Latest / Bards and Barrels / S2 Ep. 14 - System Check: Mörk Borg

Transcript

S2 Ep. 14 - System Check: Mörk Borg · Bards and Barrels

• 0:02
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to Bards and Barrels, the podcast for Dungeons and Dragons players new and old.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Ross Struce, and I'm joined by my friends and co-hosts Brett Miller and Phil Boone.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_01: We'll be exploring the world of Dungeons and Dragons in each episode, sharing our experiences, offering tips and advice for those who play and run this classic game.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_01: So whether you're a new player just starting out or a seasoned veteran looking to get a new perspective on things, Bards and Barrels has something for everyone.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_01: So sit back, grab a drink, and join us as we roll for initiative and embark on an epic adventure.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_01: Hey! And there's the opening crack.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_01: It's time for another episode of Bards and Barrels.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_01: Phil, it's just you and I tonight.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_01: I know it feels really empty in here this evening.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_01: Very empty in here and extremely quiet.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: Ooh.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry, Brad.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_01: Just kidding, Brad.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_01: We love you.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_01: Uh tonight is actually going to be uh a little bit different uh in terms of what we've normally done for Bards and Barrels.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_01: This is gonna be our first look at a non-D system that we're gonna give you a little review on.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so we'll give you a short walk through that.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, but Phil, you're leading this one, so what you got?
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: Are we allowed to do this?
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I don't know.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_01: It's our show, right?
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: I guess.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: Well, uh, I recently had the privilege of um running a session of a game called Merkborg.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and shout out goes to our buddy Matt, who was my guinea pig, uh, and ran this with me um a couple months ago.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: So uh Mercborg, uh actually spelled M-O-R-K-B-O-R-G, uh, for those who have not played it, is not D 5E at all.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: Uh very, very different style of play, different system, um, different designers.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: So this was a game designed by Pell Nielsen um and published kind of by uh a grouping of companies, um, Occult Earthmaster games, Stockholm Cartel, and then ultimately they got Free League Publishing involved to help with some of that aspect of it.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the graphic design artist of this particular uh system is Johan Noor.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: And if you've not seen any of his artwork, he has a very specific style.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's honestly what caught me first.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I think I maybe came across it on Twitter, well, back when it was Twitter.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and that's what got me hooked initially.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, what is this?
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: Like, this is intriguing.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: Like, this it's kind of dark.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's dark art.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so if that's you know not your style, um this game might not be for you.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: But basically, it's a pitch black apocalyptic fantasy RPG.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, it's about lost souls and fools seeking redemption, forgiveness, or the last remaining riches in a bleak and dying world.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: This game is designed to kill your player character.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: That is uh pretty pretty thorough.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: Uh in essence, it's it's an end-of-times style game.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: It truly is.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: So the world is in decay.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, there's even a kind of like calendar to the end of the world tucked away in the rule book.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um it was it was an interesting experience for sure.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_01: I I I 100% agree with you that the artwork like immediately catches your eye.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_01: And it almost like if you if you didn't had no idea what it is, it almost has a kill bill vibe to it, right?
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_01: Like the yellow and the black with the the very type typeface on it, right?
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_01: That really draws your attention to it.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_01: And then you have like a demon on the front, oh yeah, and Baphomet on the back.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_01: So it's like, oh yeah, this is interesting.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_01: This is not your normal DD.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: I think one of the things that caught me too when I first looked at it, I'm like, this is what people in the 80s were afraid DD was like.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: Like this is what people were picturing was this style of artwork.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: The whole satanic panic.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely, absolutely.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: So that was kind of one of the things too.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I'm gonna pick that up and see what it's about.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_01: I I think one of the things that that I find interesting, and I I have not read this through this or played this like Phil has, but uh just I have the book here in my hand and I'm looking through it.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_01: It's like it does not read like your typical DD book where there's like lots of text, it feels very graphic novelty, like lots of pictures, lots of things to draw you to the next page, uh, and really keep reading.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: It's uh it comes up, I think, maybe in both my pros and my cons, uh, some of the layout kind of features of the book for sure.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but even mechanically, uh it it plays akin to any sort of TTRPG tabletop role-playing game.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: So you've got abilities, um, but you only have four agility, presence, strength, and toughness.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: So you get an ability score just like a modifier, same thing as a modifier in 5e, um, purely by rolling.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: And that's one of the things I love about the system is everything you do is based on a roll.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: Your player character is built on a roll.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, attacks and defenses are actually done via rolls.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: So as a player, you roll defense, and monsters or enemies, they never roll.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_01: Interesting.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: I love the puzzled look that you have.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: But it it is it's a different style of play.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: So it basically they have like a hit die.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's not a die, they have a hit value.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and you would roll to see if you can defend against that.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_01: Boy, that's a I I mean, I mean, I can see where that like it keeps it very active for the players.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_01: So there's never like something where you're not rolling a dice for it.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_01: And I I do really like that.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: I do, I do.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: One thing I found a little challenging, or uh, it's a pitfall, I guess I realized that I have was trying to fit um ability checks into a bucket of like well, what would a perception check be?
