First of all, I would like to thank Rinaldo Agostini for sending us a copy of Grave Matters, a supplement compatible with Mörk Borg, in order to write this review. In case you are interested, please note that this manual is available on DriveThruRPG in digital format for $4.00 (about € 3.30).
Remember, in order to really appreciate Grave Matters, it is necessary to have the Mörk Borg core rulebook, of which I have already written a review.
This product was born thanks to a successful Kickstarter campaign, able to collect more than € 2000 compared to the € 77 required as a minimum threshold. This allowed many stretch goals to be unlocked, and therefore a lot of extra content, which I will talk about shortly.
The manual has death and bones as its main themes; its content focuses on these topics while managing to be varied and interesting. But now, let’s prepare our adventurer’s backpack, the holy water, and get through its pages!
The New Character Options
The first sections of Grave Matters are intended to expand the options for player characters available in the basic Mörk Borg manual, so I will give you an overview of what has been added:
- 3 new classes – The Rotting Necromancer taps into death powers such as talking to deceased creatures, stealing life energy with a touch, or turning opponents into skeletal minions. The Guilt Bearer is chased out of a village laden with the faults of all its inhabitants and can, for example, carry a bag of coins that never empties, but whose weight risks killing him, or a lock of hair that keeps him aware of what happens around him. The Death Hunter is a gravedigger who specializes in dealing with the undead and resisting infections.
- 12 new items – during character creation you can give up some of the basic equipment and randomly roll 1d12 to find out which stolen tomb-profaning item you own. The skull of a necromancer to steal the spells of others, the eyes of a thief to find traps and the infected nails of a coffin are some examples. There are not many, but certainly the imagination is not lacking. Some of them are stronger than common items, but come on: Mörk Borg is not a balanced RPG.
- 4 alternate weapons – a brittle femur, a bag of throwing skulls, a spine usable as a whip and a gravedigger shovel – need I to say more?
- 6 new travel companions – The Pet Cemetery contains some creatures that may decide to accompany characters on their adventures. Of course they are all dead already. Or rather, undead. Who wouldn’t want a skeletal raven whose wings they can grab in order to fly for a short time, or a dead frog that prevents arcane catastrophes?
Review of the New Material Of Grave Matters, Dedicated to the Narrator
The manual continues with new content, this time dedicated to the narrator.
- Encounters in Graven-Tosk – a handy table of possible random encounters in the most themed area of Mörk Borg‘s base setting.
- 2 new scrolls – the Danse Macabre is every necromancer’s wet dream and allows for minions from beyond the grave. The Nechrubel’s Will (editor’s note: the dark god of cosmic nothingness leading towards the end of everything) is exactly what no one should ever want to read.
- 13 new monsters – even the creatures do not disappoint expectations, knowing how to prove themselves varied and fascinating. The ease of creating monsters in Mörk Borg certainly helped, but the author’s imagination is clear. Each of them has unique and often unpredictable abilities, able to make every fight intriguing. To name a few, there are the Forgotten King, the Dead Philosopher and the Putrefied Dragon.
- Morale rules – short but effective additional rules to add depth to the terror. A prolonged stay in such a world (and the traumatic wounds received) risks corrupting the poor souls who inhabit it from within.
- A new adventure – The Village of Unfortunate Undead is an adventure set in a place inhabited completely by undead (unpredictable, uh?); inside there is a mysterious creature (called the Marrow Eater) that jeopardizes the “life” of those who reside among these buildings, apparently belonging to various different eras. Characters are welcome … at least as long as they work to avert this dark threat. A dark obelisk, the court of a forgotten king, an abandoned church… What will be hiding down these alleys? The adventure itself is simple, but it’s a great way to try out all the new content.
Review of the Artistic Side of Grave Matters
As you can see from the images included in this review, the style of Grave Matters is very reminiscent of Mörk Borg‘s rulebook (thankfully). The layout and fonts are eccentric (although not as quirky as the original ones) in many sections, aiming to be eye-catching and not “classically” functional. They’re better this way! I prefer to have a supplement in line with the reference product!
The images inserted are those typical of the OSR titles; marked black lines, dotted shading and very effective result. Here, of course, there is the addition of some bright colors (mainly yellow and fuchsia) to continue to celebrate the reference work. Excellent choice, very effective! To be clear, the images (and fonts) are not original for this product, but were chosen because they are in the public domain.
Final Considerations
I appreciated the strong fidelity to a common theme throughout the manual, namely death. I appreciated even more that this was done with imagination and genuine passion.
In conclusion, I feel I can highly recommend Grave Matters to anyone who wants to delve into the “differently alive” side of their adventures in the dark world of Mörk Borg.
