Nerdarchy on Mork Borg RPG: Nerdarchy Plays Other TTRPGs
In this 15-minute video on Nerdarchy the YouTube channel Nerdarchists Dave and Ted discuss an OSR roleplaying game called Mork Borg published by Free League Publishing and created by Pelle Nilsson of Ockult Örtmästare Games and Johan Nohr of Stockholm Kartell.
The conversation begins with Dave and Ted explaining the basics of the game. In Mork Borg only players roll dice, which is great for Game Masters — it gives them plausible deniability when things go sideways! The system uses standard d4, d6, d8, d10, d12 and d100 polyhedral dice as well as a d2 resolution.
Mork Borg’s unique Calendar of Nechrubel mechanic sets the tone for the grim adventures players engage with, which is basically a doomsday counter. Every day of game time a GM rolls a die and a result of 1 means a Misery takes place across the game’s Dying Land setting. After the seventh such Misery takes place it’s game over as the world literally ends. By adjusting the die used for such rolls a GM has a measure of control over the length of a game. Using a d12 as opposed to a d4 extends the probability for a longer campaign, for example.
Characters possess four ability scores generated with a 3d6 roll for each. They also have hit points, potential powers most often tied to magic scrolls (they’re not consumable in Mork Borg like 5E D&D scrolls) and optionally the use of Omens, which are essentially bennies. Character classes are also optional in Mork Borg and provide a class feature, starting money, Omens, Hit Points and Abilities. Lastly each character carries armor, weapons and equipment they’ll use to survive their harrowing adventures.
Have you played Mork Borg? What do you think of this ultra-stylistic RPG? If you’re into the game and craving more adventure our friend Brian Colin of Creature Curation created an adventure called Crawling Death Below the Forest of the Dead. It’s an ever-shifting dungeon crawl containing new monsters, new occult treasures, new scrolls and more than 50 rooms! You can find out more about it and pick up a copy here.
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