Classic fantasy adventure tabletop roleplaying games, such as Dungeons & Dragons and Pathfinder, are designed to make players feel like epic heroes of legend. You become epic, powerful wielders of magic and mayhem, able to vanquish villains with a wave of your hand. 

But what if you do not want to be all-powerful? What if you want to taste the boot of fate constantly pounding into your character's face, needing to use every ability you have to come even close to victory? MORK BORG is the perfect way to dig your teeth into some grimdark TTRPG goodness, and StartPlaying has some sessions running right now. Check them out as soon as you finish up your character!

MORK BORG is a modern classic, perfectly meshing simple rules with old-school fantasy brutality. Everything about this game hates you in the best way - enemies are difficult to defeat, the environment is constantly trying to devour you, and the world is all-encompassing in its darkness. You will need to fight to survive every step of your journey - and even then, it might not be enough.

Are you ready for the challenge?

SO IT IS WRITTEN (IN THE ANCIENT TOMES)

Players in MORK BORG are down on their luck adventurers, but that isn’t saying much. No matter where you go, people are suffering. Disease and ill fortune plague all those who travel these dark lands. Only the bold are granted riches or an early grave. Depending on your point of view, either one of these can be a gift in this cruel world. 

When you are thinking of initial character concepts, you should craft an adventurer willing to do anything to survive- take whatever job, no matter how small. Kill hordes of rats, retrieve cursed relics, or just deliver a few strange packages to various patrons across crime-ridden cities. Adventure-and your demise-await. 

Before we dive into character creation, let’s go over the basics. The four key abilities of MORK BORG are: 

• Agility: Dodge, flee, run
• Presence: Use magics, aim, perceive
• Strength: Smash objects, strike enemies
• Toughness: Resisting poisons and the elements, hit points

Whenever you make a check, it will be for one of these attributes. Roll a d20 and add your ability modifier to determine the outcome. The higher the roll, the greater the check success. It is that easy!

ROLL YOUR DESTINY

MORK BORG has become recognized across the TTRPG community for its simple rules and fast pick-up-and-play character creation. From weapons to divine artifacts to personality quirks, everything you need is a few rolls of the dice away. 

If you have a character in mind before you come to the table, you can pick stuff from the various lists that you think reflects your character best. If you want to walk in blind, just roll a few dice and you will have a full character sheet!

To build your character, do the following:

• Roll for Equipment: Everyone starts with a little something. Roll some dice and determine how much you have in your pack- will you walk into the game with a full cart or a literal collection of monkeys? The dice will decide.
• Roll for Armors and Weapons: Similar to your equipment, everyone needs a way to protect themselves. For some, that is with a heavy crossbow and some sweet armor. For others, it is by wielding a thighbone in their threadbare robes. To each their own.
• Roll Abilities: Roll 3d6 to determine a stat number for your four abilities. Whatever your total is, it will give you a modifier, ranging from –3 to +3. If you have a class, you will often roll one ability with a modifier bonus and another ability with a modifier reduction. If you are classless, roll 4d6 and take the highest three numbers when determining your ability totals.‍
• Roll Hit Points: Classless characters start with 1d8 + Toughness hit points. Characters with a class will have their own rules regarding hit point totals. Roll to find out how quickly you are going to die.

Optionally, you can also access optional tables to help develop your character’s personality, aesthetic, and gain Omens. Omens are a unique resource that allows you to perform miracles in dire moments. Using an Omen can reduce the skill difficulty of a skill check, deal maximum damage on an attack, and reduce damage by a d6. Just make sure to use them sparingly- Omens only return after you rest. 

LIVE TO WORK, WORK TO DIE

Instead to the typical character-building process, if you want a unique character for your game, you can choose to build your character with a special class. Classes can offer unique gameplay opportunities, especially for those returning to the game multiple times. The classes are:

• Fanged Deserter (Key Ability - Strength): Most people consider you deranged. In fairness, they are right, but they would be too if they had grown up in your shoes. Abandoned, lost, and vicious with a blade, you are uncontrollable- which does have its pros and cons, depending on who you talk to. 
• Gutterborn Scum (Key Abilities - Agility and Presence): Circumstances as they are, you should be dead. The only reason you are alive is you were willing to do whatever was necessary to survive. Whether it was robbing your neighbors or killing for scraps, at least you can say you are still alive. But at what cost?
• Esoteric Hermit (Key Ability - Presence): Abandoning humanity to live in a cave, hut, or dense thicket, you don’t have many social skills. The skills you do have are dedicated to ancient rituals that would drive most people mad. But you’re not mad… right?
• Wretched Royalty (Key Ability - None): There was a time when you had everything. Wealth, power, respect, all within your hands. But that is all gone now- and you are ready to do anything to get it back. Steal what you need, kill when necessary- in time, no one will ever forget your name. 
• Heretical Priest (Key Abilities – Presence): The ancient Two-Headed Basilisk, the serpents of the end, have given you a vision too awful to bear. Now you wander the wastes, destroying abandoned temples and warning whoever you walk past about the approaching end. The only trouble is getting anyone to listen to you. 
• Occult Herbmaster (Key Abilities – Toughness): You were born and raised in the forests, deserts, and glades of this hopeless land. You are entwined with nature itself, letting you communicate with the earth and use its powers. Who cares if someone calls you a lunatic who talks to grass?

Classes have special equipment, hit points, and powers that you roll for instead of the default options that classless player characters have access to. Each class has detailed instructions for what to roll for, granting boons and reduced options depending on each class option. But remember- classes are optional, so feel free to ignore these if you do not find something that fits your character. 

Now that you have your character, you’re ready to face your ill fortune head-on. Check out available MORK BORG games on StartPlaying right now to jump right into the action!

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Tyson Fraleigh is a professional dungeon master, writer, playwright, and voice actor based in Tiohtià:ke/Mooniyang/Montreal.