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[GreatWyrmGold]

This is a two-part suggestion, but both are part of the same general idea.
1.) Allow the player to give specific items to dwarves. This would boost happiness. The side effects of this would include a use for trader crap that isn't trading and a use, period, for artifact mugs and bracelets. It would also allow Toady One to add in some fairly common unhappiness-generating events without severely threatening all forts with tantrum spirals. I believe I have made this suggestion elsewhere, so I won't go into it in much detail--not that it needs much more.
2.) Immigrants (and probably the Starting Seven) would come with some items--a container, a knife (used for protection, eating, and a few other things in the medieval world), mugs, toys (if children), and so forth. They would also probably have coins; this may suggest that clothes would need to gain "pockets," but that is not necessary. A family (or dwarf, if s/he does not migrate in with any family members) would have a semi-random "wealth level" that determines how much stuff the dwarves in the family have. The wealth level would probably also affect pets that the migrants migrate in with.

These suggestions, or one of them, would add a bit of verisimilitude to DF, and would help pre-find a few bugs involving the economy that involve items. They would also encourage bedrooms that are more than a bed, and might add a bit of wealth to struggling forts. One can imagine a group of dwarves taking everything migrants bring, or one that allows migrants to have all of their possessions buried with them. New management might cause items to be removed from the grave, causing unhappy thoughts and likely releasing a burst of miasma that was trapped in the coffin. It would probably be a good idea to let the player choose if his/her fort took all non-clothes from migrants, let them keep their possessions until death, or have said possessions buried with the dwarf and/or passed down to the dwarf's family members. Dwarves might give each other gifts on their birthdays or on procedurally-generated holidays, although these should probably be represented solely by an exchange of ownership. It would probably help the whole "Dwarves only own one set of clothes and never change" "problem."

That's about all I can think of right now. I'd like to hear your thoughts, as long as they aren't "Please organize your ideas better."

[sockless]

Verisimilitude: now that's a word you don't hear every day.

Having knives for self defense would be nice, but first we there would have to be a way for dwarves to carry around personal weapons for self defense without being in the military, a logger or a miner.

I don't think that dwarves should be given things by the player, but they should be able to but them or get them from the stockpile. I imagine that this will be implemented within the next few releases though as Toady reworks the economy.

I imagine that dwarves would come to the fortress with stuff to eat with, knife, spoon and bowl/trencher; some personal trinkets; some food; something to drink from, probably a wineskin or the like and maybe a musical instrument. The current problem with immigrants though is that they somehow trek all the way from the mountainhomes to your fortress with just the stuff on their backs and occasionally a pack animal as a pet. In real life they probably would've use mules or donkeys to haul a lot of their stuff, and even wagons if there were roads to take.

[loose nut]

Maybe it would make sense to be able to mark various items as "available" in the stockpile screen, the way it's currently done with animals, and the dwarves then get a chance to grab some new possessions, according to their preferences?

[GreatWyrmGold]

Verisimilitude: now that's a word you don't hear every day.

Sesquipidalian Loquaciousness: Two words I use a lot more than you might think. 

Having knives for self defense would be nice, but first we there would have to be a way for dwarves to carry around personal weapons for self defense without being in the military, a logger or a miner.

Yeah, but...y'know, it sounds a bit sadder when you put it like that. Maybe "individual choice" would mean they use their own weapons if they don't have any weapons skills?

I don't think that dwarves should be given things by the player, but they should be able to but them or get them from the stockpile. I imagine that this will be implemented within the next few releases though as Toady reworks the economy.

Why not? "Here, Urist McTantrumer, have this artifact mug! Now stop destroying the fort!" Nice way to kill tantrum spirals, but at what probable cost to the fort...

I imagine that dwarves would come to the fortress with stuff to eat with, knife, spoon and bowl/trencher; some personal trinkets; some food; something to drink from, probably a wineskin or the like and maybe a musical instrument. The current problem with immigrants though is that they somehow trek all the way from the mountainhomes to your fortress with just the stuff on their backs and occasionally a pack animal as a pet. In real life they probably would've use mules or donkeys to haul a lot of their stuff, and even wagons if there were roads to take.

Yeah, but since wagons aren't implemented yet, it'll have to be sacks and mules for now.

Maybe it would make sense to be able to mark various items as "available" in the stockpile screen, the way it's currently done with animals, and the dwarves then get a chance to grab some new possessions, according to their preferences?

Maybe, but then the artifact mug would be as likely to be picked up by Urist McStillecstatic instead of Urist McTantruming. Not a bad idea--just not quite as good.
Although once the economy is in place, having an option to offer certain objects for sale would be nice.

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