Bay 12 Games Forum

The year is 2074.

The Earth will finally succumed to it's corruption.

In 48 hours, the Human race will be doomed; riots will run amok on Earth. Nearly every Government will be overthrown. Anarchists will release nuclear weapons upon almost all Government complexes' all over the world. Billions will died instantly. More will following the days to come. The diseases will mutate, the will become impervious to all medicine. Centuries of research and technology will be lost in an instant. Anything surviving that will have to deal with over a thousand years of nuclear fallout.

Even the Spokes - massive low lying satelites housing millions - will be shot down by STO (Surface to Orbit) artillery.

Humanity on Earth will not survive.



But not all hope is lost.

A scientific spacecraft designed to travel light years, the first of its kind, is being outfitted, put together and will be due to launch in just a few hours. This craft will travel over 450 light years into the Orion Spur, to investigate a planet.

The ultimate goal for this craft is to reach a planet found to have life, named:



5 lucky humans have been chosen to partake in this expedition.
They are skilled veterans of space exploration, but nothing has been attempted like this before.

Except one of the guys, hes just some Janitor paid 9 bucks a light year.

But the question is: how will they survive?

YOU will decide the story...




- This is basically a sci-fi forum game survival in SPAAAAAAAAAACE...

- 5 people will take on the roles of these dudes. One will be a Janitor, fo' sho.

- Because it is a completely ficticious planet, I will be taking ideas and suggestions from the people who actually will read this. NOT the           survivors themselves, however.

- There will be a waiting list, but that is up for debate as some dudes can't just randomly appear there.

- Attempt at doing retarded things "I suddenly transform into Jesus" will result in your automatic death and your position will be passed to       the person next in the list.

- Interact with the other people, like, ask them things like you're actually talking to them.

- Stay in role, and mature themes are allowed to some extent.

- I will allow some degree of leniency... but people WILL be ripped into bloody pulps if you are not care... Scan before you plan!



Set out your Character Bios like this please:

Name <-- They aren't dwarves btw
Role <-- Something realistic... Super robot monkey is NOT.
Gender <-- Male or female. Cyborg can be a prefix. E.G, Cyborg Male
Age/Height/Weight <-- Atleast over 16 years. Height and Weight will be either Short/Skinny, Medium/Medium or Tall/Fat rspectively.
Descriptions <-- Short bio in the style of DF 1-3 lines is fine.
Features/Attributes <-- Any special attributes about your guy that you want to be listed down as a special ability... explain a bit.

Example


Try to keep realistic please...


NO VACANCY


Undefined means that it can be any role... just as long they would be realistically on a scientific spacecraft.


Not much to put here...

Most things do not involve rolls, so have a 90% success rate. the other 10% is when I feel like being jackass, or its vital to the plot.

Battles... maybe not rolls, but still, quite a few things require rolls. The only modifiers to them are special statuses or items and traits, as there are no stats.

So... anyone up for this?

Well... I'm sure we have all heard of the nutters who try to make computers in Dwarf Fortress, well there's another thing for those insane dudes to ponder...



Don't know what the heck tha' Quantum-thingy is? You can read up on it here, in this site (for children!) or if you think you a big boy, tackle the stuff here... though the former link may be all you need for your brain to explode into dust.


So... if you're curious about this... I don't actually think it's entirely possible under the current DF physics... but what do I know? I'm just some dumb-ass kid.


WAIT! There's more!


Have you heard of the thought experiment, Schrödinger's cat?


Well... I figured... atleast we could test this in DF!


But instead of reading through all that BS, how 'bout we dorfify it!


Basically, Schrödinger wrote:

One can even set up quite ridiculous cases. A cat is penned up in a steel chamber, along with the following device (which must be secured against direct interference by the cat): in a Geiger counter there is a tiny bit of radioactive substance, so small, that perhaps in the course of the hour one of the atoms decays, but also, with equal probability, perhaps none; if it happens, the counter tube discharges and through a relay releases a hammer which shatters a small flask of hydrocyanic acid. If one has left this entire system to itself for an hour, one would say that the cat still lives if meanwhile no atom has decayed. The psi-function of the entire system would express this by having in it the living and dead cat (pardon the expression) mixed or smeared out in equal parts.

It is typical of these cases that an indeterminacy originally restricted to the atomic domain becomes transformed into macroscopic indeterminacy, which can then be resolved by direct observation. That prevents us from so naively accepting as valid a "blurred model" for representing reality. In itself it would not embody anything unclear or contradictory. There is a difference between a shaky or out-of-focus photograph and a snapshot of clouds and fog banks.

Bleh. Can't be bothered reading that?

Well let me help,

To dorfify that...

A kitten or an elf is caged in an air-tight vault. It is vital that it must be one of the two species or it won't work. There is possibly some kind of water based mechanism set in the room as well; water falls into a pool from above, is slowly drained out of the bottom of the pool and if the water is below a certain mark then a lever will activate which will trigger a draw bridge to slam down, destroying some kind of tether holding a sock high above the cage in the air. The sock will then plummet to the ground and hit the test subject, exploding them in gore.

Why do all this?

Well, WHY NOT!

First you get to see letters (pixels for you tilesetters) explode in a violent tirade... that should be more than enough to convince you!

The second reason? Uh. I forgot.


Even if you don't understand why you are doing this, only one phrase is needed:


Oh, yeah that's right.

I remember what the second reason is.

To prove that simple quantum mechanics work in DF!

