Nice read. DF is definitely an interesting mix of trope-laden and not. The elves love trees, sure, but they're also cannibals. The goblins assault your fortress, but goblin poets can visit your tavern to entertain. This is the case both for the setting as well as gameplay elements - metals with more military value for the most part aren't rarer/deeper/harder to mine, and there isn't a strict hierarchy of value (steel for edged weapons, but denser silver for hammers and maces.) But on the other hand, if you dig greedily and deep, you'll find both the expected rewards and the trope-specified risks.
The complexity of the gameplay and setting are also reflected in how people approach the game. Some players care about each puppy, and some deliberately build their forts on a pile of dead puppies. Hey, they can be trained for combat and they don't need pasturing/feeding. I just wish there was an easier way to set the weaker and smaller ones for butchering. By keeping a larger herd and culling the weak, I'll have stronger war dogs, which might save a dwarf. This leads to moral choices a lot more interesting than you see in many games where it's a designed scenario. Is it better to care well for a few animals, or breed many so that individual deaths don't matter as much? There are personal as well as gameplay arguments for either, and they are based purely on the mechanics and the situation you put yourself into, they weren't designed for you. Don't want to decide? Don't take or trade for any dogs, and geld any that come with immigrants. You may end up puppies anyway, but you can at least make it a smaller problem and delay thinking about it.
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