Conversation

@sean This is a common conundrum in game design. Many designers end up creating a systems game. Each element of the game reacts independently to specific triggers, and when you combine enough of these with enough different behaviors, you get a very complex branching potential narrative tree without having had to implement every single lines. The epitome of this genre is Dwarf Fortress, but many other game ended up implementing a limited version of this, like the Hitman series, where you have several distinct ways of accomplishing the mission's objectives which are fixed.

I feel like with your grouping you have at least part of a hybrid system that recognizes important outcomes but could turn to a systems game for the part leading up to them.