Dwarf Fortress is an ASCII based game where you lead a group of criminally insane, alcohol dependant, and eventually, doomed, dwarves to create a mighty city in the name of the mountain homes. At first glance this game looks extremely unappealing and difficult to learn due to the fact that you can easily mistake hippos for light gray H's, or if you didnt know that !!ITEM!! was on fire because
!!ITEM!! doesnt really say 'this shit is on fire'
initially all that kept me going on it was the desire to learn why a horde of g's were causing my dwarfs to lose their limbs
but the second a mountain titan beat the shit out of one of my miners WITH HIS OWN PANTS i was in love with the game
The thing that is so unique about this game is that the maker of it (Toady) puts new things into the game and lets the engine decide how it interacts with the world
A list of things that the game engine implemented that Toady did not intend
when CARP were first put into the game they were intended to be a food source but since they had the CARNIVORE tag and were also larger than dwarfs they instantly became the number one cause of death for fisherdwarves in certain biomes.
Throwing is a skill in adventure mode. Toady originally intended for the throwing of logical items like sharpened rocks and spears but left it available to throw pretty much any item. One can throw, vomit, cloths, toys, dead baby's, elfs, demembered body parts (including your own) and small woodland creature (It was discovered that the best way to kill a bronze colossi was to throw a fluffy wambler, a small furry man about the size of a kitten, at the colossi) This was due to a biazzare item property.
Same with attacking with items, anything goes
Your dwarves occasionally can create artifacts which can be made out of ALMOST ANY substance (regular production can only use a few) this includes swords made out of turtle shell, a flood gate composed of only two bones, or possibly a chest plate made from aluminum.
if you are curious get the vanilla, its free
http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/THE GAME IS 300% EASIER TO LEARN WITH A GRAPHIC'S PACK
if you download this you get the vanilla + the graphic's pack
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=57557.0get dwarf therapist to make micromanagement of dwarf's possible
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=39229.0dont give up like i almost did or you will miss out
and remember
losing is fun