Black Steel Bastards: Everything Heavier Than Everything Else

Heavy Metal House Rules Hacks For Mörk Borg

My analog version of this rule-set and its accompanying setting…more coming soon!

Black Steel Bastards: Everything Heavier Than Everything Else

House Rules Hacks For Mörk Borg

I love Mörk Borg.

It’s the game that got me back to the table after a long time not playing TTRPGs.

That being said, like everyone, I tend to play something for a while and then hack it to suit my own table.

I think when all’s said and done, MB is a terrific, fast system with a great core that begs for a few changes: namely to keep combat a little faster, to make leveling up a little more coherent, while maintaining the deadliness and brutality that drew me to it.

What follows is a crash course in my version of the Mörk Borg rules - it assumes you have the core rulebook.

My game is a little less “slapstick” than a lot of MB games tend to be, but there’s always plenty of laughs at the table while maintaining a game world that feels like the kind of gritty dark fantasy we all enjoy.

Your mileage may vary - hopefully you get some use from these.

COMBAT

All damage dice explode and cascade down. (on d10 damage, if a 10 is rolled, immediately roll a d8 and add the damage. If an 8 is rolled, immediately roll d6 and add the resulting number, etc. down to a minimum of d2)

All armor provides a flat defense rating from 1-3 (Light, Medium, Heavy), with shields providing another 1 reduction.

Damage reduced by armor deals a minimum of 1. Damage reduced by an omen can be reduced to less than 1.

Shields may be sacrificed once per session to avoid all damage from one attack.

Helmets matter: see “Death and Wounding.”

All tactical avantages (flanking, high ground, mounted attack, etc) provide bonuses to hit or dice rolls at advantage at GM discretion and can be combined and utilized to great effect.


DEATH AND WOUNDING

When a character reaches 0 HP (there is no negative), roll 2d6. Roll again for every consecutive hit they take at 0, with a cumulative -2 to the roll.

Anything worse than a 7 and the character is considered to be out of the fight and making a mess.

2. Instant Death
3. Fatal Wound. Die in d4 rounds.
4. Severed or destroyed limb. Die in 3d6 rounds without immediate healing. -2 to Agility Permanently.
5. Shattered.
Roll d4:
1 Face -1 PRE permanent
2 Leg -1 AGI
3 Arm -1 STR
4 Core -1 TOU
All take 2d4 weeks to heal past 8 HP.
6. Broken, Slashed, or Pierced. -1 HP permanently. 1d4 weeks to heal. 
7-8. Unconscious 2d6 rounds. If wearing a helm, stunned 1 round.
9. Stunned 1 round. With a helm, knocked down.
10. Knocked down. (Standing takes a move. Combat rolls at disadvantage.)
11. Reeling but still in it.
12. Adrenaline surge, bloodlust, hand of god, whatever. Immediately gain 1d4 HP. At end of combat, black out for 1d6 rounds.

This table makes things a bit more forgiving when someone has only a few HP, but still results in serious repercussions for losing combat.

If magic healing exists in your Dying World, you can just house rule all those “healing times” listed to be natural healing only.

HEALING

Characters heal at a rate of 1+TOU on a short rest (1x/day). Burn a ration, catch your breath.

Characters heal d6+TOU on a long rest. Sleep. Burn a ration.

Characters who are attempting to rest in extremely adverse conditions, who are sick/infected, have no food or water, etc do not heal.

Characters with negative Toughness heal a minimum of 1 HP per short or long rest in standard situations.

CHARACTER ADVANCEMENT/GETTING BETTER

I started using this advancement mechanic with White Box, due to how seldom my table could get together and not wanting to forgo all advancement just because we were all busy.

I’ve used it for Shadowdark, and clarified the style a bit after reading Black Sword Hack. It’s easy to adjust if you want slower or faster advancement.

Characters all begin at “0.”

Every game session gets an “episode name.”

Characters write every episode they take part in on the back of their sheet.

It takes 1 episode per next advancement “level” to get better.

In other words, characters will “get better” after their first session, going from 0 to 1.

Then they will need to play 2 episodes to get better again, from 1 to 2.

Then 3 episodes on top of that to go from 2 to 3; or, 6 episodes in total to get to L3.

Each time a character gets better, a player may choose to either improve a stat by 1, up to a maximum of 6, or roll for more hit points.

To roll for hit points, roll 6d6. A result greater than current HP allows the player to roll d6 and add them to max HP. A result less than or equal to current HP adds 1 HP to their max.

Optional Feats from Unheroic Feats and created by the GM are obtained “in-game,” and are rewarded for excellent gameplay, heroic or notorious deeds, or other story-related activities. I never award more than 3 per character, and certainly never more than 1 per “getting better.”

I only give them out for really cool things that happen, this way they stay meaningful and the game doesn’t get overpowered or bloated, but I try to keep it fair and make sure everyone gets one based on what’s in keeping with their character style, and so on.

I play classless, so it’s easy to use some of the included optional class abilities as well as Unheroic Feats and whatever else takes your fancy - it’s your game, after all, and these have an effect on the overall feel and texture of the campaign world. It’s best if they reinforce your game world.

Example:

Aghar the Unmerciful, the party’s crusher, slaughters several mercenaries in a combat on a bridge that the players really enjoy, making several unlikely rolls and saving his party.

He has no feats yet, and at the end of the session when everyone is doing their first “getting better,” Aghar is awarded a Feat by the GM they decide to call “Butcher of Westbridge,” which grants him the ability to immediately attack again if he fells a foe in combat.  

I think that’s most of ‘em.

Have fun, and keep your blades sharp!

Meantime, you can check out my free custom character sheets for MB and my long form adventure “Company of the Fading Star,” HERE at my itch:

https://itch.io/profile/castlegrief

- Castle Grief