Probably the most METAL cover for an RPG you'll ever see.
All praise Yetsabu-Nech, the underworld’s nightmare, the black disk which stands before the sun! All praise Verhu, beaming with delight! All praise the fire which burns all! And the darkness shall swallow the darkness.
— PSALM VII THE LAST 7:7
MÖRK BORG (literally means Dark Fort in Swedish, and pronounced Murk Borgnote ) is a Dark Fantasy Tabletop RPG Dungeon Crawler. It was created by Ockult Örtmästare Games and Stockholm Kartell which was then distributed under Free League Publishing. Set in a dying gothic-inspired world where the whole known world will eventually crumble and sink into bottomless depths of The Endless Sea. As was foretold in the Nameless Scriptures transcribed by the Creton Monk, Anuk Schleger, from HE who is the Prophet twin of the Two-Headed Basilisk HIS head Verhu that spoke only the damned truth. After they were rediscovered three-hundred years later under The Two-Headed Basilisks Cathedral by an orthodox branch of the Creton order once they uncovered Schleger's tomb, these Scriptures predicted in irrefutably acute detail the end of the world.
There are no heroes left in a world already gone to hell and even if there were, it's doubtful that even they could stop the rising tide or the endless horde of Eldritch Abominations walking the earth. So what does that leave the players left with as well as their PCs? Well, there's only the strongest, vile and deranged that can ever hope to survive in such a hostile world.
Players will frequently take on roles from some form of: barbaric deserter, maligned scum, reclusive hermit, degenerate royal, mad cultist, herbal witch or some other hideous monstrosity. And thanks to the freeform MÖRK BORG License Policy; the potential roles, adventures, monsters, characters, items and conversions are almost limitless.
There is also an official cyberpunk sister game that shares the same mechanical base and general tone, called (what else?) CY_BORG. The open nature of the licence has also led to the birth of various independent spinoffs in a variety of genres. Perhaps the most significant is the rules for War Gaming, Forbidden Psalm
, which has birthed its own family of spinoffs. A wealth of expansions for the game can be found at Ex Libris Mörk Borg.
This game provides examples of:
- Ambiguously Human: The humanity for many official classes described in MÖRK BORG is questionable at best; seeing as how a couple are described as if they're distinctly separate from any "normal" PC a player could create.
- Fanged Deserters have greatly sized teeth that protrude outward like the sharp fangs of a beast, and all art has them wearing helmets that cover most of their facial features... save their teeth. Potential backstories also have them found suckling from wild wolves.
- The Pale One is very likely an actual alien, as some fall from the sky, eat dirt, move completely unnaturally - and that's if they can pass as human.
- The Cursed Skinwalker is a resurrected Therianthrope who can change into one of six forms; a plague rat, a flayed wolf, a raven with flayed bony head, an undead bear, a monstrous lizard, and a third-eyed monkey.
- Animalistic Abomination: SHE and HE are described as two-headed basilisks, which would usually fall into a plain old case of Basilisk and Cockatrice, but given that both of them have twin heads, all of which embody a concept, and Verhu, one of HIS twin heads, only spoke in words that contain the truth, and it propetized the End of the World as We Know It, it's pretty clear that they are both more than just simple horrifying monsters.
- Arc Number: Each new dawn the PCs awaken to, the GM gives Player's the choice of rolling one die of their choosing. If the result lands on a 1, a Misery is activated and the GM rolls 2D6s which will correspond to a chapter and verse in the Psalms of the Nameless Scriptures.
- Character Class System: They're optional. MÖRK BORG doesn't traditionally expect players to use classes for their PCs. Rather, it gives players the chance to choose their own roles instead. In fact, the classes act more like separate races instead of traditional classes found in other Tabletop RPGs like D&D, with one of the official classes describing you as a Werewolf, whilst another straight up asserts that you are an alien.
- Fanged Deserter: A twisted and savage soldier from a Deceased Army of a Nameless War for a Forgotten Kingdom. The Fanged Deserters are nothing more than rabid barbaric beasts of men, as emphasized by their gnashing teeth.
- Gutterborn Scum: Someone who is nothing more than a low down wretch of a human being, a thug who cheats and kills for a pittance. Criminals, rapists and murderers alike are all rats just as is the Gutterborn Scum.
- Esoteric Hermit: Often an old codger with an inclination of ancient magics from the depths of eldritch origins. Few can truly master the world's magic as much as the Esoteric Hermits can, for none can truly hope to understand its power without going mad.
- Wretched Royalty: The former heir to a throne stripped from them, they'll never again enjoy or savor the sweet fruits of their dying world. Wretched Royalty are former nobles stricken of their titles and privileges, forced into lives of unkept squalor and humiliating mercenary work.
- Heretical Priest: The sinful and corrupt shepherd who formerly served as priest of HE the Two-Headed Basilisks, now nothing but a raving blasphemer of the One True Faith. Heretical Priests are hedonistic mad preachers that have long since abandoned their holy vows, instead taking up lots with other heathens and whores.
