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[joostheger]

Hi guys, would you help me assemble this guide? It's just a list of thing you can do, but more important what you cannot do in Adventure Mode.
I'd want to make this list, because often I find myself researching the wiki and forums, for a simple task i'd like to do.
Most of the things you can do can be found here, but not always how to do it.
See the examples here, and please fill in as much as you know! I'll try to update this first post to collect all your submissions, and then write a wiki page.
Anything relevant may be added, as long it is a valid consideration to do in Adventure mode.

Important to mention: the actions here collected as CANNOT, are actions you may be able to do in Fortress Mode, but not in Adventure Mode. Or actions frequently seen in other RPG-games, or environment interactions, you might consider doing if you knew you could.

You CAN:

• Write a book, (How)
• Compose a song or a dance
• Ride a mount
  Spoiler: How (click to show/hide)

  Riding a mount is done with 'h'. Normally the key to climb. When next to an animal you get the options to ride it or lead it
• Ride a minecart
• Pull levers
• Create a stone axe
• Become a necromancer + vampire
• Fly (With certain races)
• Swim underwater without drowning (With certain races)
• Changing beliefs
  Spoiler: How (click to show/hide)

  Possible by stating and arguing believes. It depends on skills on both sides whether this works easy or is next to impossible. Much easier now you can control multiple characters in adventurer mode.
• cross the ocean by swimming
• Extracting venoms from weapons
  Spoiler: How (by: Mobilescrub) (click to show/hide)

  This requires 3 things. You need a water tile, a weapon with venom already on it (usually from subterranean animal people), and an animal or companion.
  
  Take the venomous weapon, in my case it was a tower-cap blow dart with a helmet snake venom covering, and put it in your hand. Enter the water with it, and you will see a pool of venom form in the water tile. Normally, you can fill containers with an infinite amount of venom from a pool, but since it's in water it becomes laced with water, which is useless. In order to move it onto a land tile and purify it, you must move back and forth between the land and water tile until a pool of venom forms on the land tile because of the spatter spreading mechanic. This method of dwarven distillation concentrates the dilute venom in the water into a potent pool on land where you can either grab it with your hands or fill a water skin.
  
  There are three methods of using this against your enemies. You may rub it on your teeth for biting, on your hands for scratching, or put it on a weapon. To get it on your teeth and hands, you must strip naked and drop everything (or the venom will only covers your clothes) and throw venom on a wall until a line of venom pools are created. Then you crouch (doesn't work with standing) with (s) and crawl across from pool to pool multiple times until the spattering and smears turn into coverings. A single pool will not work, you must crawl from one pool to another only, multiple times. I tested this with four pools. By pressing (e) you can see your body parts are now covered with venom, including the teeth and fingers. Biting something will transfer the venom into the enemy, you can see this by pressing (l) on the enemy and seeing if it transferred onto the body part you bit. The same applies to scratching. I tested this on a cave crocodile and the bitten and scratched body parts swelled up with blood, so I assume it worked. To poison a weapon, you throw the venom at your companion or animal and smack him bluntly (edge might cause blood spattering instead) on the part it landed on with your weapon. I tested this by throwing helmet snake venom at my gorlak companion and hitting him with the pommel of my large copper dagger until a covering of venom formed on the weapon. This might require multiple fresh venom coverings since I'm not sure if a full covering can form from hitting a spattering or smear multiple times. I then slashed the same cave crocodile, ran away, and waited until the part swelled up from the venom. If the weapon embeds, it ruins the venom covering instantly since it replaces it with a blood covering. However it's usually good for a few slashes, but not every attack is guaranteed to apply the venom.
• put something into a barrel, bin, bucket, cauldron, mortar, pestle, cage, wheelbarrow, bowl, hive
• pick a flower
• dance
• recite a poem
• perform music (sing or chant)
• play an instrument
  Spoiler: How (click to show/hide)

  You need to know a musical piece with an instrument, and having the actual instrument in your hand or backpack.
• simulate an instrument
• give a sermon
• climb and move a stepladder
• climb in a tree by the trunk
• climb in a tree by first grabbing the branches
• make a campfire
• set bushes on fire
• swim up and down underwater (while drowning!!)
• Go through a locked door (for example in your own fortress), by bashing it in, or picking the lock
  Spoiler: how (click to show/hide)

  Walk against the door -> menu pops up
• Fill a pool with water, using a minecart
• Join a Bandit Group
  Spoiler: How (click to show/hide)

