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[Magnnus]

A challenge is something you impose on yourself to make the game harder. Such as, no crossbows, no digging, no traps.

A goal is something you're trying to achieve. Such as, maximize wealth, reach the circus, build a huge castle.

What are your favorites? It can be anything you've thought up or seen elsewhere.

[than402]

here are some of my favourites:

challenges:

-no sparring (because I consider it overpowered and I've got better equipment than the gobbos, plus a home field advantage anyway)
-modding the game to be harder through new enemies, more dangerous wildlife, more difficult farming, et cetera (it keeps things interesting and I practice my modding)
-lower herbalism learn rate and lower wild plants yield (I find herbalism in the latest editions a bit too powerful)

goals:

-royal bedrooms for everyone, royal dining rooms and public places
-to tame the local wildlife and buy the best animals from the elves
-to have at least two legendary units and two legendary craftsment for every useful skill
-masterwork adamantine equipment for my best warrior, probably pimped out with gems and stuff
-at least one megaproject
-to have several ways to execute my prisoners
-a kill count of over 2000 creatures
-to reach and possibly defeat the circus

[Iamblichos]

A lot of people seem to find this a challenge, but I do it every embark:

- No starting equipment other than a pick per miner and 1 iron anvil (steel only if iron isn't available)

Others I have tried:

- No starting skills
- No vegetation areas (deserts/badlands/glaciers)
- No sealing the fort... discovered caverns must be open, no bridges/moats
- Only aboveground construction, no digging permitted

For goals:

- Become the mountainhome/get the king
- Build a floating city

[PDF urist master]

I usually don't like to set challenges, but my endgoal is always survive 10 years and colonize hell.

[Terff]

I love embarking on glaciers

[utunnels]

I like building ridiculous surface structures, but I'm usually too lazy to finish any of them.

[Urist McVoyager]

I'm a surface dweller. Also, I'm into natural growth forts. You set the soft cap low enough that the first two waves should reach it, then have growth be handled by breeding only from there.

[Number7]

A lot of people seem to find this a challenge, but I do it every embark:

- No starting equipment other than a pick per miner and 1 iron anvil (steel only if iron isn't available)

Others I have tried:

- No starting skills
- No vegetation areas (deserts/badlands/glaciers)
- No sealing the fort... discovered caverns must be open, no bridges/moats
- Only aboveground construction, no digging permitted

For goals:

- Become the mountainhome/get the king
- Build a floating city

i find that taking less starting equipment, and materials to make all the starting equipment is easier (because you can take vastly more supplies if you minmax the build with things like milk to make into cheese to cook into meals or the ability to make 7 pickaxes for the price of less than 1 with the usual materials cost.  However its certainly harder on evil areas where you'll have fun pretty immediately!

my current fortress goal is to build around the Caverns. Hunters will hunt in the caverns, wood cutters will get wood from the caverns, fishers will fish there etc. Basically to make the fort very deep with magma forges and a lot of risk of cavern fun. I'll also make sure the caverns are permanently open, only with fortifications and constant guards.

Another challenge i take constantly in 40.24 is embarking only next to necromancer towers. It adds a lot more challenge than the standard goblin threat.

My next goal is to build an aboveground fort (that maybe reaches 1-2 levels underground for storage areas) in a scorching, savage (and evil preferably) desert. The dwarves will have to have plenty of shelter or else they will drop dead from the heat

[utunnels]

As long as you can reach the cavern it is not really a challenge.
But if you don't dig and there's no vegetation, how do you do aboveground construction?

[Meneth]

As long as you can reach the cavern it is not really a challenge.
But if you don't dig and there's no vegetation, how do you do aboveground construction?

You don't, or at least not much. You've got 3 logs from the embark wagon, then you can buy materials from the caravans if you survive that long.

Random thought:
If you embark without any items at all, you could, in theory, build Butcher's and Craftdwarf's shops, slaughter one of the wagon-pulling animals, get a Strange Mood (requires modding to occur this early), get really lucky and get a Bone Pick.

[Ganb]

Kokiri village challenge: Build in the trees/treehouses, or in the roots of trees, at the center have a 'great deku' tree.
Use clothes, dye green if you want, wooden shields, wooden swords, unarmed. Choose 1 hero to have a steel sword. Have a fancy green gem protected somewhere as the emerald. Build log tunnels, fences, rolling stone traps, trade instruments/seeds/pots, etc...

[krenshala]

I embark to untamed wilds, sometimes near a necromancer tower (depending on how I feel that fort). I prefer to embark at war with either elves or goblins (once I managed both at once, but the zombies got me first).

As for the embark point spending:

I remove:
picks, axes, dimple dye seeds, thread, cloth, rope, bags, quivers, splints, crutches, wheelbarrows, ladder (and minecart if its part of the default embark, I can't remember).

I then add:
4 dogs (1 male)
2 cats (1 male)
3 hardwood logs (oak, maple, whatever)
12 bituminous coal (or lignite if bit.coal isn't available; extra 12 wood if I'm really unlucky)
12 cassiterite (tin)
12 tetrahedrite (copper with possible silver)
All the remaining points are spent on some gneiss boulders with which to build a small (21x21, 2 or 3 story) surface structure.  I usually get between 260 and 275 this way, depending on whether I have to use something other than bituminous coal for fuel.

The dwarves are all peasants (zero skill points).

[TheFlame52]

Army camp fort.
1. Live only on the surface.
2. Import, hunt, or gather your food. No growing, you could need to move on at any moment!
3. No walls, but trenches are fine.
4. You must have more militiadwarves than civilians at all times. The civilians are camp followers.
5. No traps, only military might! This isn't really that hard since you should have massive amounts of soldiers.

[ibanix]

I play with modded harder farming, because default farming I am overflowing with food after just two years.

I also put a 25% experience penalty on farming and mining. I'm thinking about upping the mining to 50% and adding engraving and masonry.

[moki]

I do have a few projects that I like to build, but seldom realize due to distractions...
- Whole fort in a 20z or taller tower built from one kind of stone blocks. An added magma moat and a "collapse everything now" lever are nice extras.
- Pressurized magma reservoir at ground level for defensive use. The classic buggerall lever never fails to amuse and is quite useful to reduce the rubble from sieges.
- A dwarf-made cavern with underground river and trees, preferably a perfect circle of at least 64 tiles diameter. I did this once, but that was only one z-level  and before multi-tile trees... gotta do it properly in v.0.40.

As for challenges... not really my style. The game already is hard enough when you select a reasonably interesting biome. I like to build my fort in relative peace and wait for the worst, which always comes one way or the other. With the typical dwarfs, I don't need any added challenges, invaders, monsters or curses to have !!Fun!!