Getting Started with Dwarf Fortress – it’s out!
Great news! My book, “Getting Started with Dwarf Fortress” is available at O’Reilly.com! You can pick it up as an eBook or, at not much extra, an eBook and print book combo. The book will also be available on Amazon next week or so, but the Amazon eBook does not feature the “Real Time” updates that buying through O’Reilly does. Real Time is a feature whereby a book can be rapidly updated by the author and then owners alerted to download the latest version when it is released. I intend to update the book at all major Dwarf Fortress releases, keeping the book relevant to the reader at all time.
Of course, the print book does not get real time upgrades!
For those interested, here’s the chapter list:
- Foreword by Tarn Adams
- Preface
- Chapter 1: Introduction
- Chapter 2: Playing God
- Chapter 3: First Steps
- Chapter 4: Filling Dwarf Bellies
- Chapter 5: Merchants and Trading
- Chapter 6: Dwarf Resource Management
- Chapter 7: Digging Deeper
- Chapter 8: Industry
- Chapter 9: Justice, Healthcare and Vampires
- Chapter 10: The Military
- Chapter 11: Engineering
- Afterword: Farther
- Appendix
The book clocks in at 240 pages or so and 80,000 words. It features nine full-page illustrations and a half-dozen diagrams by Tim Denee. The illustrations are based on stories from Dwarf Fortress submitted by players on the forum. You can see one here. If you buy the book, I hope you enjoy it! And please, feel free to let me know if there are any problems with the book. I’ll be updating it, after all!
Get the Book!
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After Action Reporter 
Thats a hellalot of pages ! Well done Mr Pirate!
Excited to read this!
Congrats, Calistas! 😀
i already bought the kindle version a few days ago at amazon. it’s a very nice addition to the wiki and the tutorial videos available on youtube and definitely useful for new and advanced players. it’s also fun to read. 🙂
“real time updates” may not be available for the kindle version from amazon, but will it still get the updates after a while? i don’t care if i have to wait a few weeks longer than for the real time updates at o’reilly.
If you decide you need “Real Time” updates in future you can visit the O’Reilly site and register your copy for $5 and get the updates from then on. That’s the only way, sorry! And thanks for picking the book up, and I’m glad you’re enjoying it!
Just got the ebook version..Thanks so much for writing this!!!! Have tried Dwarf Fortress before, but I’m a purist and I couldnt find a place where I could learn what all of the ASCII represented. If you have so much as a passing interest for this game….this is an absolute essential!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!