All will blacken and burn just as the Two-Headed Basilisks predicated. The world is dying; time is short. How will you face the final days? Robbing graves for corpse buried wealth? Or fighting the apocalypse convinced you can win? Find out in Mörk Borg.
Mörk Borg is a digest sized hardcover RPG complete with book ribbon and of lurid color and heavy metal gaming bundled with a poster map of the setting and a pamphlet for traveling with a one page mini-dungeon. I received a complementary copy to review. Before the mechanics can be digested, the aesthetics hit you in the face like a spiked flail. An embossed cover of a skeletal warrior soaked in blood on the front, a goat demon on the back, and all surrounded by yellow and black color.
Each glossy page has its own vibrant color and layout, while an included adventure uses a matte page. A hundred different fonts are used and an occasional page even has silver or gold foil. The authors also provide a Spotify list of inspiration to go with the RPG and call the whole thing a blackened artpunk OSR.
The front cover and facing page has random tables. I roll a random name: Torvul, a vampiric phurba (a wrathful ritual implement) as an occult treasure, a trap of snake-cage on collapsing ceiling tiles, weather consisting of a cloudburst, and on a corpse I find a scalp with long black hair.
I venture in further. I learn my PC can either be a grave robber or mystic trying to prevent doom. His world is life locked and failing in a dark fort. Two two-headed basilisks whisper apocalyptic prophecies which are coming to rotted fruition. All is doom.
Even so a world remains even if plunged in darkness. Galgenbeck is a great and terrible city. More places beckon me to experience their haunted atmosphere: the gloom forest of Sarkash, the ancient cemetery of Graven-Tosk, the Palace of the Shadow King, the city-state of Grift and more.
Then, the first rule. A GM rolls a die (type determined by the gaming group) each dawn. A roll of 1 generates a Misery rolled with a d66. Deciding to see what result a 1 gives, I roll Psalm III 3:5 Then shall come rain unending and the day shall be made night by its coming. Guess that explains the cloudburst earlier.
Finally, a page opens and I can create my alter ego. Torvul has 30 silver pieces in one hand and a waterskin and 2 days of food in the other. He also has a magnesium strip (should help with that darkness) and a small but vicious dog (5 hp, bite d4, only obeys me). He has a knife and he has medium armor (-d4 damage).
Torvul has four abilities. He has Agility +1, Presence 0, Strength +1, and Toughness 0. Tests are d20 plus ability to meet or beat a difficulty rating. He ends up with 5 hit points.
The game details violence, rest, reaction, morale, and character improvement (more hit points possibly and abilities going up or down). Torvul doesn’t have any Powers but if he finds unclean or sacred scrolls he’ll be able to roll to cast those spells. Torvul also has Omens that he can use to change the chance of success for a die roll or to modify damage.
Many optional tables follow. Demands of the basilisks, trauma, childhood, history, and twisted fate. I roll a troubling tale. Torvul sees a many-eyed “guardian angel” and he heals twice as fast but his companions twice as slow.
Alternatively, I could roll a random class for Torvul and change some of his results. The six classes are fanged deserter, gutter born scum, esoteric hermit, wretched royalty, heretical priest, and occult herbmaster. Each has modified starting stats and several different abilities and possible origins or backstories.
Torvul can go no further in the book as he is ready for adventure. A GM will find named creature examples for goblins, scum, berserker, wraith, wickhead knife-wielder, and more undead and monsters. The GM section wraps up with the dungeon crawl called Rotblack Sludge.
Random ending tables include reasons to risk your life (where to wander, contacts, and adventure sparks), random dungeon tables, rules summary, and an index.
Mörk Borg presents a lightweight game although bits and pieces can easily be lifted into other RPGs. The random tables are even easier to add (randomly throwing a knife at one table is a suggestion I liked) or a GM could just look at the art and maps for inspiration.
Is Mörk Borg juvenile? No. Because it provides a framework of rules and a specific design aesthetic it is instead an RPG of both dark fantasy and diabolical art. It does not cling to Gygaxian only truth but still remains compatible with the OSR. As advertised, Mörk Borg is inspiring, exciting, and terribly depressing. Get the book and stare at its twisted pages for d66 minutes and see it inform your future GMing style.
