The Ultimate Sacrifice: A Dwarf Fortress Story

This gameplay video is my love letter to Dwarf Fortress, I made it to share one of my favorite stories I have seen unfold while playing and to show off some of what the game has to offer. This is the story of an epic struggle for survival as our resilient dwarves face unimaginable challenges in their quest to endure. Every choice carries weight, and the fate of our dwarven stronghold hangs in the balance.
Watch me live on twitch @ www.twitch.tv/scudpunk

[@scudpunk]

buy my art! scudpunk.redbubble.com

[@BillErak]

Ah, Dwarf Fortress, the game where you slowly start to understand the reasons behind warcrimes

[@PotatoPatatoVonSpudsworth]

It also helps you understand how corporations (and their founders) can become these soul-sucking monsters. You start small and personal, with humble and altruistic aspirations. You know every dwarf by name, and want nothing but the best for each of them. Then as your fortress grows and the scope slowly pulls further and further out, you lose sight of that. Despite Dwarf Fortress going out of its way to ensure every dwarf has fully functioning personality, history, and motivations, the sheer quantity of these unique individuals turns every one into just another cog in your machine. You stop appreciating their eccentricities and start despising them, because a dwarf who's expressing himself is a dwarf who isn't working at maximum efficiency. You stop caring about what each dwarf wants to do, and start assigning them based on what needs to get done. You stop viewing the environment they live in as a world and start seeing it as a list of resources to be exploited. You stop trying to make dwarves happy for their own sake, and start doing it for the sake of productivity, using cheap and often manipulative tactics to reach basic satisfaction quotas. Just like real life, Dwarf Fortress goes from a game about people to a game about numbers.

[@victor_silva6142]

​@@PotatoPatatoVonSpudsworth😮

[@isworthy1183]

@@PotatoPatatoVonSpudsworthdon’t forget any cogs that go against the machine get the hammer in the fortress square.

[@w花b]

​@@isworthy1183gulaged

[@Ucceah]

@@PotatoPatatoVonSpudsworth one of the best comment rants i've read in a while. but OP made a good point about avoiding uncontrolled immigration in, favour of maintaining a culturally homogenous population.

[@OdessaElwyn]

Rest in peace to the brave soldier standing on the dwarven atom smasher at 9:30

[@Nacalal]

I love the fact that humans and elves not being able to hold their booze was indirectly the cause for the dwarves to carry out a tall people genocide.

[@dontsubcribedontlike673]

5:30 holy shit it's crazy that there has been a giant war going on just on the other side of the doorway, both the Forgotten Beast and the Antmen completely unconcerned and oblivious with your dwarf digging shenanigans. The possibilities in this game seem utterly endless.

[@GetGoobed]

Was feeling nostalgic about Rust and checked out your channel for the first time in 3 or 4 years. Bizarre timing that its your first upload in over a year. Hope your doing good man!

[@scudpunk]

very weird timing, I'm doing okay, feeling good about getting back into content creation, much love dude

[@GetGoobed]

@@scudpunk Cool dude, I know motivation is hard but you got this. You were the GOAT of Rust back in the day along side Shacky and BCHILLZ, hope to see more of you around

[@dapperdawgplays]

It's not a war crime, it's a tough choice.

[@w花b]

Not a crime if no one's here to judge you

[@Danila438]

Vomit, blood, forgotten beats and racism, just everything I need from a dwarf fortress story

[@shotsRUST]

welcome back, love to see you uploading. 🙏🏻🔥

[@scaredbyowls]

never played dwarf fortress, but it looks sweet. you're a good storyteller scud, greatwork! :D

[@Ucceah]

go play DF, now! (when you have some time to commit) there's "some" learning curve, but learning new things is so much FUN!

[@AmbientPetey]

Great vid, the storytelling narration is great with your humor 🤣

[@scudpunk]

Thanks dude, it was super fun to make, glad you liked it

[@TommyLikeTom]

The main thing that put me off this game is the fact that it's globally illuminated

[@scudpunk]

I hope that now that dwarf fortress is on steam & they have funding, things like darkness and weather will be added. The game was designed over 20 years by just two people, with the millions they made from steam sales recently I hope they hire a team, I hope they implement better AI and many other things. I believe in 10 years this game will still be around, or they will do a rebuild from the ground up the way rust did.

[@arex3632]

Great video!!!! You should think about talking about few notable dwarfs next time, if you want that is

[@dantefilms3170]

Their bones were made into fancy crowns and shit 😂

[@toad1414]

holy shit, this was a crazy ride. absolutely love dwarf fortress. Tried playing it when the stream release came out, but it was too complicated for me, ha-ha. Giving it another try right now! Hopefully my new fort will actually survive not only whatever the game has in store for me, but also my own inability to properly play such complex games, lmao.

