A Tale of Blood and Incredulity [DF Succession Game]

[G-Tech Corporation]

Hidey-oh lads and lasses!

After a bit of discussion betwixt myself and some other RPers (Durmatagno, Old Sarthal), some of some lads from the FT-Bravo RPing group have decided to kick off a Dwarf Fortress Succession Game.

Right now she's only in the planning stages, but if you want to jump on board, feel free to chime in.

Now, thoughts.

Firstly, worldgen: I'm thinking about doing a high volcanism/volcano number, low savagery, high evil/good biome gen. Why you ask? Well, volcanos have magma, and magma leads to much !!FUN!!. Additionally, its damn useful for smelting ores and crisping invaders, and since some of us are relatively new to the game and don't want to deal with pump stacks or magma pistons, a volcano is the obvious solution. Secondly, low savagery. Normally I recommend pumping the Savagery stat in your worlds, because that gives you awesome creatures to play with, but in the most recent updates basically every animal can become an "Animal Man" with a high Savagery value, and those are not butcherable, and thus not fun. Finally, the high good and evil will allow us more choices of zany places to start, so yes.

Additionally, Durm, Sarthal, I'm proposing we limit the population of our fort to 30 to start, so people who don't know how to handle large populations can ease in to the game.

Thoughts?

[Durmatagno]

Sounds like so much Fun to me, may I please joi.....................hahahaha, I know, I know.

My thoughts are so long as its FUN, lets do whatever we want, but keep it semi-newb friendly, so I would say medium savagery.

[G-Tech Corporation]

Sounds like so much Fun to me, may I please joi.....................hahahaha, I know, I know.

My thoughts are so long as its FUN, lets do whatever we want, but keep it semi-newb friendly, so I would say medium savagery.

Hmm, mkay, do you remember anything about custom worldgen?

[Durmatagno]

Sounds like so much Fun to me, may I please joi.....................hahahaha, I know, I know.

My thoughts are so long as its FUN, lets do whatever we want, but keep it semi-newb friendly, so I would say medium savagery.

Hmm, mkay, do you remember anything about custom worldgen?

Been toying with it, medium savagery made me think a little more as I planned and mined. A high savagery would be fun, but not Newb friendly.

[G-Tech Corporation]

Hmm, mkay, do you remember anything about custom worldgen?

Been toying with it, medium savagery made me think a little more as I planned and mined. A high savagery would be fun, but not Newb friendly.

Righto then, I'm going to cap it at 70 and see how things turn out haha. Any other thoughts on worldgen? I might put in a desert requirement because I'm fond of spinning glass discs of doom, but otherwise no real thoughts.

[Durmatagno]

Been toying with it, medium savagery made me think a little more as I planned and mined. A high savagery would be fun, but not Newb friendly.

Righto then, I'm going to cap it at 70 and see how things turn out haha. Any other thoughts on worldgen? I might put in a desert requirement because I'm fond of spinning glass discs of doom, but otherwise no real thoughts.

In the worldgen, try to get it where there are a few surface fertile areas, and ice. I like ice. (not as much as fire, but ice is fun to)

[G-Tech Corporation]

Righto then, I'm going to cap it at 70 and see how things turn out haha. Any other thoughts on worldgen? I might put in a desert requirement because I'm fond of spinning glass discs of doom, but otherwise no real thoughts.

In the worldgen, try to get it where there are a few surface fertile areas, and ice. I like ice. (not as much as fire, but ice is fun to)

Haha oh, you're talking specific location choices. I'm genning with high x-y variance in elevation, so volcanoes are spawning right next to flat plains, so surface fertile areas are good. Ice, do you mean glaciers? Or just temperate climate?

[Durmatagno]

In the worldgen, try to get it where there are a few surface fertile areas, and ice. I like ice. (not as much as fire, but ice is fun to)

Haha oh, you're talking specific location choices. I'm genning with high x-y variance in elevation, so volcanoes are spawning right next to flat plains, so surface fertile areas are good. Ice, do you mean glaciers? Or just temperate climate?

