> Right at the beginning, though, I knew the “so grim it’s funny” feel that most of the third party stuff had wasn’t for my table. There’s plenty of laughs at my table, but we generally shy away from comedic *material*, knowing the comedy will be there regardless.
I think intrinsically most people know this, but I’m so glad you repeated it. Humor *will* happen -- regardless of how you try to push it away, so you have two choices: fully dive into a slapstick gonzo game where humor is sort of the point, or use humor as a fine tool to break up larger chunks of drama, melancholy, terror, etc.
> The common complaints/remarks of most people about MB is the advancement system feeling too “mother may I?” or not interesting enough, and its deadliness, which, as someone who has played this game extensively, I find is wildly overstated.
I find these complaints far too commonplace among *many* games. It’s almost like the Dark Souls effect, where because the game is advertised as or visually gives the impression of brutality and deadliness, people just regurgitate that at face value. I think this ends up making the game sound *unfair*, which is hardly true. Really good points here.
> I’ve also been heavily experimenting in solo play with things like Lore mechanics - discovering “true” world lore having one-time scroll-like benefits, or lower powered lasting effects, something I began developing in my Tarvannion project as a way to make lore cooler for players.
This is fascinating for a number of reasons that I’ve been working on in my own projects. Do you have further readings or articles on Lore mechanics or how you’ve implemented them in other games?
> The presented lore about the basilisks is really a sort of parable about a religious war between two powerful churches, or religious sects.
Ooooo, I love this along with your other edits as well. Really enjoy the take that the core book is almost like this heretical piece of literature spread through cults and anticanon religious sects that make all the traditional histories and traditions into pseudo-gnostic esotericism.
Eager to read more on all this! I’ll admit my own forays into MB have been pretty traditional and, literally, by the book. Maybe I ought to take another look through and see what inspirations I glean.
I'll take a look at the Tarvannion zine and read more about that! Agreed on the deadliness of more traditional games like B/X where your fate is more or less tied to one bad die roll or one instance of a lapse in judgement (from player OR GM).
Cheers! The tl/dr is just turning lore into single sentence snippets that can be gathered in a number of ways in the campaign world. Each one provides some kind of “triggered” effect like a scroll.
This way when your PCs hear the poem of the brave elf prince standing against the goblin army, they can use that snatch of poem to gain a mechanical advantage the next time they’re outnumbered etc.
I love the game but you are right (in part) about the setting as it tends to wear thin and players start to ask what is the point if the world is going to end.
I've toyed internally with remodelling it to resemble the old FF books I read as a teenager and maybe even set it on Titan. Switch out the Swedish names for Old English and swap out the scratchy metal art of Johan Nohr and replace it with the muddy art of Russ Nicholson.
I really enjoy reading about your experience and process. I would be lying if i said i haven't considered taking Avalon for a run in Both Mork Borg & Ka-Arath. What do you think? I grabbed a boxed set of Black Hack and really like what I'm seeing.
I've played a long campaign in MB where my basic motivation was sticking pre-written modules into a "flow". Players found early motivation in securing a castle, and, so the first 7-8 sessions were just them going about locating that while making some money.
I love your whole write-up, and also your homebrewed rules. Thanks for sharing. You write that your players love rolling up defense, but you also note that your defense is a permanent damage reduction – what am I misunderstanding?
My guy, your "basilisk as basilicas" line just gave me so much to work with.
I'm running a 5e game for my friends who are new to TTRPGs and I've been slowly incorporating OSR and NSR aspects into my world and game design; the idea of an unreliable narrator of lore just gave me so much to work with*.
* Probably too much considering they're going on 3 weeks trapped in a dungeon they can't get out of.
I too am a fan of the Mork Borg system except for the combat system and my players and I prefer to use the combat laid out in Forbidden Psalms skirmish system.
I just read your home rules and I was wondering if the cascade part of exploding dice is necessary... And why did you decide to have a flat armour reduction? To have one less die to roll? Anyway, very interesting take on MB, thanks.
Flat armor speeds things up immensely. Also heavy armor where 4,5,6 are commonly rolled can make combat take forever especially if not using exploding dice.
Cascading makes sense for me because although a small weapon may crit more often, the bigger ones have the potential to crit for much higher damage.
I'd love to play MB RAW at some point, but I can easily imagine needing to heavily hack and house-rule it if we want to get any longevity out of it. Thanks for all the fantastic ideas.
Great article and fun comments thread. I have a never played copy building energy to play cos a friend is going to run it. Can't wait to share it after dawn and it's okay to text agsin, lol.
> Right at the beginning, though, I knew the “so grim it’s funny” feel that most of the third party stuff had wasn’t for my table. There’s plenty of laughs at my table, but we generally shy away from comedic *material*, knowing the comedy will be there regardless.
I think intrinsically most people know this, but I’m so glad you repeated it. Humor *will* happen -- regardless of how you try to push it away, so you have two choices: fully dive into a slapstick gonzo game where humor is sort of the point, or use humor as a fine tool to break up larger chunks of drama, melancholy, terror, etc.
> The common complaints/remarks of most people about MB is the advancement system feeling too “mother may I?” or not interesting enough, and its deadliness, which, as someone who has played this game extensively, I find is wildly overstated.
