I can’t think of a more appropriate way to enter the world(s) of Dwarf Fortress than in adventure mode, as a “human outsider.” In establishing my background the blue text on the screen reads “You area stranger here.” Yes, accurate.

I took a fairly reckless approach to playing the game. If all roads lead to failure, it’s easy to feel very free in experimenting. Do I want to eat with a large copper dagger, or a spear? Large copper dagger, sure, why not? The game tells me that I lick the large copper spear. Fine! Make a campfire? Don’t mind if I do. I’m just a human outsider having an adventure.

This is not the most meaningful way in which I can engage with this game, but as I find the game wildly overwhelming, simply wandering around and observing the virtual environment feels productive. The game requires interaction at every level; in initially opting to go into the init.txt file to enlarge the text, I felt immediately involved in this world through even this tedious administrative action. Within the game screen, through a combination of pressing random keys (which is how I came to build my fire, tbh) and consulting the wiki, I played Dwarf Fortress by treating it less as a game with defined objectives and more as an interactive fiction, absolutely. It is hard to read some of the text, like the following description of my human character, without seeing it as such.

Even after my several hours of reading about and exploring the game, I feel that I have barely skimmed the surface of what it is and how it works. Initially I was inclined to think that this might be a game I could enjoy reading about in the abstract, or appreciating visually as a work of art, but bit by bit, I am increasingly inclined to continue playing and to see how much more I can learn. I don’t know that I have any idea what is happening or where I am, but I think I like it in here.