Review: Pirate Borg
Chris Lowry sets sail with Pirate Borg, a new rum lashed take on everyone's favourite Swedish art punk RPG. But is there treasure to be found within its pages?
Reviews
“ARRR!” is a deeply satisfying noise to let out and one that a glimpse of Pirate Borg’s blood splattered cover will cause you to involuntarily perform. Yes, as the name suggest this is MÖRK BORG press-ganged into a grog-swilling Dark Caribbean setting with all the expected tropes of sea-bound larceny, from hooks for hands, to skull & crossbones tattoos and gunpowder galore, present and correct. Familiar territory then that is aided by some thoughtful additions to a simple and familiar system.
The first new idea is the sheer quantity of zombies in this game. Undead-crewed ships are fairly well established in the genre; but Pirate Borg really leans into this. Especially with the addition of Ash, a mix of psychedelic drug, prized black-market commodity and unpredictable magical relic made from revenant remains. Addicts soon become sunken, shambling remnants of their former selves, and a tumultuous effects table means users stand to perhaps gain permanent strength, or have a limb rot away to be replaced by a ghostly alternate at sunset. Ash is a great cause of chaos, intrinsic motivation and plot development - all of which is great stuff to have in any RPG’s toolkit.
Secondly, pirates are nothing without piracy, nor ships without swashbuckling and Pirate Borg introduces ship-to-ship combat rules. They’re pretty elegant too; simple and satisfying. One feature I particularly enjoy is that they use a scaled damage/hit points system: A ship might have 20 hit points, and a cannon might do d8 damage; to convert this to character health you multiply everything by five, making that 100 hit points and d40 damage. It means ship vs ship is simple and fast, but you can easily do the maths to fire an entire broadside at an unlucky player, or have them try to sink a fleet armed with just a machete. The book includes plenty of example boats from barely survivable rafts to mighty galleons with their carved figureheads on the prow.
The entire book is stuffed with ideas, tables and a whole set of setting-specific character types and NPCs. If anything there might actually be a little too much material here. Every page is illustrated, not quite at Johan Nohr’s level, but there’s certainly some lovely art, and a deep turquoise and decayed brown aesthetic runs through the book. Holding it in your hands is a fun experience; every page is a treat.
A glittering diamond ear-ring set in a masterfully tattooed earlobe; Pirate Borg ends with one of the most fully featured modules I’ve ever read. Entitled The Curse of Skeleton Point, it’s less of an adventure and more a fully-fledged sandbox.
Inside are locations, with locations within those locations. There are twisted together story threads, multiple dungeons and enticing characters. Have you ever read through an introductory adventure with NINE maps? Inexperienced GMs might find it daunting, but I’d encourage you to read it and imagine just what your players might get up to within its storied, briny depths.
No doubt about it, Pirate Borg will provide you with everything you need to play for years - or until you abandon it all for a life of lily-livered landlubbery.
Published by Limothron
Writing & Art: Luke Stratton
This feature originally appeared in Wyrd Science Vol.1, Issue 5 (Dec '23)
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