Bay 12 Games Forum

Hello Escapists! I am here to tell you a story. A story that will most likely involve copious amounts wealth bloodshed. For such is the way of Dwarf Fortress.

What is Dwarf Fortress?

Dwarf Fortress is a freeware game, the brain child of Tarn and Zach Adams. You take control of a handful of Dwarves and must attempt to establish a stable colony in the harsh wilderness, one that will hopefully blossom into a glorious source of prosperity for all Dwarves. However, the path to success is not an easy one. You must protect dwarves from thieving scum, murderous goblins, bloodthirsty undead, disgruntled nobles, and murderous ecoterrorists.

It may sound fairly simple, but Dwarf Fortress is actually an incredibly complex game. There are thousands of different ways to go about building your forts. The game generates completely unique worlds for each player, which produce a combination of realistic and fantasy biomes. The possibilities are nearly limitless in Dwarf Fortress.

If you want more information about Dwarf Fortress check out the official site. You may also want to look at the forums and wiki, both of which are a great source of help for new players.

Why are you Let's Playing this game?

My primary reason for wanting to do this LP is to introduce more people to Dwarf Fortress. It's a great game, and while it certainly isn't for anyone I think there are a lot of people who would enjoy it if they gave it a shot. I intend to do so by telling a story of how a fortress progresses over time. I'm aiming to have all the events in the story I tell be based on around actual events in the game, albeit somewhat exaggerated in some cases to make it more interesting to the reader. Another great thing about Dwarf Fortress is that provides you with tons of details, but still gives you enough room to craft entertaining stories around these events.

Most of the updates in this LP are likely to be a recap of recent events from one the resident dwarves perspective. However, I want to get some community interaction into this as well. So I'll probably end some updates with a choice, such as who to elect as mayor. At which point the community will then vote on what to do. But we'll get to that when it comes up.

Are you using mods?

A few. Dwarf Fortress is a very mod friendly game, allowing you to put in tons of custom content. However, I've removed most of the mods that would significantly alter the flow of the game. Pretty much all of the mods you'll see in this LP are just creatures I added to the game to give it more variety. I'll designate which ones they are to alleviate confusion.

Being that this is my first LP, this will either turn out well or end up a horrible failure. I want to do everything to avoid the later, so if you have any feedback or questions, send them my way. I'll do my best to explain the events of the game or improve my writing based on your feedback. But without further delay, let's get this thing going.