Both, they put both a rush on the person in that area, and make the fort shaping different.

[G-Tech Corporation]

Splendiferous. I think I've found a site that might work for that then. Though, do we want clay and sand?

[Durmatagno]

Splendiferous. I think I've found a site that might work for that then. Though, do we want clay and sand?

Uhh.......I'll let you take this one, as I have no real preference

[G-Tech Corporation]

Really? But then we might miss out on the axe blades and making an entire fortress out of a single tile of Fire Clay!

[Durmatagno]

Really? But then we might miss out on the axe blades and making an entire fortress out of a single tile of Fire Clay!

Ooooh, fun.

[G-Tech Corporation]

Hmm, okay, now that we're clear on the Succession concept we just need more people... *looks around hopefully*

[Old Sarthal]

Hmm, okay, now that we're clear on the Succession concept we just need more people... *looks around hopefully*

We could recruit on the actual DF forums.

[G-Tech Corporation]

Hmm, we could, but I'd honestly prefer to keep this on NS, mainly to make it easy to coordinate. I've done a couple Succession games with peeps from the Bay12 forums, and getting them to take turns is like pulling hen's teeth.

[G-Tech Corporation]

Now that we've got that sorted out on IRC.... strike the earth!

In the year 101 a few intrepid explorers and miner left the great halls of the mountainhome to try their luck in the wide world. They journeyed far and wide before deciding to camp at the place called Idorrun or "Rocksroar". This is their story.

---

My name is Risenatol, and my vision led us here to this barren plain we shall now call home. We shall make our story here, and prosper, by the beard of Armok himself! My friends call me GTech, an amusing sobriquet based on my obsession with mechanisms

Granite 1st, Spring 101

Well diary, we finally made it. Maybe here we can be free of the insufferable Miner's Guild Keldembil, and make our fortunes from the land. This was the best site we could find for leagues, and though it may be somewhat perilous, I have faith in our ability to persevere. With me I brought my six most faithful companions, after ensuring they were well trained in the arts we will require to survive this horrid land.

Around us all is barren, a cold icy plane of nothingness. When I went quickly to look around after our arrival, as Ema got to work on our first dwellings, I have discovered we are completely alone. No other creature walks this frozen domain for now, and I cannot help but have a sense of foreboding. No matter.

I have set our carpenter to work logging everything in site on one side of the brooks we are between. When I cross the more southernly one I cannot shake a feeling of deep dread and even terror. I do not like it, and the others agree. We will make our burrows in the northwest of this land, away from the creeping horror that haunts our dreams in the south.

I feel confident for the fortunes of our fort, and with maybe just a little bit of luck my dreams shall be realized. There is another skilled miner, like myself, a craftsdwarf skilled in the mechanical arts, a carpenter, a mason, our smith, and the all important farmer. They are not the legendary dwarves I had hoped to entice with me, for I was short of funds, but they shall suffice.

For now, to work.

---

4th Granite

Much rejoicing was had today! Below the frozen surface we discovered not only fire clay, which shall be very useful to our long term construction efforts, but also magnetite. With steel and iron we shall be able to truly become a great dwarven citadel, and the goblins will flee before our warriors. Ah, now wouldn't that be grand... but I must stop daydreaming, and pay attention to my labors. We are still few in number, and today my pick breached the stone into the first cavern we have yet to see. I espied no dangers below us immediately, but we have still sealed it up for fear of Giant Bats or Sparrows. The creatures can wreck havoc on an unprotected fortress, and I have heard rumors that even darker things dwell in the forgotten depths of the earth....

---

13th Granite

As the land around us begins to escape from winters icy grip a new horror accosts us. From the south ravening creatures in the form of undead monstrousities, animated scraps of flesh once made in the form of Black Bears, are coming towards our camp. I temporarily sealed us inside our underground dwellings, and they passed by with little trouble, but this bodes ill for our future dealings in this region. I have ordered the construction of a mechanic's workshop so we may craft devices to put these foul beasts and their ilk back in their graves, but it will take time for these measures to be implemented. Additionally, it is my fervent hope that we manage to build defenses to keep back these staggering fiends, be it a moat or some form of fortification, but only time will tell if we can erect such manner of constructions in time.

