by RockyMountainNavy, 14 April 2025
The latest version of the Free League Publishing MÖRK BORG series of apocalyptic or horror-filled lite roleplaying games (RPG) is Black Powder and Brimstone where players are taken into a world that at one time was like our own, but where religion and demons now compete for the hearts—both emotionally and physically—of people and…things. This is not a RPG for the faint of, er, heart as one can tell when reading the publisher’s blurb:
Embark on a dark and daring adventure where death and destruction lurks around every corner. The gunpowder and witchcraft infused game is a complete stand-alone RPG based on and compatible with the multi-award-winning apocalyptic heavy metal RPG MÖRK BORG. This action packed, rules light, art heavy OSR game offers swashbuckling adventure and gothic folk horror in an unholy blend.
Action Packed
Black Power and Brimstone focuses on characters who form a small band or company of companions to travel across a very dark world. Character generation (chargen) is quick and easy to expedite starting play. The quick chargen system also is useful given the life expectancy—or lack thereof—of characters.
Rules Light
Black Powder and Brimstone is very, very rules lite. So lite that the core game rules can almost be completely summarized in just a few pages. Do not be fooled, however, the core rules are streamlined but each directly contributes to making an interesting story. Importantly, the rules are directly designed to support play, not restrict it. This is a fast and easy to run game system.
Art Heavy
Like many Free League Publishing products based on MÖRK BORG, the art in Black Powder and Brimstone is a great builder of the immersive experience players get from the game.
Swashbuckling Adventure
The default adventuring mode in Black Powder and Brimstone is what I call the Patron System, much like that found in the original Traveller RPG. Given characters in Black Powder and Brimestone are expected to “live fast and die just as fast” there is little in the core rulebook for a campaign. An example adventure is included to help set player expectations…as high as a hangman’s noose?
Gothic Folk Horror
Black Powder and Brimstone is set in a very different version of our world. Here, the Vaterländer Empire sets the Orthodoxy against the Puritans of the Church of Light. The Orthodoxy wants to preserve the demonic world as it is while the Puritans seek to destroy the old church. It is a world of darkness and demons… .
Black Powder and Brimstone give adventures opportunities to use classic swordplay or early gunpowder. The magic system is very simple to use. A second book, the Book of Spells, describes different spells by with lore and rules.
Unholy
Be forwarned, however, that Black Powder and Brimstone is not very kind to religion. In many ways, Black Powder and Brimstone takes a somewhat Solomon Kane-like setting but dials up the evil to insane levels. That makes it important to remember the advice in “The Rules” that the game, “should never feel unfair or grinding.” It also may scare some more sensitive players away…or lure others in. We are lucky Black Powder and Brimstone was not released in the era of the Satanic Panic; if the critics back then thought Dungeons & Dragons was evil they are in for very unwelcome surprise between the covers of this RPG.
For myself, between Black Powder and Brimstone and the earlier Pirate Borg RPG I have found two great games to play with my Gamegenic Cursed Ship dice. In Black Powder and Brimstone, however, the “funny item inside” is more like a token of the RPG world…
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