Duskwrought

What is Duskwrought?

Duskwrought is a cosmic horror dieselpunk setting for Ironsworn, a tabletop roleplaying game designed for solo and gamemaster-less play. The world of Duskwrought is a dark, godless place, where aberrations and creatures beyond the mortal world are exploited, hunted, damned, and worshipped. In an alternative version of Victorian-era London, metal reigns supreme: whale oil is used to power grandiose contraptions and hulking automatons roam the grime-ridden, smog-filled streets.

The Aim of this Book

This setting guide is designed to give a player or gamemaster the ideas, creatures, locations, assets, and descriptions that they might need to jump into an eldritch Victorian-inspired world. The aim of this book is not to fully flush out everything you might encounter in a Duskwrought campaign, but to provide an evocative jumping off point. Given the nature of Ironsworn’s improvisational play structure, a full campaign is beyond this document’s scope, but various quest hooks are provided throughout for inspiration.

The City

London is a sprawling behemoth of rapidly industrialising businesses. Cramped side-alleys, crowded docks, jammed train stations, and bustling markets dot the city. But, whilst based on London in c.1868, the industrialisation of Duskwrought’s London is driven by eldritch pacts, dirty oil-based electricity generation, and massive clunking gears, pulleys, belts, cogs, and pistons. London is alive in more than literal sense. Beyond the mechanical, mysterious forces are also at play: otherworldly beings forcing both their physical corruption and their telepathic influence through the seams between realities. And with this power come those who are willing to exploit it.

The city is controlled by a ferocious mix of hungry bureaucrats and rival gangs. Together, they own the transport, water, electricity, food, and metalwork businesses that keep London operating. To have any say in how the city runs, you first have to scramble your way to the top. Death and destruction are not uncommon, but crossing paths with those in power is a dangerous game, and their influence extends further than just those directly beneath them. Everyone owes someone. And most people are willing to throw someone else under the tramway if it means getting to work another day.

I hope to continue development on Duskwrought in the coming future, hopefully transforming it into a full title. For updates, make sure to follow me on Itch, and do let me know if there's anything you'd like to see. Many more assets and NPCs are planned for the full release.

Duskwrought was created for the Elsewhere 2024 Ironsworn setting game jam. For more projects like this, check out https://sambell.itch.io/ or buy me a coffee at https://buymeacoffee.com/sambell