How do you get these cool stories?

[Captain Flappy]

Proper noob question I know. I'm new to dwarf fortress, but I hear stories of depressed dwarves thinking about something and then going on murder sprees, or vampires that hate cats going on murder sprees etc.
(no idea if these things can happen, just examples pulled from my head)

How do you actually see these things? Is there a log that I haven't found that shows all the events in the fort?

Be gentle. I am very new lol.

[Saver Sigonith]

Welcome to the game! I hope you have a blast ^.^

When folks talk about stories, they usually mean stuff they pieced together by watching their dwarves - but sometimes they mean events you can view in Legends Mode before starting a game.

When you click on a dwarf, they have lots of different tabs with information like all their skills, their recent thoughts, their personality traits, and even a combat log that tells you about that time they and a large rat ineffectively danced around each other for a while.
So reading these can give you some ideas.

[Causti]

You can click on the individual dwarfs and check their memories and thoughts. There are also tabs that tell you what dwarfs need and want, what pisses them off etc.

Some notifications on the left side open a log when you click on them. There you can check more in detail what happened during a fight of a dwarf you found dead, and try to find out what killed him.

Getting these stories is mostly just paying attention to these legs and the dwarfs personality. Occasionally they will go mad and attack people because their needs weren't fullfiled, although sometimes thats simply not possible. You gotta be a bit detective like and make your own conclusions what happened sometimes.

For example, I just had a tavern keeper go mad and then read he suffocated. I checked and see a child standing on the corpse, then checked the log and see that a ten year old child choked the living soul of the tavern keeper (it was self defense).

[Captain Flappy]

Originally posted by Saver Sigonith:

Welcome to the game! I hope you have a blast ^.^

When folks talk about stories, they usually mean stuff they pieced together by watching their dwarves - but sometimes they mean events you can view in Legends Mode before starting a game.

When you click on a dwarf, they have lots of different tabs with information like all their skills, their recent thoughts, their personality traits, and even a combat log that tells you about that time they and a large rat ineffectively danced around each other for a while.
So reading these can give you some ideas.

Cheers dude, I had no idea what legends mode was tbh, as I bought the game a while ago but only just around to actually playing properly.

First time I played legends mode wasn't even available. Can I not view my own fort in legends mode? Even if not, sounds great.

I am very new, built a large base with bedrooms etc and lots of workshops all making stuff, but torn whether to look up a guide on what to do next or just... experiment,

[Captain Flappy]

Originally posted by Causti:

You can click on the individual dwarfs and check their memories and thoughts. There are also tabs that tell you what dwarfs need and want, what pisses them off etc.

Some notifications on the left side open a log when you click on them. There you can check more in detail what happened during a fight of a dwarf you found dead, and try to find out what killed him.

Getting these stories is mostly just paying attention to these legs and the dwarfs personality. Occasionally they will go mad and attack people because their needs weren't fullfiled, although sometimes thats simply not possible. You gotta be a bit detective like and make your own conclusions what happened sometimes.

For example, I just had a tavern keeper go mad and then read he suffocated. I checked and see a child standing on the corpse, then checked the log and see that a ten year old child choked the living soul of the tavern keeper (it was self defense).

"ten year old child choked the living soul of the tavern keeper (it was self defense)"

That's the sort of thing I bought the game for. Tried playing the original many many years ago and just couldn't see what was going on. Determined to learn this. lol.

I was worried I was missing a log of every tiny event like football manager style or something.

Cheers, now I know where to look i can get more information and go all scooby doo, see whats cooking in my Fort.. :)

[Quack]

Originally posted by Captain Flappy:

Proper noob question I know. I'm new to dwarf fortress, but I hear stories of depressed dwarves thinking about something and then going on murder sprees, or vampires that hate cats going on murder sprees etc.
(no idea if these things can happen, just examples pulled from my head)

How do you actually see these things? Is there a log that I haven't found that shows all the events in the fort?

Be gentle. I am very new lol.

You usually have to actively investigate, you read their thoughts and personality etc then follow them close and see what they do. It's not explicit at all

[Saver Sigonith]

Originally posted by Captain Flappy:

Cheers dude, I had no idea what legends mode was tbh, as I bought the game a while ago but only just around to actually playing properly.

First time I played legends mode wasn't even available. Can I not view my own fort in legends mode? Even if not, sounds great.

I am very new, built a large base with bedrooms etc and lots of workshops all making stuff, but torn whether to look up a guide on what to do next or just... experiment,

Legends Mode lets you view historical figures in a world and read up on what various shenanigans they've been up to. You can read it for a current fortress but it's a slightly cumbersome to.

You need to first "retire" your fortress, then hit "create a new game in an existing world" and Legends Mode is available alongside Fortress and Adventure Modes for some reason.
BUT since un-retiring forts comes with a lot of bugs still, it's better to "save to a new timeline" first so that you can just retire a copy of your save and delete it afterwards rather than worry about unretiring.

As for whether to read a guide or not - that's up to you! I quite enjoy the optimization puzzle of this game, and reading the wikis about how each of the crafting stations work and so forth makes it more fun for me. But also there's a lot of weird stuff to bumble into so if it sounds fun to go in blind, do that.
The biggest key is just to take it one bit at a time. It's a huge game and takes a long time to learn everything, so take it at your own pace.

