Grading the Mörk Borg System

[CleverNickName]

Have you ever used the Mörk Borg System for any of your tabletop roleplaying games? This is one of the newest RPG systems out there; it's the system that will be used by the upcoming Four Borg game (currently on Kickstarter), and is already being used by Pirate Borg, Fey Borg, Dukk Borg, and of course Mörk Borg itself. Wikipedia has the following to say about it:

Mörk Borg is a tabletop role-playing game inspired by heavy metal music, created by Swedish game designers Pelle Nilsson and Johan Nohr and published by Free League in February 2020. The game features dark themes, frequent character death, and a doom metal playlist. The title means "dark castle" in Swedish.​

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Mörk Borg has inspired extensive third-party content.​

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Mörk Borg uses 20-sided-dice rolls with character stat modifiers. It is rules-light.​

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Mörk Borg won four ENNIE Awards in 2020: three Gold Ennies for "Product of the Year," "Best Writing," and "Best Layout and Design," and one Silver ENnie for "Best Game." In 2021, Mörk Borg Cult: Feretory won the Gold ENnie for "Best Supplement." In 2022, the Mörk Borg Digital Monster Generator won the Gold ENnie for "Best Aid/Accessory - Digital." The same year, the Mörk Borg online tool DNGNGEN won the Gold ENnies for "Best Online Content" and the Silver ENnie for "Best Aid/Accessory - Digital."​

As I've said before in the other threads, the D20 System is the undeniable favorite for tabletop RPGs today, but there are plenty of options out there for those who don't like D20 or might be looking for something different. My goal in these little surveys is to highlight the different systems and options available to tabletop fans...we aren't here to bash anyone's favorites. So! If you've used the Mörk Borg System, I'd really like to hear about your experience. What did you like/dislike about it? What games did you play? What music do you use as your soundtrack? And if you've never played it or one of the many successful games that use it, what's stopping you? I'll collect everyone's votes and give the system a "grade" from A+ to F, just for fun.

Grade: B
Of those who voted, 96% have heard of it but only 38% have played it.
Of those who have played it: 36% love it, 32% like it, 21% are lukewarm, 7% dislike it, and 4% hate it.

Spoiler: Grading

The "grade" is calculated as follows:

• Votes from people who have not played it will not affect the grade.
• "I love it" votes are worth 4 points. The highest score, comparable to an "A" vote.
• "It's pretty good" votes are worth 3 points. The equivalent of a "B" vote.
• "It's alright I guess" votes are worth 2 points. This is your basic "C" vote.
• "It's pretty bad" votes are worth 1 point. This is considered a "D" vote.
• "I hate it" votes are worth 0 points. The lowest score, considered an "F" vote.

The grading formula:
GPA = Σ(P_iV_i)

where:

GPA = "grade-point average," the grading score used in the Key below.​

V_i = percentage of votes in each category (Love, Like, Meh, Dislike, or Hate)​

P_i = corresponding score for that category (4, 3, 2, 1, or 0)​

Key
Over 3.75 = A+
3.51 to 3.75 = A
3.26 to 3.50 = A-
3.01 to 3.25 = B+
2.76 to 3.00 = B
2.51 to 2.75 = B-
2.26 to 2.50 = C+
1.76 to 2.25 = C
1.51 to 1.75 = C-
1.26 to 1.50 = D+
1.01 to 1.25 = D
0.75 to 1.00 = D-
Under 0.75 = F

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[jdrakeh]

I hate it, but it's more the graphic design than the actual system. The books make my eyes bleed.

 

[aramis erak]

I have it, I won't play it, I don't feel there's quite enough there to be worth running.

That said, it does have a fairly distinct visual style as a book, which is absent in the free version, making the free pandemic release fall very flat.

 

[Malmuria]

I've run it, and it's a really fun, rules lite system. There is so much flavor in the book that it is easy to set the tone (which I'll describe as comical, over-the-top grimdark) and have fun with it. You can easily generate new characters here, and they are hilarious. Also personally, I don't find the majority of the book that difficult to read, and the experimental aesthetic feels well connected to the tone they are trying to set.

 

[Jahydin]

Bought a print copy just for the awesome art. Rules didn't jive with me at all though.

Might use the tables and what not for Shadowdark though...

 

[darjr]

I love it and run it several times. A whole campaign that ended with them being on the wrong side of a siege on the city and traping the basilisk in another dimension and killing almost everyone.

I also love Pirate Borg.

 

[overgeeked]

The system itself is fantastic. My favorite iteration is Pirate Borg. This game is head-and-shoulders above the rest of the Borg family as far as I'm concerned. I rate Pirate Borg so highly because it's a fantastic premise, grimdark fantasy pirates who snort the undead as a drug, but also because Pirate Borg does not suffer from the layout and design...problems of other Borg games.

The graphic design of most X Borg games will, as the poster above said, cause your eyes to bleed. There's a stripped down, text-only version of Mork Borg that's freely available that's actually readable for those who want to actually, you know...read the game's rules. Thankfully, Pirate Borg avoids this problem. The design is still busy, but at least it's legible.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I've only run Pirate Borg, although I own Castaway as well. The game runs very fast and easy, with players rolling 99% of the dice, meaning they're constantly engaged. It's extremely light, which is either a positive or negative, depending on the person, but it makes it easy for a group to pick up and run with. My first game was me and seven players and we not only got through all of the Buried in the Bahamas adventure in less than three hours, we had a blast. My cheeks hurt from laughing.

For long-term play, it's probably not quite a great fit, as the prospects for advancement are very light. That said, the odds of leveling more than a few times are pretty low, so I guess it balances out.

I'm definitely open to trying Mork Borg (relying on the art-free PDF for reference) and Cy_Borg, which sounds like a great Matrix-style deconstruction of the genre.

 

[overgeeked]

I've only run Pirate Borg, although I own Castaway as well. The game runs very fast and easy, with players rolling 99% of the dice, meaning they're constantly engaged. It's extremely light, which is either a positive or negative, depending on the person, but it makes it easy for a group to pick up and run with. My first game was me and seven players and we not only got through all of the Buried in the Bahamas adventure in less than three hours, we had a blast. My cheeks hurt from laughing.

For long-term play, it's probably not quite a great fit, as the prospects for advancement are very light. That said, the odds of leveling more than a few times are pretty low, so I guess it balances out.

I'm definitely open to trying Mork Borg (relying on the art-free PDF for reference) and Cy_Borg, which sounds like a great Matrix-style deconstruction of the genre.

Orc Borg is also good. It’s WH40k orks on a space hulk. It is, unfortunately, also on the hard to actually read side.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

The system itself is fantastic. My favorite iteration is Pirate Borg. This game is head-and-shoulders above the rest of the Borg family as far as I'm concerned. I rate Pirate Borg so highly because it's a fantastic premise, grimdark fantasy pirates who snort the undead as a drug, but also because Pirate Borg does not suffer from the layout and design...problems of other Borg games.

The graphic design of most X Borg games will, as the poster above said, cause your eyes to bleed. There's a stripped down, text-only version of Mork Borg that's freely available that's actually readable for those who want to actually, you know...read the game's rules. Thankfully, Pirate Borg avoids this problem. The design is still busy, but at least it's legible.

Any idea of approximately how long (in hours) it would probably take to run Rotblack Sludge (the free Dungeon Crawl)?