Mork Borg with Solitary Defilement: A Solo RPG Review
Fight, survive, and try to avoid the inevitable apocalypse all by yourself with Mork Borg using Solitary Defilement solo rules.
Mork Borg has often been described as Swedish death metal in an RPG. If that is the case, then playing Mork Borg with Solitary Defilement solo rules is like cranking out an epic 8-minute-long guitar solo, as an RPG. Have I wrecked this metaphor? Who cares! Mork Borg is gritty, violent, and epic, and inspires you to play in a world that is over the top but also dying from its sins.
If you'd like to check out full solo Actual Play, start reading The Pox Scarred Squalor today.
Mork Borg, Published by Free League, is an OSR (Old School Renaissance, games trying to capture the feel and flavor of the first RPGs back in the 70s but with updated rules) adventure set in a dying land. Every breath you take is pain, every step is pointless, money provides nothing more than a night of comfort, and oh yeah, the world is hurling toward the apocalypse.
And Solitary Defilement, by 1d10+5, is a set of solo rules that was built specifically for Mork Borg. Solitary Defilement borrows heavily from Ironsworn and other solo engines but is wrapped in a filthy wrapper for Mork Borg. Put together, Mork Borg and Solitary Defilement create a wonderland of solo play for any adventurer brave enough to walk their streets or stroll their paths.
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| Be sure the check the game out! Credit to 1d10+5. |
What do you need to play?
Mork Borg is relatively easy to pick up and play, but with a lot of RPGs, you can keep increasing your investment and complexity if you’d like. To play solo you’ll also want a copy of Solitary Defilement. The standard edition is free on itch but you can show your support and buy the Expanded edition from Drive Thru RPGs. It has extra supplements and maps that make it worth it.
Besides the rule books, you’ll need a character sheet that you can print out or use a digital version. The PDF version I used was great, check it out here. PDF Fillable character sheet by Polyhedral Nonsense.
And obviously, you’ll need the standard array of dice, with 2 D20s if you have them, and you are ready to go!
Now that is the basic setup with Mork Borg and you can play that for hours and hours. But Dear Reader, there is so much more! There are hundreds of Mork Borg supplements you can inject into your game. From new and deadly weapons, to slime-dripping caves, to enemies that would haunt your dreams, tons of people have created amazing additions to Mork Borg.
Check out Ex Libris. The website catalogs supplements and gives a brief description of the supplement, saying if it is free or paid. I used a few supplements in my campaign.
There are also books, pamphlets, and zines you can buy to add to your game from various outlets. I can’t list them here but go out and empty your coin purse!
Design and Feel
What can I write about the design and feel of Mork Borg that hasn’t been said before? There is a reason its won awards for design and art. It IS a work of art, in my opinion. The design is fantastic, with the weapon page being one of the best pages of any RPG ever.
The background of the world is evocative without being too constrictive. It gives you enough to get to know the world but not enough that you can’t play in it. I love the fact that the world is dying and will soon face the apocalypse.
Not to say there aren’t some negatives from the art style. Some people say the style makes the book hard to read and a bit hard to find things in. I definitely get that. Character creation does abruptly start and things are mixed up. Also, there is no table of contents at the start of the book, which is odd. But there is a glossary at the end.
Still, I think it's worth it to have such a uniquely artistic game. The first time I saw Mork Borg I said “I have to get this and play it” and I hope you feel the same.
Solitary Defilement follows the same design as Mork Borg but it's definitely more traditionally laid out. It’s easier to find what you want, which is perfect for a solo reference book.
Character and Setting Creation
Creating a character in Mork Borg is pretty simple, but there are a few different options.
You can roll up a new basic character simply and in a few minutes. It doesn’t take long and it means if your PC dies, another can be rolled up and thrown into the battle quickly.
You can pick a class that gives you extra skills but fewer chances for higher stats, based on what you pick.
Or if you want to go purely random you can use the Scvm Birther that creates a character for you. It’s great and perfect for when you are sending your characters into a blood bath and you don’t want to get attached.
Mork Borg and Solitary Defilement don't have rules for creating a setting, but there are a ton of different settings you can play in and areas you can explore on the Mork Borg setting or the huge amount of supplements you can find. Pick one that is sufficiently dark for you and send your characters into it.
How it Plays
Mork Borg being an OSR-type game, it's pretty simple. You come up to a challenge and make a check based on what skill is most appropriate. If you beat the skill number with modifiers, you succeed, if you don’t you fail.
Solitary Defilement adds some complexity here by throwing some Ironsworn-type rules into the mix. For non-combat challenges, you roll two D20s instead of one. Beat the challenge number with one and it's a weak hit, beat with two and it's a strong hit, don’t beat it at all and you failed.
It creates those mixed results that we know work well with solo gaming to drive the story forward. Solitary Defilement also contains rules for dungeon and city crawling, along with rules on how to build a dungeon as you go. With Solitary Defilement, you really get the pure solo treatment, with all the bells and whistles an Ironswon/Starforged veteran is used to.
Combat operates the same using Solitary Defilement as it does with Mork Borg. I’d recommend you lower the number of enemies your character faces unless you hate them.
How it Ends
Chances are your character will die, and you’ll roll up another and that one will die also. And so on, and so forth. It’s part of the game, so don’t stress it. It’s just a different style of play to some other games we’ve played, and once you get used to it you’ll love the dramatic and gruesome ways your character exits the world.
Another way the game can end is The Calendar of Nechrubel. Every in-game day you roll a dice, the size of the dice is how long you want your game to end. A D4 would be a pretty devastating game, whereas a D100 could take years of play. If you roll a 1 on that dice, a terrible prophecy comes true. If you roll seven of those 1s the world ends.
Besides that you can play Mork Borg in a large epic and dark campaign, or just through a single dungeon.
Should I Buy this Game and Who is it for?
You’ve heard me say it but I’ll keep saying it. There are hundreds of RPGs you could play solo, so why should you spend your hard-earned money and time on this game and the solo rules?
Do you like a premium game experience for free? Pick up The Mork Borg Plain text rules from Morkborg.com and the free Solitary Defilement rules from Itch. Both are free and full versions of the games. If you like them or want to see expanded versions, buy the paid versions from Drive-Thru.
Do you like a game with enough art to punch you in the face? Odd question I know. But damn does Mork Borg have some great art. The whole book is a piece of art itself and could happily live on your shelf for decades to come.
Do you want a brutal and gritty game? Perhaps you are tired of being the epic hero, riding into the battle to save the day on your Lilly white horse. Then get Mork Borg and trudge through the mud with the common folk.
Want to kill an enemy with a femur as your weapon? Of course, you do.
Want to play a game where death could be around the corner, that it's up to your intelligence, and some lucky dice rolls to keep your character alive? This is the game for you. Rolling up a new character can be done in minutes, so you don’t have to be precious about it.
And do you want a game that captures the feel of the original style of RPGs but you know darker? Then grab this game and get rolling my friend.
There you go. Mork Borg with Solitary Defilement. Go get some blood on your sword and try not to die.
Good luck you scum.
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