-snip-
Don't forget the fun of creating your own settlement in Adventure mode, and settling down there as its Lord. I think that feature has been the least-discussed (and least exploited). Protip: Always be an Axeman (or Axedwarf, etc).
I'd figured it's not that discussed about given 'being a lord over sites' tend to be confusing on what really goes down when you do so,
and from my studies of that ended up leading to learning a way to get most folks to take up becoming a hearthperson and the fun mechanics of giving someone a title of a leader of a site does to their faction status.
and the result of taking those lessons and applying that to a player fort with the military commander and being able to appoint military dwarves/enlist folks into your army and the means to give up expedition leader role makes the person who accepts part of the player fort and technically open to being order around in fort mode.
though there is fun in also convincing other nobles to giving up their title to a site to an adventurer and getting that adventurer to give that title up to anyone they wish and witnessing the chaos of the world simulation trying to handle with the new leader.
though while I might point out how uneducated the masses in dwarf fortress are, I should clarify that because they are unknowing it doesn't mean they can't learn or be taught.
so there's fun in grabbing a handful of npcs and teaching them stuff then watch as they interact with each other and the world at hand.
also with messing with lords and hearthfolk dialog system and the affects of that on loyalty it also lead to learning most of the hostile beings in the game stop being hostile if you accept them into a community, like night trolls and bogeymen... and all the semi-megabeasts, which made playing the game pacifist changed the feeling of adventure mode from 'a challenge to explore the world and not get killed while not killing folks' to 'challenge to recruit historical figures into a site and think up another step past that one because being able to make technically anyone sapient a fort member is a game changer'
like it went from 'Dwarves, the adventurers, and everyone else' to ' everyone else, The Adventurers'
back to the point yeah being able to make your own settlement is pretty fun, considering disbanding companions that are assign to civ zones make them part of the campsite and never really leave so you could accumulate as many folks you want.