with branching contingency plans!

So let's add the two ideas together with a prominent NPC with long term goals.

Trolldar, the Troll Slayer wants to become a regional warlord in a frontier.

This will require several things:
have small cadre of martial force,
support (or subjugation) of frontier town locals,
build a large posse of martial force,
subjugation of most regional wilderness threats,
build defensive structure,
negotiate political recognition.

Pretty linear and filled with lots of blank spots. Further, even though this looks like a logical progression, it needn't be strictly linked steps, following a linear path. Perhaps Trolldar can annex a cave lair or abandoned keep before frontier town support or subjugation of most wilderness threats.

And what about setbacks? What if town support is far off and beat back your small cadre? Can this setback push one back into cadre recruiting, and further migrate into large posse recruiting next? Basically we are automating NPC recovery from failures.

So let's try to combine the two ideas:

NPC - Trolldar, the Troll Slayer

Motive - have power, respect, and kill trolls for fun and profit

Steps -

1. have small cadre of martial force,
good+ competent fighters, and quick frontier renown or posse recruiting; good- green fighters, but frontiersmen friends, or know frontier well; bad- motley crew of questionable use, may have outside political contacts or enemies

2. support (or subjugation) of frontier town locals,
good+ you're their leader, now save them; good- you're their leader, but save them NOW!, or afraid but not rebellious yet; bad- ignored or rebelled against, may instill pity to build a small cadre or discover defensible hideout

3. build a large posse of martial force,
good+ competent fighters attract large force fast; good- attract force fast but scare frontiersmen, or dilute troop exp to motley crew; bad- attract wilderness threats, or political recognition -- as a threat

4. subjugation of most regional wilderness threats,
good+ gain frontier renown and troop exp; good- gain troop exp or frontier respect but lose some guys; bad- lose a lot of guys, might get town sympathy or ridicule

5. build defensive structure,
good+ frontiersmen support to build a fort, or empty abandoned lair; good- nice lair already in monster use, or building fort exhausts frontiersmens' patience with you; bad- fort/lair costs too much to create or maintain, must abandon and lower posse, get political recognition for supplies, or get frontiersmen respect to give more.

6. negotiate political recognition.
good+ gain external political support, or external supplies for defensive structure; good- respected externally but town mistrusts, or recognized as frontier warlord yet barbaric upstart; bad- ridiculed externally, frontiersmen may lose faith or rally

Goal - become recognized frontier warlord

It's a draft. But I try to tie in less successful DoS to shift onto another goal. Anyway, after this you can have your ambitious NPC to focus on one or two automated goals each time period, be it week, month, year, or game session, whatever. When Trolldar holds a good+ on every goal step then he'll graduate to accomplishing his goal. PCs or other NPCs can kick him down a few rungs on each step, but you have interconnected paths for Trolldar's comeback.

Thoughts?