Let's Play Dwarf Fortress

[Remington]

Dwarf Fortress is an indie game in going development that obsessively simulates every tiny detail of a fantasy-orientated, randomly generated world. It's like the Sims, if the Sims was about a group of manic-depressive alcohol-dependent midgets living in a mountain fortress.

The major thing about the game is that you're given basically nothing at the start (7 dwarves plus a caravan) and whatever happens next is up to you. Almost nothing is scripted, and due to heavy use of procedural generation almost nothing is the same twice.

You end up with stuff like this as part of a ordinary playthrough:
http://www.eldritch.org/erskin/roleplaying/Bronzemurder.pdf
http://oilfurnace.timdenee.com/


My thought was to run a forum game (like Werewolf) with each participant having a dwarf named after them. I would run the game and summarize goings-on into a regular narration with screenshots, and participants could have their dwarf run around and do certain things or vote on issues of fortress-wide concern. The game generates lots of opprtunities for 1st person stories or narrations by participants, and the main narrative updates would take place every 2-3 days.


What do you guys think?

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I'm down.

[Q. G. Pennyworth]

You have my axe.

[Eater of Clowns]

You have my axe.

AND MY...uh.

I'll join.

[Remington]

Some of the highlights from my current playthrough:

1. Multiple goblin sieges have run headlong into the labyrinthine meat-grinder that is my front entrance. The hardest part about dealing with those is cleaning up afterwards.

2. Finally got around to building a functioning hospital after the second necromancer attack in as many years. The doctors kept trying to stitch wounded dwarves up with adamantine thread, possibly trying to create a bionic superdwarf?

3. My best axedwarf fended off most of the undead ambush by himself, but it cost him his ENTIRE LEFT ARM and his right hand. The doctors patched him up and he tried to report back for military duty, but I told him to retire. Now and then I get alerts: [Axedwarf cancelled [Store Personal Item]: Cannot grab item. Despite all this, he actually seems pretty happy.

4. Had a vampire dwarf sneak in with my 2nd or 3rd wave of migrants and exsanguinate some random farmer when no-one was looking. I finally figured out who it was, but instead of killing him I gave him a nice office, walled him in, and made him my undead accountant. He doesn't need food, water, or air so he's staying in there indefinitely.

5. Second vampire dwarf snuck in later on, but managed to get himself elected mayor (?) before I could arrange an unfortunate accident. In the second necromancer siege he also took on a pack of undead by himself, smashing up zombie swarves, humans, and assorted reanimated wildlife with an adamantine spear. I want to keep him due to the sheer amount of badass, but I need to figure out a way of keeping him from killing people.

[tyrannosaurus vex]

Um, not to be That Guy or anything, but I believe they prefer the term "alternatively sized stronghold".

[Pergamos]

I love this game.  I'd really like a dwarf named after me.  A butcher if possible.  If you can post my dwarf's description I'll make journals and shit.

[Pergamos]

As far as the badass vampire, you can put him in a burrow that includes the outdoors and he will be less likely to drain anyone.  or you can lock him in a danger room and let him out when enemies show up.  They are like ninjas for necromancers, since the zombies ignore them.

[Remington]

As far as the badass vampire, you can put him in a burrow that includes the outdoors and he will be less likely to drain anyone.  or you can lock him in a danger room and let him out when enemies show up.  They are like ninjas for necromancers, since the zombies ignore them.

The isolated room/quarters is probably what I'll do. 5-6 necromancers showed up in the last attack, and I need a way of reliably dealing with them.

Amusingly, due to his Mayoral status I had to dig out separate noble quarters + dining room for him, despite the fact that he doesn't eat, drink, or sleep. I'll probably just lock him in there with a floodgate.

[Remington]

I'll start this up tonight. I'll post a general map and summary of the generated world, along with 3-4 different embark sites with pros/cons for each.

See below for different skills/professions you can request a dwarf to have:
http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2012:Skill#Skills

The initial 7 dwarves will be broken down as follows:
2 Miners/Masons
1 Carpenter/Craftdwarf
2 Farmers
1 Axedwarf/Woodcutter
1 Administrator/Expedition Leader

I have dibs on the Expedition Leader.

[Remington]

Pergamos is confirmed as one of the farmers, with skills in butchery. He will be responsible for chopping up random tame animals and keeping the cat and dog populations in check.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I'm gonna get in this evening.

[Q. G. Pennyworth]

Dibs on axedwarf?

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Dude, I want to be the craftdwarf!

I have real dwarf blood in my veins, you know. 

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Dude, I want to be the craftdwarf!

I have real dwarf blood in my veins, you know. 

Troof.  She's part Orkadian.  They were only 3 feet tall.