How a mad dwarf made me realize the most fun part of Dwarf Fortress, is the losing...

I finally got into dwarf fortress using This guide and this mod. My first fortress attempt was a bit of a bust because I made a bunch of mistakes, but my second attempt went fantastically, and I soon had a large working base filled with 2 dozen busy dwarves.

I was unprepared for the winter and lost two miners to thirst, a sad loss, but I quickly recovered, replacing the two dead miners with a extra woodcutter and a peasant who had nothing better to do. The wood cutter (Erbert Ghouslist- Henceforth referred to as Ebert) got along fine in his new role, and the fort continued to expand. We were rudely interruptted by the vengeful spirit of one of the dead miners but they were put to rest by properly burying them rather than leaving them outside in the dump.

Things were back to normal after that, but then, Ebert, the woodcutter, began acting rather strange. It would turn out that some sort of supernatural force had overcome him, he had been sleeping restlessly for days, and something got to him. He was possessed, but I though nothing of it at the time, I let him continue on with his work and ignored his occasional mental wanderings that slowed him down. He had alot on his mind after all.

But while he was digging out a reservoir to insure the next winter wouldn't end in death from thirst, the tunnel he was in collapsed, Ebert was knocked unconcious, and was dragged back to the dormitory. He woke up wandered down to the mess hall, and went berserk...

He began attacking everyone in the fortress, two stray dogs tried to fight him off, both were killed and subsequently, Ebert slayed the only mason I had and one of my carpenters. The messhall was covered in blood, Ebert, and his two victims were dragged off while coffins could be prepared for them. The dogs were left in the dump outside. I breathed a sigh of relief however that my losses had been so minimal.

Now I don't know if the fright of Ebert's break with reality had caused mass hysteria amongst the remaining 20 or so dwarves, or if something more mundane had occurred to make them lose their grip, but things got worse, the next day, everyone in the fortress began throwing tantrums, refusing to do work, to leave their dorms. They broke furniture and began drifting off at random, much like Ebert had before his outburst. Soon they followed Ebert's lead and one by one, all went berserk The bodies piled up in the dump, the fortress was at war with itself, and as such nothing could get done, the coffins for the first 3 men never came... A trade caravan that had come from a distant outpost to do business, was met with a group of rabid dwarves. the traders were slaughtered with the exception of two of their guards who fled to the hills.

I lost 15 men to the chaos, before things settled down. After 3 hours of Dwarf Fortress, my seemingly successful attempt at survival had failed miserabley. I could not recover from such a loss, with only 6 men left to operate a fortress of more than 20, and having had much of my base torn up, I decided to call it quits.

It was, however, a ton of fun...

In short, Dwarf Fortress is a crazy game, filled with alot of surprises and rewards. You should all try it. (It is free afterall.) With a good tileset (The game's ASCII graphics leave much to be desired) to make things a little clearer and a solid guide to show you whats up, its not so hard as it seems. Just Watch out for evil spirits and possessed dwarves.