Dwarf Fortress: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''Losing is Fun.''|'''Official motto'''}}

'''''Slaves to Armok II: Dwarf Fortress''''' is two games: the game it is right now, and the game it hopes to be. Its goal is to be nothing less than a fantasy world simulator, simulating dozens of nations and hundreds of thousands of characters over a thousand years, where you can watch history unfold from a [[Simulation Game|godlike perspective]] or take the role of any character or civilization and make history. And to cap it all, it intends to do it in ASCII character graphics.

It's not there yet -- (it's technically still in alpha --), but it already has about two games worth of content, and an extremely fanatical fan base.

The Adventure mode is rougher and less polished, like a very freeform [[Roguelike]]. Both modes have no way to win, but hundreds of ways to lose: thus, losing is fun. If you intend to play this game, [http://imgur.com/mHXiz.png keep that in mind.].

''Dwarf Fortress'' is free, with further development paid for by donations. You can find the game [http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/ here], the invaluable gameplay wiki [http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/Main_Page here], and some graphical tilesets [http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/Graphics_set_repository here]. Or you can get the Lazy Newb Pack, which includes the above + tutorials + assisting software and loads of useful stuff [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=59026.0 here].

See the [[Dwarf Fortress/Community|community page]] for tropes and links relevant to the ''Dwarf Fortress'' community.

* [[The Alcoholic]]: "...S/he needs alcohol to get through the working day." Every dwarf, except in AdventurerAdventure mode. From ''birth.''. Dwarves will only go sober if hospitalized, or if there is no alcohol available (and this will cause their productivity and mood to drop precipitously).

* [[Ancient Tomb]]: The 2012 update added elaborate burial tombs where sentient creatures born and died during world generation will be interred. It makes for excellent [[Dungeon Crawling]] in Adventure Modemode, and a source for necromancers to summon their armies from in Fortress Modemode.

* [[Animal Wrongs Group]]: Elves, but for trees (they still tame animals and use them as weapons.) They will be horribly offended when presented with anything made from wood or charcoal. They can't tell steel made with charcoal from steel made with mined coal, so they'll take either; but any glass but green glass needs wood ash to turn into pearlash, and beds and bins must be made of wood, so elves are notoriously unpopular. This is taken to new extremes when a single wooden decoration will turn an otherwise saleable (and "buy out the whole caravan" valuable) steel craft into grounds for packing up and leaving (and probably laying siege later), and you can't readily tell that this is the case unless you examine ''every single trade good you offer'' in minute detail. At least, petrified wood (stone) is okay.

** Particularly infuriating is the fact that ''[[Hypocrite|they themselves sell wooden items]]''! Not only that, but they'll even get offended when you sell them the stuff you bought from them. According to Threetoe's Stories, this is because elves [[Grows on Trees|use magic to make trees and plants grow into items]] - which eventually was implemented so elf- goods are marked as "grown"; if you sell to elves something in a container bought from them it doesn't get them overexcited.

** When the rendering engine was rewritten, a [[UNIX]]-only command line display was added. It's not used much, except for screencasting; using a terminal to watch someone play DF''Dwarf Fortress'' takes a lot less bandwidth than streaming video, and is easier to host.

** [[Planimal]]: Good surroundings have Feather tree that grows feathers for leaves... and ''eggs'' for fruit. Evil surroundings have Staring eyeball "grass" that blinks and is actually composed of eyeball tissues and Wormy tendrils (muscle "grass") -... though these are harmless and even edible for livestock.

** If a dwarf happens to end up as cheesemaker, he will probably be used as test subject for traps or enlisted into the military right away... or worse. At least, Legendary Cheesemaker immigrant tend toward "useless sort of a peasant". A cheesemaker trained from zero non-stop is likely to have 6 good attributes and is ready for either more profitable craft or militia -: see [[Wax On, Wax Off]] below.

** Can sometimes escalate into [[Fridge Horror]] when the connection between the thoughts becomes clear. Of course, this being [[Video Game Cruelty Potential|''Dwarf Fortress'', it's more like Fridge Hilarity.]].

* [[Bucket Booby Trap]]: A closed door acts as a wall - (i.e. blocks vertical movement too). Thus [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=125224.msg4188272#msg4188272 if floor on the level above it is channeled out and something is dumped into the hole, it won't fall through] until the door is opened or broken. Buckets and other containers are appliable, but simple fall doesn't spill the contents; however, it works with [[Hammerspace|an arbitrary number of]] anvils or pouring into the hole water -... or magma.

* [[Cast of Snowflakes]]: Each dwarf has his/her own personality traits that influence how they respond to certain events and how they go about their day. DF2010The adds2010 release (0.31) added even ''more'' details, now including what each creatureappearance looksand likemannerisms.

** And in DF2012the 2012 release (0.34), each migrant that arrives to your fortress has a history, family, and possibly even previous kills!

* [[Cats Are Superior]]: Cats choose whether they have an owner, not vice versa. Cats are also the only common creatures that can kill vermin for you and are vital to protecting your food stocks.

** Though if you're not careful, they can outbreedout-breed everything around them. This is referred to as a catsplosion, and if allowed to continue can cause severe lag. And once it's started, culling them back down will make the catcats's adopted dwarves ''very'' unhappy. TheTwo bestfavorite solutionsolutions isare 1: to cage each kitten as it's born, then use it for meat, 2: to keep the breeding individuals in cages, eat the female kittens, and let the males roam about.

