I tried to run a hermit fortress, once. Six of the original seven had Very Bad Accidents, and the one remaining set about making a quiet home for himself, digging graves for the others and starting the vital industries to keep himself fed and sheltered.
The first wave of immigrants arrived. The hermit dug them a nice isolation chamber. They went in, and he locked the door behind them and set about his business. When the miasma cleared, he set about gathering their stuff and putting them in their graves. But it was terribly labor intensive, and other things weren't getting done, so when the next wave of immigrants arrived before he'd disposed of the first, he decided to let the immigrants take dispose of their own.
By the time the next wave arrived, the hermit was fed up with the labor and the noise, so he built them an atom smashing chamber. The fortress was finally quiet again.
Then, disaster! Some kobolds appeared. The hermit drove them off, but suffered a minor injury. He limped back to bed, where he lay, contemplating his impending death by dehydration.
But wait! Another wave of immigrants arrived just in time to bring the grouchy old fellow a drink. "Very well," said he, "One of you may stay to bring me water until I am healed. Decide amongst yourselves which it will be." The immigrants gathered in the atom smashing chamber to draw lots. An order was set to pull the lever. Whichever immigrant responded to the call to leave the room to pull the lever would be saved.
One brave soul ran to do his duty.
He then ran back to the meeting hall just in time to be smashed with the others.
Shoulda locked the door. Oops.