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[Nobbins]

I'm fairly new to the game, and I started a fortress in the mountains by accident. I'm doing good so far, but I realize I'll run out of food soon, and that mah dwarves will have to sleep on the floor. The mountain I'm in has -no- surface soil at all. Is there any way to survive or am I screwed?

[Angry Pierre]

You can trade for wood and food -- not sure how long it will be until you see a caravan though.

If there is harmless wildlife around, you can get a dwarf to hunt. You can butcher the critters he brings in, as well as your pets if need be until you see a caravan.

I haven't dealt with irrigation yet, but take a look at the DF wiki on irrigation.

Remove construction on your wagon for 3 pieces of wood -> 3 beds (I assume you still have the original 7 dwarves). They'll share until you get some more.

Good luck!

[Nobbins]

I've already gotten the wagon-wood, made a two-story eleven-room fortress, each room 6x6, have two mason's workshops, a meeting hall, four dogs, and a barracks with three beds. The current problem is that I might run out of food soon.

Current dwarves:
Miner
Miner
Woodcutter
Carpenter
Mason
Farmer
Farmer/Brewer

EDIT: Nearest source of water is five levels down from my base and about 30 screens westward.

[Angry Pierre]

I don't understand why you're emphasizing that you might run out of food. Maybe I need to be more clear:

If there is no soil/shrubs/wood on your map, your options for food are:
-trade
-hunting -> butchering
-fishing
-irrigation -> farming
-pets -> butchering

If you have a lot of booze to spare, you can cook some of your wine. Don't ask me how your chef does it, but it works.

If there aren't hostiles around, you can set up a small temporary farm near your river after a little bit of irrigation -- but you'll have to flood a small area and then wait for it to evaporate. You shouldn't see ambushes until you've generated more wealth, so as long as there isn't any dangerous wildlife, you should be fine. Once you've done that, you can start working on a larger irrigation project to bring it closer to home.

I haven't asked -- what kind of water source do you have, if any, and is it filled with dangerous fish? If so, that complicates things.

http://dwarffortresswiki.net/index.php/Irrigation

Edit: too cook your booze, you need to set up a kitchen, then go into you z menu -> kitchen -> toggle booze for cooking

[Nobbins]

It's a brook.

The thing is, I just sorta suck, so running out of food will be a massive problem for me, because it will be hard as titanium to get a steady supply of food.

EDIT: So apparently, my dwarves are hunting for small creatures and two of them are dead. =[

[Angry Pierre]

I'm not familiar with what all the symbols mean; I use a tileset.

You may want to consider looking at captnduck or tinypirate's tutorials if you haven't done so already (both are stickied). Also, if you download the package from tinypirate's tutorial, it comes with a tileset and dwarf manager (the first makes the game easier on the eyes and the second makes it much easier to manage your dwarf's labors).

Once you can irrigate something as small as a 6x6 plot, you will be set for years, and by then you can find several other sources of food or irrigate something larger. Examine the river with k and look around; if there are carp, longnose gar, pike, or tigerfish, you won't be able to come near the river with your limited resources and it will take someone more experienced than I to come up with a solution.

O right. I haven't done this, but you could try channeling a 6x6 plot near (but not too close to the river), and then connect it to the river by mining until you're one tile away from the river. Then dig fortifications so that the fish can't get through in the tile adjacent to the water. But remember; water can flow diagonally...This gets tricky, though. To get rid of the water it needs to evaporate, so you need to install a floodgate, to plug up the channel from the river connected to a lever, or else find some other way to reroute the water, which might not be easy with 7 unskilled dwarves and limited resources. Until this gets done, you can eat your pets -- and don't forget those other ways to gather food to supplement your stocks until this project is complete.

Or you could restart on an easier map.

[Nobbins]

Good idea, seeing as my dwarves are killing each other. =[

[Angry Pierre]

O_O

[atomfullerene]

well, if you've hit tantrum spirals, it's probably too late.  But in the future, remember that you can enable fishing on your dwarves and have them catch meals.  Brooks are ideal because they are full of rocks and not nasty carp.  Don't worry so much about the distance..it just means a couple dwarves may have to focus on food provisions for a while.  The other detail is that if the walk outside is dangerous, you should shut your main gate and dig a tunnel to near where you fish, walling it off if necessary.  Of course, this takes time.  You can also start a farm near the brook by flooding underground tiles, but this is a bit tricky.

[Nobbins]

Alright, going to find a new fun location now. Thanks for the advice, I'll be sure to remember it.