* [[Colon Cancer]]: The full title is ''Slaves to Armok: God of Blood: Chapter II: Dwarf Fortress: Histories of X and Y''. (Wherewhere X and Y are synonyms of "greed" and "hard work", selected randomly each time the title screen is loaded.).

* [[Contractual Boss Immunity]]: Large creatures cannot be killed by smashing them with a drawbridge because they keep them from lifting or closing. Forgotten beasts, titans, and {{spoiler|demons}} are all immune to traps, and along with megabeasts and night troll can only be killed by each other in worldgen.

** Only applicable to constructed walls. Natural ice ''will'' melt from lava. That's right, Dwarven Engineering is so unspeakably [[Badass]], they can even make unmeltable ice walls!

** Owners of weaker computers also tend to turn the temperature off entirely to save the resources. It is not usually purposefully used for exploits,; however, it sometimes leads to [[Badass]] moments.

* [[Crapsack World]]: Evil biomes include poisonous rain, deadly clouds and the probability of any corpses rising from the dead. Even joyous areas are likely to wind up [[Crapsack WorldsWorld]]s as invoked by players. (Seesee: virtually every other trope on this page.).

* [[Creepy Souvenir]]: Vampires carry a trinket for each person they've killed made from their hair, bone, tooth, or nails. [[Hyperspace Arsenal|Even if they've killed thousand of people.]].

** With even more complex body system modeling and medical options in the latest version, a dwarf (or other creature) can survive having had most or all of their limbs removed, skin burnt off and eyes gouged out with sufficient medical care to clean and stitch them up before they die from blood loss or infection. Whether such a dwarf will be able to walk and work again is another matter. Nerve damage is impossible to recover from.

** The 31.17 update made the overworld of ''Dwarf Fortress'' much nastier, with bogeymen ready to tear apart anyone foolish enough to sleep outside and [[All Trolls Are Different|Night Trolls]] infecting humans with [[The Corruption]]. Worse, [[Due to the Dead|unburied dwarves]] {{spoiler|now might come back as ghosts.}}. They may [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=70423.0 throw parties] for the rest of your dwarves, or [[Kill'Em All|attempt to kill everyone]] in the fort, depending on what their mood was when they died.

** The .34.01 release gives us such wonderful additions as necromancers and their undead armies, werecreatures and zombies that can turn your dwarves into werewhatevers/zombies, evil clouds and rains that can have the same syndromes as forgotten beasts and demons, evil lands that raise all corpses as [[Kill'Em All|life-hating]] Husks, and more.

** Rarely, dwarf women with a baby will forget their weapons, at which point they will ''use the baby as a bludgeon.''.

* [[Elves vs. Dwarves]]: This is [[Invoked Trope|invoked]] more by the players than the game itself. While Dwarves and Humans have the most in common, Elves are far more often allies than enemies of Dwarves. At least until their diplomat demands that you stop cutting the wood you need for bed, barrels, and charcoal. Or until you accidentally offer their traders the wooden box your trade goods are in. ...You know what? [[Screw You, Elves]].

** Remember to establish good trade relations with elves. Lead goblets make great gifts!<ref>Though they don't poison anybody. Yet.</ref> Or even better, anything made of pitchblende<ref>A form of uranium ore, also containing radium and lead.</ref>.

* [[Endless Game]]: There are no actual winning conditions as of yet. Earlier versions had the potential to end in a ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]''-esque "you [[Dug Too Deep]] and unleashed a horrible demon" ending, but the latest versions let you play with essentially no time limits.

* [[Eyes Do Not Belong There]]: Staring eyeball is a kind of grass found only in evil biomes that is ''made out of eyeball.''. Cows can still eat it, though.

* [[Game Mod]]: By editing the raw .txt files, many aspects of the game can be added to or changed. The mods created by the community range from minor bugfixes to "more detailed industry" to ''[[Fallout]]'', [[Zombie Apocalypse]] [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|and]] ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'' total conversions (of course, this still being DF''Dwarf -Fortress'': one such mod is named "My Little Fortress - Friendship is Magma") and everything in between. The game is highly mod-receptive, and Toady has stated that he wants a high level of end-user modification ability, which will have its own high-level programming language that's trivial to pick up and start using.

** Syrupleaf, one of the many [[Something Awful]] DF''Dwarf Fortress'' [[Let's Play|Lets Plays]], features new demonic enemies added to the game this way.

* [[Gem-Encrusted]]: Just about any physical object that does not rot can be encrusted with cut gems to increase its value. This ranges from [[Bling Bling Bang|ammunition]] to [[Cool Chair|furniture]] to [[Conspicuous Consumption|decorations]] all the way to [[Everything's Sparkly with Jewelry|mechanisms]] and [[If I Were a Rich Man|barrels.]].

* [[Global Currency]]: Played straight in Fortress Modemode, as all traders use the same currency, though you could argue that as justified due to them coming to you. Averted in Adventure Modemode, as each civilization has their own currency and you can only exchange them outside of their civilization of origin by selling the coins themselves (which are literally worth only the material they're made of), but played straight in that all currency has the same worth when it comes to buying good.

* [[If You Die, I Call Your Stuff]]: Dwarves have a disturbing tendency to run out in the middle of a siege to loot socks off a dead body if they have the chance. (Youyou can auto-forbid items on death to curb this behavior, but where's the fun in that?; Notenote that this is now the default since DF2010.''Dwarf Fortress'' 2010).