Mörk Borg is a digest sized hardcover RPG complete with book ribbon and of lurid color and heavy metal gaming bundled with a poster map of the setting and a pamphlet for traveling with a one page mini-dungeon. I received a complementary copy to review. Before the mechanics can be digested, the aesthetics hit you in the face like a spiked flail. An embossed cover of a skeletal warrior soaked in blood on the front, a goat demon on the back, and all surrounded by yellow and black color.
Each glossy page has its own vibrant color and layout, while an included adventure uses a matte page. A hundred different fonts are used and an occasional page even has silver or gold foil. The authors also provide a Spotify list of inspiration to go with the RPG and call the whole thing a blackened artpunk OSR.
The front cover and facing page has random tables. I roll a random name: Torvul, a vampiric phurba (a wrathful ritual implement) as an occult treasure, a trap of snake-cage on collapsing ceiling tiles, weather consisting of a cloudburst, and on a corpse I find a scalp with long black hair.
I venture in further. I learn my PC can either be a grave robber or mystic trying to prevent doom. His world is life locked and failing in a dark fort. Two two-headed basilisks whisper apocalyptic prophecies which are coming to rotted fruition. All is doom.
Even so a world remains even if plunged in darkness. Galgenbeck is a great and terrible city. More places beckon me to experience their haunted atmosphere: the gloom forest of Sarkash, the ancient cemetery of Graven-Tosk, the Palace of the Shadow King, the city-state of Grift and more.
Then, the first rule. A GM rolls a die (type determined by the gaming group) each dawn. A roll of 1 generates a Misery rolled with a d66. Deciding to see what result a 1 gives, I roll Psalm III 3:5 Then shall come rain unending and the day shall be made night by its coming. Guess that explains the cloudburst earlier.
Finally, a page opens and I can create my alter ego. Torvul has 30 silver pieces in one hand and a waterskin and 2 days of food in the other. He also has a magnesium strip (should help with that darkness) and a small but vicious dog (5 hp, bite d4, only obeys me). He has a knife and he has medium armor (-d4 damage).
Torvul has four abilities. He has Agility +1, Presence 0, Strength +1, and Toughness 0. Tests are d20 plus ability to meet or beat a difficulty rating. He ends up with 5 hit points.
The game details violence, rest, reaction, morale, and character improvement (more hit points possibly and abilities going up or down). Torvul doesn’t have any Powers but if he finds unclean or sacred scrolls he’ll be able to roll to cast those spells. Torvul also has Omens that he can use to change the chance of success for a die roll or to modify damage.
Many optional tables follow. Demands of the basilisks, trauma, childhood, history, and twisted fate. I roll a troubling tale. Torvul sees a many-eyed “guardian angel” and he heals twice as fast but his companions twice as slow.
Alternatively, I could roll a random class for Torvul and change some of his results. The six classes are fanged deserter, gutter born scum, esoteric hermit, wretched royalty, heretical priest, and occult herbmaster. Each has modified starting stats and several different abilities and possible origins or backstories.
Torvul can go no further in the book as he is ready for adventure. A GM will find named creature examples for goblins, scum, berserker, wraith, wickhead knife-wielder, and more undead and monsters. The GM section wraps up with the dungeon crawl called Rotblack Sludge.
Random ending tables include reasons to risk your life (where to wander, contacts, and adventure sparks), random dungeon tables, rules summary, and an index.
Mörk Borg presents a lightweight game although bits and pieces can easily be lifted into other RPGs. The random tables are even easier to add (randomly throwing a knife at one table is a suggestion I liked) or a GM could just look at the art and maps for inspiration.
Is Mörk Borg juvenile? No. Because it provides a framework of rules and a specific design aesthetic it is instead an RPG of both dark fantasy and diabolical art. It does not cling to Gygaxian only truth but still remains compatible with the OSR. As advertised, Mörk Borg is inspiring, exciting, and terribly depressing. Get the book and stare at its twisted pages for d66 minutes and see it inform your future GMing style.
