AI

Design Philosophy
The AI for That Which Sleeps has been designed with the following ideas in mind:


 * Consistency across cultures to create predictable behaviours
 * Mentality and drives of characters change based on situations
 * Rationality is a not virtue in and of itself, goals are personal and weighted individually
 * Agents are subjectively labelled by AI as friend, neutral, or foe - Agents being pursued by heroes may cross a border and find the law on their side

Heroes and the Spread of Awareness
Examples of the prior point abound in That Which Sleeps, but are complicated even further by the spread of knowledge. Heroes collect clues and eventually bring these points together to begin to understand what is truly happening in the world, and they are keen to spread the word. Old feuds may keep some kings or heroes from listening to others, and simple dislike of a culture may keep heroes from even visiting to compare valuable clues. Diplomatic events generate tension based on the familiarity between all parties, and you can use that to create lasting rifts or prevent temporary truces.

Passion overrules Principle
Pushing the right buttons lets you disrupt the fragile Balance of Power that the nations maintain, and chaos always benefits the rising dark lord. Even better, a routinely frustrated hero, champion, or king can have their willpower reduced giving them psychoses that create sometimes devastatingly erratic choices - a Mad King is the shadow's best friend. Drive a hero even further, and corrupt him, bringing him to your side, and see how AI reacts to this betrayal.

AI Actors
The AI is driven by individuals, a Nation has no AI of it's own, it follows the instructions of its ruler and other nobles.

Every AI actor has one or more roles. The roles known to us by this point are Rulers, Notables and Heroes, Rival Old Ones will also get their own AI in time.

Rulers are the leaders of nations or of POI's. They can be either a notable or a hero. Rulers get a lot of decisions dealing with their nation or their court.

Notables are mostly 'quiet' with the assumption that they are going about their lives doing the standard actions of their social class - they will react to dramatic events and their existence passively shapes policy and cultural values. In addition if they have influence they will be able to vote on government actions (part of the Ruler AI). Heroes, on the other hand, are always doing something - this is where the Hero Archetypes come from. Even if it's just "resting" that is still an action being taken - so in other words notables are reactive AI elements that are not constantly pinged for actions whereas Heroes are constantly assessing the situation and performing an AI action (even if it's something that appears passive). A hero that has become a ruler will "plug in" to the ruler AI and rule as their personality and desires dictate while still continuing to do their heroic actions within the limitations of their office.

For an example, let's consider "Intrigue at Court". Intrigue at Court triggers more often for unstable governments and more for cultures that are prone to intrigue - this event will then ping each court notable to see which one is most likely to make that kind of move, sees if it "wants to" (plus minor random elements) and then moves on to the next most ambitious or discontent noble. Once it has the proper person it sees what kind of intrigue they would be up to and it creates that Modifier. This Modifier now drives the action, inviting others to the plot, allowing heroes to investigate, and growing stronger with time (Prestige + Influence of the conspirators) until resolution. It isn't the Notable's AI that drives the plot but the modifier.

A hero, on the other hand, if he were in a capital would assess the situation and determine what it wants to do based on its desires and the status of this POI (and nearby POIs). Perhaps as a leader who is welcome at court they might investigate the ongoing plot mentioned above, train a skill, join a guild, or go off to defeat that "Ratmen" modifier in the Sewers.

Personality
Every AI has its own personality and its own goals. Their personalities are based on their race, their culture, their sex, their class and (for heroes) most importantly their archetype. This last factor divides the AI in four groups. First there are adventurers, who focus on quests, exploration etc.. Sages might venture into a ruin to dig for knowledge but will primarily stay in towns doing research. Leaders will try to improve their nation and will try to improve diplomatic relations between nations and lastly there are priests who let divine inspiration inspire their actions. Personality will manifest itself in an Ethos, which gives bonuses or penalties depending on how many associated traits the actor has.

The basic personality parameters are as follows and can very from -10 to +10 with -7 up to +7 being the normal human range. Race, Culture and even Nation may have an influence on the scores.
 * Disciplined/Creative
 * Cautious/Bold
 * Trusting/Cunning
 * Devious/Honorable
 * Selfish/Altruistic
 * Individualistic/Diplomatic