REVIEW: Mörk Borg Cult: Heretic

Much like Dungeon Crawl Classics – another fantasy roleplaying game that sometimes catches flak for its deviations from old school orthodoxy – a remarkably creative community has sprung up around Mörk Borg. Dubbed the "Mörk Borg cult," this community has produced an abundance of new material for the game, some of which can be found on its official website, as well as scattered across forums and blogs across the Internet. Periodically, some of the best material from these sources is collected into a printed 'zine, the first of which I reviewed last year.

Heretic is the second such 'zine and, like its predecessor, it contains a varied selection of material for use by players and Game Masters alike, though, as is usually the case with products of this sort, it's generally of more immediate interest to GMs. Also like its predecessor, Heretic employs an anarchic graphic design suffused with arresting colors and cacographic fonts to assault the eyes of its readers. Like it or not, this is an essential part of Mörk Borg's appeal; the game and its supplements simply wouldn't be the same if they were more visually self-restrained. 

Heretic is a 62-page staple-bound book with a gatefold cover on which content is also included, such as "Seeds of a Cult," a series of random tables to aid the Game Master in generating a villainous secret society. Everything from the cult's name to its headquarters to enemies can be quickly determined with a handful of rolls, "Unheroic Feats," meanwhile, details thirty-six unusual abilities that a character might acquire when getting better, Mörk Borg's version of leveling up. Examples include Beastly Scholar, which gives a character the ability to scry by means a dead animal's viscera, and Piper, which enables a character to befriend and speak with rats. Most of these feats provide only a small mechanical benefit but all of them are fairly flavorful. Heretic also presents two new classes, the Sacrilegious Songbird, a bard who's made a demonic pact, and the Shedding Vicar, a religious devotee who sheds his flesh to gain power.

"Graves Left Wanting" describes the cemetery of Graven-Tosk and its weird inhabitants. "Bloat" is a much smaller (6-room) dungeon that was once an underground temple dedicated to an obscure goddess of fat and plenty. "Sepulchre of the Swamp Witch" presents the lair of a drug-fueled serpent cult found within the final resting place of an ancient sorceress. None of these are ready-to-run scenarios so much as locales that could serve as the basis for scenarios with some additional context provided by the GM. That's fine by me, since I prefer having a store of raw materials from which to build my own adventures and each of these gives me just that, with "Graves Left Wanting" being the best of the bunch.

"You Are Cursed" is a useful – and fun – collection of random tables for handling the nature and effects of curses upon a character, in addition to the method of lifting it. "The Merchant" offers an example of a cursed individual, Wretched Old Mikhael, an undead seller of peculiar goods. Just what he sells depends on where he is found and the results of rolls on a random table. Mikhael's an intriguing NPC and I can easily see him becoming an important part of a Mörk Borg campaign. "Blackpowder Weapons for the Rich and Foolhardy" are some simple rules for introducing primitive firearms into your game. As this variant's title suggests, such firearms are expensive but using them is not nearly as foolish as I had hoped they'd be. Mostly, they they're loud and slow to reload rather than potentially harmful to their own users, which seems like an opportunity missed to me.

"The Bone Bowyer" is a unique monster, a bogeyman said to slay children and fashion clothing and weapons from their bodies. Though simple in concept, the presentation is well done, complete with a creepy nursery rhyme to accompany it. The "Borg Bitor" is a giant centipede-like monster whose presentation is less compelling. More effective is the "Rotten Nurse," the risen corpse of a nurse executed for aiding and abetting the necrobutcher, Vretul Kanth. The creature is showcased in a short adventure, "Nurse the Rot," that sees the characters pay a visit a ruined chapel.

