after seeing so many posts on how to get various events, especially the romances, to trigger in the game, i thought i'd summarize both the advice so kindly given by the vets here and some of my own research via infinity explorer.

(drum roll)

some events are triggered by GAME time; don't be shy to sleep just to get a few spells back; there's no reward for finishing more than one quest per day (a moderate pace); if you've enabled cheats, control-T will advance the game by one hour without having to spend an entire 8 hours at an inn (very useful for when you can only do something at night)

some events are triggered by REAL time, that is, the actual time you spend in front of your computer. there's no shortcut around this without editing the .bcs files, so my only advice is when you take a break from playing, without hitting pause, go to the inventory screen and just leave it. the game itself doesn't advance but all the real timers that have been set will continue to run. most timers aren't set for more than an hour so you should return to one or more npc's wanting your ear.

many events are location dependent. some npc's won't talk to you in a dungeon or in a building or in a city, etc.

likewise, some events are chapter dependent. several chains will advance only up to a point and then simply halt until the appropriate chapter has been reached. similarly, there are tons of events that will NOT happen during certain chapters, especially 4,5, and 7.

and last but certainly not least (heh, some cliches are unavoidably efficient), events are dependent upon other events and combinations of events, especially romances. as an example, at one point in order for jaheira's romance to continue you have to be in chapter 2 or 3, outside but not in a city, and with 3 other mini-quests finished (no spoilers here).