Gifts For Gamers 2023: ‘Pirate Borg’
by Anton Kromoff
Welcome to the table,
‘Tis the season for something cool
Sometimes we need a break from our weekly game and like to get mixed up in other adventurers. Currently, my table is bouncing back and forth between two ongoing campaigns in the same universe, along with a third game we can’t talk about just yet because it involves playtesting some things that have not been announced but will be very soon… how’s that for vague?
In all my years running TTRPG, I find that having something on hand that you can pick up and play if people are bored, missing from the table, or just want to spice it up for the night is important. Pirate Borg is for sure one of the things I have on hand.
This rules-lite TTRPG is inspired by history, fantasy, horror, and more than a little bit of rum. Players take on the role of pirates armed with cutlasses and flintlock as they clash with kraken, hoards of skeletons, and other aquatic horrors across the seven seas. What’s cool is that Pirate Borg is a complete game based on and compatible with the fan favorite from Free League Mörk Borg, but it also serves as a tool kit you can hack and homebrew your way to use with most other TTRPG.
As one could expect, Pirate Borg is about being a greedy, filthy, scoundrel. You find a ship. Recruit some crew. Raid, pillage, plunder, and otherwise pilfer your weasely black guts out, as some savvy folk would say. Then you get a bigger ship. Fight some creepy stuff. Upgrade your ship. Sneak into a fort. Acquire treasure. Bury said treasure. Become infamous. Search for someone else’s treasure. Flee in terror from large unfathomable creatures from the deep. Drink all of the rum. Die on the high seas. Roll a new character and do it all again.
Pirate Borg is written and illustrated by Luke Stratton, also known as Limithron, and published by Free League under the Free League Workshop sublabel for independently designed games. Yet another reason to really love Free League and all the cool stuff they put out into the gaming space.
You can grab a copy of Pirate Borg at this link and other places really rad TTRPG are sold.
Until next time, I love this book. It’s zine-sized, it’s full of fun adventure seed ideas and concepts and it really strikes a balance between horror and humor in the best ways.
