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[game report] Mork Börg and Monsters
Mar. 19th, 2024 03:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yhleeMork Börg, designed by Pelle Nilsson, is a TTRPG I had heard about somewhere a few years ago, picked up, and only recently read; Monsters! by Christian Eichhorn is a supplement of, well, monsters published under the Mork Börg Third Party License.
Mork Börg falls into that interesting weird space of games I adored reading but would almost certainly never play in real life. Mechanically, it's pretty standard, and I say that with affection. Where this game succeeds is on the strength of its writing and ATTITUDE. That attitude is basically death metal apocalyptic mayyyybe Nordic-inspired (? I'm out of my area of knowledge here) gross vile/violent fantasy murder hoboing. It's completely in-your-face, up-front, and unapologetic about what it is. Just looking at the cover you know what you're in for, whether or not it's your jam. I respect that. :salutes:
Unusually for a TTRPG, the text, illustrations, and design/layout support the attitude - what's so unusual about that, Yoon? you ask - WHILE STILL BEING READABLE.
Here's the cover:
And here's a sample page from the interior:
In the physical copy, anyway, this is definitely grunge death metal aesthetic but I can read the necessary information.
My overwhelming experience with TTRPGs, even ones made by "larger" companies in this space, is that when they do have some kind of strong visual "aesthetic" in the design, that aesthetic is usually completely illegible. 1990s White Wolf TTRPGs, I'm looking at you. AD&D 2nd ed. might have had boring as fuck layout, but it was boring as fuck layout I could physically read, which always wins. In fact, if your itch.io indie TTRPG that I picked up in some charity bundle pulls nonsense like illegible weird font hot pink text on an orange background and there's no plain text alternative I can actually fucking read, I delete it with prejudice.
The Monsters! third-party supplement successfully captures this aesthetic, down to weird disturbing death metal art but with text I can read.
Here's the cover:
And a sample page from the interior:
I mean, I could see this being too far over the border of Illegible for some folks, but I have shit eyesight and struggle with Fraktur, and was able to read both of these pretty easily. So, kudos!
But also, my God, Mork Börg is seriously gross and violent and hilariously so. (That said, one place it doesn't go is rape/sexual violence. Murder and zombies and blasphemy, yes, but not rape.) I would probably be too chicken to play it!!!
Mork Börg falls into that interesting weird space of games I adored reading but would almost certainly never play in real life. Mechanically, it's pretty standard, and I say that with affection. Where this game succeeds is on the strength of its writing and ATTITUDE. That attitude is basically death metal apocalyptic mayyyybe Nordic-inspired (? I'm out of my area of knowledge here) gross vile/violent fantasy murder hoboing. It's completely in-your-face, up-front, and unapologetic about what it is. Just looking at the cover you know what you're in for, whether or not it's your jam. I respect that. :salutes:
Unusually for a TTRPG, the text, illustrations, and design/layout support the attitude - what's so unusual about that, Yoon? you ask - WHILE STILL BEING READABLE.
Here's the cover:
And here's a sample page from the interior:
In the physical copy, anyway, this is definitely grunge death metal aesthetic but I can read the necessary information.
My overwhelming experience with TTRPGs, even ones made by "larger" companies in this space, is that when they do have some kind of strong visual "aesthetic" in the design, that aesthetic is usually completely illegible. 1990s White Wolf TTRPGs, I'm looking at you. AD&D 2nd ed. might have had boring as fuck layout, but it was boring as fuck layout I could physically read, which always wins. In fact, if your itch.io indie TTRPG that I picked up in some charity bundle pulls nonsense like illegible weird font hot pink text on an orange background and there's no plain text alternative I can actually fucking read, I delete it with prejudice.
The Monsters! third-party supplement successfully captures this aesthetic, down to weird disturbing death metal art but with text I can read.
Here's the cover:
And a sample page from the interior:
I mean, I could see this being too far over the border of Illegible for some folks, but I have shit eyesight and struggle with Fraktur, and was able to read both of these pretty easily. So, kudos!
But also, my God, Mork Börg is seriously gross and violent and hilariously so. (That said, one place it doesn't go is rape/sexual violence. Murder and zombies and blasphemy, yes, but not rape.) I would probably be too chicken to play it!!!
