Editing Mörk Borg (section)

== The System==
Once one gets around the obtuse visuals within the game book that could give even a [[Dwarf Fortress]] player pause, the realization will come in that the system is not THAT complicated. ''Au contraire'', this being a [[retroclone]] RPG (Albeit one very deviant from the norm), the rules are fairly simple - it's a d20 system with some variations on the classic formula.

You have 4 basic stats - Agility, Presence, Strength and Toughness. All of them are self-explanatory, minus presence which is the odd man-out of the stat group; it doubles as both your charisma ''and'' the general spellcasting stat. Tests are done in typical d20 fashion, with a more 
"modern" roll over formula to it, with difficult rates assigned for each type of roll one makes. Actions in combat usually default that difficult rate to 12.

In combat, you roll your attacks against enemies while also rolling defense with no rolls made by the DM's NPCs - this might remind some players of [[Dungeon World]] and it's system having a similar attitude towards enemies and how their attacks are rolled (or rather, not rolled) against the players. Notably, armor doesn't make it harder to be hit but reduces the damage one takes instead, with the higher armor tiers trading agility, including your capability to dodge, to survive an extra punch or two during a fight.

Magic (called Powers/Scrolls here) is powerful but unstable in a manner that would make [[Dungeon Crawl Classics]] blush over how butt-fucked one can be over it's misuse and how hard you can butt-fuck your ''enemies'' with a bit of luck in your side, because if you fail to use a spell [[derp|not only does it not work]], but you also take d2 damage (remember this is a retroclone so each goblet of life counts in here) and you lose the capability to cast ''any'' spell for 1 hour, essentially [[rape|fucking over any dedicated spellcaster in the party]] and leaving them sucking their thumb for one hour as their main usefulness is removed.

Omens are a counterpart of sorts to the inspiration die system from fifth edition D&D, by default a character starts with d2 omens and regains them after a long rest. They have a variety of uses, from rerolling a dice roll to negating a crit or fumble to lowering a test's difficult by -4 and are pretty handy and generous in a otherwise sadistic system that seems to take joy at your frustration at the game's unfairness.

Probably the single biggest, double-barreled "Fuck You!" Mörk Borg has comes from how you level up - and the mechanics behind leveling up. Unlike most retroclones, there's no [[XP|XP system]], you level up when the DM feels like it, which is fine and dandy, specially for players less inclined towards the <s>sadism</s> style of old-school games. The "Fuck You" moment comes from the fact you roll a d6 against every ability; if it's lower than it's bonus, you ''decrease'' it, if it's higher, you increase it. So yes, the game '''punishes''' you for accomplishing things and having a powerful character by [[troll|increasing the chance you get weaker every time you level up]]. To be fair on Mörk Borg, the health mechanics in the level up system is much less of an asshole towards the players, you just roll a 6d10 and if the result is higher than your current health you increase it by d6, no retarded stat-decreasing shinegans.

Character Creation, as with most things in the book, is a mix inovation and throwback to other retroclones, the game has a typical Honest Rolls Character method ''if'' one chooses to pick an optional class, otherwise, it's 4d6, drop the lowest result instead, offering a choice of either having useful character bonuses at the cost of shitty stats or a higher chance at decent stats at the cost of specialization and abilities otherwise restricted to the "cool guys" at your party. And since the classes get bonuses to their stats [[FAIL|most people just choose to play with the "optional" classes]] in spite of this "dillema" anyway. 

Oh, we mentioned "optional" classes? Yeah, they are quite an interesting affair, as you will see next session.