** This also applies to any creature that is coded with the tokens NOFEAR, NOPAIN, and, occasionally, LIKESFIGHTING. This means that (duh) they don't feel fear, or pain, and will actively search for something to kill, regardless of whether it needs to eat or not, and once it finds something, won't stop until it's opponent dies or has run far enough that the pursuing creature finds something else to stalk and kill. The most feared of these creatures (asides from the Bronze Colossus) is the Giant Cave Spider.

** ''Everything'' in many evil biomes will rise again after a while. Dismemberment will only result in the individual parts coming back for revenge. The only ways to prevent this are to butcher the offending corpse and tan the skin so it doesn't rise<ref>Except dwarves will never butcher sentients, and that band of goblins that ambushed you just happen to be made of sentient creatures. [[Oh Crap]] indeed.</ref>, throwing the thing into a pool of magma, or pulverising it with a drawbridge. Spilling magma on them while they're animated is a bad idea, as it will [[It Got Worse|set them]] [[Infernal Retaliation|on fire]]. Certain evil biomes feature "husks", which normal creatures get turned into when caught in a creeping cloud. Though they can be killed, they're far stronger and tougher than animated corpses, and the ''only'' way to kill them directly is to decapitate or bisect them.

* [[Improbable Power Discrepancy]]: you can track changes in game mechanics by "which critter is horribly overpowered".

* [[Insurmountable Waist-Height Fence|Insurmountable Dwarf-Height Fence]]: A constructed wall is the only truly reliable barrier against building destroyers, goblin thieves and anything that can't fly: sealing your fort in completely with walls is possibly the only way to ensure invasions won't destroy the fort before you have a functioning military. Armok save us all the day gobbos learn how to jump and climb.<ref>Or you could just add a roof, but where would the Fun be in that?</ref>.

* [[Kevlard]]: Fat realistically serves as a layers of tissue that may take damage from an attack instead of a more important body part. More bizarrely, in Adventure Modemode, you can repeatedly ''[[Violation of Common Sense|set yourself on fire]]'' and put it out after a while to remove all the fat in your body. If you survive you become effectively fireproof because [[Good Bad Bugs|heat does not kill you through burning, it kills you by melting tissue (which except at very high temperatures is usually fat) to make you bleed to death.]].

It was fleeing from a giant sponge, the creature which usurped its title of "king of the sea" by virtue of being unkillable prior to pulping. So it's weirdly appropriate IMHO. }}

* [[Low Fantasy]]: There may be dragons and elves, but there's hardly a drop of magic to be found. It's just you and your dwarves, struggling to survive in an untamed world by means of industry, alcohol, and cold, hard, steel.<ref>On the other hand, modding is easy enough that adding features like magic could be done if desired (at least as far as innate attacks go), which could be used to make the game much easier (or harder)...</ref>.

* [[Ludicrous Gibs]]: The game's health system is very in-depth, keeping track of every part of every character's body down to eyes, internal organs, individual fingers and toes and skin-, fat-, muscle and bone-layers. Gibs, represented as red 2s-- (or green, or grey, depending on whether it bleeds blood or goo--) will litter the surrounding environment if enemies are dismembered, disemboweled, hacked in two, or thrown into a wall with enough force to blow apart. It gets even better in adventure mode, which lets you take control of a single adventurer. This mode includes a blow-by-blow account of every fight, and the ability to pick up and throw the severed bits of enemies: or anything else, for that matter. Thrown objects- even ''socks''- will often hit with deadly force, breaking bones, damaging organs, or splattering brains across the floor. Ludicrous gibs indeed.

** It doesn't stop at melee combat. When something is burned ludicrously, you get to pick through the burning corpse. You see such awesome things as "xx!!cat brain!!xx" (Thethe !!s mean it's on fire, the xx meaning there's not much left of it.).

* [[Magic Is Evil]]: Development on the ''DFDwarf Fortress'' magical system has begun -: the first type of mage to be introduced was the [[Necromancer]].

* [[Martial Arts and Crafts]]: Picks, despite being mediocre weapons, can be pretty dangerous in the right hands. The skill to attack with a pick is ''Mining'', and busy miners train up that skill far faster than military dwarves with mere sparring. Guess what happens when some critter jumps on a Legendary miner?

* [[The Not-Secret]]: The 'Hidden' Fun Stuff, which just about everyone finds out about from reading [[Let's Play|Lets Plays]]s well before encountering it themselves. This is unlikely to change as the game has a very high bar for entry, and only by reading about how interesting the game can be are most people willing to learn. It doesn't help that the game has no instruction guide, and learning to play all but requires use of the wiki.

* [[Obvious Beta]]: See [[Good Bad Bugs]] in the YMMV page. Still pretty damn good for a game that's technically still in ''alpha''.

* [[Our Mermaids Are Different]]: They're sentient and generally relatively nice if left alone. In previous versions, their bones were valuable enough that several players made a major industry regarding [[Human Resources|trapping, breeding and killing them for their bones.]]. The developer was [[Squick|squicked]] enough that he devalued the bones in a patch once this was discovered.

* [[Our Monsters Are Weird]]: Forgotten Beasts, Titans, and {{spoiler|demons}} are randomly generated, and the results are very, ''very'' strange.

