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Excellent stuff, I thought this was great. 

I never have the guts to try the harder settings, so seeing the rapid build-up of problems was great.  I especially loved the brief resurrection at the end!

Definitely post more when you get the chance.

When I first started playing Rimworld I tried a little experiment to see if I could lure raiders with booby-trapped gold. 

I put a small pile of gold in a little room on the other side of the map, then I had someone lay 3 or 4 IED's in there.  I thought it was incredibly clever, but no one ever went for it so after a while I forgot the room was there. 

Later on the base was getting really messy so I set someone's cleaning priority to '1'.  What I didn't know at the time is that the booby-trapped room would be considered part of the 'home' area, so my pawn scooted off to give it a good polish.  Unfortunately I realised what they were doing about a second before they started sweeping on top of an IED... and got blown into a million tiny pieces.

I imprison them to execute as example. It's difference between shooting criminals at field and executing them in prison. Especially disarmed criminals.

If you were a rimworld pawn there is a good chance you'd have the character trait 'psycopath'. 

I think maybe we're all treating the 'innocent prisoner' problem as if it's completely black and white.

If someone has been attacking you and your home, then of course there is going to be some ill-will towards that person.  On the other hand, once they have been taken into captivity they are ultimately helpless.  Regardless of what they have done, if you have chosen to imprison them then they are in your care.

That leads to the question – why did you capture them in the first place? If you wanted to kill them, why didn't you do that during or directly after the battle?  If your aim is to recruit them, then we're assuming that the colony are willing to live and work alongside this person in just a few days, so would they really be completely okay with them needlessly dying?  If your plan is to harvest the prisoner for organs or eat them – fine! But you have to expect civilised people to take issue with that.

Having said all that, it's obvious that the death of a friend or colleague is more upsetting than the death of an unknown aggressor – but that doesn't mean it wouldn't be upsetting to most people.  Perhaps the simplest route would be just to switch the negative impact of these two debuffs.

I guess sometimes it's truly hard to harm fluffy little birds although kibbles are running dangerously low due to volcanic winter and toxic fallout.

so, what about building a heat/cold room, shut fledglings in and pretending they are not there suffering and dying?

Seems like a good compromise.  As long as the walls are thick enough to block out their adorable squeaks of despair.

IMO, other birds suck.
the maturity age of turkey is 2+ compare to chicken's 0.3+.
Cassowary, ostrich and emu are no better.
you simply can't farm them on a large scale.
it's wiser to butcher baby turkey/ostrich as soon as it hatches.

But what about their fluffy little faces?!

This is an excellent idea, well done!

Which scenario did you start with?  This seems like one where you could set up a good custom scenario, maybe starting with 4 or 5 pawns, with a pretty good spread of skills.

It will also be interesting to see how the AI storyteller reacts, because the two colonies are going to be at different stages / have different levels of security etc. So something might not be a threat to one but could decimate the other.

Very interested to see how this one pans out.

J-Mac's Plan

As time passed J-Mac got better.  She would always miss Danny, but she also knew the other colonists depended on her and couldn't survive without her help.  She carried on assisting Bluebird with the hydroponic growing project and when this was done she had a little time to sit and consider what could be done to combat the increasingly dangerous pirate raids.

After another late night she came up with an idea, it was potentially very dangerous but it could solve all of their problems if implemented correctly.

The next day J-Mac made her way to an abandoned shack on the edge of the colony, it needed a lot of work, but she fixed up the walls, cleared some plants away and built a couple of sturdy doors.  She went to speak to Beau, and convinced him to haul some large slate blocks to the room, they had a surplus and seemed like just the sort of thing that might be of interest to some shrewd pirates, looking to make a quick buck.

That was the bait, but now she needed to set the trap.  Her first thought had been to build some simple metal traps, something that might fall as they entered the room, something that would wound or maim them.  But that wasn't enough, this needed to be something that would make future pirates terrified of attacking the colony, it would need to make them so afraid that it wouldn't be worth their time to come looking for loot... and the colony's troubles would finally be over.

With that, she set about the task of building several explosive traps around the new shack.  Though an excellent builder, J-Mac wasn't used to this kind of fiddly work, and it took her a long time to plant the first IED.  She knew she could ask Beau for help, but this was dangerous work and she couldn't bring herself to risk the others.

By the end of the day J-Mac had planted 4 explosive traps  around the room.  She was genuinely proud of this plan – if it worked then they would be rid of the pirates forever, if not then all they had wasted was a few blocks of slate.  She tried not to admit it to herself, but deep down she felt pleased that the pirates would meet such a horrible end at the hands of their own greed.  She had loved Danny so much; it was only natural that she would want some sort of revenge.   With that thought a shape appeared just outside the doorway, a huge timber wolf cautiously approached.  "Danny!" she cried.

Of course, it wasn't him, just a big, curious wolf, looking for food in the wilderness.  J-Mac approached him, emotions washed over her. "Here boy" she uttered, but in a blink the wolf was gone and she stood there alone.  The experience had startled her, and she stumbled back against the wall to steady herself and regain her senses.  The last sound J-Mac ever heard was the quiet beeping of a triggered IED.  She thought about Danny one more time, then the room erupted into flame and she was gone.

I picked up Rimworld about a week ago and have found it so compelling.  I've tried a few different scenario's but the one that has lasted longest started with 3 characters: Beau, J-Mac and Bluebird.  Too much has happened to recount it all, so I have taken a couple events and turned them into very short stories:

Danny - Kill

One pirate remained; she emerged from a flaming mound of destroyed sandbags and turret parts, giant and terrifying in the mid-morning sun.   She bore down upon Beau with her iron club, who deftly swung back with his sword, the two clashed and circled each other, neither gaining enough ground to finish the fight.  J-Mac stood back with her assault rifle, afraid to shoot lest she hit the wrong target.

"DANNY" she yelled - "KILL".

The huge timber-wolf slipped from her side like a shadow and crashed into the pirate as she raised her club.  For a moment it seemed that the battle was over, but she managed to steady herself and knock the wolf back.  She swung her club wildly to keep her enemies at bay and in her rage she caught Beau in the chest, he fell to the ground stunned... and vulnerable.  Danny moved swiftly around the pirate, nipping at her heels to give Beau time to recover.

With Beau on the ground J-Mac finally had a clear shot, she stared straight down the iron-sights of her rifle, took a deep breath and squeezed the trigger.

At the same moment Danny saw his chance, the pirate's throat was exposed and he leapt upon her with all of his strength.  J-Mac had fired three shots - two found their mark, the third did not... it struck the timber wolf, it struck her beloved Danny.  Danny, who she had found in the wild, trained and loved unconditionally for these past two years. He had become her truest and closest companion in a world that could be so lonely.

Bluebird heard the terrible scream and could no longer stay hidden inside.  She ran out into the courtyard to find J-Mac on her knees, cradling the wolf she had loved so much.  Bluebird was a skilled Doctor, she could heal just about anything if she had the time and the tools... but she couldn't resurrect the dead.  It was too late, the battle had been won, but J-Mac would never be the same again.