@Kogut: You can change color schemes by opening this file, "/Dwarf Fortress/data/init/colors.txt" and changing the RGB values of whatever DF color into the color you want.
@Bread: The wiki has a list of these worldgen examples you can paste into your worldgen file, in the same place as that colors file. Just paste the data in above the rest. You can get really neat things by messing with the world generation parameters. I have an evil swamp world and a volcanic glacier world as well in my worldgen file.
http://df.magmawiki.com/index.php/DF2010:Worldgen_examples@Sutremaine: The waterskins-as-mini-barrels idea is cool. The only problem is that I had more pressing needs for leather, such as quivers and armor wherever bone doesn't cover. You also get a lot less leather than bone, just one per animal.
ANYWAY, I can't believe Sutremaine's dump idea worked. And it did. I had everything on the camels ordered to be dumped into my garbage pile and then reclaimed. The dwarves busily got to work.
The dwarves are now redistributing everything amongst themselves and getting to work with their new picks and axes. It feels pretty cheaty taking everything for free. But I'm essentially fighting one bug with another - I can't overpower the caravan due to the loyalty cascade bug, so I'm taking it anyway with the dump-the-caravan bug. When the loyalty cascade bug is fixed, I'll be able to overpower them. I'll start a new fortress and a new thread when that happens.
Gentlemen, it is possible to thrive on an itemless, waterless embark. The rest of this thread will now be about the development of the fortress, I suppose. We could do it as a community game now. Anyone want to be dwarfed and to be up for turns? You can request professions and stuff. I'll make a new thread in the community fortress section if that's the case.