Pirate Borg - Starter Guide
What is Pirate Borg?
Pirate Borg is a rules-light tabletop roleplaying game set in the Dark Caribbean - a grim, supernatural take on the golden age of piracy. Think Pirates of the Caribbean stripped of its Disney polish and replaced with undead horrors, haunted galleons, cursed treasures, and a healthy dose of dark comedy. You play greedy, filthy scoundrels raiding forts, hunting treasure, and desperately trying not to die horribly. You will probably die horribly. Then you roll a new pirate and go again.
The game was designed by Luke Stratton under the Limithron label, originally crowdfunded in 2022, and released in 2023 through Free League Publishing. It is built on the same foundation as Mörk Borg, the pitch-black Swedish fantasy RPG, but functions as a fully standalone game. No Mörk Borg knowledge required.
How does the system work?
The core mechanic is simple: roll a d20, add or subtract your relevant ability modifier, and try to meet or beat a Difficulty Rating - usually DR12 for a standard test. That is essentially the whole engine. Four abilities cover everything your character can do: Strength for melee and lifting, Agility for dodging and fleeing, Presence for shooting and social interaction, and Toughness for resisting poison and rum.
One of Pirate Borg's most distinctive design choices is that enemies never roll dice. Players roll to attack, and players roll to defend. This keeps the game moving fast and ensures everyone at the table stays active. Combat is dangerous - HP totals are low on both sides, crits and fumbles carry real consequences, and initiative is a simple d6 roll between players and enemies.
Characters have a resource called Devil's Luck, a metacurrency you can spend to reroll tests, adjust damage, or nudge the odds in your favor. You can also sing Sea Shanties - rolling on a table for temporary effects - and the substance ASH, harvested from destroyed undead, offers powerful but unpredictable benefits.
Character creation is quick and built for random generation, though you can also build deliberately. Six core classes are available: Rapscallion, Swashbuckler, Brute, Zealot, Sorcerer, and Buccaneer. Two optional overlay classes - the Haunted Soul and the Tall Tale - stack on top of a base class for extra flavor and mechanical quirks. Characters are expected to die. Make several.
Naval combat is where Pirate Borg really expands beyond Mörk Borg. The game includes full ship-to-ship rules with hex-based movement, crew actions, boarding mechanics, and stats for 18 different vessels. The captain moves the ship while the rest of the crew each choose an action - repair, man the cannons, board the enemy. It is collaborative, chaotic, and surprisingly tactical for a rules-light game.
What do you need to start?
The core book is everything you need. At 166 pages it includes all the rules, eight character classes, the full naval combat system, 80+ NPCs and monsters, 90+ random tables, and a complete sandbox adventure called The Curse of Skeleton Point with 11 locations to explore.
There is no free quickstart, but the Limithron website offers free printable character sheets and rules reference cards. If you want a gentler entry point, the Pirate Borg Starter Set was released in March 2026 alongside the Down Among the Dead expansion. It includes a 60-page Player's Guidebook and the complete adventure Trapped in the Tropics - a solid package for groups new to the system.
The GM Screen released alongside the Starter Set is a practical five-panel screen with quick reference tables for everything from ASH to naval combat, and glow-in-the-dark artwork that sets the mood beautifully.
Who is this game for?
Pirate Borg is ideal for groups who want fast, chaotic sessions with real stakes. If your group enjoys OSR-style play - player agency, lateral thinking, high lethality, and emergent storytelling - this system will feel very comfortable. It also works well as a one-shot game, since character creation is fast and death is expected.
It is not the right game for groups who like character optimization, long-term power progression, or survival stories where the heroes reliably win. Pirate Borg is about spectacular failures as much as victories. The tone blends genuine horror with dark absurdist humor - think Coen Brothers meets Caribbean folklore with a skeleton problem.
It suits groups of two to five players plus a GM, though it is lean enough to run with very little prep.
How does it compare to other systems?
Against Dungeons and Dragons 5e, Pirate Borg operates on a completely different wavelength. D&D is built around character build investment and upward power curves. Pirate Borg is built around expendable characters, improvised decisions, and tables that generate surprises for everyone at the table, including the GM.
Against its parent game Mörk Borg, the comparison is direct. Pirate Borg is larger, more developed as a setting, and adds substantial naval content that Mörk Borg does not have. If you want the same stripped-down brutality but on the open sea instead of a dying fantasy world, Pirate Borg is the version to pick up.
Where do you start?
Read the first thirty pages of the core book to understand the basic mechanics, then make a character - preferably by rolling randomly rather than choosing everything deliberately. That randomness is part of the game's spirit.
Build a first session around the included adventure The Curse of Skeleton Point, which gives a GM plenty of tools and locations without needing extensive prep. For a quicker entry, the Starter Set's Trapped in the Tropics adventure is designed explicitly as a first session.
For supplementary material, the Limithron website has free tables, maps, and printables. The Pirate Borg community on Reddit and Discord is active and welcoming, with a lot of third-party content available.
Recommended products at Netherbook
Start with the Pirate Borg core book - it is a complete game and a genuinely beautiful physical object. If you want to expand from there, Down Among the Dead is the first official expansion, adding three full adventures, two new character classes, and additional GM tools across 148 pages. Groups new to the system will appreciate the Starter Set as an accessible entry point, and the GM Screen is a practical addition to any ongoing campaign.