ISGC

Chapter One: On Capitalism and The Little Things You Forget The spring crows cooed a lonely lullaby high above our industrious entrepreneur. As with all carrion birds, patience was key. Breaking ground on the first day nearly brought Reg to tears, thinking of the barrels upon barrels of ale and wine that would overflow their stockpiles very soon. Here on this hill history would be made. Along the journey it had been decided, the name of the bar would be "The Accursed Farm" - it was edgy and modern, but not off-putting. The perfect name to attract hardened adventurers and mysterious strangers from all over the Mythical Plains. And so the dwarves got to building, the wood cutters clearcutting the forest around them and Reg laying out the floor plan for The Accursed Farm. With a glint in her eye she carved out sections for beds, the main chamber, the drinking halls, the hole in the back yard and the kitchen where all of the brewing would be done. Reg looked upon her plans for the future and knew nothing had passed by her thorough machinations. First things first, she set up the stills. A tavern is hardly a tavern if there's no booze in it - she even brewed the first barrel herself! Perfect, she thought. Her plans were perfect, in every way. "On this day in the spring of 130, The Accursed Farm has drawn up its walls and now flows with ale! Share a drink with me, brothers and sisters!" And huzzahs and hoorahs resounded among the dwarves that gathered there. And the crows started to fly a little lower. Reg ordered the stills to begin processing on maximum. Every last distillable item was turned into glorious ale - but a slight issue was encountered that had not been considered. They had turned every last ounce of the food they had brought with them into alcohol! And while a liquid diet was hardly something they were unaccustomed to, it could not last forever. Slowly they came to realize that their stomachs rumbled and there was nothing to catch in the eastern swamps. Slowly the rats in the stockpiles began to look more and more tasty... Soon the dwarves were starving and scrambling about the tavern for every scrap of food they can find. Their minds were completely consumed by their hunger and any long term solution such as a farm or a fruit-bearing tree was abandoned in favor of the scramble for scraps. And the crows cackled as they watched their patience pay off... but then a knock on the door. A customer! How joyous, Reg's first customer! Reg crawled out of the hole out back and opened the door for their visitor. "Stand aside, citizen! 'Tis I, Sibrek the Speardwarf of The Inky Page! I shall free you of the thralldom of this 'Accursed Farm' - Bring forth your master, emaciated one, and I shall free you from his tyranny!" And before Reg could protest, a stay cat lept from the shadows and was eviscerated by the speardwarf. "Your attack beasts are no match for me, coward! Show yourself! Release these poor wretches and I may spare your life!" Sibrek scanned the horizon and started searching the tavern, but the dwarves had their eyes on one thing only. Meat. Raw meat. They snatched up the cat and cooked it, realizing the simple end to all their troubles. After filling their stomachs and setting their minds straight, they filled Sibrek in on what was really happening - he laughed heartily and confessed that it had been a long while since he had had some good dwarven alcohol. And of course Reg jumped to the opportunity! "What a novel idea, companion!" the speardwarf bellowed, "An establishment built on the tenets of sport, wine and song? I think perhaps I might stick around." The food crisis was over, the crows moved on, disappointed and the hole out back grew ever deeper. For now all was good on the hill, and many days of hard work had brought together the start of something new and wonderful. The light in Reg's eyes grew brighter by the minute. To Be Continued

