[Free RPG Day 2026] Terror in Tortuga

Now in its nineteenth year, Free RPG Day for 2026 took place on Saturday, June 27th. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. This included dice, miniatures, vouchers, and more. Unfortunately, due to vagaries of International Customs, Free RPG Day in the UK did not take place until Saturday, 22nd August.

This review is possible due to the generosity of Waylands Forge in Birmingham.

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Quick-starts are a means of trying out a roleplaying game before you buy. Each should provide a Game Master with sufficient background to introduce and explain the setting to her players, the rules to run the scenario included, and a set of ready-to-play, pre-generated characters that the players can pick up and understand almost as soon as they have sat down to play. The scenario itself should provide an introduction to the setting for the players as well as to the type of adventures that their characters will have and just an idea of some of the things their characters will be doing on said adventures. All of which should be packaged up in an easy-to-understand booklet whose contents, with a minimum of preparation upon the part of the Game Master, can be brought to the table and run for her gaming group in a single evening’s session—or perhaps two. And at the end of it, Game Master and players alike should ideally know whether they want to play the game again, perhaps purchasing another adventure or even the full rules for the roleplaying game.

Alternatively, if the Game Master already has the full rules for the roleplaying game the quick-start is for, then what it provides is a sample scenario that she still run as an introduction or even as part of her campaign for the roleplaying game. The ideal quick-start should entice and intrigue a playing group, but above all effectively introduce and teach the roleplaying game, as well as showcase both rules and setting.

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What is it?
The Terror in Tortuga: PIRATE BORG Quickstart & Adventure is the quick-start for Pirate Borg, the self-described, “Worst Pirate RPG Ever Made™!”. It is published by Limithron via Free League Publishing.

The Terror in Tortuga: PIRATE BORG Quickstart & Adventure is a twenty page, full colour booklet.

How long will it take to play?
The Terror in Tortuga: PIRATE BORG Quickstart & Adventure includes the scenario, ‘Terror in Tortuga’, a sandbox affair which is more open ended and can be played through in a single session or it might last two or three sessions.

What else do you need to play?
The error in Tortuga: PIRATE BORG Quickstart & Adventure needs a full set of polyhedral dice per player.

Who do you play?
The Terror in Tortuga: PIRATE BORG Quickstart & Adventure does include any pre-generated Player Pirates. Instead, it gives full rules for creating a Player Pirate of a single Class, that is, ‘Pirate’, much like the Pirate Borg Starter Set. (Alternatively, players can create pirates using the publisher’s Random PC Generator or create them using the full rules in the Pirate Borg core rulebook.)

How is a Player Character defined?

In Pirate Borg, a Player Pirate is defined by his Abilities, Class, gear, and Devil’s Luck. The five Abilities are Strength, Agility, Presence, Toughness, and Spirit, each rated between ‘-3’ and ‘+3’. A Player Pirate also has a weapon, clothing, and hat as well as a container, a cheap item, and a fancy item. Additional tables also provide a background, distinctive flaw, physical trademark, idiosyncrasies, unfortunate incidents and conditions, and thing of importance. All of these things are rolled for along with the Pirate Borg’s core abilities.

How do the mechanics work?

Mechanically Pirate Borg is based upon Mörk Borg—hence the name—the Swedish pre-apocalypse Old School Renaissance style roleplaying game designed by Ockult Örtmästare Games and Stockholm Kartell and also published by Free League Publishing. A player rolls a twenty-sided die, modifies the result by one of his character’s abilities, and attempts to beat a Difficulty Rating of twelve, though the Difficulty Rating can be higher or lower. The Difficulty Rating may go up or down depending on the situation, but whatever the situation, the player always rolls, even in combat or as both Mörk Borg and Pirate Borg terms it, violence.

Every Player Character also has the Devil’s Luck. Each Class receives a different amount of this, but the Pirate Class, the only Class presented in the Terror in Tortuga: PIRATE BORG Quickstart & Adventure only has one or two points. It can be spent to inflict maximum damage on a single attack, reroll any die, lower the Difficulty rating of a Test, neutralise a Critical or a Fumble, and to lower damage suffered by a random amount.

It should be noted that the Terror in Tortuga: PIRATE BORG Quickstart & Adventure neatly summaries the rules, including those for combat, to a single two-page spread at the rear of the book.

How does combat work?

Initiative in the Terror in Tortuga: PIRATE BORG Quickstart & Adventure is a simple roll of a six-sided die, with the enemies going first if low, the Player Pirates if high. Violence requires a roll of a twenty-sided versus twelve, modified by Strength for a physical attack and Presence for a ranged attack, to hit. It is the same roll to avoid being hit, modified by Agility. Armour is represented by a die value, from -d2 for light armour to -d6 for heavy armour, representing the amount of damage it stops. Medium and heavy armour each add a modifier to any Agility action by the Player Pirate, including defending himself. This is pleasingly simple and offers a character some tactical choice—just when is it better to avoid taking the blows or avoid taking the damage? Armour can also be damaged, due to a Fumble when defending, reducing its protective effectiveness, and a critical hit in combat inflicts double damage or allows another attack. A fumble with a black powder firearm will result in a misfire. A Player Pirate whose Hit Points are reduced to below zero is dead, but at zero, is broken and can recover.

How does magic work?

In Pirate Borg, a Player Pirate has access to Arcane Rituals. They are not available in the Terror in Tortuga: PIRATE BORG Quickstart & Adventure.

What do you play?

The scenario in Terror in Tortuga: PIRATE BORG Quickstart & Adventure is ‘Terror in Tortuga’. It is a mini-sandbox on the island port of Tortuga, a self-styled ‘Cesspool of Scum, Filth, and ASH’, a sin city currently under the control of Anne Bonney and her crew; Calico Jack, ASH broker; and the Flail, Ghoul Lord of Tortuga. Besides describing the three NPCs, the scenario includes detailed descriptions of the various locations in the port, rumours and secrets, random events, and a projected timeline which suggests what might happen if the Player Pirates do nothing.

The scenario is preceded by a quick overview of the setting, including an explanation of what ASH is. Which is the desiccated ectoplasmic remnants of destroyed undead that can be inhaled or smoked for magical effects. It is also highly addictive. Four jobs and hooks are detailed and these can be mixed and matched to fit the length and scope of the intended session. These include clearing Tortuga of all undead, including the Flail; harvesting ASH and/or the undead; assassinating Calico Jack; and robbing an ASH warehouse. The scenario includes the full details of ‘Fort de Rocher’, the zombie-infested headquarters of the Flail.

Is there anything missing?
No. The Terror in Tortuga: PIRATE BORG Quickstart & Adventure is complete as is.

Is it easy to prepare?
Yes. The Terror in Tortuga: PIRATE BORG Quickstart & Adventure is easy to grasp and prepare. It is Player Pirate-driven, so the Game Master will need to adjust events for their actions.

Is it worth it?
Yes. The Terror in Tortuga: PIRATE BORG Quickstart & Adventure includes everything for a great introduction to Pirate Borg offering plenty to do in Tortuga, whether running as a one shot or adding to a campaign.

The Terror in Tortuga: PIRATE BORG Quickstart & Adventure is available to download here.

[Free RPG Day 2026] Creature Curation Presents #1

Now in its nineteenth year, Free RPG Day for 2026 took place on Saturday, June 27th. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. This included dice, miniatures, vouchers, and more. Unfortunately, due to vagaries of International Customs, Free RPG Day in the UK did not take place until Saturday, 22nd August.

This review is possible due to the generosity of Waylands Forge in Birmingham.

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Creature Curation Presents #1 is a slightly different product for Free RPG Day because it is an anthology of three adventures for three different roleplaying games, all three of them compatible with Mörk Borg, the Swedish pre-apocalypse Old School Renaissance retroclone designed by Ockult Örtmästare Games and Stockholm Kartell and published by Free League Publishing. One of the three roleplaying games will be familiar, it previously having appeared as support for Free RPG Day with Into the Würmhole back in 2021, whilst the others will be less so. One thing to bear in mind with Creature Curation Presents #1 is that whilst it states that the quick-start rules are included, this is not actually the case. Instead QR codes are provided for each of the three roleplaying games as well as either a QR code to a character generator for the roleplaying game or a set of pre-generated Player Characters. This makes preparation a little slower than it ordinarily might have been if they had been included, but not overly so.

The first scenario, ‘Impaled Obelisk’, is for Vast Grimm, the pre-apocalypse Science Fiction roleplaying game set in a very future in which cultists have unleashed the infection of THEY, whose infection of Würms and the Grimm have hollowed out and shattered worlds, including the Earth. Humanity’s last hope is the Gate of Infinite Stars, through which the uninfected survivors can escape and find a universe where they will be free of the Würms and the gnawing… In the meantime, pirates and cultists prey on the survivors as desperate men and women gather together in Legions and explore what remains of the universe, perhaps hoping to find something that will towards humanity’s continued survival and the construction of the Gate of Infinite Stars

In ‘Impaled Obelisk’, the Legion answer the distress call of the Gallant Obelisk, a starship that went missing nine decades ago and is found to have crashed nose first into the surface of the planetoid, Caladron 7. It is unlikely that any of the original crew are still alive, but there may still be much to scavenge, some of which will be valuable, some of which might help mankind. Caladron 7’s low gravity means that the Player Characters can easily propel themselves up its length, exploring its corridors, research facilities, scientific laboratories, crew quarters, engineering spaces, and more. Everything seems to be covered in a Web Goo and none of the bodies of the crew can be found. ‘Impaled Obelisk’ is a classic ‘wrecked spaceship as dungeon’ scenario, not a little like Alien, but ‘Grimm’ in its own way. It is easy to run as a one-shot or add to a Game Master’s campaign.