* [[Our Vampires Are Different]]: These are often mortals cursed by a god to wander the night searching for blood. They are effectively immortal, can go without food, sleep, or water, and regenerate damage quickly, especially when well fed, but otherwise act like the living. A fortress can even be infiltatedinfiltrated by a vampire in the waves of migrants, who will feed off sleeping dwarves (preferably when no one is looking.). They will [[Artificial Brilliance|even try to accuse other dwarves of being the vampire to throw attention away from themselves]]. Any mortal that drinks the blood of a vampire becomes one themselves, including the [[Player Character]] in adventure mode, and even ''dwarven citizens'' if their blood happens to contaminate the water supply.<ref>Needless to say, this latter fact is routinely abused by the player base to make all-vampire fortresses.</ref>

** When vampires were first introduced into the game, [[Artificial Stupidity|they weren't very selective about who'd they'd accuse of their own crimes]], and thus would sometimes end up pointing the finger at babies or livestock (see also ''[[Three Panel Soul]]'' and ''[https://funnyjunk.com/channel/dwarf-fortress/Huge+dwarf+fortress+comic+dump+/hLpxLuY/ Good for the Goose...]'' by Vic Horsham).

* [[Our Werebeasts Are Different]]: Much like the vampires, they are created when the gods curse a mortal, only this curse makes them turn into the form of a beast every full moon. This can be ''any'' beast, be it a turtle, rhino, or even gopher, among many others. Every time they transform, all of their wounds are healed (even missing limbs), but they also drop all their items.

* [[Our Zombies Are Different]]: The new combat system uses organ damage/bleeding as a significant factor in determining death. Zombie and skeletal creatures are rather lacking in organs and blood, so they wound up nigh impossible to kill. Well-trained dwarf militia could fight even minor skeletal creatures for ''several months'' before the game would decide they had been bludgeoned enough to be considered "dead.". Subsequent releases patched in better damage calculation for undead creatures, but it's still extremely difficult to kill a skeletal undead with blunt weapons only.

** TheSubsequent latestversions version addsadded many more zombie options, including necromancers and evil biomes that cause all corpses to rise as undead. This applies to ''body parts'' as well, so long as at least one has a graspGRASP tag (mouth, hands, pincer, etc.). Chop up a zombie and moments later you could be fighting the remains of the zombie's corpse, his left arm and head. Depending on circumstances, they will ''keep'' rising until you dump them in magma.

** The latest version also introduces "husks" -: undead beings with a singular hatred for ''all'' life and much stronger and tougher than they were in life. Living things covered in cursed dust become husks, and the dust covering one husk can spread to curse more if it isn't washed off. This can quickly lead to an unstoppable [[Zombie Apocalypse]].

* [[Perpetual Beta|Perpetual Alpha]]: Technically an ''alpha'', but not perpetual. [[Word of God]] says that Version 1.0 will be when Toady makes 100 core elements. According to a [http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/24/magazine/the-brilliance-of-dwarf-fortress.html?pagewanted=all New York Times article], this could be 20 years from now. ''Dwarf Fortress'' fans don't see this as a problem.

* [[Perpetual Motion Monster]]: The result of combining the tags [NOEXERT], [NO_EAT], [NO_DRINK], and [NO_SLEEP], often found on inorganic, undead, or especially strong monsters.

* [[Physical Hell]]: (Super Spoiler Alert!) {{spoiler|Yes, you can dig to hell now. Just don't expect to win the resulting battle, as there are literally billions of demons and some don't even have organs to destroy, making them [[Nigh Invulnerable]]. Additionally, they are all flying, magma-proof, drowning-proof building destroyers, so once freed, odds are you won't be able to contain them again. It's possible, though: several players have succeeded in ''colonising'' Hell. Including putting civilian quarters down there just for the sake of "[[300|tonight we dine in Hell]]" jokes.}}.

** One of the most famous examples is "Operation:Fuck The World" from [[Boatmurdered]] -: a lever that, when pulled, released a flood of magma across the plains. In practice, however, ''Fuck The World'' proved to be more of a standard [[Doomsday Device]], ruining the surface world and its hordes of rampaging elephants, while only tangentially starting the fortress' fiery downfall by setting off a host of other issues.

** Not only that, but dwarves will wear clothing items regardless of gender --... thus, you can see men wearing, among other things, a skirt, a dress, a pair of trousers, a loincloth, and several other items.

** In a bit of a twist, their snatching tendencies mean that, after a few centuries, the original goblins often end up outnumbered by snatched elves, dwarves and humans/the descendants of same. Goblin-rasedraised elves have the natural high stats of elves, with none of the culturally-imposed wooden equipment, making them far more deadly than regular elves or goblins. Fortunately, the raids in fortress mode are composed entirely of goblins and sometimes dwarves snatched from you.

** This works both ways. It's rare but not unheard of to get a goblin envoy from the nearby Dwarven civilization. If they are second generation "Dwarves,", they will even get a Dwarven name.

* [[Ridiculously Cute Critter]]: Despite being represented with only the 'k' symbol, [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=85689.0 people seem to interpret kobolds as mentally retarded, yet lovable humanoid creatures] who are just trying to survive in a world where every other civilization hates them. According to the fanbase, cutebolds are another term for DF kobolds. At worst, kobolds send thieves who can settle on scavenging equipment left from dead enemies -... contrast goblins who steal children and start sieges. They are often simply allowed to steal junk stored in the open, like troll fur socks left after goblins bite it. Kobolds living in the same caves [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=45296.msg884498#msg884498 can be friendly].

