Author Topic: [Dwarf Fortress] The BG Succession Game  (Read 3221 times)

Offline Bauglir

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[Dwarf Fortress] The BG Succession Game
« on: December 27, 2012, 05:54:57 PM »
So, I think this is the right board. Sort of. If all goes according to plan, it'll be like a PbP, only instead of dice we have a bunch of drunken, bearded, bipolar midgets trying to dig out an underground house in the middle of an unforgiving wilderness. You can skip the next paragraph if you already know what I'm on about.

Dwarf Fortress is a game where you're a sort of omniscient overseer of a colony of very stupid dwarves. The kind of stupid where they don't realize that they are on fire, but do know they want a drink from your very flammable booze supply. The stupidity isn't really intentional on the designer's part, it's just that there's some bugs in the AI, some of which resemble this son of a bitch. Anyway, despite what I've said just now, it's an incredibly deep game with a notoriously steep learning curve and staggering freedom for the player. A succession game is a game in which a bunch of jackasses like us take turns playing, each one lasting about a year, narrating the events that happen in the fortress. Boatmurdered is the archetypical example, and Headshoots makes good supplementary reading (guest starring our very own veekie, I believe). Needless to say, I don't expect this to be a serious game and wholeheartedly encourage you to be silly in writing your posts. You don't have to know much about Dwarf Fortress to play - in fact, it's probably funnier if you don't. The biggest hurdle in this case will be the user interface, and this page will come in handy with that.

So, I'm currently looking through the rules for generating a world with as many options as I can work out how to max out, but I want to gauge interest and all that. Figure out who's interested in playing, who's interested in being "dorfed" (having a dwarf in-game named after you). All players will be dorfed, and have their titles changed to "Former Ruler" once they retire from rulership. If your successor isn't named in the fort yet, or you don't know who your successor will be, leave at least one dwarf unnamed for them. First come, first served, and all that. Although if two people who really hate each other from what I know of board politics post asking to play, I will make sure you're adjacent and flip a coin to see who goes first. You can also request particular arrangements relative to each other and I'll see that it works out as best I can.

You'll be expected to post a narrative of your time in the fortress, in the form of engravings, notes, a journal, letters, or whatever form seems plausible. Hell, if you're playing a time traveler from the distant future, you could record it in holograms for all I care. You don't have to do it all in one post, though. Turns will generally last an in-game year, but unless you've completely trashed everything you can pass to the next player early if you need to. Their turn will last a year from the date they pick it up.

Don't be a douchebag; while picking on former rulers is okay, and even encouraged if you're funny about it, don't go out of your way to kill them, undo their projects, destroy the fort, or otherwise be uncreative in attempting to ruin the other players' fun. Remember, this is a cooperative game, so the better people like your turn's results, the more you're winning.

This will be a fairly hands-off game, in terms of DMing. In fact, I don't really intend to do much of that. I might ask for a sub-board so that I can be a moderator, but that's about it in terms of active running of things. Once I've got the world generated and a site picked (I'll ask for opinions on what sort of site we should look for before picking one), I'll hand off the save to somebody else. I don't even want to play the first year - I'm exercising a bit of executive privilege and assigning myself the third turn. It should be noted that I'm not a particularly sage player - I haven't played the game much since 40d (an older version lacking many current features), so I'm missing out on a lot of knowledge. In particular, I haven't got experience with the military or hospital systems, both of which sound pretty important to avoiding !!Fun!!*.

*I'm going to explain the joke now, thereby killing it. For those of you with weak, elf-like stomachs, you should quit reading now before the gruesome violence toward the joke begins. Objects in the game that are on fire, you see, flash orange and red with a pair of exclamation marks on each side (x -> !!x!!), and Fun refers in general to terrible things that kill everyone, because of the game's slogan, "Losing Is Fun!". Despite that slogan, once your fortress becomes established, it's very easy to render your fortress invulnerable, but it's often not very fun to do so and cuts off a lot of options.

EDIT: Added link to Dwarf Fortress.
« Last Edit: December 27, 2012, 06:05:01 PM by Bauglir »

Offline phaedrusxy

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Re: [Dwarf Fortress] The BG Succession Game
« Reply #1 on: December 31, 2012, 11:12:03 AM »
I read through like 40 pages of Boatmurdered, and it sounds hilarious, but:

1) I've never played Minecraft.
2) These kinds of fiddly, micromanaging games are typically time consuming, so I probably wouldn't have time even if I knew how.
3) I wonder if reading these isn't more fun than actually playing the game. :P

I know there are several members of the boards who seem pretty enthusiastic about this, though. So maybe you'll still get some (useful) responses.  ;)
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Offline veekie

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Re: [Dwarf Fortress] The BG Succession Game
« Reply #2 on: December 31, 2012, 11:47:52 AM »
It's actually not hard, if you have somebody who already knows the game starting out the fortress. Unfortunately I'm not sure how many of those are available for writing updates here, due to our rather smaller population.
Everything is edible. Just that there are things only edible once per lifetime.
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Procrastination is the thief of time; Year after year it steals, till all are fled,
And to the mercies of a moment leaves; The vast concerns of an eternal scene.

Offline Kajhera

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Re: [Dwarf Fortress] The BG Succession Game
« Reply #3 on: December 31, 2012, 02:17:02 PM »
I'm pretty rusty but this looks like, ah, fun.  :p

Offline Bauglir

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Re: [Dwarf Fortress] The BG Succession Game
« Reply #4 on: February 03, 2013, 10:49:28 PM »
So... post-board death, I figured I'd bump this marginally, even though it's near top of page. Any other takers?

Offline JohnnyMayHymn

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Re: [Dwarf Fortress] The BG Succession Game
« Reply #5 on: February 04, 2013, 12:24:18 AM »
Im up for it though I am a noob and played a handful of games a few years ago, my dwarves had a lot of fun.  About how long IRL does one game-year take to play? Are we talking an hour? Six?

Also I probably shouldn't go first, for the dwarves sake.
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Offline littha

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Re: [Dwarf Fortress] The BG Succession Game
« Reply #6 on: February 04, 2013, 01:19:41 AM »
I have played it before, not done so for a while though.

Offline Bauglir

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Re: [Dwarf Fortress] The BG Succession Game
« Reply #7 on: February 05, 2013, 01:57:45 AM »
In a bitter twist of irony, I have come to the conclusion that I don't actually have time to even participate in one of these, or at least I won't for a few months. I'd still be good to help sketch out a potential turn order, though. Kajhera, Johnny, Littha, in that order? I'll try to get the world I've genned up somewhere and post a link, or else one of you can create one and take care of it.

Offline JohnnyMayHymn

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Re: [Dwarf Fortress] The BG Succession Game
« Reply #8 on: February 05, 2013, 10:05:25 PM »
I have some time now, or I could wait a few months, no biggie.  That turn order is fine with me as well.
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Offline Kajhera

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Re: [Dwarf Fortress] The BG Succession Game
« Reply #9 on: April 05, 2013, 03:04:22 PM »
Semester is hitting me hard enough I forgot this thread existed. I'd rather delay into not being the first turn.