---

1st Slate

The construction of our moat is proceeding apace, and I have good news to report. The soil of this region is deep and fertile, and we have already hollowed out a decently sized area in which to store our food and grow the delicious underground crops of which we are all so fond. I have recently been a bit idle, as our miners are too busy digging the moat to produce stone for me to make mechanisms from, but I am sure the issue will be rectified soon. I rest easier on my bed of fluffy dropseed grass knowing the creatures that roam this region will be soon shut outside our walls.

---

14th Felcite

The amount of savage half-man half-animal beings that inhabit the woods around us is truly astonishing. Just in the past month we had to chase off dingomen, hamstermen, sparrowmen, grasshoppermen, and even ravenmen. None of them gave us much trouble, but one of these days someone is going to get hurt. The moat surrounds almost a third of our large aboveground space we have agreed to claim- the biggest nuisance we have discovered is that we forgot to pack an anvil! No metal for us til fall then, but we should be able to trade my mechanisms for a princely sum, so I do not anticipate much difficulty.

---

16th Hematite

We finally put up the still! The first brew from our new source of all things good and alcohol was... tepid to say the least. Our farmer is currently doubling as our brew, and he honestly has no skill at the task. That said, it was booze, which is very promising. Maybe with time it will actually be good to drink. Our moat is almost complete, but accidental floodings from the many pools have slowed down work somewhat. Also in good news, we stumbled upon red sand in our minings today. Some of the dwarves grumbled about how much hauling we're going to have to do, but I see it as a promising future source of trade goods and sharp objects to cut up goblins with.

---

18th Malachite

Our first migrants wave arrived! Pray to Armok they are useful. Four more dwarves came to join our fortress, though none of them seem to be particularly skilled at... anything. The most knowledgeable one told me he can milk a cow in a minute flat. I shoved a book at him, and told him to go count barrels. We received three farmers and a fisherdwarf overall, who were promptly assigned the tasks of cook, all-around-farmer person, accountant/scribe/broker/bean-pusher, and... well, fisherdwarf, since that one couldn't do anything else. Rather lackluster lads I have to admit, but we are just starting. At least there are more hands to haul barrels.

---

24th Malachite

Today someone told me that our new migrants hadn't arrived. I walked outside the fort to the main road into our little domain, only to see all four new workers waving at me cheerily from the middle of the evil woods to the south across a small river. I asked them what in the devil they were doing, and they mentioned something about "Dangerous terrain". After a lot of shouting, I figured out that the one tile deep water was scaring the bejessus out of them for some reason. I sensibly suggested they should swim, at which point they all looked most aghast. Ballocks. I had to detail our mason to build them a little bridge so they wouldn't get their feet wet. I swear.... they just don't make dwarves like they used to.

---

9th Galena, Late Summer

We have finally completed the moat! Its still not foolproof, because we had to flood it due to the nearby river, but at least its some form of defense. We've gotten around to putting up a solid dining room, basic workshops, and even hollowing out individual bedchamber. I know I'll be happy to sleep alone without someone snoring four feet away from me. I've spent most of my time turning out mechanisms as trade goods- they sell for very good prices, considering the resources I put in to them, and I've also built a trade bridge in the west over our moat.
The lever next to our dining hall in our meeting area operates it, and I've labelled it rather clearly, just in case some chucklehead forgets which little mechanism opens our front door and which mechanism drowns the goblin hordes that are sure to come in magma.

---

9th Limestone, Early Autumn

Saw unicorns today to our north! Very good to know they're in this area- if we can get a pair and start breeding them, our ability to produce valuable trade goods will go through the roof. That said, they are dangerous creatures. I have heard of many an incautious dwarf impaled on their oh so beautiful horns. We shall treat them with care. Our carpenter, Ona, has also started turning out masterwork items at a marvelous rate, hopefully he will let us trade a few to the caravan we are expecting soon.

