Game Overview
Rimworld, spiritual sequel to the cult hit Dwarf Fortress, has just finally privately released its 1.0 update to its userbase via the development team’s forum. As such it seems like a wonderful time to finally experience it firsthand, boots on the ground.
For those who are not aware of Dwarf Fortress or Rimworld, the game is a colonial management simulator at a glance- both Rimworld and it’s precursor are well known for their often brutal and comedic gameplay, sporting internal psychology systems for it’s characters and dynamic AI direction that generates threats and incidents to keep the player on the toes. This can range from a pack of alpha-beavers devouring your favorite natural resources, to a nuclear winter that will give your colonists radiation sickness from prolonged atmospheric exposure.
In Rimworld, you have one objective: escape the planet. How you do that is entirely up to you; rule your colonists with an iron fist - capturing and enslaving planetary tribes as a group of fierce warriors, or perhaps a friendly trader going from nation to nation who trades exotic animals and weaponry for spare parts and supplies. Within the scope of the game, there’s an incredibly large amount of possible interactions and events: it is up to you to make your colonies story.
So now into the meat of the game. For the sake of keeping to the theme, I’m going to provide an overview of the initial characters and take some creative liberties to give them a bit of history.
The Colonists
On 5302, the jumpship Guadalupe lost contact with it’s established route to the Glitterworld of Perseus IV. Nobody aboard who knew why or how it went down made it out; when the escape pods broke orbit, they were left with a ragtag crew sent hurtling towards a set of nearby woods. Thankfully for them, it was a nice, out-of-the-way neck of the woods- good for lumber, good for growing.
A fortunate omen. This sad group would need all the help it could get.
Kimiko Arano, the first of our unfortunate souls to make it to the escape pods. They were a space-rat, born to the vast ocean of stars; born and raised Navy brat for the UTF. However, Kimiko has a dark secret they’ll have a hard time keeping from the rest of our colonists; sometimes, mid-surgery, they like to take a bit of meat off their patients for a snack. She’s a tried-and-true cannibal, and often comes off as a pain to listen to- though they’re a bit touchy, slugging it out with people who make comments.
Patty Orchard. Second woman to make it to the escape pods. A civilian in transport to the glitter world; they were a machinist, specialized in scrapping and reconstructing old technology. They had a nice job offer standing to help manage the antimatter reactors before everything went to shit and they found themselves on this unidentified world with nothing in the way of friends or family. She’s got a bad habit of often vanishing on drug binges and getting handsy with their coworkers, but she has a solid head on her shoulders and doesn’t cave much to stress.
However, there were plenty of others who made it out on the other escape pods- will our fair colonists survive long enough to ever meet any of them?
"First Dawn," the Landing
Everyone made it down to the surface without grievous injuries. The cryocoffins finish their fit of pneumatic hissing, and within the hour everyone acquaints themselves with their “new world.” An uncharted and unnamed hole off in the periphery that, as of yet, they knew nothing about- besides the fact the atmosphere was breathable. As of yet, there’s no proof that there is anyone else left on this world. Everyone is struggling to cope with reality a little bit, understandably- but they all realize that there’s a good chance of them making it out if they can get out an SOS.
However, getting out an SOS requires they survive a few days. The team sets out, with Blanca taking the lead and grabbing the only available firearm. A set of worn down and ancient concrete-style buildings are discovered, and the gang sets up camp. It’s no weekend in Ibeeza, but it seems like everything is alright. The foodstuff and materials get sorted up in piles, and everyone gets a good night's rest for tomorrow.
Ideally, this’ll be the first of a miniseries touching on the new content Rimworld has been pumping out these last few months! I’ve been lurking on Steemit for a while, but I couldn’t find any topics I was sufficiently interested in to [ideally] write something decent around.
Apologies if my English isn’t all that great- this is a learning experience.
Next time, I’ll probably be doing a month of play and providing a breakdown of events and some of the interesting events that have happened. If anyone has any suggestions or ideas to make it more interesting to read, I would love to hear them!