The second scenario is for Raptor Ruckus. This is inspired by 1993’s Jurassic Park and is a survival horror roleplaying game in which the Player Characters are staff at the world’s new and greatest theme park about to excite the world about dinosaurs once again! Of course, things can go wrong. There can be storms or breakdowns or worse, agents of Basilisk, the anti-human doomsday cult, working to sabotage and undermine the whole project!

In ‘Airborne’, the Player Characters are returning to the island park after showing off one of the dinosaurs to investors on the mainland. They are travelling aboard a Lockheed C-130 transport along with a kentosaurus, sedated and caged. Suddenly, there is a bang and the aeroplane pitches nose down—is it about to crash? Just as bad is that one of the creature handlers draws a gun and points it at the Player Characters! Thus, the adventure starts with a bang and carries on from there as they are faced by one dangerously dinosaurous situation after another. They have to get out of the aeroplane, are attacked by Pteranodons on the way down, and find themselves on the wrong side of the fence back in the dinosaur park! And even when they get to the other side, it looks like saboteurs have been hard at work whilst the Player Characters have been away on the mainland. The scenario includes the stats for some dinosaurs, a pair of fanatical cultists, and an entertaining NPC to portray. Pleasingly, it does include a dinosaur chase, exactly as you would want, and overall, this is an excitingly tense chase scenario from start to finish that can lead into Fragmentation, the first campaign for Raptor Ruckus.

The third scenario is for Neon Bastardz. This is a near future roleplaying game inspired by Neon Lords of the Toxic Wasteland and all of the bad ‘B’ and straight to video trashy Sci-Fi movies of the eighties and noughties. The Player Characters are Skumdogs, lowlife-not-quite-scum pushed to take the dirty jobs no one wants to do, from cleaning the sewers of CHUDs to finding radical treasures in the wastelands for the Detroit-Prime Hyper-Lux.

In ‘Killing Detroit Prime Style’, the Player Characters are gangers, members of a war party perhaps hired to do a job for BioRent Worldwide, Detroit-Prime’s leading biotech manufacturer. The offices of BioRent Worldwide on floor #207 of the city’s megablock have been taken over by Ninja. It is up to the gangers to break into the building, ascend to floor #207, find the Ninja and beat their ass before sending them back to their dojo in body bags. Floor #207 is large with separate areas that might take up whole floors in lesser blocks, but whether the cubicle maze, client consultation room, organ storage, executive offices, and so on, the gangers will find Ninja. The gangers can earn ‘Friendship Points’ by saving civilians who are at risk, sparing an enemy who surrenders, giving an emotional speech, fighting back-to-back with an ally, and so on. They can be spent to re-roll any die, heal a downed ally, add a bonus to an ally’s attack, and so on. All very eighties buddy movie and cinematic. ‘Killing Detroit Prime Style’ is a beat ’em up scenario, very much more style than substance and easily the easiest of the three scenarios in the anthology to prepare.

Physically, Creature Curation Presents #1 is a blast of bright neon colour. Of the three, ‘Airborne’ for Raptor Ruckus is underwritten in places, but otherwise, all three are easy to grasp. The artwork is decent throughout, but the cartography is plain if serviceable.

Creature Curation Presents #1 packs in three easy-to-run scenarios that a Game Master can each run in a single session. ‘Impaled Obelisk’ for Vast Grimm and ‘Airborne’ for Raptor Ruckus are the best of the three, as ‘Killing Detroit Prime Style’ is Neon Bastardz is simplistic, but all three are solid introductions to their respective roleplaying games.

[Fanzine Focus XLIV] Börk Morgue

On the tail of the Old School Renaissance has come another movement—the rise of the fanzine. Although the fanzine—a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon, got its start in Science Fiction fandom, in the gaming hobby it first started with Chess and Diplomacy fanzines before finding fertile ground in the roleplaying hobby in the 1970s. Here these amateurish publications allowed the hobby a public space for two things. First, they were somewhere that the hobby could voice opinions and ideas that lay outside those of a game’s publisher. Second, in the Golden Age of roleplaying when the Dungeon Masters were expected to create their own settings and adventures, they also provided a rough and ready source of support for the game of your choice. Many also served as vehicles for the fanzine editor’s house campaign and thus they showed another Dungeon Master and group played said game. This would often change over time if a fanzine accepted submissions. Initially, fanzines were primarily dedicated to the big three RPGs of the 1970s—Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest, and Traveller—but fanzines have appeared dedicated to other RPGs since, some of which helped keep a game popular in the face of no official support.

Since 2008 with the publication of Fight On #1, the Old School Renaissance has had its own fanzines. The advantage of the Old School Renaissance is that the various Retroclones draw from the same source and thus one Dungeons & Dragons-style RPG is compatible with another. This means that the contents of one fanzine will be compatible with the Retroclone that you already run and play even if not specifically written for it. Labyrinth Lord and Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay have proved to be popular choices to base fanzines around, as has Swords & Wizardry. A more recent Old School Renaissance-style roleplaying game that fanzines are being based upon and inspired by is Mörk Borg, the Swedish pre-apocalypse Old School Renaissance retroclone designed by Ockult Örtmästare Games and Stockholm Kartell and published by Free League Publishing.

Börk Morgue Issue #666 is a fanzine for Mörk Borg, ‘An unofficial zine for a Dying World’ from GreysonWHY that contains a mix of options for both players and the Game Master. There is new arms and armour and combat options, new Powers, and new cultists and monsters as well as two new scenarios for the Game Master. It also reverses the titles of the roleplaying game it is written for, a not unamusing play on words. The first of the two scenarios is ‘The Börk Morgue Cvlt’. The Player Characters dream of a book being consumed by flames over which stands a berobed figure with two heads beseeching them to destroy the book and free them from this reality. Until the Player Characters decide to act on this, they are doomed (as their Omen is penalised) and so they are drawn to the Valley of the Unfortunate Undead where a cult is hiding out in the forgotten town of Börk. Its headquarters are, of course, located in the Börk Morgue, and for the most part, the Börk Morgue cultists will welcome the Player Characters as they believe that the Player Characters will want to join up… Of course, the Player Characters are free to react however they want, but of course, this is a scenario for Mörk Borg, so absolutely is not going to be on the level. It is a solid enough affair with the clear layout that makes it easy to run from the page.

‘Fvcking with the Dice’ suggests ways to make the Advantage and Disadvantage mechanic of a great many contemporary fantasy roleplaying. It suggests that both Advantage and Disadvantage—as in rolling extra dice for bonuses and penalties—are too great an Advantage or Disadvantage. It suggests replacing the standard die with a larger or smaller dice as necessary, effectively a dice step mechanic in terms of bonuses and penalties, and goes so far as replacing the twenty-sided die with rolling two ten-sided dice instead to give a probably curve that flat increments. The piece is subtitled ‘a small essay that no asked for by yours truly’ and there is no denying the veracity of that claim. Ultimately this is a house rule explained and up to the Game Master whether she thinks it is a good idea and her players agree.

The house rules continue with ‘Heavy Metal Reforged’. These give cutting and impaling weapons advantage in terms of damage, but so does armour! For five times the cost, a weapon can be forged as fine and do extra damage. Blades do not break on a fumble, but can be dulled and lose any Advantage on damage, or be bent and twisted. It expands the different types of armour available, from light to extra-heavy, plus shields adding extra detail here throughout along with new weapons like the estoc, katar, and katana. A Player Character can also track down Svara the heretical blacksmith and convince her to stick some spikes on his armour. They inflict damage anyone who comes too close and is intimidating, so can influence any Moral check! This all adds detail and may come at the cost of playability. It depends on the group.

Of course, the Player Characters in Mörk Borg are going to get hurt, so the counterpart to ‘Heavy Metal Reforged’ is ‘Scars and Other Ways to Break’ adds scars and injuries to make it just a little more forgiving for them. Injuries of a different type are examined in ‘Dental Manvscript’, which perfect for the Game Master who wants dentistry in her Mörk Borg game. The teeth vary in type and effects depending upon if they are sewn, implanted, or even crushed! For example, ‘Deserter’s Fangs’, whether taken from the dead or the living, can be implanted to increase the damage of a Player Character’s bite attack or the crushed molars blown into the face an enemy to potentially give them Toothrot! This is a gruesome set of options, but perfect for Mörk Borg.

