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[evictedSaint]

So, yeah, my dwarves got pissy about something and next thing I know, they start going crazy.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I've tried killing the ones who go crazy in an attempt to quarantine the insanity, but it just made things worse!  My military of 20 is down to 2, and one is in the hospital with a broken leg.  My doctor can't fix him because he's dead, and I can't appoint a new noble because my mayor died in office and a bug prevents the election of new nobles while a previous mayor is still alive (I don't know which one used to be mayor).

I'm running out of coffins, and I can't harvest any new crops because my farmers are running around babbling.  My metalsmith punched my fisherdwarf into the well (ironically) so there's no water to be had, and my hammerer went insane and clubbed all my brewers to death before the Guard could stab him down.

So...yeah, how do I save my fort? 

[wierd]

Before they all go totally apeshit, lock them in their bedrooms. Let the crazy ones die from neglect. (Melancholy dwarves are harmless, and starve to death. Berzerk dwarves attack other dwarves, but still starve or dehydrate. Once they go bananas, they stop eating, drinking, or sleeping. Locking them in a room and forgetting about them is a perfectly valid solution until they become a manageable corpse.)

The very unhappy red arrow bearded wonders need lots of TLC.  Avoid murdering their schizoid friends and family members, because that will drive them bonkers too. Leaving urist mccrazypants to die in the isolation booth gives you a few months to massage the mental states of the borderline ones, so they don't follow their friends down the deep end of the tantrum drain.

Isolating the very unhappy dwarves inside their quarters lets them see the lovely furnishings they own, let's them throw owned items safely (locked in their rooms, they can't hurt each other), and when they need a drink or to go eat food, let them out one at a time to go do their business, then come back.  When they are merely "unhappy" instead of "very unhappy", or "miserable", let them go hang out together in the legendary dining hall.

Hopefully, they will have had time to soak up a few happy thoughts before urist mcpsycho dies of thirst, and gives them a new bad thought.

[Aseaheru]

And find those with no friends/relations or dont give a shit and get them together somewhere safe with goof food, good booze and good rooms.

[DiacetylMorphine]

Use corps stock pile (outside) to prevent miasma and the see of dead relatives. You don't realy NEED coffins, as long as your dwarf aren't expose to the corps.

each time you see a dwarf getting unhappy (like his wife will die of starvation...) burrow him in his room and lock him, if possible with food and drink.

slabs are good cause you don't need acces to the corps, use it !

[jcochran]

And if you survive this tantrum spiral, prepare for future spirals and take proactive steps to prevent it.
1. Have a LARGE dining hall. Dwarves talk to each other and socialize when they're close to each other. A large hall is both impressive (happy thoughts) and isolating (so large that dwarves are rarely next to each other chatting). No chit-chat = no socializing = no or few friends = don't give a shit when someone dies.

2. Make some mist generators and put 'em in high traffic areas. If your dwarves get unhappy, turn on the mist to generate counteracting happy thoughts.

[Sutremaine]

My doctor can't fix him because he's dead,

Give all the medical labours to everybody. The individual jobs will be slower, but they'll be taken more quickly.

I'm running out of coffins

Make some more.

and I can't harvest any new crops because my farmers are running around babbling.

Allow all dwarves to harvest, using the standing

• rders menu.

My metalsmith punched my fisherdwarf into the well (ironically) so there's no water to be had

Sure there is, it's just a bit bloody.

my hammerer went insane and clubbed all my brewers to death

Enable the Brewing labour on anyone with a non-essential profession.

So...yeah, how do I save my fort?

Shut down everything that isn't essential. If you have plants to spare, the current ones can be left to rot in the field. If you have booze to spare (say, six months' worth), you don't need to do any brewing. There is little else you need to do beyond getting the dead in coffins, or behind a door. I've seen dwarves bury a dozen teeth before picking up the corpse, so it may be a safer bet to have everybody dumping body parts in a holding area near the built coffins. No hauling except for corpses, body parts, and perishable food. See below for another exception.

