The Province Of Derwent
DungeonWorld is a character-based multiplayer
turn-based fantasy adventure
game.
It is set in an epic world full of monsters,
mayhem,
swords and sorcery.
Steamworx is a module set in the distant Province of Derwent.
Deep Forests and Mitsy Bogs
The Province Of Derwent, which is the setting for Steamworx, is a huge expanse of wilderness dominated by massive evergreen forests, wild rushing rivers, dark misty bogs and wild untamed heathland.
If you imagine a cross between Eastern Europe in the dark ages, with a bit of Scotland and Ireland thrown in for good measure you get an idea of the terrain here. The populate that area with a weird evil version of Victorian England and you have the full flavour.
Unlike the other DungeonWorld settings, Derwent could be considered, in some ways, an evil place. Not everybody, certainly, but the history and culture have made its morals very different from its heroic neighbour, the Kingdom of Bereny.
Steamworx is a place of skullduggery, intrigue, and mystery. A place of shadows and secrets.
The Province of Derwent - Evil Home of Steam and Clockwork.
Steamworx is not a separate module of DungeonWorld.
It is simply a vast new area to explore, with more character
options, items and monsters. It has a unique flavour
featuring strange and fantastic devices of steam and
clockwork and a setting as dark and evil as has ever
been seen in the DungeonWorld Game.
Giant Tin Robots, strange guns whch fire blasts of hot
smoke, lobotomised dwarves with tick tock brains, all
this and much more twisted mayhem can be found in Derwent,
the home of the Steamworx module.
A Fresh Start
New players in DungeonWorld are especially welcome in
Derwent, though the module is recommended for adults.
There is always some worry that joining a large and
well-established game like DungeonWorld will mean "competing"
with long-time players. While this actually isn't the
case in DungeonWorld, you can set your minds entirely
at rest by joining Derwent, where everybody gets in
at exactly the same starting point.
Rules Of Participation
Each player can control up to three adventuring positions
in Steamworx. Each position can have up to ten main
characters and an unlimited amount of sub-characters.
It is entirely possible to play and thoroughly enjoy
Steamworx with only two characters, so don't feel you must have a big position to have fun. Options
for larger positions are only there to satisfy people
who like big turns. Steamworx is an adventure game and
a roleplaying game, not a competitive game, so different
people's position sizes need have no bearing on one
another.
Although Steamworx is part of the main DungeonWorld
module (Module 5), players of that module who wish to
start Steamworx characters must start a new position
to do so. It is possible to travel to and from Derwent,
but the distance is great and the journey difficult,
which prevents easy access.
Political Correctness
Derwent is extremely un-politically correct. Given its
setting, it has slaves, monstrous experiments, women
in subservient lifestyles, mistreatment of the poor,
corporal punishment, terrible state secrets, you name
it. <grin> Anybody who finds this sort of thing
offensive in a fantasy setting is asked to please
abstain from participation. It's only a game. The
opinions of the evil folk in Derwent do not reflect
those of the Madhouse staff. With the exception of lobotomised
dwarves. That sounds very fair ; )
Mainland
Derwent, where Steamworx is set, is a large mass of land to the North-West of Bereny. It is bordered on its South-Eastern tip by the wastelands known as the Broken Lands and along its Eastern side by the impressive Spirit Mountains. The Capital City of Derwent, called (imaginatively) the City of Derwent, is also the ONLY city. All the residents of the Province live there, or in small villages nestled nearby. The majority of Derwent is completely unexplored. And for good reason.
Derwent is a large of immense black forests harbouring
creatures and races thus far unknown to man. Its people
have preferred to lock themselves behind their massive
walls and live a cloistered but comfortable life of
prosperity... at least for the idle rich.
Increasing pollution from smoke and alchemicals heave
meant that the Derwentians must push further afield,
to open up more of their lands for expansion and population.
Kriegmund
Hundreds of miles away, on the far Western edge of the
province lies the brooding Kingdom of Kriegmund, a place
which is rumoured to be even blacker and more unpleasant
that Derwent. Only a handful even claim to have visited
or traded with Kriegmund, but the people of Derwent
have begun suggesting that more links might be useful.
Especially since Bereny are so distrustful...
The province of Derwent, the long-established enemy
of the good Kingdom of Bereny, is the setting
for Steamworx. A land of corruption, evil and darkness.
A land where forgotten science takes the
place of familiar magic, where the gods give no power
to their half-hearted worshippers and where the pinnacle
of glory is to rise to be the ruler of a Faction, to
build factories which spew black smoke into the air,
to pollute the waters with alchemicals, to twist and
mould the mind of slave races to the whims
of their tyrannical masters.
Derwent, a land where goodness is seen as weakness. Where you are only on top until somebody stabs you in the back. A land where the rules favour the strong rather than the just.
Derwent, a province torn apart by its own mistakes. Its wild animals driven insane and made into terrible monsters by a mysterious plague. Its fertile lands made bad by sewage and waste. A place abandoned by its own people... Until now.
Derwent. A place of shadowy conspiracies which resist penetration and revelation. A place of awful secrets waiting to be revealed...
The Characters
Characters can choose from all Berenian classes except
Dwarves and Elves. (They can still come here, but cannot
START here.) Also, eight new Derwentian Classes (four
of which are available to free-play positions.)
Main Module Links
Derwent is part of DungeonWorld Main Module (5). You
can travel between the two lands across the Spirit Mountains,
although the journey is long and treacherous. Since
Derwent is now being reclaimed with assistance from
Bereny, Berenians are welcome in Derwent.
At least for now...