- Occult Herbmaster: A strange practitioner of weird alchemy of poisons and elixirs that borders on magic. Each concoction an Occult Herbmaster brews is as dreadful as the last, either inducing terrible bloody vomiting or unnatural applications of twisted mutations.
- Cursed Skinwalker: After a morbid demise, these odious creatures would have normally arisen from their grave as another mindless beast. But not the Skinwalkers, no, the soul of a Skinwalker is instead trapped inside their corpse until the curse takes hold and revives their bodies as undead monstrosities.
- Dead God's Prophet: Even though their god lays dead, murdered by SHE, their prophets will still have ears to hear their maddening words. A Dead God's Prophet are some of the very last remnants of the world's oldest traditions and religions, now all but a few remain and those pilgrims who still walk the earth are little more than babbling madmen. Hopelessly calling out to the corpse of a god long since became a rotted dish for maggots.
- Pale One: Strange and likely alien beings, fundamentally detached from what any sane person would deem human. Able to grow membranous wings or multiple eyes, consume dirt and generate their own supply of food, or even speak blasphemous omens. Pale Ones are often volatile wretched beings having bouts of incoherent madness and self-destructive rages out of the blue, to quickly having almost eerily silent moments of calm.
- Songbird: A wretched melancholic bard left destitute and without fame, their souls still cry out in agony to sing sweet melodies but at a debt they may never be able to repay. Songbirds are pitiful creatures unable to play their wonderous musical instroments without the burden it brings upon their souls, as no matter the intentions of the instrument's design, pain and anguish are all that they play.
- Cosmic Horror Story: The whole basic premise of MÖRK BORG is based upon this, as regardless of what the PCs do they cannot stop what has already been set in motion. All the Kingdoms will inevitably fall to ruination, Monarchs will be driven into the abyss of madness, the lands will become barren, famine will consume the starving, the dead will still arise, and everyone and everything will all be drowned in the end...
- Dark Fantasy: It is very much so this; the world that's briefly described in the book is a very bleak one. And why wouldn't it be? The dead walk the earth, unbound by mortal fatigue and strengthened by undead endurance; magic always has a price to be paid, even if it is sacrosanct and holy; the world could end at any moment and even quicker if all Seven Seals of the Psalm are broken; and out of abandoned hope that's replaced by despair, many rulers have cast away their righteousness and any airs of that mask their corrupted nature.
- Evil Is Easy: And often better. Unlike most other Tabletop RPGs where players could at least try to do good, MÖRK BORG often steers players into committing horrendous acts and a GM is encouraged to outright reward a player's atrocities.
- Heavy Metal: A strong influence on the game's art style and presentation. The book credits Sunn O))), Mayhem, and Eyehategod, among many others, as influences.
- Multiple Head Case: Two of a kind; there are two living Basilisks within MÖRK BORG, SHE and HE. SHE has twin heads; one that is called Lusi, who embodies Denial, she refuses to accept any faults and sees no wrong with the world. SHE also has a twin head called Arkh, embodiment of Deception, always lying and claims to also be the first prophet of truths. HE, like SHE, also has twin heads. One is called Gorgh, embodiment of Bitterness, envious of his twin's lauded worship by all. The twin Verhu knows, who embodies the Damned Truth, no matter the significance or relevance. His word is set in stone and shall always transpire.
- Our Goblins Are Different: MÖRK BORG's Goblins are like a cursed horde of evil, violent monsters. Described as being hideously gaunt midget zombies, even when they're alive, goblins are like a maddening horde. They swell their numbers by simply attacking whoever they encounter and unless their victims kill the one that attacked them, within D6 days they'll become a goblin too. The default book also depicts them as part-Goblin Shark shark men.
- Role-Playing Endgame: Every in-game day the GM rolls a die, and on a roll of 1, one of the Miseries from the Prophecies of Nechrubel happens, changing the game world in sometimes drastic ways. You plan the length of your campaign by choosing a die size (a d100 will likely give you a very long campaign, a d6 a very short one), and after every Misery you drop a die size. When you roll your seventh Misery, the world ends. You can start a new game, or do as the book tells you to and burn it.
- Sliding Scale Of Silliness Vs Seriousness: Mork Borg dives so hard into the "serious" side that it loops back into being hilarious, in a Black Comedy, Gallows Humour way due to how over-the-top "black metal" the game is, very similar to the tone of first edition Warhammer 40k. The main book is full of outright chuckle-worthy moments, like one of the pages suggesting that the player should "throw a knife into the book's page" to generate a trait for their character. Or the fact that a femur gets an entire page to itself as a weapon. (It does d4 damage, nothing else.) The creators say that while the characters should treat the world seriously, the players should be laughing at how grim it all is.
- Threatening Shark: Goblins in the book are depicted as semi-literal goblin sharks.
- The Virus: If a goblin attacks a person in any way, unless they kill the goblin that attacked them, they'll turn into one in a few days.
- Weird Historical War: The Forbidden Psalm: The Last War tabletop skirmish game runs on the What If? of "what if the apocalypse of this game happened during World War One?". Answer: it's not pretty.
