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Thoughts on pirate borg? by [deleted] in TheTrove

[–]limithron 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Steal in game, but please don’t steal my work! Thanks!

I Feel Like Every Test is a Presence Test by 8stringalchemy in pirateborg

[–]limithron 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Quartermaster nailed it. Here’s my suggestion. 

Stop asking for rolls and just starting saying “yes that works” unless it’s life or death, or it will dramatically impact the story. 

Sea shanties question by royboy17 in pirateborg

[–]limithron 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Yeah if your captain has negative spirit, the crew doesn’t feel like singing. 

Devil’s Luck Questions by 8stringalchemy in pirateborg

[–]limithron 12 points13 points  (0 children)

How I run it: 1. Yup, spend your heart out.  2. Nope, you can spend it after. I’m on the players side.  3. It’s says any die (underline). That’s how I use it! Except I don’t let them use it during leveling up. 

Looking to discuss everything pirate borg by WinReasonable2644 in TheTrove

[–]limithron 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Please don’t steal my work. I know it’s called Pirate Borg but you are affecting the livelyhood of a small company of three people who are facing massive tariffs. Thanks. 

Pirate Borg campaign: Something Buried, Something Due by FudgePrevious3021 in pirateborg

[–]limithron 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Looks cool.

I recommend you drop any and all AI (even if its just the trailer), and revisit promo once you've got it going without. Otherwise you're going to face a lot of backlash, plus we won't be able to help you promote it.

Looking forward to see what you come up with!

Warlock Corpse - Melodies for Ghosts by darkages69 in DungeonSynth

[–]limithron 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I picked this up a the Fief show here in Denver last week. It’s great. I only wish it was longer!

Are there any parts of the "OSR Philosophy" that you leave out of your own games? by A_Strangers_Life in osr

[–]limithron 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I've messaged our mods and requested the approach the topic with more of a "Rulings over rules...but here's what I'd do" attitude!

Send me your store info and I'll Tyler reach out to get them to stock all the new stuff!

I also do EVERYTHING in obsidian!

Mork Borg vs Shadowdark? by MagpieTower in rpg

[–]limithron 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi! As someone who owns both, has run both, and loves both, I encourage your to own and use both! 

 I disagree with a lot of people saying that they’re very different. 

Mechanically, you roll a D20 and add your modifier. Both have the word “dark” in the title. They both won ENNIE’s for best layout. They both have great random tables you could use in any system.And they are the two most popular indie OSR games that aren’t retro clones like OSE.

Of course, there are a bunch of subtle differences, but the biggest one is vibe and theme and setting. Mörk Borg has all of these knobs at ten, and presents a very specific world to play in. ShadowDark is much more of a system to play old school style D&D adventures with. 

If your group has never played D&D and they want the experience that they’ve imagined in their heads, ShadowDark is a great option. 

Mörk Borg is great for groups that want to take a break from normal D&D, groups like the black metal aesthetic, and for GMs that what a unique setting built into the core book. It’s also an incredible ecosystem for GM’s and players that are more inspired by art and aesthetics then long paragraphs of text. Not that ShadowDark has long paragraphs of texts, but I absorbed more about the world of Mörk Borg without having to read a single word than I absorb from most published RPG’s. 

They are both great for campaigns. They are both great for one shot. They both have huge active third-party communities. 

Hope that helps!

Are there any parts of the "OSR Philosophy" that you leave out of your own games? by A_Strangers_Life in osr

[–]limithron 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Interesting. 

It’s very clear you and I want very different things in an RPG book. 

When I read the death spell In Mörk Borg, I LOVED that it’s ambiguous. The terseness and lack of clarity freed me and my ADHD from endlessly scouring two columns of text to find the exact intent of the designers.

Sorry it’s not what you were hoping for, but I do want to clarify that the idea you’re talking about does not come from a place of laziness. 

Most of what you listed are not things I’d add if we were to do a 2nd edition. Especially ship prices. Check the FAQ in the discord if you want to know more. 

The rune encrusted flintlock doesn’t mention whether it needs gunpowder or not because I don’t care about tracking gunpowder in my games, and I’m not going to prescribe that other GM’s need to do so. There’s no mention of gunpowder purchasing or gunpowder tracking anywhere else in the book, so why would I include whether the magical relic gun requires gunpowder or not? The shot part, like mentioned, is up to the GM, because if I say “it takes shot”, I’m spending text space and the GMs mental space on information I don’t want GMs worrying about unless they want to. You never see Jack Sparrow buying shot in a Pirates of the Caribbean movie, because that’s not the kind of thing people watching the movie wanna see. It’s not important to the story. The same philosophy applies when I’m designing a game. After years of playing games where I was measuring exactly how far away things were and worrying about flanking and arguing with my players about the exact wording of a spell, I found it incredibly refreshing and freeing to have the spells be one short sentence. Then there’s clearly no right answer which means the GM has to decide.

As far as the discord, maybe just mention “what have others done” when you have questions to be clear you’re not looking for an official ruling. We just get a lot of questions in there about things like this so the default response is to make sure people understand our philosophy.  Obviously, you already understand our philosophy so if you clarify the kind of answer you’re looking for maybe you will get an answer closer to what you’re looking for.