  You can also join a bandit gang if you talk to the leader and ask them to make you a lieutenant. You just have to like kill a couple named animals or something.
• become the leader of a bandit camp/criminal orginization
• Kill someone with alcohol
  Spoiler: How (by: Erik Blank) (click to show/hide)

  You can totally get drunk, even drunk enough to the point you die. It's just that the syndrome takes forever. But I have successfully done it before. And used it to kill people by handing them mugs full of alcohol I "borrowed" from the tavern. I have no idea what the actual lethal dose is, but it seems 4-5 full mugs is more than enough. The nausea from the alcohol is hidden by the nausea from the overeating (but npcs will not get nauseous from overconsumption)
• Get drunk
• Drink from a mug or goblet
• Store different liquids unmixed in one container
• Perform 'surgery', by first suffocating someone, and then chop his bodyparts away
• ..Remove someones bodyparts controlled
• look though a window
• jump through a wallgrate
• jump through standing bars
• jump at an campfire
• move (carefully) into a fire
• wrap cloth around your hands (without any use by the way, use the {w} to wear
• wear crowns
• heat things slowly at an campfire
• heat things at lava, magma, burning stuff
• heat stuff in a cauldron, placed on a fire
• melt tin into 'molten tin', using above
• hold molten tin in you bare hands
• evaporate water in a cauldron on a fire
• talk to your pet
• influcence your pets mood by talking to it
• Slow heat yourself up next to a fire, to the point your fat gets melting
• Spoiler: Become a necromancer (click to show/hide)

  • To become a necromancer, one needs to first generate a world in which necromancers already exist (should be pretty easy).
  • Next, create an adventurer, anything will do, though some combat skills will probably help. The only skill you need is at least Novice Reader, which is impossible to achieve if you don't pick it up in character creation.
  • Find either an original slab which contains the "secrets of life and death" or find a book a necromancer wrote which has those secrets. (You can use Legends mode to get an idea of where the book/slab will be. But it's usually a necromancer tower.)
  • Go to that location, find and read the slab. Congrats, you are now a necromancer!

  {Warnings: slabs and books are often in Necromancer towers which will be full of swarms of undead, which are likely to kill you on sight. If you are a vampire or thrall already, this is significantly easier.}
  
• Spoiler: Become a vampire (click to show/hide)

  • Create an adventurer, any thing that can drink will do.
  • Find a vampire, kill or seriously injure it.
  • Drink their blood. (Use a cup or barrel if there's an issue with getting the blood from the ground to your mouth)
  • Congrats, you're now a vampire

  {Some vampires' blood will not give you the vampire condition when drunk. This is a mystery. If, for whatever reason, there are no vampires in your world, or the blood doesn't give you vampirism, toppling statues in temples has a chance of making you a vampire. Similarly, dice which state "Do not tempt fate", if rolled again can give you vampirism. Though both these methods can also turn you into a werebeast.}
  
• Spoiler: Become a werebeast (click to show/hide)

  • Create an adventurer, any thing will do.
  • Find a werebeast. The character in question must be in beast form to pass on the curse. See Calendar on the Wiki for moon phases.
  • Be bitten by that werebeast. This part is easy, as they are extremely aggressive while in werebeast mode.
  • Now here's the hard part - keep the bitten part on your body. If the werebeast bites and then shakes your arm off, the chance of you catching the curse is low. Removing upper-bodywear is supposed to help, as getting your chest shaken off is unlikely. Kill the werebeast or run away.
  • Every full moon, you'll now transform into a werebeast! Congrats!

  {If, for whatever reason, there are no werebeasts in your world, toppling statues in temples has a chance of making you a werebeast. Similarly, dice which state "Do not tempt fate", if rolled again can give you a werebeast curse. Though both these methods can also turn you into a vampire.}
  
• Spoiler: Become a thrall/husk (click to show/hide)

  • Create a world which has evil clouds. (Regions with Evil surroundings have a chance of generating evil clouds.)
  • Create an adventurer who breathes. Make your way to an evil region which has evil clouds.
  • Walk your adventurer into a thralling cloud.
  • Congrats, you are now an undead adventurer!
• Spoiler: Become a king/queen (click to show/hide)

  • Wrestle with the current king
  • aks him to yield
  • Accept the offer of the position

In green, you can with Mods. some of them needs links, please help me fill in the gaps
In orange, you can by retiring your character in a fortress, and play in fortress mode, or by comparable operations
In yellow, you can with DFHack, but in some cases I need some guidance on how.
In pink: next to impossible. These things can theoretically happen, however unlikely, or are insanly hard to pull of.

