The Problem with RNG

In a game like Europa Universalis V there are many flavor events and many historic events guarded behind conditions and checks. Simple ones like the years must be after 1450, or you must be a certain nation. But there are some more conditions that certain countries still exist or characters have children or not. This comes with major problems.

What if a condition is not met? Then the events won't happen. On the surface this seems fine but on the grand scheme of things this often means missing out on cool stuff. The developers put some care into crafting these events and event chains only for them to never met their conditions.

If the conditions are to lose they can happen in scenarios where it makes little sense. If too strict they might never happen.

The real solution is creating lose dynamic events that fit historic moments and adapt in scenarios where they need to.

There should always a way for the player to "select" a path that will happen without any RNG. If the player has the desire to reload and try again because his desired path was not selected it's definitely a design smell that needs attention.