Do you have a jail, or any form of justice? If there are few dwarves sentenced to beatings, you can build an open jail by spacing chains so that no dwarf can attack a neighbour. Once half the fortress is chained up, the other half (who, not having flipped out and broken something, are relatively stable) can work on stockpiling food and drink in the jail area. They're always much more interested in hauling stuff than feeding and watering their fellow dwarves, and chained dwarves can pick up food and drink themselves. Everybody's happy! You can also put beds in the jail and make them unassigned bedrooms, and the chained dwarves will claim them and feel happy about having their own bedroom. Said bedroom may actually be pretty valuable, if it encompasses other beds and chains.

A mist generator is a good investment, though it has to be in a place that all dwarves pass through. If you build it to mist the jail area and store all the booze there, that should work out pretty well.

[thegoatgod_pan]

Just ride it out. Someone will live. Make that someone the backbone of your community. They will be too jaded to care in all future tantrum spirals.

[wierd]

Just ride it out. Someone will live. Make that someone the backbone of your community. They will be too jaded to care in all future tantrum spirals.

Everyone and everything Urist ever loved died today.

Spoiler: He doesn't care about anything anymore. (click to show/hide)

(Sorry, but that's always the art that comes to mind for dwarves who have become soul-less husks of their former selves after a tantrum spiral. Sure, total badasses after that, but I can't shake imagining them with the thousand mile stare, that takes in everything, yet sees nothing.

[Snaake]

And find those with no friends/relations or dont give a shit and get them together somewhere safe with goof food, good booze and good rooms.

Also, IIRC dwarves who have had a mood become immune to going crazy from being miserable. They'll still throw tantrums, and destroying/selling their artifact will cause them to go nuts, but yea, part of their sanity is embedded in the artifact, effectively. Shielding them from the worst of tantrum spirals. I've seen suggestions/stories of keeping mooded dwarves extra-secure, since they'll be more likely to survive a tantrum spiral, if they don't get their faces punched in by a tantrumer/berserker/ghost.

[Aseaheru]

That is wonderous. At some point I am going to take my ow advice and set up a vault somewhere.

[mirrizin]

Before they all go totally apeshit, lock them in their bedrooms. Let the crazy ones die from neglect. (Melancholy dwarves are harmless, and starve to death. Berzerk dwarves attack other dwarves, but still starve or dehydrate. Once they go bananas, they stop eating, drinking, or sleeping. Locking them in a room and forgetting about them is a perfectly valid solution until they become a manageable corpse.)

The very unhappy red arrow bearded wonders need lots of TLC.  Avoid murdering their schizoid friends and family members, because that will drive them bonkers too. Leaving urist mccrazypants to die in the isolation booth gives you a few months to massage the mental states of the borderline ones, so they don't follow their friends down the deep end of the tantrum drain.

Isolating the very unhappy dwarves inside their quarters lets them see the lovely furnishings they own, let's them throw owned items safely (locked in their rooms, they can't hurt each other), and when they need a drink or to go eat food, let them out one at a time to go do their business, then come back.  When they are merely "unhappy" instead of "very unhappy", or "miserable", let them go hang out together in the legendary dining hall.

Hopefully, they will have had time to soak up a few happy thoughts before urist mcpsycho dies of thirst, and gives them a new bad thought.

You make it sound like a prison block. Or a parody of an old fashioned insane asylum, which is actually kind of fitting.

[wierd]

[Whimsical]

You make that sound like a BAD thing...

[/whimsical]

[Bludulukus]

So what started the spiral? Massive casualties? rotten clothing?

[jonanlsh]

if all the above doesn't work, atom smash all the corpses and engrave memorial slabs like there's no tomorrow. so long as one dwarf survives, that's all you need.

[evictedSaint]

A well-loved dwarf died of old age.  The fort crumbled away, by the way.