** An in-canon example would be the fluffy wamblers -: [[Chibi|chibified]] humanoids (like an elemental, but composed of fluff and pudge and kitten-sized) with eyes and nose. Food-gnawing vermin that appears only in good aligned biomes and apparently so adorable dwarfs won't butcher them. And we're talking about a race who will gleefully butcher a newborn puppy should the need, want, or thought arise.

* [[Screw You, Elves]]: A pretty standard response to the Elves arriving is something along these lines -... unless, for some reason, your fortress is in need of cloth. One particular thread was dedicated to constructing a giant artificial tree out of blocks of charcoal and decorating it with Elves in cages. Most everone else's method of getting rid of them is like everything else in the game; magma.

* [[Sealed Evil in a Can]]: Know that the adamantine is there ''for a reason.''.

* [[Shout-Out]]: Every fortress starts out with [[Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs (novel)|seven dwarves]]. Or alternatively, a [[Shout-Out]] to [[The Lord of the Rings|the seven dwarf lords]].

* [[Single -Specimen Species]]: Forgotten Beasts. Possibly Titans as well, depending on how you classify them.

** This can and will lead to rather hilarious geometric paradoxes -: a tile is large enough to contain a dragon, but not large enough to contain two kittens without one of them crouching. A tile can theoretically contain 1,000 dragons as long as 999 of them aren't standing up.

** Also, thousands and thousands of rocks can be piled onto a single tile. Pretty much anything can be stored on a single tile and remain useableusable with just a little micromanagement., [[Fan Nickname]] isusing "Quantum StockpileStockpiling"."

** Likewise, you can fit your fortress's entire animal population into a single cage, including 5 elephants, two cave crocodiles, three dozen cats and kittens, 15 dogs, and a partridge in a pear tree.

*** Also, direct hit with cave-in, being encased in cooling magma, and being [[Cryonics Failure|frozen in ice]] completely ignore [[Subsystem Damage]] and are always instant-death. A raising (against the wall) or lowering (against the floor) drawbridge is known as "Dwarven Atom Smasher" -: it not only kills, but utterly destroys anything and anyone except ''very'' large critters.

*** Also, wrestling. "Gouge left eye with right hand."

** Individual extremities can be targeted, including [[Fingore|fingers, toes]], [[Ear Ache|ears]], noses, and teeth, and aimed attacks in Adventure Modemode will allow you to break or cut them off one piece at a time.

* [[Succession Game]]: In both Adventure Modemode and Fortress mode, great accomplishments are recorded in the 'Legends' mode. You can also visit former Forts in Adventure mode, and they become a dungeon crawl full of beasts and monsters.

** A popular form of play amongst the player community. Individuals take turns running a dwarf fort for a set amount of time and passing on the save to the next players. See [[Boatmurdered]], Headshoots, and Syrupleaf entries mentioned above.

** [[Sinister Surveillance|It seems like everyone in a town/civ instantly knows if you tried to shoplift a fish,]], [[Disproportionate Retribution|and may even all decide to attack you en-masse]] [[Attack! Attack! Attack!|in a hopeless battle against a godlike swordsman whose face is on the crafts in that village.]].

* [[Super -Detailed Fight Narration]]: thanks to the combat system that models detail down to the organs you lose.

** Climbing is practiced by scaling walls (but not trees) and trying to [[Climb, Slip, Hang, Climb|stop flight by grabbing onto things]] (including trees), whether successful or not.

* [[Universal Poison]]: Previous to DF2010''Dwarf Fortress'' 2010 basically how poisons worked. With DF2010''Dwarf Fortress'' 2010 oh so very, very hugely averted. Syndromes can have one or more of over a dozen different effects, each of which may affect one or more body parts or subsystems and have values determining chance of resistance and recovery time, if any. Beasties can bite, leak, breathe, spit, ooze and bleed toxins that can be inhaled, injected, received on contact or contracted through ingestion. Depending on the particular combination, they can range from a temporary minor dizziness to causing your arms and legs to rot off, your skin to blister, excruciating pain over your entire body followed by full neural paralysis resulting in death by suffocation.

** In the 2010 version, thereThere's also a second kind of [[Unobtainium]] known as "Slade", which is unimaginably heavy and impossible to even scratch. Even with Adamantine picks, you cannot mine it out. Someone did find a way to obtain single stones of it (by digging a ramp up underneath a slade floor), but it is nigh unusable in dwarf mode. If you hit up the arena though, you can spawn creatures wearing slade armor wielding slade hammers. They're as effective as you think they would be.

* [[Upper Class Twit]]: It can be difficult to tell whether your nobles know anything about ''anything''. It's not impossible for dwarves to die in droves because your Baron keeps asking for random items regardless of which materials are available. In earlier versions, they could even request items made of slade, a material which ''cannot be mined'' and which '''they should not even know exists.'''.

* [[Vendor Trash]]: Crafts, totems, toys, musical instruments and mugs can be used for two things -: selling to the seasonal caravans and: once the economy starts. shop stock. On the other hand it's a great way of getting rid of the average fort's mountain of stone.

