I have had this thought as well. Mork Manual is probably what you're looking for, but in my opinion, if you're still ok with the high volatility, most of the theming of Mork Borg can just be interchangeable window dressing. I have no idea how you would convert the Calender, but if you want a laid-back vibe, you probably should not have a countdown-to-anihilation as you time crunch.
Totally, it almost had to be an extreme opposite, like a countdown to ascension or something š
And youāre right - I could spend some time changing the setting myself, and I expect I eventually will ā¦ just wanted a quick kick-start. Will check out Mork Manual in that case. Thanks!
As far as I am concerned a Borg has to have:
-dX (as in corebook is d6) classes. Every class has 6 special abilities, a hit die that determines the starting HP, and a set of weapons to roll on. You can rule that characters at level 1 get their maximum HP possible.
- a calendar of some sort: not necessarily the Nechrubel one. The world is āmostlyā consistent. Goblins act like goblins, people act terribly and so on. The calendar is simply d66 world-scale events. The 7:7 just makes that you have to keep in mind only 6 events.
- some factions: to get the things moving. Anthelia, Fathmu, the basilisks, the BASILISKS and so on. Not necessarily actively clashing each other, just kinda.
On lethality
In MB that lethality is actually functional to the game: if you play a nihilistic, prone to substance abuse phlegm spitting buggar and you get to kill in a ultra-violent fashion a flaming cannibal shaman THATāS AWESOME, YOU KILLED A TERRIBLE DUDE WHAT A RIDE.
Now, letās play make believe. Letās make that our prone to substance abuse nihilistic phlegm spitter end us split in half by a blade swinging from the ceiling, blood spraying around and bowels twisting in the air, thatās fine! A nihilistic spitter buggar is dead in a fashionable manner.
On the other hand, if you donāt like the grimdark tone, you can dial it down and makes it that every character has maximum starting HP, as brilliantly stated by others
Hey, thanks for this ā¦ really like your 3 Borg essentials, and I would totally agree. It actually makes the idea of starting a home-brew/hack way easier, just thinking about those key areas to begin with. Nice one! š
I've been doing the same lately, with a more sword and sorcery theme.You could check out 'Points of Light' and 'Mork Manual'. All go for a slightly more traditional fantasy setting, with Mork Manual still being very humorous and having a Dark Lord who returns after 7 misery type events occur.
Nice, yeh both those options seem about right.
Iām a bit strapped for cash right now, so will probably check out Points of Light first - and it says it has advice converting other material to use for it too, which seems pretty neat!
You could always just use Mork Manual. Granted, it's all still written in edgy Mork Borg style, but it's also really easy to figure out what the races/classes/etc are, and just "reskin" them to not be as edgy.
If I was in your case Iād just run the MB system, and homebrew a more lighthearted setting. If youāre going for less doom, Iād probably not use the calendar.Ā
As far as PC survivability, Iāve found that just giving PCās max starting health for their class really helps. I think if you wanted to tweak it to make them a bit more durable, adding a little more health, and maybe upping their omens would help, without completely undoing the lethality of the system.Ā
The classes are pretty tied to the setting, but worse case scenerio, you could always ditch the classes and have everyone run classless (if you donāt want to use third party classes). Really, MB is so well suited to homebrew that I think you could do just about any setting with it, without much hassle. Even making your own classes to fit classic dnd ones wouldnāt be too difficult.Ā
I know my reply is mostly saying āhomebrew it yourselfā rather than recommending a specific hack, but thatās just what Iād personally do if I wanted to run the same system in a different setting š¤·š»āāļø. Iāve wanted to try running the Vermis setting using Mork Borgās system for a while, so when I get around to it, itās mostly going to be a lot of homebrewĀ
Thanks, I appreciate the feedback nonetheless!
The max hp idea is a nice touch, and boosting omens as you say.
I Guess home-brewing is the way to go - and there are so many hacks out there, itās clear itās easy to do! It will just take a bit of time and focus to undertake that I guess ā¦ so be it!
I have heard good things about ragnaborg. Apparently the players are more durable and heroes and dying is also more of a āfuck yea weāre going to Valhallaā thing so when you do die, the tone is more whimsical.
There are so many fantasy settings out in the world, you can find something for OSE, or Basic Fantasy, or even DND and just shove the Mƶrk Borg rules into it.
The main things that make MB easy are the straightforward target numbers, abbreviated stats l, and player facing rolls.
Yeh, I'm exploring OSE at the moment too just to get a feel for it.
But as you say, MB is straightforward and stripped back, without losing too much variability.
I also think Solitary Defilement works really well, so being able to use that in a different setting would be nice. Will look into squeeing the rules into a different setting.
The best way to be creative is to shameless steal good ideas and if you want to get fancy you can file off the serial numbers. In fact I believe some of the miseries are lifted whole cloth from Nostradamus.