You CANNOT:

• Mine (Mod link?)
  Spoiler (click to show/hide)

  Mining requires Advfort,
• Plant seeds
  Spoiler: How (by: Urist9876) (click to show/hide)

  :
  Advfort allows many fortress actions, like creating a farm field, seeding and harvesting plants.
  You need dfhack for it. In the console you type advfort.
  In the game you press ctrl-t. Topline should show interface. Tab will start seeding / harvesting on a farmfield.
  Esc leaves the interface so you can use all the game commands again (movement is possible while in ctrl-t mode, but many commands, do not work).
  ---
  Advfort interactions often do not work with reagents in hand. Drop the seeds or put them in backpack before trying to use.
  With shift-T you can cycle through the advfort actions. One of them is build. If you use that by moving carefully or waiting a menu opens where you can select a farmfield (and about every other fortress constructible object).
  There is the gather plant option too in the list of advfort actions. Not sure if it works.
  Cooking and brewing will work too - press tab while standing on a workshop while in ctrl-t mode. Have the ingredients lying on the floor in the workshop.
  Disadvantage is when you start working a counter starts running. During this time - for many actions around 100 ticks - you cannot react to threats. You only stop working after getting hurt, just like when performing.
  [/color]
• Craft a quire (Mod link?)
• Fishing / catching a fish
• Use an animal trap
• Build workshops
  Spoiler (click to show/hide)

  Building workshops requires Advfort, a DFhack plugin. Using workshops, creating weapons, armour and clothing can be done through modded adventure mode reactions or Advfort.
  (except Carpender)
• Use workshops (Mod link?) (except Carpender)
• Create weapons (Mod link?) (exept stone axe)
• Create Armor (Mod link?)
• Make Clothing (Mod link?)
• Build a trap (Mod link?)
• Shear an animal
• Milk an animal
• Sit in a chair
• Sit at a table
• Lie in a bed, (but you can lie down at the same tile as a bed)
• Pick up a boulder
• Target a bodypart when throwing or firing with a crossbow
• Have a house inside a settlement
• Become a vampire and a werebeast at the same time
• Become a vampire or a werebeast, when you are a zombie
• Marry, get a wife or husband, get children
  Spoiler: How (click to show/hide)

  All adventurers start out asexual - so, in vanilla, these are impossible. You can change this with DFHack's "fix-ster" script, though, which should theoretically allow adventurers to get married and procreate. I don't know a way to "choose" your lover/spouse, though; but if you retire a fix-ster'd adventurer and let them operate on their own for a while there's a chance they'll hook up with someone
• Become member of a guild
• Become member of a sect
• Become member of...
• Own a room, using retirement and fotressmode
• Become a noble in a fortress or settlement, or have some occupation or position
  Spoiler: How (by: peasant cretin) (click to show/hide)

  Passively you can receive a position in Adventure Mode, but this is RNG-ish as it's determined by the unseen line of succession that is the result of an insurrection at the site/civ to which your character is a member of. And since this line of succession is unknown, you can't simply kill your way to becoming mayor or chief medical. So far I've had a character end up as broker, and one as sheriff.
• become Outpost Liason
• Fullfil the need: Be with friends or family
• Fullfil the need: Helping someone
• kill small animals, like snails
• play with a toy
• let a toy boat float on the water, use a toy axe as axe, use a toy hammer as hammer
• do something usefull with a picked flower
• drive or push a wheelbarrow
• stack multiple stepladders and clim them all
• Operate a pump
• Operate a siege engine
• Break through a grate, window, floorhatch or vertical bars by brute force, of pick the lock
• Throw something through the window to break it
• Peek through a closed door
• Put an animal inside a cage
• Put yourself in a coffin
• Dye thread, cloth or clothing, by putting dye and these stuff together in a container, even combined with water  + heating
• Breath underwater in a minecart
• Lock a door
• destroy a building by brute force
• use a ladle to stir in a cauldron
• use a bowl for other use than putting something in it
• Fill a pool with liquids other than water, using a minecart
• Engrave
• Do medical stuff, like setting bones or sewing wounds
• use a pestle and mortar to grind someting
• Scholary stuff, like 'pondering' over some subject
• Decorating, like encrusting or craftsman-decorating with bone
• tie someone or something to a rope
• tie up your mount / horse
• cook something by putting things in a boiling caudron of water
• Lock a door in your own personal site
• dress your own wounds or those of companions
• Open a grate
• Dye something
• Be a building destroyer (even with the right tag)
• Talk meaningfull to your pet
• Give your pet anything, such as food
• melt sand into glass, using a cauldron (see above)
• bake clay into keramics, using a cauldron (see above)
• get salt from evaporating seawater, using a cauldron
• be save in magma with a nethercap armour.
• carry a wounded companion to safety, either personally or on the back of an animal.
• Drink blood to quench your thirst
• Drink vampire blood to become vampire

