Pirate Borg general thread

[Velderan]

We got together to play Pirate Borg today and it went really well. I stuck with the sandbox adventure setting in the rulebook, starting off with the group washing up on shore after a kraken destroyed the ship they were on. I used that as an intro so I had a reason to say no ships wanted to risk sailing just yet so I could keep the adventure on the island for the 5 hours we had to work with.

One thing that worked pretty well is the players knew nothing about the game beyond pirates and undead, so they didn't know what ash was or what it can do. A pirate captain in town wanting to buy some made them realize it was valuable and one of his crew alluded to it being something you can snort but beyond that they didn't know anything about it until they killed some skeletons and got a few doses. Out of curiosity, one PC tried it and spent the next few minutes running around the jungle thinking he was an ostrich. Good times. We left off with them discovering a cave that seemed to belong to smugglers and inside I had them find a chest stuffed full of silver coins which left them to wonder who were they about to piss off by taking the money.

Something I think that isn't talked about enough for this game is the devil's luck concept. It refreshes each morning, so it doesn't rely on terrible GMs like me remembering to award it for creative roleplaying and it can be used for actually productive things instead of the possibility of just rerolling a die and ending up with a lower roll if you roll poorly on the reroll. The GM not rolling to attack was pretty well received too.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I am sure it's possible to have a bad game of Pirate Borg, but it's pretty hard to pull off.

 

[Velderan]

I am sure it's possible to have a bad game of Pirate Borg, but it's pretty hard to pull off.

I think you would have to insist on applying rules to everything and constantly calling for rolls to pull that off.

I forget which Limithron YouTube video mentioned it, but the game worked best for us leaning heavily into the easy come, easy go mentality. No idea how the money in the chest will be squandered or lost next time, but it sure will be fun finding out.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I think you would have to insist on applying rules to everything and constantly calling for rolls to pull that off.

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I forget which Limithron YouTube video mentioned it, but the game worked best for us leaning heavily into the easy come, easy go mentality. No idea how the money in the chest will be squandered or lost next time, but it sure will be fun finding out.

Yeah, that's how I run it. When I ran Buried in the Bahamas for GenCon Online, immediately someone wanted to solve the initial in media res combat encounter by doing something way off book. I picked what I think is the right answer: I laughed, set a DC that put the crazy thing within reach and we all cracked up as they pulled it off.

IMO, if people aren't regularly laughing while they're playing Pirate Borg, the spirit of the game isn't being honored.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The Dark Caribbean campaign book, which is getting a regular feed of previews now, won't be Kickstarted in 2026, alas. The next thing from Limithron, per Discord, is a set of pirate battlemaps.

I'm disappointed -- I really want to run a sandbox campaign with good support for the setting -- but given how much we've seen of Dark Caribbean already, I am guessing it's an early 2027 thing and will likely be stuffed with content.

 

[Velderan]

I keep looking at different things for the game, but at the same time I'm trying to cut back on buying so many gaming books lately until I get through a few more things I've been meaning to run. That being said, I really should buy the premium Foundry module for the game though so I can pick through it and see how the game runs there. I don't know that I care so much about any automation since the game is so light, so mostly just something to share a map and manage character sheets.

There's probably other VTTs that handle this fine, but in the case of Foundry I host my own instance so I don't run into storage issues.

 

[Sir Brennen]

I keep looking at different things for the game, but at the same time I'm trying to cut back on buying so many gaming books lately until I get through a few more things I've been meaning to run. That being said, I really should buy the premium Foundry module for the game though so I can pick through it and see how the game runs there. I don't know that I care so much about any automation since the game is so light, so mostly just something to share a map and manage character sheets.

There's probably other VTTs that handle this fine, but in the case of Foundry I host my own instance so I don't run into storage issues.

I’m a Patreon member for Luke’s Pirate Borg content. At the highest level you get tons of Foundry scenes ready made. Only need to sign up for a month to get all of the existing content, including all kinds of ship deck plans

 

[Velderan]

I’m a Patreon member for Luke’s Pirate Borg content. At the highest level you get tons of Foundry scenes ready made. Only need to sign up for a month to get all of the existing content, including all kinds of ship deck plans

I'll have to look into that, thanks!

Edit: any insight on the DungeonDraft asset packs?

 

[darjr]

The Ship of the Dead podcast has announced a slew of upcoming guests. Great guests!

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I’m a Patreon member for Luke’s Pirate Borg content. At the highest level you get tons of Foundry scenes ready made. Only need to sign up for a month to get all of the existing content, including all kinds of ship deck plans

I have honestly considered getting Foundry just to play Pirate Borg. I've been very impressed by everything on the Patreon and even just the default module.