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: Like, uh, is that presence?
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: You know, is that agility?
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: Probably presence, but I was doing kind of a right, you know, I know where this falls in 5e, where does it fall in this game?
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: And that's kind of a hard mindset to get out of.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_01: And where DD gives you like all the options.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_01: It's easy to find a bucket because there's you know 20 options on there to pick from.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_01: It's like you have four, right?
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_01: Wow, gosh.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and even something on like intelligence.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, where does your intelligence fall?
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: Like out of agility, presence, strength, or toughness.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: Pretty sure I went presence?
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but it's one of those kind of situations, and like presence and wisdom, if they're both or if uh intelligence and wisdom are both presence-based.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: Right, like that's like half of the skills you would normally think of in D.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: So gosh, I kept asking for presence checks.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, this feels redundant, like I've got to be doing something wrong.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: So learning some of those nuances, sure, yeah.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: I still need to dial in.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but uh some of the other mechanics that I enjoyed about it.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: So um turns work similarly in combat.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: You can either make an attack or use a power and then traverse a normal sized room, or that's your movement speed in essence.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's kind of based on size of rooms.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: So interesting.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, um, there is a form of magic, they're called scrolls, and it's like the twisted magic version of Mercborg.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: You always have a chance of failing uh when you use them, which is fantastic as well.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: And there's like a table of random things you can roll on about what happens.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so Phil, thank thank you for the highlights on that because that's by and far a very different system.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_01: So, what are your like pros and cons for this?
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so um pros, one of the my absolute first pro, and I already hit on it a little bit, but is is the artwork.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's beautiful in a I don't even know, kind of way, in a non-typical sort of way.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: Like you look at it and you're kind of odd, but it's like a wow, like someone actually did this with art kind of a way.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I love that about it, and that the entire rulebook is filled with it.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: Like you don't come to a page where it's just text on a page, like that just doesn't exist in here.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: Your point of a graphic novel, exactly what it looks like.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: They have some other versions of this as well.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: So there's like a cyborg version of this that is obviously more mechanics-based, and the art in it is even more like cyberpunk-esh-esque, and it's just amazing.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um huge pro for this system in general is that rulebook that you had in your hand, it's less than a hundred pages, and that's the entire rule book.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: So it contains all the material for the GM and the player to play a full game.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: Classes, creatures, random tables, NPCs, and a dungeon crawl are all in that less than 100 page book.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: And they're not even full-size pages, they're I don't know what size that is, but it's smaller than your standard rule book, and that's all you need.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_01: That's crazy.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, I mean, considering like I I know everybody out there listening can't can't see this, and we'll be sure to post some photos, but it but it's like there's more photos and graphic pieces to each of those pages than there's text.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_01: I think if you condense the text down, it would maybe be 30, 40 pages at most.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_01: It wouldn't be much.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, it's not.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: And that's you can get through the whole book in one sitting.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: Like if you're going to be the GM for this game, super easy.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, one of my cons, I'm gonna jump back and forth a little bit.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: Here are things that I found challenging about the book.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: Although I love the artwork, there are some of the fonts in the book that are really hard to read because they are so graphical in the way that they're written, or different sorts of fonts they used.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, there's a couple pages where I had to like go to other pages to compare the text to figure out what they said.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but uh I wouldn't sacrifice that for the artwork.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: So um character creations all based on dice rolls, hit on that a little bit earlier.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: I love that.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: We all know that we're of the YOLO character creations in this room, so um, there are online tools available, so both as a GM or as a player, there's a player gener um a character generator that's out there, and then there's also even like a dungeon generator um or uh NPC generator for the GM.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: And there is a ton of player design material out there.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so they even have published some of it, like in additional material.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: So there's a zine they have um that we can post a picture of as well.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: I think I brought that along with me too.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so there's just a lot of material.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: Players have created new classes for it, um, full dungeons, other um NPCs, so uh all that's available too, and most of that you can get online, like it's not even an additional cost to you.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: And overall, the the mechanics are simple.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: Like you can sit down, read through the book, and know how to play, sit down with the table of people and play it, you know, relatively quickly.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it doesn't take a large investment to get into either, you know, like that's one book, and I'm pretty sure it's like 20 or 30 bucks, so not unreasonable um to get you know a whole group playing something different.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: Uh other cons, some of the layout because of the graphic design is a little hard, especially at first.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: Like as I was kind of reading through it, I'm like, okay, is this story or is this you know um something that I need to keep in mind for creation, like character creation?
