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[Bakaridjan]

So I've been playing DF for around a year now. That's not constantly, (in many ways I still feel like a newbie). One thing I always see references too is being "dwarfy." In my experience though, it seems like people are referring to a number of different things. For some it's any use of magma. For others it's finding incredibly complicated ways of doing simple things, for others it appears that sadism is the essence of being dwarfy. The wiki has no entry for "Dwarfy!"

What does being "dwarfy" mean to you? What is the most dwarfy thing you have ever done or seen happen in your fortress?

[PatrikLundell]

In my view, building and digging (especially mega projects) are dwarfy, and so are machinery beyond the trivial (pump stacks, for instance). Clever usage of machinery or game logic is dwarfy. Torture and cruelty are, in my view, more appropriate for goblins. I do execute prisoners, because I have to get rid of them, but I see no point in arenas and the like (apart from usage as live training, which serves a purpose, but then I wouldn't have spectators). Of course, usage of clever machinery to execute prisoners in an efficient manner is dwarfy, as are clever usage of machinery for fortress defense.
Overly complicated processes for achieving things are dwarfy as well.
To some extent, cutting trees is a counter elf dwarfiness, but that's because nature is scary and elves are snotty holier-than-thou fanatics who come onto your turf making demands.

[Skullsploder]

Click on the Dwarven Childcare thread. That is, in my opinion, probably the dwarfiest thing on the forum. That, and the calculators and computers that people have built in-game. Everything mentioned above is valid too. Also, any sort of extreme competence with weaponry qualifies.

And in my personal experience...
THE FOLLOWING IS A SPOILER DO NOT CLICK ON IT UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT SPOILER MATERIAL I'M REFERRING TO

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I trained my entire 200 dwarf fort to be at least competent with hammers and crossbows and equipped them all in at least partial plate with copper crossbows and silver hammers, as well as wooden shields. Then I opened the HFS, and it just so happens that clowns are pretty much immune to hammers and crossbows. That was a dwarfy fight.

[PatrikLundell]

I use dwarven engineering to manage your spoiler.

[arbarbonif]

I think "dwarfy" can be translated to "extreme in a ridiculous or entertaining way".

[Madventurer]

If whatever you see is:
Extremely awesome, hilarious, facepalm-inducing to a high enough degree
Or any mix of these,
It's dwarfy.

Refer to the Stupid Dwarf Trick on wiki to get a rough idea.

[Dunamisdeos]

Image is long, but answers your question.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[cochramd]

What is the essence of dwarfiness? You may as well ask what it means to be human, or what the purpose of life is. Everyone will give you a different answer, and they will all be equally right and wrong, for in the end it is a meaningless term to which you must define your own meaning.

Unless that meaning involves being like a stinky elf hippie, in which case it is far more wrong than any other answer.

[Ruludos]

I think that a measure if impracticability is necessary for something to be called 'dwarfy.' The practical solution is usually the most boring one, and so people will do things like farm mermaids or flood the world with magma to not only solve a problem but do so in an entertaining manner.

The childcare mentioned earlier is a perfect example; an incredible amount of effort was put into training dwarves from birth to be the perfect killing machines, with twelve in-game years of micromanagement necessary to provide any results. All of this effort would give only the slightest of benefits over a more traditional training regimen, but nobody really cared because it was more entertaining than just waiting for the children to grow up and become useful.

[MrRoboto75]

Either:

1) A needlessly or excessively complex solution to a simple problem

2) Turning something relatively innocent into a weapon

3) Causing undue or unintended death or suffering on your citizens

4) Artistic Construction on a grand scale "because we can"

or some combination

[Dunamisdeos]

What is the essence of dwarfiness? You may as well ask what it means to be human, or what the purpose of life is. Everyone will give you a different answer, and they will all be equally right and wrong, for in the end it is a meaningless term to which you must define your own meaning.

Unless that meaning involves being like a stinky elf hippie, in which case it is far more wrong than any other answer.

THIS is indeed the only wrong answer.

[Max™]

Either:

1) A needlessly or excessively complex solution to a simple problem

1. I like to embark on glaciers which end up with awful crud or undead or awful crud covered undead everywhere.

2) Turning something relatively innocent into a weapon

2. Amethyst and rutile walls and a bridge way up a cliffside.

3) Causing undue or unintended death or suffering on your citizens

3. Something on the surface has collapsed!
The Carpenter is caught in a pool of lava!
The Stray cat (tame) is caught in a pool of lava!

4) Artistic Construction on a grand scale "because we can"

4.

[Bakaridjan]

Awesome, I'm loving all the replies.

The thing that got me started thinking about all of this was that my dwarves took an artifact adamantine barrel and used it as a cheese barrel. Something about that struck me as being very dwarfy, but I wasn't sure why and maybe it still isn't. I guess that would fall in the category of using insanely valuable things for inanely mundane tasks.

And yeah, I'm looking mostly for what "Dwarfy" means to you, not necessarily expecting to arrive at the one eternal definition of dwarfiness. Though personally I tend to question some of the things seem to blur the line between dwarf and goblin.

[LordPorkins]

*Rises from Benchh Seat*

AAHEHEHEHEHEHHHEEEEEEMMM!!

...


Dwarfy is an adjective that conveys all of the following:
Booze
Intellect
Magma
Failure
Stubborness
Anger
Pointless.

For a real world example of Dwarfiness, think of  20 college students trying to build the Statue of Liberty out of Soap after each having downed 5 shots of Vodka. Add on to that that failure to complete said statue all of the, woll be dropped into a pit of magma. Completeing the Statue results in a new task for them to do. Apply the same situation of above, except now they need to fight off Rabid Tigers. Dwarfiness is the desire they all have to actually do these things for no reason at all other than Dwarfiness.

Dwarfiness is like the concept of Love. It exists, undeniably, but even though we have written thousands of songs and poems we have no idea WHY it happens, or how it happens. It just.... Is.


*Straightens Bow-Tie, Sits Down*

[TheBiggerFish]

Either:

1) A needlessly or excessively complex solution to a simple problem

1. I like to embark on glaciers which end up with awful crud or undead or awful crud covered undead everywhere.

2) Turning something relatively innocent into a weapon

2. Amethyst and rutile walls and a bridge way up a cliffside.

3) Causing undue or unintended death or suffering on your citizens

3. Something on the surface has collapsed!
The Carpenter is caught in a pool of lava!
The Stray cat (tame) is caught in a pool of lava!

4) Artistic Construction on a grand scale "because we can"

4.

Yes, dwarfy this is.