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A doom metal album of a game. A spiked flail to the face. Light on rules, heavy everything else.
MÖRK BORG is a pitch-black apocalyptic fantasy RPG about lost souls and fools seeking redemption, forgiveness or the last remaining riches in a bleak and dying world
MÖRK Borg (Dark Castle) is one hell of a ride when it comes to rule books; from the thicker printed pages to the beautifully crafted design shows the care and concern for a completely twisted experience. As I continue to build the Epic Table Games library, I continue to find games that capture my attention for things that are usually considered Grim Dark. Many games in the “OSR” genre, meaning Old School Revival (or as I consider Old School Roleplaying) harken to an age of fantasy game where death was always a constant threat and to be heroes meant to be the brightly colored targets in the darkest worlds.
MÖRK Borg plays into the older styles of the 80’s “Satanic Panic” that Dungeons and Dragons desperately tried to shake, by including themes of the occult, death, magic, and elements of satanism – for those who don’t mind any kind of spoiler, towards the end of the book a black page adorned with a gold foiled upside down cross greats any who dare go further into the book.
The immediate critique that I had of the book itself is that it isn’t laid out in what I would consider a user friendly fashion. Truthfully I wasn’t exactly when the rules were starting or what were rules even after I made it to the table of contents nearly 13 pages in.
Many simple rules and instructions for randomly generated game components are printed right on the inside covers, which does allow for quick and easy access – a feature that I think many rule systems would benefit by, but it does little to help decipher the following pages. To continue on the exotic yet torturous theme of the book’s grim deposition, further satanic images of death and anti-religion storm the pages to assault the visual juxtaposition of text that is easy to read paired with a mess of old English style fonts that are at times barely decipherable.
Granted, much as the book can feel hard to manage it does live up Free League’s very own description: A spiked flail to the face. The simplicity of most of the rules truly allows for a fun fly-by-the-seat-of-you-pants style that can be critical to the nature of such a dark world. Loosening up on the reigns here takes the edge of the game because of it’s lack of over complex materials. This also helps compliment the Doom-Metal vibe that it gives off, and they try to play heavily into that dark metal music vibe.
While the ratings are suggested for no one under 14 years of age, I think overall the content is suited for either a little older Game Masters who scale things down and back as needed for younger audiences.
I am thrilled to not only look through this book on a regular basis, but thrilled to run many games for friends who are new to the system. The intrinsic system is designed to be played with familiar dice, and many familiar rules, and true to form it can be picked apart to adapt some of the rules into any other game system.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column][/vc_column][vc_column][/vc_column][/vc_row]