---

18th Limestone, Early Autumn

We have struck lignite! I have set our smith to work immediately at the task of converting it to coke, but he still lacks an anvil to make us anything really useful with. Hopefully this is a state of affairs that will be quickly remedied with the anticipated arrival of the caravan.

---

28th Limestone, Early Autumn

Another migrant wave... hoping against hope someone useful will decide to join our fort. I am pleasantly surprised! A highly skilled furnace operator joined our fort- now we only need an anvil to go into real production of useful items. A dwarf with a smooth tongue and great stoneworking abilities now will replace our current broker- the poor fellow can barely lie to save his life. I am glad of this, for it will mean we can get better deals once any merchants show up. Finally a farmer and a doctor joined us. They will be appreciated.

---

14th Timber, Late Autumn

Our moat just froze over, and I've never felt so naked and unprotected in all our time here. We're still working on the walls, but thankfully nothing dangerous is in the region. Still no sign of that caravan...

---

22nd Timber, Late Autumn

Finally! The merchants arrived! Traded them some crafts and lots of my (very) fine mechanisms for literally everything they bought that wasn't armor or trap components. Very successful dealings with the caravan. Got ourselves an anvil finally. I'm considering laying aside my mantle of leadership after this year, and I make the following note to whoever follows me: the traders will buy prepared meals, cut gems, and ash at a ridiculously high price next year, so make sure to sell them that. I ordered a lot of ores and wood, as well as seeds, barrels, and other odds and ends, which will hopefully help us in the long run. I figure that even if we import ores we'll still be able to turn a profit.

---

20th Moonstone, Early Winter

The fools! One of the merchant's guards killed a Giant Louse as they were on the way out- well and good, I didn't care. But he managed to chase it right over to the south side of the river. He hacked it apart, but after the caravan left it sprang back to its feet and began shambling about. Thankfully it is far from our fort, but there is now an undead Giant Louse out there. The lads are unnerved; we have no military or defences to speak of during winter with our moat frozen, and we can only pray to Armok it does not wander closer.

---

26th Moonstone, Early Winter

We have managed to move most of our facilities and storage underground now, which is all for the good, as our first beautiful snowfall blanketed the land today. The lone undead abomination out there seems to be letting itself be buried in snow. I hope this will make it less dangerous, but fear I am wrong.

---

15th Opal

As I suspected, the snow did not slow down the shambling corpse. It attacked us today, and engaged several of our loyal dogs in battle. As I write this I and the miners are rushing to put it down. Note to self: train War Dogs. After a long and heated battle, we succeed in killing the beast again due to the virtue of our picks, but the cost is heavy: we lose one dog, and all the rest are injured to some degree. I fear some may not survive long.

---

19th Obsidian, Late Winter

All of the wounded dogs seem to have survived their injuries, a good thing for our fort in the long run for breeding War Dogs. I have begun smelting and smithing our available metals, which seem to be limited to zinc, silver, copper, lead, and iron, but we need more wood to get the industry running fully. To this end I have begun a large scale excavation of one of the soil levels beneath our fort for the purpose of cultivating underground trees. Additionally, while the moat and river are frozen I have had our masons bar these relatively easy swimming entrances with hard stone walls. Ha! Our enemies will have to swim under our walls if they think to get in that easily. I still worry that we are not completely enclosed for the coming year, but our defenses should prove adequate against anything but bowmen as long as the moat is not frozen.

---

And now spring has arrived! I feel weary of caring for so many fellow dwarves.... I shall retire from my position as expedition leader, and continue my job as our mechanic. I feel my efforts towards producing the traps and fiendish devices that will stay our foes have become more necessary after this recent undead attack- we need more defenses! I wish the overseer that will succeed me much luck with his task. I have begun mining a little ways below the first cavern level, and tetrahedrite seems to be in fine quantity there. Otherwise, I have no other real notes. We need a military, as the undead incident has proven- I suggest you train what migrants we get in to hammerdwarves, as I have heard they are very effective against the walking evil creatures we may encounter. Additionally, though the denizens of Rocksroar are generally happy due to their fine dining room, they need rooms in order to be truly content. Some have them, but most do not.