The monsters in Börk Morgue Issue #666 include the ‘Jabborgmörky’, inspired by the nonsense poem by Lewis Carroll, which also introduced the vorpal blade and a version of that, the Mörkal Sword, is included too. ‘Cultists of Dying Gods’ is less interesting, a list of cultists who adhere to the worship of the old gods, many of them former inquisitors still willing to torture heretics of all sorts—cultists and non-cultists—in the name of their faith. It adds the ‘Pstress’, or ‘psychic stress’, which is gained from being tortured or suffering other trauma, including encountering something truly horrible. Fortunately, the subject of torture is treated very broadly, and it applies only to NPCs, who instead use Morale. When a Player Character accumulates Pstress six points greater than his Presence, he suffers a penalty to any action taken against the source, but a bonus to resist any more Pstress. If he gains Pstress double this value, a Player Character can suffer a heart attack, fall into a coma, and so on. Thus, what we have here is actually the equivalent of a Sanity mechanic for Mörk Borg, which unfortunately has been given a clunky name. After the details of the Pstress mechanic, there are stats for various cultists with very little detail of the cults, so actually not that useful or interesting.

The world of Mörk Borg is doomed, but what if there was a chance that it could be forestalled, if only temporarily? ‘Seven Palms for Seven Psalms’ is a strange, but friendly encounter with a seven-armed, seven-headed figure with goat’s legs who offers to play games with the players and if they win, will stop the current Misery. Slightly mocking and knowing in tone, the games are played between the player and the Game Master rather than Game Master and Player Character, and if the player wins, the Misery is definitely delayed. There is some intentional metagaming going on here between the figure and the players, and the figure may reappear later to play for another Misery. Of course, the degree of metagaming means that if the figure is not around, it will probably be enjoying the company of another group of Player Characters and playing games with them. Reminiscent of Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal in which a medieval knight plays Chess with Death by way of Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey in terms of tone.

Other worshippers of other dead gods sometimes find their longships washed ashore on the Dying Land from across the Endless Sea. ‘The Odic Force’ adds Vikings complete with Seafaring Priests, Seafaring Marauders, and Seafaring Berserkers as well as Rune-carved tablets of power which work in a similar fashion to scrolls, but neither unclean nor sacred. A raging, pillaging encounter for the Game Master to create with some strange magical effects to loot. Of course, if the Game Master wants to run a session or two in a which the Player Characters are the raiders, then she could have them discover the world of Mörk Borg whilst running Berserkr.

Börk Morgue Issue #666 switches tone and style for its second scenario, ‘Trapped in a Mauß Borg’, which is inspired by Mausritter – Sword-and-Whiskers roleplaying and a dash feline cosmic horror. What if some mutant mice, living in a tumbledown cottage in the woods, want to be free of having to sacrifice their own to Cathulhu and beseech the Player Characters to help, promising in return that they will be treated as gods? Defeating Cthulhu is not going to be a problem, but the fun comes afterwards when the Player Characters discover that they have a cult devoted to them, that they can bless their cultists, and that some of the mice want to go on a pilgrimage with them. The mice can only communicate via an obsidian pebble, but can remember a single Omen for their gods or collectively replace it with one of their own. The resulting situation is very silly, but brings some joyous absurdity to the world of Mörk Borg.

Lastly, ‘Hand of Zauberei’ is a red and black, lacquered gauntlet for the left hand, grimy and worn, infused with the collective stenches of decay, vomit, and sulphur, ready to be found in a treasure hoard. It promises the wearer great power if fed the souls of the undead. This is the ability to reach into the spirit realm and rip out the soul of a single enemy. Of course, the ‘Hand of Zauberei’ wants souls no matter what and will take the wearer’s if it can and take control of the wearer’s body. There is a guide too, for what happens if a Player Character decides to eat a soul. As you can imagine, the results are mostly bad. This is a delightfully nasty magical item and suits the setting of Mörk Borg luring the Player Characters with great power, but at potentially a great cost.

Physically, Börk Morgue Issue #666 is presented in the Artpunk style of Mörk Borg, but not to the usual degree of being challenging to read. Otherwise, it uses publicly-sourced artwork to good effect, whilst the cartography is bland. 

Börk Morgue Issue #666 is a Mörk Borg medley. It contains some solid content for the roleplaying game including two good scenarios—one of which is actually amusing—and some interesting rules options. Some of the latter are more useful than others, for example, the contents of ‘Heavy Metal Reforged’ likely to find its way into a game than the other articles. Overall, Börk Morgue Issue #666 is worth picking up and picking over to find the best bits.

The Other OSR: THREE from the LOCKER

THREE from the LOCKER is a ‘Pamphlet Bundle’ for Pirate Borg, the self-described, “Worst Pirate RPG Ever Made™!”, published by Limithron. It is published by SkeletonKey Games, which previously released the excellent fanzine, Tales from the Locker #1, and consists of a mini-adventure, Sweet Tusk, and two mini-supplements, Blood in the Water and Raise the Black, that are also available separately. In turn, they give the Game Master a location-based scenario that combines H.G. Wells’ The Island of Doctor Moreau with George Orwell’s Animal Farm in the Dark Caribbean; six possible situations when the ship that the Player Characters are aboard is rendered into a derelict, whether from a ship-to-ship engagement, a terrible storm, a run in with sea monsters, or other threat, and about to sink; and what might happen when a pirate captain orders his crew to ‘raise the black’ and hoist the jolly roger! All pamphlets are available on their own as well as a bundle (or pack if physical). They do share the same trade dress, so definitely feel as if they should be bought together!

Sweet Tusk promises ‘Pigs Plot, Rum Flow, Adventure Awaits’ in detailing a costal rum plantation and rum distillery that was once home to a necromancer and his cult, but is now home to a passel of pigs, some sentient, some feral, many bipedal, most of them anthropomorphised. The Player Characters could simply wash ashore at the plantation a la Wells’ The Island of Doctor Moreau, but the adventure’s own hooks include looking for a new source of rum, being sent to exterminate ‘feral’ pigs to prevent them from spreading across the Dark Caribbean, or being hired to retrieve an item from the plantation for its previous owners. To get the best out of the location, the Game Master should ideally combine the latter with one of the first two as that will drive the Player Characters to interact with most of the inhabitants of the plantations, its plot threads, and explore its depths.

The plantation is dominated by two factions. One is lead by Lord Wembly Trembleton and wants to restore the rum distillery and sugar mill with the aim of becoming self-sufficient, whilst Scrofa, the plantation’s spiritual leader, her sorcery twisted by the necromantic studies she found that belonged to the previous owner, is becoming increasingly and brutally isolationist. The Player Characters will need to deal with them and explore the plantations—including the tunnels that have been dug under the plantation (and make it feel like a Vietcong tunnel network)—to achieve their given objectives. Alternatively, the Player Characters might ignore them altogether and clear out the whole of plantation and take it over and run it themselves as a going concern.

Sweet Tusk has a hot, sweaty feel, sticky with perspiration and sugar and piggy peculiarity. The latter is probably the only reason why the Game Master might not want to run Sweet Tusk, talking pigs not necessarily going to suit every campaign. As written though, it adds an off-kilter element that the Game Master can throw at her players and their characters and have fun portraying a passel of pigs in the process.

Blood in the Water gives the Game Master ‘Six Sinking Ship Scenarios’. The Game Master can use this when the Player Characters’ ship, or the ship that they are on, either selecting one of the options or rolling for it. Each one has events happening on deck and three zones surrounding the vessel, out to thirty feet and beyond. The six options include the ‘Feeding Frenzy’ of a shark attack on the ship going down; ‘Tentacles from the Deep’ that flail at the ship and its crew and passenger; a ‘Powder Magazine Explosion’ that sends fire and shrapnel across the deck and beyond; the ship and floating wreckage being thrown about by ‘Angry Seas’; ghosts that come looking for new crewmembers in ‘Revenant Recruitment’; and potentially the crew and passengers being saved with a kiss by ‘Meddling Mermaids’! Since the action in each divided into four zones—three plus the deck—where different things will happen, there is a degree of procedure to running any one of these post-disaster ship encounters. Not a lengthy procedure, but quite a simple one, and they all do add a bit of flavour to a sinking ship situation beyond the Player Characters abandoning ship and racing for the boats. Added to this is a sea shanty, Sharks in the Water, that a ship’s crew can sing to give its members bonuses to tests in the first few rounds of the sinking ship. The Game Master might want to have her players and their characters learn this in response to having been in a sinking ship the first time and so learn from their experience. Blood in the Water is quite specific in the situation it needs to trigger its use and that trigger is not going to happen that often, but definitely useful to have on the shelf though.

