Mörk Borg – Bare Bones Edition is free on the “Accessible Games” section of our website, and so I wanted to review it for anyone curious as to whether they should try it. Every group I’ve run Mörk Borg for has loved it. It’s gross, it’s edgy, and importantly, it doesn’t take itself seriously. If you don’t like very, very, very dark humor, you will not like this game…but if you do, then this game will make you giggle as it blows off your arm and embeds a flail in your face. In this review I’ll discuss the ups and downs of adventuring through a dark fantasy apocalypse.
The setting is extra dark fantasy, where the world is ending. There’s no way to stop this cataclysm, and so players take on the roles of scumbags looking to survive long enough to see the world go down in black flames. So why bother? Because knowing your reprehensible character has no long term prospects gives you the freedom to not care if they survive this adventure. Meanwhile, the unique character types available to players will see you roleplaying into some uniquely Mörk Borg characters.
While you can create your own unique character, their are optional classes which paint the state of this world. The Fanged Deserter is a class option that immediately leaps out to most people, putting them in the boots of a military runaway with thirty sharp fangs in their mouth. But to me, the Wretched Royalty is the one that jumped out. Stepping into the boots of someone who thinks they are better than everyone else, in a world where everyone is scum, was just so fun to play. The characters you create are guaranteed to be some of the most unique miscreants you’ve ever had the misfortune of pretending to be.
Mörk Borg Rules
Character creation is straight forward in picking a character type and following the steps. If you’re extra lazy, like me, you can use the browser-based character generator called the “Scumbither” which is linked at the end of this blog. The character creation process does most of the creative heavy lifting for you, providing stylized character types with components that help to generate a backstory and personality in your mind. I enjoy this minimalist character creation in which each component adds something which tells a story in itself.
The game master will roll no dice. Any skill check sees the players rolling a twenty sided dice to stab cultists, dodge claws and avoid spiky traps. The only other time players roll different dice is for weapon damage, with the type of weapon being used determining the dice rolled. It’s all quite simple.
Playing Mörk Borg
The character information is very easy to track. There are four ability scores, a handful of items and a couple of abilities, which make up your character. This means it’s very easy to reference your character sheet and to incorporate all of it into your play. I find that lighter character sheets are easier for visually impaired folks, as you can roughly memorize what’s there.
What I didn’t enjoy playing the game is the amount of whiffing my character would do. Blows back and forth in combat missing and missing and missing. In rules light games of this design where much relies on imaginative description, it can be tiresome thinking of ways to say you miss. Other than this quibble, the rest of gameplay forced me to be imaginative with the items and abilities I had, which made for creative solutions.
This game is deadly. Your character could die at the drop of a hat, so as long as you know this, it’s fun. Failing rolls becomes laughable and the setting encourages that kind of thinking. If you are a player who dislikes failing forward or potentially losing a character, Mörk Borg is certainly not for you.
Running Mörk Borg
The rules for Mörk Borg are very light, you could learn them in thirty minutes or less. The important part for visually impaired folks is that it’s easy to make up a ruling, to avoid searching through the rules. Mörk Borg has a vibe that feels like it wants you to make stuff up. If the rulebook could talk, it would say, “The world is going to die in a storm of black blood, so who cares? Do what you must!”
I particularly enjoyed that the game master doesn’t roll dice during combat. Players make an attack roll, and a defense roll. Referencing the stats for different enemies is taken out of the equation and you simply get the player to make a roll. This opens up combat to have you thinking more about the narrative than the numbers. I found it refreshing and believe it’s an accessible approach to resolving combat.
The drawback I could see to this game is the disgustingly specific creative bone you have to pick to drive the narrative. If you aren’t into dark humored, gonzo-esque worlds where your players want the grim tapestry of the story to hit their characters in the gut with a rat-blood-stained-club, then this won’t be for you. I’d say Mörk Borg appeals to game masters with a penchant for the blackest of humors.
Mörk Borg Adventures
There are dozens, if not hundreds, of adventures for Mörk Borg. The issue that some visually impaired folks may encounter is that they typically feature maps. These adventures follow the modern OSR approach to design, where it’s a dungeon map with a bunch of text. Not so helpful. However, there are a few adventures out there which purely feature rolling for locations, and the mapped dungeons are usually small enough that you can get an AI to confidently tell you what’s what.
The majority of Mörk Borg adventures are third party creations, meaning accessibility isn’t included by many of these small creators. Mork Borg doesn’t have a dedicated section in the rules for setting up an adventure, so you either need a solid adventure idea or you’ll need to find adventures accessible to you. Perhaps a Knights of the Braille Mork Borg adventure, where all of the characters are blind could be a project for the future? Let me know if you’d like to see that (pun very much intended).
Mörk Borg Verdict
Mörk Borg is great for funny one shots, where no one expects to survive. I’ve run and played this game with folks who enjoy this type of humor and everyone always asks, “When can we play this again?” Mork Borg has a unique sense of identity, vivid realizations of its world and a black tongue firmly placed in its blistered cheek the whole time.
Links
Download Mörk Borg Bare Bones Edition Free
Knights of the Braille 