[Captain Flappy]

Originally posted by Quack:

Originally posted by Captain Flappy:

Proper noob question I know. I'm new to dwarf fortress, but I hear stories of depressed dwarves thinking about something and then going on murder sprees, or vampires that hate cats going on murder sprees etc.
(no idea if these things can happen, just examples pulled from my head)

How do you actually see these things? Is there a log that I haven't found that shows all the events in the fort?

Be gentle. I am very new lol.

You usually have to actively investigate, you read their thoughts and personality etc then follow them close and see what they do. It's not explicit at all

Cheers, I always imagined it was a ticker with events showing constantly. no idea why.

[Captain Flappy]

Originally posted by Saver Sigonith:

Originally posted by Captain Flappy:

Cheers dude, I had no idea what legends mode was tbh, as I bought the game a while ago but only just around to actually playing properly.

First time I played legends mode wasn't even available. Can I not view my own fort in legends mode? Even if not, sounds great.

I am very new, built a large base with bedrooms etc and lots of workshops all making stuff, but torn whether to look up a guide on what to do next or just... experiment,

Legends Mode lets you view historical figures in a world and read up on what various shenanigans they've been up to. You can read it for a current fortress but it's a slightly cumbersome to.

You need to first "retire" your fortress, then hit "create a new game in an existing world" and Legends Mode is available alongside Fortress and Adventure Modes for some reason.
BUT since un-retiring forts comes with a lot of bugs still, it's better to "save to a new timeline" first so that you can just retire a copy of your save and delete it afterwards rather than worry about unretiring.

As for whether to read a guide or not - that's up to you! I quite enjoy the optimization puzzle of this game, and reading the wikis about how each of the crafting stations work and so forth makes it more fun for me. But also there's a lot of weird stuff to bumble into so if it sounds fun to go in blind, do that. These forums are quite good for advice when you need it too so remember you also have that tool available!

Cheers dude, I might try and bumble my way through for now and see how far I get. I know it will fail, I am a seasoned rimworld player and even though it's different obv, many things are of a similar vein.

There are already some things I know can be done in game that are probably very simple, but I haven't the clue how you do it. gonna try and figure it out first before asking, see how Dwarves have to die before I do.
:p

[Saver Sigonith]

Best of luck!
To head off the two biggest rimworld pitfalls -
1. Don't try increasing the embark size too much. The default 4x4 is plenty and the game is more than happy to let you break everything horribly by making it too big.
2. No, there's no way to change task priority, but you also don't need every one of your dwarves constantly working at all times. Task management is a very different puzzle in the two games.
:P

[Captain Flappy]

Originally posted by Saver Sigonith:

Best of luck!
To head off the two biggest rimworld pitfalls -
1. Don't try increasing the embark size too much. The default 4x4 is plenty and the game is more than happy to let you break everything horribly by making it too big.
2. No, there's no way to change task priority, but you also don't need every one of your dwarves constantly working at all times. Task management is a very different puzzle in the two games.
:P

yeah i stuck with 4x4 and am already digging deep into mount Flappy. :)

[megareader5000]

The game just simulates so much at all times that something funny or cool is bound to happen eventually (like today I got an axe made entirely of glaze)

[megareader5000]

Originally posted by Captain Flappy:

Originally posted by Saver Sigonith:

Welcome to the game! I hope you have a blast ^.^

When folks talk about stories, they usually mean stuff they pieced together by watching their dwarves - but sometimes they mean events you can view in Legends Mode before starting a game.

When you click on a dwarf, they have lots of different tabs with information like all their skills, their recent thoughts, their personality traits, and even a combat log that tells you about that time they and a large rat ineffectively danced around each other for a while.
So reading these can give you some ideas.

Cheers dude, I had no idea what legends mode was tbh, as I bought the game a while ago but only just around to actually playing properly.

First time I played legends mode wasn't even available. Can I not view my own fort in legends mode? Even if not, sounds great.

I am very new, built a large base with bedrooms etc and lots of workshops all making stuff, but torn whether to look up a guide on what to do next or just... experiment,

I recommend just experimenting, but scrolling the wiki for random nonsense is fun if you're not looking for anything in particular

[Valsalan]

Since a lot of people will have opinions on this. The best way I find to get stories out of the game is to have a small txt document on the side where I write things that have happened, and have a small goal you are trying to work towards. Something you find compelling (i.e. building an above ground town with multi story walls/buildings, creating a fortress at the edge of two continents and building a bridge across it over several years, making a fight club fortress in the desert where everyone is shirtless and has to train martial arts 3 months a year and all the Dwarves live in inverse pyramids, etc).

Then just play the game, work towards your goals, learn the game mechanics, and as things happen you'll start to see some stories come out of it. There's no real trick to it. I hope you have fun and always remember, if you have questions about the game the df wiki is only an internet search away. There's no shame in looking up how to do things.

[clarkeveritas]

Rimworld is great with this as well. In my opinion it’s easier to learn how to tell the game what you are trying to do (I’ll figure out df eventually).

Rimworld example- one of my main characters was very attached to a cat. This cat got into our “medicine” stash a few times, developed a taste for alcohol and narcotics, and ended up with a messed up liver. The cats human friend became constantly moody and depressed so the colony dedicated everything to researching things could lead to artificial animal organs. After a successful surgery to install a bionic liver into Mr kitty- the now constantly-drunk finally stopped moping around…. and the push into science led to my colony advancing years in medical technology.
Sorry meant to have that be much shorter. Get carried away with Rimworld sometimes….

[Captain Flappy]

Originally posted by clarkeveritas:

Get carried away with Rimworld sometimes….

Oh I know that feeling :P