MÖRK BORG?

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Dork Borg. In seven days, it's the school prom and you won't have a date you fuckin dork.
Mindy Borg. Mork's gone home, Mindy. In seven days you'll be taken away by the government to a 'facility'.
Borg Borg. In seven days you will be assimilated.
Bjorn Borg. ONLY SEVEN DAYS TO WIN THE WIMBLEDON MEN'S FINAL!
 
3rik said:
The limit has certainly been reached for me personally. They're really pushing it now. But to each their own I guess.

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I keep hoping the creators of some of the Borg material that I own would make more material that would flesh out their current works. Instead we're getting a saturation of one shot different material. Which in my opinion feeds into the mindset that Mork Borg is not meant to be taken seriously or used for a longer running campaign. :sad:
 
Acmegamer said:
I keep hoping the creators of some of the Borg material that I own would make more material that would flesh out their current works. Instead we're getting a saturation of one shot different material. Which in my opinion feeds into the mindset that Mork Borg is not meant to be taken seriously or used for a longer running campaign. :sad:
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I think Troika! has the same problem.
 
Acmegamer said:
I keep hoping the creators of some of the Borg material that I own would make more material that would flesh out their current works. Instead we're getting a saturation of one shot different material. Which in my opinion feeds into the mindset that Mork Borg is not meant to be taken seriously or used for a longer running campaign. :sad:
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Ahem, Challengers of Vanth has a core book and eleven sourcebooks (three Opponent Opuscules, seven adventures, and one Persona Portfolio). :goof:
Plus an Excel-based character generator.
And easy-to-read illustrations and layout.

But yes. I agree with you about all the rest.
 
Evilschemer said:
Ahem, Challengers of Vanth has a core book and eleven sourcebooks (three Opponent Opuscules, seven adventures, and one Persona Portfolio). :goof:
Plus an Excel-based character generator.
And easy-to-read illustrations and layout.

But yes. I agree with you about all the rest.
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Oh, thanks for sharing that. Looks good, adding it to my snag list.

Edit: It's on my snag list because I made a promise to my wife not buy stuff after I've had a few drinks. There was this one incident...
 
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Mork Borg is an art project with a minimal game system tacked on. As a game, there is practically nothing to it. If that's your thing, great. It's not mine though. It's easy to adapt to other things but it's almost all aesthetics. What little game is there is generic OSR which can be applied to about anything.
 
Acmegamer said:
Which in my opinion feeds into the mindset that Mork Borg is not meant to be taken seriously or used for a longer running campaign. :sad:
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yosemitemike said:
It's easy to adapt to other things but it's almost all aesthetics.
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I am not sure either of these are a bad thing though necessarily though. It’s great that we get variety in RPGs. We have plenty of serious fleshed out RPGs and ones that don’t have the aesthetic flair of Mork Borg. So having one swing the way is pretty cool.

Whatever Mork Borg is actually doing is obviously striking a chord though, as it has inspired an insane amount of derivative work. That alone is a measure of its success.
 
Skywalker said:
I am not sure either of these are a bad thing though necessarily though. It’s great that we get variety in RPGs. We have plenty of serious fleshed out RPGs and ones that don’t have the aesthetic flair of Mork Borg. So having one swing the way is pretty cool.

Whatever Mork Borg is actually doing is obviously striking a chord though, as it has inspired an insane amount of derivative work. That alone is a measure of its success.
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It might not be a bad thing for everyone but it's a negative for me.

One of the reasons that there is so much derivative work is that it's an open license. How much of this stuff is actually successful is another matter.
 
yosemitemike said:
It might not be a bad thing for everyone but it's a negative for me.
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For sure. No RPG is for everyone.
yosemitemike said:
One of the reasons that there is so much derivative work is that it's an open license. How much of this stuff is actually successful is another matter.
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I think attributing everything to it being an open licence is pretty dismissive. Mork Borg has had an obvious success - commercially, critically and as a source of inspiration for others.
 
yosemitemike said:
It might not be a bad thing for everyone but it's a negative for me.

One of the reasons that there is so much derivative work is that it's an open license. How much of this stuff is actually successful is another matter.
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The authors get to define if something is a success, though. If it meets their goals, even if they are just "ship a pretty book", it's a success - nobody's getting into this expecting to get rich.
 
Yeah, I'm not really a fan of Mörk Borg or most derived products (although Pirate Borg does seem to pack a lot of content, not just aesthetics). I can see the appeal, but it doesn't do anything for me. But then again, I'm not into most rules-light games anyway (I did have a phase where I tried to make OD&D as light as I could get away with, though).
 
Ynas Midgard said:
Yeah, I'm not really a fan of Mörk Borg or most derived products (although Pirate Borg does seem to pack a lot of content, not just aesthetics). I can see the appeal, but it doesn't do anything for me. But then again, I'm not into most rules-light games anyway (I did have a phase where I tried to make OD&D as light as I could get away with, though).
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Pirate Borg is the only one I have kept.
 
Evilschemer said:
Ahem, Challengers of Vanth has a core book and eleven sourcebooks (three Opponent Opuscules, seven adventures, and one Persona Portfolio). :goof:
Plus an Excel-based character generator.
And easy-to-read illustrations and layout.

But yes. I agree with you about all the rest.
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Just went and downloaded the material.I've got the main pdf opened but I'm in the middle of things right now. I will be reading through it though! Looks interesting and right up my alley. :smile: I just watched Trevor over at Me, Myself and Die! getting very excited about Pirate Borg. So definitely in a Mork Borg mindset.
 