The third pamphlet is Raise the Black. This expands upon the various effects of the jolly roger in play. First, when ‘Raising the Black’, that is, hoisting the jolly roger and its effects upon the crew of the vessel being targeted by the pirate ship. In play, the ship’s captain of the pirate ship tests his Presence and result, which depends upon the size of the targeted vessel in comparison to the pirate vessel, may leave the crew plucky still and laughing off the threat or feeling doomed and wanting no part of the battle. There are plenty of options in between and effectively determines the morale of targeted vessels. ‘Witchjacks’ are special flags, ensorcelled versions of the jolly roger, that grant special powers that can be used once per day. For example, the Banner of the Black Whale grants an extra die of damage in ramming attacks and extra damage the further it has travelled, whilst the Pennant of the Mermaid grants an extra Crew Action. A pirate captain is unlikely to want to fly a flag other than his own, so there are rules included that enable to cut up a Witchjack and sew the resulting parts and its magic into the pirate captain’s own flag. This does not always work, but it destroys the original flag. Minor, but optional rules beyond this are included to help speed up naval combat and ‘D20 Pirate Flags’ give options for both a Player Character or an NPC crew if the Game Master needs to a pirate flag quickly. Given that a third of the pamphlet is taken up illustrations of jolly roger flags, Raise the Black is the least useful of the three pamphlets in THREE from the LOCKER and add the least to the play of Pirate Borg.

Physically, the three pamphlets of THREE from the LOCKER are all decently presented. They are clearly and simply laid out and all easy to read and use. Sweet Tusk is the busiest, so is harder to read, but only slightly so, and nothing that is going to impede the Game Master running the scenario from the page. The artwork is light, but the cartography is decent.

THREE from the LOCKER is solid support for Pirate Borg, the scenario Sweet Tusk being the highlight of the three, entertaining and enjoyable, a Player Character-driven plantation-crawl that is easy to add to a Game Master’s campaign. The other two pamphlets are shorter and not quite as entertaining as Sweet Tusk and Raise the Black not quite as useful, but in the right circumstances, still good to have in the ship’s locker.

The Other OSR: Down Among the Dead

Down Among the Dead describes itself as ‘A Terrible Expansion’ for Pirate Borg, the ‘Worst Pirate RPG Ever Made’. In the case of the latter claim, Pirate Borg is actually highly accessible, especially in the form of the Pirate Borg Starter Set, an Old School Renaissance-style roleplaying game is set in the Dark Caribbean, a sea of tropical islands marked with European towns and fortresses and ruins of civilisations long gone, of shipwrecks with rich cargoes and even richer treasures, and of the Scourge. The Scourge made the dead walk once again, ghosts return to haunt the living, and monsters lurk ready to smash the foothold that the Europeans have established in the region. The governors and the viceroys, representatives of kings and queens, have forced to adapt and rule with no contact from home following the Scourge and even take advantage of the situation, especially since the discovery of the abilities and addictive nature of ASH, the ash of the burned and ground undead. Some seek to make money from the trade in ASH and some seek to control it, whilst others seek to repress it. This is another cause of the conflict in the Dark Caribbean. Pirate Borg casts the players as members of a crew who will sail the ASH-tinged waters the Dark Caribbean, raiding and smuggling, carousing and drinking, adventuring, and exploring. In the case of the former, Down Among the Dead is the first official supplement for the roleplaying game, providing four adventures, three new Classes, skills, motivations, even house rules, and a lot more.

Down Among the Dead is published by Limithron via Free League Publishing following a successful Kickstarter campaign. It contains three new Classes, new skills, adds motivations for Player Characters, four sets of tables for generating different aspects of the setting and game, and three lengthy adventures, all of which can be added to an ongoing campaign. The first new Class is ‘The Antiquarian’, which is essentially Indiana Jones (or other swashbuckling archaeologist of your choice) for the Age of Sail, complete with a phobia, a holy grail—perhaps discovering lost temples or ruins and ancient treasures or the origins and dark secrets behind the creation of ASH, and an ’Expertise’ such as ‘Theology/Arcana’, ‘Athletics’, or ‘Occultism’. The ‘Deep One’ brings a Lovecraftian touch to Pirate Borg, its origins such as ‘Hybrid’, ‘Bathyal’, and ‘Abyssal’—the type and depth of water it comes from—determining starting stats, and its options include either ‘Shaman’ or ‘Warrior’. The former learns Pelagic Sorcery Spells, whilst the latter is armed with a cultural weapon like a coral and seashell long knife or a piece of driftwood with stingray spikes and learns combat techniques. Lastly, the ‘Unlocked Soul’ is resurrected spirit who has returned to the surface after dying and being cast into Davy Jones’ Locker. This Class is living on borrowed time as there is a increasing chance that Charon will reclaim his soul, but in the meantime, he can regenerate wounds and regrow limbs, ask questions of the dead, become like transparent water, and more, though his skeleton might itch from within because it is made of coral or his head might be able to spin right round and he cannot see a particular colour.

All three Classes are good, bringing fun archetypes into Pirate Borg. All three can be played as written, but the ‘Unlocked Soul’ is best used for an NPC or for Player Characters who have also escaped Davy Jones’ Locker—perhaps after playing through ‘Lost to the Locker’ later in the book—and wanting to multi-class upon returning to the surface.

One possible negative aspect of Pirate Borg is the limited number of Class features that a Player Character can have. A Player Character gains one per Level, so typically by Fifth or Sixth Levels, there are no more abilities to choose from. ‘d66 Skills for the Seasoned Sea Rover’ remedies that with a list of alternative skills that a player can select from instead of taking a Class feature, and not once, but twice for each skill. For example, with ‘Gunsmith’, a Player Character can repair black powder weapons, lower their chances of misfires, and improve their accuracy and damage inflicted, and if taken a second time, improve their accuracy and damage inflicted again. With ‘ASH Apothecary’, a Player Character can cook ASH down to a potent crystallised form that when consumed has a greater effect, but also sells for triple the price, and if taken again, these effects are doubled! From ‘Deadshot’, ‘Barrelman’s Eyes’, and ‘Font of Chaos’ to ‘Salvage Diver’, ‘Agile Amputee’, and ‘Siren’s Tongue’, this is an entertaining selection and there are a lot here that a player will want to choose from rather than one of his character’s Class Feature. There is the option to roll randomly, but the Game Master could also use these skills as rewards during play or simply allow Player Characters to have both these skills and their Class Features to make them more capable and heroic.

The ‘Motivations During the Apocalypse’ can be used for both the Player Characters or NPCs, whilst ‘House Rules’ gives options for the Game Master in terms of design notes, examples, and tips. These range from rerolling initiative each day and adding Armour Class to the game when one Player Character fights another (instead of rolling to defend) to having damage dice explode and playing Pirate Borg in either Nightmare or Heroic modes! Many of these address issues that a Game Master might have with the roleplaying game and some of them push Pirate Borg away from the Mörk Borg model and closer to a Dungeons & Dragons-style roleplaying game. All though are options that enable a group to play the roleplaying game in the style it prefers. The other general support for Pirate Borg includes four sets of tables for generating elements of the Dark Caribbean setting, including a ‘Jolly Roger Flag Generator’, ‘Dark Caribbean Island Generator’, ‘Coral Reef Generator’, and ‘Coin Generator’. ‘Dark Caribbean Island Generator’ and ‘Coral Reef Generator’ both come with examples, but all four are useful adding further details to the Game Master’s Dark Caribbean campaign.

The first of the four scenarios in Down Among the Dead is ‘Anchor Drop Falls’. It is a short, two-page location detailing a set of caves behind a five hundred foot high waterfall where pirates and/or conquistadors are said to have buried their treasure, Deep Ones have made a home, and then been driven out by a hungry, giant crab. It is a plain and simple affair, with the location descriptions placed around the map, that is very easy to run from the page and just as easy to slot into a campaign. ‘Anchor Drop Falls’ can be played in a single session, whereas the other three scenarios are much longer and much more detailed.

‘Lost to the Locker’ is a seabed, sandcrawl in which the Player Characters awaken to find themselves dead in a purgatory of small islands and shipwrecks, and will very likely do so again should they die again. The aim is for the Player Characters to escape back to the realms of the living, requiring a vessel and an exit, as well as several coins called ‘Obols’. Finding all of these forms the focus of the scenario. Once they freed themselves from the floating rocks they have been chained to, the Player Characters will be ferried by Charon to the liminal space of ‘The Locker’. Overseen by Lady Oblivion—ethereal, watery Egyptian priestess or Reef Ghoul?—this region consists of just eight locations, including the pirate-town-like Port Oblivion with its wrecks and boulders home to Lost Souls like the Player Characters; the Pellucid Palace of volcanic glass where Lady Oblivion holds court; and the Inverted Galleon, capsized and chained to the seabed. Every location details vessels that might be repaired or stolen, how Obols might be gained, as well as numerous NPCs, random encounters, and more. There is a lot of detail to this concentrated sandbox and a lot of elements that the Game Master can bring into play. It is fantastically liminal place with plenty for the players and their characters to do and plenty of random elements that Game Master can use to enhance the undersea unreality. ‘Lost to the Locker’ can be used as written, following a ‘Total Party Kill’, but it could also be used as a non-standard campaign starter.

