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[Grif]

How do you go about recording the history of your Fortress?
I usually just keep a .txt file open and alt+tab to the desktop and write notes about current events or some particular event that just happened and the result is that I spend as much time writing about my forts as actually playing them.
Do you keep a record/log of your dwarves, their works and tribulations?

[SkyRender]

I tend to just let Legends mode pick it up.  Sure, I get about a thousand listings of masterpiece engravings on the list (most of which are of masterpiece engravings being made by the same artist who made the first engraving), but it does a pretty reliable job of listing all of the major events and disasters any given fort experiences.

[Aspgren]

Yup. I record stuff in a .txt, changing the way I write and the manners I have depending on which dwarf is in charge.

I wanted to turn one of my forts into a novel blog complete with my own illustrations. However once I got stonesense I saw that it was an eyesore, and it's much more special if I do it with my first fortress in DF 2010. That's why I'm holding out and not building any serious forts now.

I want to get into the roleplay and really commit to the project!

[darkflagrance]

I do this with statues, strategically placed graves, and tons of notes and engravings.

There is a hall under the mountain where statues of former rulers of the fortress stand watch in the deep.

A note over each statue tells the name of the creature, his or her position and order of rulership, and his or her life span (these modded creatures only lived for 10 years, to increase the generational feel of the fort).

[HammerHand]

I used to keep a journal for my fortresses, tracking the events of a season at every season-change.  Eventually I got tired of "we traded with the Elves for this stuff.  The megaproject proceeds smoothly.  We have lots of new bedrooms to build.  Somebody had a baby.  Somebody's baby grew into a child.  We discovered some microcline - again."  So then I decided to slow down and only type up entries for interesting things that happened.

... Then I got several ambushes in a row.  And had to write about all of them, and who got injured and how.

Eventually, despite my love of roleplay, I wanted to just play the game instead of stopping every few minutes to write out some text.

That, or I just kept getting bored with my fortresses, and trying to keep track of who needed how many clothes and the like. 

Actually, I haven't played at all in a while.  Maybe it's time for that to change...

[kawaiidesunekochan]

Every dwarven year,I engrave a new wall in my archive room. Other than that,I don't really record my history...nothing special happens most of the time.

[HammerHand]

archive room.

=O

That.  Is.  AWESOME!  Why did I never think of such a great room!?  You have added a new permanent feature to my fortresses, and I thank you for it.

Alas, that these engravings probably won't contain events from the year they are engraved, but that's not the point!

[Maggarg - Eater of chicke]

I have engravings everywhere. I often make vast rooms just for engraving patterns everywhere.

[elizar]

I have a library. Since DF does not seem to have any written language, just pictorial, each year gets a single floor in the library, and is set up like following:

Code: [Select]

++++++++
++++++++
++O++O++
++++++++
++++++++
++O++O++
++++++++
++++++++

This is a huge room with columns evenly spaced with two floor tiles between each other in every direction. Everything is smoothed, then the columns are engraved. Sadly my computer had to be wiped and I've not played DF again after that. Really aught to get into it when the new version comes.

[NW_Kohaku]

... I've been meaning to keep a journal of my fortress, actually, but havent' really gotten around to it.

I have a handful of dwarves I really like, and would make the narrators of a sort of sitcommish narrative that involves cave-ins and seiges and executing prisoners by bridgapulting them to the 'gators and crocs.

As it stands, however, I spend more time typing on the forums than actually playing the game...

[Dwarf fort 27]

I have an archive room also,
Each new year i build a new chest, made of gold, and in these chests i keep artifacts or sample gems or other items i discovered or made.
I have 12 chests so far and there all valued verry much.

[Shade-o]

I've made multi-story library complexes, consisting of a huge square room with rows and rows of geometric 'bookshelves', with little desk and table setups for studying them.

[Banana]

another titan!!??one!11eleven!

[Argonnek]

Besides engravings, I use coins to record history.

[Odd!x]

I have an archive room also,
Each new year i build a new chest, made of gold, and in these chests i keep artifacts or sample gems or other items i discovered or made.
I have 12 chests so far and there all valued verry much.

how do you designate items to be stored in a chest?

after viewing Retro's magnificent fort (the one with a lake, beach, dining pod... the name escapes me atm) I decided that an archive was just the thing for me.  I basically ripped it off from him; dig a circular room roughly equal to 80 square urists and engrave 4 of those a year (it ends up being more than one engraving per day of the year, so it's almost like a day-to-day public history)

It also serves as a very good place to stash coffins in if I'm willing to sacrifice one or two engravings, just dig out a spot for a coffin and a statue or something nice and wall it back up.  Came up with that after a baby literally flew out of Fikod's arms and straight to the bottom of the quarry during the goblin raid of 95.  Would have been hilarious if it wasn't tragic, but Fikod took it remarkably well, so it might as well be hilarious.