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: So some of that I kind of had to learn.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um it's just different than what we're used to.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but you can kind of overcome that.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I will say, uh if you love creating a character that's going to have this huge character arc and that you love dearly, don't bring that character into this game.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: Just don't.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: This game is not designed for a long-running campaign with a group of you know adventurers that are gonna go save the world from this apocalypse.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's probably not for that.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: No, no.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's a wee grinder.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: When you roll your HP and it says that there's a minimum of one HP, that's because you usually start with one HP.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: Like I think Matt and I's characters both started with one.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_01: That's insane.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, absolutely.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_01: Intriguing, but insane to me.
• 12:31
  unknown: Yeah.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, and so now that we've gone through the pros and cons a little bit, and you've touched on this a little bit, Phil, but how how do you feel this compares to DD?
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: That's a good question.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: So um this is I would call this rules light compared to DD 5E.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um there are you know just fewer things to keep track of.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um it plays faster just by design.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: Uh your characters don't have a lot of hit points, so things happen quickly.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um it is less expensive to get into.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and it it's a different kind of fantasy, right?
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: So most of the time when we think of D, especially 5e, you think of Feyrune or and there are other settings, right?
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: But nothing that's in this same niche, um, like this post-apocalyptic kind of dark world, um, unless someone's homebrewing something like that.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: You know, that's yeah, it's just a different kind of um i it truly just carries like a different genre almost to it.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_01: So do you do you feel like the the average DD player could get into this easy enough?
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: I think you could.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, definitely.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: That's uh it just looking at the artwork was enough to draw my interest.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: But after I sat down and read through the book, I wanted to play it.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: And then now that I have played it once, I'm like, mm, you know, I could have done a few of these things differently, and I think it would have played better.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: Like I think it would have been a better experience for Matt as a player, too.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so some of that's just learning, and I've only ever DM'd 5e games.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: So like that was a first for me to change that.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, I I think easily for especially for minimal investment, like if you want to try something different, that's not like hey, I'm gonna try Pathfinder, which is basically DD, or you know what I mean?
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right, right.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: Like I want to try something different, but I don't want to spend a bunch of money.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely try it.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: Makes sense.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so with that said, do you recommend it?
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_01: And why do you recommend it?
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, uh 100%.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: I would recommend it.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: I would say if you are interested in it, you know, check it out a little bit first, make sure it's right for you and especially your table.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: Like there, some of that artwork may not sit well with some of the people at your table.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: So just be mindful of that, be cautious about that.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: But yes, I absolutely would recommend this game.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's easy to learn, it's quick to play, it's not very expensive, and it's worth it just for the artwork, even if it's just gonna be a book on your shelf.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_01: All right, Phil, thanks for bringing in Mercborg.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_01: This is uh a super interesting system.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_01: If anybody out there gives it a try, please let us know.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, you can reach out to us via email at bardsandbarrels at gmail.com or any of our social media channels.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_01: You can also subscribe to our YouTube channel at Bards and Barrels.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_01: And also, hey, don't forget, you can also listen to past episodes of the show anywhere podcasts can be found.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, that's gonna do it for us tonight.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_01: We'll see you soon.