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[obeliab]

Trying to figure out why I couldn't build anything on Open Space or get dwarves to move there.

This, and before it, closing the game several times shortly after embark, prior to my understanding the Designation-Leads-to-Action concept.

[Shidoni]

The first time I heard about DF, it was someone saying how awesome it was... but they couldn't stop mentioning the dwarves ignoring your orders and doing really stupid things, and I thought, "There is no way I would enjoy that." Some time later, a RL friend got into it and gave me more information, so I just had to try it.

I read the tutorial section of the wiki, and several other people's tutorials, before loading. When I finally started myself, I was immediately stymied, because I had never noticed the bit where any tutorial said you had to press Enter twice to designate a spot to mine.

My first fort was in a swamp, and the king of my civilization was an elf.

[Urist Imiknorris]

I remember my first fort - I was on the edge of a mountain and a forest, there was a stream (nothing living in it though), and I remember there being a flint layer. I was incredibly happy when I found bauxite becuase I could make magma-safe stuff (after checking the wiki to see what it was), although in hindsight I almost certainly didn't have magma. I found sapphires in the communal bedroom I dug out, and I didn't know about the difference between labors and professions, so I was pissed that I couldn't make all the workshops that the build screen listed.

Then I abandoned and tried again on a volcano.

[Aravin]

"HOW THE FUCK DO YOU PLAY THIS?" 

[Ricky]

I remember looking at all the .,;" and  dwarfs wondering what in the hell, after playing, designating a bunch of sand to be mined out, i didnt know it was sand, or that it was even being mined. I quit shortly after that. hell, i didn't even know how to change z-levels.

then i found a graphics pack. then once i got that, this whole game became a whole lot more. the first fort i lost due to everyone dying was when a dragon came onto the screen, and never expieriencing anything like that, i didn't have an underground fort.
the dragon finds my booze stockpile, where maybe  3/4 of my dwarves were () and exploded the booze. then the goblin ambush picked off the rest.

[Ultimuh]

"HOW THE FUCK DO YOU PLAY THIS?"

Could not have said it any better.

[Shogger]

My very first fortress fell to a goblin ambush. I had been learning how to play, and hadn't bothered even thinking about military or traps, so the goblins cut my dwarves down easily.

[fox967]

I was searching for games on the internet. Not just flash games, i was searching for Indie games, and i came across a list of 100 best Independant games. Out of them all, i tried 5 or 6. Dwarf Fortress was one of them.

My first ever fortress was, in fact, not.

I started in the early days of 40d, and I did not understand the way Z levels worked and, managing to get my miners to dig a passageway, i made them dig into a pond because i thought it was an underground pond that i could drink/fish from. Needless to say, dwarfs drowned, and i learnt my lesson.

It was a couple days before i went back to DF, and started learning how to really do stuff, with the help of tutorials and the wiki.

A couple of years later, and im still here.

[Bdthemag]

On a different forum I regular a friend of mine after hearing I like text based games recommended me the Liberal Crime Squad, after playing that for awhile I found out there was a forum. I started to post on the forum until I tried out DF, its been awesome ever since.

[NewsMuffin]

Some time around early 2009.
Then I lost interest until around October that year, and was hooked on WHAT IS GOING ON THIS IS AWESOME WHY IS EVERYTHING RED?
My first truly successful fort is also my ugliest, mainly because of the fail tower I built to keep the gobbos away.
Only five dwarves have died in that fort's history, out of 80 something. Hell yeah.

[BurnedToast]

My very first fort.... 1-tile wide hallway, all the rooms were just 3x3 with a workshop and nothing else inside - my jewelcrafter starved to death because he build himself inside the workshop and couldn't get out because the door was blocked and I had NO IDEA why.

Almost everyone starved to death the first winter because I had absolutely no idea how farming worked... at all (this was the 2d version where it was a *LOT* harder to figure out on your own - no easy outside plots or soil layer underground plots for you). a couple of dwarves managed to eat vermin to survive, so I made them build some coffins for everyone else, then flood the room with the coffins (to protect them, you know, from goblins or whatever... heh) except something got stuck in the door and it permaflooded the whole world and the rest of my dwarves drowned.

[Angel Of Death]

BUILD THE FUCKING CHAIR, FOR CHRISTS SAKE!

*Ragequit*

[Sutremaine]

it permaflooded the whole world

Permafloods!

I once tried to flood the whole outdoors to kill some migrants or something, but it turns out that the water level suddenly drops to knee-high in the 2D outdoors.

The first version I played was when 40-something came out, but I tried the 2D version first to have fewer things to deal with. Specifically, Boatmurdered's version, which lacked a pop cap. I upgraded to the last 2D version a little later after being turned into a nervous wreck by 80 dwarves scurrying back and forth but never getting anything done because I couldn't face managing their labours manually. I did order several waves under a bridge or into the farming room, but I always felt bad about it.

Giant toads and lizardmen randomly jumping out my wells, good times. I also had a fortress shaped like a backwards E, where the only way into the fortress proper was to cross the river. Naturally this attracted a lot of attention from the river dwellers, at least until I put up some raising bridges. One of them squashed a dwarf who chose that exact moment to step aside for another dwarf to pass. Oops.

Finally I went to 3D after my laptop broke. When it came back DF would run at like 30fps on the title screen, so I switched to 40d. Got a new laptop and I still have the old DF folder. I wonder if it'll work?

Edit:
1fps on embark and no init options to change anything.

[kisame12794]

seeing a map coverter from DF to Minecraft, and wondering, hmmm sounds cool. download, open, wtf is this?!?!?!? damm asscii graphics.... them i found tilesets..yay..

[ahonek]

The first time I started up the game, I made it to the world generation screen, saw all the green 'n's and 'AE's and such, and immediately quit.

A couple months later, I came across the .exe file and decided I would learn how to play. So after a bit of Googling, I discovered Captnduck's tutorial videos, and I've been hooked ever since.

One of my earliest major failures was misunderstanding ramps and walls, so after I built my fancy great wall of Copperneedles, I was quickly slaughtered by a goblin ambush. Turns out my wall had no fewer than 5 separate gaps in it.