A Smorgasbord of Mörk Borg
If you’ve been paying attention to the indy RPG publisher scene the last few years, you’ve probably encountered a strange little game with a dark aesthetic and an odd name: Mörk Borg. Even if you haven’t run into Mörk Borg itself, you’ve likely seen one of the many, many supplements or rules-compatible products it has inspired. There’s Cy_Borg, Pirate Borg, Orc Borg, and lots more. There is even a stand-alone tabletop miniature game, called Forbidden Psalm, which is inspired by and broadly compatible with the Mörk Borg RPG rules.
But what, exactly, is this Mörk Borg? What has inspired so many publishers to jump on the Mörk Borg bandwagon? And what does Borg even mean?
Dark Fort
According to the game’s publisher, Free League (based in Stockholm), Mörk Borg is Swedish for “dark fort”, and is pronounced “murk borg”. Mörk Borg is based on a previous game, also called Dark Fort. Whereas the original was just a brief set of mechanics for solo dungeon exploration, Mörk Borg adds a grim and imaginative setting alongside a selection of art strongly inspired by Swedish heavy metal. The game’s look, coupled with an avant-garde layout, is what makes Mörk Borg stand out in the imagination of so many gamers.
Heavy Metal Look
Free League describe Mörk Borg as a “doom metal album of a game”. The look and feel of the rulebook certainly goes to great lengths to achieve that effect. The book itself is small and compact. Its cover is mostly yellow, with a black-and-white illustration of a demonic skeleton warrior. The only other color is the bright red splatter of blood on the skeleton’s sword and shield. The words Mörk Borg are written in a bold and audacious font, like black paint, that’s stretched so wide it actually cuts off along the edges.
It’s difficult to convey the look and feel of this game in words alone. Almost every page and each section of the rulebook features a different layout. There are multiple fonts. Charts and tables intermesh with the background graphics. It honestly feels more like an art project than an RPG book. For example, look at this table for determining your character’s starting weapon.
Compare that image to this page, which presents one of the game’s optional character classes: the “Fanged Deserter”. If you read the text, you’ll see this class is based on the loyalty and reliability of your character’s…teeth.
Evocative Writing
The doom metal art and experimental layout of the book is supported by the writing. It is particularly impressive how the designers present the game’s default setting. There are lots of references throughout the text to the twin-headed, god-like Basilisks, Verhu and SHE. There are mentions of setting locales, like the city Galgenbeck or the Valley of the Unfortunate Undead. None of this is explained in too much detail. The effect is a feverish, dream-like setting. There’s plenty here to inspire the GM without being exhaustive.
A Simple and Deadly System
The game system powering all of this Swedish Metal doom and death is a simple one. Although similar in feel in some ways to 1970s Dungeons & Dragons, Mörk Borg doesn’t emulate any particular ruleset. Instead, it uses familiar mechanics like d20 rolls, hit points, and difficulty classes to create a streamlined, D&D-adjacent ruleset that should feel familiar to most gamers. It’s all very rules-light. Even classes, such as they exist, are optional parts of the game. But you won’t find any fighters or rangers in Mörk Borg. Instead, there are heretical priests, gutter born scum, and esoteric hermits, among others.
The Other Borgs
As mentioned above, Mörk Borg has inspired a number of other games, many of which include the word Borg as part of their title. Borg in this case doesn’t really mean fort, as it does in Mörk Borg, but exists as a sort of shorthand for “Mörk Borg compatible game.”
What these games have in common is some version of the Mörk Borg core rules system. The level to which they embrace the game’s unique layout, death metal feel, and other aspects of the root game varies.
Pirate Borg
One of the most popular Borg games, Pirate Borg is a third party (Limithron), Mörk Borg-inspired game of dark piracy set in an alternative version of the real-world Caribbean. Pirate Borg trades in some of Mörk Borg’s Swedish metal vibe in favor of traditional horror elements, with plenty of skeleton-pirates, cursed islands, Cthulhu-like creatures of the deep, and other pirate things. It also presents a really great set of naval combat rules.
Cy_Borg
Cy_Borg is from the same publisher as Mörk Borg. It does with the cyberpunk genre what Mörk Borg does with dark fantasy. Player characters are tech-enhanced street gangers and hackers operating under the shadow of corrupt mega corporations in a ruined, futuristic dystopia. Instead of magic, characters have access to nanotech and cybernetics. Enemies include cydroids and AI ghosts. This is all presented, of course, with the same art and style as Mörk Borg.
Other Products
Thanks to a very open third party license, a number of publishers have created their own content for Mörk Borg. These products run the gamut of monster books, adventures, and rules supplements. But they also include outside-the-box things like the first-person-shooter inspired Qvake Borg and Fisk Borg, which introduces a fishing mini game. A grim and dark fishing game.
If any aspect of the various Borgs appeals to you, they’re definitely worth checking out. You can see Noble Knight’s selection, including the base game and whole lot of supplements, right here.
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