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[shevek]

I've been experimenting with different skill sets for my starting seven lately, and I was just curious what other people are doing. What are your favorite skill sets for your starting seven? And why?

[Eater of Vermin]

1. The defaults. 
2. I'm lazy.   

 

[LG]

I mix the actual builds up a bit, but I always try to include:
- woodcutting
- carpentry
- masonry
- mining
- farming/herbalist
- cooking/brewing
- metalsmithing
- mechanics
- fishing/fish cleaning

My most common (personal default) build is:
- miner/leader
- carpenter
- woodcutter/metalsmith
- mason
- farmer/herbalist/cook/brewer
- fisherdwarf
- mechanic

Although lately I've been trying doing a mason/mechanic and separate metalsmith instead. I just like mechanics, though, and they double well as haulers.

My latest project was actually on an aquifer (no stone), and in the middle of a human village, so I took out the mason and mechanic (and didn't give anyone metalsmithing) and split up the farm-profession jobs between a farmer/herbalist and a cook/brewer instead. I also traded in the anvil and packed a bunch of metal and stone goods (including well components).

[LeoLeonardoIII]

Each one is a Miner 5. This lets me get my entire fort mined long before I need the space. It also makes them all pretty strong (and thus they carry things quite a bit faster), and they all carry around picks and stuff for if they're attacked.

One has one point in each of the leader skills the wiki suggests.
The other six have five points in carpentry, planting, brewing, masonry, weaponsmithing, or mechanics.

I don't bother cooking food until I pick up a standard cook immigrant. Same with butchering, fishing, herbalism, glassmaking, other metalcrafts, stonecrafters, bone carvers, etc.

I never bother with woodcarvers. Wood needs to be used for beds, bins, barrels, and buckets. We have too many bones lying around to use wood for practice bolts.

Also, take the anvil but don't take picks or axes. Just take some wood if there's none near your embark site, and three stones to build workshops with, and a bunch of copper bars. As soon as you embark, build the workshops and make your picks and axes. It leaves you with a TON of extra points that you can use for extra food or (in my case) a buttload of wood.

[thebear]

 I never spend my points on things easily trained like mining and woodcutting. All of my dwarves have proficient military skills at embark - even when I'm building in a benign region. I have an obsession with keeping my original seven alive. Other skills I like to spend points on are cooking, brewing, siege engineering, jewel setting, glassmaking, and mechanics. This skill set means that my forts start slow, but pick up steam after the first year or two.

[sneakey pete]

Miner/Mechanic (means you get a faster mechanic later on)
Mason/Building designer
Woodcutter/Carpenter
Grower/Administrator
Brewer/Cook
Furnace Operator/Metalcrafter
Weaponsmith/Armoursmith

[Bouchart]

My starting skill set depends heavily on the map.
But for a map with a decent amount of wildlife, no river/brook and no aquifer, I go with this:

Proficient miner
Proficient carpenter
Proficient mason/novice butcher
Proficient mechanic
Proficient ambusher/proficient hammerdwarf
Proficient grower or herbalist/novice armorsmith
Proficient building designer/novice appraiser/novice judge of intent + 2 other social skills

[pavlov]

One Proficient Wrestler/Skilled Axedwarf + Novice Intimidator (the alpha dwarf)
One Proficient Marksdwarf/Proficient Wrestler
The rest Wrestlers.
No civilian skills. They can pick up that wussy shit later.

And no more items than the bare minimum required.

[Tarlin]

P.Miner/P.Wrestler
P.Miner/P.Wrestler
P.Carpenter/Leader set
P.Mason/P.Designer
P.Woodcutter/Axe/C.Wrestler
P.Stonecrafter/P.Mechanic
P.Grower/P.Herbalist

Thought of something like that
P.Miner/P.Wrestler
P.Miner/P.Wrestler
P.Carpenter/Leader set
P.Mason/P.Designer
P.Grower/P.Weaponsmith
P.Herbalist/P.Armorsmith
P.Woodcutter/P.Mechanic

A little trouble with trade goods for first couple of years should not be a problem but dungeon master constantly seize smithing jobs so currently i disable them on all incoming dwarves...

[Golgath]

When I first started, I just copied the wiki, but it's developed from there.  Somewhat...  I stick to the basic skill sets of the wiki, but everyone but the wood cutter starts with at least novice mining, my leader had less gem setting and mining for mechanical skill (low skilled mechanics take FOREVER to link things to levers..) and my farmer often has a little threshing and milling instead of herbalist, since I've grown to appreciate quarry bushes and cave wheat for the wonders they are.  Also, in my latest fortress, I gave all the founders two points towards swimming.  Not that I'm be planning a grand flood to clean the fortress of all those damn soap makers, oh, no...

[Dadamh]

Wait, is it really so rare to be the guy who just clicks "Embark now!" and deals with the food and skill shortages?

[Haven]

In the OCD-plagued world of DF? Yes. But you're not alone, although if I really want something to last, I'll give everyone swimming. Well-digging accidents galore.

[Deathworks]

Hi!

There was a thread with a similar question (about your initial loadout or some such).

Basically, I give my dwarves only novice skill levels in order to set their default jobs. I try to have a diversity of jobs, except for each dwarf being either novice woodcutter or miner. For the details, I simply look into the personality info of the dwarves and give them jobs that fit in with their mentality.

Deathworks

[Eita]

Wait, is it really so rare to be the guy who just clicks "Embark now!" and deals with the food and skill shortages?

This is Dwarf Fortress, where people can become so angry that they hit embark now that they go into a mood and dig up a grave.

[shevek]

One Proficient Wrestler/Skilled Axedwarf + Novice Intimidator (the alpha dwarf)
One Proficient Marksdwarf/Proficient Wrestler
The rest Wrestlers.
No civilian skills. They can pick up that wussy shit later.

And no more items than the bare minimum required.

That's kind of amazing. I hope you at least bring some picks and some meat or something.