With that, I shall retire to my workshop.

[Durmatagno]

Granite 1: Fort Year 2

Damn that G-Tech, abandoning the post we gave him hiding in his workshop. I've talked with the other dwarves and we've all agreed to cycle the leader responsibility every year in spring. That idiot will get his post back one of these days. I am Bomrekusen, called Durmason by the other dwarves, not a clever name either, just Dur, for durable, and mason, for my masonry skills, combined. Looking at what he left behind, I cannot fathom how we survived. Everything is disordered, and so spread out. Nothing is easy to find and he gave us such small quarters and such a small dining room. Ah well, I can make it work. My first task is to finish the wall around our outdoor part of the fort, and hope that it holds. I spotted some undead ravens to the south-east while working on the wall, hope they don't come any closer.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Granite 15: Year 2

One of the dogs has had puppies, good for the fort. We may have some new war dogs soon, and maybe some hunting ones due to the reappearance of more unicorns. Remembering what some elves told me on the way here, I learned that a Unicorn won't let anyone but an elf tame it, so we will have to hunt the things, I am keeping an eye out for Zinc ore so we can make cages for other creatures as well.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Granite 28: Year 2

Some new migrants arrive, six to be exact. On odd group of travelers, the first one to arrive, apparently the leader of the band, was a Fishery worker, who didn't even dissect the fish in her first job, she just cleaned it and left. Had to tell her to dissect them. She nearly hit me with a mace when I talked to her about it, where she got the mace and when she learned to use it I will never know, but we may have another military recruit or captain in her. The rest of the group were useful right off the bat, that is except for the clerk, assigned that turd to masonry to help me with these walls.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Granite 29: Year 2

Well the fort just lost its first Dwarf, one of the new migrants, a potash maker I assigned to mining, drowned herself on her way to the fort after taking the long way. Guess that's survival of the fittest for you, and she wasn't one of the fittest.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Slat 5: Year 2

The stupid farmers keep yelling about not having plum helmet spawn, and then plant more anyway. I punched one of them in the eye and it felt real good, then an hour or so later he yelled out about it again. Note to self, never train in weaponry or someone may die.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Sometime mid-spring: Year 2

Almost thirty people appeared over-night, I walked into the meeting area and saw so many new faces I thought I had found another fort.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Slate 13: Year 2

One of the dogs died of infection, how she got infected I will never know. The moment she died one of the farmer became possessed and took over a workshop, I wonder what they'll turn out.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Slate 24: Year 2

A weretortoise appeared. Also, the possessed farmer emerged from the workshop with, get this, a Chalk Mug named Thattilod Ganadkalur. The weretororsie killed our broker, and our ranger, I assigned a potter who couldn't lie worth shit, but is pretty good at persuading traders into deals better for use. I cobbled together some of the new dwarves into a squad of Crossbow dwarves and gave them some ammo and sent them to kill the weretortoise, and since they use crossbows, they should help if any undead appear. They didn't kill it in time, and he transformed back into a human, the flood of reports about finding a dead body made it to where I couldn't find out what happened, but I can only hope they killed him. On a good note, puppies and a lamb were born.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

[Durmatagno]

Ending turn early, here OldSarthal.

You get to go for a year and a half now
http://ge.tt/1QStA1R/v/0

[Old Sarthal]

17th Malachite, Year 2

After the cowardly Durmason ran from his post as overseer, I was sent by the Gentlemen's Mustache Grooming Association, Volaludil chapter, to assume control of this pitiful outpost, "Rocksroar". I can see why he left. Not only are these dwarves living in the most squalid of conditions, with some forty dwarves sharing only a handful of 3x1 bedrooms, this place is overrun with animals! The peacocks brought by some crazed mechanic they call "G-Tech" have multiplied, and now one can barely walk without stomping on a fuzzy blue ball of evil. I have resolved to cull their numbers, and to this end have designated most for slaughter. That'll teach the little bastards.

