Dwarf Fortress just made it easier for modders to add their own procedural creatures, items, curses, and more: 'All of these things have been hard-coded in Dwarf Fortress, inaccessible to modders. Now the algorithms and data are available'

A lineup of different sprites created for Dwarf Fortress' Adventure Mode.

For years, Dwarf Fortress co-creator Tarn Adams has been planning a more mythical turn for the notoriously dense fantasy sim—which, by his own admission, has been a little lacking on the fantastical front. Today, thanks in large part to the efforts of programmer Putnam, who joined Bay 12 Games in 2022, Dwarf Fortress makes its first major step towards that prophesied myth and magic update with a scripting overhaul that will let modders work a bit more of their own magic.

The plans for Dwarf Fortress's myth and magic update are lofty ones, involving procedural creation myths that will influence procedural divine pantheons who will work procedural wonders with procedural magic. To accommodate those goals, however, bits of Dwarf Fortress have needed to be rebuilt, and today's Lua scripting update does just that.