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[Stathol]

After much wiki reading and dithering about where to start my fortress, I finally embarked on my first game.  It lasted all of about 5 minutes. My dwarves were still unpacking the wagon and just starting to dig out the main entrance when  fire imps and and a fire man cam streaming out of the open lava pipe and torched everyone to death .  That wasn't half as fun as I was previously lead to believe by certain mottos .

So if you want to start on a map with renewable magma, how do you avoid this sort of thing?  Pick a lava pipe and pray it doesn't break the surface? I know you can keep them out with the right constructions when you tap into a magma pipe, but what do you do about an open pipe like this?

I'm really not looking forward to finding another starting area.  It takes long enough just to find somewhere that has flowing water, magma, sand, bauxite, flux, and trees. Nevermind secondary considerations like cliff heights, HFS, chasms, etc.  I know it's virtually impossible to find a small map that contains everything but I'd like to learn both kinds of fluid dynamics. You kind of need to get your hands dirty to do that.  Am I just being too picky about resources?

[KoE]

In all truth, you are being picky about resources. But I do the same thing so I'm not really one to talk.

As far as magma pipes go, the best thing to do is to not commence building right next door to it. Playing with magma is less dangerous than you might be lead to believe (at least, if you're following the Wiki. Even if you aren't, you learn fast after the first dwarf has his legs burned to stumps, followed shortly by his everything else). I can't speak for magma and/or fire men, but imps don't seem to stray too far from the pipe, usually, and I've never had them follow a dwarf-made channel to the tender, bearded morsels.

So, basically, try to dig in a fair distance away from the actual area the pipe breaks the surface, and tap into it later when you actually need/want it.

[Refar]

Embarking in a Area with Magma is not the same as embarking right on top of it. If you can see magma in the Embark screen (Init setting) you can make it so the pipe is in the corner, so you will have your peace from the creature there, untill you hoock it up.

If some creatures start harass you, draft your Lumberjack and Miner and kill the Imp. Wardogs help too.

Also "flowing water, magma, sand, bauxite, flux, and trees" is quite a catalog for "Minimum Ressources". (How you know there is Bauxit on embark anyway ?).
I would suggest dropping a few. I.e. for your first few "practice forts" any soil, any water + some trees should be all you need.

[Stathol]

(How you know there is Bauxit on embark anyway ?).

Well, I suppose you don't. Rather, I should say that I was looking for a sedimentary layer. Of course, that's almost mutually exclusive with magma; perhaps that's intentional. I would just bring some bauxite along at embark, but I can't seem to find it anywhere in the menus.

I guess I wanted to make my first attempts as easy as possible. I was under the impression that not having magma made the game appreciably more difficult, but perhaps not. This is always the trap I fall into with this type of game. There's too much of the min/maxer in me, I guess.

[Ratepe]

...
but imps don't seem to stray too far from the pipe, usually, and I've never had them follow a dwarf-made channel to the tender, bearded morsels.
 

That happened to me once actually. Ended up with 5-6 fire imps exploding through my channel into my huge glass sweat shop.  Not all the channels had stuff built on them yet because the dwarves kept seeing the imps and running.
Long story short, It ended up being an orgy of blood, chunks, miasma, smoke, and corpses consisting of about 6-7 dwarves and 5-6 imps.  It was hilarious though.

[Warlord255]

Crossbows. Embark with them.

[Kanil]

I'd pass on the magma. Get yourself some nice soil, trees, and a brook. Magma doesn't make your game easier, it just makes it more convenient... I wouldn't worry about it, yet.

Learn to get your dwarves fed, and such. Then go for the magma and other things.

[(name here)]

(How you know there is Bauxit on embark anyway ?).

Well, I suppose you don't. Rather, I should say that I was looking for a sedimentary layer. Of course, that's almost mutually exclusive with magma; perhaps that's intentional. I would just bring some bauxite along at embark, but I can't seem to find it anywhere in the menus.

Since "semi-active volcano" and "sedimentry rock" are mutually exclusive in the real world, yes that's intentional.

[Alexor]

I'd pass on the magma. Get yourself some nice soil, trees, and a brook. Magma doesn't make your game easier, it just makes it more convenient... I wouldn't worry about it, yet.

Learn to get your dwarves fed, and such. Then go for pour the magma and on other things.

So very Fix'd.   

But aside from that, I agree.  Magma makes things more compicated, and usually results in more fun than you would like. 

Remember, magma is fun!  And losing is fun!  Yet somehow magma doesn't lose, weird.

-The Omnizartitrix

[Areyar]

bauxite is under items [tab],
then [e] add new item.
be sure to take stone, not blocks. 

[Hague]

If you fiddle with your world-gen parameters I can assure you that sedimentary layers and magma are not mutually exclusive. Though, I always play on a 6x6 map. I currently have a map with a magma pipe, magma pool, bottomless pit, chasm, underground river, adamantine and dolomite. Interestingly enough, the dolomite is directly above and around the magma pipe. However, there is no bauxite on my map. Though, I believe bauxite is over-rated when you can simply embark with/purchase what you need. Also, since I have raw adamantine it's not really an issue with fire-safe materials.

In fact, I ended up with a raw adamantine artifact mechanism from a fey mood.

[Danaru]

one time I embarked next to an open chasm

you know those rumors that certain forms of Large, Subterranean Arachnids tend to live around there?

They're True.

[Time Kitten]

If you can't find bauxite in your embark screen, try backing up and embarking from a different civ, as they may have them.

I scout my areas in adv. mode first, including walking through a mountain home to see what it has.  I also assume that you can look at the biome around the mountain home and see if it has sedimentary before you pick a site.

[cbfog]

I'd say the problem is you're trying to make an uber-fortress on your first try. You should get a little practice under your belt before you go trying to build platinum gem-encrusted pyramids with magma waterfalls and such. It's just as much fun to just screw around getting to learn the jobs, catching the local wildlife, building unnecessarily complicated contraptions, and so forth.

That's the thing about DF, there's no "right" way to play it really, and lacking certain resources certainly doesn't mean that you can't have a successful fort that's fun to build, add on to, and just play around with.

[Techhead]

Obsidian mechanisms are a great substitute for cheap-ass rock crafts.
$180-$2160 value.
Each.
With no decorations.