Also included with Heretic is "The Hexed Gauntlet of Kagel-Secht," which takes the form of a fold-out poster consisting of a series of comic panels that seem to tell a story involving the discovery and use of the titular magic item. Interspersed throughout the comic panels are game stats for monsters, traps, and the Hexed Gauntlet itself. There's also a "word map" of Necrohell Manor; rather than being a graphic map, it employs words, lines, and arrows to show spatial relations. I'm honestly not entirely sure what to make of this last bit of Heretic, which seems more an exercise in idiosyncratic design than a useful piece of game material. Indeed, it's almost a parody of Mörk Borg and its unorthodox approach to both content and (especially) presentation.

Ultimately, Heretic is probably of most use to those who play or intend to play Mörk Borg, though it contains a number of ideas, such as the monsters, NPCs, and locales that could easily be used with other old school fantasy games. That said, the book's style and content are still very much in line with Mörk Borg's garish, irreverent, and occasionally puerile sensibilities, which will certainly limit its appeal to those not already sold on them. I don't mean that as a criticism. One of the things that I appreciate about Mörk Borg is that it's a game that knows what it's about and makes no apologies for that. It's not trying to be a crowd-pleasing lowest common denominator fantasy RPG but instead a brash and quirky take on "doom metal fantasy" and all that entails. If that's up your alley, Heretic is well worth it.

The Mörk Borg Year

Since reading Mörk Borg back in August served as a major catalyst to my return to blogging after an extended hiatus, I feel a certain affection for the game that no doubt confuses some – and that's perfectly fine. Mörk Borg is, I think it's fair to say, an acquired taste and, by all rights, I should not like it as much as I do. In the end, I suspect that my fondness for it has as much (or more) to do with its let's-do-what-we-want-and-not-care-what-anyone-else-thinks attitude than its actual content (which is nevertheless quite compelling, as I've explained). 

Over at their own blog, creators Pelle Nilsson and Johan Nohr offer up a year in review post, looking back at 2020, which, even if it's not been so great on many other fronts, was an excellent one for Mörk Borg. From the looks of things, 2021 is already shaping up to be equally excellent for this weird little game, which pleases me. Here's hoping the new year will bring similar blessings to others as well. 

Interview: Pelle Nilsson and Johan Nohr

The Swedish old school roleplaying game, Mörk Borg, is dear to my heart. Reading it for the first time this past summer inspired me far more than I had any reason to expect it would, so much so that I sat down and wrote a review of it, resulting in the first new entry on this blog in nearly eight years. In a very real sense, Mörk Borg is responsible for the resurrection of Grognardia and for that I'll always be grateful. Consequently, I sought out its creators, Pelle Nilsson and Johan Nohr, for an interview as another way to help spread the word about this remarkable game. They kindly agreed and the results of our conversation follow.

1. How did you first become involved in the hobby of roleplaying?

Johan: I must have been 10 or 11 when the nerdiest of my friends—the guy with Warhammer minis and posters at home—showed me his big brother’s copy of Mutant (the Swedish post-apocalyptic RPG that would later evolve into Mutant Chronicles and Mutant: Year Zero). We really had no idea how to play it but the game had cool illustrations of anthropomorphic rabbits with hockey sticks, scythes and machine guns and that was enough to get our imagination going. Since then I played, wrote and designed for mostly Swedish games up until maybe ten years ago when I was first introduced to D&D and the OSR. I was hooked! Obviously not for nostalgic reasons but for the scene’s compatibility, the hackability and modularity where you didn’t have to limit yourself to one particular game or system. That kind of DIY mindset that thrived on Google+ and the blogs back then really resonated with me I think. 

Pelle: It was back in the mid 80s, and I was about 10 years old. The first games I ran into was Swedish games. For example the first version of Mutant (based on Gamma World with a Scandinavian setting) and a game called Drakar & Demoner (based on Chaosium's Basic Role-Playing). We used the rules a little bit but mostly made playing characters, drew maps and played some short adventures, often starting at some inn with an old man with a beard asking the players to get rid of an evil necromancer in a tower. Already then I started to make my first games and made huge labyrinths with many rooms and several floors. After a long break from role-playing games the OSR movement felt natural to approach together with some modern versions of my old favourites, like Mutant: Year Zero etc.

