Urist McNakkel has been nauseated by the sun recently. Let's stay inside and play a Dwarf Fortress succession game!

The venerable among you may remember the brief and ultimately ill-fated Fort Armorstabbed, which fell to the most insidious enemy of all: save corruption caused by version incompatability. To prevent this, we've decided that instead of just sending the save file to each other, we'll be sending the entire game to ensure that each version remains the same(Also, I edited the raw files to remove aquifers because they're just a pain all round).

Now for some Q&A:
What is Dwarf Fortress?
Dwarf Fortress is life and death. Dwarf Fortress is the be all and end all of videogaming. It is the pinnacle of human endeavour. When Dwarf Fortress is finally complete, the Gods will weep, for they have been outdone. Armok shall be our deity, and the Toady One the divine manifestation of its will. Weep, foolish mortals! Know that the end of your comfortable lives draws ever closer! Armok is not peaceful or merciful! It is fickle and tends to get bored when its chosen people aren't getting horribly eviscerated by cave monsters.

No but seriously, Dwarf Fortress is a roguelike management game centered around building a fort of very drunk and very temperamental dwarves. Above all, though, Dwarf Fortress is very very Fun.

Okay, but what makes Dwarf Fortress good?
Well, it's incredibly detailed, for one. There's tons of stuff to do and overcome, even for experienced players. The best part, however, is that the level of detail leads to sheer insanity. The game is still in alpha, and the level of potential madness is staggering. Here's the bug tracker(NOT SAFE FOR WORK, MAY CAUSE YOUR BRAIN TO SHIFT GEARS WITHOUT THE CLUTCH). Some choice samples from that include:
Biting dwarves in minecarts infinitely increases combat range
Loyalty cascade from killing yak cow mist zombie
Vampire outed by cat adoption
Vaporized dwarf's !!clothing!! is still on my stocks list after years submerged in magma.
Traders/merchants go crazy (berserk/insane/melancholy) if trade depot doesn't exist when they arrive
Humans' Diplomat is a demon, destroys all constructions it passes by, never initiates meeting

So, yeah. Anything can happen!

What's a succession game?
It's quite simple, really.One person will control the fortress for a set amount of game time, and then they will save the file and send it to the next person in the rotation. This happens until everybody loses interest or the Fort meets a fitting end. More on the rules below.

It's a pity I've never played this. I'd love to join in.
Never fear! We like it when new players start the game for us. It makes things more interesting later on. I've embarked with a core group of Dwarves with all the basic skills you'll need to survive your first year. As the game progresses, however, it may be best if you garner experience beforehand or at least have the wiki open as you play.

Squidwhipped?
Randomly generated names are the best kind of names!

Alright, enough questions. Let's get to the meat of this.

THE RULES

Everyone will play one year, from the beginning of Spring until the end of Winter. When you see that green text saying "Spring has Arrived!" at the bottom of the screen, save the game, close it, zip it and send it on to the next person. You have one week to complete your turn. I'll allow an extension of up to two weeks, but only with prior notice. Failure to meet the deadline will have the next person in the rotation being given the same save you received, with your turn being skipped. Doing something stupid or deliberately getting all your dwarves killed by locking them in a flooding tunnel or something will meet the same fate. We want the death of this fortress to be organic! You don't need to be in character for your posts, but it helps. The most common is a Dwarf sent from the mountainhome to oversee the fort for a year, but many others can be done. I'll link the most infamous one below.

Keep in mind that some people may choose to use rars when sending the file. For that reason, I suggest you get a copy of WinRAR. The free trial lasts forever despite what it says, so go get it!

This sounds great! You're the best, nakkel! Where do I sign up?
I know, my friend, I know. Well, all you need to do is leave a message in this thread with your email/ google account so I can add you to the blog. If you don't want to leave your email in the thread, swing by the IRC and if I'm on you can leave me a PM. Then all you need to do is play your year(take pictures!), write your post, and pass it on!

Good luck, and strike the earth!

LINKS:
Fort Squidwhipped blog
Magmawiki, for all your information needs
NSFW Boatmurdered, the ultimate example of what we're trying to do here