Dwarf Fortress is one of those very opaque games where you have to do a bit of reading, experimentation, and losing before you figure out how to properly embark and make a fort that lasts past the first year.

Here's some of the things that I do at the start to the INI files:
  • [SOUND:NO] - I'm not a fan of ToadyOne's procedural music (it's a personal taste).
  • [PRINT_MODE:STANDARD] - This usually works well and is fast, but you can also try 2D or 2DASYNC.
  • [TRUETYPE:YES] - Uses TrueType for the display font instead of the bitmapped fonts.  Note that you can use the mouse wheel to zoom in/out.
  • [FPS_CAP:30] - The default is 100, which I find to be a bit fast for a new player.  It controls the maximum number of game frames per second which get calculated.  Higher numbers mean that things happen faster, perhaps too fast to react before your dwarf does something dwarfy.
  • [G_FPS_CAP:30] - The graphical display cap.  The default is 50, but LCD displays run at 60.
  • [ZOOM_SPEED:10] - The default for this is 10, lower numbers make the mouse wheel zoom finer-grained, larger numbers make the zoom levels much larger steps.
For the 2nd INI file:
  •  [PAUSE_ON_LOAD:YES] - This pauses the world after you load it in from a save file so that you can look around and check on things before the action starts.  When loading the world starts taking a minute or three, this can be important.
  • [EMBARK_RECTANGLE:4:4] - Older machines should try a 2x2 or 2x3 grid.
Then you'll need to create a world.  For your first world, I recommend a medium or small region (not island) using the defaults.  After you have created the world, but before you embark anywhere I recommend making a save and backing up the region# folder.

One way to setup your starting dwarves:
  • (2) miners - These will be *very* busy so turn off other tasks
  • (1) woodcutter/herbalist - hopefully the only dwarf outside the wire
  • (1) farmer/brewer - alcohol is a must
  • (1) farmer/cook - so is food
  • (1) mason/architect - building things is time-consuming
  • (1) mechanic/carpenter - the catch-all dwarf
Key points to remember before the embark:
  1. You'll need something to plant.  Make sure you have at least (10-20) Plump Helmet Spawn or seeds which can be grown.
  2. You'll need something to eat while the crops mature.  Figure 60 units of food of the types that cost 2 embark points.  Or you can take the chance that the foliage at the embark site will be edible and cut back on food.
  3. You'll need something to drink until you can make alcohol.  Each dwarf needs (4) drinks per season on average.  If you're pessimistic, bring 100 units of drink, otherwise try to get by with 50-60.
  4. A few pieces of rope or chain are useful for building wells or chaining up guard animals.
  5. Miners need picks.  I suggest bringing 2 picks.
  6. Woodcutters need axes.  Bring 1-2 axes.
  7. A few units of lye to make soap is very handy.
  8. A few units of sand can be useful if you don't have sand on your embark site.
  9. Plant cloth and plant thread can help with injuries.
  10. Bring some animals.  Dogs are a popular choice (bring at least 1 male and 1 female).  Egg-laying fowl such as turkeys, chickens, geese can provide you with eggs and meat.  Bring at least 1 male and 1 female.  Males will fertilize females anywhere on the map.
  11. Bring an iron anvil.  Or hope that the fall caravan will bring one and that you can afford to buy it.
Goals right after the embark:
  1.  A source of water.  In an area which freezes during the winter, you'll need to construct an underground cistern or gain access to underground water.  In warmer areas, this can simply be a pond that you include inside your perimeter.
  2. Somewhere to setup a few small farm patches (a few 2x3 to 2x5 areas will produce a lot of food, but leave room to expand out to half a dozen patches).  For underground crops, this means digging out rooms in soil/sand or digging out a room in rock and then flooding it before draining off the excess water.
  3. Stockpiles near the farm patches to accept the type of food being grown, make sure you hit the (R) key to have it accept barrels. Also stockpiles that will accept plants gathered by workers on the surface.  Have at least 1 dwarf go and gather (d-p) all plants in the area and bring them back to a stockpile.
  4. A wood stockpile (2x5 to 5x5) along with a carpenter's workshop (b-w-c) which can be used to produce barrels, beds, buckets, bins, corkscrews, pipes.  Create a 5-15 tile stockpile nearby to accept the empty barrels (p-c-t, disable everything, then enable furniture, barrels). Have your woodcutter start cutting (d-t) trees in the immediate area to use in wood crafts.
  5. A still (b-w-l) used to turn plants and barrels into alcohol.  Have a small stockpile nearby to accept empty barrels and another small stockpile nearby to accept full barrels.  Locate it somewhat near your farms and food storage.
  6. Get your miner(s) busy carving out rooms.
  7. A mechanic's workshop (b-w-t) used to make rock mechanisms out of stone.  Create a stockpile next to it to accept 3-6 mechanisms and another stockpile that accepts stone.
  8. A mason's workshop (b-w-m) used to turn (1) stone into (4) blocks.  Have a stockpile next to it that accepts stone and another stockpile that accepts stone blocks.  Mason workshops are also used to make doors, hatches, thrones (chairs), tables and other useful things.
  9. Create pastures for any grazing animals (such as the critters that pulled your wagon).
Top goals for the initial season:
  1. Beds, at least 1 bed for every 2-3 dwarves in some common room away from noise.
  2. Barrels, lots and lots of barrels.
  3. Bins, not as many of these, but you should make a few.
  4. Stone blocks to be used in construction of walls and defensive structures.
  5. A defensive perimeter, probably no larger then 20x20 on the surface.  To wall in a 20x20 area you're going to need about 80 stone blocks, plus extra blocks for things like stairs / ramps / bridges.
  6. Get your farms up and running and get your brewer up and running.  If you have 20 dwarves then you should have about 80 drink and 40 food on-hand in the "z" screen.  More is better so that you can deal with immigrant waves.
  7. A few wheelbarrows, which speed up the movement of stone.
  8. A few nest boxes made at a Craftsdwarf's workshop (b-w-r) so your egg layers will start laying.  Along with a stockpile nearby that accepts eggs.
  9. Making things to sell to the caravan (rock mechanisms, stone crafts, prepared food) as well as setting up a trade depot.