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[Derek]

This is just a rough sketch.  The final thing will be much nicer.

So!  I wanted to help support Dwarf Fortress's development by creating a poster and selling it online.  All the profits, of course, would go directly to Tarn/Toady.

I was trying to think of an idea that was appropriately Dwarf Fortress-ey... at first, I considered doing something like your typical fantasy painting except with dwarfs battling a raging zombie elephant while carp nip at their feet, or something like that!  But in the end, I felt this idea (shown above) captured more the spirit of the game: a depiction of some of the best ways to die in DF, rendered as though you might find it engraved on the wall of a fortress.  With an appropriately lo-fi type feel.  (And partly inspired by heavy metal albums/posters.)

Wanted to get your guys's feedback first, though.  (And Toady's!)

1. Does the "selling a poster" idea sound like a good one?  Again, 100% of the profits would go to Toady to support the game.

2. Do you like my design?  Is it something you'd actually want to have?

3. If yes, then help me come up with ideas for the death "badges!"  Demons, elephants, giant spiders, carp... and drowning, miasma, suicide... I get a big kick out of reading people's horrific deaths on these boards, and I think it'd be fun to incorporate them into the theme of the poster.

4. Any other ideas/feedback is appreciated.

Thanks, guys!

[Logical2u]

I have a LOTR poster somewhat similar to the first style you designed. I personally love it, but it might be the painter and not the style.

Boy Scout style could work too.

If you do badges, please, please, please have the "You are encased in ice" death from adventurer mode. Or, a glacier melting, that's pretty scary too.

[Nukeitall]

1. I actually like it. Particularly this design.
2. Oh, sure.
3. Berserk rampages, fire, flood, frozen, Dragons, Hydras, Invasion, volcanos, magma, trolls, depression (trying to recall all my failed forts) giant scorpions, ice wolves, skeletal yeti. Just to name a few.
4. Making it out of cloth could be interesting.

[Areyar]

ah!

do the 'well impersonates fountain' thing!
(be it from a dwarf falling down it or from a non-linked safety feature.)

or a dwarf looking quizically at a mechanism, while another pulls a lever....that might be a bit too detailed.

...the melted floodgate keeping back the magma.

...an arrow through ALL major organs.

...a thrown hand of sand or ant blowing apart a torso (adv.mode)

...39c: being sold in a cage, from falling asleep on a cagetrap.

...trying to walk on water and falling down to the bottom drowning when stunned.
(as in the game gives you the choice of a-walking east or b-walking downeast)


...cave-in death: I imagine hacking at the bottom of a mushroom shaped prominence.

...an elf biting a dwarf in the head.

[Derek]

Thanks for the quick responses!

Logical2u: Yeah, I think a "Frazetta-style" fantasy poster would be cool, too.  It just doesn't feel DF enough for me, though.  I might still consider it if more people prefer that idea.

Nukeitall: Ah, yeah, I guess "the poster idea" and "my idea for a poster" pretty much mean the same thing.  Clarified! 

And cloth would be awesome, but I don't know how to easily do that... I was thinking of using Lulu.com to sell them.

Areyar: Ooh yeah, cannibal elves is a must-have.  I like your other ideas, too!  Although I might want to change "thrown hand of sand" or "ant" to "spinning rat vomit."  Hehe.

[Aqizzar]

1. Sounds like a great idea.
2. I'll buy one.
3. They don't have to be just ways to die, but any peculiarities.  See below.
4. Shouldn't it say Dwarf Fortress on it somewhere?  And yeah, cloth is a great idea if you can do that.

Ideas:

The obligatory cannibal elf should be gnawing on an arm.
An arrow with a bunch of organs on it like a shish-kabob.
A hand full of plucked eyeballs.
"The wagon is falling."
A Giant Cave Spider... Maybe glowing eyes and legs climbing through the hole?
Death by steam.
A dwarf raising some random object covered in spikes.
Cave swallowmen heads flying about.
A writhing ball of mewling cats.
Goblins running from a magma flow.
Dwarf with a lampray latched onto his face.  (My personal favorite attack.)
Burning forum threads.
A dwarf battering goblins with a floodgate or table or something.

I'm sure people can think of many more.

[Areyar]

ooh yes! catsplosions are a must.

...dwarven wrestling. (pants fly of!)

...narrow spidersilk sock collecting: a dangerous hobby.

...the hammerer.

...HFS!...just the question mark as if carved in a circular stone...maybe a tentacle curling just around an edge.

..the hidden king: a furtive dwarf wearing a crown? or the outline thereof.

...DM: the mountain of cloaks.

[TheDeadlyShoe]

Just the D + LOGO + F would be great as a bumper sticker.

[Areyar]

hmm.
yah.

and the badges (if any good) as those cloth things you used to sew onto denim jackets along with metal spikes. yeah, menacing.
Even just simple buttons would be cool.

DF players could collect them as trophies signifying how much (and in which explicitly specific ways) they have had FUN with DF.

But they can't become too expensive though... if they're gonna make any money for T after production, shipping etc.
Quality is important though, DF players see beyond the exterior and to the true value of things (well games anyhow)

[TheDeadlyShoe]

Badge brainstorming:  Bloody-mouthed elf.  Marmots.  Demons.  Batmen.  Thieves.  Trolls.  Water. Magma.  Carp.  Unicorns.  Giant spiders (Web?).  Achievement in Beer Storage.  Frothy-mouthed tantrum dwarf.

[Areyar]

the heroic miner

[Aqizzar]

Dwarves Drowning.  The caption: "Boredom"

[Areyar]

or

thirsty? :depicting a headless dwarf a plump carp licking its lips.


THIEF!
[kobold]
Stop the skulking filth!

[TheDeadlyShoe]

I guess a theme of "Ways to lose" would go with the poster perfectly.

Brainstorming+refinement:
(Empty tap?) Beer shortage.
(Demon?) Dug Too Deep.
(Volcano) Magma
(Water bursting through dam) Flooding
(Protest sign) Anarchy
(Goblin) Goblins
(Bloody-Mouth Elf) Elves
(Frothy Dwarf) Vengeance
(Broken support) Cave In
(Bed? ZZZ?) Comas
(Batmen) Batman
(Withered upraised hand) Zombies
(Empty plate) Starvation
(Mean Lookin Fish) Carp
(Plunger detonator thing) Boredom
(Flaming Dwarf) Fire

[SirPenguin]

I don't know how well thise would work on a small scale, but perhaps show on one side a miner dwarf, digging and whistling away, then show a crumbling wall dividing the middle, and on the other side have a bunch of demons/tentacle monsters/etc.

Caption could be "HFS" to "Too Deep" or whatever.