[Critch]

I had thought about trying out a Rimworld dynasty about my current game but the settlement in that game was pretty severely humped by an ill-timed insectoid infestation incident. I posted a supposed-to-be one-off glimpse in the "Glimpses and Moments from Undynastied" thread detailing the virtually definite end of my settlement. There was a little interest expressed in a Rimworld dynasty, so here we are.

Rimworld
"RimWorld is a sci-fi colony sim driven by an intelligent AI storyteller. Inspired by Dwarf Fortress, Firefly, and Dune." That's what it says on the Rimworld Steam store page, sums it up pretty nicely. It's not the prettiest game, it's all 2d and pixelly, little pawns shuffle around carrying out their orders, but it's deep with lots of options and things to build, and a wide variety of threats to overcome. It's also a modders-delight, steam workshop has mods for everything, although I'm playing totally vanilla. I don't like mods that mess with the balance of the game.

The base game was released 10 years ago, even now the developer rarely allows sales so the basegame is still $35. So all in all it's not cheap. There are also three DLCs adding depth: Royalty (adds an Empire and feudalism), Ideology (adds religion), and Biotech (adds genetic modification and children). This is my first playthrough with the DLCs, it's a learning experience really. I'm not really sure how much the DLCs add but I've bought them as they were released meaning to get back into Rimworld but haven't until now..

The story so far:
Paleal was a little settlement of 10 people, almost four (in-game) years old and fairly secure. It started out with three survivors crashlanding in a hilly temperate forest, they then built a small shelter up against a hill for themselves, fought off a few raids, completed a few queasts, and slowly built up their settlement. Of the original three survivors two (Ironhead and Maisie) were still around leading the settlement but the first camp leader Manju was kidnapped a few years ago by refugees who turned out to be untrustworthy. She's never been heard of again but she might be out there somewhere, who knows.

There was also a dog when they first landed, no idea where it went.

The Paleal central building was a jumble of rooms cluttered around the original shelter, all roofed and linked by narrow corridors. I didn't really do any planning, it was all very cluttered organic growth, rooms added on as needed. The central building had a main room with tables for dining ("Ate Without A Table" is a regular mood debuff meme in Rimworld Reddit), there was a basic hospital, every inhabitant had their own bedroom, there was a classroom for teaching the kids, a tv room for recreation, and a number of production room. A tailors bench, a stonecutter's bench, a machining room, a smelter. There was also a kitchen with a large freezer room attached and 500 meals stored, more than enough for winter. Everything was powered by a windturbine and solar panels with backup generators to switch on when needed (ie when it wasnt windy or sunny enough for wind/solar). There was also a newly-built geothermal generator over a steam guyser. So power had no issues other than the occassional electical fire.

Around the central building there were fields growing rice, potatoes, cotton and corn. Add in meat from hunting the local wildlife when available and Paleal was more than self sufficient for food. The whole settlement was walled, only one well-defended doorway in and out, and the settlers armed with rifles, shotguns and a single SMG. All was going well, the inhabitants were fed, they could manufacture weapons and clothing, everything was as good as being on a nasty planet's surface could be.

I think Paleal could be kindly described as a fairly comfortable, self-sufficient warren.

That's where it all went wrong, an 8-year-old boy turned up looking for shelter but with insectoids following him that the settlement would have to fight off. Big armored insects, not cute little bugs. We could have closed the doors and left him to cope on his own, but Paleal was going with the theme of being a sanctuary for anybody who needed it, so he was allowed in. That was a disaster, the insectoids popped up through the ground right in the middle of the central building maze and now almost everybody is dead and most of the compound has burnt down. I armed one settler with an incendiary grenade launcher to burn the insectoid hives, that would have worked ok if they hadn't popped through in a room with wooden floors and walls.

The current situation:
Paleal is down to one healthy inhabitant: Honey, a 13 year old pacifist. She's genetically engineered to be a concubine, beautiful, kind, delicate and charming but incapable of violence. She's hiding in a bedroom on the edge of settlement, all the food burned during the insectoid attack, so she's slowly munching her way through the corpse of one of the dead colonists. She's eaten a leg so far, so she's well fed but despondent about eating human flesh. Not that despondent though, this is the second body she has eaten, she polished off the 8-year-old refugee's body first. (Spoiler, there's actually one other survivor I hadn't noticed, Paleal's population is about to boom to 2. But not for long.)

Fortunately the infestation hives have all been destroyed, the fires destroyed them, so there will be no more insectoids popping up. There's only the stragglers to worry about. Insectoids come in three sizes (megaspiders - big, armored and mean, spelopede - medium and fast, scarab - small and faster), generally the bigger they are the more of a challenge they are. There are 1 big and 3 medium left wandering around. Not too much but way more than an unarmed teenage pacifist can cope with.

So the plan is to write this dynasty until the settlement's gruesome end. Not sure how many posts that'll take.