I am doing it. I'm starting, I will play a year and leave it for someone else to pick up. Here begins the saga of FriendlyBolts: World Map and Embark Location: The Start: The Adventure Begins: Civlizations: http://webm.host/8c3d9/vid.webm Prologue In the year 130, a Dwarven civilization sits on the precipice of disaster. The Untamed Knife, a proud standard cut from the cloth of legends, was faltering under Goblin pressure from the east and Kobold pressure from the south. The steel gears of the goblin war machine turned endlessly under the gaze of their goblin overlord, Nako Profanepages from atop his obsidian throne in the Palace of Groves. A dwarf and six companions break forth into the open wilderness seeking a new life - Reg Autumnalroom leading the exodus. "Fine." Reg was disgruntled. Several slights against her dwarven nature had been levied by the administration of The Untamed Knife. Most importantly, due to the war effort, rationing had been put in place. Rationing of not only food, but also of the sweet dwarven nectar: ale. As the details of global politics and logistics often flew over Reg's head, she saw no reason why the war would result in a shortage of ale. In fact, due to heavy casualties there should have been an excess of ale across the mountainhome! This dearth of ale was not a life Reg was prepared to suffer. She was disgruntled, so she left. She pitched to her fellow dwarves a promised land where they would construct a monument to free-flowing ale. A tavern that would dedicate itself to the finer things in life: drinking, merriment and the viewing of athletic competitions. Certainly a hope to get behind! And a few did. Six other brave dwarves who were equally disgruntled embarked in the common interest of erecting an establishment where ale was cheap and plentiful, the doors stayed open until the sun began to rise again and hardy dwarves could forget their troubles and watch athletes compete for glory! Spirits were high and a location was scouted out on a small hill along the road to the east of the capital. They dropped down their wagon and set upon a toil that is familiar to dwarves: doing whatever they can for the promise of good booze. =============================================== Hope this little teaser gives you an idea of what we're getting into! Hopefully you guys enjoy the tale of Reg opening a sports bar in a war torn fantasy land. Some things you might notice: the world map has an abnormal amount of volcanoes because it's a map with a few custom parameters set, namely the number of titans, megabeasts and civilizations being upped significantly and the threshold for being attacked by them lowered. It's more of a change aimed at making the legends more interesting, but it might prove to be a Fun thing for us as well. Just FYI, anyone who picks up the fortress after me does not have to follow any narrative I set up. They don't even need to write it in terms of a narrative, it could be journal entries, a quick report, a comic. Whatever you feel comfortable doing. I'll try to set it up so that the fortress is pretty self sufficient so you don't even need to know a whole lot about the game to play a turn. Anyone is welcome!

I'm really enjoying this thread, guys Keep them coming!

Woop woop really enjoying making taverns and libraries! It's been a few years since my original offer, but I'd be ready to set up a community fort if you guys want to try it out Don't need to know everything to give it a go! I've had some compatibility issues with LNP, so if you're using that we might need to work some things out

I was waiting for you to ask for someone to help you on a videogame or something! I could do that, but the graphics pipeline stuff is a lot lower level so you'll probably have a tough time finding someone who knows much about it. Sorry! If you have any idea of where to start with this, I'd gladly take a look, though.

Big fan of all the transparency, Ross. Enjoyed the review as well - do you think you might have been more harsh because you didn't want it to seem like they bought you by giving you a free copy? I hear that reviewers tend to have that problem.

Goodness, the generosity of this fan base astounds me. It reminds me of that one time a guy hacked the website and just left a playful note telling Ross to beef up his security. Good on everyone, I'm very excited for things to come!

I think I'm going crazy, doctor, because I see them everywhere! All round and orange and full of sickening guts...

"Research" That line got me good fantastic video, Ross - I think the length of video fit the game quite well. I enjoy that you don't keep a length quota or anything like that, but rather make the videos as long as you feel like you have things to say. Keep it up!

I'm American and I've always thought "Accur-said", but Ross pronounces it "A-cursed" in this video and it shook up my world for a second

Woah, wait it's pronounced Accursed Farms and not Accurs-ed Farms? I've been living a lie

If any of you remember Jet Set Grind or Jet Set Radio Future and its amazing soundtrack, here's a website that puts up stuff in a similar vein: http://jetsetrad.io/ From Caravan Palace to some mashup of Rapper's Delight and swing, it pretty much hits that undefined sound the games pulled off. Also, if you like this stuff, check out Hideki Naganuma's (the main composer of the OSTs for the game) soundcloud:

tl;dr, but +1 for username that is, imaginary +1 you know, where everything is made up and the points don't matter

Congratulations! Have some well deserved rest and enjoy the weight off your shoulders. To the future!

Take your time, Ross Take all the time you need in fact, you should spend some time doing other things contemplate the possibility that a room could speak Chinese, or indulge in some of the other clandestine parts of the internet. Book a plane flight to India! Download an audiobook that you promise yourself you will get around to listening to someday maybe. Really, take all the time you need. ALL THE TIME YOU NEED.