Things needed to be figured out

• Husbandry / breeding with company and pets
• Become a necromancer + werebeast
• Become a necromancer + zombie
• Become a priest, lead a sect
• Beekeeping
• Gelding, other than hurting someone in his lowerbody.
• Copy a book
• Having a uncontrolled Tantrum
• Fly using a winged mount (pegasus style)
• being thrown in jail by the justice system
• get honey or honeycombs from a beehive
• Be a villian in the sense of the game considering you as a villain. Like doing plots and such.
• snatch a child
• catch a living fish and keep it alive in a aquarium
• be catched in a cage trap
• have a romance
• become a ghost,
  Spoiler: for example (click to show/hide)

  by retiring to a fortress, then resume fortressmode, let the adventurer die, let him spawn as a ghost, retire the fortress, resume play as the adventurer
• climb a smooth or block wall
• be hospitalized when getting wounded in a fortress of which you are a citizen
• become member of a criminal organization
• become member of a merchant company
• lead a merchant company
• From a performers troupe (I think so, as you can ask people to join as performer
• Give a skill demonstration
• Watch a skill demonstration and learn from it (Student skill)
• prevent falling damage by sitting in a minecart
• carry a unconsious creature, like a wild animal...
• ..then put it into a cage...
• ..then feed it food...
• ..so it becomes tame...
• ..then train it for hunting or war
• Swim in magma
• Use a weighted bag as a (efficient) weapon
  
• Can you damage someone’s reputation by speeading rumors about him or through impersonating him? Will this have an effect on their social standing, plots against them and generally their life post world-gen?
• Do a training session with training weapons, to improve your combat skill?

[MaxTheFox]

But you can fly and swim underwater while playing certain species of animal-people.

[Loam]

• Craft a quire
• Create weapons (exept stone axe)
• Create Armor
• Make Clothing

These are all possible with some light RAW modding; in fact several mods for them exist already, I think (I make my own, so I'm not sure what's publicly available)

• Use workshops (except Carpender)

Actually you can use any workshop - it's just that there are no Adventure Mode reactions for any shops other than Carpenter's. But if, say, you mod in some smithing reactions that happen at a metalsmith's forge, you can totally use a forge to do them.
Of course the problem there is the forge itself - since you can't build one (without DFHack) you have to find one in a dwarven fortress. But it is at least possible.

• Lie in a bed

I mean, you can lie down anywhere (with "s") - just lie on top of the bed?

• Have a house inside a settlement

...

• Own a room, using retirement and fotressmode

While you can't "own" a house in a pre-generated settlement (though nothing stops you from squatting) you can assign a room to yourself in a settlement that you build. Then, if you retire that character at the site, they will remain in their room.

• Become a noble in a fortress or settlement, or have some occupation or position

You can claim ownership of a site you create, or of any human site (town/hamlet, possibly castles in .47.xx?) either by killing the former occupants or by claiming an abandoned site. It should be possible, also, to give your adventurer a position in a player fortress (including nobility), using retirement shenanigans, but I've never tried it.

• Marry, get a wife or husband
• Get children

All adventurers start out asexual - so, in vanilla, these are impossible. You can change this with DFHack's "fix-ster" script, though, which should theoretically allow adventurers to get married and procreate. I don't know a way to "choose" your lover/spouse, though; but if you retire a fix-ster'd adventurer and let them operate on their own for a while there's a chance they'll hook up with someone.

• Swim underwater
• Fly

Unless you start as a species that can breathe underwater or fly, no. Swimming underwater as a non-amphibious creature (or a non-vampire) always causes you to be Drowning, and you'll die pretty quickly if you don't swim back up. Most bird-men can fly, and some bug-men too, but there's no way for one of the standard races to fly.

