Bay 12 Games Forum

Have Cooks and Brewers go into special versions of Strange Moods, simply called "Inspirations". They would be able to demand nearly ANYTHING, and once they've "invented" a Fortress Specialty, it enters the world's list of what is and what is not considered edible. "Fricasee of Kobold", for instance, would be a rare instance of dwarves eating a sentient, but only after an Inspiration. "Obsidian Fondue", "Rat Weed and Giantess Tallow Eclair", etc.

Failed Inspirations don't result in Berserks, but in mass food poisonings.

My mason is, at present, making several dozen statues of seafood he'd like to eat: clams, cave lobsters, perch, trout, etc. Bear in mind that this is a desert environment and this is entirely wishful thinking on his behalf.

BECAUSE IT'S THERE.

So, apparently, a Titan and Hydra went to war 300 years ago, killed ALL GOBLINS AND KOBOLDS, and left the elves, dwarves and humans alone.

This is going to be a lonely game.

If your mayor is also your broker and you sell a forbidden item, does he put himself in jail?

Mournfulriddles is now operational at about 30 dwarves, unfortunately I seem to be having a glitch involving charcoal, which has led to a suicidal glassmaker roaming the halls, stripping his clothes off.

I decided that I wanted a really cool ancient Roman collonade topped with statues that led to the entrance, so we've got a LOT of cobaltite columns that I had to assemble and disassemble stairs for, and the end result is rather impressive. I haven't seen hide nor hair of goblins OR kobolds yet, and so I'm wondering what the hell is up.

There are provisions in the code for burying stuff, so that's still another way to treat the dead that will be possible in the future. What I had in mind with this is to let the graveyard play its actual role as a temporary burial ground for when you can't or don't want to place coffins definitively yet.

...or want to build a dining room around.

Alchemy as "scientific magic" is a good direction to go in for dwarves, I'm thinking a bit like the "alchemy" in the Dragon Quest games, where taking one (common) object and combining it with one (rare) objects results in one (extremely rare, alchemy-only) object.

One bar of platinum plus one diamond, plus sufficient degree of Alchemy, yields one lump of Orichalcum, which can be used to transmute a base element into Unobtainium at will. Unobtainium does whatever Toady decides it does, rather like Slade, only controllable and defined by user desires.

Alchemy would be one school of magic, perhaps the most "dwarvenly". Glamour would be the most "elven", and Enchantment would be the most "human".

Alchemy would basically be the previously mentioned combination of existing objects into rare (magical) ones.

Glamour would be the temporary substitution of existing objects into other objects, such as turning a wooden spear into a steel broadsword for the duration of the spell.

Enchantment would be adding magical variables to existing objects to make them more efficacious, such as making the aforementioned wooden spear into a wooden spear that becomes more useful against a specific species of megabeast, but is still largely dependent upon the skill of the user.

In Fortress Mode, Alchemy would be the most common form of "magic" outside of possible artifact-based effects, as dwarves have mastery over it in comparison to other races. The other two schools would be wildly more useful in Adventure Mode, and would make playing an elf or a human over a dwarf an actual decision rather than a preference.

Observing some of the suggestions in this thread, I also amend my previous artifact-based suggestion to allow "control" of certain forces... rather like the Sorceror's Apprentice's magical hat. The wearer of the magical crown could activate existing statues into golems, for instance, at the risk of eventually going mad if using it for too long.

I still like the idea of ghosts and spirits that can't harm or be harmed by dwarves, and might even "haunt" abandoned parts of the fortress, like the empty barracks that are often built during construction of the main fortress. They would just flicker in and out of existence and would add even more depth to the already existing DF afterlife, and possibly even make it possible to resurrect dead dwarves if a successful attack on Hell happens. If you have a ghost issue, and you succeed in finding the ghost's soul in Hell, for instance, you could perform a small ritual to bring the dead dwarf back to life. It would be A LOT of work, but it would be an interesting personal quest to take up if you feel like it, especially as Fortresses start developing hero cults and legendary leaders, as they are already starting to do now.