Bay 12 Games Forum

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Originally posted by Kagus:
<STRONG>Blue, and the dwarf becomes so incredibly disheartened by his/her failure, and will refuse food and drink.  In an attempt to end their retched and failed husk of an existence, they will try to hurl themselves off a cliff or into a river to drown.  This can be very interesting if the dwarf finds a drop that is so short, it will only stun them.  Even better if that drop has a ramp nearby which allows said dwarf to run up again and hurl themselves over the edge again. Will eventually die of thirst or hunger.</STRONG>

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This reminds me of this sketch from Jam. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FY_z2-3dLk

Scratch that. There are too many dwarves to control effectively, they hardly have anything to drink now and their numbers dropped by about a half. No point making a community fortress out of that wreck.

Is there a way to see a list of my previous forts and their locations? I can't remember where I placed it.

I took the plunge.
One random tile contained both zombie and skeletal varieties of carp.
I'm in awe.

Mining, masonry, carpentry, farming, brewing, cooking, bureaucracy and engraving are all settled. Foamy is currently hammerdwarf-marksdwarf, for maximum crossbow slaughtering action, but this may change to accomodate some more skills like mechanics, building design, glassmaking or crafting of some sort.
The last dwarf is up for grabs.

I'd like to try my hand at a community fortress, with the possibility of becoming a succession fortress later on.
The location is a pastoral riverside retreat, and by that I mean a terrifying, hot hellhole of a black sand desert that happens to be next to a river.
My fingers are crossed for some skeletal camels.
Here's some background:
Main Character - Alin Pagedtaxed.
Alin was a reasonably successful trader back in the mountainhomes. He fell in love with a minor noble's daughter. Her parents initially disagreed, but faced with the choice of approving the marriage or having their only daughter run away, they reluctantly accepted, if only to prevent the major loss of face they would endure if the neighbor knew that their daughter had run away from them.
Forced to keep up appearances, they even presented the pair with a dowry- Their very own parcel of land in the southern regions.
The newly-wed couple went to the cartographer's office to find out more about the land they got. They weren't too surprised to find out that it wasn't too much of a find. When he heard the couple enthusiastically recite the directions to their dowry, the cartographer couldn't manage to hold back his roaring laughter. He looked at them and said "Girl, your parents must really hate you. The land is in the middle of a vast desert. The last dwarven feet to grace that place were those of the explorers of old, and those of them who survived came back with terrifying tales of undead beasts roaming the land." The couple looked at the various documents the cartographer put next to the map. A sketch of a skeletal camel and a long list of dead dwarves next to their gruesome causes of death made them realize he wasn't kidding. "By the way, kids, the river is still unnamed. Any ideas?" Alin smiled and said "Bridejoke" and the cartographer added the name. Not too surprised with their dowry, the couple left the cartographer's office. After that day, the land was all but forgotten.
Suddenly, tragedy struck. Near the end of the honeymoon, dwarven police broke into the couple's cabin and dragged out Alin's wife. They shouted something about her proven connection to "the scandal of the King's unfilled fine pewter toy mandate" and handed her over to the hammerer, who quickly made sure she would never have the capacity to to disobey a mandate, or do anything else for that matter.
Alin, robbed of his love, could no longer function. He developed a hammer obsession, and spent most of his free time hitting things with one, vowing to catch the hammerer one day, and strike back. In quick succession, he lost his business, smashed most of his property, became an outcast and started frequenting the bar where all the dwarves who drink way too much even for dwarves hang out.
Shortly before exhausting what little savings he had, Alin found the deed for the desert land in a box. This made him recall the days shortly before and after his marriate, back when his life had a purpose. He decided to make a purpose. He acquired an expedition permit, entered a meeting hall, stood up on a table and started to speak in a tone that he had not heard in his voice since the good days. "I have lost my love, my business, my money and my purpose. All I have left is a deed to a skeleton-ridden desert and the permit to lead an expedition there. I seek dwarves who wish to leave behind their previous lives and go out into the unknown, where we will achieve a new existence of riches, independence and dwarven might, or die trying." Dwarves were used to charlatans who attempted to "sell" people on doomed expeditions, but something in Alin's voice seemed very genuine, and a small crowd gathered.
"Your background or your past in the mountainhomes does not matter. If you wish to join, you are welcome to step forward. I seek dwarves with fighting experience, for we are headed to a dangerous place. Laborers and tradesdwarves are welcome. Supplies will be arranged by me, you need only bring yourself and the will to survive and rise anew."
Alin kept speaking, and soon had six dwarves standing beside him:
1. A male dwarf with a stein of beer in his hand. He likes to try new things and has a strong sense of duty.
2. A female dwarf with two large steins of beer in her hands (she occasionally overindulges, you know) and a smile on her face. She doesn't like to think too much, is self aware and self disciplined.
3. A male dwarf with a bottle of rum in his hand, wearing a frown and not showing a bit of enthusiasm. He's comfortable in social situations, hates authority and tradition and has quite a lot of confidence.
4. A female dwarf with two mugs of dwarven ale in her hands. She seems quite stressed, and you can see she's trustworthy. Interestingly, she didn't show any signs of pity while Alin was telling his sad story.
5. A male dwarf with a dimple cup spawn-glazed chimpanzee leg in his hand, the same dish he's had there for years (he prefers familiar routines.) He's active, loves a thrill and has a profound understanding of his own feelings. He's trustworthy and likes helping others, but lacks confidence. He prefers stability and security, but for some reason decided to join. Perhaps he has a good reason.
6. A male dwarf wearing low boots and holding a mace. He seems calm and comfortable. He doesn't display and cravings or urges, and doesn't seem to have too much style. He admires tradition. He is trustworthy, but often does the minimum he has to do.

Alin turned to the dwarves, took them to a less crowded corner of the meeting hall, and asked them to say their name, tell a little about themselves if they want and specify their work and combat experience.

(Wow, that was a mouthful)

Now it's up to you. Pick a dwarf from the list, name them, fess up a little background if you feel like it and assign them skills. The only limit is that the skills have to make sense for the beginning of the fortress. We're going to need mining, woodcutting, farming, brewing, cooking, masonry, carpentry, etc.. I also like to have a mechanic/building designer with decent experience. Another thing you should keep in mind is self defense. The location is likely to be swarming with undead desert creatures, so it would be useful to work some combat experience into the characters when possible. I'd rather have slow-working but living dwarves than slightly faster but dead dwarves.

I had a giant cave spider in my current fortress. Killing it with my mostly untrained and unarmed military wasn't an option, so after a few failed attempts to trap it (apparently,  the spider couldn't trigger the traps because he didn't immigrate into the map) I did something else- I dug a deep pit, filled it with water from an aquifer that I stumbled upon while digging, put a retractable bridge on the top and used some expendable peasants to lure the spider on top of the bridge and retract it using a switch. The luring part works every time, because even an untrained peasant can lure the spider across 2 screen widths without getting into web range. The switch part is a little harder to pull out.
I lost about 20 expendable peasants while killing the spider, but that includes all the previous attempts that had nothing to do with the bridge. You could slash that number by building the switch next to the meeting hall or in some other high-traffic area.