User:Ral/Fortress mode

Fortress mode is the most popular mode of gameplay in Dwarf Fortress and what most people are thinking of when they talk about the game. It provides a sort of real-time strategy sandbox where your simulated dwarves dig out and build a settlement for themselves, craft items, trade with caravans, produce food, eat, sleep, drink (mostly alcohol), socialize, throw tantrums, get married, have children, and occasionally fight off invaders using a combination of military units, fortifications, and devious traps. Rather than control individual dwarves, you design everything and your dwarves implement your designs.

This is significantly different from Template:L which is much like a more advanced version of 'rogue' or 'nethack'. In this mode you control a single adventurer (character) in the same world who travels around, takes on quests, fights, etc, in a turn-based (rather than real-time) manner. See Template:L for more information on this mode of play.

(There is also Template:L mode but this is more of a history/world viewing interface than an actual game that you play.)

The World

To play dwarf fortress in any mode you must generate a world that includes a playable civilization which, by default, means dwarves. (Actually, any civilization with the [CIV_CONTROLLABLE] entity token is playable, but by default only dwarves have this token.)

See Template:L for detailed instructions on generating a world.

Embarking

Main article: Template:L