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Dwarf Fortress’s accessible Adventure mode will arrive in the Steam version in April 2024The easiest way to play

The easiest way to play

Image credit:Bay12 Games/Kitfox

Image credit:Bay12 Games/Kitfox

A fortress as viewed in Adventure Mode in Dwarf Fortress.

Dwarf Fortressis best known as a colony sim, but the wonderfully detailed fantasy world’s it generates can be played in different ways. Adventure mode is a procedurally generated RPG campaign in which you control just a single character, and it’s now on its way to Kitfox’s DF-with-graphics Steam release in April 2024.

Adventure mode brings several new features to Dwarf Fortress, some of which will benefit the colony management sim, too. Characters now have faces, for example, with portraits of dwarves reflecting “their description, from wounds to clothing to hairstyle.” The world map is being revised to more clearly highlight roads, towns and homes, all of which important landmarks on your adventures.

Combat is also being updated visually and mechanically, with a new wrestling system. “This will encourage players who may have in the past avoided grappling, to maybe look forward to a tussle,” says the press release. This is Dwarf Fortress though, so you can also ignore combat entirely and spend your time reciting poems in taverns.

This ends badly. I look forward to getting to experience similar adventures with a better, mouse-driven interface and some lovely sprite art come April.