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[MrSelfDestruct]

I always assumed that when I heard somebody mention clowns, they were actually talking about an army of honest to goodness clowns that attacked you if you found some kind of clown car easter egg. To this day when I see the elf bards that my texture set gives clown sprites to, I have a tiny heart attack because some unconcious part of me still thinks there are actual clowns in the game that will fuck up my shit.

Who says there aren't actual clowns waiting to attack your fort while you least suspect it?

Sarcasm aside, I would actually love clowns to be a profession so we can see some weird clown professions (i.e. XXX Queen/Clown).

Now for my obligatory face palm moment, I have, despite lots of painful experience with water and its properties in DF, flooded my farms by accidentally channeling a Up/Down stair instead of just an Up stair when building a river reservoir. Thankfully, only some potash maker died that was a recent migrant, and my magma furnaces at the bottom were spared the aqua onslaught because I quickly sealed off the part of my farms that were flooded.

[Sutremaine]

This is exactly why (although not the only reason) calling hellspawn "clowns" is so stupid.  *Facepalm*

I think it's funny.

Mort Stroodle: *digs too deep*
Dwarves: *die messily and unpleasantly*
Mort Stroodle: Well, that was interesting. At least they didn't send in the clowns.

[Mathel]

Clowns only attack you if you eat their candy.

[random_odd_guy]

I always assumed that when I heard somebody mention clowns, they were actually talking about an army of honest to goodness clowns that attacked you if you found some kind of clown car easter egg. To this day when I see the elf bards that my texture set gives clown sprites to, I have a tiny heart attack because some unconcious part of me still thinks there are actual clowns in the game that will fuck up my shit.

This is exactly why (although not the only reason) calling hellspawn "clowns" is so stupid.  *Facepalm*

The reason they do it is so that a new player who glances at the forums won't know what the heck they are talking about and expect innumerable horrible things to show up and murder them when they do the thing.

As far as why they are called *clowns* though. They needed something inane enough that you'd never think they meant demons. They figured clowns made enough 'sense' because clowns, being creatures of joy and comedy, are the most undwarvenly thing imaginable. thus a joking allusion to their eldritch nature.

[scourge728]

except you guys all just ruined it

[Dunamisdeos]

THEY ARE KIDDING HE TALKS ABOUT CLOWNS HE MEANS CLOWNS LIKE HONK HONK FROM THE CIRCUS, WHICH IS NOT HELL.

We good.

[Rockphed]

This is dwarf fortress.  Losing is fun.  Clowns are often vehicles for providing fun.  I hope you know where this is going.

[weiserthanyou]

This is dwarf fortress.  Losing is fun.  Clowns are often vehicles for providing fun.  I hope you know where this is going.

Unless you're so dead-serious or insane enough that you decline their fun, remove their comedic capabilities, and divest them of their big top to turn it into a delightfully sadistic elf-prison (terraforming)

[Moonstone_Flower]

They figured clowns made enough 'sense' because clowns, being creatures of joy and comedy, are the most undwarvenly thing imaginable. thus a joking allusion to their eldritch nature.

Have you seen a clown?  I have.  They have nothing to do with "joy and comedy" and everything to do with "pissing myself while curled into a terrified ball and/or running as fast as I can".  However, they are not the most terrifying thing I have seen.  I hereby motion to call hellspawn "spiders of the deep".  I would suggest "humans", but there is already a creature in the game which goes by that name.

[Mathel]

The thing about clowns is not that they are funny. It is the relief, that you do not have life as bad as they have.

I mean, would you want to be a guy with painted face, who gets made fun of? They have to pretend to be stupid and have a lot of fake accidents. Unfortunately, not only having your face painted makes you not look much like a human, but a lot of movies involve evil clowns, which makes people afraid of clowns, which makes them write about evil clowns. It is a positive feedback loop, which makes clowns terrifying.

But the original intent was that of a king's fool. A person, whos job is to be made fun of.

[Pvt. Pirate]

The thing about clowns is not that they are funny. It is the relief, that you do not have life as bad as they have.

I mean, would you want to be a guy with painted face, who gets made fun of? They have to pretend to be stupid and have a lot of fake accidents. Unfortunately, not only having your face painted makes you not look much like a human, but a lot of movies involve evil clowns, which makes people afraid of clowns, which makes them write about evil clowns. It is a positive feedback loop, which makes clowns terrifying.

But the original intent was that of a king's fool. A person, whos job is to be made fun of.

but the king's fool was reading him funny poems, singing him songs or doing tricks - on the other hand he was the only one who was allowed to even make sarcastic jokes, poems and songs about the king without being punished.

[Mathel]

That too, but it also involved physical comedy, which includes such stuff. They also tended to wear silly looking clothes. But I guess that likening clowns to royal fools was a mistake anyway.

[Pvt. Pirate]

That too, but it also involved physical comedy, which includes such stuff. They also tended to wear silly looking clothes. But I guess that likening clowns to royal fools was a mistake anyway.

sure, the typical circus clown got not that very much in common with a king's fool or bard.
also a circus usually travels like the "rotational europeans" do - although a circus in DF does more harm doing so.

[doublestrafe]

I just discovered a vast, untapped source of sand in my fortress.

Five years in, long after I'd given up on glass.

Right on the surface, where the animals had been tearing up the ground the entire time.

Red sand. Bright red sand. In a place I was examining at least every time a migrant wave came.

[TubaDragoness]

I just finished my raw edits in time for the new release. |:p