Pirates are a popular genre of adventure storytelling, but sometimes you want something a bit darker with risk attached. That’s the idea behind Pirate Borg, the latest MÖRK BORG TTRPG ruleset adaptation to fit a pirate setting and explore some darker character ideas. Whether you’re a buccaneer with scurvy or a sailor playing with the dark arts, Pirate Borg offers a more OSR-esque approach to storytelling and combat.
That’s also the goal of Down Among the Dead, a three-adventure anthology published by Limithron. These adventures offer new one-shots and opportunities for players to dive deeper into the nitty gritty parts of the Pirate Borg universe and to find new adventures to explore
The Fandomentals got to sit down with Pirate Borg author Luke Stratton to discuss the Down Among the Dead campaign and what Pirate Borg offers players.
Where did Pirate Borg come from?
Over COVID, I was running a game of Dungeons and Dragons homebrew for my friends. I was also running my Patreon, which was mostly pirate-themed battle maps and I felt a bit of burnout. So we took a break and a friend ran Mork Borg for us and it was like the most fun we’ve ever had playing an RPG.
I had been planning on working on a book called The Dark Caribbean, which is still forthcoming at this point, because I keep rolling into other projects. But I was like “I could do Pirate Borg before I do Dark Caribbean as just a little zine. It kind of grew and the Kickstarter went really well. Then it got published by Free League and it’s been one of the top-selling games of the last year. So overall a really, really wild fun ride.
Down Among the Dead came about when I determined I wasn’t going to be able to hit the deadlines for when I wanted to have it done. So I pulled out some of the content, added some other material and made an adventure anthology to tie people over and offer players some new options.
What sort of stories are in Down Among the Dead?
The book has three big adventures. The first is a story where you’ve sorta already died and have to escape purgatory. It was inspired by this MÖRK BORG adventure called graves left wanting, where you wake up in a mass grave together and have to try to escape this sprawling graveyard. The second is an Indiana Jones-inspired snake-themed Mayan/Aztec inspired temple with a few factions within. And the third is all about what I’d call “Castle Ravenloft on a ship.” They’re each independent adventures but you can tie them together if you want into a campaign and we’re offering some guidelines for how through our campaign stretch goals.
What else does this campaign contain?
The book has a whole bunch of other things in it. It has things like a coral reef generator, an island generator, and a bunch of GM tools. There are a bunch of player options as well. For example, there’s a page called 20 pirate Borg house rules, which are kind of just tweaks and rules that may help make Pirate Borg fit a table’s playstyle better. These include things like making your characters more heroic or making it more deadly, things like, you know, when you drink grog in game, if you drink grog in reality, you don’t have to make a save, that kind of thing.
How does Pirate Borg compare to MÖRK BORG?
The biggest difference mechanically is we treat magic a little bit different in Pirate Borg. But there are some major contrasts thematically. MÖRK BORG is a little bit more like you’re playing Dark Souls or you’re the cart driver guy in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It’s a terrible medieval world and you’re just a peasant in it. Pirate Borg is probably just as terrible a world, but it feels less so because the beginning of the campaign is bright and sunny, and there are palm trees everywhere. There’s also just some different tropes being explored. For example, a pirate with no arm is expected andfunny, whereas a peasant with no arm is sad.
Why all this pirate content?
I’ve been fascinated with pirates my whole life. I think it started with the Pirates of the Caribbean ride as a kid. I remember distinctly when the movie came out, it felt like “Finally, pirates are going to be cool again.” There was also this game called Pirates of the Spanish Main that featured English and French and Spanish and pirate fleets as well as undead sorts. It seemed like a really rich setting for an RPG, and one that’s very under-explored, like I can never find. Pirate Borg and the Dark Caribbean exists because I can’t find that content I want for that kind of game. I don’t want just swashbuckling heroics, but the darker grittier setting where you might lose a limb and probably have scurvy.
want it to be like, you know, there’s a chance that you lose a limb and you have probably already have scurvy, right?
PIRATE BORG: Down Among the Dead is available on Kickstarter. The game will be published in partnership with Free League in Spring 2025. A Pirate Borg starter kit will also be launching in the future.