If I may say, this topic seems a little... loose? Like, there's a whole lot of things you "can do" in Adventure Mode: you can walk around, talk to people, attack people, look at objects... but obviously that's not the kind of activities you want to know about. Similarly, there's potentially infinite things you can't do: you can't build a spaceship, or travel to other planes, or gamble... these things haven't been added to the game. It might be helpful to add some extra parameters to your question: like, "What can you not do it Adventure Mode that you can do in Fort Mode," or something like that? Otherwise we could could go on ad infinitum with things we can and can't do.

[George_Chickens]

Hi guys, would you help me assemble this guide? It's just a list of thing you can do, but more important what you cannot do in Adventure Mode.
I'd want to make this list, because often I find myself researching the wiki and forums, for a simple task i'd like to do.
Most of the things you can do can be found here, but not always how to do it.
See the examples here, and please fill in as much as you know! I'll try to update this first post to collect all your submissions, and then write a wiki page.
Anything relevant may be added, no matter how mundane or extreme, as long it is a valid consideration to do in Adventure mode.

You CAN:

• Write a book, (How)
• Compose a song or a dance
• Ride a mount (information link needed)
• Ride a minecart
• Pull levers
• Create a stone axe
• Become a necromancer
• Become a vampire
• Become a werebeast
• Become a zombie
• Become a necromancer + vampire

You CANNOT:

• Mine
• Plant seeds
• Craft a quire
• Fishing / catching a fish
• Use an animal trap
• Build workshops (except Carpender)
• Use workshops (except Carpender)
• Create weapons (exept stone axe)
• Create Armor
• Make Clothing
• Shear an animal
• Milk an animal
• Sit in a chair
• Sit at a table
• Lie in a bed
• Pick up a boulder
• Target a bodypart when throwing or firing with a crossbow
• Have a house inside a settlement
• Become a vampire and a werebeast at the same time
• Become a vampire or a werebeast, when you are a zombie
• Build a trap

Things needed to be figured out

• Husbandry / breeding with company and pets
• Marry, get a wife or husband
• Get children
• Swim underwater
• Fly
• Become member of a guild
• Become member of a sect
• Become member of...
• Become a necromancer + werebeast
• Become a necromancer + zombie

[li]Own a room, using retirement and fotressmode[/li]
[li]Become a noble in a fortress or settlement, or have some occupation or position[/li]
[/list]

Possible with mods

Green means possible with mods, orange means possible if they become a citizen in an active fort, and you later unretire them in adventure mode.

[peasant cretin]

Become a noble in a fortress or settlement, or have some occupation or position

Passively you can receive a position in Adventure Mode, but this is RNG-ish as it's determined by the unseen line of succession that is the result of an insurrection at the site/civ to which your character is a member of.

So far I've had a character end up as broker, and one as sheriff.

And since this line of succession is unknown, you can't simply kill your way to becoming mayor or chief medical.

[Urist9876]

Once a retired adventurer joins a player controlled fortress, he is eligible for all positions you normally can bestow upon a dwarf. You will keep the position if your retire the fortress. World gen might replace you, but that never happened to me.

Since you can elect the baron in a growing fortress, most positions are possible for an adventurer: baron  (and higher ranks, if you care to grow your fortress first), mayor (albeit without the democratic support of the other citizens), sheriff/captain of the guard, militia commander or captain (with ability to recruit companions into militia), manager, broker, tavern keeper scholar or poet.

Outpost liaison and king are next to impossible.

Priest would require the adventurer to be in a fortress where an appropriate god is worshipped and a temple is present. A temple would require at least 9 other followers of the same god and that is hard to control. Perhaps followers can be created by giving sermons?

Joining a sect or guild would depend on the other npcs as well. Guild is fairly easy in fortress mode as you can assign and create jobs to train 10 dwarves into a skill.

All these only work by retiring twice. Only a few positions would be possible with only adventurer-mode: lord or lady when you declare yourself in charge of a site, militia or guard member (hearth person) if you manage to get accepted as such with questing or performer.

Not sure to where you want to expand that list, but these might be interesting:

In addition to the list of things that are possible: changing believes (nature is good for you, you silly dwarf!) is possible by stating and arguing believes. It depends on skills on both sides whether this works easy or is next to impossible. Much easier now you can control multiple characters in adventurer mode.

You can talk all day in adventurer-mode with friends or family, the needs for friends or family never get fulfilled. Helping someone is also next to impossible. It is possible to remove those needs during character creation or possibly by arguing.

