I've been attempting an above grounder for a while now. I'm on my fourth attempt.
First time, we embarked okay, everything was going brilliantly. The fishery was set up, the town well, a storage warehouse for fish and I was beginning work on a dormitory when, suddenly, the entire map freezes over and blocks the well. Uhoh. Being above ground, with no booze, no herbalist, no brewer and no spare barrels, we ran out of dwarves before a successful attempt at reviving my drink stocks had paid off.
Second try. I picked a slightly different embark this time, and situated my fort over a waterfall in the stream that flowed directly into another stream. It was a neat, picturesque location - a cute little stream flowing through the middle of a conifer forest. However, I wanted to position a 'slum' style area directly next to the stream, and on a lower level than the rest of the fortress. Fair enough, there was a large depression not far away, I'll just widen that. So I did. All it took was a freak cavein, and my miner is stuck down with a nervous injury to his lower spine. 'Quick,' I thought. 'Build a small building nearby to act as a hospital'. Didn't take too long, the hospital was set up, and the doctor immediately patched my miner up. All's well, then, just needed to survive until he'd healed enough, right? Six months later, a sasquatch sneaks into the hospital and slaughters him and the woodcutter. I reassign their jobs to the mason and carpenter. Then the mason recreates the miner's accident and chucks himself into the river. With the pick.
Third attempt, I chose the same location as last time but with a more careful approach. The settlement was set up perfectly fine, the slum area was dug out smoothly, the early bridges were constructed and functional. I was quite proud of it when- Wait, what's this? Oh, great. An ocean titan turns up and burns the entire thing to a cinder.
I'm now about to start a fourth attempt. Wish me luck.