A friend of mine was given Pirate-borg for Christmas (that or a giftcard he used to buy it or something) and ran a oneshot of it yesterday since our usual group couldn't get together. Note PB is a game made by someone other than the original Morkborg people, using the bones of that system. It was a pretty linear treasure hunt mostly to get a feel for the system.
Regarding PB itself, the art is nice, and stylish. Character creation is pretty linear. You roll basic equipment and attributes (curved modifier similar to old school D&D), then you pick your class. Classes range from "pirate with gun" to "literally an intelligent chicken" including mermaids and undead. Class modifies attributes, has particular hit die, and you roll specialty equipment. You then roll on a list of thematic class abilities. Finally there's a bunch of thematic background tables to roll on for a couple minor effects and starting gold etc. There's no skill list or anything, I'd wager you could use the stuff you rolled from background as background skills if the DM wanted.
In game, pretty much everything is a 1d20 roll, adding your attribute modifier and looking for 12+. The "DR" (difficulty rating I think) can be modified up or down by circumstances or strength of opponent etc. The game is player facing rolls (mostly). Armor is variable damage reduction, so if you're wearing armor and get hit, after damage is rolled you roll your armor value and subtract that from damage taken, down to 0.
Ship combat... sucks. It requires pulling out a hexgrid, having turning radiuses, firing arcs, speeds, etc. It basically turns the rules light somewhat OSR ttrpg to a full blown skirmish game. If we were to play more of the game I would want to completely overhaul it to a much simpler system. It seems like it was obligatorily tacked on because you couldn't do a pirate game without ship combat. It clashes a lot with the design sensibilities of the rest of the game.
All in all, I disliked it less than I expected given the -borg games reputation. I do think that it's much more of a coffee table book than anything else. It has good art and some interesting tables to roll on. It seems fun to flip through and good for a one shot or short thematic campaign, but I don't think it would be suitable for long term play.
IMO this is the best * Borg game and the only one I've seen that's actually readable as a rulebook (despite some tiny font size in several places). It also seperates ranged weapons and magic use so Presence isn't the most important stat by a long shot like in Mork Borg.
Some more worldbuilding would be good, but it's more than I hoped for in an Art Punk book. the creator doesn't treat it as a one and sone game, plenty of support and stuff coming up.
It's a great pick-up game for short notice, you can get a short (10-15 sessions) campaign out of it easily, much more would require some adjustments but nothing too crazy- I agree about long term play. the adventure in the core book is pretty nice and will last several sessions.
for ~30$ on Amazon, you can do worse, although Andrew Kolb's books are also around that price
I backed PB. I think as OP said it's my favorite iteration of MB (that and Cy_Borg).
If you like post-apocalyptic pirate themed games you'll like it! It's very flavorful. The only thing I'd say about it is that the adventures as written in the book, etc. are very samey. But that could be easily rectified.
Quote from: Zenoguy3 on December 30, 2024, 01:35:05 PMShip combat... sucks. It requires pulling out a hexgrid, having turning radiuses, firing arcs, speeds, etc. It basically turns the rules light somewhat OSR ttrpg to a full blown skirmish game. If we were to play more of the game I would want to completely overhaul it to a much simpler system. It seems like it was obligatorily tacked on because you couldn't do a pirate game without ship combat. It clashes a lot with the design sensibilities of the rest of the game.
I don't entirely get this. I get that it would be nice to deal with this in a simple manner like the rest of these system, but why address ship combat at all if the ships don't move like ships?
Quote from: Mishihari on January 01, 2025, 03:11:07 AMI don't entirely get this. I get that it would be nice to deal with this in a simple manner like the rest of these system, but why address ship combat at all if the ships don't move like ships?
I just think it clashes with the design of the rest of the game. Perhaps less so if you're playing normal combat on a grid, which I don't know if there are rules for since it wasn't my book. Otherwise, the game tends to be quick, simple, open ended, and lethal. You can attempt to do anything you can think of, the roll is fast with a simple default DC and no skill system, and weapons deal a significant chunk of HP.
In ship combat by contrast, exactly what you can do is given on a menu, position and facing become wildly more important, and the damage values to HP is so wildly skewed the designer put out a tweet recommending that people cut the ship HP values by half.
The fantasy I think of when it comes to pirate ship combat isn't one of tactical positioning. Its a desperate melee in treacherous circumstances. I think a quick roll to resolve the ships either closing on each other or one trying to escape etc, with modifiers based on what kinds of ships they are and PC attributes, and then right away either the ships part or they get into boarding action. I think that would fit the fantasy Pirateborg is going for much better.