[@henrisummers6694]

Very cool video. Love Dwarf Fortress.

[@KC1Million]

Glad to see you making content again 🙌🙌

[@scudpunk]

More to come!

[@garrett6138]

Much love Scud ❤ miss watching your content. This was great

[@01kmacias]

New to dwarf fortress. I’m having trouble getting into the game but this video got me excited again!

[@LostTimeHero]

4:05 Well that was clearly personal

[@neerajtadhiyal3152]

Noice vid always love to see dwarf fortress stories

[@andrewisirish9458]

Woah, long time no see ya Scud! Welcome back to content creating, and nice to see you cracking away at Dwarf Fortress also.

[@thewiggagamer2277]

Was surprised when I saw u on twitch but almost did when I see a new video

[@voidstomper]

much love dude, so good to be back

[@holdyourbreathandswimunder]

Amazing narrative friend.

[@s00ul]

oh damn, he bacc

[@scudpunk]

not dead yet!

[@justinjoneswriter]

you're a great storyteller. there's a large df community hungry for more episodic content! more pls:)

[@genarponik4680]

One of the best dwarf fortress videos, I hope you make more of them.

[@Silver-nv4sr]

Nope he just makes shitty AI videos now.

[@MeteWayne]

hey i love dwarf fortress storys!

[@VindensSaga]

Awesome! I love DF. It has such insane potential for storytelling!

[@gangstalkerofgangstalkers]

And so more Exiles were born.

[@SweetTommyMods]

Great video, hope you are well brother love you

[@GoneAsGoneCanBe]

Welcome Back Scudpunk. We all missed you so much! P.S. I still wear your socks.

[@scudpunk]

Much love dude, those socks are the best! I wore my pair until it was too riddled with holes to wear it anymore lol

[@somegenerichandle]

This was very entertaining. I felt very worried during the fire.

[@scudpunk]

They needed those plump helmets so bad lol

[@OGboi]

More Rust content please bro! you got me into rust back in 2016

[@stealthyblade3404]

Man remember you and a buddy playing rust back in the day and finding me and trolling me on stream lol and took my base when I was a noob man Glad to see you post more on yt miss your videos and hope your doing good 👍

[@thefabulouscabbage]

That was genuinely a good video.

[@scudpunk]

Thanks dude, already working on the next one!

[@thefabulouscabbage]

@@scudpunk can't fuckin wait G!

[@Skelecruce]

“Execute order 66…”

[@neighbourmusic]

This was awesome. LOL. Dwarf fortress 😆

[@fang4223]

It wasn't a genocide. They were just conscripted to help deal with the resource shortage. Politics 101: the step to any move in The Game™ always starts with establishing justification. : )

[@MCSorry]

This isn't a sacrifice; this is genocide.

[@SinnixTV69]

Glad your still ar it man ! I alwau enjoy your streams

[@TenguXD]

These Fortress videos are awesome, keep it up!

[@CraigDirty]

Dwarf fortress is the greatest video game of all time.... and I've never even played it.

[@BlindiRL]

Ah yes. The dwarves.

[@Kilonova99]

"The Fucking Ant People"

[@spencersullivan4447]

Compared to this my locking a serial killer child in a room and letting him starve and drowning execution room for goblins seem downright humane.

[@bone-a-lisa]

Hey man, I loved this video! I've been trying to document my new library fortress pretty heavy in hopes of coaxing a compelling story out of it. I gotta ask, do you have any tips for how you write in game events into a story like this? My only experience writing is technical documentation, so its hard for me to switch that into more of a fantasy storytelling style. Also, your story telling feels pretty similar to Kruggsmash, which is awesome to see more story creators popping up :)

[@scudpunk]

Hey dude, I completely get what you're saying, it's really difficult to craft a story from dwarf fortress gameplay footage. In an interview one of the creators of DF explained that our brains are story building engines, and DF is a game designed to foster that creativity, stories unfold in game and we fill in the blanks with our imagination. I felt inspired so I threw this video together and in a way I don't even really know how I found that inspiration. I'm already struggling to build my next story. The advice I will give you is to just keep playing, Record what you find interesting and do your best to use your creativity to build a story using whatever events the game offers you while playing. Hope this helps, good luck! also dropped you a sub :)

[@bone-a-lisa]

@scudpunk thanks for the reply! And haha, this channel just has all my clips with my friends, but I appreciate the sub nonetheless 😂 I definitely have been taking notes, though I probably will try and start recording clips as well. I guess there's no other trick to it them getting the creative muscle flexing and writing til something good pops out 😅 I'm excited to see you make new stuff and to get inspired by your stories! Thanks again!

