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[Silly Theory]

So, I'm pretty new to the game, and have usually used only one combination of item/skills for embark. As follows:
1 miner
2 miner
3 woodcutter
4 mason/carpenter
5 grower/brewer
6 grower/cook/gatherer
7 leader/broker/trader/random social skill/ bookkeeper/appraiser/building designer

rest of points I get extra pick, more booze and seeds, male and female cat (pest control).

What about you? How do you usually go about the embark options?

[mrbaggins]

Miner
Miner/Stonecraft
Grower
Boozer/Cook
Lumberjack
Carpenter / Architect
Doctor/Leader/Bookkeeper/Manager

A male cat
A few female dogs (Maybe war ones)
A male dog or two

40-60Booze
30-40Food
Some cave spider silk bags/ropes

Anything I want to experiment with (lately pasture animals)

Haven't played much since the pasture update... Really should.

[Silly Theory]

Why ropes early game?

[i874236951]

Leader (all that appraiser/organizer/social stuff) -> herbalism until migrants
Doctor/Architect -> woodcutting until migrants
Militia Commander
5 Weaponsmith/5 Metalcrafter -> turn on mining, plow through some soil to level
5 Armorsmith/5 Blacksmith -> same
5 Carpenter/5 Mechanic -> turn on stonecrafting, churn out rock pots
4 Grower/4 Brewer/2 Cook

Or something like that.

[Nidokoenig]

1 Brewer
1 Farmer
1 Woodcutter
1 Miner

The other three depend on what their castes are, since the various pony castes have different skill learning rates. Carpenter, wood/stonecrafter and mechanic are my priorities, though I'll probably take a lasher or axepony to get the military started.

As for equipment, I usually take the materials to make a few picks and as wide a variety of livestock as I can afford.

[wrajjt]

Grower/butcher/cook
grower/brewer
mechanic/leader-type/appraiser/book-keeper
woodcutter/carpenter/axedwarf
mason/architect/engraver
doctor (2 in each skill)
smith (2 in each metal-crafting skill, including furnace operating)

4 picks, and the growers, the smith and the doctor are the miners until we get the first wave of immigrants.

Two cats, two wardogs and two pigs, one of each gender.

[Benedict Hardy]

A

[Urist Imiknorris]

Proficient Grower - Stonecrafter until migrants arrive.
Proficient Grower - Carpenter until migrants arrive.
Proficient Grower - Mason until migrants arrive.
Proficient Grower - Mechanic until migrants arrive.
Proficient Grower - Brewer until migrants arrive.
Proficient Weaponsmith/Armorer - Hauls crap until his services are needed. Also woodcutter until migrants arrive.
Peasant - Miner (permanently) and woodcrafter (until migrants arrive). Usually the only woodcrafting I need is for nest boxes.

Once I get some migrants, the massive overproduction begins. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

[Benedict Hardy]

A

[Urist Imiknorris]

When I hit six digits worth of food and drinks I'll turn migrants back on.

EDIT: Also three hundred bedrooms and enough weapons and armor to militarize all of their occupants.

[EBannion]

1 Brewer
1 Farmer
1 Woodcutter
1 Miner

The other three depend on what their castes are, since the various pony castes have different skill learning rates. Carpenter, wood/stonecrafter and mechanic are my priorities, though I'll probably take a lasher or axepony to get the military started.

As for equipment, I usually take the materials to make a few picks and as wide a variety of livestock as I can afford.

MLP mod for DF? Please tell me it is so, and links! Would love you forever!

[Urist Imiknorris]

It's a thing.

[Berserkenstein]

My typical embark with standard embark points (1274):

Administrator - 3 negotiation/1 judging intent/1 appraisal/1 organizer/1 conversation/1 pacifier/1 consoler
Miner - 5 mining/5 stonecraft
Builder - 5 building design/4 mason/1 mech
Woodsman - 5 wood cutting/5 herbalism
Hunter - 3 ambush/3 dodge/1 wrestling/1 hammer dwarf/1 tanner/1 bone crafter
Cook -  5 cooking/5 butcher
Brewer - 5 brewing/5 carpentry

1 copper pick
no axe (wagon is deconstructed and made into a training axe for woodcutting)
21 of each booze but not dwarven wine
21 plump helmets (made into dwarven wine)
21 meats of different animals (free barrels)
1 bucket (made into a well with rope, a block and mechanism made on site)
1 cave silk spider rope or yarn rope (pig tail rope is 20 pts, giant cave spider rope is 40, cave silk spider rope is 10 and yarn is 10)
4 bauxite blocks

Rest of the points into an anvil if I don't wanna wait for a caravan then whatever else I feel like, usually wool animals and a trainable hunting animal.

On evil embarks I ditch the hunter and make a marksdwarf/teacher/organizer and ditch butchery and tanning for grower and bring more seeds and trainable war animals.

First thing I choose is a dwarf that has easily satisfied preferences such as copper, iron, bronze, gold, silver or electrum metals and no weird preferences like platypus bone or mussel shell and preferably item preferences like barrels, statues or bins.  I then make that dwarf the administrator, which later becomes a mayor.

I then pick a high agility dwarf for a warrior or hunter.  Miners, masons, and woodcutter/herbalists I try to make high agility as well, to work faster and being able to outrun nasties.

The rest can be whatever is suitable.

Why ropes early game?

To make a starting well you need a rope, blocks and a mechanism or people who bring animals use the ropes to chain animals as lookouts. 

Ropes otherwise require a plant processor/spinner and loom for thread or you could bring thread, then make it into cloth which also requires a weaver and then a clothier with a clothier's shop to turn that cloth into rope.  Or you could make chains which would require a furnace operator, wood burner or coal, and a metalsmith with a forge.

So people just bring the rope since it is much easier.

[EBannion]

It's a thing.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

[alesia]

Typical dwarf loadout:
1 Leader: Mechanic 5, Appraiser/Organizer/Record Keeper/Judge of Intent/Negotiator 1 each.
1 Sawbones: Carpenter 5, doctor skills 1 each.
1 Architect: Mason 5, Building Designer 5.
1 Hunter: Ambusher 1, rest of points in various combat skills (Crossbowdwarf, etc) and Observer.
1 Smith: Weaponsmith 5, Armorsmith 5.
2 Farmers: Grower 5, Cook 2, Brewer 2, Herbalist 1.

The hunter is *usually* pointless and ends up grabbing a pick alongside the architect, but on embarks where I need a military dwarf as soon as I unpause, she's priceless.

Typical item loadout:
1 iron anvil
2 copper picks
1 copper axe
100 assorted booze
80 assorted meat and fish
20 plump helmets
25 of each type of seed
30 fungiwood
5 gypsum plaster
5 lye
1 cage of a metal I might need later (lead, zinc, tin, etc.)
Breeding pairs of: cats and dogs; turkeys, geese and peafowl; sheep, goats and alpacas.

The rest of my embark points go to various (and formerly exotic) creatures that become available upon adding [USE_ANY_PET_RACE] and [USE_CAVE_ANIMALS] to entity_default.

I'm tempted by the 0-embark point loadout.  Better flavor for the survivors of an extinct civilization, and better challenge too.  Besides, after a year or two it doesn't much matter what your dwarves' original professions were.