Hurrah!

-Possible? Logistical?

Some one do this, then take a recording?

~My 2 penneth~

-~Cheers~-

[P]sYDoNiA

Hey,

I've been wondering, how old is the average DF gamer?
I'm bored so I'm going to submit my hypothesis on this...

DF is basically, a ASCII game. There are graphical mods for this, but it is basically an ASCII game. Most young people, aged 17 and under, have no time for these 'retro' games... Opting instead to play high-end games like Crysis and Fallout 3 (WOOOOO!!!!)

Considering the amount of modding, I would say that people generally well seasoned and experienced with computers would play these, although there are the odd exceptions.

As a general rule of thumb, elderly people are not... 'computer-savvy'...
That rules out anyone generally above the age of 45, in my opinion.

This basically leads me to estimate that the majority of DF gamers are around...

20-35 years old?

I may be wrong... I may be right.

Please post your age(ish) and comments pwease

As for me?

Well, I break the first rule (Young people don't like DF) as well, I'm 13.

Hi everyone,
I'm writing a series of stories about my Dwarf Fortress universe, the 'Scalded Lands.'
It has a very.. interesting history and I'm just writing short stories, possibly a series of them linked together, about the events in the history.

I made up a few things in it for a better storyline and literate sense...

I'm just posting a short segment of what I've written so far, please tell me if you like it or hate it...

---

“To arms my brethren!” shouted a helmet-clad dwarf atop a scarred war-horse.

“Let not one of those foul beasts stand to see tomorrow, and woe on me if even a handful of dust remains of these beasts… I swear it.” the dwarf finished ominously.

Pulling his visor down, the dwarf called out,

“Sapward, how goes the survey of the surroundings?”

“The tidings are not good, mi’lord. The goblins are marching on our position from the north as we speak. We also have received word from our scouts that they have seen a contingent of Raptor-fiends ready to wreak havoc on our men… you already know that the morale of our troops are diminished, and seeing the unholy beasts in action will just make them turn tail and run…” said Sapward in a quiet, modulated tone.

“However, Thane Stoneridge,” he continued, “There are some good news; the Thane of Houndcrest himself has roused an army from the nearby Alnisitons (Warhalls in Dwarvish) numbering over ten thousand, they are ex-“

“Ten thousand!” exclaimed the Thane in surprise.

“-They are expected to arrive by late this night or early the next morrow… provided we can last that long.” Sapward continued grimly.

“Tell me, what is the terrain going to be like?” inquired Stoneridge.

“We are currently camped on a hill, and they are barely a league away from us. Between us, is a shallow bottomed river in a valley. The best place to fight would be on our hill and to wait for them to charge us, that way we have the upper hand.” Sapward reported.

Stoneridge just chuckled and said,
“Don’t worry, those green-faced loons won’t stand a chance.”

“I wished I shared your enthusiasm, sire.”

Stoneridge leaned over and placed his hand on Sapward’s shoulder.

“Camlin, don’t worry, I have a few tricks up my sleeve. And put a smile on your face, eh?” The Thane reassured. “I have known you for over 25 years, I am your god-father for Ikos’ sake… and I know when something is bothering you. What’s wrong?” asked Stoneridge in a calm voice.

Sapward’s lip quivered for a second, before tightening in a thin line.

“My mate, my child and my hearth. That’s what’s bothering me. We are outnumbered, 5 to 1.
Creatures that should have been long dead since the Dream Age are walking and killing us. Our only hope of salvation is in the form of a half-rockmad old Thane who rustled up an overeager rabble of peasants. You want to know my problem? My problem is that I don’t think we will survive, and you are making a huge mistake by not even considering retreating.” Sapward paused for breath. Birds chirped. Nearby Dwarves stopped what they were doing and turned to look at the strange sight. Sapward noticed he was shouting and lowered his voice.

“Well?” he begged, “Won’t you just turn your back to this madness for just one battle?”

Avoiding the desperate look in his friend’s eyes, Stoneridge just shook his head, not trusting himself to speak.

“By the Gods, Daevlin Stoneridge, you are a blasted fool!” Cursed Sapward. “Heed my words if you value my intelligence.”

“When you know that you will lose, it takes more of a dwarf to turn your back and retreat, to suffer the shame and ridicule of your peers . To die the ‘glorious death’ on the battlefield in face of certain defeat rather than to retreat is the coward’s way out. Even if you manage to survive and be hailed as a hero, you ultimately have failed your slain dwarfkin.” He spat out before storming off in a rage, muttering a whole variety of colourful curses under his breath.

Feeling very old, the Thane just sighed and shook his head slowly before dismounting and slowly leading his horse into the stables.

“Come now, Masha, you must be hungry and tired… Don’t worry, I’ll find you a good stabler this time.” The Thane cooed to his steed, the pending battle at the back of his mind.

The battle was going to be more than just a simple slaughter between the Goblins and Dwarves, no. This one was to mark the beginning of a near eternal war.

---

So.. thats it for the first chapter. I'm gonna put some more up tomorrow, and please take like.. 30 seconds to tell me why you liked it or hate it. Feedback appreciated.

Also, if you want a character to appear in the series just write a description about who he/she/it is, looks like, behaviour, likes and dislikes andd a sample of what they would say in response to this statement:

"Dwarves... those runty little maggots. We oughtta slay 'em all and send them back to the dirt they came from!"

Thanks for reading,

~Cheers

[P]sYDoNiA