Bay 12 Games Forum

New players can join at any time there is a CURRENT SAVE listed (Found at the bottom of this post)!  Just post in this thread that you are joining, download that CURRENT SAVE (and the LFR mod if you dont have that), and join in!  This game offers no long turn lists and very little waiting.  Your CURRENT SAVE with start on the first of Spring, please play out the rest of the year, then post and tell us all you wish about it and give us the link to your uploaded save so we can see everything we want to know about your map.

Once you have done this, keep watching the thread for a vote to be called, this hopefully happens at least once a week, as often as all known active players can finish their map and get the information about it onto the thread.  By becoming a player, you have given us a map that can be voted on, and earned for yourself two votes.  You may spend these votes however you wish - both on any one map (even your own) or one each on any two maps.

How should you vote?  Vote on the map or maps you most want to continue playing from as the next CURRENT SAVE.  This isn't a popularity or any other sort of contest - if you see a map or two that you think would be more fun for you to continue play from than the others, that's what you should be voting for!  If they all look about equally fun to you, then use any criteria you like to vote however you want.

Once all players have voted (hopefully within a day of a vote being called), then the map with the most votes is the new CURRENT SAVE, and we can all start our next years.  If the vote is over and there's a clear winner, but I've not had a chance to update yet, feel free to start that next year - there won't be any surprises and the saves have already been uploaded.  If there is a tie for the winning map, I will decide the winner from those tied maps.

How much do you have to post to be a player?   As much or as little as you want, with the minimum being your uploaded save and at least a few comments on things you felt were interesting or significant about your year.  We want stories, but we do not require them.  Even if -you- don't write stories, if your map wins the vote, your MAP will have stories written about it, as the storywriting players continue playing on this map.

So join us if you want to play, and dont worry if you are new to DF, new to this mod, new to writing stories, or quite experienced and sure that you're really bad at playing or writing!  Because you cannot kill this game (no one player could, though I suppose an organized group could...), and we all will enjoy how your involvement shapes our game.  This is a very welcoming community succession game to join, regardless of your playstyle, writing style, or any other factors!

What if you don't want to keep playing?   Then stop.  We'd prefer to know you stopped, but we'll figure it out if you go silent for more than a few days.  This game has momentum!  We are trying to keep active and interested players and participants active and interested!

What if you kill your map?  No worries.  Try to save just before the end, then play it out - be sure to save that save though!  Rename it or something if you need, before continuing to play it.  If you are right and you lost the fort, then post whatever you want of the story and upload the save for us to see.  You still get your two votes, and technically players can vote for your map.  If you are wrong and you manage to save the fort, then keep playing!  Finish the year and tell us of your adventures, share your save, and enjoy the voting.  Your fort might even gain more votes from its precarious situation!

If you stopped playing and then decide you want back in, come back!  Join the CURRENT SAVE and return to the mixmatch of stories as this alternate reality crossing (or not, as you write if you wish!) is played out.


Can you be dorfed?  Maybe.  But you can sure ask!  Every player gets to choose how they handle dorfing requests.  One player might give you exactly what you ask for, another might give you some of what you wanted, or the exact opposite.  So far players have chosen to more or less follow all dorfing requests.

Can you write stories about these maps without becoming a player?   Yes!  Even without being dorfed, if you want to grab the perspective of some character (even if it's not a dwarf!) and write about something, do so.  From anyone's map at any time.

Forlorn Realms adds in a great many Easter Eggs as well as game play changes.  There are a great many revealed new things to explore, from unusual and possibly inobvious dwarven castes, to an alchemically-driven tech tree and priestly paths to explore, to some new enemies; but also there are subtle surprises hidden within the mod itself, which promises:  Not only will every game be different because of each player's choices, but this Easter Egg filled mod is likely to unevenly sprinkle unexpected amusements and horrors throughout the different 'realities'.

Countless hidden features and easter eggs which will not affect gameplay 99 out of 100 times, but are there to be discovered.  No playthrough will be the same!

Play begins in 125, within the First Age of Myth, on a world created to have few civilizations and fewer sites. Savagery is high and mineral occurrences higher.  All other settings are standard for a LFR world.

A 4x4 hot and savage location on the convergence of three biomes, all three containing an aquifer though the mountain biome is likely to offer fairly easy access past this.


Play begins with a breeding pair each of dogs, carbunkles, sabre-toothed tigers, tortoises, jackalopes, and pygmy ankylosaurs.  Your mostly unskilled dwarves are equipped thusly:




As your settlement begins, your sharp eyes will notice that iron, gold, and coal can be seen in the nearby hills, among many other sorts of minerals and ores.  The deepest resonances you can feel underground seem to come from 175 urists down.