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[Nuoya]

This is a somewhat challenging way to embark. It's inspired by a game called final fantasy 11 which is a MMORPG that lets you change between 18 classes. You could also choose a "subjob" giving 18*17 class possibilities. The abilities from your subjob were weaker than if that was your main job.

Each of your initial seven gets 1 main job set at proficient and 1 sub job set at novice. You can't enable any more jobs after embarking. This means if you embark with no food you can't just enable plant gathering and butchering unless you specifically chose those jobs. No one can join the military unless their main or subjob is wrestling/axe/sword/crossbow/etc. You can decide what to do with migrants but I disable everything except 2 of the jobs that they already have enabled. Peasants and grown children are wild cards!

Now, to add to the challenge (because it's still fairly easy~) you can't spend embark points on items except for the signature items that come with each "Proficient" main job.

Proficient Miner - copper pick
Proficient Woodcutter - copper battle axe
Carpenter - a log
Mason - a stone
Farmer - a seed (you choose)
Plant Gatherer - a bag
Axeman - a bronze battle axe
Spearman - a bronze spear
Mechanic - a copper minecart
Social Skills - silk garments?
Butcher - a barrel
Architect - a set of 4 blocks



I came here to ask, what ideas do you have for giving each job a signature item?  It'd be nice if the majority of the jobs had a useful item to bring along.

And how would you organize your skills? What would you embark with? This challenge is not very original, it's intermediate between "embark with nothing" and "everyone only has 1 job", but I like the balance of it. For maximum fun embark in an evil area of course.

Finally, what's the most minimalist embark? I suppose you could embark with nothing and survive on vermin and water until the first migrant wave?

[MrWillsauce]

Maybe you should have the option of having just one specialized skill instead of having a proficient one and a novice one. Maybe being proficient at just one skill woul give that dwarf better starting equipment. For example: instead of being a proficient mason and novice spearman and starting with one stone, a dwarf could just be a proficient mason and start with five stones.

[Nuoya]

Sure why not. If anyone here ever played ffxi, that's kind of like how the best job would be warrior/sub-warrior in that game

[cvar]

Finally, what's the most minimalist embark? I suppose you could embark with nothing and survive on vermin and water until the first migrant wave?

Copper Ore
Anvil
Stone


With the addition of wooden training weapons and the illogical nature of being able to chop down trees with a wooden axe, it should probably be considered cheating at the challenge to do that.

[misko27]

Stone

FTFY. Not much more minimalist then a rock.

[Sutremaine]

Finally, what's the most minimalist embark? I suppose you could embark with nothing and survive on vermin and water until the first migrant wave?

Nothing at all, which is only possible if you bring no items or animals and the wagon doesn't exist because it tried to spawn on a slope.

The minimum in most cases is the three pieces of wood from the wagon, plus the two wagon pullers. Those three pieces of wood are enough to rotate workshops until the first caravan is due, at which point you dismantle all three workshops and build a depot with the released wood. Food can be gathered via herbalism or butchering the two free animals (though if you have a breeding pair, or females that can breed from wild animals, you might want to keep them if you don't need to slaughter them). If you have no surface water you'll need to sacrifice one or two of the logs, make some waterskins to ease the load on the barrel(s), then hope that somebody turns up with a pick or an axe, or that the pack animals that make it onto the map in Autumn have either those or enough building material to make a depot.

You might need to survive on water, but you probably won't need to survive on vermin. Herbalism will eventually bring in some berries, the seeds of which can be planted to get a steady food supply. If you're lucky you'll get some rope reeds, which will kickstart the cloth industry. Depending on the wildlife you might be able to convert a wagon animal or two into bolts and crossbows, so you can get more dead animals for totems, leather, food, and more bolts.

And yes, you can make a training axe and chop down trees with it, but then it's no challenge at all.

[Nuoya]

Finally, what's the most minimalist embark? I suppose you could embark with nothing and survive on vermin and water until the first migrant wave?

Nothing at all, which is only possible if you bring no items or animals and the wagon doesn't exist because it tried to spawn on a slope.

Oh I'm aware of that, I just meant more in the context of being unable to just plant gather butcher and create workshops with whoever you feel like. I guess even then it's always possible to survive with nothing

[Callista]

Finally, what's the most minimalist embark? I suppose you could embark with nothing and survive on vermin and water until the first migrant wave?

Vermin and water are not necessary. It all depends on whether you're allowed to use the logs you get from the wagon or not. If you can use the logs, you can build a still and a wooden training axe to get more logs. Then you gather surface plants to brew into alcohol. You can also fish from a brook and start surface farms. Your dwarves can also kill wildlife and use the resulting skins and bones to make weapons and armor.

On the other hand, without the logs from the wagon, things are tougher: You have absolutely no items at all; so you are limited to plant gathering for sustenance, and you do have to drink water. Butchering wildlife is impossible without a butcher's shop; processing fish can't be done without a fishery. But survival is totally possible if you have access to water.

If you want to be able to dig, the minimalist embark is a single pick.
If you want to be able to manufacture all the goods available on your embark, minimalist would be a pick and an anvil; or else some ore and an anvil.

I recommend the "no items; wagon allowed" variant, simply because it's the most extreme version which still allows you some flexibility. Without the logs from the wagon, you're just picking plants and defending yourself against the wildlife, gambling on either a migrant with a pick or an axe, or a non-dwarven merchant you can kill easily (no trade depot equals no trading, so you pretty much have to kill them). It's just a matter of luck and nothing else.

[Hans Lemurson]

The "signature item" for a mechanic would clearly be a MECHANISM, not a minecart.

[MrWillsauce]

The "signature item" for a mechanic would clearly be a MECHANISM, not a minecart.

Can't start with those. I suggest starting with a trap component or cage though.

[Canadark]

Metalsmith brings an anvil.
Hauler brings a wheelbarrow.

[jpvlsmv]

An additional challenge rule:
Your dwarfs don't know how to make an item until it has been acquired from somewhere.

For example, if you don't embark with an axe, you can't have your weaponsmith make one until you've either bought one from caravan or borrowed one from your local goblinite library.

(Check in the Stocks screen, every item type should have at least one (Item) in the list)

--Joe