2. Since most of my readers are English speakers, they're likely unfamiliar with the world of Swedish roleplaying games. How would you compare the Swedish and English language scenes? What are the similarities and differences between them, particularly when it comes to subject matter?

Johan: The Swedish RPG scene is on fire, in a good way I mean. The community is small, everyone knows everyone, but the quality of the stuff that’s being produced is really high and the atmosphere is positive (mostly), constructive (I mean...) and supportive (…it’s still people on the Internet, so...). Since the hobby was so strong even back in the 80s, those games and designers have left a huge mark and a lot of designers today will probably be inspired by those old Swedish games in one way or another. Traditionally there’s been a lot of fantasy games but lately, it seems like there’s some sort of a horror game boom going on.

Pelle: Like Johan says, for me it's also a very special feeling to be in the same webcasts as some of the olden goldies writers from the 80s, to somehow close the circle and meet up with your childhood heroes. 

3. What was the origin of Mörk Borg? What inspired you to create the game?

Pelle: Rules-wise, I was inspired by the old books from 1974 and its clones from recent years. I wanted to create an even more rules light game, a portable game you can bring to the pub or cabin, possible to start playing in like 15 minutes. So I cut off all (what I found) unnecessary details and add a grim setting to all this. The femur weapon was one of the first things in the text! I was very inspired by zines and wanted to do something new and completely out of the box kind of thing and asked Johan if he would like to do this with my text. Since we have made one book together before MÖRK BORG (Barkhäxan, Nordic wood-horror in a modern setting (2018)) , and collaborated very well together, I was happy when he agreed. 

Johan: To me,   is just as much an art project and an experiment as it is a game, and when we made the core book we basically wanted to see what would happen if we broke a lot of rules and challenged a lot of norms when it comes to book design. We had no idea if it would work or not, but we wanted to get people’s minds going and wanted to show that you can go a completely different way than we usually do. It’s still a fully playable game, mind you, but the art aspect is important. And we plan to keep trying things out and experimenting, challenging ourselves and not get too comfortable. We want to explore new ideas and concepts and see what will happen. It might or might not work, time will tell.  

4. Is there anything you wanted to do with the rule book, in terms of art, layout, or content, that you weren't able to do? Did you have any ideas that were so "out there" that they didn't make the final cut?

Johan: Good question. I think it was actually the other way around--when we first began brainstorming with the printing house they showed us a portfolio, a list of options and some of the things they could do I had never thought of. Like, I didn’t know you could print on the bookmark ribbon and glow-in-the-dark ink was nowhere near as expensive or complicated to get as I had first imagined. But yeah, there’s actually one thing that we wanted to do but couldn’t because of the kind of paper we chose, but you’ll see that eventually in a different product...

5. Were you surprised by the positive response that Mörk Borg has received?

Johan:  Somehow it feels kind of cheesy to say it, but it’s 100% true that this incredible response and engagement has blown us away. We never expected anything like it, I mean the initial idea was to make the game a small print-on-demand zine only in Swedish. We would have sold maybe 100 copies (and I must admit I was very pessimistic about our chances when we made the Kickstarter). But instead we sold out of stock pretty much the day we released the book. We never had any ambitions or plans for getting big or popular, and I still get genuinely excited when I see someone posting about playing the game or making stuff for it. The community that has gathered around the game is -by far- the greatest reward for the hard work. 

Pelle: I haven´t got much to add here! Agree with Johan 100 %. Very thankful and surprised. 

6. I know that Johan worked with Free League before on the Symbaroum core rulebook. Was it because of this connection that the company became involved in publishing Mörk Borg?

Johan: Correct. I was part of a company called Järnringen who made Symbaroum and that later merged with Free League Publishing. Since before this merger I had been doing some freelance work for Free League (Mutant: Year Zero, Forbidden Lands, etc) and we knew each other quite well. So they were our first choice and the only publisher we reached out to when we got the idea of getting MÖRK BORG properly published. And it’s been a really good collaboration ever since. So far they haven’t turned down a single idea we’ve had so either we’ve got good ideas or they’re not reading our emails haha.   

