From Introduction:
The Curse of the House of Wretchwick is a role-playing game about misery & fate: the characters within the game struggle to find happiness, but misery rules the day. Set in a fictitious castle the size of a small town that is home to the Lords who rule over the surrounding country, you play one of the numerous lesser nobles who may, one day, assume mastery of all you survey. You probably won’t though and so, as an overprivileged parasite born into a society that has supported others like you for generations, you turn to meaningless distractions to fill your days. Hanging over all though is the family Curse: the origins of the Curse (Kerrack! Boom!) are lost to legend, but its power is manifest everywhere. Nobles within the House are doomed to unhappiness, losing the things they love and being swallowed up by the things they loathe. Serfs who become involved with nobles die in tragic circumstances. Even in death, many of the family line cannot escape, being doomed to become some form of unnatural, undead creature until they have severed the bonds tying them to this world. The only way to escape this dread destiny is to surrender all your rights as a member of the Line of Wretchwick and depart the House forever, but to do so you will need to find enough inner strength to believe that you can make a life for yourself outside the House.