The second scenario veers towards the fantasy horror of Robert E. Howard, rather than the Lovecraftian horror of ‘The Deep One’ Class, with its use of Serpent Men as the villains of the piece. ‘Venom in the Veins’ details an ancient shrine to the Slithering One, rumoured to be the last known location of a missing conquistador, to hold ancient knowledge, to be target of French spies and revolutionaries, to be source of a deadly venom, and so on. Overseen by a once-human shaman corrupted by necromancy and his undead serpentfolk guardians, this is snake-infested, trap ridden, but nicely detailed dungeon that requires some set-up to get the Player Characters to explore its depths. There is plenty of treasure to be found and no little forbidden knowledge, but lingering over that has its own consequences. Particular attention is paid to the traps and puzzles, which makes running it easier. ‘Venom in the Veins’ would be a perfect adventure for the Antiquarian Class given at the start of the supplement.

‘Into The Maelstrom’, the third scenario in the supplement requires more experienced Player Characters and takes a classic Gothic set-up and gives it a piratical, nautical twist. Instead of a haunted house, the setting is a haunted galleon, The Maelstrom, a galleon with blood-red sails of flesh that is home to  Albrecht the Tideborn, a Deep One vampire, and his vampiric crew. The Player Characters are hired to sneak aboard and rescue an important VIP that Albrecht the Tideborn is holding prisoner and also to slaughter as many of the vampires as they can. However, that is not the only reason the Player Characters to want to board The Maelstrom. They will each have their reasons. All of this is set up ahead of time, using a deck of ordinary playing cards and the rules for ‘Three-Eyed Parrot’, a game provided prior to the scenario. This includes the identity and location of the VIP being held prisoner, the identity of the Player Characters’ Patron, the location of a powerful ritual, the location of an artefact, and so on. The cards are then divided into their suits and then used as decks to determine random prisoners, mundane items, treasure, and encounters. The scenario is played against the clock and there is a strong chance that prisoners will be sacrificed before the Player Characters rescue them—the scenario even suggests that the Game Master tear up the card for a particular NPC if the Player Characters fail to save him!

The main feature of the scenario is The Maelstrom, but also detailed are ‘The Dead islands’, the former Virgin Islands in the Lesser Antilles, infested by ASH addicts, cannibalistic pirates, and the undead, its coats marked by numerous derelict ships and wrecks waiting to be picked over. Several locations are detailed on the island, including Charlotte’s Cove, the main settlement now overrun with vampires, the swamp encroached Ruins of Whitby Abbey, Sanctum of the Feathered Tree—home to an orangutan sorcerer, and other locations. This gives the setting longevity beyond the scenario itself, and there are notes too, if the Game Master wants to run it as a one-shot, short campaign, or a long campaign, and even includes tournament mode and scoring! As such, ‘Into The Maelstrom’ is a tool kit that the Game Master needs to adjust fit her players and for full effect is best run over multiple sessions. This brings all of the brine and rot of the sea to the Gothic and the doomed romance and horror of the Gothic to the Dark Caribbean. When their characters  have enough experience to play it through, ‘Into The Maelstrom’ should be a grand, memorable scenario for the players.

Physically, Down Among the Dead is very well laid out, and the artwork and cartography are excellent. Everything is very easy to use.

Down Among the Dead has everything a Pirate Borg Game Master would want. Three good scenarios, two of which have really memorable locations, content that the Game Master will still come back to, and options that the Game Master and her players can pick and chose from to make Pirate Borg theirs.

[Fanzine Focus XLII] Tales from the Locker #1

On the tail of Old School Renaissance has come another movement—the rise of the fanzine. Although the fanzine—a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon, got its start in Science Fiction fandom, in the gaming hobby it first started with Chess and Diplomacy fanzines before finding fertile ground in the roleplaying hobby in the 1970s. Here these amateurish publications allowed the hobby a public space for two things. First, they were somewhere that the hobby could voice opinions and ideas that lay outside those of a game’s publisher. Second, in the Golden Age of roleplaying when the Dungeon Masters were expected to create their own settings and adventures, they also provided a rough and ready source of support for the game of your choice. Many also served as vehicles for the fanzine editor’s house campaign and thus they showed how another Dungeon Master and her group played said game. This would often change over time if a fanzine accepted submissions. Initially, fanzines were primarily dedicated to the big three RPGs of the 1970s—Dungeons & Dragons,RuneQuest, and Traveller—but fanzines have appeared dedicated to other RPGs since, some of which helped keep a game popular in the face of no official support.

Since 2008 with the publication of Fight On #1, the Old School Renaissance has had its own fanzines. The advantage of the Old School Renaissance is that the various Retroclones draw from the same source and thus one Dungeons & Dragons-style RPG is compatible with another. This means that the contents of one fanzine will compatible with the Retroclone that you already run and play even if not specifically written for it. Labyrinth Lord and Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Roleplay have proved to be popular choices to base fanzines around, as has Swords & Wizardry. A more recent Old School Renaissance-style roleplaying game that fanzines are being based upon and inspired by is Mörk Borg, the Swedish pre-apocalypse Old School Renaissance retroclone designed by Ockult Örtmästare Games and Stockholm Kartell and published by Free League Publishing. However, there are far fewer fanzines for its swashbuckling cousin, Pirate Borg, published by Limithron and set in the zombie-infested, isolated Dark Caribbean.

Tales from the Locker #1 is published by SkeletonKey Games. Published in May, 2026, this describes itself as a “PIRATE BORG compatible anthology … a place where cursed maps, dangerous ideas, and half-buried legends are pulled from the depths and dropped straight into your campaign.” What it actually provides is three adventure locations, three new Classes, some new equipment, and an awful lot of prompts, all of which are undeniably useful and interesting, and which could be added to a Game Master’s Pirate Borg campaign. What strikes you first about this inaugural issue is the price. It does seem high for what is just a forty-page fanzine. The second thing that strikes you is that it is in full vibrant colour that veers from the cartoonish to the carnage and back again. This is a good looking affair that actually looks like a supplement for Pirate Borg and is actually better professionally produced than most fanzines. The quality is enough to warrant the price even if that does mean that Tales from the Locker #1 looks too good to be an actual fanzine.

At the heart of the issue is a quartet of adventure locations. This leads off with ‘Temple of the Spider God’ by Lars White. This describes a ziggurat deep in the jungle standing at the base of a dormant volcano, infested with deadly Jaguar spiders, the spawn of the Spider God, and Shepherds of the Spider God, cultists who maintain the webs that festoon the temple inside and out. It is bright and colourful, the ziggurat depicted side on as a cutaway. This a solidly done, if simple location, that is easy to drop into a jungle somewhere in the Game Master’s campaign. However, it is yet another ziggurat location and the Game Master will need to come with a reason why the Player Pirates might want to go there. This is because there are no hooks with which to get them involved.

The second location is Alexander Jatscha-Zelt’s ‘The Cartographer’s Den’. This details Nathaniel Pellwick and his home, a wealthy shop and town house in Port Royal as it was before it was struck by an earthquake. Pellwick has a reputation across the Dark Caribbean as a master cartographer, who buys, draws, and sells maps and charts of its islands and seas. His own maps are remarkably detailed and often depict secrets and routes unknown. This has earned him the patronage and protection of the good and the bad of the port. The Player Pirates can come to Pellwick as customers and develop into a recurring contact and resource who will in turn buy from them. The location details both Nathaniel Pellwick, who he is, what he wants, and what he is currently doing, his services, what he buys, and his house from the master bedroom and other rooms on the first floor to the cellars under the house. This could be simply enough, but the description includes a plot too. Pelliwick has let slip that he has come into possession of a unique chart, but despite enquiries of several interested parties, has so far refused to sell. Some of those parties are willing to go further and hire agents to steal the map. Alternatively, Pellwick suspects a burglary and hires extra protection. As to the chart itself, the details are left up to the Game Master to decide, but suggestions include ‘The Isle of 1000 Corpses’ which follows in the issue, as well as locations in Ravaged by Storms by Golem Productions, Down Among the Dead by Limithron, and These Bloody Sales by ThisEffinGM.

‘The Cartographer’s Den’ is the issue’s highlight. It gives a setting and options in terms of how the Game Master uses it. Its only limitation is when it is set, that is before the earthquake in Port Royal, but other than that, this is flexible and easy to use.

The third adventure location is ‘The Isle of 1000 Corpses’ by Philip Reed. This is the foulest and vilest of the trio—and intentionally so. Subtitled ‘A Shocking Tale of Dark Caribbean Carnage’, it describes an island of floating corpses and body parts, undead and flailing such that it swims randomly across the region. Complete with random rumours (oddly all true) and encounters, everything on the island is made of undead, rotting flesh and rattling bones. This includes a spire of corpses that form a lighthouse, a sea turtle sanctuary that has accidently been turned into a sanctuary of zombie sea turtles(!), and a rotting whale corpse home to sailor called Jonah. Also included is a trio of ‘meaty jetsam’, the corpse raft, corpse barge, and corpse cay, sea-going corpse vessels to add to the naval combat aspect of the roleplaying game. It is inventively grim and grungy and brings an element of the Grand Guignol to Pirate Borg. However, there are no hooks to get the Player Pirates to the island and the Game Master will need to develop them herself.

