Heavy Metal-inspired RPG MÖRK BORG, is getting a nano-infested spin-off as Free League Publishing and Stockholm Kartell Partnership announce new Kickstarter, CY_BORG.
CY_BORG is a cyberpunk spinoff game based on and compatible with multi-award-winning apocalyptic heavy metal RPG MÖRK BORG. This is to noise, industrial and underground hiphop what MÖRK BORG is to doom and black metal. Rules-light, rage-heavy. A fever-dream of tech, punk and fury. Of fighting a failed future. A deck-hacking, brick-throwing upheaval of a game.
A game about climate collapse, out-of-control consumerism, the commodification of personal data, late-stage capitalism, transhumanism and senseless violence. 160 pages of cybernetic upheaval.
CY_BORG RPG is a messed-up mirror image of MÖRK BORG RPG. Similar in tone and approach to game and book design but enhanced and augmented. Includes an introductory scenario and 60 random tables for your every cyberpunk need.
The game is written by Christian Sahlén, a veteran of the Swedish OSR scene, with art and graphic design by Johan Nohr (MÖRK BORG RPG). Like MÖRK BORG, the game will be printed and distributed by Free League Publishing (ALIEN RPG, Tales from the Loop RPG, The One Ring RPG) under the Free League Workshop sub-label for independently designed games.
The game casts the players as cybernetic punks and misfits raging against a relentless corporate system, corrupt police forces, bloodthirsty street gangs and alien/nano-worshipping cults. The setting is the dystopian metropolis Cy, the only city that matters.
Besides an introductory scenario, the 160-page core book is packed with tables to generate near-endless play; including missions, NPCs, locations, corporations and cults.
The game uses an updated version of the original MÖRK BORG rules, keeping the featherlight openness and simplicity while adding elements like autofire, cybertech and hacking. The six optional classes include the Shunned Nanomancer, the Burned Hacker and the Renegade Cyberslasher.
Since its release in 2020, MÖRK BORG has fostered a vibrant, creative and productive community, and so far there are almost a thousand titles released for the game under its third-party license. All these are—with little effort—compatible with CY_BORG. Just give it a cyberpunk twist.
Similar to the apocalyptic prophecies in MÖRK BORG, a campaign-defining countdown mechanic will dramatically affect and shape the game world regardless of the players’ actions. In CY_BORG, this comes in the shape of Miserable Headlines; catastrophes and events reported by the corp-owned news feeds with varying regularity until the cataclysmic conclusion seven headlines in. Nothing is ever static. The city is a living—or rather, dying—place.
The Kickstarter campaign for CY_BORG is set to launch on 13 November, with a general release to follow in 2022.