I found the layout to be offsetting to start, but now I value its utility. I read it twice (took less than an hour, total) and now I can find every piece of information at a glance. I also remember the information more easily than with other systems, because i have a mental "book mark" because i know how the words LOOK rather than just what they say. Mork Borg is an OSR masterpiece. Adding in feats, items, and classes from supplements, and simply changing the DC to attack and defend against various monsters makes it mechanically on par with most other "rules medium" systems.
Thanks! And if you're interested in layout, I highly recommend checking out the two artists I mentioned (Kaden- kadenramstack.carrd.co/ and Sin- diwatamnl.carrd.co/) for more examples of the wild things RPG artists are capable of!
I just discovered this channel this morning and I’ve been binging your videos ever since. This channel is providing so much value to the TTRPG community; and your writing style is so insightful!!! Please keep making more content!
Fantastic breakdown, yet again! I appreciate that you went into Mork Borg in spite of your background preferences, and that in the end you found something amazing and thoughtful!
I had very similar feelings about MB, even if I didn't notice the same things you did about it. I somehow managed to completely overlook the weapon spreads and what the layout is trying to say about that table. It's very cool. It's easy to focus on the book's graphical and layout design and see the rules as basic filler OSR mechanics, but I think there's even some interesting stuff going on there, too. The way to track the world's apocalypse, and most importantly the fact that it's a mechanical rule to burn the rulebook once the apocalypse finally does rear its ugly head, is an interesting statement on the relationship between players, rules, and the books that bridge the gap between them.
Great video, dude! Even though I am in the OSR space, I like but don't love MB but I do really enjoy breakdowns like this of anything in the hobby. Keep it up
Love the game I am new but its great! I love it and DCC lots of fun, simple but brilliant! tons of other content out there as well. Also I love to make my own stuff but I will drop stuff in and out I also play solo... so yeah can be hard to do some things but I use some cool solo rules and throw in events I want to play out and use some of my own random tables for stuff like Cults, cities, towns, villages NPCs and more (it helps to keep the game going with less rolling for who people are or what a place is :-) I think more people should use it, doesnt take long.
My problem with all this is that in my experience this is not how the game works, and I know other people with the same experience and I can see the how the rules caused it so I don't think it's an issue with me or my table. So all these ideas might be cool in theory, but in practice if you roll up a slightly better character, fighting isn't that dangerous anymore. Which is especially weird if you're the only one with a stronger character and the rest of the PCs are not like that. You're basically playing in a different genre at that point.
yeah i agree, it’s got amazing art and design but theres almost definitely games that do the whole “rules light, heavy everything else” better. my mörk borg campaign ended up feeling not that grim or dark, and more silly a lot of the time due to swingy combat and stuff. still a book i’m glad to have in my collection, but rules wise, not my cup of tea
Make a power player group hand have high stakes with strong/many enemies. Just a suggestion and I know it kinda defeats the purpose of rolling but I think this is still an option to play the game.
Though the fact is you can just as easily get sick or have an item you pick up be cursed and kill you. You're not safe ever, just because you're strong doesn't mean the thriller aspect goes away
I found the layout to be offsetting to start, but now I value its utility. I read it twice (took less than an hour, total) and now I can find every piece of information at a glance. I also remember the information more easily than with other systems, because i have a mental "book mark" because i know how the words LOOK rather than just what they say.
Mork Borg is an OSR masterpiece. Adding in feats, items, and classes from supplements, and simply changing the DC to attack and defend against various monsters makes it mechanically on par with most other "rules medium" systems.
The weapons tables reveal. Incredible. Awesome. Literally laughed out loud.
Thanks Michael! It's such a fun thing to do with such a common piece of RPG layout!
I love that in the Zweihander page you could hear the guitar riff the designers probably intended you to hear.
as a graphic designer interested in making layouts for ttrpgs, this is super fascinating !!! awesome video as always
Thanks! And if you're interested in layout, I highly recommend checking out the two artists I mentioned (Kaden- kadenramstack.carrd.co/ and Sin- diwatamnl.carrd.co/) for more examples of the wild things RPG artists are capable of!
Oh! The man from the weapons illustration is a medieval wounds man, old medical manuals used them to show different types of injuries.
I just discovered this channel this morning and I’ve been binging your videos ever since. This channel is providing so much value to the TTRPG community; and your writing style is so insightful!!! Please keep making more content!
I love when an analysis of art is so artfully done. Fantastic work
Fantastic breakdown, yet again! I appreciate that you went into Mork Borg in spite of your background preferences, and that in the end you found something amazing and thoughtful!
Thanks Josh! I’d heard so much about it that I had to take a look!
I had very similar feelings about MB, even if I didn't notice the same things you did about it. I somehow managed to completely overlook the weapon spreads and what the layout is trying to say about that table. It's very cool.
It's easy to focus on the book's graphical and layout design and see the rules as basic filler OSR mechanics, but I think there's even some interesting stuff going on there, too. The way to track the world's apocalypse, and most importantly the fact that it's a mechanical rule to burn the rulebook once the apocalypse finally does rear its ugly head, is an interesting statement on the relationship between players, rules, and the books that bridge the gap between them.
Great video, dude! Even though I am in the OSR space, I like but don't love MB but I do really enjoy breakdowns like this of anything in the hobby. Keep it up
This is one of my favorite Mörk Borg reviews! xD
Bravo! Excellent exposition.
Great video! The book gives me a headache to read, so I simply don't read it - but that Femur page did make me laugh.
Thanks Juliet! I'm very sympathetic to folks who find it hard to read, it is A LOT
Love this, I really need to have a proper look at the book now.
What a fascinating art piece
Rise up Mörk Borg kult, Vehru speaks true.
Lovely little breakdown!
Love the game I am new but its great! I love it and DCC lots of fun, simple but brilliant! tons of other content out there as well. Also I love to make my own stuff but I will drop stuff in and out I also play solo... so yeah can be hard to do some things but I use some cool solo rules and throw in events I want to play out and use some of my own random tables for stuff like Cults, cities, towns, villages NPCs and more (it helps to keep the game going with less rolling for who people are or what a place is :-) I think more people should use it, doesnt take long.
My problem with all this is that in my experience this is not how the game works, and I know other people with the same experience and I can see the how the rules caused it so I don't think it's an issue with me or my table. So all these ideas might be cool in theory, but in practice if you roll up a slightly better character, fighting isn't that dangerous anymore. Which is especially weird if you're the only one with a stronger character and the rest of the PCs are not like that. You're basically playing in a different genre at that point.
yeah i agree, it’s got amazing art and design but theres almost definitely games that do the whole “rules light, heavy everything else” better. my mörk borg campaign ended up feeling not that grim or dark, and more silly a lot of the time due to swingy combat and stuff. still a book i’m glad to have in my collection, but rules wise, not my cup of tea
Maybe if you stick to goblins. There are plenty of enemies that will absolutely destroy even an improved character.
Make a power player group hand have high stakes with strong/many enemies. Just a suggestion and I know it kinda defeats the purpose of rolling but I think this is still an option to play the game.
Though the fact is you can just as easily get sick or have an item you pick up be cursed and kill you. You're not safe ever, just because you're strong doesn't mean the thriller aspect goes away
Great video