3rik said:
Acmegamer Acmegamer Did you get in on this one? It's standalone but also meant to mix and match with Mörk Borg.

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Damn it, no. That and Pirate Borg I didn't get. After watching Trevor over at "Me, Myself & Die!" going on about Pirate Borg I'm really kicking myself in the ass. Definitely going to snag both of these now. Thanks for sharing that one. The material in Pirate Borg looked really good btw.
 
Acmegamer said:
Just went and downloaded the material.I've got the main pdf opened but I'm in the middle of things right now. I will be reading through it though! Looks interesting and right up my alley. :smile: I just watched Trevor over at Me, Myself and Die! getting very excited about Pirate Borg. So definitely in a Mork Borg mindset.
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The liveplay group Shadows of Archonia even played the Challengers of Vanth module "One of the Goblins has a Flamethrower".

 
sharps54 said:
Pirate Borg is the only one I have kept.
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I think Mork Borg is a triumph of looks over content. Its like that lass you pick up in a bar; great tits, and then you get her home and... fucking wonderbra. I actually find MB pretty awful in its presentation (including supplements that try to copy it) and impossible to read, and I don't care that there's a text-only pdf of it - that just shows how basic the game is, whereas Pirate Borg seems to be a little bit cleaner and easier to get through as a book and definitely has more (and useful) content. I fell into the trap of buying loads of supplements for Mork Borg and then realised it was like the emperors new clothes - spent lots of money for a subpar game when I could've got something cheaper that was better. Flogged the stuff on ebay and got some decent money back so not a complete disaster though.
 
There have been several games lately that I just don't get the popularity/hype they seem to have. Top of that list is Cairn, which left me feeling like I'd been scammed after I bought it and read through it.
Mork Borg though, I can see the attraction based on the visuals and attitude. Maybe there isn't much content, but I can riff off of the game I THINK might be in there. Kind of like the thread here about images we could base a campaign on.
The only MB stuff I've got is Pirate Borg and the one about the space worms, but I was edging toward some of the others before I discovered The Red Room and their various 'Wretched' books, which I'm finding to be more my sort of thing.
 
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Rich H said:
I fell into the trap of buying loads of supplements for Mork Borg and then realised it was like the emperors new clothes - spent lots of money for a subpar game when I could've got something cheaper that was better. Flogged the stuff on ebay and got some decent money back so not a complete disaster though.
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This kind of buyer’s remorse I get. In response to the explosion of Mork Borg products, some people seem to have responded with an exploding spending spree which I can see overwhelming the substance of the game that supports it. That sort of speaks as much to how people seem to consume these days and is similar to what plagues Kickstarter.

Based on the original release, I have kept my purchases to just those few designed by Stockholm Cartell. That seems to work well in being enough to help flesh out the game without going overboard and swamping the game.

It also why I don’t agree with those who think that Mork Borg would be better releasing loads more crunchy content. It just would distort the game beyond the original vision, which is simple, focused and very cool.
 
Skywalker said:
This kind of buyer’s remorse I get. In response to the explosion of Mork Borg products, some people seem to have responded with an exploding spending spree which I can see overwhelming the substance of the game that supports it. That sort of speaks as much to how people seem to consume these days and is similar to what plagues Kickstarter.

Based on the original release, I have kept my purchases to just those few designed by Stockholm Cartell. That seems to work well in being enough to help flesh out the game without going overboard and swamping the game.

It also why I don’t agree with those who think that Mork Borg would be better releasing loads more crunchy content. It just would distort the game beyond the original vision, which is simple, focused and very cool.
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I found a mint copy of Mork Borg at HPB for $16. I bought it, looked at it once, and set it on my shelf. It doesn't really move me. Cy_Borg, on the other hand, I backed, and want to run.
 
Initially the art style drew me in and I bought a copy. But once I had it in my hands and attempted to read it that same style that drew me in annoyed me because I found it very difficult to read. Long story short I sold my copy.

As far as a ruleset, I think it's on par with many other so-called rules lite traditional style rpg games. Great for those in the market for that, but I'm over rules lite games. Many games masquerading as rules lite are simply rules incomplete.... but that a topic for another time.

That being said I'm glad the game is having success. In a time when games are only as popular as the kickstarter last its fantastic to see titles with staying power. It helps to create community and commonalities amongst gamers.
 
So far, I prefer some of the derivatives, like Pirate Borg (beautiful book, and looks useful, will find out soon!) and CyBorg (seems to fit the cyberpunk genre really well, would be great for episodic type play.)

Mork Borg was a little more DOOM than I prefer. That said, it might be a hoot to play, though...
 
Mangoplum said:
There have been several games lately that I just don't get the popularity/hype they seem to have. Top of that list is Cairn, which left me feeling like I'd been scammed after I bought it and read through it.
Mork Borg though, I can see the attraction based on the visuals and attitude. Maybe there isn't much content, but I can riff off of the game I THINK might be in there. Kind of like the thread here about images we could base a campaign on.
The only MB stuff I've got is Pirate Borg and the one about the space worms, but I was edging toward some of the others before I discovered The Red Room and their various 'Wretched' books, which I'm finding to be more my sort of thing.
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What is the Red Room?
 
Mangoplum said:
The only MB stuff I've got is Pirate Borg and the one about the space worms, but I was edging toward some of the others before I discovered The Red Room and their various 'Wretched' books, which I'm finding to be more my sort of thing.
Click to expand...

I have been enjoying the "Wretched" line of stuff from The Red Room, too. In fact, I just started reading through my copy of "Wretched Epoque."
 
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