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[KenboCalrissian]

I want to host a Dungeons and Dragons 5e campaign where my party is tasked with establishing a base for beastmen.  I plan on using the game to represent the base's construction, provide maps, and to have a repository of character details and world history to pull from.

It also gives me opportunities to run a simulation of what's happening at the party's base while they're away.  For example, if the party is away on a quest for 1 month, I will play 1 month of game time, including constructing buildings they've commissioned, treating new migrants as NPCs, and letting in-game events such as invasions and Happy Fun Stuff as quest prompts. 

I'm not going to worry about modifying combat to match DnD rules; rather, I am looking to remove some of the game-y restrictions and treat Dwarf Fortress as more of a library of content, including the ability to move/remove/replace things at will.  In other words, I need God Mode.

Obviously, I'm not getting away with this without some heavy modding - and I've been away from the community for quite some time, so I need your help!

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TL;DR: For the purposes of managing a tabletop roleplaying game using features of Dwarf Fortress, I am looking for suggestions of mods that provide the following functionality:

-Create a civ as Beastmen/Goblins/etc.  Whatever other species are available to play as as a result of modding, I am interested.
-A save editor that can directly modify the species, traits, and/or equipment of individual units
-A way to enable "god mode" invincibility, but only for specific units (for PCs/important NPCs) for Fortress and Adventure modes
-A way to kill a unit on command (again, for PCs/important NPCs) for Fortress and Adventure modes
-A way to navigate the game world safely and quickly, including the ability to pan over wide areas of the map on demand (This might require creating a super-fast, invincible unit in Adventure mode to emulate it, but I'm just guessing)

I know I will probably need to combine multiple mods, and then I'll probably need to learn how to do the rest that doesn't already exist (which I will of course share if I get it working).  Got any ideas?

[Fatace]

I honestly have thought about using DF as a base for DnD as well, at least for the map/history wise, but to fully use it in game would be very finicky and tricky..


-Create a civ as Beastmen/Goblins/etc.  Whatever other species are available to play as as a result of modding, I am interested.

  = This is fairly simple to mod in new species/civs/races, just takes a bit of practice and a lot of checking DFWiki to get this down.

-A save editor that can directly modify the species, traits, and/or equipment of individual units

   =  Not fully sure that this is possible, I could be wrong if someone else replies, but I am pretty sure character save files are hardcoded.

-A way to enable "god mode" invincibility, but only for specific units (for PCs/important NPCs) for Fortress and Adventure modes

   =  Not sure if theres any cheat or ability that will make that work... other than needing to use DFHack's "Full-heal" ability every time that pc/npc takes damage when u don't want them too, but that would get frustrating after a while, and theres still a hilarious chance for them to be instantly killed by 1 action.

-A way to kill a unit on command (again, for PCs/important NPCs) for Fortress and Adventure modes

   =  DFHack has the "exterminate" command, but from experience it seems to not truly kill certain entities.

-A way to navigate the game world safely and quickly, including the ability to pan over wide areas of the map on demand (This might require creating a super-fast, invincible unit in Adventure mode to emulate it, but I'm just guessing)

   =  Not sure if its already been made, but im sure its possible to make a DFHack add-on that allows for faster/non-stop/NoEat/Drink/Sleeping traveling in Fast Travel mode...      Currently the best non-modded way is just be a necromancer, you wont need to worry about eat/drink/sleeping, but u can still encounter creatures.

[KenboCalrissian]

   =  DFHack has the "exterminate" command, but from experience it seems to not truly kill certain entities.

Could you please elaborate?  What kind of side effects have you noticed?  Anything overly disruptive?

Sounds like DFHack is definitely the place to start and will get most of what I need.  I'm probably better off not plugging the PCs into the game world - if I want to run the simulation to show what happened while they're away, and I want the party's combat to still be classic tabletop play, I'd rather not have to dodge around a stray bolt puncturing one of my player's brains and not having a way to roll it back without the AI remembering and reacting to what I did.

For half a second, I thought about just giving the player units like a thousand fingers, so a headshot would be greater than a 1/1000 chance, but I imagine that'll lag out any combat those units do happen to get in.

[Superdorf]

I'll just point out that the DFHack "fullheal" command will also let you resurrect a fallen creature, regardless of the damage dealt to said creature-- it'll generate a new body and everything.

[Atkana]

I think everything you're asking for is doable in some form via base modding as well as dfhack (though you might need to make some new scripts to accomplish them). Though if you're planning to do this all solely for prep, I'd personally advise against it. The same results could be accomplished with far less effort through conventional GMing, rolling on custom tables, or using your preferred mechanics yoinked from other tabletop games (Apocalypse World style love letters might work in some contexts). Sure, use Dwarf Fortress to generate stuff like maps, places, and people if you want them - that doesn't take up any of your time. Otherwise, you're going to have to get a lot of mileage out of that setup to justify your investment, when you could've spent that time doing prep or just playing Dwarf Fortress

[Fatace]

   =  DFHack has the "exterminate" command, but from experience it seems to not truly kill certain entities.

Could you please elaborate?  What kind of side effects have you noticed?  Anything overly disruptive?

Sounds like DFHack is definitely the place to start and will get most of what I need.  I'm probably better off not plugging the PCs into the game world - if I want to run the simulation to show what happened while they're away, and I want the party's combat to still be classic tabletop play, I'd rather not have to dodge around a stray bolt puncturing one of my player's brains and not having a way to roll it back without the AI remembering and reacting to what I did.

For half a second, I thought about just giving the player units like a thousand fingers, so a headshot would be greater than a 1/1000 chance, but I imagine that'll lag out any combat those units do happen to get in.

exterminate basically kills whichever creature(s) you have chosen, but... depending on their noble position, or army related, ect.
they will be brought back to life with a replaced person..?.. its as weird as it sounds. Basically if you were to go to a dark fortress, into the middle and use it to kill all the goblins, beak dogs, ect, unload the area and come back, a lot of the goblins/beak dogs will be back and replaced with (not goblins that already existed from world gen) but with brand new generated characters. This is very apparent when u use it at a kobold cave site, or an huge army campsite, or with a big group of locals who fled their village.

This issue doesn't always happen, cuz you can use it to kill a uneeded/uninvited guest such as a mega/semibeast, titan, ect. and it wont respawn reguardless.

Also sorry for late response!

[Luckyowl]

I feel using DnD now as a tabletop game may be hard. However the next update coming soon will make it possible with a party system so you can make multiple characters in the character creation, and tactical mode so  each party members are able to give you commands what they want their characters to do during combat. I really been romanticizing using DF as a DnD tabletop with the coming update. I have been thinking mini campaigns and ideas for testing my hypothesis, but I have to see when the game comes out. I feel you should wait for the next update ,with a loose villainous plot, tactical mode, party system, pets and mounts, and interrogation, this  update can potentially allow you to host a DnD game in the game.

[Orbotosh]

In my opinion DF modding would be too high-investment low-reward for your idea. Look for homebrew and supplements dedicated to base management, since there's not a shortage of resources for that topic.