What Is It?
Kriegmund is a module of a huge fantasy
adventure game DungeonWorld.
The Kriegmund Setting
Many hundreds of years ago settlers arrived in the land where Kriegmund is set. Fleeing from some terror in their own homeland they hoped they would find their way to a safe haven.
They stumbled across an ancient city, unknown to them, abandoned. Surrounded on all sides by inhospital terrain and terrible giant insect monsters they took refuge inside.
They quickly found the city was a place of wonders. Though not a soul lived there it had a magical power source, impressive buildings of amazing alien architecture, incredible devices to improve their lives. And deep in the huge central building, in a vault, upon a grand table, lit by the spectral glow of a thousand neolicturns, there was a book. The title of the book, simply, was The Master Plan.
Within this ancient volume were the words of long-dead scribes which purported to be guidance for creating the perfect society. A set of rules both sublime and profound, for the formulation of a demos so perfect, so good, so fair - that all would live well and prosper in joy forevermore.
Taken with this incredible idea, the original settlers, known as the Early Folk, set about enacting this document’s promise. They set about creating utopia.
Understand This
In Kriegmund, Evil has won. This does not mean every character is relentlessly evil, heartless, cruel and monstrous. That is up to you the player to decide and roleplay. But the setting in which your characters are based does not encourage “good.”
Charity is done for political purpose. Honour is seldom more than a facade. Honesty is taken advantage of. Compassion is unnecessary - somebody else’s duty. Decency is an affectation. Generosity is for fools.
In Kriegmund, everything takes place according to the Master Plan, whose word is enacted by the Council Of Planning Elders. The Master Plan takes care of everyone and everything. It is perfect and criticising the Master Plan is a capital offence.
All are assigned duties at their age of maturity and expected to work for the Master Plan in their assigned role forever. Most of those roles are prescriptive and isolating. But a handful of roles allow some limited movement about the city. These are the classes from which player’s characters are drawn.
Nobody but the Council Of Planning Elders ever sees the Master Plan. But it’s definitely working. If it wasn’t, things would be much worse. Wouldn’t they?