7. Could you talk a little about the Mörk Borg Cult? That's your name for the fan-written content program, which has already produced lots of terrific material, some of which has been collected in Feretory. Was MBC something you intended from the very beginning or did the idea for it evolve over time?

Johan: So the story behind the Cult is kinda funny and a good example of how creative the community is and how quickly people took on the game. A while after the Kickstarter campaign closed we created the MÖRK BORG discord server and invited people to talk to us and brainstorm as we were finalizing the book. We’d ask the members for help with naming monsters, post music links and generally just hanging out. And not long after the first couple of books were shipped to backers you’d see community made content pop up in the chat. The first complete module was Svante Landgraf’s rules and tables for overland travel, which eventually found its way into Feretory, and that thing inspired us to create the Cult. So the Cult and the first modules were released before all backers got their books and by the time the game was properly released in stores, there were already two classes and two modules (hunting/bestiary and travel rules) available for free on our site. Around this time we also managed to get the random character generator Scvmbirther ready, which was initiated and developed by Karl Druid who is another frequent, high-quality contributor to the community. 

8. Do you have any clear future plans for Mörk Borg? That is, what sorts of new material might we expect for the game?

Pelle: We have some things that are clearly planned, and it looks like all those projects will take the whole next year to fulfill. We have something coming up very early next year. This is still kind of a secret I'm afraid, so you´ll have to wait and see.

Johan: We simply can’t stop making new stuff for the game and so you can absolutely expect more to come. We have only just begun. 

9. Beyond Mörk Borg, do either of you have other RPG projects you're working on and that you'd like to share with my readers?

Pelle: The MÖRK BORG thing is just a hobby, I have a full time job and small or semi-small kids …  for me personally there is no time for other things then very small projects. I tend to like one-page RPGs only to relax and zoom out a bit from the big BORG thing.

Johan: I’m in a very similar situation. This is a big side gig and the only real limitation is time. I try to squeeze in the occasional freelance project, but the calendar slots are quickly filling up. I’m currently working on a really interesting project that I believe will interest a few OSR people but I don’t think I’m allowed to spill any kind of beans yet so I’ll just shut up now.   

Getting Better (or Worse)

Ability scores in Mörk Borg are rated from –3 to +3. They're used directly as modifiers to d20 rolls, which is straightforward and easy to use in play. I mention this to provide context for the game's remarkable advancement system. Like many contemporary old school RPGs, Mörk Borg doesn't track experience points, opting instead for a more freeform approach. As the rulebook explains, 

the game master decides when a character should be improved. It can be after completing a scenario, killing mighty foes or bringing home treasure.

Like or hate it, it's entirely up to the referee to decide when a character advances. In Mörk Borg, such advancement can take several forms: hit points, gaining money/scrolls, and ability score changes. A random roll determines whether a character advances in each of these categories. Notice I wrote "whether." That's because it's entirely possible that the referee could grant a character an advance and yet, because of the dice rolls, the character doesn't improve at all. That might seem odd, even unfair, but I think it makes sense in an advancement system as freeform as this one (not to mention the thematic appropriateness for a doom-laden dark fantasy).

Where the system is unusual, though, is when it comes to ability scores. Whereas the worst possible outcome for hit points or wealth is that the character gains nothing, for ability scores, it's possible for them to decrease. The system works like this:

Roll a d6 against every ability. Results equal to or greater than the ability increase it by 1, to a maximum of +6. Results below the ability decrease it by 1. 

Abilities from –3 to +1 are always increased by 1 unless the d6 result is 1. The ability is then reduced by 1, but never below –3.

With the possible exception of Traveller, I'm hard pressed to think of another roleplaying game where there's a chance that characters might get worse through play rather than constantly improve. The idea of the perpetual advancement of a character is one of the most far reaching ideas of Dungeons & Dragons, influencing not just other RPGs but also video and board games. It's also, I think, a very limiting one, not because there's anything at all wrong with character advancement, but because not every roleplaying game needs an advancement system at all, let alone one descended from D&D's. 

