So, the new version is coming out momentarily. Toady is undoubtedly takin' a break for Christmas, and I hope he enjoys himself. Several succession games of which I am a participant or originator are dying for lack of interest, as everyone realizes they are much more interested in what will be in the new version than the fun things they can do with the old one. I'm personally too busy to seriously commit to my own major project, which was organizing and facilitating DF's multiplayer community. The "Multiplayer League" will happen, but family, social life, and study are just higher priorities. Anyway...
So, it's time to do something which requries minimal time (just forum reading) and discuss our "YAAD"s, or "Yet Another Annoying/Accidental Death"s, iow times we lost the game or a beloved dwarf, aka Fun. Hopefully interesting narration will make this enjoyable and keep us hanging out here until things get rolling again.
"YAAD" is a well-known acronymn in Roguelike games, which is what Dwarf Fortress is. Rather than go into an intense history lesson, anyone unfamiliar with the fact should consider themselves now informed that DF is rooted in a long history of a sort of "underground" or "niche" gaming community with a rich history of all kinds of things, but mostly Fun in the form of insensate deaths. (the game Rogue, on whose tradition DF is based, had astronomically low chances of survival, to the point that it has never been won without cheating) These are generally brought on by the "RNG", or Random Number Generator, aka Random Number God. When your dwarf champion with insane stats and legendary skill in all weapon types, shield and armor uses is struck by that instantly fatal blow, you would say (as a member of this long, rich tradition) "@#$@#$ed RNG got me again! It's YAAD!" The same goes for when you do something really, really stupid or senseless causing your dwarf(s) to undergo extreme torment ending in death.
Now you know what YAAD is, and why you should already know it if you didn't. Now, share your Fun!
Edit: Acronymn fixed.