* [[Video Game Cruelty Potential]]: There are ''endless'' examples but for now we'll just leave you with [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=85641.0 this thread], a debate about how best to traumatize dwarves into becoming [[Conditioned to Accept Horror|resistant to tantrum spirals]]. The agreed upon solution? {{spoiler|Drop puppies on them. From the ceiling. While they're eating. Until they just. Don't. Care anymore.}}.

=== List of tropes specific to Fortress Modemode: ===

** You're actually ''rewarded'' for doing this to vampire dwarves: even though they feed on other dwarves, they still count as members of your fortress and thus you don't get a [[Game Over]] even if all you have left is one vampire dwarf. Since they don't hunger or age, you can just seal one in a room forever and your fortress will never die, even if the vampire goes insane from being naked. {{spoiler|That is, until the ghosts come to pay him a visit}}...}}

** Particularly painful example from the old version: you, the supreme overlord, have mandated that no-one goes aboveground because of an army of besieging goblins... so dwarves march out to do a job, cancel whatever it was they were going to do, and then just loaf around and catch some rays until the goblins kill them. [[Too Dumb to Live|They had it coming, too]].

** Will eagerly pass through rooms with ''the whole floor'' burning (lignite/graphite grates, little magma washing) --... "the mere fact that a location is on fire will not stop them from walking through it. On the plus side, goblins are just as stupid."

** Topic: "[http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=63417.6135 Note to Urist--In which you express your frustration to your dwarves]" -... 444 pages and growing.

* [[Badass Bookworm]]: Order your bookkeeper to take the most accurate inventory of your stocks possible. He, a weak, unassuming social dwarf, will proceed to lock himself in his study, and work silently for roughly a season. Eventually, he will re-emerge, and after all those hours of updating the records, will have acquired the character notes 'Ultra-Mighty', 'Perfectly Agile', and 'Superdwarvenly Tough'.

** On another positive note, once your bookkeeper has "done enough work" and stops working completely, even if he dies you'll never need another one again as the books stay perfectly updated forever. Apparently the bookkeeper becomes so experienced he can [[The Authority|foresee what the stocks will be in the future]] and [[Death Note|even takes his own death into account.]].

* [[Beneath the Earth]]: Where you'll be spending most of your time. However, Ifif your dwarves stay underground for an extended period of time then come back onto the surface, they will become nauseous, and vomit all over the great outdoors.

** [[Eldritch Location]]: The [http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=61507.0 Adamantine Space Elevator.].

* [[Booby Trap]] / [[Deathtrap]]: Anything from mostly single-use "trap" tiles, like weapon and cage traps, to player-designed deathtraps, which can spread magma around dozens of tiles. ''And then dump water on it, freezing survivors in solid rock and drowning the rest.''.

** [[Rube Goldberg Hates Your Guts]]: Many players love to build complex traps.

** On the Fun side, it creates potential for flooding if the sewer system below it fails, "job cancelled" message spam if there's too much water at once (e.g. whenever it hoses dorfs trying to clean the grates from all this dirt) and can significantly drop framerates on slower computers (though how much depends on construction - (e.g. waves in a big reservoir make it worse)), and not as much as spreading blood and dirt all over the place does. Automation based on pressure plates can reduce these issues (as long as it doesn't fail due to a butterfly, guppy or crocodile stuck in a floodgate, ''[[Everything Trying to Kill You|of course]]''), but not quite eliminate them.

** [[Crapsack World]]: See above.

* [[Determinator]]: Dwarves tend to be this, whether they're [[Made of Plasticine]] or [[Made of Iron]]. Results... vary. To put it mildly. One dwarf has been seen charging through lava to brutalise a kobold, surviving without a scratch. Others will latch on to nightmare beasts from the dark places of the earth, even missing their entire lower bodies, and beat them into submission. Still, others will [[Too Dumb to Live|simply stand out in extreme cold and heat until they die]].

* [[Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?|Did You Just Build A House In Cthulhu's Backyard?]]: It's finally been done, someone actually {{spoiler|1=[http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=65024.0 colonized hell!]}}!

** Alternately, there were also recommendations of building a tunnel that linked {{spoiler|hell}} directly to [[Screw You, Elves|the nearest elven settlement.]]. As well as a recommendation of building a cafeteria there so people "dine in {{spoiler|hell}}" literally.

* [[Difficult but Awesome]]: It could be argued that the ''entire game'' is this trope, what with the [https://web.archive.org/web/20130714075822/http://www.vayapotra.es/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/2rmqi6o.gif steep learning curve] but [http://1d4chan.org/wiki/File:DwarfFortress_is_fun.png the awesome things that can happen]. [http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/File:FlowchartDF.png This] outlines the ''bare essentials'' needed for a fully self-sustaining fort -; granted, any part (except perhaps making wooden beds) can be skipped. Note that it does not mention that getting a muddy cave often requires mechanisms and floodgates or an early expedition into the cave layers, which could as well be a source of quick [[Unusual Euphemism|Fun]]. [http://i.imgur.com/glPVP.jpg Here] is a similar diagram for getting your military operational.

* [[Digging to China]]: {{spoiler|Digging to [[Fire and Brimstone Hell]]}}, more like.

* [[Disaster Dominoes]]: Often what kills your fortress when it isn't simply massacred by goblins or drowned by accidentally tunneling into the river. One unhappy dwarf irritates fifty others, and within five minutes every single dwarf in the fortress has gone literally [[Ax Crazy]]. Considering the quote for the page explains how you're most likely to have Fun in ''Dwarf Fortress'', this shouldn't be much surprise.

