(http://i.imgur.com/uBUOL6l.png)
And with that, we're inside the game at the main menu. You may notice that there is no "start game" option or similar. That's because we don't have a world in which we can make a new fortress! So we select Create New World so the game can generate a generic fantasy world for us to inhabit.
(http://i.imgur.com/0Um1Lch.png)
We're greeted with a few basic worldgen options, which are all pretty straight forward. I could go into detail describing the various steps in world creation, but you're likely not interested in that, so I just hit the "go" button...
(http://i.imgur.com/kGY4Xqj.png)
Go away to make some tea...
(http://i.imgur.com/Y5ePvFo.png)
And ten-fifteen minutes later we've got our world, "Lina Yula", which apparently means "The Land of Forever" in some language (not sure which, it's not dwarfish as far as I can tell). World generation can take a while depending on the size/history length of the world you're trying to generate and the performance of your computer. If you have a poor computer, you might want to keep to lower world sizes/short histories (or import a larger world from someone else).
I poked around in the world history and found out a few interesting tidbits. The dwarfish civilization (there are several of them, but I only bothered looking at this one) our fortress are a part of, "The Helm of Creation" also contains quite a number of goblin
cities towers, which they conquered from a nearby goblin civilization, "The Fiend of Joys" in a recent war, which means we might see a few goblins coming to the fortress (if not as migrants then as caravan guards or liasions). We also have a general, which, in addition to being a general badass and personally leading every attack and military action for the civilization, is also in the middle of the process of becoming a
*spoiler* necromancer
*end spoiler*. The game can produce some interesting situations like that, and like I've said before, this is all procedurally generated.
(http://i.imgur.com/5kbhUq3.png)
Anyway, I search around for a small while for a place to embark. This site looks promising, with shallow metal usually indicating iron deposits, which are very, very good to have. Along with a nearby brook for fresh water and plenty of trees, this should provide a suitable place for our new fortress (even though it's halfway across the world from the rest of our nation).
(http://i.imgur.com/95cquQL.png)
Next, I spend some time setting up the skillsets of our initial dwarfs, filling out all the roles that our expedition needs.
(http://i.imgur.com/hsWkBXG.png)
First of all, here's my dwarf profile. As you can see, there's a lot of things on this page. From top to bottom, this page describes my current mood (and recent events that impact this mood), my age and date of birth, appearance (mostly going into detail describing your mandatory beard), what things I like and dislike, characteristics, and personality. (Notice the line "needs alcohol to get through the working day"? Everyone has a lot of varying and different traits, but, in true dwarf fashion,
everyone has that one trait, and maintaining alcohol levels is crucial in any fortress to prevent low morale.)
As the expedition leader my main skills handle administrative duties, record keeping, trading, and organization, whilst also doubling as the fort's main doctor (until someone more skilled arrives). Since these aren't all that necessary for starting out the fortess, you'll likely see me helping out with all sorts of minor unrelated tasks.
(http://i.imgur.com/OURCNdn.png)
Next is Rui- who, as requested, is a cook and a farmer, and will be working together with DarkPaladin in producing food for the settlement. She's also a brewer, and so is key to sating our universal craving for alcohol.
(http://i.imgur.com/1Cxl6FK.png)
DarkPaladin is another farmer, and will co-operate with Rui- to work the plump helmet fields. Unlike Rui, he has hunting and butchery skills, and is also an archer. He'll mainly use his crossbow to kill any wild beasts that decide to attack our dwarfs, should it ever come to that (which it probably will), followed by butchering it.
(http://i.imgur.com/phRt9Rx.png)
(http://i.imgur.com/ck6BFPt.png)
ThatGuy and Raveman are woodcutters and carpenters, and are mainly there to make beds for sleeping in, and bins and barrels for storing things in. Since they also carry axes, they will likely help out DarkPaladin in hacking the native fauna into tiny pieces. ThatGuy is also a mason and a mechanic; masonry will be something that's done by pretty much everyone at some point but for now he'll work on it mostly by himself (and me, since I have nothing better to do). Raveman is also a bowyer, which will probably not be at all relevant, but I had a few points left that I didn't know what to spend on.
(http://i.imgur.com/ZW9YYPv.png)
(http://i.imgur.com/7C5mfXX.png)
Lastly, there are two currently unnamed female dwarfs (I briefly forgot that Swordkirby had signed up to the dorflist when making this, which I will rectify in the next update. Sorry, I'm not using DFHack to change dwarf profiles around, so if you don't want to get stuck with some random dwarf lass, I can just refrain from dwarfing you for now.), which is ironic because they both fill what's arguably the most important role in a new fortress: Mining. Not only are they going to be responsible for all the stone and metal for masonry and smithing, but they're also key in creating the infrastructure of the fortress itself, digging out the rooms and hallways of the fortress itself. One of them is also a metalsmith, although I remember in hindsight that we don't actually have an anvil to make a forge (I traded it in for points to spend on skills), so that's sort of redundant, but oh well.
(http://i.imgur.com/lvA2rno.png)
Lastly, here's an overview of the things we'll be bringing with us. Notice the lack of an anvil (and then cry). Also notice that our supply of alcohol is going to last longer than our food will. Dwarfs.
But anyway, we've done all the preparations we can, so, finally, it's time to embark and found our new fortress.
(http://i.imgur.com/nqxsAOz.png)
(http://i.imgur.com/FjGSqYp.png)
"Walkedtomb". I'm sure that's not ominous at all.