Product– Mork Borg

System- Mork Borg

Producer– Free League Publishing

Price– $19.99 here https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/295910/Mork-Borg-English?affiliate_id=658618 

TL; DR– Death Metal DCC RPG mixed with Cypher system set in Dark Souls.  90% 

Basics– Hear the call of the double two-headed basilisk!  Mork Borg is an old school RPG with themes that feel like you’re playing in an 80s death metal album covers.  Let’s break this game down.

Basics- This is a d20 rpg.  Your character has four stats and you roll 3d6 for each and use a chart to determine your bonuses for each stat.  From then on you will use the bonus for each statistic and roll a d20 with it for any test.  The default test success result is a 12.

Combat and Rounds- Each round of combat is about six seconds.  This is a VERY old school game as someone rolls a d6.  Roll high, the players go first as a group, and low the enemies go first as a group.  Each round, each character gets on action and a move.  That’s it.  What’s interesting is the GM really doesn’t roll dice.  You attack with a bow?  Roll presence+d20 with a DC of 12.  You are attacked?  Roll agility+d20 DC 12 to not get hit  That’s it.  It is NOT a deep crunchy system.  If you hit or are hit, you roll damage dice and take that much damage.

Classes- There are a few presented classes.  These classes give you hit points and different abilities.  These are pretty random like most of the system.

Powers- Characters can gain powers.  These are either holy or sacred spells. You can use them a number of times per day equal to d4+presence.  These allow you to do attacks, talk with animals, or any of a handful of different abilities.

Morale- Monsters run.  If they are hurt enough or the leader dies, the may bolt.  When they are dealt enough damage or enough of their friends die, someone rolls 2d6.  If the result is over their morale, they monsters either run or surrender.

Monsters- Monsters are simple with a number of hit points, a morale score, abilities, and damage for attacks.  Each has a beautifully horrible picture.

Alright, thats the basics, let’s dig in.

Mechanics or Crunch–  This is a VERY rules-light RPG.  You already know almost everything you need to play.  It’s not deep, but it works.  Some things are not described well though.  That’s kind of intentional as this is much more a fun, gritty RPG and not a deep musing on the human condition.  It’s much more a SOLID OSR game where you know how to play since you’ve got dice older than some of the kids at the table.  But, that rules light approach makes it harder to start playing.  4.5/5

Theme or Fluff–  If this game goes deep into one thing, it’s the theme.  This game feels like what Dark Souls wants to be.  It’s gritty, it’s dark, and it has mysteries wrapped in mysteries and isn’t afraid to make it harder to play to make the atmosphere perfect for the game.  It really does feel like playing DnD in a death metal cover.  5/5

Execution– I like this game, but the commitment to theme hurts presentation.  The book is hyperlinked.  So, it’s good.  But the commitment to the zine and hard core metal makes it hard to follow everything.  Also, the reliance on audience assumption of how games work is maybe a bit too much.  I know what I am doing, because I’ve gamed for over 20 years, but newer players will be completely lost. 4/5

Summary– Mork Borg is an artist committing to their vision.  The game itself is exactly what these people wanted.  It’s light on rules and deadly without being a slog to play.  The theme is exactly the dark world they wanted with enough places to play and explore.  That commitment is admirable, but it does take away from the ease of getting into the game if you don’t know what OSR is or how to play old school DnD.  It’s a bit of an ask for new players, but for the old grognards like me I understand what they are aiming for.  I like what’s here but if you’re newer to RPGs, then ask your older Forever DM friend and we’ll blare some Cannibal Corpse and show you a good time! 90%