So I recently got really into Dwarf Fortress and I thought a succession game (or, as the ineffably sanguine jargon has it,
bloodline game) would be a satisfying proposition.

Are any of you guys up for it? I poked through the archives and apparently several of these have failed on the TIGSource forums before. But the way I see it, why should I let that stop me?

So, if there's any interest at all, I can totally play through 1 year of a fortress, upload it to a website and then write up some rules. (The basic idea, if you're not familiar with it, is: Someone plays 1 year of a fortress, then they give the save to the next person who plays 1 year, and so on. A collaborative gameplay project!)
The Dwarf Fortress game "Helmauthors" has started!Helmauthors File Repository - This is where all the save games will be kept, as well as some other useful links.Technical DetailsI downloaded
v0.28.181.40d and created a fresh install, just to be sure. (Then I fiddled with my graphics and font settings for a while, which explains why my pictures may not look
exactly like yours. That shouldn't affect the gameplay or saves at all, though.) I'm running Windows XP Pro, by the way.
I generated a few worlds and found one I liked with an embark site that will be pretty easy to play on. (Perhaps it might have been more "fun" to go for a challenging site, but maybe we can do that next game.

) The site is 3x4, it's "calm", it appears to have almost no wildlife; it has a
lot of trees, it has sand and it has flux (marble). No river, but a few pools. According to the site finder it should have a magma pool somewhere, but I don't know where; it will probably require exploratory mining to find.
According to the output files, the world of Ruspstrasp should be seed 2476520710, so you guys can recreate it "from scratch" if you like. (Those output files have all sorts of awesome randomly-generated history, it's great for getting the imagination going! All the names in the "history section" below were taken from there, although I filled in the details of the "plot" a little.

) I'm going to post my first "chapter" as a new post at the end of this thread.
Rules-
Unzip the save file into your data\save directory. So you should end up with something like dwarfort\data\save\Helmauthors. (Should I have zipped it up with a data\save\Helmauthors path?)
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Play until you see the message "Autumn has arrived", then archive the save folder and send it to me. I'll send the file to the next person in line, and I'll host the saves on a little web page just for convenience. (I could even put the maps up on
Dwarf Fortress Map Archive and/or
Dwarf Fortress File Depot if you guys would like. My email address is available on the link just to the left.

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Aim to finish your turn within one week. I played through the initial setup in two days, so this shouldn't be hard. A week is the "expected" time. (By the way, if you're in line and you expect the person in front of you to take a week, but they take say two days, and you're not ready at that point...well, we'll work something out.)
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After nine days, you're skipped. That doesn't need to be explained, right?
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Tell us what significant events happened in your playthrough. Goblins attacking, trade caravans, significant new construction projects; these are all things we'd like to hear about.
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Detailed and/or in-character journals are welcomed. Part of the fun of these games is reading the wacky writing that they create. However, note that I said
welcomed and not
required!
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Try not to completely screw over the fortress. If something really bad happens, we can vote on trying to either reclaim it or reverting to a previous save.
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The aim is to have fun! I don't really mean in the sense of "
Losing is Fun", I mean that these rules are here to maximize the possibility of the participants having fun. If someone takes a huge long time with their turn, then everyone else gets bored waiting and the fun decreases. So, there you go.
The Story So FarPart 1 - Spring 201-Spring 202 - Chaoseed. Initial fortress construction, hematite and marble found.
Part 2 - Spring 202-Spring 203 - John Lee. Lots of immigrants, living quarters and workshops greatly expanded, garbage put behind closed doors, goblin attack prompts the building of an Indy-esque tomb level, Amost drives Melbil insane.
Part 3 - Spring 203 - Autumn 203 - frezned. Huge dining room, artificial waterfall, the dwarves get stressed.
Part 4 - Autumn 203 - Autumn 204 - Cheater. The great "squareification" of everything except bedrooms (which were already more square than they should be). Elven ambush, magma, smelting, You Have to Burn the Rope filk, capitalism.
Part 5 - Autumn 204 - Autumn 205 - Markham. A huge wall is built to fend off goblin attacks. Huge elven siege triggers a tantrum spiral.
Part 6 - About a month - ZeuglinRush. The tantrum spiral engulfs the entire fortress, nothing can be done.
Helmauthors is finished!