Mörk Borg's advancement system is its own and probably wouldn't be appropriate for many (any?) other RPGs. My point is more that we need to be more willing to consider alternative approaches to advancement, including ones that, like Mörk Borg, not only reject the idea of perpetual improvement but embrace the possibility of decline. Again, that's not appropriate in every circumstance, but we need more out of the box thinking like this. Why limit our game designs?

REVIEW: Mörk Borg Cult: Feretory

For those of you not well versed in religious terminology, a feretory is a type of portable reliquary, which is to say, a container for the relics of a saint or saints. On the other hand, the Mörk Borg cult is the community content program for the Swedish dark fantasy RPG Mörk Borg. Thus, Mörk Borg Cult: Feretory is the first supplement to the game, presented as a 64-page 'zine and filled with fourteen articles of varying lengths. Nine of these articles were created by submissions to the aforementioned content program, while the remaining five were written by Pelle Nilsson, designer of the original game. 

Feretory shares with Mörk Borg the same riotous color scheme of yellow, black, and pink, as well as its fondness for chaotic passel of typefaces. Combined with the expressive artwork of Johan Nohr and strategic use of silver leaf, the effect is every bit as arresting as that of the rulebook. It's a striking esthetic unlike that of any other RPG, though I imagine it's something of an acquired taste. 

"The Monster Approaches" is two-page random monster generator after the fashion of the Random Esoteric Creature Generator, but simpler and easier to use, as befits Mörk Borg, which is itself a simple and open-ended RPG. "Roads to Damnation" provides tables for overland travel, focusing on the sights and events characters might encounter as they trek across the Dying Lands. "Eat Prey Kill" does something similar for hunting, with random tables offering numerous new creatures, divided according to region, as well as tables for mishaps and strange "treasures" one might find in the bellies of these beasts.

"The Death Ziggurat" is a short hexcrawl through the woods of the region of Sarkash, which is filled with death cultists, undead, and demon spawn. "d100 Items and Trinkets" is just what you'd expect, while "The Tenebrous Reliquary" uses a d66 format to offer up weird and wondrous magical items. "The Goblin Grinder" is another scenario, which takes place in the city of Galgenbeck and deals with the titular goblins and the curse that sustains them. It's moody and frantic and a little bit gross – and one of my favorite things in Feretory. 

"The Grey Galth Inn" is a series of tables to add the Game Master in describing inns, including a dice-based gambling mini-game called Three Dead Skulls. Feretory also includes descriptions of four new classes – the cursed skinwalker (a shift-shifter), the pale one (an alien being), the dead god's prophet, and the forlorn philosopher – all of which, in their small ways, paint a better picture of the doomed, black metal world of Mörk Borg. "The Tablets of Obscurity" are ten magical relics of a forgotten mind-cult and usable somewhat like scrolls. Finally, "The Black Salt" is a terrible phenomenon of the Valley of the Unfortunate Undead and the Wästland, whose effects are determined by a random roll. 

As should be apparent by now, much of Feretory's content consists of random tables or uses them in some fashion. That's because Mörk Borg embraces the oracular power of dice with gleeful abandon, using it not merely to introduce unpredictability into game sessions but also to add meat to the deliberately skeletal frame of the Dying Lands setting. At the same time, there continues to be a liberating disregard for a singular interpretation of the setting; the prominence of tables in Feretory underscores that there is no One True Way and that, to borrow a phrase from RuneQuest fandom, your Dying Lands will vary – note will, not may. This is where Mörk Borg's old school sensibilities are most clear and why the game continues to hold my attention.