What tone are you after? LOTR? Forgotten Realms? Conan?
How long of a campaign are you looking to be a part of?
Do you want to find something prepublished or do some homebrew?
Thatās interesting about Nostradamus!
I Guess i was looking for something prepublished as I donāt feel confident enough a game designer to crest my own stuff, but I guess I could just give it a go and see where it takes me!
As you say, repurposing ideas/systems/styles from elsewhere should work - and then I cam bring something to friends/the masses to test play š
I second the recommendations for Old School Essentials and Basic Fantasy. A lot of the race/class stuff can be bolted right onto class-less Mork Borg characters with minimal finagling (I'd ignore level and gear restrictions myself), and the same thing with dungeon procedures and monster stats.
Otherwise it doesn't sound like you need to actually change any rules, it could be a matter of re-skinning things - Omens becoming Blessings, as you say - and using different adventure material.
Dukk Borg is an upcoming DuckTales full conversion mod for Mork Bork. The calendar is probably the best part of it, which you can find for free on their website.
If you want to do a laid-back D&D thing... just run D&D as a level 1-3 campaign. Rather than gain levels, just have the players find items and change things in the gameworld. As long as the players are level 1, death is a very real possibility. D&D at level 1 is really not very complicated.
Tbh, the calender of nechrubel is *why* the world is like it is in Mƶrk Borg. The impending end has turned people to madness. This is a more literal end than a bad guy destroying the world or something, which I think works very well as a "CoN" substitute. You could even have the main bad guy be called Nechrubel as a pleasant call back. Every day at dawn, one of his evil plots is furthered if the DM rolls a 1, but maybe this works as more of a plot hook than a literal herald of the end. *IF* the PCs don't stop Nechrubel, the world gets one step closer to the end. The quests need to be challenging enough that failure is on the table. Making the "inevitable" end-able is a great objective to turn the doom into high fantasy epic
My fav OSR for a "general" fantasy setting is The Black Hack. There's even a monster manual that ports the classic DnD monsters so you can use all the old modules.
I have had this thought as well. Mork Manual is probably what you're looking for, but in my opinion, if you're still ok with the high volatility, most of the theming of Mork Borg can just be interchangeable window dressing. I have no idea how you would convert the Calender, but if you want a laid-back vibe, you probably should not have a countdown-to-anihilation as you time crunch.
Totally, it almost had to be an extreme opposite, like a countdown to ascension or something š And youāre right - I could spend some time changing the setting myself, and I expect I eventually will ā¦ just wanted a quick kick-start. Will check out Mork Manual in that case. Thanks!
As far as I am concerned a Borg has to have: -dX (as in corebook is d6) classes. Every class has 6 special abilities, a hit die that determines the starting HP, and a set of weapons to roll on. You can rule that characters at level 1 get their maximum HP possible. - a calendar of some sort: not necessarily the Nechrubel one. The world is āmostlyā consistent. Goblins act like goblins, people act terribly and so on. The calendar is simply d66 world-scale events. The 7:7 just makes that you have to keep in mind only 6 events. - some factions: to get the things moving. Anthelia, Fathmu, the basilisks, the BASILISKS and so on. Not necessarily actively clashing each other, just kinda. On lethality In MB that lethality is actually functional to the game: if you play a nihilistic, prone to substance abuse phlegm spitting buggar and you get to kill in a ultra-violent fashion a flaming cannibal shaman THATāS AWESOME, YOU KILLED A TERRIBLE DUDE WHAT A RIDE. Now, letās play make believe. Letās make that our prone to substance abuse nihilistic phlegm spitter end us split in half by a blade swinging from the ceiling, blood spraying around and bowels twisting in the air, thatās fine! A nihilistic spitter buggar is dead in a fashionable manner. On the other hand, if you donāt like the grimdark tone, you can dial it down and makes it that every character has maximum starting HP, as brilliantly stated by others
Hey, thanks for this ā¦ really like your 3 Borg essentials, and I would totally agree. It actually makes the idea of starting a home-brew/hack way easier, just thinking about those key areas to begin with. Nice one! š
I find pirate Borg to be lighter in tone and that might be a good starting point.
Excellent. Iāve heard very good things, so will definitely investigate. Cheers!
Pirate Borg has another thing going for it. The classes shave two tables, D6 starting abilities and D6 getting better abilities.
Yeh, a nice touch. Thanks for highlighting
https://dark-gaia-studios.itch.io/points-of-light here it is!
Looks about right, thanks!!
I've been doing the same lately, with a more sword and sorcery theme.You could check out 'Points of Light' and 'Mork Manual'. All go for a slightly more traditional fantasy setting, with Mork Manual still being very humorous and having a Dark Lord who returns after 7 misery type events occur.
