The Peckish and the Desiccated

Mörk Borg is a pen&paper RPG from the authors Pelle Nilsson and Johan Nohr. It’s low fantasy, with black metal flavour, striking graphic design, rules light, with expendable characters, and it doesn’t take itself seriously. There are several official publications besides the core rulebook, and a ton of 3rd party content - encouraged by their 3rd party licence model. I find the constant flow of new things from the community difficult to keep up with, but there is really no need to force it. For now I’m perfectly content with the main book, and two official extra publications the mail man is to deliver soon. I must say the original rulebook is a beautiful object, and I was happy to purchase it even if I never end up playing a single session.

One other thing that sprung from the main game thanks to the 3rd party licence is Forbidden Psalm: a tabletop miniature wargame by Kevin Rahman. It provides rules for playing in the world of Mörk Borg with minis, and includes its own monsters and a structured campaign. Forbidden Psalm also has an expansion book and its own fan content. I hope I’ll run a game or two of Mörk Borg RPG at some point, but as a tabletop miniature gamer I find playing with minis more attractive.

I’m preparing to play a campaign using Forbidden Psalm rules. My aim is to capture the mood I’m put in when reading the Mörk Borg book and listening to the atmospheric soundtrack by Gnoll. I'll be more or less following the campaign written out in the FP rulebook. This means I'll be needing warbands + a few new monsters and terrain pieces. I will be crafting these as they become needed, and blogging about the modelling and painting process. I’ll also be reporting on how the games went and what happened with the characters. As with all my gaming projects this will be a slow burn affair, but we will all learn and experience new things as it unfolds. The goal is to make rad stuff and have a good time.

For now, I have a pair of player warbands to show.

In Forbidden Psalm, warbands consist of exactly five models. Each character gets a name, stat line, and random Flaws and Feats. The entire band gets a sum to spend on its members’ starting equipment. I selected my minis first, and then made rules to fit them. So I rolled random Flaws and Feats, but if the result ended up clashing with the mini I took the liberty to reroll or pick the one that fits best. I made two themed warbands to start with: the undead and the cannibals. I only used the core Forbidden Psalm rulebook for this. The expansion (In the Footsteps of the Mad Wizard) has extra character options, but overall it’s like a sequel. So I decided to keep that for later. The only thing is I used from there is the Undead profile on my undead characters.

The first warband has an undead theme, and is lead by Queen Heldu. Corpse Paint, Waltz, and Torvuul came from Rotten Factory, and the desiccated warrior queen from Hasslefree. I already had these four in my collection painted and ready to go. Only the smallest figure, Filth, is new: converted from a critter that accompanies a Nurgle witch type character from Warhammer Underworlds.

The second band are Janos the Cannibal’s anthropophagous oddballs. I repurposed models from my 2017 AoS28 ghoul project. They received a skin repaint to fit their new role as expendable wretches in a dying world. I wanted a different tone; a murky, brownish-greenish, sickly hue. The minis were already looking the part; I just changed a detail here and there before repainting the skin. Their previous bases looked too lush for this setting, so they got a makeover as well (see below).

Have you played Mörk Borg or Forbidden Psalm?

If yes, how did you like them?

Let me know in the comments.