* [[Disproportionate Retribution]]: If there is a kobold civilization nearby, and your dwarves notice the kobolds, your civilization menu will say that exports from the kobolds are "petty annoyance" while offerings to the kobolds are "death.".

** Also, while "Dwarven Justice" does cover legitimate crimes such as vandalism or violence, these things rarely happen except in a fortress which is rapidly heading towards oblivion (see [[Disaster Dominoes]] above); said Justice is more often administered because a noble demanded a certain item be made, a bismuth bronze cabinet for example, and nobody built it because your current map doesn't contain the materials to make a bismuth bronze ''anything''. The recipient of the justice is a randomly chosen dwarf with metalworking skill. And while it is possible to build "official" jail cells, there exists a dwarf noble called the Hammerer, whose only purpose is to administer Dwarven Justice by means of a [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|large steel war hammer]]. Of course, arming your Sheriff/Captain of the guard/Hammerer with a nicely decorated training hammer made of very light wood is an option, but they'll hammer goblins with the same nerf weapon too; ultra-light crossbows are better, as they will be used normally on enemies and as bad hammers in melee, including on "criminals".

** CurrentlyVampires invertedget withoff vampiresrelatively -easy: Punishmentpunishment for a vampire sucking the blood out of a dozen of your fort's dwarves may only be 50 days in jail, or even just a punch in the face by the captain of the guard if you don't have restraints built. Not like it matters, however, as vampires are [[Made of Iron]] and will probably survive their own execution with nothing but some bruises and one very tired hammerer.

* [[Driven to Suicide]]: Melancholy dwarves, and other creatures, will attempt to throw themselves off a cliff or drown themselves (in lava or magma) -... or, failing that, by simply starving themselves to death.

** Cats breed quickly: it's up to you whether you choose to see this as an annoyance or as a plentiful supply of [[Eat the Dog|meat]] and leather... (or trade goods if you don't feel like indulging in [[Video Game Cruelty Potential]].).

** Since their addition to the game, egglayers, especially birds, have become even more spectacular at breeding than cats, since they can produce 10+ young at a time and unhatched clutches don't count toward the species population cap, allowing them to surpass it with ease. This is usually known as a birdsplosionchicksplosion or an eggsplosion.

*** Crocsplosion! Saltwater crocodile takes. 3 years to mature, but lays up to 70 eggs at once, becomes valuable after a year (but if you let them to grow, they will have more meat than a cow, and much more valuable bone and scales) and such slaughterbasts when tamed make better guards than even war-trained dogs. Same for Cave crocodile, but up to 60 eggs, even more valuable (4x, like obsidian) materials and a bad habit of tearing down wooden buildings. Here, the Fun part is that the first generation of an animal is never ''fully'' tamed, and the offspring starts at their level, but going to revert to wild right when matures, i.e. the whole clutch at once and right when they'll be able to do the full damage - so you [[Gotta Catch Them All]] and finish taming before this happens.

* [[Fluffy Tamer]]: The Dungeon Master in earlier versions, who let dwarves tame all sorts of strange and horrible creatures, ranging from dragons to crocodiles to [[Demonic Spiders|Giant Cave Spiders]]. 34.06 removed the dungeon master and now lets you tame almost any animal right from the start. The catch is that without knowledge from the parent civilisationcivilization or a ''really'' good animal trainer... well, to quote Toady, "your fort might end up like a ''[[Fatal Attractions]]'' episode."

* [[For Massive Damage]]: With the physics derived combat damage calculations introduced in the 2010 update, weapon traps with huge purpose-built weapons (giant spiked balls, corkscrews, large serrated discs, etc.) do '''considerably''' more damage than equivalent material hand-held weapons used in the same type of weapon, especially when up to ten of them are packed into the same trap. This may also result in [[Ludicrous Gibs]] flying everywhere if an unwary foe steps on really full one made with good materials.

* [[The Hypnotoad]]: Cats. Dwarfs don't adopt cats as pets -... cats adopt dwarfs. This is the cat's primary protection against bloodthirsty butchers who can't slaughter animals who are someone's pet.

** Plans for future updates indicate that this will only get even worse;: there are already plans to incorporate ''miners'' into sieges, who will dig their way to the inside of your fortress if you don't stop them fast enough.

*** [http://lparchive.org/LetsPlay/Gemclod/ Gemclod]{{Dead link}} from the same source is pretty good as well.

* [[Luck-Based Mission]]: Versions include a lot more useful information about the region you're preparing to build on, but the spawn-point of your starting settlers and their wagon is as close to the center of the centremostcentermost embark-map square as possible. This can occasionally be a nuisance if you're the wrong side of a river from a good site to dig in and haven't got much in the way of materials, and occasionally causes a [[Total Party Kill]] thanks to a bug caused by the way freezing and melting works.

* [[Powered by a Forsaken Child]]: Dwarves sometimes go into "fell moods,", where they go out and kill the nearest dwarf they can find (hopefully a noble or someone else you don't mind losing), butcher them, and make an awesome artifact out of their flesh or bones.

** It took thirty dwarves six years to build, uses more than a hundred mechanisms, twenty pumps, a dozen pressure plates and seven floodgates, refills and resets itself automatically, slams the gates shut and activates when an enemy steps on the pressure plate ... and accidentally floods your entire fortress with magma.