Feretory is a delightful gallimaufry – or perhaps I should say smörgåsbord – of gaming content that should satisfy players and (especially) GMs of Mörk Borg looking for new sources of inspiration. However, I think much of its content could appeal to players of other old school fantasy roleplaying games. If nothing else, the anarchic joy that comes through in Feretory's content is infectious. Reading through its articles and scenarios, I was immediately seized to produce some of my own and then spent some time conjuring up a new character class and reworking an old adventure for use with Mörk Borg. That's as clear a testament to a game product's excellence as I can imagine.

Mörk Borg Cult: Feretory is available in both print and PDF.

Mörk Borg and I

I played my first session of Mörk Borg this week and enjoyed myself greatly. I played Prince Hirmot, of the southern empire of Südglans, now unfortunately sunken beneath the sea. Hirmot awakened to discover himself trapped inside a pitch black catacomb after having been kidnapped by persons unknown. He was bereft of his possession and, more importantly, his companion, Albrecht, who, as he kept explaining to anyone he met, "had been with me since boyhood – my one true friend." Albrecht is a human skull and not of the talking variety, at least so far as anyone else knows. Nevertheless, Hirmot was quite distressed to find Albrecht missing. 

I generated Hirmot using SCVMBIRTHER, an online tool for just this purpose. Consequently, I went into the session (refereed by Necropraxis) without much sense of Hirmot's personality beyond what the random generator provided. The notion that he is, or rather was, a prince owed to a combination of the fact that he belonged to the optional class of Wretched Royalty and that, when he first awoke, he discovered another person was in the same chamber, one who contemptuously addressed him as "princeling." The other person turned out to be a Heretical Priest of a goddess whom he called Thel-Emas.

The pair then formed an alliance to escape from the catacombs, exploring it and looking for a way out. Along the way, we found a pot from which emanated a small voice claiming to be "the genius of the pit" and vowing to help us if Hirmot let him out of the pot by means of an invocation involving a small amount of blood. Hirmot complied, but soon discovered that the genius that emerged – a strange being with a variable appearance – was not nearly as powerful as he had implied. The genius alleged that his weakness was due to his regalia having been taken from him. If Hirmot helped him find the regalia, his full powers would be awakened and he could be of greater help.

After wandering the catacombs for some time and encountering some strange sights, as well as a brief combat with some blindfolded priestesses, Hirmot and the priest recovered their lost possessions – including Albrecht. More poking around led them to the surface, where our first session ended. It was at that point that the referee determined which Misery will next befall the world: "And the earth shall shake and be riven. And from the cracks shall rise a poisonous mist, and in ten days it will shroud the world." Play will resume next week with additional players (several had to cancel at the last minute, unfortunately).

An outsider reading this will no doubt wonder what the big deal is and why it was that Mörk Borg so captured my imagination, since little or nothing that I described above couldn't have happened in any fantasy roleplaying game. That's absolutely true and somewhat beside the point. The truth is that what so impressed me about Mörk Borg is that it's clearly the product of a particular vision, unconcerned with pleasing anyone but the creators themselves. While beautiful and well made, Mörk Borg isn't slick or polished in a way calculated to appeal to the largest number of gamers. Instead, it's a work of palpable passion and fury and that comes through on every page. I found this infectious and inspiring and that is why I love this game.  

REVIEW: Mörk Borg

What did I just read?

That was my immediate thought after attempting – and failing – to read Free League’s apocalyptic fantasy roleplaying game, Mörk Borg. As you can probably gather from its title, Mörk Borg (meaning “Dark Fort”) originates in Scandinavia, specifically Sweden, and is the brainchild of writer Pelle Nilsson and graphic designer and artist Johan Nohr. Together, they have produced, in their own words, “A doom metal album of a game. A spiked flail to the face. Rules light, heavy on everything else.”

I bought Mörk Borg solely because of its physical characteristics. A local friend of mine raved about it months ago and then, while perusing Free League’s website recently, I caught a glimpse of it in all its lurid glory. I was so intrigued by its bright yellow cover and black, white, and red artwork that I ordered a copy and anxiously awaited its arrival. I was not disappointed when it appeared at last: the 96-page A5 book is sturdy and well-made, like so many European RPG books these days. Most of the paper in the book has a satin finish, but its last section, presenting an introductory adventure, has a rough, natural feel to it.