I find these complaints far too commonplace among *many* games. It’s almost like the Dark Souls effect, where because the game is advertised as or visually gives the impression of brutality and deadliness, people just regurgitate that at face value. I think this ends up making the game sound *unfair*, which is hardly true. Really good points here.
> I’ve also been heavily experimenting in solo play with things like Lore mechanics - discovering “true” world lore having one-time scroll-like benefits, or lower powered lasting effects, something I began developing in my Tarvannion project as a way to make lore cooler for players.
This is fascinating for a number of reasons that I’ve been working on in my own projects. Do you have further readings or articles on Lore mechanics or how you’ve implemented them in other games?
> The presented lore about the basilisks is really a sort of parable about a religious war between two powerful churches, or religious sects.
Ooooo, I love this along with your other edits as well. Really enjoy the take that the core book is almost like this heretical piece of literature spread through cults and anticanon religious sects that make all the traditional histories and traditions into pseudo-gnostic esotericism.
Eager to read more on all this! I’ll admit my own forays into MB have been pretty traditional and, literally, by the book. Maybe I ought to take another look through and see what inspirations I glean.
Cheers! You can see the lore mechanic at work in my Tarvannion zine (itch page is linked in article with my Mork Borg adventure)
And yeah the deadly stuff…I’d say b/x is much deadlier, has no “broken” table, no armor reduction, no shields sundered (at least RAW), etc etc.
A few “getting better” in MB and pcs can be very tough.
I'll take a look at the Tarvannion zine and read more about that! Agreed on the deadliness of more traditional games like B/X where your fate is more or less tied to one bad die roll or one instance of a lapse in judgement (from player OR GM).
Your approach to lore sounded interesting to me too. I just bought and downloaded your Tarvannion zine to check it out!
Cheers! The tl/dr is just turning lore into single sentence snippets that can be gathered in a number of ways in the campaign world. Each one provides some kind of “triggered” effect like a scroll.
This way when your PCs hear the poem of the brave elf prince standing against the goblin army, they can use that snatch of poem to gain a mechanical advantage the next time they’re outnumbered etc.
I love Mork Borg. Perfect for pick up games.
Great for long campaigns too!
I love the game but you are right (in part) about the setting as it tends to wear thin and players start to ask what is the point if the world is going to end.
I've toyed internally with remodelling it to resemble the old FF books I read as a teenager and maybe even set it on Titan. Switch out the Swedish names for Old English and swap out the scratchy metal art of Johan Nohr and replace it with the muddy art of Russ Nicholson.
Yeah the whole “it’s the end of the world” literal approach doesn’t lend itself well to longer games.
I really enjoy reading about your experience and process. I would be lying if i said i haven't considered taking Avalon for a run in Both Mork Borg & Ka-Arath. What do you think? I grabbed a boxed set of Black Hack and really like what I'm seeing.
Well black hack is very different from Mork Borg as a roll under system.
Mork Borg and Kal Arath are actually very similar systems except KA is a 2d6 where mb is a standard d20 vs DR
I've played a long campaign in MB where my basic motivation was sticking pre-written modules into a "flow". Players found early motivation in securing a castle, and, so the first 7-8 sessions were just them going about locating that while making some money.
I love your whole write-up, and also your homebrewed rules. Thanks for sharing. You write that your players love rolling up defense, but you also note that your defense is a permanent damage reduction – what am I misunderstanding?
Thanks!!
Rolling to dodge - if you fail, you take damage. Armor is a flat damage reduction.
Ah, ofc.
Thanks for clearing that up.
Any time!!
Have you copied the system from Shadowdark? Or what's your approach there?
The xp system?
My guy, your "basilisk as basilicas" line just gave me so much to work with.
I'm running a 5e game for my friends who are new to TTRPGs and I've been slowly incorporating OSR and NSR aspects into my world and game design; the idea of an unreliable narrator of lore just gave me so much to work with*.
* Probably too much considering they're going on 3 weeks trapped in a dungeon they can't get out of.
I too am a fan of the Mork Borg system except for the combat system and my players and I prefer to use the combat laid out in Forbidden Psalms skirmish system.
Forbidden Psalm is cool. I have my own house rules for combat too.
Exploding dice. Minimum one damage. Flat armor reduction. Throw attack and defense die at the same time etc.
Keeps it fast and furious.
I just read your home rules and I was wondering if the cascade part of exploding dice is necessary... And why did you decide to have a flat armour reduction? To have one less die to roll? Anyway, very interesting take on MB, thanks.
Flat armor speeds things up immensely. Also heavy armor where 4,5,6 are commonly rolled can make combat take forever especially if not using exploding dice.
Cascading makes sense for me because although a small weapon may crit more often, the bigger ones have the potential to crit for much higher damage.
I always forget to rule that armour gives a negative penalty to defence rolls… must tattoo that one on my players’ foreheads
Oh yeah that’s an important one!!
I'd love to play MB RAW at some point, but I can easily imagine needing to heavily hack and house-rule it if we want to get any longevity out of it. Thanks for all the fantastic ideas.
Check out my article on here black steel bastards. Some easy bolt on house rules
Will do!
Great article and fun comments thread. I have a never played copy building energy to play cos a friend is going to run it. Can't wait to share it after dawn and it's okay to text agsin, lol.
And hell yes to show up and bonus XP.