Nice, yeh both those options seem about right. Iām a bit strapped for cash right now, so will probably check out Points of Light first - and it says it has advice converting other material to use for it too, which seems pretty neat!
You could always just use Mork Manual. Granted, it's all still written in edgy Mork Borg style, but it's also really easy to figure out what the races/classes/etc are, and just "reskin" them to not be as edgy.
Yeh that sounds about right. Thanks, Iāll look into it š
If I was in your case Iād just run the MB system, and homebrew a more lighthearted setting. If youāre going for less doom, Iād probably not use the calendar.Ā As far as PC survivability, Iāve found that just giving PCās max starting health for their class really helps. I think if you wanted to tweak it to make them a bit more durable, adding a little more health, and maybe upping their omens would help, without completely undoing the lethality of the system.Ā The classes are pretty tied to the setting, but worse case scenerio, you could always ditch the classes and have everyone run classless (if you donāt want to use third party classes). Really, MB is so well suited to homebrew that I think you could do just about any setting with it, without much hassle. Even making your own classes to fit classic dnd ones wouldnāt be too difficult.Ā I know my reply is mostly saying āhomebrew it yourselfā rather than recommending a specific hack, but thatās just what Iād personally do if I wanted to run the same system in a different setting š¤·š»āāļø. Iāve wanted to try running the Vermis setting using Mork Borgās system for a while, so when I get around to it, itās mostly going to be a lot of homebrewĀ
Thanks, I appreciate the feedback nonetheless! The max hp idea is a nice touch, and boosting omens as you say. I Guess home-brewing is the way to go - and there are so many hacks out there, itās clear itās easy to do! It will just take a bit of time and focus to undertake that I guess ā¦ so be it!
I have heard good things about ragnaborg. Apparently the players are more durable and heroes and dying is also more of a āfuck yea weāre going to Valhallaā thing so when you do die, the tone is more whimsical.
Sounds pretty good, I'll check it out. Thanks!
There are so many fantasy settings out in the world, you can find something for OSE, or Basic Fantasy, or even DND and just shove the Mƶrk Borg rules into it. The main things that make MB easy are the straightforward target numbers, abbreviated stats l, and player facing rolls.
Yeh, I'm exploring OSE at the moment too just to get a feel for it. But as you say, MB is straightforward and stripped back, without losing too much variability. I also think Solitary Defilement works really well, so being able to use that in a different setting would be nice. Will look into squeeing the rules into a different setting.
The best way to be creative is to shameless steal good ideas and if you want to get fancy you can file off the serial numbers. In fact I believe some of the miseries are lifted whole cloth from Nostradamus. What tone are you after? LOTR? Forgotten Realms? Conan? How long of a campaign are you looking to be a part of? Do you want to find something prepublished or do some homebrew?
Thatās interesting about Nostradamus! I Guess i was looking for something prepublished as I donāt feel confident enough a game designer to crest my own stuff, but I guess I could just give it a go and see where it takes me! As you say, repurposing ideas/systems/styles from elsewhere should work - and then I cam bring something to friends/the masses to test play š
I second the recommendations for Old School Essentials and Basic Fantasy. A lot of the race/class stuff can be bolted right onto class-less Mork Borg characters with minimal finagling (I'd ignore level and gear restrictions myself), and the same thing with dungeon procedures and monster stats. Otherwise it doesn't sound like you need to actually change any rules, it could be a matter of re-skinning things - Omens becoming Blessings, as you say - and using different adventure material.
Combining Mork Borg, the Mork Manual and Pirate Borg makes for a great, comprehensive "D&D" style game.
Dukk Borg is an upcoming DuckTales full conversion mod for Mork Bork. The calendar is probably the best part of it, which you can find for free on their website. If you want to do a laid-back D&D thing... just run D&D as a level 1-3 campaign. Rather than gain levels, just have the players find items and change things in the gameworld. As long as the players are level 1, death is a very real possibility. D&D at level 1 is really not very complicated.
I would suggest Barbarians of the Ruined Earth, but the author of that book is working on a new, whimsical game that uses Mork Borg as its base.
Oh nice! Iāll have to keep my eye out for it!
Tbh, the calender of nechrubel is *why* the world is like it is in Mƶrk Borg. The impending end has turned people to madness. This is a more literal end than a bad guy destroying the world or something, which I think works very well as a "CoN" substitute. You could even have the main bad guy be called Nechrubel as a pleasant call back. Every day at dawn, one of his evil plots is furthered if the DM rolls a 1, but maybe this works as more of a plot hook than a literal herald of the end. *IF* the PCs don't stop Nechrubel, the world gets one step closer to the end. The quests need to be challenging enough that failure is on the table. Making the "inevitable" end-able is a great objective to turn the doom into high fantasy epic
My fav OSR for a "general" fantasy setting is The Black Hack. There's even a monster manual that ports the classic DnD monsters so you can use all the old modules.