A friend introduced me to a new TRPG called “Emberwind” a short time ago. I was intrigued by the mechanics engine called the “Rise System” and how it dealt with monster/NPC AI specifically for GM-less games. It’s a far stretch, but the “Rise System” made me think of a strange blend between “ICRPG” and “Powered by the Apocalypse” (e.g. Dungeon World) mechanics.
Anyway, the monster/NPC AI concept got me thinking about applying it to my ICRPG games. It basically creates a sort of hexagon matrix that relates to a random d6 roll. You follow the pattern from the center of the matrix out based on the die roll number to create the monster/NPC’s reaction. It’s like Hank’s monster AI concepts, but less structured flow chart and more random.
Here is an example from “Emberwind”'s website:
This is a rough approximation of the Agnar from Core 2e to give you an idea of what I was thinking:
Thoughts? Too complicated? I just thought it was an interesting concept and was toying with it for ICRPG. Sometimes players pick up on the more flow chart based AI and then it’s easy for them to predict my monsters responses. I thought this might make it more random and throw them off the trail, so to speak.