This is less of an issue for the fourth and final adventure location in  . Julius ‘kin’ Karajos’ ‘Ash Fall’ opens with an Ash meteor crashing to the earth on a nearby island, which with the revelations as the nature of ASH—created from burnt zombies—has led to an ASH rush as pirates, cultists, and Spanish miners seek to capitalise on the bounty. By the time the Player Pirates turn up, the mining site has turned into a hellhole. The soldiers accompanying the Spanish miners have turned it into an armed camp, miners continue to descend into the crater where they scrape Ash from the weird stone meteor, all are in danger of catching the ASH disease which eventually turns sufferers into undead (which can then be burnt down into ASH), and the jungle seems to seethe and regularly and violently encroaches on the camp. The scenario has a weirder feel to it than most others for Pirate Borg, being infused with Cosmic Horror a la H.P. Lovecraft’s ‘The Colour Out of Space’.

The four adventure locations are followed by a trio of new Classes. The ‘Ironclad’ by Thomas Zitkevitz details a warrior swathed in armour salvaged from a lost conquistador and gain benefits from it such as carrying ‘Heavy Metal’ weapons that are double the size and inflict extra damage and ‘Deflect Shots’ with armour so shiny it can reflect bullets back at their firers! Christopher Samson’s ‘Occult Sailor Master’ whose navigational ability is supernatural indicated by the symbols on his body. These can be activated for spell-like effects, for both normal and maritime play. For example, Shoals warns of hidden danger, secrets, and hidden doors, whilst at sea, guides the ship through dangerous waters, negating potential travel penalties, whilst Jolly Roger can paralyse a foe with fear whilst in naval combat, makes it easier to have enemy crews surrender or mutiny! Lastly, the ‘Tusked Raider’ by Ed Bourelle is a feral hog twisted into an anthropomorphic creature renowned for its toughness. It can be a ‘Greased Pig’ less easy to be hit in the first round in combat, an ‘Indiscriminate Eater’ that heals more if it overeats, and ‘Pig Headed’ with a bonus to resist being controlled, influenced, or coerced where it was once cowed and preyed upon. All three Classes are simple and easy to add to a campaign and give a player lots more options, playing around with the horror and the Pulp tones of the setting.

Penultimately, Tyler J. Stratton’s ‘Quartermaster’s Corner’ presents Two-Tone Heller, a ready-to-play NPC that can be added to the crew of the Player Pirates’ ship. As his name suggests, his manner can flip depending upon the circumstances from jovial leader to harsh disciplinarian. The write-up suggests Gibs from Pirates of the Caribbean or Sergeant Hartman from Full Metal Jacket. It is followed by the tables, ‘D12 Problems Among The Crew’ and ‘D20 Crew Punishments’, which would support stories that involve Two-Tone Heller, but also be useful in a Pirate Borg campaign in general.

Tales from the Locker #1 starts and ends with tables. The Old School Renaissance has its ‘I loot the body’ or ‘dx Things to find on a corpse’ tables, and Pirate Borg has its equivalent, which is ‘d10 Messages in a Bottle /on a Corpse’. Written by Ed Bourelle, this has entries such as “I be marooned on a spit of sand no bigger than a whale’s back, with a pistol, two damp biscuits, and a singing skeleton. If mercy yet sails these waters, look for the carrion gulls that circle above me. I’ll share secrets better than gold.” and ones that link to the adventure locations given earlier in the fanzine, like, “Pellwick marked a reef that no man had seen, not even the oldest salt among us. We laughed until our hull split upon it at dawn, just where his ink had dried. He even charted the graves on the beach before we dug ’em. If ye meet the man, ask him what else he’s been drawin’.” These serve as good prompts, as does the ‘Plot Twists’ at the front of the issue, also by Ed Bourelle. These provide two set-ups and then three explanations for each, in a manner similar to the Patrons format of Traveller. For example, ‘In Port’ opens with the Player Pirates in a port when one of the ships anchored in the harbour lets lose an unexpected broadside on the harbour front or another vessel, potentially even the one aboard which the Player Pirates serve. The options for hook include Deep Ones shanghaiing the ship and testing the guns, vengeful ghosts settling a grudge with the ship’s guns, and the ship’s crew mutinying. These are solid ideas which the Game Master can easily develop with the addition of some stats and so on.

Physically, Tales from the Locker #1 is excellent. The artwork is good, the fanzine is well-written, and the cartography decent. This is a good-looking affair, but that gives it a slickness that some might argue that a fanzine should not have.

Tales from the Locker #1 is an impressive first issue. The only problem with it is the lack of hooks for several of the adventure locations, but other than that, the content is all easy to use or add to a campaign. The star of the issue is ‘The Cartographer’s Den’, but no Pirate Borg Game Master will be disappointed by the content in Tales from the Locker #1.

The Other OSR: The Cavern of Cursed Tears

The Cavern of Cursed Tears is a low preparation, pick-up-and-play scenario f it is an Old School Renaissance-style roleplaying game is set in the Dark Caribbean, a sea of tropical islands marked with European towns and fortresses and ruins of civilisations long gone, of shipwrecks with rich cargoes and even richer treasures, and of the Scourge. The Scourge made the dead walk once again, ghosts return to haunt the living, and monsters lurk ready to the foothold that the Europeans have established in the region. The governors and the viceroys, representatives of kings and queens, have forced to adapt and rule with no contact from home following the Scourge and even take advantage of the situation, especially since the discovery of the abilities and addictive nature of ASH, the ash of the burned and ground undead. Some seek to make money from the trade in ASH and some seek to control it, whilst others seek to repress it. This is another cause of the conflict in the Dark Caribbean. Pirate Borg casts the players as members of a crew who will sail the ASH-tinged waters the Dark Caribbean, raiding and smuggling, carousing and drinking, adventuring and exploring. Pirate Borg is based upon Mörk Borg, the Swedish pre-apocalypse Old School Renaissance style roleplaying game designed by Ockult Örtmästare Games and Stockholm Kartell and also published by Free League Publishing.

The Cavern of Cursed Tears is said to be the last resting pace of the treasures of not one, but two pirate captains who happened to be in love with each other. The Cavern of Cursed Tears is rumoured to be of interest to both the British Royal Society and the Inquisition. The Cavern of Cursed Tears is said by many pirates to be cursed, but that will not stop Sir Barrington from looking for a crew to sail him to the island where it is located and then lead an expedition into its depths. These are just some of the rumours that can be discovered about the Cavern of Cursed Tears and certainly, the Game Master could create more. The rumours are the reason to get the Player Characters and their expedition to the mouth of the sinkhole that drops away into the dark. Below there are caverns filled with bones, caverns filled with bats, a cenote and a water maze, and much more that the Player Characters need to traverse before they get anywhere near its secrets.

The Cavern of Cursed Tears is straightforward and linear, there are good reasons for this, both in game and out of game. In game, this is a limited network of caves, but split over two levels. The lower level is mostly underwater and there is a great sense of verticality throughout. The Player Characters will need to do a lot of climbing and jumping to clamber from one cavern to the next, whilst below, any Player Character who can swim well and/or hold his breath will be at an advantage. In addition, the Antiquarian and Deep One Classes from the Down Among the Dead supplement for Pirate Borg are also appropriate, whilst any Player Character with a musical ability will be very useful. Out of game, The Cavern of Cursed Tears is straightforward and linear because it is presented in a trifold format with the whole of the cave network presented on the inside three pages, running from left to right as a side view cutaway, rather than as a more traditional top down map. This allows the descriptions of the upper parts of the cave network to be placed above the side-on view of the caves, with the descriptions of lower parts placed under the side-on view. This is a fantastic layout and as the Player Characters progress through the caves, the attention and eye of the Game Master is pulled across the inner of the trifold, and into the depths of both the cave network and its secrets.

There are elements of the supernatural in the upper two, sandwiched layers of the Cavern of Cursed Tears, notably Chonchonchon, Lord of the Grotto, a necrotic crocodile, but they come to the fore at the end of the cave network, below the upper sections. Here there is a lake and classic Mesoamerican step-pyramid with its own secrets to discover and treasures to plunder. There are some fantastic moments here, such as a shaft lined with dozens of skull-shaped stones, each with a glyph on their foreheads. The glyphs can be played as a tune and when that happens, five thousand glowing skulls appear, and chanting, form stairs leading down… This has a fantastic sense of pulp action a la the Indiana Jones films–and it is not the only one in the scenario. Plus, of course, there is something nasty protecting protecting the secrets of the Cavern of Cursed Tears. The stats for the cast and bestiary of the scenario are given on the back of the trifold and here and there, there are extra notes for the Game Master.

Physically, The Cavern of Cursed Tears is very nicely presented. It is clear and very easy to read and the trifold format is used highly effectively. The map, or rather the sideview of the caves, is well done, as is the step-pyramid below.

The Cavern of Cursed Tears will probably take a session or two to explore. It has a strong emphasis physical exploration with hints of the supernatural that manifest more fully at the end of the scenario. Self-contained, it could be run as a convention or demonstration scenario, but the Game Master might want to cut out the middle section of the cave network to ensure that her Player Characters reach the end. Otherwise, The Cavern of Cursed Tears is very easy to add to a Pirate Borg campaign. It has secrets, it has treasures, and both of those will attract all sorts. The Cavern of Cursed Tears is an entertaining mini-dungeon done the Pirate Borg way.