The graphic design is remarkable. Scarcely a single page looks like any other, both in terms of layout or the headers, fonts, and other elements used. This gives the whole book a jumbled, chaotic feel to it, which no doubt contributed to my initial inability to make heads or tails of it. Nohr’s illustrations, whose execution runs the gamut from primitive to florid, are accentuated by a riot of bold colors – red, yellow, and pink – that contrast with the black and white pages, with occasional silver highlights, that make up the bulk of the book. The overall effect is disorienting and I expect that was intentional. Unlike most RPG rulebooks, particularly those “in the OSR genre” (as the game describes itself), Mörk Borg can’t be easily digested in a single reading. That was my mistake.

Mörk Borg is laconic, even elliptical, in its prose. Much is left to the reader to infer from its short, suggestive paragraphs. This is particularly true in the early sections of the book, which introduce the game’s setting. Brief sketches are given of the major locations of the world, such as Galgenbeck, “the greatest city that ever was,” the vast cemetery of Graven-Tosk, Kergüs, ruled by Blood-Countess Anthelia, and the Valley of the Unfortunate Undead, among others. There’s a map of sorts included, but there are few details and no scale. Instead, it’s largely impressionistic, depicting relations between the named locales rather than showing how many miles Wästland is from the city-state of Grift. 

This should come as no surprise, as Patrick Stuart is credited with both “English writing and creative consultation.” Stuart is well known for his gnomic writing, most famously in Deep Carbon Observatory and Veins of the Earth. I must confess that the appeal of Deep Carbon Observatory eludes me, which likely speaks to my own mental dullness, but here the prose strikes the just right balance between cryptic and opaque. Rather than feeling thwarted, I felt transported and I have little doubt that Stuart played a significant role in shaping Pelle Nilsson’s words to achieve this effect.

The prophecies of the recently discovered Nameless Scriptures accurately predict the coming death of this world. As events unravel, “reality decays, truth becomes dream and dream, truth. Cracks grow in the once-stable structures of the past, allowing things misshapen and vile to worm through, emerging into day’s wan light.” This is the backdrop against which Mörk Borg is set – a dark, depressing, and cruel place burdened with miseries aplenty (there are even random tables for determining which misery befalls the world each dawn, in accordance with the texts of the Nameless Scriptures). In this respect, it’s kin to games like the venerable Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay or the more recent Shadow of the Demon Lord in being more a “pre-apocalyptic” fantasy, albeit steeped in an extra layer of Nordic gloom.

The rules of Mörk Borg are where OSR influences are the most apparent. Character generation is completely random; everything from ability scores to equipment is determined by dice rolls. There are four abilities – Agility, Presence, Strength, and Toughness – whose scores range from –3 to +3. Character action (or tests) are made by rolling against a difficulty rating (DR) on a d20 and adding the appropriate ability score. The book provides numerous options for character generation, most of which are not additional or expanded rules as such but rather flavorful random tables. A notable exception are six optional character classes, each of which grants one of several random abilities and a bit of background. Even then, these abilities are more inspirational than mechanically significant. I would say that Mörk Borg is in the vicinity of Moldvay/Cook D&D in terms of its overall rules complexity, with slightly more options.

Combat is handled similarly to other tests, though it is worth mentioning that players roll for both their characters’ attacks and their defense against enemies’ attacks. Armor is ablative and there are critical hits and fumbles. Hit point totals are low and, while healing through rest is available, magical curatives are uncommon. Indeed, magic of any kind (called “powers” in the game) are both unusual and comparatively weak, particularly when measured against RPGs like D&D or RuneQuest. Consequently, lethality is high, a fact the text brings up repeatedly, most memorably in the character generation section, whose fifth step reads: “Name your character if you wish. It will not save you.”