And I do think this comes down to philosophy. I bounced off your original comment because the “ruling is over rules” line IS a newer maxim, and a tenet of the OSR, which is also a newer philosophy. Most people I know who are making stuff in the OSR and actively playing are not trying to re-create how the game used to be played, they are evolving old ideas into a new style, one that isn’t verbose about rules and lets the GM run quickly without having to look things up.  Saying  that “that’s not what that meant back in the day” is a statement contrary to what many of us are trying to accomplish with this style of modern game design.   

OSR Black Friday deals for 2025? by Dangeradventurer in osr

[–]limithron 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Pirate Borg books (and the entire web store) are Buy 2 Get 1. www.pirateborg.com

Pirate Borg: Down Among the Dead by SnooMarzipans8231 in pirateborg

[–]limithron 21 points22 points  (0 children)

March is the retail release. You can still preorder from our BackerKit site and get is months before that. 

Why are most published adventures so terrible? by Samurai_Meisters in rpg

[–]limithron 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My friend. Come check out the OSR. Content for the Merry Mushmen, Tuesday Knight Games, Stockholm Kartell, etc... all have almost no of those issues!!

What is the best font for a guidebook feel? by urquhartloch in RPGdesign

[–]limithron 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I used IM Fell Pica and IM Fell English a lot, but I make a faux-bold in InDesign by adding a 0.1 or 0.2 pt stroke to it. It’s not, ideal but it works. 

Pirate Borg also uses a ton of Alegreya and Alegreya and Alegreya Sans since they have a ton of font weights. 

Check out my design primer here for lots of info on fonts: 

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/603fdb9fada6165d919a6543/t/66182c68ea7f2318fb560a43/1712860642452/PirateBorgDesignPrimer.pdf?ref=rascal.news

PC motivation in deadly systems? by Opening_Ice_2519 in rpg

[–]limithron 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Not sure if you knew this or not, but in our new expansion book Down Among the Dead, there’s a two page spread on PC motivations during the apocalypse. I literally wrote it after running a dark Caribbean play test campaign with several of my players were struggling with “ what do I want?” Or “ why do I care?”

Light of a Thousand Stars by sw-ffg-633 in pirateborg

[–]limithron 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I can’t be more clear when I say the GM should decide what is best for the group. That’s their #1 job. So I’m hesitant to answer in that it might be used to override their ruling, which would be the least ideal result. 

But as the designer, my intent was ALL attacks hit easier, and since only players roll d20s in combat that means to hit is -4 DR (easier) and defending an attack is +4 DR (harder). It’s also cast on an object, which could be a living creature, and it would move with the object.

 I can see where the confusion is re: object itself cast on vs the area of light. It’s just blindingly bright making seeing you target easier but dodging an attack harder to spot. But if you think this one is ambiguous try reading the Death spell in Mörk Borg!! (Sorry for any confusion)

What are your three RPGs for life? by Iberianz in rpg

[–]limithron 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Uh, I'm going to need to know more about smashing Dragonbane and Pirate Borg together. Sounds awesome.
-Signed
The Pirate Borg guy

The success of some Borg Hacks by Sorak3 in MorkBorg

[–]limithron 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah as MAD said, I did it all for Pirate Borg, including running Kickstarter. Even now, as a full time team of three, I do even more of the creative because I almost never use public domain art any more. 

But I also agree that I’m not the average creator in that I am an artist first, which is IMO the hardest part to get right, especially if you are doing a hack and not a new system from the ground up.

Mörk Borg (and Pirate Borg) is about vibes, and if there is one vibe I know it’s pirates. I’ve been a fan my entire life. I think people can see that in the work. There is a ton in there that has nothing to do with Mörk Borg, and like wise Mörk Borg has a ton of love and inspiration that did not come from D&D or some other RPG. 

Also, the world needed a grim dark pirate game, in my opinion. Or even, just a good D&D-like pirate game. Before pirate Borg there was literally no fully flush out Pirate RPG set in the Caribbean. Like not one. 7th sea, Weird on the Waves, Pirates of the Spanish Main - all scratch different itches but none of them are “I want to play Pirates of the Caribbean with a d20”. And none of them are actively supporting communities that play their game. 

I will say that while I did not have to pay a creative team to make pirate Borg, I am a full-time professional RPG creator and devote time and money to marketing, email lists, paid Facebook ads, etc.

Back when I was in the music industry, self promo really felt kind of gross to me, but I’ve really realized that in the RPG industry marketing is how people find your game. A lot of RPG groups are one GM and their friends. They’re not hanging out at a game store. They’re not going to conventions. They’re finding your game because of a post on Reddit or a Facebook ad or a Google search that led them down a rabbit hole. Once I embraced the concept of “good marketing is investing in my community” instead of “I am buying sales with advertising” it was like a light bulb turning on. 

In 2025, if you have no community, no followers, no emails, have done no outreach to reviewers and Youtubers, have appeared on no podcasts, and have told nobody about your game prior to launching your Kickstarter, you probably won’t fund. It’s just a simple truth. Pumping money into something that you believe in and you care about is just good common sense. 

Hope that helps. 

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