24th Malachite, Year 2

I noticed a lot of the dirty peasants were idling around in the meeting area. So, as part of my "Put the Dwarves back to Work" program, I told them all to smooth the walls of my palace our fortress. I have also taken up gemcutting as a hobby, and built some more bedrooms.

28th Malachite, Year 2

Some filthy immigrants arrived. They were added to task force "Whiny Engravers Now Carving Highly Erratic Stone", or, as I like to call it, WENCHES.

14th Galena, Year 2

The layout of this fortress is driving me slowly mad. In an effort to preserve both efficiency and my sanity, I am moving all production, housing, and stockpiles to beneath cavern level.

23rd Galena, Year 2

A human caravan arrived. I considered stealing their goods, but came to the depressing realization that their caravan guards could probably slaughter the whole fort. Our broker's absolute lack of negotiation skills forced us to trade away all our metal for a single iron pick. Hopefully now we can mine faster.

14th Limestone, Year 2

The dirty peasants work too slowly, and an undead giant mosquito attacked some workers. I have no idea where the hell it came from, but it left as suddenly as it came. As soon as the execution chamber is complete, I will begin purging unnecessary dwarves.

4th Sandstone, Year 2

We have come under siege by giant wrens. I... I just don't even...

5th Sandstone, Year 2

A ranger got one. Rest in peace, freakishly large bird. The rest flew off afterwards.

10th Sandstone, Year 2

A leatherworker went mad, since we didn't give him bone and leather. Sounds like a personal problem to me.

5th Timber, Year 2

The first freeze has set in. I have ordered construction of a well, but I fear some dwarves may die. Hopefully they'll be the unnecessary ones.

22nd Timber, Year 2

A goblin caravan arrived, and when we tried to trade, the bastards ambushed us! Thankfully, the dwarven caravan from last season had just set off, so their guards slaughtered the slimy traitors. With the weapons and armor we looted from the goblin corpses, I formed an entire squad of pikemen. They are commanded by G-Tech, so he's finally doing something useful.

28th Timber, Year 2

A dwarf died of thirst today. Luckily, it was Leatherworker McInsane, so he's not a problem anymore. The others were fine with the booze, but he was still recuperating from the beating the boys gave him after he went crazy.

14th Moonstone, Year 2

The miners are working around the clock, and we have four now that the metalsmith has forged another pick. All essential functions have been transferred to below cavern level, the well is complete, and the dwarves now have decent accomodations.

1st Granite, Year 3

G-Tech, captain of the 1st Pikedwarves has requested he resume command of the fort. I accepted, with the condition he at least try not to bring the fort back to its previous madness. I would recommend he complete the mass pitting system I began work on, and find a way to irrigate the city level for a farm so that the dwarves can eat without hiking up the stairs twenty levels.

His save.

[G-Tech Corporation]

Still working Old Sarthal?

[Old Sarthal]

Still working Old Sarthal?

I've been busy, IRL.

[Khornate Worshippers]

Which version of DF is this? I've not yet tried 34.11 in any real detail yet, so I might take a turn on this.


Edit: If you change the ethics for the Dorfs, you can set animal men as butcherable. Just have to turn on cannibalism or something.

[Durmatagno]

Which version of DF is this? I've not yet tried 34.11 in any real detail yet, so I might take a turn on this.


Edit: If you change the ethics for the Dorfs, you can set animal men as butcherable. Just have to turn on cannibalism or something.

We know, me and G-Tech are doing quite a bit of modding for a future game. G-Tech provides more modding than me as I'm just a novice , but were on a role with * classified* trees. You can sign up, just note that you'll have to wait for me and G-Tech to take our turns after Sarthal here.

[Khornate Worshippers]

You been making any interactions? I had to do a whole set of them for magic for the last mod I was working on, was a /lot/ of copy-pasting.

[Durmatagno]

You been making any interactions? I had to do a whole set of them for magic for the last mod I was working on, was a /lot/ of copy-pasting.

G-Techs made smeltable Iron trees that can also be used in place of wood, me, I'm working on being able to poison bolts.