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[Shima]

I combine mining, quarrying stone, training engravers, defense, and deathtrap all in one:

I dig a long (3-5 bridges long), thin (3-5 tiles wide) channel, bridge it (Raising at the fort end, the rest retract), and then we dig ALL the way to the bottom, smoothing each layer and bringing the stone up with a garbage dump.

That alone trains engravers almost to max, gets us enough stone for the life of the fortress, and is a perfect defense as long as someone pulls the lever, which I keep in the dining room to ensure there's always someone to pull it.


I also have well-made tombs for all heroes, who also get nice rooms when alive.  Both the Hall of Dead Heroes and the Hall of Heroes have long lines of statues to represent our heroes.



Just the same, I try to have the dining hall in a central place, with a huge pillar in the middle.  If I can, I also dig it out so it's a large, engraved obelisk in the middle of the dining hall.  Bonus if I can get them sun safely so they don't vomit should they need to go outside.

[Zwebie]

SYMMETRY!
 YOU! GROUND! I don't dig you 'till I figure out the absolute perfect thing to add to you. NEVER 'TILL THEN!
 You leader, you will be named after a god. YOUR POSITION IS RA, SUN GOD.
 I need a pit! I'm not even going to drop anything down it, I just want a pit! And no weaksauce 5x5 pits either, half the goddam mountain is gonna be an underground pit when I'm done.

Sigged.

I name my first seven dwarves after the Seven Dwarves from Snow White. That's... That's about it.

[UristMcGunsmith]

I play as elves.

[Assassinfox]

When talking to the trade liaison, I always request meat from the most deadly creatures on the list just because I like to imagine the civilization sacrificing hundreds of people in order to procure the meat.

"Sir!  We've already lost 10 men!  Why are we attacking this Giant Cave Spider nest?!"
"Cakerape wants Giant Cave Spider meat, so we're gonna get it for them!  Our society will fall apart without their alunite mugs!"

[kilakan]

I ALWAYS, cancel any weddings, I don't believe in marriage, and so I force my dwarves to not believe in it either, though I encourage parties.

[Rolan7]

I make a hall of records: every season, I dig out a new square of a 1-width tunnel, and have my legendary engraver record the three most interesting events of the season.  Sadly the founding of the civilization was apparently so incredibly epic that hundreds of years later, in terrifying skeleton-infested mountains full of magmaworks and artifacts, it's the only thing master artisans can think of to engrave about.

[darkflagrance]

I also worry about the same thing as the above poster.

Thus, when I decide to appoint engravers, I carefully review the candidates before enabling the labor. Those I choose must at least "have a fertile imagination". Appreciating art is also an advantage.

I give my engravers tombs that they themselves have engraved when they die. It is a sad day when one of them falls in one of my fortresses. In my latest fortress, I have a hall specifically dedicated to honoring the work and sacrifices of my engravers.

[Korbac]

I give my families names in their "custom profession" tag, and give people names when they reach ~6 attributes.

I also look after my dwarves, and never attempt to kill or lose any. When a dwarf dies it is a day of sadness.

The exception to this rule is the Hammerer, who I used to starve and will now drown with my new drowning chamber. 

[Blackburn]

I'm putting this under a spoiler tag because the list is very long and VERY boring.

I'm unsure as to whether or not the stuff I do is unique or normal. I know most of it is dumb, though.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Workshops never touch the walls.

Workshops of similar services (like masons and carpenters) get jammed into the same rooms or in rooms close together, often close to their needed stockpiles.

All my rooms are square or rectangle. And I plan ahead; I make huge stockpiles for everything, even junk I don't have or need. My initial meeting hall is usually big enough to house fifty dwarves.

I make long lines of tables and chairs, and they don't touch the walls of the meeting hall. In fact, I try to keep everything from touching the walls.

My barracks are huge and have lots of beds.

I obsessively dig out all gems, regardless of any plans I had for the area.

I build a five-tile-wide corridor deep into a mountain, carve out a room there for the trade depot, then start the fortress from there.

When I start making bedrooms, they're all the same 2x2 square with identical set-ups and I have halls dug around them, even if no one has any business walking through the halls.

Speaking of halls, all rooms connect to a two-tile-wide hallway that twists throughout the entire fort. No exceptions. These halls are always smoothed when I have free time.

I rarely extend to z-levels beyond my starting one, as I'm obsessed with using all the space I have. If I manage to do that, then I go down. Efficient floor plans? What are those?

I chisel away at mountain- and hill-sides, smoothing them into flat surfaces. And I dig away all slopes near the entrance to my fort, even if I have no reason because the entrance is a huge corridor.

I handle food stockpile overflow by cooking everything into roasts.

The only things I don't cook are dwarven booze and dwarven seeds for making dwarven plants for making dwarven booze. All other plants, seeds, and booze are allowed to be cooked/eaten.

I collapse random hills for fun. This tends to be my leading cause of death for miners.

[Gunner-Chan]

I have an odd habit of building aboveground mostly, but making a bunker like underground fortress stocked with spare stuff for hard times.

[Zruku]

I play as elves.

Ready the magma pits

[Mechanoid]

Besides modding the game so that there is only a white color stone that produces by reaction a reduced amount of metals (the majority of the alloys get deleted) and altering creature spawns so that the magma and water features are naturally clear of them...

Golden Rule: Minimum 3x3 bedrooms with no-quality furniture for dwarves, going so far as to setup a reaction to give exactly a bed, metal chest, wood cabinet, wood armor stand, stone weapon rack, stone table, wood chair, and wooden door to make sure they all get the exact same treatment. Wether or not the room is smoothed depends.

- Only allow east/west doorways because of the designation rule where the dwarf will prefer to engrave the east wall face first and then the west wall face; so that all engravings are "inside" the room.
- 2 tile thick walls so that each room gets it's own smoothing/engraving, 1 tile thick walls only for rooms that will not be smoothed
- Try to stick to the old 7x7 cave-in rule.
- Lowest two levels reserved specifically for plumbing.
- Third lowest level is 'street' level, the rest of the fortress is built upwards from it.
- Other rules probably mentioned before by other people.

[Chewykittens]

I curl the ends of defensive walls in and build ramps along them.

If I can help it, and if the trees are broad leaf, I only cut lumber in the winter. I don't like the idea of my dwarfs having to deal with leaves.

[UristMcGunsmith]

I play as elves.

Ready the magma pits

Lol sup Zruku, it's Teks from 420chan.

Anyways, Zruku here doesn't like playing in terrifying biomes or playing deadly challenges. He views those who do as "masochists" and "sadists".

PHOOEY

[Shrike]

I play as elves.

I play as elves that hate trees and eat goblin and orc bones almost exclusively in their massive, miasma- and smoke- generating 'blighthome'.