The Other OSR: Creatures of the Dying World

Mörk Borg is not short of monsters. Since its publication in 2020, the Swedish pre-apocalypse Old School Renaissance style roleplaying game designed by Ockult Örtmästare Games and Stockholm Kartell and published by Free League Publishing, has been supported by numerous third-party supplements and scenarios, which includes numerous new threats. The world of Mörk Borg is a dangerous, even lethal one with relatively little chance of survival for the Player Characters, so new monsters are always going to be useful. Primarily to confront the characters with foes that their players have never seen before, so in game such as Mörk Borg, a bestiary is invariably going to be useful. Creatures of the Dying World: A Bestiary by Jonny Bloozit #1 gives the Game Master some twenty-one monsters, parasites, magical constructs, lurkers, and other threats, all of which are presented in full, succulent colour. This is because they are written and drawn by the author and in some ways, Creatures of the Dying World: A Bestiary by Jonny Bloozit #1 is as much an artbook as much as it is a roleplaying supplement. There is a looming, lurking quality to the art style, often spattered with the muculent and malodorous mess of the midden. All of the entries get a full-page entry with the minimal stats of Mörk Borg monsters leaving plenty of room for the illustrations and the descriptive text. The latter varies in length from one entry to the next and places an emphasis on the folklore to the creatures described. Even this varies from one entry to the next. However, Creatures of the Dying World: A Bestiary by Jonny Bloozit #1 is no A Folklore Bestiary, The Merry Mushmen’s gold standard by which any Old School Renaissance or Old School Renaissance-adjacent bestiary must be measured. In fact, the folkloric elements are underwritten in place and the Game Master will need to extract them from the text rather than use them as written.

There are some common themes running through Creatures of the Dying World: A Bestiary by Jonny Bloozit #1. There are creatures from swamps and marshes and associated with filth and decay, such as the Bogmen which seek to suffocate, envelop, and digest its victim, but is immune to weapon damage, whilst the ‘Giant Leechworm’ is exactly what you think it is. The ‘Miasma’ is an evil spirit attracted to filth and decay and spreads diseases like the sniffles and the plague, whilst the ‘Plague Fly’ settles on carrion, fresh battlefields, and rubbish dumps in swarms, causing fever-like symptoms in those it bites and laying eggs in open wounds. Worm-like creatures are common too, such as the Cavern Worm that is like a deep sea tube worm that hides in crystalline tubes only to snap out and bite at its victims, The weirdest of the worms are the ‘Howling Worm’, a magical plant-human hybrid which howls and shrieks loudly when anyone comes near, so they are used as alarms much to the annoyance of anyone else living nearby. 

Not all of the entries in Creatures of the Dying World: A Bestiary by Jonny Bloozit #1 are simple foes that the Game Master can throw at his players and their characters. There is a version of the ‘Crystal Skull’ that is a combination of magical artefact and personality, containing the bound soul of a priest or herbalist who is not very happy about being so bound. Consequently, he is ill-mannered, angry, and contemptuous of the Player Characters, but might be persuaded to help. What is in no doubt is the Game Master will have fun portraying the unfortunate soul! The entry for ‘Dagon’ is really more illustration than description and adds little that is of use. The ‘Plague Doctor’ is an adaptation of the seventeenth century figure that sought to treat the bubonic plague, both as NPC and Player Character. It is suggested that the towns and cities setting of the Dying World are home to many Plague Doctors, who attempt cures through bloodletting, which can be dangerous if failed, and similarly use magical cures to shorten illnesses, though such an attempt will lengthen the illness if the attempt fails. In comparison to other Classes for Mörk Borg, this is underwritten, but there is perhaps scope for development.

Creatures of the Dying World: A Bestiary by Jonny Bloozit #1 is a slight affair at just twenty-one entries and sparse descriptions for too many of them. Similarly, the emphasis upon folklore in the entries veers towards the meagre rather than the substantial, and in places, that lack gives less for the Game Master to work with and work into her campaign setting. And whilst there is no denying the effectiveness of the artwork in Creatures of the Dying World: A Bestiary by Jonny Bloozit #1, it cannot wholly make up for the underwritten nature of some of the bestiary’s entries. Creatures of the Dying World: A Bestiary by Jonny Bloozit #1 does not wholly suffer from a case of style over substance, but the Game Master is likely to want to develop some of that substance herself to make fuller use of the bestiary.

Your Pirate Borg Starter

The Pirate Borg Starter Set is the introduction to the self-described, “Worst Pirate RPG Ever Made™!” that is Pirate Borg. This Old School Renaissance-style roleplaying game is set in the Dark Caribbean, a sea of tropical islands marked with European towns and fortresses and ruins of civilisations long gone, of shipwrecks with rich cargoes and even richer treasures, and of the Scourge. The Scourge made the dead walk once again, ghosts return to haunt the living, and monsters lurk ready to smash the foothold that the Europeans have established in the region. The governors and the viceroys, representatives of kings and queens, have forced to adapt and rule with no contact from home following the Scourge and even take advantage of the situation, especially since the discovery of the abilities and addictive nature of ASH, the ash of the burned and ground undead. Some seek to make money from the trade in ASH and some seek to control it, whilst others seek to repress it. This is another cause of the conflict in the Dark Caribbean. Pirate Borg casts the players as members of a crew who will sail the ASH-tinged waters the Dark Caribbean, raiding and smuggling, carousing and drinking, adventuring and exploring, and the Pirate Borg Starter Set comes with everything necessary for a group of two to seven players to enjoy a mini-campaign set within the Dark Caribbean.

The Pirate Borg Starter Set is a packed box. It contains a sixty-page ‘Player’s Guidebook’, the sixty-page ‘Trapped in the Tropics: A Pirate Borg Adventure’, six Player Character Creation Worksheets, a pad of twenty-five character sheets, ten poster maps, and a set of twelve dice. It also includes a set of twenty-two reference cards for general play and the scenario, tokens for use with the maps, and two Dry/Erase pens for use with the Player Character Creation Worksheets. The inclusion of the latter points to an absence of pre-generated Player Characters that would normally be expected to be found in a roleplaying game starter set. Instead, players have to create their characters to play through the ‘Trapped in the Tropics: A Pirate Borg Adventure’. This points to the fragility of characters in Pirate Borg because players may have to replace them as the Dark Caribbean is a sea whose waters are deadly. It also provides a player with the full Pirate Borg experience, and of course, the Player Character Creation Worksheets make that process easier and faster.

The ‘Player’s Guidebook’ is very much a cut down version of the full Pirate Borg rulebook, even down to having the same page numbers. This is intentional because it makes reference to the Pirate Borg rulebook easier. Inside the front page there is a replication of the Player Character Creation Worksheet, but beyond that there is an explanation of how to create characters, the rules, the roleplaying game’s six base Classes, plus the two optional Classes. A Player Character is is defined by his Abilities, Class, gear, and Devil’s Luck. The five Abilities are Strength, Agility, Presence, Toughness, and Spirit, each rated between ‘-3’ and ‘+3’. There are six Classes and two optional Classes. Each provides adjustments to Abilities, basic Hit Points, and starting Devil’s Luck. The Brute is a raging melee fighter who gets a trusted weapon like a ‘Brass Anchor’ or ‘Rotten Cargo Net’ and when he gets better, he might gain a ‘Boomstick’ or ‘Grog Breath’, the latter enabling him to belch in the face of an enemy and stun him! The Rapscallion is a sneaky, cutthroat scallywag, which as a Class requires an ordinary deck of playing cards to play. The Rapscallion starts with a single speciality such as ‘Burglar’ or ‘Sneaky Bastard’, and gain more or even double up on already possessed specialities. He can also drink Grog to heal himself. The Buccaneer is a sharpshooter and treasure hunter, and is also a skilled tracker. The Swashbuckler is a brash fighter, who might also be an ‘Ostentatious Fencer’ or ‘Inspiring Leader’, and when he gets better, he could be the ‘Shakespeare of Insults’ or a ‘Calculating Cutthroat’, the former adding damage to attacks with his wounding taunts, the latter letting the player achieve critical hits on a natural roll of nineteen as well as twenty. The Zealot has prayers like Heal, Curse, and Holy Protection, which are learned randomly and can be cast several times a day without the need to make a roll or a test. The Sorcerer draws power from supernatural spirits and ghosts to cast spells like Spiritual Possession, Clairvoyance, and Raise the Dead, not whilst near cold iron or holding metal.