Flavor and randomness are the hallmarks of Mörk Borg. The book is littered with random tables (including the front endpapers) that either aid the GM (e.g. corpse plundering or the traits of followers) or convey the feel of the setting (e.g. weather or NPC names). Table results are generally allusive and free of game mechanics, in keeping with the tenor of the game. Intriguing hints and redolent intimation are Nilsson’s idiom. In this way, he offers the GM and players free rein in deciding what it all means in their own campaigns. Readers used to more traditional RPG rulebooks might therefore find Mörk Borg frustrating at first due to its seeming disinterest in straightforward and unambiguous prose, whether in describing its setting or presenting its rules. That’s certainly how I felt initially, but it’s also why I kept picking the book up and trying again: there’s more to this game than its terse text would suggest.

Mörk Borg includes twelve creatures, such as berserks, blood-drenched skeletons, undead dolls, and wyverns. Like everything else in the game, their game statistics are simple and their descriptions pregnant with inspiration. For example, each entry includes the creature’s value in silver pieces if sold, whether alive, dead, or in pieces. An adventure, entitled “Rotblack Sludge, or The Shadow King’s Lost Heir,” rounds out the book. Described as a dungeon crawl, the adventure is nicely presented, employing a series of bullet points, bold and underlined words, and boxed text to draw the GM’s attention to important details and thereby make it easier to use in play. The adventure also provides additional examples of creatures, as if to reassure the GM about the ease with which new opponents can be created.

If I have any criticism of the book, it’s that, for all its mechanical simplicity, Mörk Borg is probably not a good choice for a newcomer to the hobby. The text assumes, I think, that you’re already familiar with RPGs generally and with old school Dungeons & Dragons and its derivatives in particular. Given the popular resurgence of D&D in both its contemporary and “classic” varieties, I don’t think this a damning criticism. I’m on record as doubting the efficacy of “what is a roleplaying game?” sections in RPGs anyway and believe that the best way to learn to play is to be inducted into the hobby by an existing player. As a game, Mörk Borg is no more difficult to learn than most other old school RPGs; as a rulebook, however, it’s neither an ideal introduction nor a handy reference.

I struggled when writing this review, in large part because so much of what defines Mörk Borg is conveyed via art, layout, and graphical elements whose effects are hard to translate into words. Reading – and understanding – Mörk Borg is almost as much a sensory experience as it is a textual one. I’m not certain it’s possible to grasp what the game is and what it’s about without actually holding the book in your hands and reading it. Even then, I personally found it hard going; it took multiple attempts before I appreciated Mörk Borg and its unique take on fantasy roleplaying.

I might have had an easier time if I had been an aficionado of metal bands. As noted earlier in this review, Mörk Borg is self-avowedly a “doom metal album of a game” and includes a list of “music that helped,” which serves as the its Appendix N. I’ve written in the past about the role played by metal and metal fans in shaping the modern conception of fantasy, but, as I said then, my direct familiarity is limited. This lacuna in my cultural education no doubt contributed to my initial confusion with Mörk Borg. Viewed through the lens of metal music and its accompanying imagery, Mörk Borg makes so much more sense. Approach it with that in mind and you’ll likely have an easier time than I did in appreciating its unique vision.

Mörk Borg is not a game I would have expected to like as much as I do. So much about it, from its garish colors and “artpunk” esthetics to its gloomy, edgy tone would seem to run counter to my own personal preferences. Yet, somehow, Mörk Borg not only works on its own terms but also managed to capture my imagination. I’ve re-read it several times now, gaining new impressions each time I’ve done so, aided in part by some of the wonderful (and attractively presented) free support material available on the game’s website. This is a fantasy roleplaying game that has lodged itself in my imagination, which is a remarkable thing, after having read so many others over the course of my life.

If anything I have written here intrigues you, I recommend you take a chance on Mörk Borg. Even if you never play it, the game can serve as a source of inspiration and a reminder that the old school scene is still a source of boundless creativity.