[@Momotara1000]

Was any of the narriation of the story added for impact or did it actually happen in game? For example, when the nobles and the army talked and when the dwarfs pushed the humans/elves outside the fortress, Im new to the game and you can do that?!?

[@scudpunk]

The humans and elves really were an issue for the wellbeing of my dwarves. Eventually I decided to get rid of them, that's really the only part of the video that was staged, everything else was organic and narration was added later

[@vlademireast1998]

❤

[@Gomjibar]

How did you get the human/elves to go to the places you wanted them to go to?

[@scudpunk]

Put them in a military squad and directed them to where I wanted 😈

[@Cycon91]

Just found your channel, cool stuff! Do you have a mod-list?

[@leewilson3839]

Great video so much fun and a great story 😍

[@SleepyGarysGameStream]

👍👍

[@danstaircase]

Oh FUCK YEAH.

[@ArthurBoente]

Just how you could choose this kind of decisions? Literally were do you click to choose those things?

[@MrBeekon]

How do you place doors like that? I'm dumb and i have to click the doors, click where to place them, and then click them again, and place, and so on... XD plz

[@vk-fb4ox]

Good vid

[@scudpunk]

Thank you my friend

[@Mel-mu8ox]

keep the world.... visit it in adventure mode in a year or two :D

[@scudpunk]

Can't wait for adventure mode, love this idea

[@LeeMcDougall]

How did you get the visitors to do what you wanted. Great vid!

[@scudpunk]

The visitors became residents, so I put them in a militia squad and directed them to go where I wanted!

[@umid970]

W video bradr

[@zephyr7590]

Whoa there KruggSmash, I comere for Rust content kek. 8/8 vid scud

[@ITanityy]

rip scudpunk rust

[@scudpunk]

RIP the days when rust was actually fun

[@ITanityy]

@@scudpunk fr dude 2015-2018 was prime in my opinion

[@Kevin-jb2pv]

Hey, I really loved this, but I just _HAVE_ to complain about the amount of swearing in this video: there's not nearly enough. Please add more swearing, slurs, and blasphemy. I noticed other people complaining about swearing, but I just skimmed through and didn't actually read their comments, but I assume they're demanding the same thing I am. Thanks!

[@scudpunk]

Yes I think your right

[@DavidB275]

Moar dorf fort plz

[@Torriotorres]

So there was beef in fort, because some races couldn't handle their drinks? Lol

[@scudpunk]

this pretty much sums it up

[@Dux_Sux]

Feels like an essay from an edgy teenager honestly

[@scudpunk]

Thanks dad

[@nooneyouknow4312]

​ @scudpunk One criticism. Drop the cursing... it doesnt add anything, you dont need it. It prevents parents sharing this vid with kids who also play DF. Your story was rich. On your proofread in your script, everywhere you initial 'thought' you needed it to be 'edgy', I think you can find a creative way around it with other colorful language than swaring.

[@scudpunk]

Yeah I figured someone would make this point. I made the decision to curse based on the fact that, I have 10 million views between youtube and twitch, and almost all of my content is incredibly inappropriate. So the curses are definitely a leftover biproduct of that success and directed at my old viewerbase. But you make an excellent point, if my goal is to find a new audience maybe the cursing should go. Thanks!

[@__xxx_xxx__]

rejoicing about genocide is quite okay, but strong language, good lord, that's simply not acceptable.

[@nooneyouknow4312]

@@__xxx_xxx__ fantasy and games does not and never translated to negative behavior in children (moral panics are a falacy). However, cursing used as normal communication is completely repeatable. Kids a sponges and parrots. They suck in everything a repeat what they hear. You know the families that curse in the house by just listening to the children talk. So yes, its a constant fight as a parent to not normalize that speech, else your child grows up to be a foul mouth little prick. You have 1 job as a parent, and that is to mold their children before they become adults. If you dont understand that, then you are still a child and definitely dont have kids.

[@nardcore661]

Nah be real keep speaking like you want it’ll be your style

[@susliklev9135]

@@scudpunksorry for the necro, but gotta make a counterpoint. I found it very refreshing to watch a DF video with swearing and ‘edgy’ shit in it. Not everything has to be child friendly - especially a fucking video about a racial genocide in a dark fantasy world lmfao.

[@matthewespeland1677]

Fun to watch but the swearing was off-putting.

[@scudpunk]

Thanks dad