Riding a mount is done with 'h'. Normally the key to climb. When next to an animal you get the options to ride it or lead it. No-one seems to care if you walk into a settlement and jump on a beast or lead it away. A very strong dwarf in full armor with good armor skill is faster on foot as riding a very encumbered animal.

[joostheger]

Thanks for all the info and submissions so far! I updated the first post.

I have some more questions:
- can you give the links to the mods, in which said thing can be done? or the best example of one of these mods?

While you can't "own" a house in a pre-generated settlement (though nothing stops you from squatting) you can assign a room to yourself in a settlement that you build. Then, if you retire that character at the site, they will remain in their room.

I dont understand this. can you elaborate?

You can claim ownership of a site you create, or of any human site (town/hamlet, possibly castles in .47.xx?) either by killing the former occupants or by claiming an abandoned site. It should be possible, also, to give your adventurer a position in a player fortress (including nobility), using retirement shenanigans

I dont understand the last part. can you elaborate?

[Shonai_Dweller]

You can fly, that doesn't need any figuring out. Just choose race which can fly or ride a mount which can fly.

Ride a mount by pushing "h" when standing next to it.

Own a room is something that you can just do. Build a site, claim a room.

You can't marry and have children yet and your adventurer won't do either while retired.

Also, "can be done with mods" is pretty much anything when you take Dfhack into account. Whether those mods exist or are stable is a different matter. It's a confusing category to put here.

[peasant cretin]

Thanks for all the info and submissions so far! I updated the first post.

I edited my above post with links for context.

[joostheger]

You can fly, that doesn't need any figuring out. Just choose race which can fly or ride a mount which can fly.

Ride a mount by pushing "h" when standing next to it.

Own a room is something that you can just do. Build a site, claim a room.

You can't marry and have children yet and your adventurer won't do either while retired.

Also, "can be done with mods" is pretty much anything when you take Dfhack into account. Whether those mods exist or are stable is a different matter. It's a confusing category to put here.

Already edited some of this! see the first post

Thanks for all the info and submissions so far! I updated the first post.

I edited my above post with links for context.

thanks!

[Loam]

While you can't "own" a house in a pre-generated settlement (though nothing stops you from squatting) you can assign a room to yourself in a settlement that you build. Then, if you retire that character at the site, they will remain in their room.

I dont understand this. can you elaborate?

When you build a site in Adventure Mode (with "b") you can assign various "zones" to it, much like in Fort Mode. One of these is (IIRC) is a bedroom zone, and you can assign these rooms to yourself or your companions.
As for squatting: just find an empty house and move in. As long as no one else lives there, they won't bother you about sleeping or waiting inside.

You can claim ownership of a site you create, or of any human site (town/hamlet, possibly castles in .47.xx?) either by killing the former occupants or by claiming an abandoned site. It should be possible, also, to give your adventurer a position in a player fortress (including nobility), using retirement shenanigans

I dont understand the last part. can you elaborate?

Retirement shenanigans? Something like:
1. Build a fort, set up a fortress guard squad, then retire the fort
2. Start and adventurer, go to the retired fort and join the fortress guard - this should make you a citizen of the fort, eligible for jobs/positions
3. Retire the adventurer, then unretire the fort. Adventurer should be there and be able to be made, say, baron if you get elevated to a barony.
***I don't know for certain if any of the above is true, I've never tried it, I've only read about it. Caveat lector.

[Urist9876]

***I don't know for certain if any of the above is true, I've never tried it, I've only read about it. Caveat lector.

Yes, that is how it works.

You can join a fortress by talking to captain of the guard or militia captain to join as soldier. Often you will be required to complete quests. You also can join as a performer. Talk to mayor for that.

If you just retire your adventurer in a nearby fortress, odds are quite good he'll join in a migrant wave or asks for citizenship anyway.

Once in fortress mode you can assign a work animal (animals that are trained for war or hunt). Upon retiring fortress mode and starting as adventurer again, the animal will keep following you. That way you could train special animals in fortress mode and get a pet after character creation.

[Shonai_Dweller]

I'm not sure why dance is under "things to figure out". Just dance. Surely that's on the wiki? Same with poetry.

[George_Chickens]

Building workshops and mining requires Advfort, a DFhack plugin. Using workshops, creating weapons, armour and clothing can be done through modded adventure mode reactions or Advfort. Building a trap and planting seeds I THINK are possible with Advfort, also, but I cannot remember.

[Laterigrade]

PTW; while not definitive at the moment this guide could become an excellent source.