The Haunted Soul is either a ghost, conduit for restless spirits, has an eldritch mind, is a zombie, suffers from vampirism, or is a skeleton. Each provides a benefit and a penalty. For example, restless spirits constantly communicate with the conduit to grant a random Arcane Ritual which can be cast without a Spirit test, but must be cast before dawn the next day or conduit suffers damage. The Tall Tale can be one of the Merfolk, an aquatic mutant like a crab or The Great Old One, or a sentient animal such as a ‘Foul Fowl’ or a ‘Clever Monkey’. Although both the Haunted Soul and the Tall Tale are given as optional Classes, they are not really Classes, but closer to a Race or a Species as in other Old School Renaissance roleplaying games. This is because not only do they not get any better with experience, but the player also then rolls for an additional ability out of the standard six. Their inclusion, though, is unbalancing, granting a Player Character extra abilities that other Player Characters without either the Haunted Soul or Tall Tale options simply does not have the equivalent of. Further, the six core Classes not balanced either, especially when it comes to their progression. Several of the Classes like the Rapscallion or Buccaneer have multiple specialities or features that can be taken twice, whereas the Brute and the Swashbuckler do not. Of course, there is no need for the Classes to be equally balanced, but some rough equivalency would not have gone amiss.

To create a character, a player rolls for his Abilities, Class, gear, and Devil’s Luck. Gear includes weapon, clothing, and a hat. Optional tables provide for backgrounds, distinctive flaws, physical trademarks, idiosyncrasies, unfortunate incidents and conditions, and thing of importance. Of these which a group might want to avoid is rolling for Class since it avoids too many of the same Class serving in a ship’s crew.

Mechanically Pirate Borg is based upon Mörk Borg—hence the name—the Swedish pre-apocalypse Old School Renaissance style roleplaying game designed by Ockult Örtmästare Games and Stockholm Kartell and also published by Free League Publishing. A player rolls a twenty-sided die, modifies the result by one of his character’s abilities, and attempts to beat a Difficulty Rating of twelve. The Difficulty Rating may go up or down depending on the situation, but whatever the situation, the player always rolls, even in combat or as both Mörk Borg and Pirate Borg terms it, violence. So, a player will roll for his character to hit in melee using his Strength and his Agility to avoid being hit. Armour is represented by a die value, from -d2 for light armour to -d6 for heavy armour, representing the amount of damage it stops. Medium and heavy armour each add a modifier to any Agility action by the character, including defending himself. This is pleasingly simple and offers a character some tactical choice—just when is it better to avoid taking the blows or avoid taking the damage? Armour can also be damaged, due to a Fumble when defending, reducing its protective effectiveness, and a critical hit in combat inflicts double damage or allows another attack. A Player Characters whose Hit Points are reduced to below zero is dead, but at zero, is broken and can recover.

Every Player Character also has the Devil’s Luck. Each Class receives a different amount of this, but all can spent to inflict maximum damage on a single attack, reroll any die, lower the Difficulty rating of a Test, neutralise a Critical or a Fumble, and to lower damage suffered by a random amount.

A Player Character may also have access to Arcane Rituals, such as Dark Delusions, which creates illusions in the minds that can see the caster; Phantasmal Fauna, which summons a ghostly hound or shark until sunset; and Thalassomancy, which fill the lungs of targets with sea water, causing them to suffocate. There are some truly nasty Arcane Rituals in this list. For example, The Black Spot which literally marks the target for death or Release the Kraken, which summons one of these great creatures in the nearby sea. If a Player Character fails to cast an Arcane Ritual, then a roll may be made on Pirate Borg’s Mystical Mishaps table. Other forms of magic in Pirate Borg include a quick and dirty pair of tables for handling alchemy and a list of Ancient Relics, such as the Conch Shell of the Abyss, which enables the wielder to ask a corpse one question or Mermaid Scales that when eaten grant the ability to breath underwater for a few hours.

Pirate Borg being a pirate roleplaying game, the one thing that it definitely needs is rules for ships and nautical combat. A vessel is defined by its Hit Points, Hull, Speed, Skill, Broadsides, Small Arms, Ram, Crew, and Cargo. Hit Points includes its condition and the health and morale of the crew; Hull, its armour; Skill the skill and training of the crew; Broadsides, the damage inflicted by a vessel’s main cannons; Small Arms the damage done by swivel guns and muskets; Ram, damage done in a ram action; and Crew, the minimum and maximum number of crew the ship can carry. Combat is conducted in thirty second rounds, and in that time, the captain moves the ship, the Player Characters take an action, and the Crew can take actions such as ‘Fire Broadsides’, ‘Full Sail’, ‘Boarding Party’, and more. Speciality Crew includes Legendary Captains, Strict Bosun, Deck Sorcerer or Priest, and so on. The rules cover crew skill, morale, cargo, repairs, and optionally—surprisingly, weather! An earlier section gives a list of sea shanties that the crew can perform each day, which might be to raise the crew’s morale or put out all the fires on a ship! Stats for the various ships are given on the Reference Cards included in the box.

What the ‘Player’s Guidebook’ does lack—and understandably so—is a bestiary and such things as tables for generating random encounters. What it does include is summaries of the rules, including those for naval combat, for ease of play.  Overall, the ‘Player’s Guidebook’ is attractive and functional, providing only the absolutely necessary details that a player is going to need.

For the Game Master there is ‘Trapped in the Tropics: A Pirate Borg Adventure’, which promises British Redcoats, rival pirates, booby traps, hordes of zombies, and cursed relics. It is specifically designed to teach the Game Master and her players the rules and how the game is played. So, there is more advice here for the Game Master than might be found in another scenario, but as a scenario in a starter set, it makes sense. It tells the Game Master how to prepare for the first session, gives her notes for tone, stye, and inspiration, of which there is lots (and pleasingly, is not afraid to suggest looking at other piratical games, especially wargaming rules), and suggests a way in which the adventure can be run as a one-shot. There is advice on running different aspects of the rules and a handy list of the tenets for both the Game Master and the player. The scenario is designed to be played using the included maps and tokens.

The scenario begins en media res and essentially in the same fashion as Pirates of the Caribbean! The Player Characters and their vessel have been hired by the Spanish Inquisition to locate a shipwreck on Eel Island. As the Player Characters emerge from the jungle, they find themselves on the beach, betrayed by a crewmember, attacked by Red Coast. Then zombies! It is an exciting start and the cues from Pirates of the Caribbean continue with the exploration of the island and the discovery of the target ship—hanging almost upside down deep into the jungle. Then on to a neighbouring island which is close by. One interesting aspect of the scenario is that in introducing both Pirate Borg and its setting of the Dark Caribbean, it also introduces the concept of ASH, how it is made, and how it is consumed. It is a fairly grim process and the scenario does suggest alternatives if the gaming group is unhappy with the concept. On Scrub Island the Player Characters can acquire a ship, and armed with a major clue they should have been able to acquire, set sail properly! This gives them a bit more freedom of action and opens up the play style a bit, first enabling the players and their character to experience some naval combat and explore Gibbet Town, a British port on a neighbouring island. The scenario will culminate in a disaster and a delve deep under an island in search of treasure leading to a confrontation with its guardians.

The scenario is well designed and written, taking the Game Master and her players hand-in-hand through the different aspects of Pirate Borg’s play. There is good advice throughout on the different aspects of the rules and the scenario, plus useful discussion of what to do next once the Player Characters have completed the adventure. The scenario is also entertaining and fun, both for the Game Master and her players, the former being giving a pair of intriguing NPCs to portray.

The ten poster maps show a mixture of maps and artwork. There are maps of the various islands and Gibbet Town, deck plans, and an illustration of the hanging ship in the jungle. There is also a plain sea map for use with the naval combat rules and one of the whole Dark Caribbean and even a double-sided treasure map that the Game Master is expected to tear in half! The tokens include ships for naval combat, NPCs and monsters, and one for each of the Classes in Pirate Borg. There are even tokens for the chicken, crocodile, and parrot companions (and there are other animals on the other side) that the Player Characters could have! There are even tokens to represent the approximate time of day. All together, the tokens are simply useful and their inclusion is well thought out.

Physically, the Pirate Borg Starter Set is fantastic. Both the ‘Player’s Guidebook’ and the ‘Trapped in the Tropics: A Pirate Borg Adventure’ books are sturdy and colourful, and the maps, along with the tokens, are going to look great on the table. Both books are both very well written, the scenario in particular being full of little extra details such as suggestions how to portray the major NPCs by referencing various films. Lastly, both inside of the lid and the inside of the base box have tables on them to help the Game Master run the game. There is even the detail of the embossed lid that gives  the Pirate Borg Starter Set a pleasingly tactile feel.

Like any good starter set, the Pirate Borg Starter Set can be used as more than an introduction to the setting of Pirate Borg. An experienced group can still play ‘Trapped in the Tropics: A Pirate Borg Adventure’ and beyond the adventure, the other content in the Pirate Borg Starter Set can be used as part of an ongoing campaign. The ‘Player’s Guidebook’ as a rule reference guide, several of the maps can be reused as can the Reference Cards, and the Player Character Creation Worksheets can be used over and over. Plus there are the dice…

The Pirate Borg Starter Set is an impressive box, offering a combination of simple, but highly thematic rules and an engaging, entertaining scenario, all supported by some useful play aids that will extend its usefulness beyond the completion of the scenario. Which all together is a great introduction to Pirate Borg. If other publishers within the Old School Renaissance were thinking of producing a starter set, the Pirate Borg Starter Set has just set the standard by which they will all be judged.