40d:Forbid

Forbidden objects will not be picked up or used by dwarves. Forbidding objects has several uses, including:

• Preventing dwarves from trying to retrieve items from an area controlled by hostile monsters
• Forcing dwarves to use specific materials or items, for example when satisfying a mandate or demand, or to force them to put on the best-available suit of armor
• Preventing dwarves from moving items that are on fire

Dwarves will continue to use forbidden objects already in their inventory. For instance, a swordsdwarf will continue to use a forbidden sword, although if the sword is dropped, it will cease to be used. If a forbidden weapon gets stuck in a foe, the dwarf will also stop using it (and, in fact, stop fighting altogether).

Most of the time, forbidding an item will cancel any queued tasks involving that item, though this may not always be the case. Notably, dwarves will drink out of a barrel after it is dumped and forbidden (hounding the refuse hauler all the way to the garbage dump), if they decided to drink from that particular barrel before it was marked for dumping. It remains to be seen if forbidding, but not dumping, a barrel and/or the booze inside will prevent a dwarf from drinking.

Forbidden objects are surrounded by braces -- { } -- to signify that they are forbidden. (In-game, these braces can be difficult to distinguish from parentheses, which are used to signify that the object was manufactured outside the fortress.)

Forbidden objects still contribute to fortress value.

How to forbid objects

There are several ways to forbid an item or a building:

• d-b-f: Designate buildings and items for forbidding. This will forbid the use of all items on the ground or in stockpiles in the designated region, as well as all usable buildings (such as workshops), as well as all items within those buildings. It will not forbid items carried or worn by dwarves within the designated area.
• Forbid individual items within a building via the view items screen. Highlight the item and press f to forbid it. The building itself can be forbidden for use by forbidding the items used to build it; these are the items marked with a [B] at the top of the list.
• Forbid items in a character's inventory via the view unit screen. Press Enter when the item is highlighted, then forbid it.
• Forbid items on the ground (or in a stockpile) via the look screen. Press f to forbid the highlighted item.
• Forbid items via the stocks menu. Hit Tab to see the expanded list of items, → to start navigating through the list, and f to forbid the highlighted item.

Automatically forbidden items

Items are automatically marked "forbidden" when:

• Reclaiming a fortress.
• They have been dumped in a garbage zone.
• You begin a game in a town – all items in the town are initially forbidden.
• They are forbidden via the orders-Forbid menu. These can include:
  • Used ammunition (a bolt or arrow is fired and drops on the ground intact).
  • Dead dwarves' corpses
  • The items the dead dwarves were wearing or wielding
  • Dead enemies or wild animals
  • The items the enemies were wearing or wielding
• Items will only be forbidden according to the orders menu at the instant that the creature dies (or the ammo falls to the ground). Individual bolts, for instance, will not be reclaimed if you un-forbid used ammunition, although all stray bolts subsequently created will be "claimed".

The opposite of forbid is reclaim, which removes the forbidden status of items.