* [[Schmuck Bait]]: Building destroyer monsters crush anything they can break. Including the only support standing between them and a [[Chunky Salsa Rule|major cave-in]]. Or floodgate of a magma reservoir from which they may or may not escape -: if a magma-proof pressure plate seals the exits with bridges, a tough and otherwise untrappable creature undergoes magma-frying, and if it survives ''that'', room-wide [[Chunky Salsa Rule|obsidian encasement]].

* [[Self-Imposed Challenge]]: This fortress will never trade! This entire fortress will be nudesober! This fortress will neverbe tradenude! And so on and so forth.

* [[Tantrum Throwing]]: If a dwarf becomes depressed enough, they might start smashing or throwing things.

* [[Unexpected Successor]]: Nobles are dying, titles are inherited. Sometimes by your dwarves. And since your dwarves don't leave the site... How "unexpected" this is may vary, though -: if you choose an extinct or dying civilization, when you press "embark", the game will warn via confirmation screen that this settlement is going to be ears-deem in nobles (nobles have requirements, demands and mandates, thus it ''is'' something to be considered carefully, much like e.g. an aquifer layer).

* [[Unusable Enemy Equipment]]: Humans and Kobold clothing and armor is the wrong size for your dwarves., [[Justifiedbeing Trope|understandable]]too large and too small, respectively. Understandable, as they are vastly different size compared to dwarves. Goblin and elven equipment is the same size as dwarven one, but is also inferior in quality: goblins are incapable of smelting bronze and steel, so they only use copper and iron, and elves make their entire wargear out of wood. Including swords and axes.

** WithAs DF2010of version 0.31, you can now equip those exotic weapons whips, pikes, and bows. Also, any weapons can be used in traps.

** At least,Useless metal wrong sized equipmentitems can be melted down for metal bars. InThus communityleading it'sto dubbedthe "goblinite"joke (i.e.that it'sgoblins treatedare asthe fourth ore) of iron...

* [[Anyone Can Die]],: whichWhich leads to...

* [[Apocalypse How]]: with enough wrecked fortresses and berserking adventurers, expecially in a small enough world, civilities will eventually deteriorate, then crumble.You can then proceed to cause the extinction of all sentient races.Then that of ''every single living being in the world''. And because [[The Dev Team Thinks of Everything|The Toady One Thinks of Everything]], your world will acknowledge this by entering the Age of Twilight/Death/Emptiness.

* [[Bag of Holding]]: Partial - yourYour adventurer can carry around a dozen dead wolves, three barrels of booze, a massive supply of food, and 800 million fistfuls of sand in his backpack, but the weight will still slow him to a snail's pace.

* [[Death Seeker]]: "I will agree to travel with you if you lead me to glory and death." -- Said by some [[NPC|NPCs]]s upon joining the party. Although they don't specify ''whose'' death.

* [[Dump Stat]]: With Adventurer creation now letting you lower attributes below average to free up more points, attributes that currently serve no purpose in Adventure Modemode (like Creativity, Patience, and Memory) or at all (Musicality) have officially become this.

* [[Grievous Harm with a Body]]: You can use ''anything'' as an [[Improvised Weapon]] in Adventure Modemode, including your opponent's leg.

* [[Kleptomaniac Hero]]: As of version 34.01, you can take anything lying around not marked as being for sale without angering anyone, including gear lying around in keeps and stockpiled goods in warehouses. Except for stuff in cabinets, which can't be opened because of a bug.

* [[Shoplift and Die]]: Steal anything in Adventure mode, and it's automatically acknowledged by everyone in the civilization, who will immediately proceed to attack you. Toady has stated that fixing this is on his to-do list: part of enabling the "Thief" Adventurer Role means changing thievery from automatically recognized to discovered and investigated by townfolk (which you can counter by changing your appearance), then they will arrest you alive if you surrender.

** Currently downgraded to 'Shoplift and Get The Silent Treatment' --: no matter what your reputation with the faction, you're instantly branded Criminal, and no member will speak to you. This means they won't give you quests for which they weren't going to reward you for anyway, but more importantly they won't let you stay in their houses overnight forcing you to hide from bogeymen in mountains, lairs, and beaches.

* [[Talking Is a Free Action]]: CurrentlyPreviously allplayed conversationsstraight, followas areconversation verywas formulaic and onlyalways one-on-one, butinstantaneous, theand statedin eventualits goalown menu. As of version 0.40, conversion is tonow in "real time", getso to thespeak, pointas whereeach thebit adventurerof speech is an action candirected regaletoward a growingspecific audienceperson withor talesto ofeveryone in the area, while conversations are overheard by hisanyone heroicin deedsearshot.

* [[Video Game Cruelty Punishment]]: Inverted. In some situations, cruelty is rewarded: ifIf you find a small, defenseless creature (like a groundhog, monkey, or elven childmonkey), you can use them to raise your wrestling skills significantly. You can go up several levels in a very short time, provided you're willing to be unnecessarily cruel to your opponent. Especially if you're playing a creature like a bronze colossus, who is capable of pinching off body parts. Start with the fingers and toes, then pull out the teeth, then ears, eyes, nose, any other extremities you can target, then finish off with a pinch to the head... Ifif you want to finish him. You could always just leave the poor guy to bleed to death, if he's still alive when you're done.

"No, I'm a thresher." }}